Garden Truths

Spring is the time of year when new gardeners are just starting out and they have a million questions that some of us old pros find either laughable or just plain aggravating because we've heard them so many times.   Of course there is no such thing as a dumb question (yeah right), so on the Facebook gardening pages the same old questions are answered over and over.  Day in day out.  And never more than now during the Covid-19 quarantine when the entire free world has been told to stay home for weeks if not months and not empty the grocery stores over every edible crumb.  Rant over.

Gardening suddenly became extremely popular so here we go again with some basic gardening truths that may help some beginners.

Gardening Truth #1.
Forget the weed block.  Weeds don't come up from below.  They blow in on the wind or they creep in from the edges.   Now if you just put down weed block and make it into a walkway then it works fine.  But as soon as you put soil or mulch on top of the weed block, the soil grows weeds.  Someone has made a fortune selling that useless product to gardeners.  Save your money and a ton of aggravation and just don't use it in the first place.

The one proper use of weed block would be underneath walkway material.

I call B.S. on this one.  Creeping Charlie was never so easily defeated.
There would still be vines even if the leaves were burned.  Someone cleaned that last one up.  And left long enough the Creeping Charlie would come up over the edges.

Gardening Truth #2.
Early is not always better.  Whomever thought of selling carrot seedlings to newbie gardeners is a cruel bastard.  They always grow in a knot (or whatever shape you leave them in when you stuff their taproot into the soil) and look like they're diseased.  Some plants do not do well being forced into an early season by growing under lights.  Be patient.  Direct seed your carrots.  And sweet corn. ... and bush beans.  You will need more plants than you could ever start on your window sill if you want to make a meal.

Gardening Truth #3.
There is no substitute shortcut for weeding.  (See Gardening Truth #1)  You can reduce the quantity of weeds over time by carefully managing your soil and staying on top of things.  But there is no store-bought product that can give better results than simply bending over and pulling it up.  Seriously.  Besides, its good exercise.

Gardening Truth #4
Don't Zone Out.  Know your gardening zone.  It takes less time to type the question into Google than it does to ask someone and have them tell you to type it into Google.  Because it is zip code specific.  And even then, you should look closely at the map because elevation can alter your zone just a bit.  Knowing your zone and reading your seed packet will save you the disappointment of planting too early or the frustration of having to cover everything when there is a freeze warning.

USDA Plant Hardiness Map

Gardening Truth #5
Wrap that rascal.  The best way to discourage or destroy pests is to starve them out.  Interrupt their life cycle.  And the only way you are going to starve them out is to block their access to your plants.  And the most effective and least invasive way to do that is with a barrier.  Fence them out.  Cover your plants.  That way you won't even have to identify your bad bug and figure out how to fight it.  How do you keep moths from laying eggs on your cole crops?  cover them.  How do you keep birds from eating your berries?  cover them.  How do you keep Japanese beetles from turning your bean leaves to Swiss cheese?  cover them.

So those are my responses to two weeks of Facebook questions asked by enthusiastic beginners who are trying to find the shortcuts.  I'm not saying there are no shortcuts. Covering all of your vulnerable plants is a shortcut.  But gardening does require consistent dedication, some work and a lot of trial and error.

Meanwhile, at our house, yard work commences

I'm not sure how many Americans are going to have enough cash left to do their home improvements this year.  We just got our major projects checked off the list.  The roof on the house is replaced, and the two car garage will be replaced next.  The shoddy workmanship when that roof was stripped was alarming!  

No wonder it started leaking like a sieve.  

Neighbor included for perspective

 Yesterday the Tree Service and the Roofers jockeyed for position in the driveway.

That's a 40 ton crane.  The crane also has a scale on it and one of the 12 foot sections of trunk weighed 2 tons.

The tree service chipped anything under 6 inches but the maple and ash trunks are staged for processing into firewood.  Lots and lots of firewood.

This is why we didn't want to cut these ourselves.  Aside from their proximity to buildings and the damage to surrounding trees if they were felled, a couple of them were dead in the center and exploded when cut.  The crane ties off at the top of the tree, and there is no falling tree at all.   Just dangling. So much safer.

That's one of the lovely stumps.  They will be left to rot because they are all in wooded areas.

