What's been goin' on

Bloody Mary Mix (aka V-8)

A mix of tomatoes, onion, zucchini, beets, carrot, garlic, and roasted jalapenos.

Fruits of the garden

Compost bin fixed and brussel sprouts

Today Sabrina and I fixed the compost bin. About a month ago we noticed that the side of it had been chewed, creating a hole large enough for a small rodent to enter the bin. Sabrina worked hard at mixing and moving the compost and then we attached the metal plate with screws. Let's hope it holds.

In other garden news, the brussel sprouts are growing slowly, but still growing. The fresh planting of greens seems to be doing well so far.

Snake or fast-moving worm?

This morning when I went to water the tomatoes, something caught my eye - a long, quick moving gray thing that slithered away along the tall grass next to the tomato bed. It moved more gracefully and quickly than many of the worms I've see this year, so that makes me think it was a snake. If so, I have no idea what kind, but I hope it likes mice.

Planting new greens

This weekend and this morning I planted a new round of mesclun greens, arugula and spinach. We'll see what comes up.

Our first eggplant and cucumber!

In the past few days, the cucumbers have been spreading like crazy and our first eggplant blossom decided to fruit. As the summer days pass, we enjoy more and more tomatoes from our variety of plants. The Isis Candy are super sweet and delicious.

Green beans, tomatoes and deck completed

In the past two weeks we've been able to enjoy a handful of green beans and lots of tomatoes - mostly a hybrid called Juliet. I've been eating them on toasted cheese. We had a few of them last night in our salad. They're pretty good. Our Roma plant is also producing - just picked the first one off this morning. The kohlrabi has been slow, but worth it.

Now that the deck is done, we have much easier access to the back yard. In the past two weeks I've worked out there minimally. We've eaten every dinner out there since it was completed on Tuesday.

Tomatoes and strawberries

By now, most of our plants are heavy with ripening tomatoes. One of the isis candy variety is almost ready. We should have been training the tomatoes in the cages all along since planting because they were a bit of a mess to cage after the fact. I'll keep a better eye on them.

Last night we also completed the strawberry cover project. There are new berries coming in so just in time. Now we need to make something similar for the blueberries. Our low-bush berries are ripening.

Under Construction!

We've had limited access to the yard and garden since June 25 due to the construction of the deck. Today, the base structure is being finished. Looks like we'll be reseeding the yard or finding an lawn alternative, so I spent some time finding out the most successful way to do that. This will also give me the opportunity to redesign all the flowerbed shapes if I want to and that's ok by me.

Now I just need to figure out how to deter the squirrels from eating all the suet.

Bugs in the brussel sprouts

Probably no one here is sad about the fact that the brussel sprouts have some kind of bug, probably aphids. I pulled one plant yesterday because it was totally infested. Today I sprayed a combination of water, soap and canola oil on them. We just had a downpour of rain, so hopefully that will help. If it doesn't I'll need to purchase some insecticidal oil/soap stuff.

Otherwise, the garden looks pretty good. The collards are growing well. I picked the first kohlrabi which Sabrina and I shared this morning.

Greeted with small tomatoes

Yay! We have fruits on at least two plants. Looks like the birds got to the few green and lima beans that actually sprouted. Tonight we enjoyed raspberries (black and golden) and I had a blueberry. The birds helped themselves to the tall bush while we were away, but that's ok. We'll get to covering it this week.

Cucumbers and beans

Yesterday I purchased and planted some marketmore cucumbers and planted green bean and lima bean seeds.

Hops are Climbing

All of the hops have now reached the chain-link fence, and are starting to climb. I spent a while this evening disentangling the bines that were growing in the wrong direction and were trying to climb the bamboo stakes and yarn perimeter we erected around them to discourage the dog from tramping on them. I've got most of them redirected towards the fence now. Go hops go!

What will bolt next or what do I plant now?

So it looks like I better come up with a plan B, cuz plan A just fell into the crapper. My first year at berries and veggies has become only somewhat successful so far, mostly in part because of the unusually warm weather we are having. The arugula, and spinach have already bolted. Now, out of the 48 radish seeds we planted, I'd say 40+ germinated and grew, some grew more than others (which is the case with all of the things we've planted from seed). We've been able to eat maybe 10 or 12. Today I've noticed that they were beginning to bolt, so I pulled them rest of them. Some looked ok, but most were more like narrow little tap roots.

Now, what should I plant there? Maybe that other mesclun seed mix? Lima beans?

Planting is done!

I finally filled in the corner bed with sunflowers, coneflowers and black-eyed susans. Let's hope the birds and squirrels don't have a party with all those seeds. I also planted some hollyhocks along the fence between the hops and the tall bush blueberry.

This morning I helped a fellow gardener from the MUG @ Home class. She need to fill her bed with topsoil and wanted to plant some squash, sunflowers and popcorn. Her neighbor had given her the sunflower seedlings and asked if we wanted some collards. I took some and planted them in the first raised bed when I got back. They've already wilted, so let's hope they come back.

Our first stawberry harvest

A minor success - either the reloaded and relocated suet feeder or the garden netting has detracted them from nibbling at them the minute they begin to turn red. The success is minor because we have no idea which it is. The suet feeder had been located out along the T fence. I'm not sure any birds used it much, but I had always noticed squirrels on it. I refilled it and placed it on the post between the veggie beds. The birds and squirrels have been all over it. Cardinals, woodpeckers and other birds I don't know. They've also been pecking in the garden at the lettuce and radishes, but that's worth a mostly ripe and intact berry.

I harvested one small berry and Paul and I split it. It was a little bit sour, but had a very good flavor.

Birds wreaking havoc in the berry patch

Aw, man, birds have eaten every strawberry that has turned red in the past week. This morning I put some garden netting over the strawberries and around the high-bush blueberry as it is starting to develop fruit. I really hope this helps keep the birds and the squirrels from eating the berries and destroying the plants.

Bye bye spinach

This afternoon I pulled all but two of the 24 spinach plants we planted. We'd been having a leaf miner problem for about a week. While picking off eaten leaves I noticed that some of the plants were beginning to bolt, so I decided to pull them and replant the space with kohlrabi. Maybe I'll try spinach again in the fall.

In raised bed 2 I planted 8 green bean seeds and a few sweet basil plants.

At real life FarmTown...

This weekend I tried to get a week's worth of work out of Paul because he's leaving today to visit Erich and Bryan in Oregon. On Saturday he mowed and installed my really cool retractable clothesline which I hope to use today.

Yesterday, we sifted rocks that were inadvertently placed on the path between the northeast corner bed and the two perennial beds. We placed the rocks around the air conditioner on the north side of the house. After trimming and pulling some grass along the beds, I planted 8 blue star creeper plants (Isotoma fluviatilis) that will hopefully form a green mortar of sorts between the steps of the path. It is a foot friendly plant that will spread.

In other garden news, every strawberry that gets red usually get nibbled by a bird. I don't mind sharing a few, but it looks like we'll need to get some netting to keep the birds from snacking on them.

Horseradish, chamomile and posies, oh my!

This morning I finished filling perennial bed 2. In the center I planted a long row of Flax blue (Linum perenne lewisii) flanked by California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) and Thumbelina Zinnia (Zinnia elegans). At the end of the bed nearest perennial bed 1, I planted one horseradish root and a scattering of German chamomile (Matricaria recutita).

Watchin' the detectives...

Thank you Sabrina for the earworm!

This morning I busted butt in the garden and planted the okra, tomatoes (4 types), an eggplant and a red pepper. Think I'll plant two bean bushes.

I also purchased some top soil for the sunny perennial garden which is not as sunny as I had thought before, so we'll see how that goes. Looks like it gets more dappled sun in the morning.

I cannot tell a lie...

Today I cut away at the lilac tree. I call it a tree because it was very tall and had not been pruned properly. It was too leggy and would have gotten in the way of my sunny perennial garden that I'm planning for that corner. It still needs a bit more pruning to get it down to only a few feet. Also, we'll need to remove some of the old wood to make it a more compact bush.

