Applestar's 2016 Garden

[applestar]

Best part is they are "free" -- well, sorta... They just grab a handful and puts them in the bag when DH buys ice cream at the ice cream shop. When he gets home, he puts the ice cream in the freezer and hands the bag of spoons to me

I'm starting to fill in the VG Garden map

[j3707]

Edited....I often keep the plasticware I use when I buy lunches, this would be a great way to use them. What program do you use to build your garden map? I have considered doing something similar...but not sure I want to buy a garden-specific program.

Btw, I have an Enterprise apple next to my Williams Pride...Looks like I will get my first crop from it this year.

[applestar]

I'm using Apple's iOS version of Number's on an iPad.

Here's a blurb I wrote about it before --

Subject: Best comprehensive app or website for edible gardening?

I do a lot of my planning using iPad Numbers. I seem to be opening that app a lot right now. It has some unique capabilities that is great for sketching and planning the garden beds. It's spreadsheet functions are great for calculating and tracking date field data like days to germination and harvesting.

But I have ended up creating three different projects customized to different requirements, and Numbers can't reference each other's cells or tables or sheets (I don't know if that's different on the desktop version). I'd like to be able to make changes/corrections in one and have the others reflect that.

It has some other limitations: I need It to be able to manage series of nested sort parameters. For tracking some complex information, I need a relational database that can handle the 3-D and maybe even 4-D correlations and be able to handle multiple associated images both local and weblinks -- that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I'm playing with a home inventory app right now to see if I can modify the parameters. I also need a drawing app that can handle more elaborate drawings than just fixed geometric shapes, handle layers and group objects.

I can post examples screen shots if you would like to see.

They've since made some improvements including better sorting capabilities and ability to group objects. I really like being able to place different tables/spreadsheets as objects. It also lets me import photos and crop and size them so I can keep progress snapshots of the beds and seedlings.

You must be excited about the apples bearing fruits. My Enterprise is just starting to develop flower buds and a few are starting to show color.

[applestar]

Here's an experiment. Someone here mentioned that you can plant potato eyes/skin cut out during meal prep and grow potatoes, so I decided to try by cutting a generous chunk around the eyes, deep enough not to cut up potential growing buds, and planted them in this ice cream tub along with onion bottoms during the winter. I kept the tub in the garage "Siberia" which has a shoplight that is kept on 24/7, partly for warmth, and is located in the uninsulated portion of the garage near the far car door and can get down to mid-20's. Then I put the tub outside since the weather had warmed up enough for the onions --forgetting completely about the potato eyes/skin. So I wasn't really expecting much, but to my surprise, I found all these growing a few days ago... Maybe last week.... I remember now, the potato eyes had sprouted outside and were growing quite a bit when we had a severe freeze warning and luckily spotted the sprouted potatoes and brought them back inside

I decided to plant them today. So I gently shook off the soilmix and took some pictures. As you can see, the potato eyes had grown some respectable-looking looking plants and impressive root system. I buried them in a trench with the top-most leaves barely showing and covered with some leaves, the put that clear lid over the center to keep them warm and hopefully protect from frost.

[applestar]

Can you believe my mom was going to throw this plastic cylinder away? It used to be part of a bird feeder but it got knocked down and broke.


...I'm hoping that by giving it some protection and warmth, this later planted broccoli seedling will catch up to two others that I planted out earlier.

[Mr green]

Those kind of things are perfect for that. Specially in UK I have seen is very common with glass domes they put on early sows of lettuce and kale plants mostly. Those usually requires that you remove them when it heats up during daytime. This one while being open on the top if is not scorching hot can likely stay on during the whole day.

Reusing beats recycling! And its funny I was second hand shopping the other day and I found some similar objects that I thought could be used for this, but they were a bit to pricey for me. So maybe next time, its getting to late to have good advantage of them.

