Applestar’s 2023 Garden

[applestar]

FEBRUARY already! I hadn’t posted about my outside garden since this one —

I FINALLY got the chance to get out in the garden today — I needed to prepare the Sunflower Hoophouse for the next few days of what feels like a “heatwave”


* Removed the floating covers that had been tucked snugly in direct contact with the greens inside the low tunnels, as well as the solid painters cloth poly tunnel layer.
* Also fixed the light front flap which had blown up and got caught askew during the Christmas weekend — it’s been rolled up and secured since it really doesn’t look like it will be needed
* Also put up the 1” PVC “supplemental snow load support” — not that it will be needed this week….

January has been pretty busy and I haven’t really done anything much except to take care of the compost pile and cover or uncover the low tunnels inside the Sunflower Hoophouse. But most of January had been unusually mild.

Today, with the garden and garden plants not pre-conditioned at all well, the overnight low forecast of around 11°F and windchill of possibly negative single digit…

…has left me scrambling to lay down the direct contact floating cover inside the low tunnels again.

I also left a lit candle inside the flowerpots “heater.” It might not help but who knows? I feel better for at least doing something.

I also harvested some lettuce, Aspabroc, and one mini napa that tried to head up and got frost bit.

[applestar]

It’s down to 15°F in the Sunflower Hoophouse… and unfortunately the remote under the mini-napa tunnel has stopped working so I can’t keep track of how effective the extra protections will be (possibly because of the too high humidity since these sensors are actually not for outdoor use).

Both the Sunflower and the Patio Hoophouses are at about the same temp, in line with the currently official reported temp of 15°F (and windchill of 2°F). I think it’s the gusty winds, snatching all hopes of any kind of insulating thermal bubble….

…and yes, the Garage V8 Nursery is also freezing. I should go get my resting bread dough back in side the house.

[digitS']

Not quite related, AppleStar, but I was noticing the greenhouse temperatures a day or so ago.

We have cloudy or hazy days through this Winter with few days of sunshine and frigid temperatures, for that matter. It's like coastal weather has invaded the inter-mountain West.

The plants in the greenhouse are only potted perennials huddled under a tarp in the corner most Winter hours. I pay some attention when and if the sun comes out and temperatures rise. Sunshine will likely bring temperatures up above freezing outdoors and it can be downright hot in the greenhouse by afternoon if the sky is really clear.

That day, daylight seemed to have brought sunshine. Outdoors, it was in the 40's by afternoon. Over an hour of this light similar to sunshine had only raised the greenhouse temperature to 70°f (21°C). Two and a half hours later, it was only 79° (26C) at about 3pm. It was not windy.

This is how haze can interfere with greenhouse warming. Early Winter, we had some mornings well below zero Fahrenheit but sunshine through the day. It was over 90f (32C) in there! No opening it up because it was way below freezing outdoors. Hazy sunshine can't compete with bright sunlight.

Of course, if it is a day with heavy clouds, the difference between outdoor and greenhouse temperatures may be only a matter of a couple of degrees. There is close to zero "solar gain."

Steve

[applestar]

I FINALLY got a chance to go out in the garden yesterday. SSOOOO MUCH NEEDS TO BE DONE!

I strictly limited myself to picking up litter (windblown and scattered) and generally straightening up, and then checking inside the Sunflower Hoophouse which has been shut up in deep winter mode, but we’ve had several occasions when in 50’s or more and sunny, so that the temp inside had skyrocketed — I really should have been regularly monitoring and taking care for at least the last 2 weeks to have achieved optimum results.

— Most of the plants inside had survived
— Many of these fall-planted cool-weather crop had bolted as expected
—Some were stunted or had obvious frost/freeze damage
— There were surprisingly minimal pest damage/signs — I had expected extensive slug and aphid infestations

Sunflower Hoophouse SURVIVED the winter

TOP ROW — first view after removing the low tunnel covers
MIDDLE ROW — after cleaning up the dead leaves and weeds and harvesting
BOTTOM ROW — view on first entering and how I left the tunnels … with single loose floating cover (because it was up to mid-80’s°F inside by then … of course this morning’s low had gone down to 22°F )


