Taiji
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Location: Gardening in western U.P. of MI. 46+ N. lat. elev 1540. zone 3; state bird: mosquito

Gardening in the Upper Peninsula 2018

Last fall realized a dream of having a summer home in the U.P. of Michigan. A crazy move no?!

Spent 3 or 4 days preparing beds. Just dug up existing sod and turned under with a regular shovel. Hard work, but only way I had to do it. Just a quick, simple prep job for this year; no time or inclination to add lots of amenities. The plan is to put down newspaper between and around all the beds, then as I cut grass, (cut grass, hmm haven't done that for a while!)pile the clippings on the paper, then, at season's end scoop up the clippings, flip up onto the beds, chop it up somewhat with a hoe and finally plant some winter rye or something similar as a cover. Will then dig under when returning to the U.P. next spring. We'll see!
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Need to update my new location info as to zone, latitude etc. but no time right now.

Brought some rhubarb roots to plant, but was surprised to see that we inherited these. A little choked out and neglected, but will pick some tomorrow for pie.
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Gary350
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Is your last frost over? We were in UP last summer camping there last frost was June 6th. Michigan is so nice in summer we were planning to be there this week to camp in the RV for a month but had to cancel until Aug. When I lived there many years ago soil was excellent & cool weather was perfect to grow everything especially cold weather crops. My mother grew, carrots, red & white radishes sweet as candy, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, onions. Rhubarb grows wild in MI. Have FUN gardening in the nice weather. Did you have a garden in AZ?

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applestar
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Yay that’s going to be a whole another gardening adventure for you. :clap: ...But hopefully moving back and forth won’t create a gap/interruption during a critical phase of gardening in either location?

On another forum, there was someone who used to post that he would take all his tomato seedlings in their trays when he had to travel during the critical phase — he said they did great sitting in the sun on the dash board of his car....

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digitS'
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Taiji, congratulations!

I don't know if you moved further from my gardening conditions or closer to them :wink: .

After a high temperature yesterday afternoon of 65°f and some 25mph wind gusts, it has begun to rain. And, after it sat idle for several weeks, DW turned the furnace back on this morning. Windy raining, it's 48° outdoors. But then, we are at 48° North latitude, maybe about the same for you there in Michigan UP :wink: .

Steve

Taiji
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Location: Gardening in western U.P. of MI. 46+ N. lat. elev 1540. zone 3; state bird: mosquito

Well digitS' right now I think I'm closer to them. It's about 48 windy and rainy too! I put some tomato plants out the other day and I've got my 5 gal buckets ready to put over the top of them tonite. Luckily, the previous owner left a few here. Latitude here is according to online website 46.45.

Applestar it sure is going to be different here. I think the main interruption will be with fall stuff to plant in AZ. I'll probably get back just a little late to plant stuff like kale, lettuce etc. The one thing I don't wanna forget this fall is to plant some garlic here before I go back! The locals here say plant hardneck. I actually think if I put tomato plants on my dashboard they'd, one, fall off, two, get too hot. I used air conditioning almost all the way. Believe it or not, I did bring 3 crabapple trees in 5 gal buckets that I ordered 3 yrs. ago. They seem to be settled in and growing.

Gary I think the last frost is around what you said, June 6th or thereabouts. The locals here say 1st or sometimes 2nd week in June. I would say the soil is very good here too. I would call it a silty clay, or maybe a clayey silt. We've had lots of recent rain, but it doesn't really gob up; seems to drain well.

Bought just a few tomato plants from a local grower for this year. This is some kind of cherry I believe. Don't know if there are cutworms here, but put some cardboard collars around stems just in case.

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. First little Red Norland potato sprout in the U.P. Have some Red Pontiacs to plant too.
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Last edited by Taiji on Sat Jun 02, 2018 11:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

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digitS'
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Vanisle_BC wrote:... We've taken plants on vacation before - young tomatoes - when tenting but camping days are over as of last year. This time we'll be in a cottage which will be both nicer and not so nice :? .
I hope Vanisle_BC won't mind me copying and pasting his post here.