[applestar]

Saturday's doings --

- Planted the biggest hearty onion plants. Made bunches of the skinniest and skinny and just stuck them in the soil at the near end of the row. It's been a week since a I received them and the roots were starting to dry, so hopefully this will be better than keeping them in a box in the house.
- I'm setting up the picnic table for hardening off seedlings. It was further to the right where it was in full sun from noon on after the sun cleared the trees to the east, but I realized if I put it on these emts, conduit "rails", I can easily slide it back and forth. I pruned off most of the lowest dead branches from the mulberry tree overhead, but I need to get at a few more that are higher up before I would feel safe putting my precious babies on the table. Once that's done, the mulberry branches create nice dappled sun/shade that will increase in coverage as they leaf out to match the stronger sunlight
- Planted more Limba broccoli seedlings in VGC -- these were getting stressed in a shallow container, so they may bolt early
- Purple Passion Asparagus are starting to show up ::)


- Spiral Garden is still very soggy and wet, but I used the spading fork to fracture and lift to aerate the soil from both sides of the spiral row. I filled the deeper hole in the center of the spiral where the big banana trees came out last fall with dead and punky/rotting wood sorted out from the woodpile. It will become another "sorta hugelkultur" and if the banana has survived in the garage, I'm planting it on top of the mound.
- The earliest varieties of blueberries are starting to bloom


- Radishes have started to sprout in VGD bed

- I've been diligently watering a swath along the edge of this bed so the Iceberg A lettuce seeds will sprout, but now that they've started, it looks like I completely forgot that I sowed another row....

[applestar]

$3 worth of Douglas fir shavings on the ground and still in the bag



I'm not papering the beds themselves because I sowed some seeds and lettuce and carrots are coming up, but it looks like we're not getting any rain until next weekend, so I want to conserve the moisture that is currently in the ground.  There's a large clump of blood-veined sorrel and some volunteer red Russian kale, garlic chives and Egyptian walking onions, Tansy, wild and seascape strawberries, stinging nettle patch overgrown with grass....

--- I can't believe I forgot to take better pictures but the Arkansas Black apple tree espalier is starting to bloom and the blossoms are starting to fade on the Seckel and Magness pear espaliers . Also forgot to take pictures of the paw paw trees on the other side of the fence in the front yard. They lost at least three blossoms due to the freeze, but at least three more are starting to open... Kind of a bummer since I was hoping they would start fruiting this year.


I did take pictures of these

[applestar]

The grass is starting to grow in tufts. There is a particular kind -- maybe rye that are already starting to to send up flower stalks. So I used my hand sickle to gather some, as well as comb out thatch from another species that tends to mat heavily.


-- This is a cut open garbage bag. I always wear my yellow Kevlar glove after I had nearly lost a finger tip to carelessness.

The amount was enough to heavily mulch the unplanted VGC side of the new raised bed and most of the mini-swale where I had scraped and double dug the clay subsoil, then buried some sticks and piled up some rooted weeds, etc.


VGC and VGD on the left, VGA and VGB on the right. I need to top up the unplanted VGB PSHRB, so I have been tossing in some of the grass that come up with entire muddy sod attached. Sod pile makes a lovely compost/topsoil, especially when giant earthworms come tangled in the roots.

I also planted Asian green's in VGA and covered with insect barrier tented over CPVC tubing arches.


...I got carried away overlaying the photos in the VG Garden map...

[applestar]

I'm trying to grow garbanzo beans / chickpeas, which are neither bean or pea. Last time I tried, I sowed way too small number of seeds -- I didn't realize they only grew two to a pod. Then had trouble later on in the year near harvesting time, and someone told me they need to be kept very dry near harvest.

So this time -- yesterday -- I sowed them on the dry side of the Spiral Garden raised rows which are upslope of the water-holding swale-path spiral. The germination issues last time may also have been due to soaking the beans too long prior to sowing, then watering too heavily, so I'm going to try to hold off watering them -- there should be sufficient moisture in the ground (I thoroughly stepped on them per jal_ut's seed sowing methods, though it feels weird to do this after all the fluffing I did earlier -- but I KNOW he's right about the seed/soil contact and also wicking up moisture from deeper in the soil). It's supposed to rain on Friday.



