My winter guests

Apparently the voles that ate half of my sweet potato crop last year decided to take residence in my garden over the winter. You can see the evidence they've left behind. These tracks run through the garden and disappear into holes that run underground. They also run out of the garden and meander over to my compost bin. I can't tell if they are still there though because the tracks don't look very new. One of the neighbor's cats likes to hang out back in the compost area. If the cat took care of the voles, then I'm in luck. If not, I need to deal with them before I plant this year's garden or it will be an uphill battle all year.

I went to Cox's Plant Farm for the first time of the season yesterday. When we told them about our vole problem, they recommended I place castor bean seeds in the vole tracks. Apparently castor beans (and all parts of the castor bean plant, for that matter) are poisonous. They will kill the voles if they are eaten. I'll admit to being nervous about using anything poisonous. Maybe I'll only put them inside the garden fence so random animals and kids won't be near them.

I'm planning to plant my first spring crops in a couple of weeks and I need to start prepping the beds.

Today's weather:
High temp: 41 F
Low temp: 28 F
Sunny and cold

Here Come the Peas, Here Come the Peas

My peas have sprouted! I basically put the camera down on the ground to get this angle. I doubt they are even an inch tall so far, but they are off to a good start. We will be watching these closely for our first harvest.


Here is our preparation work in progress. We are in the middle of digging under the green manure (winter rye and hairy vetch) that we planted last fall. We have eight beds in the vegetable garden and the one we're working on now is the fourth so far. You can see in the back of this photo two of the beds that we've finished. We are having trouble juggling work schedules, other commitments (i.e. scouts), and rain showers. But our main planting dates will be May 15 and 16 so we still have a little time left.

Today's weather:
High temp: 71 F
Low temp: 47 F
Cloudy and windy, thunderstorms this afternoon and evening, some possibly severe.

Easter Sunday in the Garden

It was a beautiful Easter Sunday today. The sun was shining all day long and the temperature got up to 76 degrees. Tomorrow looks like it will be more of the same so I am hoping they don't call me in to work. I have a lot to do in the garden to get it ready for the season.

Jeff and I took advantage of the great weather this afternoon and worked on digging under 3 of the beds. He was the muscle of the operation and dug it all up. I went over it all and broke up the big dirt clods with my hoe. We did a digging technique called double digging where you dig up the top layer, pile it elsewhere, and then dig a second layer. This digs the soil up a little lower than single digging would. I'm planning to plant carrots, green onions, and beets soon so I want loose, deep soil.

My peas and lettuce that I planted two weeks ago have sprouted. They are just barely cracking the soil so I don't have any pictures to share yet. No sign of the mice again. We did set two traps inside my fence near the holes where I saw the mouse when I planted the peas. However, that was several days ago and all we managed to catch was a bird. Oops. If I notice something is nibbling on my peas, I'm going to be really mad.

I also had this season's first "harvest" today. I snipped some of my chives (which are back like clockwork) to include in tonight's dinner which we enjoyed on the patio. I love this time of year!

Today's weather:
High temp: 76 F
Low temp: 46 F
Sunny and breezy

Turning over the soil, taking tools out of storage, and dusting off my blog

Yesterday was officially the first day of the 2010 gardening season at my house. The weather, for the first time, was sunny and a balmy 65 degrees. I want to do some improvements and expansions this year so it occurred to me I need to sit down and come up with a plan if I want to get everything ready before planting time. I gathered my materials around me: the new farmer's almanac, my sketch plan for the 2010 garden, several gardening books, my calendar, and some blank paper. I made a list of all the plants for this year's garden and looked up on the Purdue Extension Office website the recommended planting dates for each plant in our area. It shouldn't have surprised me, but the first planting dates are right around the corner (March 20 for peas and lettuce).

So I went outside into the garden and was pleased that the soil is fairly dried out (amazing considering the amount of snow we got in February this year). I had planted cover crops last fall: winter rye and hairy vetch. They are considered green manure which nourish the soil. So, as I'd read to do, I went out into the area I intend to plant with peas and lettuce and turned the soil. Literally. I turned it upside down so that the grasses are now underground where they can rot and send nutrients into the soil. I was thrilled to see the soil is in great shape. Very nice and healthy tilth and tons of earthworms (always a sign of healthy garden soil).

