Nyan's 2020 garden

[Nyan]

Nyan, till now I neglected to thank you for responding to my query about cauliflower timing. Somehow I didn't see it until it was quite old. I've never used row cover as early-planting frost protection but maybe I should do that. Usually I just wait till frost danger is past.

On fall-planting potatoes; I've known a couple of people who habitually just put a couple back in the ground at harvest time. If growing different varieties that could be a comparison experiment. I like trying things like that to see what I can learn.

I'm curious. What is it about CHEK TV that reminds you of your earlier midwest home?

I'm buried in cauliflower right now, and I never had much luck with it until I started doing the row cover as a way to keep the bugs off. I'm sold on it for all the spring stuff.

It could be I am picking the wrong spuds, as the next bed over had russets and a purple potato come up through a layer of cardboard and filled one end of the bed I had reserved for the neighbors' tomato "stealing" plant. I love the yukons, but the russets and red potatoes seem to do better for me. Maybe that is experiment for next year, but it will have to be in a different bed - because this one is given over to a pecan tree from here on out.

CHEK has the local personality people who have been there for years, and play a part in the community. And I like when they go off script and just have fun. We had that growing up (in a much smaller "metro" area) with different characters that were there for years, and came to any event in the small towns in the area. Can't remember his name, but there was one newsman who lost his arm in WWII that could come to everything, interview anyone, and always had a happy, friendly demeanor. He was there from the 50's until at least the late 80's.

Had another guy who did the afternoon cartoons dressed as a cowboy that was very popular. He did end up with a drinking problem after a while, and got in trouble for pouring a milk for one of the kiddie guests and told her to "come on and have a beer" on live TV. LOL! He got better and became the head of the dairy exposition at the state fair, and toured around giving out bibles at the local schools in later years. I think my sister still corresponds with him about 45 years later....

Several other characters with stories I probably can't post on here but were just classic...

We don't seem to have that now, which is one reason I haven't had a TV in the house for the last 15 years or so.

[Nyan]

What kind of soil and fertilize do you provide your strawberry plants? Everytime I get one it dies. Somebody told me that strawberries like sand, so I usually plant mine in a sandy cactus soil mixed with a little MG. Died. Are strawberries just picky or I am I too dumb for them?

Well, I imagine our climate in Alabama is somewhat like yours, and I've always had really good luck with "Allstar" strawberries. Good sized berries that tend to hold up higher off the ground and come on early. They stay firm longer and have good flavor. In our climate all the everbearers make soft mush strawberries, as do most of the Junebearers. The ones I grow now all came off two plants I bought back about 20 years ago, and I just keep moving them around.

I just plant them in our regular soil with either compost or elcheapo walmart "top soil" added to lighten it up a bit. (I grew up on a glacial sand outwash hills, and strawberries were just a waste of time for us.)

I'll sprinkle some 13-13-13 and maybe a little compost around them and they produce every year.

Of course, the strawberries in that picture foreground are Carolina Mountain White strawberries, which you may as well call a weed. Very vigorous and rapid spreading, with medium sized white berries that are blah in flavor. So obviously, as they aren't worth growing, it's almost impossible to get rid of the suckers!

[Nyan]

Oh, on the subject of cauliflower, the one I planted a year ago this spring is heading up again! Not nearly as big as the others, but I'd already gotten heads from it last June and the first of January this year! Happy Happy!

The plant also has a more vigorous "crown" coming off the side of the main plant, so I'm hoping it will head out too. We will be bumping the 90's for the next week or so, so it should be interesting to see if old "Methuselah" can do it one more time.

I'll try to post a pic tomorrow.

[Nyan]

Well, I forgot about the Cauli heading out on the year old plant and now it's about 7 inches wide and over ripe...

Maybe I'll take a pic anyway, and post it.

But on the other hand, I picked my first blackberry today.

Not bad size-wise considering we haven't had any rain to amount to anything for over two weeks. Just some thornless type I first planted about 15 years ago. Good for juice and jelly, but slightly more acid than I like unless they are very ripe. Then they don't store well for fresh eating.

The plant this one came from was one that I moved to the corner of a raised bed with an eye toward getting them to cross with the Ark45 nearby. I figure that when I juice them I'll spread the seed and see what kind of plants I get.

The branches taking over the bed:

I'd like to see what I get when crossed with the Ark45 berry which is a very good flavored, firm, sub-acid fruit, and also has a fall crop of Really sweet berries (But is VERY thorny)

A very good berry, and excellent from late august all the way to frost if the weather is right. And I'll be eating a bunch of them tomorrow!

[Nyan]

BTW, I haven't been paying attention to the garden the last few days, so I was surprised to see the corn is tasseling out. It was planted early, as I have bad luck with earworm and windstorms knocking over the later planted corn, due to it being taller than the early stuff.

Had terrible problems getting a good stand this year with the late frost and poor emergence, compared to other years.

The plants are only about 5 feet tall (not including the tassel), but they are have very thick stalks, and shade the ground better this way. A few renegade tomato plants on one side, and some volunteer, yellow squash on the other, so the patch isn't pretty...