-- I sowed some more peas on the down slope side Spiral Garden rows, though it might be a little late -- Green Arrow and Garden Sweet. I'm going to plant remaining brassica seedlings (broccoli,cabbage,kale) among the strawberries which seem to be trying to take over the inner spiral, which will allow me to set up hoops/netting over them both to hopefully foil the cabbage whites as well as the birds from going after the berries. I just need to get some Tomato tone and straw mulch for the strawberries today. The Spiral Garden is my largest single bed, and I'm feeling it today after all the weeding and prepping.

[applestar]

SF&H

4/19 Soaked Fordhook vining nasturtium, rest of Pinetree 2015 Green Arrow peas, and Burpee Super Snappy peas all morning, then sowed them direct in the far SF&H bed after DLiming. Also sowed German Chamomile, dill, and cilantro.

Planted some more onions along the path in SF&H

Intending to plant extra early, cool tolerant short determinate tomatoes in the 7 spots -- one inside each cage and 7th in the middle: current candidates are --
Tomato, 42 Days
Tomato, Cream Sausage
Tomato, DL/67/249
Tomato, Dwarf Arctic Rose x Utyonok F2
Tomato, Dwarf Pink Passion
Tomato, Dwarf Sweet Scarlet {Elbe x Golden Dwarf Champion}
Tomato, Early Annie
Tomato, M.ZM.F2.4B {MagliaRosa x ZlutaKytice+Matt'sWild} F2 #4B
Tomato, MR.SFM.F2.1F {MagliaRosa x StumpHBR+FFSlv+Manö} F2 #1F
Tomato, Russian Cherry
Tomato, Sirja's Love
Tomato, W.Flv.F3 {Whippersnapper x FFSlv} F3 WWL

---

Got most of the greens planted among the strawberries in the Inner Spiral (should be mostly Seascape). 1 scoop Citrus-tone, 1 scoop Bio-tone, and 4 scoops Garden-tone evenly scattered over the strawberries. Positioned mid PVC and ETM hoops in the back and low wire hoops in the front, Then planted what I think are Lacinato kale and possibly cauliflower in the back and Cabbage and maybe Tatsoi in the front. Interspersed with red orach and red chard.

The Spiral Garden is starting to take shape.

---

Apple and Pears espaliers




Trifoliate orange 'Flying Dragon' seedling in a container sharing space with a huckleberry... Seedlings grown from a giant Asian pear from the Korean grocery

[pepperhead212]

It amazed me that most of those Indian legumes only produced 2-3 beans/ pod, yet have some of the best pounds/acre yields. Still, not going to be spending that much time removing beans from pods, when I can buy them so cheap!

[applestar]

Haha. A lot of stuff are more trouble to process than they are worth. I still like to see if I can grow them.

[applestar]

View of the Spiral Garden from upstairs window. I admit I ended up watering -- just a bit. I HAD BEEN using a watering can to just sprinkle a little, but they changed the forecasted rain to Friday night, and I didn't want the pre-soaked seeds to dry out completely when the sun was so hot. I let the soaker hoses seep out along the center of the raised spiral, but not enough to run into the swale/path because I have to get the sod and weeds to dry out.

Looking at it, I'm dying to mulch -- I need to get straw for the raised mound spiral bed, but the bag of wood shavings are beckoning right there to cover the weeds on the path/swale -- but I decided to wait until it rains and soaks the ground.

I tested the soaker hoses for the Spiral Garden and the SFH separately and filled the swale/trenches between the raised pea rows -- found a leak in the espalier row.

The peas were slow to come up even though they had been pre-germinated and in some cases sprouted -- I guess the ground was still cold -- that I was afraid something had gone wrong, but they are now almost all up -- I GENERALLY don't get this kind of solid rows of peas when I don't pre-germinate/sprout. Elephant garlic are doing really well, too.