…Here are some pictures of other finds inside the Sunflower Hoophouse

— Very odd looking mushrooms …and signs of almost exaggerated earthworm activity

— about 3 loose gallons of harvested greens (Bolted mini-napa, cabbage, kohlrabi, kale, lettuce), lots of Aspabroc broccoli, one full size kohlrabi, three runty daikon)
—> DD2 immediately claimed the kohlrabi for her salad as well as a portion of the broccoli to cook for late night snack; I used about half of the napa, etc. greens for today’s lunch to make minced beef croquettes

— around the garden (first of the knee-high step-over espalier surrounding the mailbox bed to start blooming — can’t tell what these are … does anyone recognize the blossoms? Maybe crabapples, you think?) But they could be ornamental plums, too … I don’t know because all of the styled trees are bird-grown.)

[applestar]

I had started pre-germinating eggplant and pepper seeds on 3/14. Got to them 2 days later than intended and most of the Money Maker eggplants had germinated and sprouted … one even had seedleaves poking out from side of the moistened napkin Another one that sprouted was Queen of Malinalco X tomatillo (original was lemon yellow but the fruit these seeds came from had purple blossom end. Very sweet with thick walls. Many with germinated seeds, some not a pip.

I’ve planted them all in seed starter mix…will post pics and list of ones that clear this stage and start to sprout up.

Gotta get working on the tomato seeds next.

[applestar]

Harvested more greens. Had some of the bolted mini napa and Merlot (or Red Dragon … forgot which) napa cabbage leaves and tips with tempura shrimp “brown rice paper” wraps for lunch (also peeler sliced carrot ribbons and cauliflower tempura, mayo and cocktail sauce). Very tender and sweet and more flavorful than lettuce

Hubby will probably put the rest in a big pot of chicken soup he is planning to make tomorrow.

[imafan26]

What kind of sauce do you make for the wraps?
Your harvest greens look good.

[applestar]

I don’t do anything special for sauce — whatever I have really. I need soy-free and lately have been indulging with Sir Kensington Organic sunflower oil mayo — it has really rich mayonnaise flavor plus a bit of extra-noticeable black pepper. I also like 365 organic Spicy Harissa mayo. I had a reaction from cocktail sauce and when checked ingredients, it contained soy I’ve been trying different Ocean’s Halo soy-free versions of what is normally made with soy sauce — I like their Teriyaki sauce.

I’m looking for real oyster sauce….

[applestar]

I told myself today was the absolute deadline for the tomatoes, and for them started. I’ve limited myself to 40 varieties, though it remains to be seen how many actual seedlings I end up with.

I’m going to try to focus on my S7xA segregates that were noticeably well variegated to find offsprings with higher levels of variegation. So I will have to try to grow those seedlings to at least 3 or 4 pairs of true leaves before culling.

Some of these seeds were very old, too, so even though I sowed extra, germination may be spotty.

…if nothing else, there will be Money Maker eggplants …

[applestar]

Sprouted at least one so far —

Veg VARIETY
Eggplant Money Maker
Eggplant Shoya Long
Pepper Hot ExVar Fish
Pepper Hot SuperVar Fish
Pepper Sweet ChocCakeX?
Pepper Sweet Manganji
Pepper Sweet World Beater (Ruby Giant)
Pepper Sweet Yellow Cap
Tomatillo Queen of Malinalco X


TOMATOES
Tray1 my project S7xA-F3.BS6 VAR tall
Tray1 my project S7xA-F3.FT3 wispy (med red )
Tray1 my project S7xA-F3.S T2 VAR (Lg pink B; mild/watery)
Tray1 my project Shimofuri(霜降り) F9 KGP.SIP2’21.8

… The eggplants and some of the sweet peppers are already in deeper community cells and community pots.

I transferred the sprouted tomato seedlings in deeper community cells.

These will be separated into individual pots when they are a bit bigger, and weather warms up enough so I can put them outside in the Patio Hoophouse.

[applestar]

I REALLY AM trying to grow less this year, to reduce stress and freak outs.

Decided to do a “reality-check exercise” and counted all of the sprouted little seedlings to date while transferring some more newly germinated and sprouted tomato seedlings and separating the Money Maker eggplant seedlings into 4 per 3.5” square pot.

