April 20, 2010: Garden Progress

The pots that were planted yesterday got moved from behind the shed to the patio, where they will be easier to care for.


Gonzales cabbages and yellow marigolds. The marigolds are from seed saved from my favorites in 2008. I was surprised and happy they were still viable. On the other side of the chain link (dog kennel garden) is a 10' double row of Fortex pole beans, a gift from Daphne (as were the Gonzales seeds), that I planted today.


Today I also planted a pot of Spacemaster bush cucumbers. These have performed very well for me the past two years, grown in pots and trained to grow vertically. This year I'll also have this new section of the kennel garden fencing to help keep the vines upright.


Along the east fence, in the first bed, I planted six Calabrese broccoli. Some of these were direct sown, and some were transplanted today. The direct sown are really small, and not all of them germinated, so growing the seedlings was definitely the way to go. I also transplanted two Golden Acre cabbages, one Red Acre cabbage and a dozen Walla Walla sweet onions which were thinnings from the onion bed, and will be pulled before the broccoli and cabbages need the space. The bucket is planted with Double Yield cucumber, a gift from Dan. It will be trained along the top of the fence.


The next east fence bed holds my rosemary and more of my saved marigolds, along with some Petite Yellow marigolds. The Petite Yellow already have flower buds on them. They are really nice plants, and came from a 20-cent packet from American Seed (dollar store buy).


The third east fence bed is the same as the first, except there is dill planted at the back, instead of cucumbers, and the broccoli variety is Waltham.


The last bed along the east fence is filled with chives. Behind the chives is an unplanted area, which will probably hold one of the pots I planted yesterday, possibly one of the eggplants. Beyond this bed, I planted Shasta daisies (the seed was a gift from Hometown Seeds) and pink hollyhocks. The hollyhock seed came from Toni. The front border consists of narcissus that had been dug last year and stored in the shed....and forgotten. I went ahead and planted them this spring, as they had begun to sprout. They are growing now, so I think they'll probably reward me with blooms next spring.



The lettuce/radish beds are finally safe from the birds, and showing real growth. Even the plants that were chewed nearly to the ground seem to be recuperating. The radishes have just sprouted in the lower photo, and the lettuce seed mats have been planted.


The peas, Little Marvel, didn't all germinate, but it looks like there will be enough to give us at least a few meals. They also have bird netting for protection.


The sugar snap peas, Sugar Lace, had even poorer germination. It may be I didn't get the bird netting on the pea beds soon enough.


The potatoes are really popping out of the ground these past few days. It won't be long before I'll have to begin hilling them.


This bed has Chantenay, Ingot and Short 'n Sweet carrots planted between the rows of radishes. The Chantenay and Ingot are showing good germination, the short 'n Sweet are looking a bit spotty.


I planted my one and only De Cicco broccoli in this small bed. It was from seed I'd received from EG a couple years ago, and was just too old to germinate well this year. A leftover Red Acre cabbage is on the other side, and my shallots in the center. You may notice the jar rings around my broccoli and cabbage plants. I didn't have enough toilet tissue rolls saved up to use as cutworm collars, so I grabbed the rings as a substitute. If they work, it will be a great discovery, so easy to use!


The spinach is growing, and will soon need to be thinned. There is a row of red onions growing between them and the beets on the other side of the bed. So far the beets aren't doing much of anything. I may be doing some replanting to fill in the bare spots.


These Walla Walla onions will be pulled to use as green onions. The cilantro, in the pot in the center, was from seeds sent by Stefaneener.


These Walla Walla sweet onions will be grown to full size, although I do have to do a bit more thinning. Ill have to find a spot for about two dozen of them, maybe more pots.


There will be only four indeterminate tomatoes in this bed, Market Miracle, Kellogg's Breakfast, Suddith's Strain Brandywine and Cherokee Purple (the last two from seed sent by Dan). Today I set the plants in the nearly empty buckets, where they will spend their first night outside. They have been in an unheated shed at night, and outside every day for the past couple of weeks, so this is the final step in hardening them off. The buckets should give them good protection if the wind happens to come up. To the right of the buckets is a double row of Gourmet Mix lettuce (a gift from Hometown Seeds), which were directly seeded. To the left is a double row of recently planted Contender bush beans.