[Mr green]

The elephant garlic is really doing well! I grew them the first year on the land I'm on right now and they didnt do as well as the garlic did, maybe to heavy clay soil for them.

[applestar]

LEFT - Apple Guild garlic bed Update
Right: Tzan Turban, Middle: Russian Giant Marble Purple Stripe, Left: Georgian Crystal Porcelain.



CENTER - WHAT I thought was Falstaff purple Brussels Sprouts turned out to be something else. I think it might be Purple Peacock Sprouting Broccoli or maybe one of the ornamental kales I grew last year. Anyway, I harvested the flower stalk that started to open and ate it with my breakfast. Now I wonder which one the smaller plant is....

RIGHT - Overwintered Red Russian Kale is starting to bloom also.

[Lindsaylew82]

Look at the color on that Broccoli!!!!

[applestar]

I KNOW! I have to remember to save seeds.


Today's tiny harvest --

Ostrich Fern spring shoots

Radish thinnings at seedleaf stage, a thinned baby carrot, red Russian kale, (believed to be)Purple Peacock Sprouting Broccoli first shoot, violet flowers.

[applestar]

First course of strings for the peas




Today's harvest -- gave all of these to my mom, along with some Asian green seedlings.

[Mr green]

Lovely, cant wait until I may start harvesting. I should get better at growing more stuff indoors.

[applestar]

- More fiddle heads -- there's usually only a week or so of harvesting window since you only want tightly curled ones.
- Purple Passion asparagus is starting
- Chervil is actually starting to think about bolting (already) -- I love nibbling on the licorice-y sprigs
- some of the Solstice broccoli I planted earliest went through roller-coaster weather and maybe that's why they are making these tiny heads. I'll just keep picking them when ready to eat -- side shoots are forming already. Either that or these are actually de Cicco?
- more RR Kale and radish thinnings

[applestar]

- View of the pond -- lots to do yet, but if by definition pond = hole in the ground that holds water and has little fish swimming around, it's a pond I found a couple of plants to use along the edge including Cardinal flower and (I think) Iris versicolor seedlings that DID sprout in a sandwich bag in the garage after doing nothing all winter

- Kitchen Garden -- I drew a blank, literally, this winter while trying to pre-plan what to plant this season. It doesn't work really well as the initial concept of one or two of everything that is available for taking a few steps out of the kitchen door -- it's too small and a tad shady. There are some perennials taking over including Southernwood that grows really well here, Greek oregano that would take over if I didn't rip them out by the roots every so often.... I have three kinds of raspberries that I was holding here to give away but now they have rooted through the bottom of the pots into the ground. I want to dig them up and plant them in a new raspberry area I'm considering. I might use this bed as nursery bed to start and grow new plants to size. The lavender plants I started from seeds last year overwintered and are growing well at 2 o'clock section.

This season, I think I'll trial some Winter Indoor tomato candidates here -- ones that might grow well in 2 gallon containers that are extra early determinates and larger fruited exceptional dwarf indeterminates.

- SF&H (Sunflower &c. House) -- potatoes are starting to sprout, some of the overwintered onions and leek are trying to bolt, catnip is taking off in the far end, and radicchio are coming alive again though it got too cold for them to grow heads this winter.
-

[applestar]

This MONSTER thing crawled out of a hole when I was thinning some lettuce in the new VGD pallet sided raised bed (two other worms came scrambling out of holes as well, including one that I would have called a BIG worm had I not seen this one )

After EVERYBODY got a chance to see it, and it had its photo session, I put it back in the raised bed (although DH asked if he could take it fishing tomorrow... ) so it could work on the newly blended subsoil clay lumps and trench compost at the bottom of the bed.

At first, it tried to crawl off along the surface of the soil, so I picked it up and stuck it's head right next to a fracture in the soil I had made while thinning the lettuce, and it headed down right away. I watched over it until it squirmed its way completely under ground because I was afraid it would be spotted by the robins.


C=2Ï€r so 1/2 of that, assuming diameter of 8" for the container' s bottom is approx. 12.5 inches... 10.9 if you assume 7.5" diameter.

