Applestar's 2015 Garden

[vaporizer]

I love your pallet re-purposing. is looking great

[skiingjeff]

That's a lot of tomatoes! Do you can most of them or give them away?

[applestar]

Freeze, can, give away....

I want to get a pressure canner so I can expand my repertoire of canned goods since I don't entirely trust most freezer containers....

[applestar]

I'm pre-germinating like I did last year.

I can combine easily recognizable seeds that germinate in about the same amount of time. Here are TenderStar runner beans, Baby Butterpea Lima beans and Charleston Gray and Sugar Baby watermelon seeds I started on Monday 5/25. (Uh oh, one of the roots broke and is floating in the rinse water.... )

[applestar]

Update photos from the backyard --

Seedlings on the picnic table under the mulberry tree

NKG and SF&H

Highlights from the SF&H (Sunflower & House)

...and the NKG (New Kitchen Garden)

The section with paper egg carton has TPS minituber shoots that are just starting to come up -- these were the tiny ones -- about size of a marble or jellybean with mostly just one eye starting to grow. The larger minitubers were planted at the end of the HBR a (Haybale Row) where I planted a long row of seed potatoes alongside a row of sweet corn in a companion planting experiment.

I planted the usual seed potatoes in several beds, but here are two Adirondak Red in a wooden tub on the patio and I think about a dozen Gold Rush planted in a new bed at the end of the SF&H

[sweetiepie]

I love the pallet re-purposing too! I am going to have to throw some down in the orchard and plant the rest of my peppers and tomatos. I just got to crazy planting seeds and have to many transplants. It looks great! I can't wait for mine to start growing.

[applestar]

Thanks! Even though it's a lot of work, I love spring planting time, too. I just cannot get over how tiny seeds grow into these wonderful plants and we can eat them!

These are actually same pictures as above, but I made a collage of just these cabbages -- Early Jersey Wakefield and Late Flat Dutch. (I also have Old Serbian Cabbge growing elsewhere)

(I just love these frosty blue green colors)

...also a close up of the broccoli -- these are Solstice broccoli that I started in January and had been growing in KFC buckets. I think I SHOULD start them in January even though they took up a lot of space. The main broccoli planting of Limba and Solstice are just starting to grow tiny heads.

(I harvested the looser looking ones -- the kids gobbled them up and left me the stems and leaves -- though they were quite delicious so I didn't mind....)

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[applestar]

I took update pics of the corn and forgot to post them

"Haybale Row" on top with Golden Bantam and Kandy Korn, along with peas and summer squash, and {hill together with corn experiment} row of potatoes

"Sunflowe House Extension" on bottom with Glass Gem Corn, along with interplanted Fava beans (there is a volunteer watermelon and borage in there, too) I also just sowed some pre-germinated Dixie Butterpea lima beans to see if they are good corn companions. I'm told Glass Gem is a tall growing/sturdy type of corn so hopefully it can provide support.

You can see the sad Marrowfat peas in the pics and the larger squash in front of them in the "Sunflower House" bed is a mini hill of Kakai Hulless seed squash which I'm hoping will produce ahead of SVB infestation.

[applestar]

This morning, I sowed a little over a dozen pre-germinated seeds each of "Red and Purple Dwarf Okra" (saved seeds received in trade) and "Burgundy" -- no red in the name... But last time I bought seedlings from my favorite herb lady and their names had red in it -- from a commercial Burpee seed packet that I found myself holding out to the cashier last time I went to the garden center (NO CLUE how I came to be holding it either ).

It was only 54°F -- 57°F now, but they germinated so quickly under the lights inside (I put them in water to soak for 8 hrs on 6/3 which was... only TWO DAYS AGO). Louisiana Green Velvet okra seeds from another trade is taking the expected amount of time and are just starting to germinate. So they should be ready to sow tomorrow as intended when it's supposed to get to 80°F.

[applestar]

Finally, FINALLY, finished planting the Sunflower House and Extension
Sowed Pre-germinated melon seeds (didn't wait for them to sprout their seed leaves) and planted SIL's melon seedlings started from store or farmers market bought melon in the "melon" section, and sowed pre-germinated Narcissus F1 gourd which is supposed to be edible like summer squash when picked young. Armenian cucumbers which is actually a melon also went in the melon section.

...all that's left to do is to take down the winter compost pile and use it to mulch and hill the potatoes and corn in the Haybale Row. I may sow some more bush wax beans in the still available/reserved spots where the squash and watermelons will be filling in as they grow.

[applestar]

This is the second morning I noticed my Kakai squash has started to bloom from the upstair's window. Yesterday, I didn't get around to going in that part of the garden. Today, by the time I got to them around 10:30AM, the blossoms were already closing,

They are very early risers and seem to be opening by dawn. All males so far, but today I think all the vines had opened blossoms. There should be female blossoms opening within a week or so. I planted them early but in the open (not protected under insect barrier tunnel like last year). I was hoping they will produce before the SVB get here, but we're having 90°F days for the next week, which may mean all the hot summer pests will be arriving....