:) I thought that this was a fun idea and reminds me of this fantasy I have of gardening in both the northern and southern hemispheres with a three week cruise each way when I can start my plants onboard the ship :wink: .

Taiji will have to get UP gardening legs before becoming too adventurous.

Steve

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Gary350
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Taiji wrote: I think the main interruption will be with fall stuff to plant in AZ. I'll probably get back just a little late to plant stuff like kale, lettuce etc. The one thing I don't wanna forget this fall is to plant some garlic here before I go back! The locals here say plant hardneck.
Plant garlic 50 days before first frost. You can probably plant kale & lettuce in trays to take back to AZ to get a jump start on your AZ garden. When I lived in Phoenix AZ area I planted, kale, chard, lettuce, first year from seed Nov 1st. Lowe's & Home Depot wanted $5 per plant then I found a garden store with reasonable prices in Glendale at the 202 exit ramp 6 plant trays for $2.50 each. Best Swiss Chard I ever grew was AZ in winter. Best melons I every grew was AZ in summer. Your potato plant looks good. I think you need a tiller.

Taiji
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digitS' wrote:
Vanisle_BC wrote:... We've taken plants on vacation before - young tomatoes - when tenting but camping days are over as of last year. This time we'll be in a cottage which will be both nicer and not so nice :? .
I hope Vanisle_BC won't mind me copying and pasting his post here.

:) I thought that this was a fun idea and reminds me of this fantasy I have of gardening in both the northern and southern hemispheres with a three week cruise each way when I can start my plants onboard the ship :wink: .

Taiji will have to get UP gardening legs before becoming too adventurous.

Steve
Wow! Only a true diehard gardener would have such a fantasy Steve!

Good idea about starting the cool weather stuff here, and taking it back Gary. Will I have that kind of energy or inclination at that point? I don't know! Maybe. :)

On the other side of the knoll, a beginning of some little terraced beds I hope to make. Put 5 Red Pontiacs here. Hill is sloped quite a bit, doesn't show up so well in the photo. Think I'll try some onions here too. Plan to fence the man part of the garden, but am hoping any animals might not be so interested in potato leaves and onions so will just try leaving this part out in the open. This area gets more sunlight.
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Taiji
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Location: Gardening in western U.P. of MI. 46+ N. lat. elev 1540. zone 3; state bird: mosquito

Mid August Garden in the U.P.

Photos taken only 3 wks apart. A sudden explosion of growth. Had to replant corn, so it is behind. It might have just enough time to make it. Butternut squash in foreground seems doubtful; hasn't even bloomed yet though the growth has suddenly taken off.
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first Red Norland plant dug; was pleasantly surprised. These tubers are much redder than the same variety in AZ.
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Nice first picking of Stringless Green Pods. Was able to freeze half of these and the rest covered 2 meals.
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MISTAKES THIS YEAR include not biting the bullet on my arrival in the U.P. and hiring someone to till up the thick sod thoroughly. Am fighting grass that wants to keep sprouting in the beds and from the edges of the newpaper/grass clipping mulch in the aisles. The onions especially are being negatively affected by this! Hoping next year as I build up the rows/beds they'll become easier to work.

Another thing to realize is that the practice of planting things in trenches and deep craters is not too good of a thing here. It works well in AZ where you need all the moisture you can get and flood the area around the plants and keep the water there. Though I have watered here a couple of times, for the most part, there is enough natural moisture do the job. Some of the plants have algae growing on the soil around the plants.

Had a nice zucchini plant going that was really spewing them out, then I twisted one off as I always do. Came out the next morning and saw half the plant had wilted. I immediately thought, squash vine borer. Then I realized I had damaged the stem by leaving a big gouge in it and killed half the plant. I have always harvested zucchini this way, but realize now: be more careful, cut the fruit carefully from the stem! :o I asked at the greenhouse where I bought the zucchini plant if they had SVB's here. They didn't know what I was talking about so I thought, well, that's good news!

