Applestar’s 2022 Garden

[applestar]

It feels like my gardening activities I am posting this year are not going to be particularly instructive (as in demonstrating a good model) — rather, you may end up seeing a lot of “extreme gardening.”

I really wanted to try growing some potatoes this year, but I really missed out on prepping the garden beds for the early season planting, and most of the indoor pre-planting preparations such as starting pea and other seeds in cell trays, or in this case, chitting/pre-sprouting cut up seed potatoes, have WAY passed the time limit for proceeding to planting out in the garden

Here, we have cut up seed potatoes that had been dried in direct sun through an upstairs window, then stored in double layer of movie theater jumbo popcorn containers in mixture of peat moss and coir.

After I missed the planting window in early April, they proceeded to sprout, and sprout, and grow….

Yesterday, I finally gave in and planted them in one of the only readily dug up part of the garden — a front corner space in the Sunflower House hoop-house.

Even though this is the upper end of the slope, I couldn’t dig very deep since we just had 2 inches of rain — the seed potatoes were planted probably at about 3~4 inches depth.

Some of the extras are single sprouts with roots that detached from the seed potato — kind of like sweet potato slips. They had to be a bit crowded — about 8 inches apart — but since they only have 1~3 stems each, maybe they won’t compete too much….

At least this way, they may avoid potato beetles and tortoise beetles infestation.

I had intended to plant the rest of the row with sweet potatoes, so this entire row will be thoroughly dug up by the end of the season. I might plant garlic and onions there for the fall/overwinter crop.

The overgrown peas planted in one arc of the Spiral Garden (Swiss Giant) and East end of the Haybale Row (mixed Super Sugar Snap, Garden Magnolia, etc.) seem to have come through the two days of steady rain OK.

[applestar]

Yesterday, I planted the tray of Iona Petite Pois — you can see just how rootbound they were in the cells. But they were healthy-looking. I made no effort to loosen these roots. (side-bar — many many many earthworms, including pregnant ones in this bed… one centipede which I allowed, one slug which I squished ).

I only sprinkled a bit of dolomitic lime and last year’s home made buckwheat hull bokashi. Hopefully the earthworm vermicast will provide. Pea roots can be sensitive. I’ll side dress once the peas have established.

…I got rid of the stunted surviving cabbages and kale that had all gone to flower… except the lone Dazzling Blue Kale that looked too good to sacrifice.

[applestar]

Came across our resident snake again when I was pulling at a big clump of Creeping Charlie that had snuck it’s way under the Vegetable Gardenbed A black plastic mulch — I was following the runner with one hand, flipped up an edge of the mulch with the other, and saw the coiled snake shift around under the mulch.

A little and A scrambled hop backwards while yelling at the snake….. That was the end of any work in that area.

I meant to pull up the mulch and rake in some amendments to prep the bed today, but opted to work around the Side Yard beds on the other side of the house instead.

• The peas in all the beds are starting to bloom.

• Spotted the group of guppies I put in the pond yesterday

• Put some more guppies out in the two reservoir buckets for the Vegetable Garden SIP

• Removed the front gable plastic film from the Sunflower House Hoophouse, and loosened and lowered the top edge of back end wall plastic

• Dug up one arc of the outer Spiral Garden to prep for tomatoes and cukes

• Cut the side branches off and restacked the main branches and trunk of a young mulberry tree I cut down yesterday — these will be chipped into mulch once I figure out how to use that chipper shredder

[imafan26]

It looks like it is the season for all the critters to come out from their winter hiatus.

I saw the bufo toad today in the backyard. He is better than the other toad I had when I lived in Mauka, and a lot fatter. That toad, looked like a rock and it always scared me when I watered the pots it would spit the water out. This bufo is more active but lumbering. I usually see it running away. Cane toads are like mongoose. They were deliberately imported to control one thing, only to decide they liked other things as well. The toads are poisonous, especially to dogs. They do eat a lot of insects, slugs, and snails. It is doing a good job of depopulating the snails. I am using a lot less slug bait. I have no idea where he came from. I have greenhouse frogs that hitchhiked on a plant I bought. They eat ants. I don't see them much anymore, but I can still hear them chirping at night.

I can still hear the chickens, but at least they have not come back.

[applestar]

I’m hearing the peepers and treefrogs but haven’t seen any yet. Green frogs should also show up in the pond soon.

Photo collage of peas and greens, strawberries, etc. —

[applestar]

Yesterday, DD’s helped “bag”-protect the marble-sized baby Magness pears and Arkansas Black apples with nylon footies. Over 3 dozen combined. The Seckel pear which had a heavy harvest last year only has maybe 4 fruits — yep they bagged those too.

