Garden Bounty Abundant

August 28, 2010

Wow the garden has been giving us an enormous amount of vegetables. I have been picking and giving away a lot of vegetables. The tomato plants are loaded.  I have enough to feed us, friends and the little varmints that have been eating the tomatoes that are low on the plant. The beans are prolific. I just took out the last of the cabbage and of course I have a great crop of celery.

I also have a great crop of potatoes. It is 1005 better than last year. I love potatoes, so I will try to keep them throughout the winter. My onions didn’t do very well this year.  I think that I didn’t get the soil tilled up enough. They hit really hard ground (having an ice rink really made the soil hard) and didn’t grow very big. Peppers are just so so.  They have peppers but I wouldn’t say they produced a lot.

Remember I also planted a lot of miscellaneous gourds. Well they have produced quite well. I am going to be using some for decoration and I will be trying to dry some out.  I googled drying gourds and got lots of different ways to do it. I am hoping to just put them in an empty greenhouse and they will just dry. 

Andy and his friend Ben find them quite humorous. They certainly grew in many funny shapes.  I have birdnest gourds and egg gourds that we will be drying.  The giant pumpkin is doing well too. I really didn’t do anything unusual but it is getting quite big. I will be bringing it to the Garden Center for Fall Fest. It has been fun to watch it grow. I don’t think it will grow any more though, the stem already seems to be drying out.

I don’t think the moon was out, but it sure looks like the dog and Andy are howling at something.

Hydrangeas are almost ready to cut and dry.  I have cut a lot of sunflowers and have been making bouquets with the hydrangea.  They make beautiful bouquets.  Look around your yard, many plants can be cut for bouquets and they still have plenty of flowers left.

Make use  of all your plants.

Happy Gardening.

Summer Heat is Here

07-16-2010

The garden is doing pretty well.  We have still been getting lots of cabbage. They are as big as basketballs. The sunflowers are getting tall and the flowers are blooming.

The heat has arrived but we have still been getting lots of rain.  I got 2″ again last week and 3/4 of an inch on wednesday.  I think with all the rain the garden was losing nutrients so I put on a general purpose fretilizer this week.  It seemed to help right away.  We now have greenbeans ready to harvest.  My green bean plants were getting a little yellow, after fertilizer they really greened up and I have beans to pick. It appears that Tanner likes green beans. But I think we will eat them ourselves.

I have been having some trouble with my tomatoes.  Every time a big tomato gets ripe, something eats it. On tuesday I was out in the garden in the morning and there was a really nice big tomato. I left it thinking I would pick it later in the day. When I came back it was almost totally eaten, and in the middle of the day.  It seems to be something that can reach pretty high.  The tomato was still on the vine but almost gone. I have a netting around the whole garden so I don’t think it is a bunny.  Thinking more like a raccoon or possum.  I have never seen any raccoon around so I don’t know. So I don’t know what kind of rascally varment is raiding my garden.

My giant pumpkin is growing pretty good but I thought it would be bigger by now, I will have to research and see if there are any secrets I can uncover.

Rain, Rain, and More Rain

June 27, 2010

I hope everyone’s gardens survived the severe weather we have been having. I got 1 1/2″ of rain on Friday night and 1″ on Saturday night. My garden escaped the hail so it is doing well. I have cabbage that is ready to pick.  Most of my tomatoes are doing well. I do have a couple that seem to be yellow and not growing as well. I need to find out what is going on with them. My Big Boy and Better Boy tomatoes are growing great. Potatoes are going crazy, I can’t wait to dig them up.

 On a different subject, my flower gardens are also doing really well. All this rain is doing wonders.

The Iris were blooming and the alyssum is just doing wonderful. Day Lilies are beginning to bloom. I just love it when everything thrives.

Just a reminder to everyone,that with all the rain we have been having, gardens need fertilizer.  Especially container plantings.  I put osmocote slow release fertilizer in all my planters, but they still need some liquid fertilizer to really keep them at their best. Planters get leeched out with all the watering and rain so a dose of liquid fertilizer is really good for them.

Garden is Going Crazy

June 17, 2010

Wow, the rain finally seems to be giving us a break. I had 3″ in my gauge. The garden is increasing in size by the day.