[DR1VEN]

LOL...Wow...monster is right. I got nothing even close to that here. Even in my compost pile I've never seen bigger than about 3-4"...Great pic.

[applestar]

...seeing that night crawler inspired me to take care of a small tub of vermicompost worms I kept in the garage in a small tub this winter. Despite inadequate conditions and neglect, they seem to have flourished. But in the last couple of days, they've been trying to move out of the tub, congregating on the underside of the loose plastic lid.

I suspected that the bottom of the tub was getting compacted and too wet, and I had to do something before they decided to embark on a mass exodus, so I harvested the finished castings and added fresh bedding.



I saw a whole bunch of baby worms as well as egg sacs like this. I was able to harvest 1/2 the tub worth of castings. The rest was too wet and every clump I broke open contained writhing mass of worms of every size, so I put them back along one side of the tub and filled the other half with new bedding. Then gave them some fine grass clippings and a spooned out 1/2 shell of avocado and pit. I might cook some squash tomorrow and give them the scraps as a special treat.

[applestar]

Took care of the outside vermicomposter today -- more leaves for bedding, huge yellowed mass of chickweed from a weed pile, and a spoiled overripe and fermenting mango, placed off to the side in case there's too much fermentation going on. But when I opened the lid to peek a little while later, there was already movement (mango is under the white flap) so I suspect they liked it. (I've heard that they like a bit of alcoholic ferments )

Also took care of the compost bin -- it was starting to heat up later.

Distributed the remaining greens and brassica mix seedlings in various nooks and crannies, including two empty gaps in the garlic bed and middle of peas and potatoes bed and middle of onion and carrots bed as an experiment to see if the cabbage whites and cabbage moths might be foiled.

Patio containers -- I had to re-seat the alpine strawberry which wasn't liking the self-watering feature of these square pots. I took the opportunity to add fertilizer, then trimmed off all the dead leaves and settled it on a mound. Gave it a thinned spinach for company. Planted a sixth square pot with last of the greens.

Some progress updates for the SF&H
Most of the potatoes have "sprouted" -- emerged above ground and leafed out and the peas have sprouted under the tomato cages.


...and VG raised beds (including peas and lettuce in hanging baskets -- safe from the muncha-buncha bunnies)

That colorful brassica is sprouting side shoots all up and down the leaf nodes -- very curious and MUST discover what it is.

Planted first batch of Mirai 350BC corn in VGA

[applestar]

Osaka Shirona in the middle row with a Tatsoi
https://www.kitazawaseed.com/seed_345-50.html

Kyoto No. 3 and I think Komatsuna in the nearest row
https://www.kitazawaseed.com/seed_009-49.html

Solstice broccoli to the left.

[applestar]

Remember those spindly overgrown pantry potatoes?



Top left and bottom left are same ones (Gold Rush 2015) from different angles, as are the top middle and right (Sangre or Adirondack red 2015) These are the pantry potatoes in SF&H. ...(Potato, red skin w/white flesh • red skin w/yellow flesh) in the dimple to the right of Sangre/Adirondack Red are just starting to come up -- not very photo-worthy yet )

Bottom middle and right (Purple Majesty and Yukon Gold) are the store-bought seed potatoes for comparison. They took longer to start sprouting, but they are doing well under the loose and tattered floating cover tunnel.

[applestar]

Patio Grouping in the sunniest spot:



...these will be replaced by tomatoes and peppers later

[applestar]

- Mulched onions in the HBR (Haybale Row)


- Espalier Fence Row is looking good! lots of Seckel pears and Arkansas Black apples forming, and some Magness pears, too


- More strings for the peas in the Sunflower House. Swiss Giant snow peas at near left in front of Marrowfat soup peas are catching up, and the carrot seeds over(under?)seeded with the peas are up and growing.