This is the first year Magness has produced so heavily (except maybe one year when chipmunks ate practically every single one so no tally was possible).

The Paw-and-Paw trees on the other side of the fence in the Front Yard Fence Row have been blooming and seem to have set some fruits. Will know for sure once those little embryos start to grow …or fall off.

A bit hard to see since the photo was taken through upstairs window/screen….

[applestar]

Yesterday, with temp rising to 80°F by 10am, and high of upper 90’s for two days, I knew I had to focus on making sure the garden survived the heatwave.

I still have seedlings in the hoop houses, so I started by watering them well and adding extra — about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in their trays. I’d already sprayed them the day before with a diluted probiotic mixture solution of milk jug rinse water, DIY brew of fruit scraps+yogurt whey+yeast+natto and a bit of potassium bicarbonate, calcium nitrate, and eggshell vinegar.

I also managed to roll up the south side flap of the Sunflower HoopHouse at least to just above the knee wall, so now there’s a full length ventilation.

I had the idea to possibly upgrade the rolled up flap to act like a roof gutter and position a rain barrel at the end. I’ll have to work out the details….

I noted that the Patio HoopHouse without this kind of additional venting briefly went up to 110°F

[applestar]

Yay! My garden has achieved one of the annual milestones for the new season — Revealing of the Spiral Garden form

… With the heatwave done, I’m hoping to get more accomplished without heat exhaustion overtaking my limited energy and getting the postponed planting done this week.

BUT! Yesterday, there were raccoon tracks in the mud around the Sunflower HoopHouse… big ones and tiny ones as well? (Not sure if those are baby raccoon or squirrel?), and they had found a double bagged compost scrap bag that I didn’t get the chance to take care of, and ripped it open, scattering the contents.

DIDN’T take a harvest pic (have to get back in the habit) but harvested two of the pictured strawberries, a few lettuce leaves, a couple of late asparagus spears, and 3 or 4 not-quite-full-size Swiss Giant snow peas. I ate the snow peas in the garden to sustain me but saved the berries for DD’s.

[imafan26]

The spiral garden looks great. Are you going to keep the hoop house all year? I can see that the sides can roll up. How do you handle the trapped air at the top? With fans or vents?

Here we would use insect screen and not plastic. In summer though, people will put tarps on the roof of their shade structure or hoop houses to keep plants from burning. I used a piece of acryllic sheeting. I could put it on top of my shade bench to keep the rain out. They used to be cheap, but not anymore. I may have to look for phylon. I haven't seen that either. One of my acryllic pieces broke, so I need to get it replaced eventually.

[applestar]

I planned for the Sunflower HoopHouse to be a roofed rain-shelter screen house during the summer. It’s hard to see but the entire first layer including the roof is insect mesh — and although the 2nd layer roof and roll-able sides will continue to use 6-mil green house film …

* front gable is insect mesh as are the two “side lights” to the door.

* The upper part of the door is a re-cycled aluminum window screen, there is a small “panel” that is currently folded clear plastic but will be replaced with a insect screen, and the thermal vent (which will basically remain open all summer) at the bottom is also equipped with insect mesh.

* The back gable and sub-set window are also all covered with insect mesh, and the lower part of the back wall as well. (I do need to adjust the back gable outer layer greenhouse poly which is currently loosely covering the upper 3/4 of the back gable)

As soon as I can, I’m going to get the full length metal conduits needed to roll up the side panels all the way up as needed, and eventually get the crankshaft mechanisms to roll them up from one end.

[imafan26]

Nice!

[applestar]

Completely prepped the solanacea arcs of the Spiral Garden (pepper arc and cuke arcs still need work). But doing all that took nearly the last of my energy reserves.

I did get THREE Money Maker eggplants planted though

Mines Maker eggplants

— hopefully they will green up and regain vigor once they settle in….

[imafan26]

Looks good. The eggplant should green up with more soil and fertilizer. How far are they planted. I usually plant mine at least three feet apart because they are big plants. Actually, I usually plant them in a big pot because they are big spreading plants.

[applestar]

LOL! @imafan, your eggplants are perennial.

I’ve never had my eggplants grow any bigger than determinate tomatoes… (except that one time in a SIP when the Thai wild type grew into a giant tree)

Even so, I probably plant too close — they get 12 to 15 inches. But when planted in a single row as these eggplants are, they also have the full width of the spiral arc.