I have been harvesting lots of broccoli. It is delicious and abundant.

Andy thinks they make better maracas. He is not real fond of broccoli. Lettuce is growing so much I can’t keep up with it.  The buttercrunch lettuce seams kind of mushy in the middle, I think it is because it has been so soggy out.

The sunflowers have grown so much, I think they must grow 6 inches every night.

The giant pumpkins are doing well. I have to admit though that the pumpkins I threw on the manure pile are at least twice as big as in my garden.  I did fertilize the garden but I guess they like the manure better.

I have been trying to grow my vegetables as organic as possible, but I did break down and dust my cabbage the other day with Seven. They were really getting chewed up. I followed the directions and dusted very lightly. I did get a couple cabbage out before I dusted that were ready to eat. The rest aren’t quite ready yet.

My peppers don’t seem to be doing as well as the rest of the garden. Maybe they will take off soon with warm weather on the way.  My corn has finally taken off.  It is not as big as the farmers corn near me but I think the crop is going to be good.  I still have a couple of weeks before the forth of July before they should be knee high. I am sure they will be knee high on Andy.

My potatoes are going crazy too. I am so excited since last year I only had 1 plant make it.  I haven’t quite decided whether the garden is doing better because I have a year of experience or if it is just dumb luck.

Whatever the reason I have a garden to be proud of. 

Growing, growing, growing

6-11-2010

Wow the garden is growing. We had another 3/4″ of rain. Rain is like a miracle drug.  I can water, water and water some more, but have a good rain and the garden gets lush. 

We have been harvesting lettuce.  The broccoli is showing the florets. It won’t be long and I will have broccoli comming out of my ears.

I have added soil to the potatoes, they are growing well. I am very excited, I love potatoes.

I planted more corn. I don’t know why my corn isn’t coming up.  It is very sporatic.  So I planted more in the rows that are missing a lot.  I will finish up the corn next week.  Then my garden will be done as far as planting.  I may plant some late crops as we harvest lettuce and broccoli.

So far I haven’t had any pest problems. The Preen I put down is working really well.  I have a few weeds but nothing like last year.

My giant pumpkins are growing well, however the ones I planted on the manure pile are really taking off.

I think I can sit back now and just watch the garden grow. I think I’ll get out the straw hat and corn cob pipe and pretend to be a scarecrow. So far I am lucky, no deer and no bunnies. Keep your fingers crossed.

The Heat is On

06-04-2010 

Wow we really have had a roller coaster of weather these past weeks. The heat is helping the garden at an amazing pace. You almost think you can see the plants grow. They seem to grow overnight.  The lettuce is ready to harvest. We will be eating fresh salad this Memorial Day weekend.  Monday night we had 3/4 inch of rain. The garden just seemed to come to life after that. I can water every day, but a good soaking rain just makes the garden seem fresh.

In the last 2 weeks I we have planted corn, squash, beans, radish, pumpkins, sunflowers, peppers and tomatoes.  The corn is coming up kind of sporadically. I still have to plant more. The beans came up really fast and are growing it seems like an inch a day.

I have to admit that the tomatoes I planted were large to begin with. I even have some with tomatoes starting.

I planted my giant pumpkins and they are growing nicely.  I have been watering and talking to them.  I also planted a few in the manure pile from my horses, kind of a trial, maybe they will get so big they take over the compost pile. I will be doing some research and see if I can find some tips to get them really big.  Everyone I have talked to about them has secrets to success. I planted some regular pumpkins by the corn so they can meander through the corn stalks.

I planted 3 kinds of sunflowers.  I have 2 rows of giant and 2 rows of 3 foot flowers.  I just loved these last year.  They make great cut flowers for your table in the fall.

I still have some more corn to plant and another couple rows of beans.  Then I think the garden will be complete.  I treated the garden with preen weed preventer, which is working pretty well.  So far the weeding has been minimal.

The carrots in my pots are growing pretty well.  I tried to plant the seed one at a time but I think when I watered them they all went together.  A couple of the pots all the carrots are in one area.  2 of the pots look great. I won’t even have to thin them.

The potatoes are growing too.  I just added some soil to the bags and to the rows. I dug rows to put the potatoes in so, I just took the soil that was piled up next to them and raked some soil into the trench.