I did notice yesterday that the okra have sprouted and so did the melons.

Still harvesting wild strawberries and mulberries, and more of the shelling peas are coming in. There's one red raspberry in there somewhere, too, though we had about four yesterday. So just ones and twos so far, but slowly increasing -- probably a 1/2 doz tomorrow.

[lakngulf]

Isn't this a great time of the year? Watching the plants do their thing, and enjoying the results.

[applestar]

Yep! I'm almost done planting, then I can REALLY kick back and enjoy.

THIS part of my garden is basically done. It's mostly maintenance now -- corn need to be fed and hilled for the last time. Marrowfat peas under the CRW trellis is starting to dry up and will be harvested, and the sprouted melons will take their place. Squash need to be redirected as necessary so they don't run amok. ...and weed, weed, weed... And water.

[sweetiepie]

Applestar, I can't remember what thread it was in, but you recommended using a curry comb for horses for weeding. I wanted to tell, thank you. I would of never of thought to use something like that in the garden. I don't have horses at the moment, (though my daughter keeps wanting to bring hers for visits) so it is being re-used in the garden and works great.

[applestar]

You're welcome, @sweetiepie
It really does work very well, I love using mine -- very satisfying.

[applestar]

I started a new thread to post progress of the pallet sided raised bed -- Subject: Pallet sided high raised bed hugelkultur experiment

Ha! That's a mouthful!

I thought I'd split this off to a separate thread from my veg and tomato garden progress (although technically this bed belongs in the White Sauce Garden/Tomato Garden) and just post highlights over there since just posting the building process is turning out to be quite cumbersome.

[applestar]

[applestar]

Sunflower House (SFH)

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Remnants of Bill passed through overnight. The swales are holding some water this morning. I sprinkled Mosquito Bits since the ground is saturated and may not drain/dry for awhile.

[imafan26]

Your garden looks great. It was just a couple of months that the plants were growing inside in KFC buckets and cups and the garden was mostly empty. What a transformation.

[MichaelC]

What's all that beige/yellow stuff you've got down, presumably as mulch?

[applestar]

Subject: 8 bags of treasures in my car -- D. FIR SHAVINGS for mulch

I was perusing the local craigslist for the first time in ages and came across an advert offering clean douglas fir shavings $3 a bag. I was picturing trash bag size and decided to go for 8 bags to mulch my blueberries and raspberries. When I got there, they told me the bags were 55 gallon size, loosely filled.

...Had to put down the rear seats but I managed to get all eight bags in the back of my suv.

I might have been able to stuff a 9th bag in the back if I wasn't concerned about leaving space to see out the rear window, and if I hadn't been going to Trader Joes before going home, I could have put another bag in the passenger's seat. (as it was, I forgot all about it and when I rolled the shopping cart to my car, had a moment of panic when I thought I wouldn't be able to fit 5 full grocery bags in the passenger's seat and floor.

But they told me they always have these bags of shavings and local farmers come get them for their chickens, rabbits and other livestock. So now I know I could get 10 bags next time if I tried.

...these are clear bags and I can see using them for protecting my tomato plants after planting them, too.

...and you know what? These 8 bags of Douglas fir shavings made my car smell WONDERFUL! -- MUCH better than those Christmas tree shaped artificial car air fresheners

8 bags

...I picked up 4 more bags on Friday

[applestar]

Day before yesterday, a super gusty thunderstorm passed through this area -- I hear some people still had no electricity and traffic lights were nonfunctional even this morning.

In my garden, the Haybale Row corn got flattened even though they had been hilled, and wouldn't stand back up even when I tried hilling some more. So I borrowed a tomato support technique and Florida Weaved them yesterday. You almost can't tell now, can you?

At least one Bantam Sweet Corn was starting to tassle... And Sangre potatoes are blooming.

I'm going to need to put up those PVC hoops around the Sunflower House bed and set up barricade/trellis supports for the squash -- you can see the one in front is attempting to escape.

[Igotworms]

great looking garden! do the pie pans help keep the rabbits away or just birds? I'm considering putting a few in my garden because rabbits are eating my sunflowers.

[applestar]

I couldn't tell you. Rabbits are a perennial problem in my yard (wintertime too -- they chew on fruit tree and shrub branches like blueberries) so all my garden beds are surrounded with rabbit fence. Let us know if the aluminum pan "scares" work against rabbits.

A newer modification/accessory I made with a few of them is to hang a small metal washer from the upper rim -- then they bang on the pans. The pans themselves are often hung so they bang on the sticks or fences as they blow around.