All of my eggplants (as well as tomatoes and peppers) will be staked or trellised and pretty strictly pruned to maintain air circulation.

I’m planning to try the “tree-style” single stake and strings method with the eggplants this year.

… Today, I managed to plant a long outer spiral arc of tomatoes, and the other three eggplants (Shoya Long).

The Money Makers have been put in windbreak surround, but I was too tired to do Shoya Long — but they have the Sunflower HoopHouse on their north side which should provide windbreak as well as source of extra warmth.

The tomatoes got some makeshift shade to protect from noonday and afternoon sun

You might be able to get a glimpse of the potatoes inside the Sunflower HoopHouse….

[applestar]

What did I tell ya? — INSTANT GARDEN

- Beaverlodge Slicer, Goldfish(X) pepper, and Money Maker eggy in the VG.SIP

- Terhune, Mikado White PL, and Sergeant Peppers NOT

- Black Mountain Pink
- Neves Azorean Red
- Pineapple
- Schmeig Stoo NOT
- Sergeant Peppers NOT
- TerhuneX

[applestar]

If you remember, last year or the year before, I made home made bokashi by substituting a big supply of used up (crushed from several years of use) organic buckwheat pillow fills (instead of the organic rice hulls in the original recipe), cultured with home made probiotic microbial activator and aged for longer than I had intended … so yeah I think I actually started it the year before last.

Early last fall, I wanted to start a fresh batch by using some of the leftover buckwheat bokashi as the starter base, but had trouble securing rice bran and the rice hulls in quantities I wanted.

After searching for more reasonably priced alternatives, I started looking at feedstores and came across ‘Triple Crown Rice Bran Naturals Horse Supplement’ as a possibility. I acquired the 40 lbs bag last year, but then had trouble setting up the bokashi in time before winter, and had to wait until earlier this spring.

I’ll report in more detail later, but I finally got the chance to mix up just one bucket — so I mixed up the approximately 1/4 of the buckwheat bokashi that was still left, mixed it up with about 3/4 bucket of the horse supplement, added more probiotic microbial activators and a bag of sweet rice flour as added starch/sugar source.

I might find out I broached the bucket too soon and the tomato and eggplant starts might show negative signs, but — I tell you — the bucket smells like a wonderfully complex rice bran pickle culture, which is exactly how bokashi is supposed to smell….

[applestar]

• I’m still playing catch-up, but did manage to tuck a few onion and shallot plants inside the insect mesh covered spring green bed.

• I also did the minimum work needed to clear part of the back/north wall row inside the Sunflower HoopHouse and plant some started sweet potato plants. I’m going to try growing the vines up the concrete mesh trellis.

• You might also be able to see that the potatoes in the foreground are doing well and need to be hilled or mulched

• I think these tomatoes* are settling in well

• Money Maker eggie’s are starting to bloom, although I will be removing those first blossoms so they can concentrate on settling in and growing sturdy scaffold branches first

• I’m thinking I should rig a heat-retentive cover for the Shoya Long eggies as well

…and todays harvest of
- strawberries, cherries,
- cut-and-come lettuce and greens,
- Swiss Giant and (forgot what kind) yellow podded snow peas, as well as a smattering of sugar snaps…

———
*Tomatoes planted in Outer Spiral Garden arc
- Caspian Pink
- George’s Greek Beefsteak
{George’s Greek Beefsteak PL F3 (red) (kgolden) “huge plants”}
- Jersey Giant
- Neve’s Azorean Red
- Northern Lights
- Todd County Amish
{Todd County Amish (Lurley’11)}
- Wessel’s Purple Pride
{stabilized cross between Cherokee Purple and Sausage — originally called Cherokee Sausage (Mark) …“like purple Opalka”}
- Wes

[applestar]

Highlights from yesterday and today —

Planted variegated tomatoes

• Faelan’s First Snow and

• Sweet Splash Pink F5 and Sweet Splash Yellow F5

in the Vegetable Gardenbed CX (the block bordered little bed outside the fence)

VGC plants look a little stressed — I think they weren’t ready for the intense sun and probably should have been given some sunshade

VG.SIP plants are establishing and look good.

The eggplants in outer Spiral Garden arc

Swiss Giant and yellow pod snow peas plus Garden Magnolia purple podded snap peas are growing well in this arrangement

• Garden fleece waist-high protected from cold and possible bunny attack initially. I think now it’s keeping the lower parts of the pea vines shaded (as well as providing continued physical protection

• Pea vines are climbing up the wire trellis on both sides, with the Inner Spiral Garden arc providing a sort of a bay effect and the strings keeping them from flopping over.

