Work Day in the Garden

Today was a beautiful day - the first this year that I was able to be outside in short sleeves. So, of course, we had to use the day to get the garden ready. I had planned to add the compost from our compost bin to the garden to get the soil ready. But last weekend when I went to scoop it out, I realized that the tomato vines I'd added in October had not broken down and (worse) were all matted together so that the compost is an unusable mess. We stirred it up so that the heat of this coming summer will eventually break it down. But in the meantime, I needed to purchase soil amendments again this year.

Today we purchased 400 lbs. of composted cow manure with organic hummus. I spent the afternoon mixing that into 4 of the 8 beds in my garden. I prioritized and added manure to the beds that I've planned to house my cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflower seedlings that are now growing in my laundry room. I also added it to the bed where I plan to plant pea seeds next weekend. Finally, I added it to the front beds. I don't plan to plant anything there for a while yet, but this is where I planted potatoes last year and they ended up rotting because of bad drainage. I think this is the neediest soil in my garden. Hopefully all the organic matter will improve the soil. The good news is that I was happy with the texture of the soil that was there when I started. And I saw lots of earthworms in the soil. Those are always a good indicator of healthy soil. Worms don't like deficient soil.

Jeff also had work to do. He noticed this weekend that our blueberry bushes look like someone has taken garden shears and snipped off the ends of the branches. See?



Anyway, he pulled the netting out of storage and covered all the berry plants. We're thinking the neighborhood wild rabbits have been eating the tender young growth. We hope it isn't too late in the season for them to snap out of it or else we won't be having any blueberries this summer.

Today's local weather:
High temp: 64 F
Low temp: 43 F
Sunny with light wind.

End of June Garden Update

I was surfing around through some garden blogs and it occurred to me that I should post an overall garden update what with it being the last day in June and all. I don't have my camera right now so pictures will have to wait, but here's the lowdown on my edible backyard:

Veggie garden:
* lettuce has turned bitter and tonight I will dig them up for the compost pile
* carrots are getting bigger but still not big enough to eat
* green onions, like carrots, not big enough to eat but they're getting there
* zucchini plants (2) each plant grows 3-4 zucchini at a time; they have been staying small and then turning yellow and deflating so just yesterday morning I started hand pollinating them
* Red Norland and Irish Cobbler potatoes don't look so good; growth seems stunted and plants are turning yellow; don't know if it is time to harvest
* sweet potato plant has leaves that look healthy and are spreading; don't know what is going on underground since I didn't know to separate the slips when I planted
* yellow onions are tall, robust, and starting to flower
* bush beans look healthy, lots of flowers, and I noticed the first tiny bean today
* pumpkins have prominent male blooms every morning and lots of vines with immature blooms just waiting to open (I'm hoping they're female blooms)
* baby watermelon vines are spreading out every day with lots of pale yellow flowers and several pea-sized fruits
* muskmelon vines are spreading out like the watermelon with slightly darker yellow flowers and today my son found our first fruit - it's the size of a large kiwi!
* cucumber plants (2) are spreading out and growing up the side of my fence with lots of flowers and tiny baby cucumberlets; today I saw two different large cucumbers in the later stages of ripening
* bell pepper plants (10) have lots of tiny buds and most plants have one ripening pepper
* spaghetti squash plants (4) are vining out and are smaller than the other squashes since I planted them later from seed, but they are making good progress
* tomatoes are out of control due to fertilizer; plants are more like bushes and every single plant has a least a few green tomatoes on them; I am starting to worry about what to do with all the cherry and grape tomatoes once they ripen because there are LOTS; also lots of romas (I think I'll be canning this year)

Berry garden:
* strawberries continue to ripen berries on a regular basis although they wouldn't win a marathon
* blueberries are taking forever to ripen but finally a few ripen each day
* blackberries just started turning and we haven't been able to pick any yet
* raspberries are ripening one or two handfuls of berries per day; I pick them and freeze them until I get enough to do something with them

Today's local weather:
High temp: 75 F
Low temp: 55 F
Sunny and breezy

Filled with potential

Here's what my garden looks like this morning:

This view is from the southwest corner of our backyard (our house is behind me). On the left side is the berry patch which is largely Jeff's domain. In the foreground of the berry patch are our prayer flags as this undertaking is largely a spiritual experience for us both. We are honoring the resurrection of life. Directly behind the prayer flags are strawberry plants. I believe he said there are thirty something strawberry plants in all. Here's a close up view of part of them:

Behind the strawberry patch are two trellis systems Jeff built to support our brambles. We have two raspberry bushes, two blackberry bushes, and four blueberry bushes. Jeff likes berries.

Meanwhile, to the right of the berry garden is "my" vegetable garden. I'm the one who tends it the most. So far I've planted the first succession of salad veggies (spinach, carrots, green onions, and two kinds of lettuce). I will continue every 2-3 weeks to plant a bit of each one so that we have them ready to harvest at intervals instead of all at once. Here is where my salad seedlings lie, not yet germinated having been planted only three days ago:


I've also planted two kinds of potatoes (Red Norland and Irish Cobbler), one spaghetti squash seedling, one small sugar pumpkin seedling, and one large (Halloween) pumpkin seedling. Here's how the large pumpkin seedling looked this morning after its first night in the ground:


Today's local weather:
High temp 76 F
Low temp 54 F
Sunny

Berry trellis system

Here is one of two trellis systems Jeff built yesterday and today to support our berry bushes. You can see we still haven't removed the straw mulch. It's still cold outside. But we're slowly getting things ready. Yesterday I started three trays of seeds inside to transplant outside later.

Today's local weather:
High temp: 54 F
Low temp: 30 F
Thunderstorms last night, overcast and windy today