Market Miracle tomato, comfy in its bucket.


The raspberries are growing like weeds. They are doing as I thought, putting up vertical shoots all along the horizontally woven canes. The sparrows are nesting in the birdhouse now.


Strawberry patch is lookin' good!

24 comments:

  1. WOW Gran! How on earth did you catch up to us of fast???!!! Your garden is processing along faster than mine is and I started waaay before you did. What gives?

    Any, I had spotting germination with my peas too...maybe it's just a bad year.

    I forget that you do a lot of container growing. Do you amend your potting soil or care for the plants in any special way?

    I'm growing spacemaster cukes this year too. I'd never thought about growing them in pots. I'll have to give this a try. Any special instructions????

    (I know, a lot of questions. haha)

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  2. LOL, Thomas...I work my butt off, that's how!

    I really don't do a lot of container gardening, I just ran out of space last year so bought a bunch of pots for the peppers and cucumbers. It worked so well, I did more of them this year. I only have luck if I set the pots out in the garden, where they get watered with everything else. If I left them on the patio, they would languish from lack of care.

    Potting soil....I usually buy a big bag of potting mix (mix, not soil) and mix it half and half with peat, toss in a few shovels of compost and some perlite. No special measurements, just mix it up until it looks and feels right. I do make sure it is damp when I use it. Never put your seedlings into a dry mix.

    Spacemaster aren't really a bush, and they do get quite tall and viney, so be sure to provide them with some vertical support. A broomstick and a couple of the smaller tomato cages works great. The cukes are good and sweet, even when they get huge! They make great relish and bread & butter pickles, but not quite crunchy enough for dills.

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  3. I swear, if I didn't know better, I'd think you grow your garden by twitching your nose like Samantha...Never ceases to amaze me.

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  4. SB, that's so funny! Mr. H is always asking me if I'm going to ride my broom ;-) I don't think he means it as a compliment.

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  5. How amazing, Granny! I can't believe how beautiful everything looks in this short time. Your bird netting will work, I know it!

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  6. You have been an incredible inspiration to me, this is only my second year of gardening, I constantly read your blog and learn new things, will be trying the homemade carrot seed mats this year. Can I ask you a question? Do you put plant markers in the ground or only in the seedling pots?

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  7. Things look great! I need to get out and get some photos of what's going on here, too, but forecast is rain today. Just as well, since I really need some time to go through my direct sow stuff and make sure I've got everything together to do that (like yesterday!). Is your Rosemary perennial there? It is here, but we are coastal maritime and I knew you were in the desert side of WA...just wondering! My soil mix is just as scientific as yours, LOL, I'm glad because it's cheaper than getting too particular - as long as it keeps working I'm happy!

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  8. Everything looks fabulous! I love all of the variety, and truly can't believe how quickly things grow for you! Nice work!

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  9. Wow! Your garden puts mine to shame, Gran! I can tell you have definitely been working hard.

    I planted Little Marvel Peas as well, both direct sown and started indoors. I had pretty good germination - about 90%. Of course, I don't have any to show for it because.. well.. you know..

    Your raspberries look especially amazing. I bet you and Mr. H will be feasting on fresh berries in no time and I can't wait to see pictures of the harvest!

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  10. It is all looking so good now Granny. I had a bit of trouble with pea germination too. I usually fill it in, but am just not going to bother this year. I'm sure I'll get plenty.

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  11. Very nice to see the garden progress. AG, when is the last frost date for your area? Just wondering as spring seems to be little early in north east, will it be ok to get my transplants couple of weeks early.

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  12. Ribbit, I smirk when I see the sparrows hopping around and around the protected beds, trying to get to the greens. It's odd, I haven't noticed any bird damage to the unprotected lettuce in the tomato bed. I wonder if having a tree so close to the others is why they eat there.

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    Anonymous, what a nice thing to say!