— As you can see solanacea group isn’t doing well — I do think I missed the optimum window to sow the pre-germinated seeds and some of those didn’t make it. I couldn’t help but to re-start a few, but —- reality check! - — I probably do have enough to grow for this season… besides, pepper seeds can surprise you — I’ve had them sprout long after I’d given up on them and allowed the seedling mix to practically dry out.

The very old tomato seeds (Tray2) are making poor showing so far, compared to the fresh 2022 saved seeds. But I already have 99 seedlings according to this morning’s count.

[imafan26]

99 is more than I have. Actually, I redid one of my containers because the seedlings are too big and it is too early to plant them. Timing is everything. For me, it is still the rainy season and peppers and eggplant like drier weather, but for you they need time to grow and produce before your season ends.

[applestar]

@imafan, that was only the beginning….

Here are the latest totals. I can usually get this far with pretty good results. Now there will be extra backups in case something goes wrong, and I might have good ones for sharing.

I was thrilled to see the efforts made by my older seeds, especially the 2014 hand cross-pollination F1’s in TRAY1 that would have been abandoned without finding out their potential if these hadn’t germinated and grew. Also TRAY2 seeds that took their time but got back in the game once they started to germinate.

…bummed, though, that it doesn’t look like any of my very old Big New Dwarf is joining us — I wanted to try them since it’s one of you’re regulars.

[imafan26]

Looks like you have a shorter list than before, but still impressive.

[applestar]

My seedlings this morning — first attempt at sketching in …oh I don’t know… maybe 30 years?

[applestar]

I got a lot of pruning done that had been waiting too long. With the sudden 80’s°F heatwave starting tomorrow, today was probably my last chance ….

— sweet cherries
— apple
— figs
— honeysuckle
— dwarf magnolia
— redbud
— pear
— arrowwood viburnum

…but I couldn’t finish them all and will have to try to get some more done tomorrow.

Top row in the collage below shows three views of one of the “step-over” espalier around the mailbox bed that is blooming. The espaliers are all volunteers so I don’t know what they are. Callery pear bloomed last week. This one appears to be an apple or crabapple. Such dainty blossoms, surprisingly cherry red in bud, and candy striped when blossoms are unfurling.

Since I had to cut down a big branch from the redbud tree, and cut down a number of low branches and sucker branches on the dwarf magnolia, all of which were in full bloom, I took the opportunity to harvest the blossoms.

I made magnolia petals syrup and pickled magnolia petals, and am infusing the redbud blossoms to make a cordial or jelly — that one will be finished tomorrow after 24 hrs.

— I also cleaned the pond a bit by scooping out the fallen dead leaves from the bottom. I was careful because I knew there were tadpoles…. I ended up finding these 8 plus two more.

[applestar]

…just HAD to post these pics.

I had the pickled magnolia in a ham sandwich today — Yum! And look at that COLOR in the redbud infusion!

[applestar]

Some of my Shimofuri(霜降り) seedlings are starting to show the earliest hints of variegation.

I’ll mark them to select for the early showing of variegation potential. These four will likely continue to develop more detailed and intricate variegation… though not showing up yet, others may turn out to develop strong variegation later as they mature.

[applestar]

Moved out most of the tomato and eggplant seedlings to the KGP Hoophouse after uppotting most of them to single cells

Here’s the map and a glimpse:

…any seedlings that have been nipped — either leaf or all the way down the stem to above seedleaves were victims of our house kitty

[applestar]

Campbell’s 146 (2012), Black and Brown Boar or Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye (2010), Redfield Beauty (2013), Volunteer Potato-leaf (2014) ….

These pre-sprouted seedlings I finally got around to potting up are a big deal because they are 2010~2014 seeds (acquired year so may be even older like 2009 — not pictured here but Bull’s Heart seeds from 2009 have also sprouted and were potted up earlier ). Only 2~4 germinated out of over a dozen seeds attempted.

They took their time and were runty, some were deformed and somewhat iffy looking, but we shall see if they can now make the next jump into healthy seedlings.

Peppers are also difficult for me and some can trick me into trying multiple times, only to laugh at me like this —

…I gave up on some of my pepper seeds and sowed tomato seeds in their cells. I had two cells with tomato seedlings on their way to growing 2nd true leaf pop pepper seedling(s) at their “feet”! (Luckily,) I re-used the plastic spoon label for the cell by taping a new label OVER the written pepper ID —just in case— so I could tell what they were — and were separated out.


…I guess I should also mention the intriguing find pictured above — Last year, two out of three Faelan’s First Snow (variegated tomato foliage with Cherokee Purple like fruits) surprised me with RED heart fruits that were productive and tasty while also delighting with extra variegated foliage.

Of course I’m growing out the saved seeds, and to my surprise, 3 of the 5 seedlings are looking like dwarfs or even micro dwarfs.

Now last year seed saving was crazy and it’s not impossible that I might have a mix up with my (Shimofuri F7 x Aztek) microdwarf segregates.

— Regardless, these will be under special watchlist.

(This kind of self-reminder is necessary because, according to my solanacea counter, I now have 46 varieties and 265 individual seedlings growing — LOL so much LESS than some previous years)

Q’ty Varieties TRUE Q’ty Units

Eggplants+Peppers+Tomatillo
Eggplant 3 2 14
Pepper Hot 4 2 16
Pepper Sweet 11 6 30
Tomatillo 1 1 3
Eggplants+Peppers+Tomatillo 19 11 63

TOMATO COUNTER
TRAY1 14 14 109
TRAY2 12 9 29
TRAY3 12 12 64
Tomato Total 38 35 202
GRAND TOTAL 57 46 265

[applestar]

Last night, overnight low forecast was 40°F. I subtracted the usual 2~3°F and prepped the tomato and eggplant seedlings that were to be left in the KGP Hoophouse by closing almost all zippers (after panic when the front door zipper wouldn’t close up and then finding a method and repairing it) … and draping a double layer of vented poly suspended just above the top of the seedlings. They are on a glass patio table so their height also would keep them above the cold … or so I thought.

The actual temperature plummeted to 33°F in my garden, and inside of the hoophouse went down to 37.4°F between 6am and 6:30am, according to the remote thermometer log.

The eggplant seedlings looked like this when I finally dared to open the hoophouse after it warmed up to 55°F outside.

I was devastated but they were limp as wet noodles, so I did the only thing I could, which was to give them protection from the sun for the day and provide a close protected, warm space that was ventilated as well, while holding in a bit more humidity.

I did unzip the front flap but didn’t roll it up, and the KGP Hoophouse temp was in the 90’s between 2PM~3PM, reaching 100°F for about 10 minutes.

By 7:30pm, when I went out to close it up for the night, the eggplants seemed to have started to recover. They are standing up on their own.

With tonight’s overnight forecast low of 43°F, I’m not taking any chances. I’ve draped the seedlings again, eggplants are still in their capsule, and I’ve also made sure to drape in front of the eggplants, which I didn’t do last night.

Wish me luck.

[imafan26]

Such a big temperature difference in a few hours. It takes a lot of managing to keep things alive.

[applestar]

Yep. And it really doesn’t help that Mother Nature is so fickle.

This year, in an effort to moderate stress levels and emotional roller coaster rides during this part of the gardening year, I gave up on early spring season extension and early started cooler spring crops, and for starting the solanacea, restricted myself to just one, relatively inadequately equipped window bench for starting seedlings.

It was also intended as a review of my level of competence and understanding of what it takes, when using a moderate set of tools and equipment that might be needed to start seeds — restricting myself to limited set up and dedicated equipment (I DO have other systems — I’ve posted about them before). I also only started with pre-germination/sprouting media of paper napkins or vermiculite, and only used the very basic seed starting mixture of 2 parts peat moss, 2 parts vermiculite, 1 part perlite, with a handful of bokashi starter until first 2 sets of true leaves (1/4 to 1/3 strength ferts)

…The SE facing windowsill and window bench (with the cobbled together supplemental light and a large thermostat-controlled pet bed warmer) is currently occupied by mostly peppers now that almost all of the tomato seedlings as well as the eggplants had been moved out to the KGP Hoophouse.

The seedlings that are uppotted into the individual cells and container are planted in a premium commercial organic potting mix.

With the two hoophouses to protect them, I feel I can start uppotting most of these Tomato and Pepper seedlings into final containers to wait planting out — target first planting day for the tomatoes is May10.