This is how we make use of firewood in our gardening.  On a damp spring day we light a fire in the fire pit.  Last Saturday, after blowing leaves (there are as many in spring as there are in fall) we lit the fire and chatted with the neighbors while playing corn-hole and discussing the madness of the world as it revolves around Covid-19.  It was 39 degrees and overcast, but we still had a full, fun day outdoors.

Now that the worst of the trees are down, we can finish picking up sticks, roll the tire tracks out of the lawns and continue with our Spring tidying as the grass begins to grow and the daffodils bloom.

Happy first day of SPRING!

Spring is Here

The crocuses are up weeks earlier than the past few years, so it is officially an early spring.

I planted the first of my peas yesterday and seeded lettuce.

I've freshened up all of the landscape beds, cleared debris and fertilized.  That way when the spring flowers start blooming everything will look neat and tidy.

The cauliflowers have germinated.  

I planted them a week later than I would have liked to because I was scheduled to be in Dallas all of this coming week.  When my company issued a no non-essential travel protocol due tot he corona virus, my meeting was canceled and I was free to start gardening without worrying about things needing to be done when I wasn't here to do them.

As soon as they get their first leaves I will transplant them into cells.

 This week is going to be a busy one.  Our roof started leaking over the winter due to a shoddy installation job, and we finally have a roofer coming tomorrow to replace the leaky area.  Then on Wednesday the tree service is coming to remove five dangerous trees that we don't have a place to drop.  They will dangle them from a crane, lay them in the driveway, and take away the tops.  That's $500 per tree, but much less messy and risky then us dropping them in the lawn trying to avoid all nearby structures.

The weather has been excellent.  Today is 50 degrees and sunny.  Its nice to get a dry start to spring gardening.

Seed Order 2020

I've done it.  I've ordered my seeds.  And some of my supplies.  This is what I use any gift cards I get over Christmas for.  It offsets the cost, because gardening can be expensive.  I spend about $150 on seeds each year, $200+ on plants (annuals and some veggies/herbs), and an undetermined amount on supplies and infrastructure.  But hey, there are worse habits to "waste" money on.

Territorial has the BEST artwork

One thing I love about garden planning season is the technology we have available now.  Most seed company websites have an option to create an account where you can store a wish list and look back at previous orders.  I have accounts for Johnny's, Burpee, Territorial and Stark Bros. just to name a few.  I keep a detailed Pinterest board on what I want to try and what I want to repeat.  I keep Amazon lists of supplies I buy each year, and also new products I don't want to lose track of in case I might want to try them later.  And lastly, I keep a detailed Excel spreadsheet of my layout and my shopping lists.  I can look back over past years and see what I spent and where I bought things.  I can prioritize my purchases to fit them into my budget.  And I can also add up the cost of a new thought and make a decision as to whether or not it is worth the cash layout.

  I also use the spreadsheets to design my layout and keep notes as to planting dates, yields and supports required.  I've learned to keep careful notes on what height a given variety of peas might get to.  I save these layouts from year to year, and I start a new one each summer late in the season when I know what errors I've made, what I'm missing that I didn't grow, and what I planted too much of or too early/late.  I start thinking about what I would have done differently.  It is also useful for tracking crop rotation from year to year.

I always try to do a little something different each year.  Try some new varieties.  Grow something I haven't grown in awhile.  Try something brand new that I've never grown before.  Changing it up is what keeps things interesting.  I make a few goals, and see what happens.

Pole Beans 2012

For one thing, this year I am going to go back to pole beans.  I love the idea of pole beans because you can stand up while you're picking them, and that is so much better than crouching down.  But overall I prefer the bush varieties Blue Lake, Purple Queen and Gold Mine.  This year I am trying two new colored pole varieties, Carminat and Monte Gusto.   Not only can I stand up while picking, but they are yellow and purple which makes FINDING the beans so much easier.  They are perfect varieties for the old and myopic.

Carminat

Monte Gusto

And I am also trying a new Bush variety.  Last year I added Jade to my list of veggies and they both outgrew and out produced the Blue Lake.  This year I am stepping it up one more notch and trying Jade II.