    I seldom use plant markers. Most everything I start inside is done in soil blocks, so I write what it is on a piece of duct tape and tape it to the container. I use home made plastic markers in cell packs or pots. No markers in the garden, I just enter everything on my garden plan (name, date planted) in its proper spot. I have all the beds drawn out on the plan. Of course, it never fails that I forget to mark down something every year, then have to guess at the variety. I've already done that with my dwarf tomatoes this spring. I potted them, then forgot what was in each pot. One is red and one is yellow, but I won't know which is which until they fruit.

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    Erin, my old rosemary plant was perennial, and it grew huge and beautiful. It was probably 5-6 years old when I killed it ;-( I decided it needed a trim, and I overdid it. Killed it dead. I purchased another, it winter killed. So I purchased another, it winter killed. I bought this one last spring, and grew it in a pot, then took it south with me for the winter. It is supposed to be hardy for our zone, so I'll let it overwinter this year and keep my fingers crossed.

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    Thank you, Megan.

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    I sure hope we get lots of raspberries, Caffienated Mom. Last year I only got a couple of handfuls that were eaten out in the garden, but that was from only four new canes. I want raspberry jam this year!

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    Daphne, I have another packet of Little Marvels, but I think I'll try some fall peas with them. Once these fill in a bit, it won't look so spotty. I may have lost a few to birds or squirrels. Net year I'll get them protected sooner.

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    Sarada, I can normally count on being frost free by May 1, and I usually plant my tomatoes out then, my peppers around the 15th. of May. I might push that by a week or so this year, as it is warmer than normal.

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  13. Silly question here Gran: I seemed to have missed what you are doing with the green buckets. Are you planting the tomatoes directly in them? drainage holes? Thanks.

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  14. I have always wanted to try raspberries. I love how you have a birdhouse on one of the posts.

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  15. Di, I had a few tomatoes planted in them last year, and they did really well. I got them to make self watering containers, but those tomatoes all died from being rootbound, so I ended up with a lot of buckets this year. I cut huge holes in the bottoms, saucer sized, plus drill more drainage holes all around the big hole. I actually have quite good soil here, and the nearly bottomless bottoms allow the roots to go way down deep into the native soil, so the buckets mainly serve to keep the tomatoes up off the ground, and allow me to plant things around the outsides of them. And to use the 12 green buckets that I acquired last year ;-)

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  16. GardenerGirl, I have two birdhouses in the garden, but birds won't nest in one of them. I don't know if it's too tall, or they don't like the color or what. It's blue, so maybe it absorbs too much heat.

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  17. Wow. W-O-W. Your garden is incredible. Thank you so much for sharing this! I've learned so much practical, hands-on tips from you already... but it's obvious I've still got so much to learn and um, do!

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  18. Christ on a bike, what's going on? I've got a few brown twigs and some empty beds, and you have all that stuff growing.

    There's something not right here. I have a hunch about you Granny. Something's not right.

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  19. Thanks, Fiona, but I've had a couple of failures this spring. I think my beets will have to be replanted. Nothing ever goes perfect.

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    TIG, it's all in the 'tude. I just dig in a bit of compost, toss in the seeds, give them some water, then sit back and watch them grow. If they don't grow, I don't sweat it, I just toss in some more seeds. OK, I admit I fuss about when to safely set out transplants. The weatherman lies, you know, and I sometimes get into a bit of a hurry. And the pesky birds and bugs do get me to swearing once in a while.

    OR

    I'm a witch, and I just wiggle my nose and the garden magically grows ;-)

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  20. OK since you invaded there territory, where do Otto and Annie go? John

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  21. John, they have the entire back yard, except for the area in the third photo from the top. They didn't want anything to do with a little stinkin' kennel, they wanted the whole world!

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  22. a lot of good posts... cool blog .

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  23. Replies
    1. Thank you, Kevin, but they don't look anything like that anymore. I tore out almost all of the boxes as the wood began rotting, and have reverted to mostly wide row gardening. It gets so hot here, the raised beds dry out too quickly in the summer.

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