• On the back side of the arc, there is a stake at the edge of the arc bed, which holds the strings just enough away (otherwise the strings would press the vines against the wire trellis)

Yesterday and today’s harvest.

• Three fat Asian green onions (these are single stalk type that grow almost as big as leeks). I bought three 1~1.5 inch diameter stalks last year and planted their bottoms in the Sunflower HoopHouse after eating them. They survived the winter and fattened up to about 1 inch again. I’ll plant their bottoms again later.

• Larger strawberries are Elan F1 — I bought one plant, intending to propagate runners, but abandoned the project — it had been planted in a basket tray and had overwintered in the Garage V8 Nursery, then got plonked on surface of the patio Earthbox (which sits on cinderblocks) last spring. The plant had proceeded to survive the summer, cast runners everywhere including down to the patio-side foundation bed below, and are now fruiting despite being completely neglected….

• I have a very useful basic fruit growing guide that rates fruits by ease of care. Strawberries are easy but cherries are more difficult. I didn’t get around to taking care of the cherry trees at all this year, and these runty and variously damaged fruits are the inevitable result. There are very few good looking edible fruits among them. I’ll have to see what I can do to salvage them.

This rose is probably familiar to folks who have grown roses. This is the typical rootstock rose that are used for hybrid teas. I used to have a ‘Mr. Lincoln’ that didn’t make it, but I never bothered to take out the rootstock. I used to just keep pruning and cutting short, but over the last couple of years, I lost control of the area and the entire bed became a blackberry jungle. After basically growing unimpeded and fighting for a place among the blackberry canes, it has given us a showstopper performance this year

[imafan26]

I think I have that same root stock rose. It rarely blooms but it gets very big.

[applestar]

Those flowers are 7 to 10 feet up in the air ….

[imafan26]

So are the canes of the root stock I have if I don't keep cutting it. It has only bloomed twice and the flower looks very much like the one in your picture. Mine was in a 7 gallon pot and it was only about 6 ft tall at the time.

I ended up with the root stock after Olympiad died out. Only the root stock was left.

I have another root stock when Red Simplicity also died out. It has never bloomed.

[Gary350]

It feels like my gardening activities I am posting this year are not going to be particularly instructive (as in demonstrating a good model) — rather, you may end up seeing a lot of “extreme gardening.” I really wanted to try growing some potatoes this year, but I really missed out on prepping the garden beds for the early season planting, and most of the indoor pre-planting preparations such as starting pea and other seeds in cell trays, or in this case, chitting/pre-sprouting cut up seed potatoes, have WAY passed the time limit for proceeding to planting out in the garden Here, we have cut up seed potatoes that had been dried in direct sun through an upstairs window, then stored in double layer of movie theater jumbo popcorn containers in mixture of peat moss and coir. After I missed the planting window in early April, they proceeded to sprout, and sprout, and grow….Yesterday, I finally gave in and planted them in one of the only readily dug up part of the garden — a front corner space in the Sunflower House hoop-house. Even though this is the upper end of the slope, I couldn’t dig very deep since we just had 2 inches of rain — the seed potatoes were planted probably at about 3~4 inches depth. Some of the extras are single sprouts with roots that detached from the seed potato — kind of like sweet potato slips. They had to be a bit crowded — about 8 inches apart — but since they only have 1~3 stems each, maybe they won’t compete too much….At least this way, they may avoid potato beetles and tortoise beetles infestation. I had intended to plant the rest of the row with sweet potatoes, so this entire row will be thoroughly dug up by the end of the season. I might plant garlic and onions there for the fall/overwinter crop.
E220857D-3EA3-4C9E-A202-F2C5C38E94B0.jpeg
The overgrown peas planted in one arc of the Spiral Garden (Swiss Giant) and East end of the Haybale Row (mixed Super Sugar Snap, Garden Magnolia, etc.) seem to have come through the two days of steady rain OK.

I think your potatoes will do much better than my potatoes TN is too hot & dry. I think your weather is a lot like Illinois weather my grandfather planted his potatoes about last week of May. He laid cutting on the soil surface then covered them with 2" of soil. Once a week he checked to see if plants need to be covered with more soil. Every day about 4:30 pm there was a very hard 10 minutes rain. Illinois hottest weather was about 90°F last week of July & the month of Aug. He fertilized with a lot of P&K and small amount of N. I am interesting is seeing how well your potato crop does.

I think TN potatoes would do better if garden did not flood for 3 months then be dry as desert for 3 months.