Here’s a collage of ALL of them —

…we had that bit of a scare when the overnight temp bottomed out at 33°F. But the tomatoes came through and the eggplants seem to have recovered. So I think it will be OK to start uppotting the worst overgrown tomato seedlings. The larger tall varieties and the cherry varieties are looking uncomfortable in those cells.

The effective real estate will have to triple, at least….

[pepperhead212]

Good luck apple! I started my tomatoes later than normal, due to that "fickle" weather we've been having in spring the last few years.

[applestar]

The cold rain today and heavy clouds are not helping. But all the rain this week has made me hope I might still be able to grow some of the cooler weather greens —

My family has become fond of mini muffins from the store, and I’m finding these clear clamshell trays with 12 shallow dimples pretty handy for group pre-germinating and sprouting different varieties of seeds.

The simples are big enough for multiple seeds and although shallow at about 5/8” depth, there is enough headroom for the seedlings to sprout without pushing up against the lid. The rest is the same no matter what method — get them in roomier community or individual containers for the next stage of growth before they are too overgrown and suffers/are stunted.

Here, Mini Napa #2 and Early Mizuna seeds were first to sprout and I already moved to individual cells — 2~4 seedlings each… to be culled down to one (Mini Napa) or planted as bunches (Mizuna) —

Speaking of which…I really need to uppot some of these peppers and the tomatoes out in the hoophouse

[applestar]

These are some of the notables among the tomato seedlings. They are all part of my crossbreeding projects.

The top-right photo is significant because the first and last cells out of 5 are the two F1 crosses I never got around to pursuing. I hope to find worthy segregates and grow these out to be interesting and memorable varieties. Original breeding projects between
(1) Whippersnapper x volunteer potatoleaf with large tasty pink fruits (possibly Stump of the World — hence SOW… but Soldacki is another possibility)
(2) Maglia Rosa #1(WWL) x (Stump of the World?HBR + Faelan’s First Snow LV + Manö) F1 2014

2nd cross breeding is another representation of my newbie just try it frame of mind — I didn’t have well planned donor with plentiful pollen lined up, so I cobbled together a mixed pile as listed above. This kind of mix should yield distinct characteristics depending on which pollen “took” — including short patio type from the Maglia Rosa x Manö, or Faelan’s First Snow variegation and striped Maglia Rosa fruits would be an exciting combination (done before, I know, but why not more?). That pink volunteer was especially tasty with big fruits, so that might be interesting as well.

Looking at the rest, I’m particularly excited about the microdwarf-like traits — still limited numbers … I believe they are supposed to show up in 1/8 or maybe 1/4 of the sample at this filial generation … and even more excited about variegated leaves showing up on what appears to be microdwarf and/or dwarf segregates, meaning these two traits have been successfully combined in this generation.

My Shimofuri(霜降り) seedlings are reliably showing advanced variegation early on in true leaf development. I have the parent Faelan’s First Snow from a particularly showy variegated strain growing alongside, but they are not yet developing eye-catching level of variegation.

…it’s a little hard to see, but the Bottom Left and Center photos feature seedlings from what I called FFSX — Faelan’s First Snow X — last year, the plants grew with heavy variegation with almost dwarf growth habit but not quite the right leaf shape, and produced tasty pointed RED fruits. These circles seedlings are even more dwarf-like … even possibly microdwarf (but it’s difficult to tell at this stage) … WITH early VARIEGATION.

Last year, I had the entire Shimofuri x Aztek grow out not two feet away, with the shortest microdwarf types at the nearest corner.

Tracing back for the source of the dwarf genome, I think the mystery cross might possibly be explained if we assume (Faelan’s First Snow x Dwarf Chocolate Lightning) from the Sunflower House in 2021. Maybe additional clues will turn up in this year’s generation.

[applestar]

I was out of action all last week — spring allergies are playing havoc this year and aggravating sensitivity trigger thresholds and intensifying symptoms — especially with exhausting fatigue….

I’m now definitely late prepping the garden beds and readying for the tomato and pepper seedlings to be planted. I didn’t take pics but some of the peppers and the tomatillos have first flower bud starting to develop on them — maybe tomatoes too….

I was only able to work for 2-1/2 hours this morning — need to increase endurance and strength.

My Garden also made it clear when I should stop — by reintroducing me to my two resident Garden Patrol garter snakes

One limited me from working on the Vegetable Gardenbed area when I tried to pull up the black poly mulch — SNAKE1 !!

05/09/2023 by applestar

467CA2F5-B21A-4CDF-AFF7-5857615AF570.gif (5.17 MiB) Viewed 864 times

…and when I tried to go inside and work in the Sunflower Hoophouse — SNAKE2 !! — magically appeared when I pulled out one of the bricks securing the door closed (I don’t even know where there had been enough room for it — was it pushed up into the blue spongy duct insulation/weather stripping in the doorway?)

I did take down the outer spiral fence posts/trellises that needed to be re-built and started digging up the spiral curves for the Spiral Garden.

[applestar]

Finally got the chance to play with my pole chainsaw pruner and do some SERIOUS overhead pruning.

To gear up, I used sturdy, elbow-long thornproof rose pruning gloves worn over my heavy (something cloth) windbreaker jacket, carhart double-front work jeans, dunlop knee-high, foot protecting galoshes, anti-fog polycarbonate goggles, …and to top it off, my old horseback riding helmet. And for ear protection, I wore my AirPod Pro’s set for noise cancellation.

…Stuff were flying in my face and hands/arms, chips and debris were flying everywhere and sliding right off.
…I remembered my AirPods BECAUSE the first cut with the saw after a break was so screechy loud without them (also couldn’t hear a neighbor mowing his lawn AT ALL)
…and patted myself on the back for the last minute choice of headgear when (towards the end and telling myself that I was probably getting too tired and should quit before I started getting careless), TWO big cherry tree limbs fell, one on top of another that had gotten hung up after cutting, then came down together and struck me squarely on my head… and all I felt was a little (distributed) pressure over the inner head cradle, the knock sound of the wood hitting the top of the helmet, and some DISCOMFORT because the branches resting on the helmet were being heavy.

Might’ve been a bit more serious if they had been live wood and not the dead and dried out— but STILL — thank goodness for the high performance of my good ol’ lucky helmet rated to take a horse’s kick, even after 15 years in storage.

Whew! I’m tired.

[applestar]

Still aching all over (muscles and legs) from over exertions the other day … had to force myself to go out and just water the tomato seedlings in the hoophouse as we’re having a mid-80’s+ heatwave day.

Sure ‘nuff they needed to be watered… and then remembered to water some of the potted plants that have been migrated out … and — just one more thing — was watering the container strawberries with their green fruits developing when my garden rewarded me

A hummingbird with a red throat gorget — A MALE! rare sighting — came swooping and flew in and out of the hose-end shower stream

[applestar]

I learned one thing — the pole pruner chainsaw is a brand that we already have lawnmower, leaf blower, and weedwhacker for, and hubby already has a collection of 2, 4, and 6 amp batteries for.

I started with trying the 2 amp, and was already pretty sure that I wouldn’t even attempt using the 6 amp because it’s too heavy, regardless of how briefly the 2amp lasted … but it was plenty for what I needed to do and for how long I could lug the thing around and hold up to reach the high branches.

Didn’t even get around to trying out the 4 amp.

I’ll concentrate on improving my techniques and learning the mechanics of cleaning and maintaining… and eventually manage to use the extra 2ft middle extension for the pole.

[applestar]

Trying to keep up….

At this stage, I’m always reminded that tomatoes are bullies — seedlings that were exceptionally large and healthy had managed to send roots into neighboring cell(s) where particularly runty seedling was struggling

[applestar]

DD1 went out to bring in a late package delivery, and excitedly showed me a video of a “HUGE” caterpillar that was on the doormat —

a screenshot from the video

It turned out to be —
Great Leopard Moth Hypercompe scribonia (Stoll, 1790) | Butterflies and Moths of North America

[applestar]

Yesterday, I sowed some of the cucurbits that pre-germinated — Cashflow zuke, H-19 Littleleaf cuke, Suyo Long cuke, Greek Sweet Red C.moschata “butternut type” squash.

…They hadn’t sprouted yet today, and none of the others have pre-germinated yet. I also started Umaina chard, Senposai and Komatsuna seeds to pre-germinate today.

This morning, I convinced myself that I HAD to go outside and plant out the lettuce and napa starts since it’s been getting too hot inside the hoophouse during the day.