Then I got into the barn and dug out my pea trellises from last year. I had used plastic mesh stapled to the wood frames and that part was still in tact. But the twine I had used to secure the joints of the trellises had started rotting and I realized I'd used the last of our twine last fall. So I headed to Lowe's to buy some more twine. In the short time I was there, the clouds rolled in and it began to sprinkle. And then rain. Ah spring... So I never did get the chance to fix the trellises and get them set up. I am planning to do that on Saturday.

Also, I am planning to add 6 feet to the south end of my garden this year (6' X 20' = 120 sq. ft.). This will mean redoing our fencing and I haven't figured out how I am going to get rid of the grass that is there now. I'm going back and forth about a couple of different options. The truth of the matter is that it probably won't be really good garden soil until the 2011 garden, but that's okay. I'll do what I can this year.

I just love this time of year. I can't wait for the green to return.

Today's weather:
High temp: 60 F
Low temp: 42 F
Cloudy with drizzly rain.

My garden is ready!

Here's a picture of my garden this morning. I spent hours yesterday working in it getting the last of the mulch out (9 more bags did it, for those of you keeping track). I also dug in the last of the composted cow manure. Well, most of it. You can see in the front left bed that I got the manure spread out but it didn't get dug in. By the time I got to that point yesterday around 6pm, my back and legs were calling foul. I could barely move so I thought I should stop. I had also intended to plant my sweet corn and bush beans, but I didn't get to that yet. Hopefully I'll do that either tonight or tomorrow night.

The large yellow flower is actually my collard greens leftover from last fall. They are about 5 feet tall now and covered with pretty yellow flowers. Just behind them are a couple of chive plants that are full of little round purple blossoms.

Also, in this picture you can see how my peas are growing right up the mesh on the trellises just the way they're supposed to. In front of this trellis is one of my sage plants. The sage is covered with purple buds about to burst open.


Today's local weather:
High temp: 66 F
Low temp: 44 F
Sunny with a little breeze

Kids, this is why you need to study math in school

So after a week of daily rains, it finally stopped raining today! Yay! I headed to the store to buy mulch for the walkways in my garden. All this rain is making the weeds go crazy in the garden and I have to get it in shape before the end of the month and big planting time.

I tried to carefully calculate how much mulch I'd need to buy to cover only the walkways. Using my written garden plan, I figured that I have 192 square feet of walkways in my garden. I did a google search to find a formula to help me figure out how much mulch I'd need to cover an area that big with 3 inches of mulch. The formula was something like (192 X 3) / 324 = no. of cubic yards of mulch. Based on that info, I figured I needed 1.77777 or about 1 3/4 cubic yards of mulch. OK. Simple enough, right? My problem came when I got to the store. Because I'm planning to transport it in my minivan and I want to use it today, I don't want to buy it in bulk and have it delivered. I just want to buy the bags of mulch and do it myself. Well. The bags contain 2 cubic FEET of mulch. On the spot in the crowded store I had to convert cubic yards to cubic feet. Now, I am pretty good at math, but it is a use-it-or-lose-it kind of thing. I haven't had to figure something like this for a long time. I figured each bag = 2 cubic feet so 3 bags would equal 1 cubic yard, right? If I needed 1.75 cubic yards, 5 bags should be about what I need, right? Wrong. Here's how my 5 bags looked after I spread them on the walkways in my garden:


Obviously I miscalculated and vastly underestimated the amount of mulch I'd need. Based on the coverage of these 5 bags, I think I need 9 more bags for a total of 14 bags. I give up trying to calculate the number of cubic yards.

Anyway, what I did was put down several layers of newspaper pulled from the recycling bins and I covered that with about 3 inches of mulch. This hardwood mulch is only for the walkways since it isn't good to have it so near the vegetables. I plan to use grass clippings to mulch the vegetables just like last year. The one corner I did finish looks pretty good. The empty bed in the middle is where I plan to plant some sweet corn and sweet bell peppers.