[applestar]

@Gary350, I’ll try to put more effort into taking care of those potatoes so you’ll have a decent basis for comparison

[applestar]

Didn’t take a pic, but started mulching the potatoes with dried out thatch and grass clippings

Worked on planting more tomatoes in the Inner Spiral Garden arcs with my crosses that are being (or almost are) stabilized —

• Moona Mints — PL, wispy RL, and SPL

• Molten Sun F6 or F7

• Sun Dews F5

• Li’l Wild Rosa F5

• MR.ZM 4B.P3 F5 SG’21 (red baby bfstk cherry; intense tomato flavor)

…wanted to complete the series, but still need to plant Wild Rosa F6 or F7 and Molten Sky F6 or F7…

Harvest from yesterday and today

• including some carrots that overwintered in the “Haybale Row” bed under a 3X layered low tunnel (insect mesh, fleece and vented poly). Two of these have split and if left in the ground would have bolted. There IS one that has bolted and is already about 18” tall.

• Iona Petit Pois shelling peas are gobbled up by the DDs as willingly as the strawberries.

• DD2 surprised me by favoring the snow peas though. I asked her to put them away the other day, and when I asked her if she’d put them in the fridge or freezer later in the day, she said she ate them all!

…I’ve been direct seeding pre-germinated cucurbits and they have started to sprout — these are summer squash and parthenocarpic cucumbers in the Sunflower HoopHouse

[applestar]

ALMOST done planting the Vegetable Gardenbed area…
Yesterday and Today —

• replaced 2 in VGC that weren’t taking and started to wilt (both were Sgt. Peppers NOT, but I have one left) with 2 Golden Fleece.
  
  Also planted one each
  6 Pound Giant , and Himbeerfarbig, and
  Zheltij Delikates

• (Not pictured) Almost filled the VGA bed with S7xA F2 seedlings and three of the DARxUtyonok F3 seedlings

…There are some left including ones showing microdwarf traits AND variegated leaves. I want to plant these in containers (for ease of handling and observation)


Along the fence,

• VGD — Suyo Long cucumbers have sprouted, sowed some pre-germinated Nutterbutter honey nut squash seeds and dry-sowed dill seeds.

• VG.SIP — the plants are establishing well

• VGB —
  • Dae Jang Geum
  korean melon have sprouted, still waiting on various watermelon seeds, and dry-sowed
  • Bull’s Blood
  beet seeds

• In the Haybale Row, started removing spent pea vines and dry-sowed Tohya edamame seeds.

• Added the dried up pea vines to mulch the potatoes in the Sunflower HoopHouse…and noted that 3 of the summer squash seedlings have grown the first true leaf

• Had intended to finish planting the Spiral Garden, but ended up pruning the volunteer grape vine and Alabama Red trumpet honey suckle that we’re getting out of hand. Trained the pruned vines to more properly hug their arch trellis and wall trellis.

…HARVEST REPORT…
- Shell peas are winding down, as are the snow peas.
- More Raspberries are ripening
- Still many wild strawberries, some of the early Elan… berries on the newly planted strawberry plants have started to blush
- Last of the cherries
- some lettuce and asian greens
- more overwintered carrots and Aspabloc

[applestar]

ALMOST finished planting the Spiral Garden (SG)—

I couldn’t really work in the SG yesterday because neighbors on that side of the house was using laundry products that triggers my chemical sensitivities. In fact I had to quit before I was even half done with what I wanted to do.

• HOWEVER, I did push myself to rebuild the vented cover over the eggplants — we’ve had several overnight lows of mid to low 50’s and the eggplants were starting to yellow/would NOT green up properly.

• I finished sowing dry and pre-germinated watermelon seeds in the vegetable Gardenbed B (VGB), and set up a vented poly low tunnel to increase temperature.

• Leaves of the one eggplant in VG.SIP as well as even the tomatoes were riddled with flea beetle holes, so I thoroughly sprayed with neem and soap solution, then sprayed them with Surround clay solution.

• I popped in another one of my tomato crossbreeding project — ‘S7xA F2’, a variegated short stature seedling — in the last available spot in the VGA and completed the planting map

  

• Today, finished readying the outer spiral garden arc intended for planting the started peppers,

• …and readied the last remaining inner spiral garden arc by adding one bag of sand along with other standard amendments — sowed carrots (Kyoto Red, Minicor, Mokum, Yaya — and beets (Bull’s Blood and Golden Detroit).

— Before I started, there was a Question Mark butterfly, probably looking for minerals from the mud.