But I got distracted and weeded the Kitchen Garden strawberry bed first… then made the mistake of going around to the other side of the house to check on the Apple Guild strawberry bed and ended up weeding that bed as well. The neglected strawberries won’t perform well this year — they need to be fertilized better … some deformed berries maybe due to boron deficiency… though it could also be attributed to uneven pollination from temperature extremes.

I couldn’t help wandering into the fig tree and myoga area a few steps away, and ended up cutting back the new fig shoots and thoroughly weeding the myoga bed.

I didn’t get to it early enough last year — right now the early weeds are a foot to 2 feet tall and myoga are just starting to emerge at 4~6 inches. Once the myoga gets going, it’s not as easy to differentiate so this was a good time to pull those weeds.

After that, I finally got around to the lettuce and mini napa. I had dug up the bed I was going to use before (last year’s sweet pepper bed). I kind of packed it — mini napa #2, lettuce, early mizuna, and broadleaf shungiku (leaf chrysanthemum).

To primarily protect the mizuna and napa, I set up wire hoops and covered with insect mesh low tunnel… and as an afterthought, covered with a scrap of weed block to keep the seedlings shaded for today.

Finished up by watering the tomatoes etc in the hoop house as well as the container plants that have ben already migrated out.

It was past noon by the time I was done all that. Yep, gardening season is advancing.

[applestar]

Cucurbits — maxima and pepo are equally susceptible to SVB’s (Squash Vine Borers) and usually go down after setting first couple of fruits.

After years of trying everything else, I’m only growing them inside insect screen mesh and hand-pollinating. After last year’s success with the zuke in the hoophouse, I’m also going to try a small kabocha type winter squash (maxima) — Hokkori F1 — hopefully.

In my experience, SVB’s can’t manage the main vine stem of the moschatas, but in heavy infestation, they’ll try to get into the thinner side branch vines and sometimes succeeed or cause enough damage.

This year, for open garden bed growing, I’m going to try Korean King Ka Ae F1 C.moschata which is grown for immature fruits and eaten like summer squash.

… neither of these two seeds have germinated yet — they’d better! …

From what I’ve seen in my garden, moschatas are particularly targeted by leaf-foots — maybe because they tend to be longer maturity are therefore more suited to the south. I’ll have to remember to keep my eyes open for their eggs — which are different from other stinkbug eggs — and adults (usually spotted on or near suddenly yellowing squash leaves).

[applestar]

This morning, I was looking over the pepper starts and watering them (one Manganji is starting to bloom and should be planted out), opened the window and sat down with my first cup of tea.

Vaguely looking out, I suddenly realized that the TULIP TREE IS IN FULL BLOOM!

I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually seen it blooming before. I’ve suspected it may have started to in uppermost branches — without actually seeing the flowers — especially because the local Tiger Swallowtails that have been seen among the trees in the green zone in the back have been flitting at the very top of this tree.

But THESE blossoms are on the lowest branches at my eye-level from the 2nd story window.

You know, that male Rubythroated hummingbird I saw the other day might have been drawn to the tulip tree blossoms. That Great Leopard Moth might be around for this tree as well. (Another moth on the hoping for list is Luna moth).

I collected this tree as a tiny volunteer sapling at my parents house, when they lived there and my older daughter used to spend a day every week as a baby.

Tulip tree doesn’t even start to bloom until at least 15~20 years old.

5/18 ETA — Took a pic of it today. Though commonly called TuliP poplar, it’s actually related to Magnolias :

[applestar]

It’s a bit (a lot) daunting to think I’ve only planted the tiny bed of greens so far.
I’ve been noodling over the planting map for the Spiral Garden and the rest of the Side Yard garden area (too lazy to actually depict spirals but the bulls eye representation is sufficient for me to eyeball the planting scheme)

My goal for this season includes building a temporary roofed and walled “staging” area depicted to the right— this was where I had previously thought I would build a recycled bottle “shack” but I’m going to be flexible about the materials.

I want to build a water reservoir made of blue barrel on its side, and hooked up to be supplied from the downspout rain barrel overflow….

Lots to do…..

[applestar]

I pruned some more yesterday with the pole chainsaw.

I have to say again, in case you missed it last time, that the earbuds with noise cancellation feature WORKS GREAT!