And take a look at one of my chive plants. Isn't it beautiful?


Today's local weather:
High temp: 64 F
Low temp: 50 F
Mostly cloudy

Already falling behind schedule

Yesterday, the high temp was 70 F which was perfect to work in the garden. We had added 400 lbs. of composted cow manure to half of the garden a couple of weeks ago. But yesterday I decided to add another 400 lbs. to the other half of the garden. My 7yo son, bless his heart, was eager to help me with his new Spongebob gardening gloves and cultivating tools. I even got my husband to help dig the manure in when I started losing steam. I was surprised by how many weeds were already there. The worst place for weeds was right at the edge of each border where it met the walkway. I used my hoe to get the biggest ones out. As soon as I get the chance (weather and money permitting), I need to buy some hardwood mulch, bring the newspapers out of the recycling bin, and cover my walkways. I can't let the weeds get the upper hand and, in my experience, that's what June is all about. What's that old saying? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

So anyway, we finished amending the garden soil and made plans for the walkways. Also, yesterday I noticed my peas peeking their heads above the soil. You have to look kind of close to see them, but they are definitely there. The two pea beds are on the outer northeast corner of the garden. The corner where they come together was unplanted until a few days ago. I planted cosmos seeds there. I can't wait for them to bloom!

I grew cosmos in the front yard just in front of our master bedroom window when we first moved here. As my memory serves, they grow to be around 4 feet tall with lacy foliage and delicate flowers. I bought the seeds for the variety that has flowers in different shades of pink. That's what I grew before and I loved them so I bought the same this time. I'm growing the cosmos in the garden for two reasons. First, they are beautiful and will make good cutting flowers for a vase on my summertime table. My second reason for growing them is that I hope to attract beneficial insects and bees and hummingbirds by planting a variety of flowers throughout the garden. Unfortunately, if I remember correctly, the cosmos isn't really in a phase of spectacular bloom until around September. That's a long time to wait. But it is definitely worth it.

Meanwhile, it is colder today. It rained overnight (good news for the peas and cosmos). I want and need to get back outside and do more work, but I'm waiting for it to warm up a little more. Here is my garden "to do" list for today:

* water cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and onion seedlings in indoor peat pots
* plant new flat of tomato and pepper seeds
* plant outside seeds of beets, radishes, lettuces (and maybe more cabbage/broccoli)
* plant annual flower seeds in various parts of the garden

On my kitchen table right now, I have lots of seeds to be planted. For peppers, I only have California Wonder (sweet) peppers and an early variety of jalepenos. I would like to get one more kind of hot pepper at least. As for tomatoes, I already have seeds for roma, organic cherry tomatoes, sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, yellow pear, and grape tomatoes. I have ordered seeds for Cherokee Purples and Brandywines, but they haven't arrived yet.

Tomorrow is opening day for an area farmer's market, and we plan to be there. We are gradually adapting a locavore diet (eating locally grown/farmed food as much as possible) so we plan to hit up our farmer's markets to supplement what we grow ourselves.

Today's local weather:
High temp: 53 F
Low temp: 34 F
Partly cloudy and windy with wind gusts up to 40mph.

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.

Be Careful What You Wish For

We've gotten several more inches of rain again this week. I'm starting to get a panicky feeling because my garden is becoming an overgrown jungle. Yesterday morning it stormed heavily most of the morning and in the afternoon when I went out to check on it, my tomatoes looked like this:
I don't know if you can make it out well or not, but these tomatoes (two Cherokee Purple and one Better Boy) are hanging to the left at almost a 45 degree angle. My little wire trellis is no longer able to support the heavy developing fruit, particularly with the soft well-watered ground. These tomatoes are lying on top of my bush beans. It can only get worse as all of these plants have TONS of new blossoms and/or new pea-sized tomatoes starting. So this morning I went out with twine and tied the wire trellis to the fence to try to hold the whole thing upright for the remainder of the season. I need to get more twine and tie it in more spots. Does this look like a hillbilly remedy, or what?