On Saturday, Paul worked outside and was able to get quite a few things done. The bird bath has been installed on the pine stump in the southeast corner. He planted a bunch of arugula in the second raised bed. When I got home last night I worked at weeding around the lilac and moving some plants around, some of which I have no idea what they are so hopefully I have selected new spots wisely. I think they were two kinds of mums, but we'll see when they bloom. We planted the Hemerocallis (daylilies) that were gifts from our landscape design instructor along with other daylilies located around the utility pole. We also planted a cinnamon fern back by the compost. I want to start a shady perennial garden back there that will be cool and hide the compost bin a bit. I think it will do well as there are some ferns back by the fence already.

Other news, I graduated from my Master Urban Gardener at Home (MUG @ Home) class on Saturday. I have to put in 35 hours of volunteer work before the program is complete. That shouldn't be a problem since I've volunteered myself to help a few other MUG @ Home grads and friends.

Tonight we'll enjoy some of our fresh greens from the garden. We're having BLT's and salad. Yum!

The Neglected North Side

Today I had to water the fruits and veggies since any recent promises of rain have been a bust. I worked on the north side of the house for a bit, weeding and planting. I planted two chocolate chip bugleweed (Ajuga reptans valfredda), one on either side of the downspout. I also planted several mint sprigs between the lilac and air conditioner. The lilac will need to be moved at some point because it is not doing well there - probably too much shade.

When Paul got home we worked on planting 17 sunflowers (Helianthus annuus hy. Moulin Rouge). He also planted two containers, one with mesclun and another with spinach.

First Harvest

Paul and I picked our first greens from the garden. We trimmed several clumps of mesclun and arugula for a roasted beet salad. They were yum!

Busy Friday Afternoon

I took the afternoon off yesterday, and we did a bunch more stuff. Gave some bamboo stakes to the rapidly-growing hops to train them towards the chainlink fence. Moved excess soil from higher raised bed into the 2nd perennial bed and elsewhere around the yard, added three bags of compost and some mix of vermiculite, peat and perlite and turned it together a bunch; probably need to add another 2-3 bags of compost yet, and then it'll be ready for tomatoes, okra, eggplant, parsnips and some other stuff. Planted nine asparagus crowns and seven ever-bearing strawberry plants (two varieties) in the 1st perennial bed. Finished prepping the soil in the 2nd perennial bed, and planted three varieties of mint at one end; the rest will probably be different herbs, but we may just do some annual flowers for the moment and come back to this later. Mulched around the beds in front of the house with buckwheat hulls. Installed three plant hangers on the front porch for two blue hanging Lobelia and one fuchsia Petunia purchased at Cedar Grove Gardens.

Blueberries and pH

So, I checked the pH in the soil for the blueberry bushes. It's higher than what it's supposed to be. It was around 7.5, nowhere close to the 5.5-4.5 or so that it should be. Think we'll dig them back up and put them into planters.

Climbing hydrangea and rain barrel problem

Today I purchased two climbing hydrangeas for the back fence. We planted one already and will plant the other one tomorrow. Let's hope they take care of covering it.

We hooked up the rain barrel to the soaker hose without much luck. Seems the water pressure isn't high enough for the soaker hoses. Looks like we'll have to come up with a solution to that problem.

Also, we put up some doggie defense stakes and string to protect our young plants from Lucy's heavy foot. I think she likes the smell of the compost.

Purple arugula!

So, I found on the webs that the arugula has likely exhausted the phosphorus in the seedling soil. I added more fish fertilizer to it and the rest of the seedlings still in the trays. The arugula will probably lose the purple leaves, but should recover once planted in the compost-rich bed. I may have to transplant them into pots or the little bit larger seedling trays.

Insects and Asian Longhorned Beetle

My MUG at Home class yesterday reviewed plant disease and pests. Asian Longhorned Beetle was introduced in the US and has ravaged trees in cities such as Worcester, MA. Please report any sightings of this pest in your area here.

Rain Barrel and Perennial Bed 1

Today Paul set up the rain barrel while Sabrina and I made our first perennial bed. I edged it, but we'll need to redo some of the sides because they need to be taller.

Last night I tried out the drip irrigation system that I had installed in the first vegetable bed. It did not soak through to the middle like I had expected. I finished watering with the regular hose. I added about 1 cup of garden sulfur to the blueberry plants we planted last weekend with hopes to increase the acidity of the soil.

Paul planted two more raspberry plants yesterday and replanted one of the dinky originals I got at a box store. No more box store plants for me - promise!