I wasn’t listening to music because that would distract me too much — just had those in my ears. But the AirPods Pro noise cancellation kicks in as soon as they connect to the iPhone in my pocket.

So funny because I put them in the house to begin with, and instantly the sounds from the TV cut off

I did remember to push them in more to make sure they were settled and snug before stepping into more weedy areas of the garden where I already cut a bunch of branches and was also full of overlapping twiggy branches. But the Pros have silicone caps that go in the ears and are less likely to fall out than the previous model.


…Some of the pre-germinated cucurbit seeds had sprouted so I removed the loose covers, and some more had pre- germinated (2 Nutterbutter squash seeds, a Cashflow zuke, and an H-19 Littleleaf), so those were sown in potting mix.

And I started 16 cells (2@) of short grain sweet rice (Mochi rice) that I grew on the shallow shelf of the pond last yearfrom store bought brown rice.

I’m hoping to grow them in my little Rain Garden rice paddy that have been neglected for the past few years.

Oh, and I was able to harvest a handful of strawberries yesterday.

…TODAY… if I have the energy I’ll try using the electric chipper shredder on the branches I cut and some that have been piling up …or maybe I’ll get working on the two “Pallet-sided Raised Bed” in the Vegetable Garden that are falling apart and need to be rebuilt somehow — I’m thinking of building the border sides based on “woven fence” concept using some of the freshly cut tree branches.

We’re supposed to get some much needed rain tomorrow, so I have to choose my projects carefully today.

[applestar]

Arrrgh! This morning, the kitty either finally discovered OR decided my pepper seedlings in the house were hers. Several leaves had been munched on, and one seedling had been pulled entirely from its cell. AND there was a wet green blob on the windowsill where she had promptly upchucked them.

So I decided they all needed to be moved out to the hoophouse…

…WHERE I was greeted by the giant spider clinging to the front door flap !

* There were some nice strawberries ready to pick today.

* The Tulip tree flowers still look impressive

* Sowed some more pre-germinated cucurbits (Nutterbutter and H-19) and started replacement for the seeds that didn’t germinate (Hokkori and the Korean moschata summer squash) — and with new watermelon and cucumber seeds that just arrived (Kaho, Early Girl Otome, Blacktail Mountain; China Jade).

* I counted 14 tadpoles in the pond today….

* And those greens I planted out under the low insect mesh tunnel last week are looking good

[applestar]

Slowly getting the garden beds ready….

Worked on prepping the Spiral Garden and the Vegetable Gardenbeds ready for planting.

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— Yesterday, DD helped by assembling the framework for the new portable “greenhouse” which I intend to use as an element in the “Sideyard Garden Staging Area” project. It’s temporarily sitting out of the way in front of the swingset

— Another handful of strawberries to snack on

— Had an to put together this little solar fountain birdbath together …I think the fountain could probably run from about 11:15am~4:15pm (solar panel is in the shade now but it’s still occasionally spitting)

[applestar]

FINALLY!! Started planting yesterday with my cherry tomato starts — Wild Rosa, Molten Sky, Moona Mints(?) , Kiki’s Sunny Spot — in VGB (Vegetsble Gardenbed B) yesterday. These will be pruned to no more than one stem/vine each, supported on strings hanging from an overhead structure.

* Look at what my hubby found — a forgotten basket tray of the same cherry tomatoes that had been picked barely blushed to still green, just before the last frost in fall. Some had spoiled/mummified, but a good many of them had changed color but not gone bad. Not bothering to eat any but intriguing, and certainly maybe a sign of “good keeper” traits.

* Not sure if these will grow but planted a couple of sweet potato vines that survived through the winter in a big tree pot.

* Today’s harvests — a handful of strawberries to snack on, and bolting celery stalks from a clump of volunteers that survived the winter … will probably use for stock/broth or maybe dehydrate and turn into celery salt.

* Today, dry sowed double row of corn — Mirai 421 — in Row1 of VGC (Vegetable Gardenbed C), and temporarily transplanted R2 with bunching onion starts — Kyoto Kujo, Ishikura Winter, and Flagpole. I want to sow R2 with more corn in 1 to 2 weeks. (I’ll be hand pollinating anyway, so I’m not concerned about the tiny patch).