Obviously I need better support for my tomatoes. In the spring when I bought the trellis, I was using my previous experience growing tomatoes as a guide. I've grown tomatoes several times in the past, but they always ended up being kind of spindly without producing much fruit. This wire trellis would surely handle them fine. What I didn't reckon on was the fact that really preparing the soil, protecting the plants from pests, and adding fertilizer once early on (not to mention all the natural watering they've gotten this year) would make them swell with tomatoes. I'm thrilled with the output, but wish I'd bought more sturdy supports. There is always next year. Lesson learned.

Today's local weather:
High temp: 81 F
Low temp: 60 F
Cloudy early becoming mostly sunny, clear tonight.

Harvest and What I've Learned So Far

Here are some of my first harvested produce from the garden. There are two zucchini, three cucumbers, two green onion and one small yellow onion, my first ripe tomato, and my first green bell pepper. Most of these were for a salad for dinner and we ate them fresh from the garden.

I've been thinking lately about how much I've learned just in the last four months about gardening. There have been so many lessons that I think will help me as I plan next year's garden. Here's a list of lessons that come to mind:

* Not all bugs are bad - some bugs are "good guys"
* Organic fertilizer makes a huge difference in the growth of new plants
* When starting seedlings indoors, I need to provide them more space to grow inside (either transplant to bigger pots while still inside or plant in a bigger pot in the first place)
* When starting seedlings indoors, I need a bigger light so the seedlings don't have to stretch (and become spindly) to reach the light
* I need to have a cold frame or some sort of protection to harden off seedlings before setting them out
* Once the seedlings are in the ground and set in, mulch to prevent weeds and control soil moisture and temp
* May and June will require more weeding than July and later because the plants haven't grown enough to block the weeds' sunlight yet
* Flowers in the garden are not just a visual accessory, they are necessary for attracting pollinators
* If pollinators don't come and work for you, do it yourself with a small child's paintbrush
* Plant lettuce early and protect it from heat and sun
* Harvest as soon as the plant is ready and often
* Once a plant is spent, remove it from the garden to keep the garden tidy
* Make sure there is enough space in the garden for the full-grown size of the plants you choose
* Make vertical supports to maximize space, especially with sprawling plants.

Today's local weather:
High temp: 83 F
Low temp: 66 F
Partly cloudy

Prepping the beds

I've been busy with work since I last posted, but things have been moving right along with the garden. We had the guy come and plow our 20' X 24' garden plot. Then we bought materials and made a two-foot fence around the perimeter to keep the neighborhood wild rabbits out. Then I marked off my garden design using tent stakes and twine.

Today I bought 16 40-lb. bags of composted cow manure (that's 640 lbs.). While that sounds like a lot (and felt like a lot trying to carry the bags myself while everyone else was at school/work) it really barely covers the space I have intended for plants. I may end up sending Jeff back for more. I've opened all the bags, spread them out and have been using our garden claw to work the manure into the soil. I'm far from done, but my body is starting to give out. I'm in bad shape and I've definitely burnt some calories today. Here's how the garden looks right now:



Today's local weather:
High temp: 75 F
Low temp: 47 F
Sunny.

Outdoor workday

Today is another beautiful day so we were able to do a few things on our garden "to do" list. First of all, because we are starting a new garden, we need to have someone come and till up the land for us. Jeff contacted a local guy who had an ad in our newspaper. He came today to take a look and give us an estimate on what it will cost us. The plot is 20' X 24'. Here's a picture:

If you look closely, you can see the twine and stakes that mark off the rectangular plot. Anyway, he wanted to charge us $120 for the job. Jeff talked him down to $90. It still seems high. My dad had his garden plot tilled a few years ago for just $40. Oh well, it is still cheaper than buying a $200 tiller ourselves.

Of course creating this new garden plot meant that we had to move a baby pine tree that Jeff had planted with our 11yo son a year ago. We just couldn't get rid of it, so we found a new home for it at the side of our yard. My 16yo moved it for us. Here it is in its new location.

And finally, Jeff and the 16yo set up this new birdhouse for the birds attracted to our new birdbath and feeders located at various locations around our yard.


Today's local weather:
High temp: 63 F
Low temp: 37 F
Sunny.