Taiji
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Hillside terrace garden "over the knoll" More sun here. Some potato plants; a cayenne pepper; some onions just as an experiment unfenced to see if the local critters (deer, squirrels, rabbits, bears, wild turkeys, maybe even moose) would leave these particular plants alone. So far, so good!

I guess nobody really wants to eat potato leaves around here, but the bears might want the tubers if they someday realize they're under there! (and if their more natural diet of, hot dogs, potato chips, hamburgers might not be available)

The bright green areas are a cover of crimson clover to be turned in at season's end. Lower beds have just been planted in clover and annual rye.
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digitS'
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That's a very pretty location, Taiji.

I used to live further out in the country and deer would show up at the garden fence. I knew that they could jump it because I saw what they had eaten: potato vines! I think that deer might eat anything, it may just be snacking but it can be pretty devastating to a small garden. (I was lucky to have a little stockdog that enjoyed chasing them. Lucky also that she never caught up to them.)

Haven't seen either deer, elk or moose within a couple of miles of my present garden. Good so far. Cottontail rabbits and marmots are tolerated by the neighbors to my detriment :? . At least we don't have javelina, eh?

After the potato beetles, my most serious potato pest are voles. Sometimes, I only learn of voles in my garden when a coyote has come through and dug them up ..!

Did I say what a lovely gardening location you have? We will keep our fingers crossed for your sweet corn :).

Steve

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Congratulations!!!! :)
Your grass looks amazing !! You did a really good job

Taiji
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Yes, I feel very fortunate to have found such a pretty property reasonably priced and at the end of the road. Most days the only people to come down are the mail delivery girl and a man walking his little dog.

There are plenty of deer around here. I expect more soon as the apples begin to fall. They were here last year at that time. Next year will put up deer fence for the garden over the knoll. No javelina, thank goodness! Saw our first bear the other day on a road near here, but I know they come here in the night; messing around with the bird seed and pushed over the weather station.

All in all I'm pretty happy with this garden. All I did for prep was turn under existing sod and plant. I have sprinkled a little 10-10-10 on some things once or twice.

Taiji
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I love this Black Seeded Simpson. Pick enough for a huge salad every day, and overnight it seems to regenerate itself. The Tasty Green cukes are my favorite.
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Haven't had tomatoes this big for many years. Variety is Delicious. I think on the left is an Abraham Lincoln.
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applestar
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What beauties! I’m glad to see you are getting some good results in your new garden. 8)

Taiji
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Long cayenne and jalapeno. I guess there must be different kinds of long red cayenne. I bought a couple of plants from a grower here since I didn't start anything myself this year. In AZ I usually get long thin red cayenne, about 4 inches long and straight. These were a surprise. Much longer and kind of twisted. These aren't quite as hot as the smaller ones I usually plant, but they are good. Plant is not quite as prolific either as the thinner ones I usually plant. Am picking them green for now so nutrients go to newer ones on plant.

Jalapenos too, from local grower's plant that I bought. These all went into homemade salsa.
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I pruned this Delicious tomato of all the diseased limbs and leaves. Huge tomatoes on there. I'm not used to getting this large of tomatoes in AZ. The larger tomatoes don't do as well as smaller ones in my area of AZ. So, most people just don't plant them out there.
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Taiji
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This is an Abraham Lincoln plant. I asked the guy from whom I bought some tomato plants what variety would be the most prolific. He thought, and said try Abraham Lincoln. I would certainly recommend it too. Most clusters have 6 large tomatoes. It seems to be disease resistant too. My Delicious tomato is showing quite a lot of disease. Am saving some A. Lincoln seeds for next year. Have read that it is open pollinated. Funny thing, all the tomatoes seem to be growing on the southeast side of the plant.
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