First bed all filled

I finished filling our first and shortest raised bed this morning. I added brussel sprouts, mesclun, spinach, red chard and arugula. Also added some garden sulfur to the hydrangeas because they need extra acidity to turn blue. I noticed that the hydrangeas last year were not a very pretty color. I'll put some of it on the blueberries, too. The next project will be to plan and plant the perennial garden.

First plantings

We had to redo some of the soil in the raised beds; removing a bit of the loam and adding a bit more compost and some peat moss. Finished this on the low one, but still need to work on the mixture for the higher one.

Yesterday planted 48 radish seeds and 16 of the kohlrabi seedlings in the low bed. It was fairly difficult to extract the seedlings from the seeding tray without breaking them, so there were a number of plant fatalities in the process. Probably need to work on our technique. Fortunately there are probably far more seedlings than we really need.

I don't think we mentioned that about a week ago we relocated some winter creeper plants from the front of the house to the back fence. It kept wanting to climb the holly bushes in front of the porch, so we decided to let it climb the ugly chain link fence back by the T instead. We also moved one to the north side of the house by the other fence, so we'll see how it does there. If they die, no big loss. Then yesterday we dug up the remaining two and delivered them to Karen Miller for use in her front garden. Then we transplanted some hostas from the northeast rear beds to the front of the house where we'd removed the winter creeper.

Jen also worked on installing the soaker hose in the low bed. I put down grass seed on the re-graded berm I built against the rear of the house near the bulkhead doors where water always seemed to pool during rainstorms.

Today we went to Allandale Farm and picked up two new healthier-looking raspberry bushes (don't ever buy plants from Home Depot again -- lesson learned!) which we'll be adding to the south fence. Also got two strawberry plants and a few adjuncts that we needed.

Raised bed construction complete

Finished filling the raised beds with soil yesterday. Still have a good amount of soil left over, which we can use in other areas. Next we need to figure out our irrigation system for the beds. We've got some drip hose we'll be installing, and we're planning on feeding that from a (yet to be acquired) rain barrel.

Jen's been working on drawing up a planting schedule for the beds, figuring out how to cycle in new crops over the course of the season as others are harvested. Done properly we should still be planting in mid-September and harvesting in November. Clever stuff.

Also planted the second raspberry bush near the first one, along the south fence.

New soil for raised beds

On Tuesday we received new soil from Apple D'Or Tree and plan on finishing the set up for the beds and put in the soil tonight. The seedlings have been doing well outside during the day the past few days. On some of the seedlings are beginning to develop true leaves so we'll begin fertilizing them with fish fertilizer soon.

Intro to Landscape Design #1

First session last night of our Introduction to Landscape Design class with Brookline Adult & Community Education. Should be a good resource. Topics included pruning techniques, the structure of plants, and all the factors to consider when selecting plants for specific areas. The instructor will also assist us with identifying any unknown plants, which will be helpful since we don't know what all we've got in place.

More planning and planting

On April 2, 2010 we planted a jewel variety raspberry cane and laid out the raised beds. The beds are made of recycled milk cartons. I will try to contact someone to get some soil for the beds. Tomorrow we will take some soil samples to send in for testing.

White Fuzz

So, a few of the first the kohlrabi sprouts have some white fuzz on them. Some kind of fungus supposedly. I've removed the cover from the seed tray and hope that this will take care of it. Also, I just read on the back of the seed packet for the chard that it does not recommend that you start it out indoors. Ooops. Maybe that's why it hasn't germinated yet.

Gardening

Well, obviously it's been a long time since I've been writing anything and not that I did that much of it before, but now that we have a garden I/we will be writing about that as a log of sorts. We haven't decided on a name for the garden, so I'm just gonna use this blog until we figure it out.

So far we've planted 3 varieties of hops, victoria rhubarb, and some pansies in planters (3/29/10) on the porch. For the hops and rhubarb we dug holes and filled them with a mix of compost from the Millers and soil. For mulch we used straw from last fall we got for decoration. Yesterday, we dug two holes for the raspberry bushes, autumn gold and jewel varieties. On 3/27 we made seedlings for arugula, mesclun mix, spinach, swiss chard, kolhrabi and red sunflowers. We're storing them upstairs near the vents so they can keep warm.