[applestar]

This is still incomplete and I could have chosen better text colors for clarity, but here is my planting map for the Spiral Garden.

2022 Spiral Garden

I always draw up planting maps to plan and then establish the actual locations.

Over the years, method and style have evolved from “chicken scratches” on scraps of paper to post-its, midnight scribbles on memo pads kept on bedside table, vellum sheets over planting bed outlines in sketch or note pad, etc. etc.

This one is done with Numbers app on an iOS device, which has been the tool of choice for several recent years.

[applestar]

I didn’t go out yesterday, but had to this morning after an overnight heavy thunderstorm — to make sure nothing got beaten down, HARVEST BERRIES, and also to give water to plants inside the hoop houses (it’s always such an irony that the plants under roof can be dehydrated while outside plants are drowning….)

As it turned out, one tray in the Subflower Hoophouse and one pot in the Patio Hoophouse were nearly dried out.

I’ve been draping the biggest raspberry clump with a floating cover, and bagging clusters of ripening berries on others to hide them from the catbirds, robins, cardinals, and blue jays

With the wild strawberries nearly over (and patches are smaller this year) and the newly planted strawberries being limited and just starting to ripen, for the first time, I would describe the harvest as mostly raspberries with “some” strawberries

I also harvested some sprigs of applemint, peppermint, and spearmint. Four-lined plant bugs will be here soon and will start to ruin the topmost tender leaves while the fungal issues will start affecting the lower leaves. So this is a good time to gather the best looking sprigs/leaves.

Probably the last of the peas — I didn’t get the chance today, but will be cutting the pea vines down (and dry to use as potato mulch) and prep their beds for planting something else…. One area is earmarked for edamame, and last of the cherry tomato plants will take over another. But will have to think about what can be planted in one more little spot.

[applestar]

Today’s berries

— already almost all gone BTW

* Tohya edamame and the beets have started to sprout. *

• VGD cukes; VG.SIP plants including the flea beetle-riddled Money Maker eggplant are looking much better; and VGB korean melons and watermelons.

• Eggplants under the plastic “tent” have greened up and have started to achieve the expected dark purple-black tint to it that I was hoping for.

• Removed the 2nd layer side panel on the north long side of the Sunflower Hoophouse for better light and ventilation, and opened up the outer poly over the rear gable — getting ready for the summer climate.

* Even though we’re expecting a severe storm tomorrow, sprayed the eggies and all of the cucurbits with their seed leaves and 1st and 2nd true leaves, as well as the lower stems of the tomatoes with a Surround+ mixture. *

[applestar]

Here’s another collage from yesterday (No going out today — it’s going to be off on thunderstorms all day today — had one drum through just now )

• Top-left is full view of Vegetable Gardenbed C and CX (in front of fence) and VGD raised bed beyond (in front of the picket fence to the neighbor), with view of VGC from the other side in the bottom frame.

• They’ve all established and are greening up — hoping for them to take off this and coming weeks

• Note the rightmost Faelan’s First Snow in the VGCX bed that is looking particularly robust

• Top-right frame is a portion of the potato bed in the Sunflower Hoophouse. It’s only about 4 ft x 2 ft.…
  • Since there are no extra soil to hill up with, I’m mulching with weed sod (some of this is winter rye cover crop) The thatch roots is bound up in particularly nice soil since earthworms had been living in almost every nook and cranny.
  • I included a close up of another basket tray of sod that is being dried out.
  • Since I can break up the dried out mass into useful shapes and sizes, it’s been pretty easy to fit them in between the potato stems and build up where needed

• A view of the small insect mesh tunnel covered greens patch at west end of the Haybale Row bed (contains lettuce, komatsuna and other asian greens, and kohlrabi + some onion and shallots)

• A view of some of the new strawberries in the Kitchen Garden bed — I’m allowing small amount of berries to set and ripen, and have covered with a chicken wire dome bird protection

[applestar]

There was a frog on the patio today — it seems to like to venture out of the pond when it rains and hang out by this reservoir bucket for Patio.SIP#1….

• Today’s collage includes photos of the cucurbits except the watermelons — OSG Greek Sweet Red squash, SFHH summer squash+cukes, and the Suyo Long cukes in VGD — these look like they caught some damage from hail maybe?.