[TomatoNut95]

My Blackberry patch is already finished. Got a couple of gallon sized bags full to make juice with for future jelly. But those are huge berries, I envy you. My patch is the smaller, wild berries. I've had thoughts of getting a thornless bush, but animals would eat the berries up before I got to them.

[Nyan]

The wife and I picked about two gallons right before dark tonight, so we will soon have way more than we can use. I wish I could remember the variety name, but I bought one plant years ago, and root tipped it enough times to end up with four fifty foot rows. I used to make 5-7 cases of jelly every year to give away to friends and family.

Sadly, some of the original patch is declining so I think I'll replace them with Ark 45 or Ark traveller canes. I have a few Ark 45's now and they are a much better tasting berry that stores a lot longer (up to two weeks in the refrigerator!). They are extremely thorny (Ark Travellers are not) and will keep away most animals.

The best part about the 45's is the first year canes start setting berries in late July, and they keep coming until frost. My daughter has decided that the fall 45 berries are the best blackberry she has ever tasted. Great flavor and very sweet.

BTW, The blueberries are coming on! I picked about three quarts today, before it got to dark to see anymore...

[imafan26]

I don't know what kind of berries I can grow in my climate. I do know I can grow strawberries and low chill blueberries. Both of those would be targeted by bulbuls. Those blackberries look really good.

[TomatoNut95]

I don't know what kind of berries I can grow in my climate. I do know I can grow strawberries and low chill blueberries. Both of those would be targeted by bulbuls. Those blackberries look really good.

Just out of curiosity, what is a bulbul?

[Nyan]

Phonetically, I'd guess it is what we would yell when the male cow ran us out of the blackberry patch...

[Nyan]

Went out to the blackberry patch, and grabbed about a gallon and a half of Ark45's to make a cobbler for the little one.

The lack of rain has really put a damper on the yield of the floricane ones, but I see the primocane are starting to put on the fall berries. Very early for that, but they probably think it is the end of July with the weather we've had.

Soon we will start getting the really good berries - and have to cut out the second year canes... Ouch!

As you can see, there is a Japanese beetle on there. Time to get the can out and start knocking them in. The chickens are really dancing at the fence when they see me coming with that can! LOL

[Nyan]

Garlic time!

We finally had a rain come in, and right as the drops started, I remembered I needed to pull up a little bit of garlic in one of the beds. So I ran and pried them up and took a picture right before I had to flee inside.

No idea what variety it is as I just planted the cloves from a walmart purchased bulb about 15 years ago, and I just keep replanting the extras each year. The best deal I ever got out of a 25 cent purchase...

[webmaster]

That looks so nice! I'm jealous!

[Nyan]

I've been super busy with work, so no pictures today, but a quick rundown of what has been going on. (mostly so I can look back and remember next year LOL)

Brightwell and Premier blueberries are about done. The Powderblues still have a long way to go. I've been so busy that there were thousands of berries on the ground as I couldn't get time to pick them...

Corn has been done and cut down a couple of weeks ago, with zipper cream peas coming up to take their place for a fall crop.

The Valencia peanuts are just putting on their first blooms and are about a foot tall and spreading out nicely. No pegs yet, but it won't be long.

The fall Ark45 berries are starting to yield, and even though it has been quite dry, they are larger than normal and quite sweet.

The October Shelly green bean seed I got turned out to be climbing instead of bush... I put together a makeshift frame out of old swimming pool posts and pear tree water sprout branches that looks funny, but they are climbing and starting to bloom.

A couple of pickings of bush beans that I planted in one end of the chicken pen, but one more picking and then the peeps get to run roughshod over them as they get a bigger area to roam. They are half way grown and the single old chicken would love to be in the same pen as they are. (I actually heard her making a soprano "Cock a doodle doo" the other morning while looking at them!)

Peppers and tomatoes are about like everyone else so no mention, but I did have a nice fried red potato with banana peppers, garlic, ham, eggs and cheese bowl this evening!

The carrots are ready to be pulled, (just got to have time to do it). Plucked the blooms off the basil so the bushes should be about 3.5 ft tall in a couple of weeks... Pesto time!

Aww heck... Check out the double stemmed blackberries...

These stems seem to be fairly common on the old (unknown variety) blackberries I've had for years. They have small stems every 4-6 inches along the main stem, but only the ones farther back from the tip of the cane actually size up well and produce berries. All together they out yield the normal canes, but as they are jelly and cobbler only type berries, I end up offing a lot of them.

[Nyan]

Well that was a rather long break between updates...

I've been working about 10-12 hrs a day, so the garden has suffered...

Just planted some cauliflower transplants yesterday, so we will see how that goes...

Got a good crop of zipper cream peas that I haven't even shelled yet, and I found the frosted plant stems are very effective at keeping ground up leaf mulch in place on windy days.

Still picking peppers, though they have slowed down a lot with the lack of rain and cool temperatures.
The late October planted garlic is up about 6 inches high, but the late planted bunch hasn't popped up yet.

Everything else has had enough frost to pretty much call it a wrap on this year...

As usual, I wish I could have had time to get more done earlier, but now it's time to work on next year!

[imafan26]

Nice to hear from you again Nyan