Jade II

Sweet corn is a little more complicated.  I know I've said before to slap me if I ever consider growing sweet corn or melons because so many people can do it so much better, and all I have to do is go down to the farmstand and get what I want.  But in 2018 the farmstands failed on taste so last year I grew some of my favorite super sweet Gotta Have It corn with good results.  I'm trying again.

Gotta Have It

But I also am going heed another great gardening concept to not put all of my eggs in one basket.  I want to try a second variety of sweet corn at the same time.  This is where things get complicated.  With the modern super sweet varieties you can't just grow two different kinds of sweet corn without careful choice.  It matters what two varieties you expect to co-habitat because if super-sweet varieties cross pollinate with other types of corn, the quality of both is reduced.  And I'm not just talking about the hybridized saved seeds.  I'm talking first-generation-what-you-are-going-to-eat-this-year problems.  So you have to learn about super sweet varieties.  Gotta Have it is an (sh2) variety and you have to isolate it away from (se) and (su).  So I found SS3778R which is also an (sh2).  

SS3778R

This will be the second year I have seriously tried to grow cauliflower.  Last year was a success and I learned a lot even if it seemed like the longest growing experiment of my life, beginning the fist of March with no serious results until early August.  That is DAILY attention to a plant for over 150 days in a row.  And then you get ONE veggie from it.

Flame Star

Honestly I never really like cauliflower all that much until I grew it.  My husband loves to have it ready in the fridge for a snack.  I didn't mind eating it if it were mixed in with some broccoli and perhaps smothered with cheese.  But growing several varieties really made me appreciate the subtle differences in the taste.  Now I am a cauliflower fan.  The yellow variety Flame Star was our favorite for its mild, sweet taste and attractive color.  It made the regular white varieties taste stronger and more challenging by comparison.  I will try Snow Crown again from old leftover seeds because it was the white variety that did the best in my growing conditions. Because we are both intrigued by veggies that are not the same color as what you get in the store I am trying Graffiti as well.

Graffiti

That brings us to potatoes.  I've grown a lot of potatoes.  I've grown them in the ground, I've grown them in raised beds, I've grown them in containers.  I've had overall good results with some shortfalls.
When all is said and done I prefer to grow them in containers.  In 2017 I grew them in Sterlite tubs.  I have a lot of these tubs because they are inexpensive and useful.  They come with lids if you need, and you can stack them neatly to store.  But they aren't so good for potatoes.

Now those potatoes in tubs look quite nice.  But they weren't.  The plants were very healthy, but not only was the overall yield the lowest I've had, the taste was just... off.  None of the potatoes were actually green which would suggest that they were not covered deeply enough, but they did have a faint soapy taste indicative of a high concentration of glycoalkaloids (natural toxins produced by the nightshade family).  It wasn't enough to make you sick, but it was enough to make me glad that I didn't have a lot of them.  Why is this?  The only thing I can think of is that the light colored plastic allowed too much sun in to the roots from all sides.  So this year I am going to try the popular method of grow bags.  You can go broke on grow bags.  But I found some on Amazon that are at the right price point.  If this works out well and the inexpensive bags don't hold up, I can spend more in the future.

One variety I am going to try is the Dark Red Norland  I've grown the Norland variety many times with good results.  Last year I had some very dark red ones that I purchased at the grocery store.  When they got too sprouty, I planted the last of them in the garden, late, probably in July, and I got great results.  The tubers were beautiful which, when you are spending too much money to grow something you could buy much more cheaply, is a very important factor.

So that's my plan.  I'm counting the weeks until I can put it into action.  It will only be five more weeks until I start the cauliflower seeds.  And then I will be counting the weeks until harvest.

Happy Planning!

Merry Christmas

Each year I look forward to decorating for Christmas for months and months.  This year was no exception, but when it got right down to it I felt really lazy about it.  Mostly because I hadn't come up with any new ideas so everything was just a repeat of examples of previous years.  It's kind of like gardening.  The fun part is try new varieties or new methods.  It takes creativity to get moving.

So I put up two trees to compensate for my lack of ambition. 

Don't get me wrong.  Every room got a touch of Christmas spirit.

Even the bathroom

Some of my repeat arrangements are my very favorite.