Well Memorial Weekend is here and I am going to finish planting, sit back and enjoy all the beautiful flowers and plants I have been planting.  Enjoy the weekend.

Ready, Set, Plant

May 17, 2010

After 2 weeks of rain and cold this past weekend was glorious.  The rain gauge for the last week was 1 1/2″.  Plenty of water.  I spent the weekend planting flowers around my yard.  Now I am ready to tackle the garden again.

The plants in the garden are doing really well. As you can tell Andy is happy to be helping in the garden again. I told him it will help build up his finger muscles to play video games. You can see the cabbage, celery, lettuce and broccoli are growing well even through the cold weather we had.I was excited to see that the corn is popping through and the potatoes have sprouted. I was so happy to see all these little plants since last year I only had one plant. Carrots are also popping through the soil in my pots.

I am heading out to the garden to plant another batch of corn today. I am also planting beans and sunflowers. The weather forecast is nice and warm for the rest of the week, so I am hoping to plant cukes, Squash, tomatoes and peppers this week also.

Blowing and Sowing

05/05/2010

Well the May weather has turned blustery and cold.  I planted 5 rows of Sweet Corn on Friday.  Now I am just watching and waiting. Nothing coming up on the potatoes yet. Cabbage, lettuce, etc… are doing very well.  With the weather we are having now, everything may just sit for awhile until it gets warmer. Hope everyone watches the weather over the weekend.  Frost is predicted so if you have anything tender bring inside or cover. My vegetables will be fine.

Planting Continues

04/29/2010

I started planting last week, and the same night we had frost and again this week. Cabbage, lettuce broccoli etc are cold tolerant but can get a little damaged.  My cabbage has some damage but it will grow out of it.

The lettuce , broccoli and onions suffered no damage.

I planted potatoes last week. This week I planted some in bags. You fill the bag about 6 ” plant your potatoes.  When they start growing you keep adding more soil. The bag also has a flap on it so you can check on the potatoes at the bottom of the bag. When they are ready you dump the bag out and you have your potatoes.

I am also trying carrots in pots. Last year I gave up on the carrots. They got so weedy and I didn’t get them thinned out good.  So I am trying deep pots.  I planted 3 pots by putting a seed on the end of a pencil and planting one at a time, the other 2 I scattered seed so I will probably have to thin them.  I am hoping this will work. We shall see.

All the bulbs I planted last fall are finally blooming.  I know in the city many tulips are already done. Mine just opened and are at their peak. I have tulips, daffodils, and my perennial phlox and euphorbia are all gorgeous.

Spring Planting Begins

04/21/2010

The Garden Begins.

Boy what a spring we have been having. I know everyone is very anxious to get planting. Remember we live in Minnesota, we could still get very cold weather. But with that said, there are things to you can plant now, pansies, perennials and many vegetables. So let the garden begin.

I decided to do my garden a little different this year.  I am roto-tilling the rows instead of the whole garden. It was a tough job. Because we had the ice rink on the garden, it was really packed down.

I am planting onions, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli and celery. They can all tolerate cool weather.

All these crops grew good for me last year. I am not planting brussel sprouts or cauliflower. No one in my family eats them so I decided to skip this year.

I am going to attempt potatoes again.  Last year the plants didn’t sprout.  I think when I cut them, they dried out too much.  So this year I cut them in the morning.  You cut potatoes in halves or quarters, trying to get 3 to 4 eyes on each.  This is where they sprout. I let them sit out and dry and planted in the afternoon. 

I dug trenches to put them in.  With potatoes you have to keep putting soil around them as they grow, so if you start with a trench you don’t have to pile soil so high.  I am growing 3 different kinds, Yukon, ready in 90 to 110 days, Burbank ready in 110 to 140 days and Lakoda a red potatoe.

I covered with soil and watered all the plants in.

I will be planting carrots this week also.  I am going to plant my carrots in pots. I will have tall pots and plant the seeds one by one so I don’t have to thin. 

I hope to get Andy out helping me, but he has been busy with baseball this year. But I had Tanner to help even though he did steal a few potatoes and ate them. He hasn’t calmed down since last year, he is still my Marley.