• One of the potato plants seems to be maturing faster than others and has started to bloom

• I didn’t get to go out yesterday and DD2 had picked the raspberries and strawberries from the Kitchen Garden, but these strawberries in the Apple Guild bed wasn’t attended … and something (looks like rodent bite marks) got in and nibbled on these two strawberries — I’ve re-deployed a snap trap from the nearby pea patch to here

• Today’s raspberries and strawberries with some lettuce that were trying to bolt — I had some as salad garnish for breakfast, and some in my ham sandwich for lunch

…

Li’l Wild Rosa and Sun Dews have fruits with the characteristic stripes in the green stage that should ripen to a less defined swirly pattern on Li’l Wild Rosa, and the distinctive metallic streaks on the Sun Dews. Li’l Wild Rosa does not disappoint with the characteristically unpredictable shapes.

[applestar]

I’m pushing the envelope again and may regret this later — but I STILL had seed-grown pepper plants in too-small containers INSIDE THE HOUSE, on a windowsill with supplemental lights.

These plants have been so pitifully stunted, but they were starting to try to bloom, fruit, and to branch.

I spent the last week trying to find time to uppot them, but today decided to just plant them out directly.

Actually I was only able to plant the sweet peppers—
- Chocolate Cake X
- Doux Long d’Antibes
- Chocolate Cake NOT 2018 (thick walled, juicy, sweet, RED)

To protect them from pepper maggots, I set up an insect mesh-covered low tunnel over the bed …and to protect them from sunburn after being unceremoniously tossed out from being indoors, I loosely covered with a spunbonded floating fabric. The tunnel should also protect them from winds and rainstorms for now (expecting one tomorrow).

It should also help them from some of the weirdly chilly temps…it was 58°F this morning (although now, we’re at today’s high of 87°F).

…The lone eggplant out in the open in the VG.SIP had its leaves held up in prayer position from being too cold this morning. The other eggies inside the temporary vented poly tent were looking much happier.


…uppotted the most desperate hot pepper plants and left them all in the Patio Hoophouse draped with a floating cover to protect them from the sun

…forgot to take a pic, but the late sown Nutter Butter butternut squash has sprouted in VGD bed.

—

Harvested the lavender (and a couple of sprigs of sage) today

[applestar]

Spiral Garden from upstairs window

[applestar]

The window view of the Spiral Garden looks different now.

I moved a large trash can with a heavy liner out from the Sunflower Hoophouse to use as rain barrel to capture rainwater from the rolled up sidewall. I was worried it might be too big, but it fit perfectly both height-wise and width.

LOL I keep saying “this is the last harvest for peas” … but truly, THIS is the last harvest for snow peas this season since I have cleared away the vines.

• Loosened the soil, amended and planted — most likely — the last bunch of tomatoes to be planted in the ground.
  — Wild Rosa F5, Wild Rosa F6/F7, Molten Sky F6/F7, Shimofuri (霜降り)F9 —
  (I do have a few more micro-dwarfs I’m still hoping to plant in containers.)

• Removed the temporary vented clear poly tent over the eggies to weed, prune, and add/adjust support. Was considering leaving the cover off, but even though we had high of 94°F today, overnight low is expected to be in the mid-50’s, so I reconfigured it a bit to accommodate the stakes and plant sizes, and put it back up.

• I had more package boxes to flatten and use for the Spiral swale/path

• I’m weaning the peppers to tolerate more sun by removing the non-woven cloth from the east half of the tunnel.

• I used a cloth to shade the newly planted tomatoes.

• Took away the cloth covering the carrot bed since they started to sprout

• Raspberries from one clump are almost finished, but more growing in the Kitchen Garden and the Yellow Ann raspberries have only just started. Nice strawberries, too.

[applestar]

BTW — Yesterday, I was feeling a bit worried because the mosquitoes were unusually swarming.

And what I mean by that is — normally, I move into a new area of the garden and expect to be bothered by 1~3 local mosquitoes. Once I swat those down, I could expect not to be bothered for a while until another 1~3 mosquitoes wander over (or zero in), or I move to another part of the garden… BUT

Yesterday, I was seeing as many as 4~6 per location. After having to swat at and fight off these swarms several times, I was starting to seriously think about re-applying the mosquito BT.

Now, the natural gardener in me was thinking “Shouldn’t the Garden Patrol be handling this situation?”

…and as if in response, a dragonfly hovered into view and swept into the Spiral Garden, flying along the Spiral Path where I had just been annoyed by the blood sucking hoodlums.

Fwiw, this morning, the mosquito density was back to normal.