Grater luminaries and cow horns for stuffing Korv sausage, a favorite Christmas dish, are high on the list. They are in the kitchen where I can enjoy them all evening.

The single new idea I had was this crate full of old seltzer bottles.

The only new decorations I bought were handmade push pin ornaments.

They went on my larger all red tree.

These Victorian inspired crafts were popular from the 50s thru the 70s.

You could purchase kits at craft stores, 

or assemble your own from costume jewelry and fancy pins.

A family friend used to make them and we had a few on our tree.

You can still find vintage examples on eBay or Etsy.

But few of them are as nice as these from Orna Mentz in Virginia.  

They come on two sizes (2.5" and 3") and many color pallets.

Link to the website here:  Orna Mentz

I can't believe that the seed catalogs are already coming in the mail.  They used to be held at the post office until January 2nd.  This year I got my first one the day after Thanksgiving and I have at least half a dozen waiting to be studied.  I'm sure they realize that people overspend on seeds in the winter when we are cooped up indoors and longing to be outside in the soil.  All in good time.  Last year was a long year, beginning in March and ending in November.  

This year I am enjoying my winter downtime.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  

Seed season will be here before you know it.

How BIG a Problem Are Our Oak Leaves?

I don't know... you tell me.

This might have been the last weekend for dealing with leaves.  They are no longer knee deep in the neighbor's lawn, just little deposits of them in corners.  All of the drains are clear and we are ready for winter.  Of course we will have to blow and chop at least once more in the spring, and hand pick them out from under shrubs and rocks.  But I think we are at last ready for winter.

Autumn leaves

October is a long, slow wind-down into winter.  Even after the garden is done, there is a lot to do.  Dealing with leaves is one of them.  We have two gas powered blowers, and the neighbor has one, and we combine efforts to blow his oak leaves out of our landscaping and back to the edge of his woods.  Leaf season takes a long time.  We start the first weekend in October with the soft and easy apple, ash and poplar, and continue cleaning every weekend through the brilliant maples, and lindens until the snow flies on the tough, leathery oak leaves.  In fact, last year we had snow in November, and were back to blowing oak leaves in December during a thaw.

We are surrounded on all sides by woodlands, and the leaves lay thick on the lawns besides gathering in the corners of landscape beds.  Since we mulch most of them into the lawn, or shred them in the general direction of the east woods the lawn mower stays busy until we decide there will be no more nice days in which to scrape and wash it to store for the winter. In the spring we will have to blow one more time and then hand pick the crevices.  I've chopped, bagged and set aside a couple of large bags to use as mulch on the raised beds next spring.

In years past I have mulched heavily with chopped leaves

Besides keeping the walks and beds cleared of leaves, I've gradually removed all of the annuals as they decline.  I hate to remove fresh flowers out from under the bees, but by this time we've had four frosts, the last one being a killing frost, and there was nothing left undamaged.

I try to time things so I pull them the weekend before they are damaged by frost.
The impatiens in the front landscape came out while they were still beautiful,
but a few days later they would have looked like this

I've collected seeds from the nasturtiums, milkweed and Indian blanket flowers.

 You can scrape most of the seeds out of a milkweed pod without disturbing the fluff.  Any remaining fluff with seeds can be placed in a paper bag with some coins and shaken until the seeds detach and fall to the bottom. Then just let the fluff loose into the wind and pour out the seeds.

I've dug and stored the dahlias and geraniums.  I still have to mulch some more tender perennials to blanket them from the cold, plant some daffodils, and spread the milkyspore.

Geraniums can be stored bare-root in a cool, dark place.

We are going to get the earlier cauliflowers before winter.  There are several heads forming, about the size of a fist now.

The two largest cauliflower heads

The Dirt Locker is almost full.
That's a lot of used soil that could have been wasted

The yard waste compost pile has been turned once and is beginning to break down.

 As autumn leaves and winter settles in, there are plenty of outdoor chores to be done.  Of course, if we were to get a foot of snow that didn't melt until spring, the garden would be ready.  But I like going out and puttering around on nice weekends.  I just came back in from doing a blustery day check.  I had to pin down the lettuce cover, replace clothes pins on the cauliflower cover and fasten down the lid on the dirt locker.

The leaves may have all been tidy and mulched yesterday, but there are plenty more today