Elephant Garlic are chugging along, too

- Mulched the strawberries in the SGIS (inner spiral of the Spiral Garden) with the raked thatch


- Green Arrow and Garden Sweet shelling peas are growing in the back SGOS (outer spiral)
... and Chickpeas sprouted in the front SGOS


- Started to sheet mulch the SGA (Spiral Garden Annex)

-- still need to tuck some fertilizer and compost, etc. amendment underneath....

- Today's harvest

Chervil, Spinach, three little white alpine strawberries; shiitake; spring fresh stinging nettle to be frozen and used for my own tea. (later on, I use ones that aren't as nice -- bug eaten, etc. -- for plant fertilizer fermented/brewed nettle tea)

[rainbowgardener]

Looking beautiful! I really like seeing the garden overview taken from above.

[applestar]

Thanks, Rainbowgardener. I like the birds-eye view, too. I can take pictures from upstairs Windows for three sides of the house. Unfortunately, for the fourth side, I have to get out on the garage roof....

[applestar]

I'm falling behind on planting the started corn -- this is the drawback with the two-step and three-step process.



But I was able to plant the corn seedlings according to height, in a regular pattern and spacing. THAT'S the advantage.

Have I posted a recent map for the VG beds? Here's the latest version:


...and a collage of VGB and VGD with VGE/SIP

[j3707]

How do you like your Arkansas black? I planted one last year with the idea of it being a keeper for winter storage.

[applestar]

I'm loving it. Super disease resistant, full spicy depths to flavor that makes them useful in baked goods even when harvested early and that I think are what makes backyard apples so great, very nice size to the fruits, too, and productive.

[applestar]

Pruned the espalier Magness pear and fertilized the onions in the HBR (Haybale Row)



TOP LEFT: Since I'm completely out of space for planting cherry tomatoes which will be tied to spiral stakes and pruned to a cordon/sentinel like last year, I forked and dug up along the inside of the garden area fence, tuning over the sod and then piling up all topsoil from the right side of the path.
BOTTOM LEFT AND RIGHT: Planted more Mirai350Bc corn and Kandy Korn x Glass Gem F1


Also planted pre-sprouted Scarlet Runner beans in the SFH (sunflower house) at the right near corner and right side of the arch trellis.

This is the map -- blocks with no dates are still to be planted.

[j3707]

I'm loving it. Super disease resistant, full spicy depths to flavor that makes them useful in baked goods even when harvested early and that I think are what makes backyard apples so great, very nice size to the fruits, too, and productive.

Glad to hear it! Now you got me thinking about apple pie

[Lindsaylew82]

Looking so beautiful! Fills up fast, eh? Wish we could give you some of our room!

[applestar]

I'm TIRED today! I have a scythe that I break out when the backyard lawn and weeds get too tall for my cheap manual push mower. I have an agreement with DH that he won't mow the grass around the backyard food garden with his gas mower except for the stretch he uses from the shed to the front yard gate, and even then minimally so he can guide the self-propelled mower along the center and not right alongside the strawberries and other beds because I'm sure that if I can be overwhelmed by the exhaust fumes, there are airborne particulates that would get on our food. Besides, I harvest and use some of the "weeds" in the lawn, and use the clippings for mulch and compost.

I started out thinking I was just going to cut down the comfrey patch, but got caught up and basically mowed the back yard. I'm still not good at it, plus where the lawn grass is only tall in wispy seed stalks they are not as easy to catch unless the scythe was just honed, so some just get crimped or flattened and they will stand back up again. But it's a fun, soothing and satisfying activity.

...BUT!... Obviously the side to side scythe swinging motion used core muscles I'm not used to using and I'm feeling the deep burn today

[KitchenGardener]

Wow, just wow! I mean you've earned this gorgeous world you've created, but still, I WANT!! What does VG stand for in your raised bed? Also, have you used SIPs before and should I consider them? I am most certainly not super handy (I did put together my tumbler composter with its requisite gazillion screws, but there was not cutting or drilling or power tools involved). Can you tell me about your SIPs - whether a novice can do it and whether there are versions that can be made for considerably less than $100?