[applestar]

I went around pruning the suckers and tying up most of the tomatoes today. (no pic) *Need to finalize/customize support methods to use for different tomato beds.*

…Spent the rest of the time cleaning up some more inside the Sunflower Hoophouse

I’m still too intrigued by the HUGE flowering turnip or rutabaga in the back. I had intended to grow melons back there, but the seeds that had pre-germinated never sprouted after being sown in pots to start seedlings. (except 1…and I do have Korean melon and watermelon growing in VGB raised bed, so with some luck and maybe extra protection, I can still have melons and watermelons to harvest later in the summer).

So I’ve been letting the turnip continue to bloom, and now there are scattered seed pods — I guess there were sufficient pollinators inside the hoophouse despite the insect screen (I know there are hover flies, aphid mummy makers, and ladybugs … and at least one robber fly… in there.)

…when I carried some things out, I was returning to the entrance and saw a CABBAGE WHITE butterfly flutter to the open door and — almost languidly — SLIP RIGHT INSIDE!

I had to spend the next 10 minutes trying to shoot it down with jets of water from the hose as it hung out on the inside of the roof, and eventually squished it with a long bamboo pole. At one point I had despaired of catching it and draped some cabbage seedlings I have growing in there with a scrap of floating cover….

[applestar]

If you remember, last year or the year before, I made home made bokashi by substituting a big supply of used up (crushed from several years of use) organic buckwheat pillow fills (instead of the organic rice hulls in the original recipe), cultured with home made probiotic microbial activator and aged for longer than I had intended … so yeah I think I actually started it the year before last.

Early last fall, I wanted to start a fresh batch by using some of the leftover buckwheat bokashi as the starter base, but had trouble securing rice bran and the rice hulls in quantities I wanted.

After searching for more reasonably priced alternatives, I started looking at feedstores and came across ‘Triple Crown Rice Bran Naturals Horse Supplement’ as a possibility. I acquired the 40 lbs bag last year, but then had trouble setting up the bokashi in time before winter, and had to wait until earlier this spring.

I’ll report in more detail later, but I finally got the chance to mix up just one bucket — so I mixed up the approximately 1/4 of the buckwheat bokashi that was still left, mixed it up with about 3/4 bucket of the horse supplement, added more probiotic microbial activators and a bag of sweet rice flour as added starch/sugar source.

I might find out I broached the bucket too soon and the tomato and eggplant starts might show negative signs, but — I tell you — the bucket smells like a wonderfully complex rice bran pickle culture, which is exactly how bokashi is supposed to smell….

…Revisiting this subject, I think this year’s new batch is working out well. The plants that were planted with this bokashi have greened up and and are growing and blooming vigorously as order of planting approximately 3 weeks ago.

I’ve given them liquid food (which is more immediately available) initially and every couple of weeks 10 days or so — both foliar and as rootzone drench.

Today, even though many of the plants look great, I felt like some of the oldest that have started to bloom and set fruits, and some of the newest planted might need supplemental food (since I was reminded that organic fertilizers would not be immediately bio-available to plants until the soil organisms break them down)

— I soil drenched them this morning — a random cocktail of juice jug fermented/cultured fruit scraps, milk jug rinse water, kelp meal, bokashi, natto powder, whey, epsom salts, eggshell vinegar, ….etc. diluted in 4 gallon bucket of mostly de-chlorinated water, applied indoor watering can with long skinny spout (to reach through and under the plastic mulch) to drench the root zone under the drip-line.

[applestar]

Lettuce and basil seedlings standing by to be planted when 4 true leaves grow out

…raspberry and strawberry berry harvests are starting to dwindle. Also lost at least a dozen good raspberries to birds Strawberry marauder was a chipmunk (past tense )

[imafan26]

Looks good.

[applestar]

Thanks @imafan

I still have to catch up. But the garden is starting to look like we will see some harvest


VEGETABLE GARDEN BEDS

SPIRAL GARDEN

‘HAYBALE ROW’

• Cleared shelling pea vines, amended soil and prepped for planting by forming a raised row and covering with eco-plastic mulch

• Weeded and Side dressed the Tohya edamame

• Reconfigured the insect mesh into a full tunnel to protect the edamame from Silver spotted Skippers and Stinkbugs .… (I had to fashion the fabric around the stems to let the overwintered carrot that has gone to flower stay because the locally present (released by USDA in NJ a few decades ago) parasitic/predatory wasps that use Japanese beetle and Junebug grubs as larval hosts are attracted to carrot flowers)

— Spring Greens bed with somewhat runty kohlrabi at about jawbreaker size — probably should give up and harvest these….

— Strawberries, red and yellow raspberries, Maid of Orleans jasmine; wild garlic?
— peek inside the Sunflower Hoophouse at the summer squash and cucumbers