[applestar]

Update

The corn is starting to tassle.

...but I didn't get the chance to look closer because I really HAD to get the support set up for the tomatoes in the Spiral Garden, then I was exhausted.

[lakngulf]

Everything looks so healthy, and there is a lot of "everything"!!

[applestar]

I harvested the garlic. These are Elephant and Music:

[applestar]

I found two Kandy Korn with silks today. So I grabbed a sheet of paper and hand pollinated them.

It's a bit of a bummer though, because Kandy Korn wasn't supposed to mature until much later, and Bantam which was supposed to be first is being very slow, while Glass Gem is already tassling though no silk (might end up coinciding with Kandy Korn at this rate.... )


I also took pictures today of some of the winter squash that have set fruits
2 Volunteer maxima (pumpkins)... 2 Kakai Hulless

2 Guatemalan Blue ... 1 Black Futsu

[applestar]

Ground level montage and stitched panorama:

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WHICH DO YOU THINK IS BETTER

[sweetiepie]

The last one, ground level.

[applestar]

Some of the squashes

Black Futsu ... Kakai ... Guatemalan Blue from two different plants looking a little different

More Kakai ... Tromboncino ... Volunteer maxima

I'm only growing two plants each of the C. moschata Black Futsu and Tromboncino, and they don't always have male and female blossoms open. I had to hand pollinated the Black Futsu with Tromboncino male and in the Tromboncino photo, the first fruit that has set and is growing was pollinated with Black Futsu. The female blossom in the photo was hand pollinated with its own male blossom.

So The seeds from the first Tromboncino will be (Tromboncino x Black Futsu) and if the Black Fitsu blossom sets fruit, I will have the opposite cross (Black Futsu x Tromboncino)

[applestar]

Does anyone remember this angle of view of the VG raised bed garden from last year? THIS is how it looks this year

[MichaelC]

It looks like your apples are doing nicely as well.

[applestar]

They are Thanks!

[applestar]

First cucumber!

-- I grow vining crop on this trellis every year to shade the SW wall of the family room. A month ago, I was complaining that you could FEEL the outside heat from the inside of this wall. ... A day before yesterday, I was sitting with my back to the wall in mid afternoon -- which I usually don't do because it's too hot, and was thinking "Oh! It's surprisingly cool...?" Well, the cuke vines had reached the top of the trellis.

[applestar]

Looks like one last hurrah of broccoli before the heatwave arrives tomorrow.

Top-left -I'm pretty sure- is the central head of the only Purple Sprouting broccoli that germinated because it's the only one planted in a patio planter away from the others -- I hope I kept notes... Maybe I put a label stick in the planter... I should check..... Purple Peacock sprouting broccoli on the bottom-right (red flower is just Jacob Cline monarda that is growing through the foliage). Purple Peacock REALLY looks more like Red Russian KALE but does form heads that are closer to sprouting broccoli.

[Igotworms]

beautiful plants!

[lakngulf]

Looks like one last hurrah of broccoli before the heatwave arrives tomorrow.

Do you start broccoli from seed or buy plants? I have had little luck either way, maybe our humid area is just not right for it.

[applestar]

I start broccoli from seeds. I've been starting them earlier and earlier -- it looks like if I have the indoor space for the bigger plants, it's best to start them by mid-January -- I can usually start planting around 2nd week to mid-March.

This means you may be better off thinking of broccolis as fall started early spring harvest.

Rainbowgardener has been successful direct sowing them in fall -- I think about a month before first average frost? (Correct me if I'm wrong RBG) And generally her winters are mild enough that they survive. -- I've tried that but it gets too cold here, I think -- I'll keep experimenting to see if I can come up with a reasonable protection method.

[applestar]

Subject: 2014 pre-germinating/sprouting experiment Peas, Corn, Curcs

Last year, I found out that by pre-germinating and starting them inside for planting as early as possible, early maturing C.pepo variety and C.maxima, which are vulnerable to SVBs (squash vine borers) were able to mature fruits before SVBs took down the vines.

This year, I direct sowed the pre-germinated seeds in raised hills for warmed soil, etc. and it worked!

-- I harvested these Kakai hulless seed squash today (along with the one volunteer maxima) Almost all Kakai vines have collapsed due to SVB.

I only got two Guatemalan Blue fruits from two plants -- but par for the course since I had 6 Kakai plants -- but I believe they are also nearly ready to harvest -- there is corking starting in the fruit stems. Since the vines are not quite collapsed (supplied by secondary roots from nodes along the vines), even though they are infested by SVB's at the base, I'm going to give them another day or two before harvesting.

This is working out well since now, melon vines that are enjoying the hot weather can move into the space that had been occupied by Kakai, and I sowed pre-germinated edamame/soybean seeds in the Guatemalan Blue hill.

Update plan and photo: