THE TOMATO EXPERIMENT

02 Thursday Jun 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in Tomatoes, Vegetable garden, Weather

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I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE THAT JUNE HAS ARRIVED! But, we may have 70° days ahead according to the NOAA forecast. WOOHOO! We have not had a 70°+ day around here since early November 2010.

And, I think that we have finally hit the 50° for steady, average overnight temperature (I hope). On Sunday I put some of the tomatoes into the ground. As you can see from the photo above, I am using SRM-Red Plastic Tomato Mulch. I bought this product from Territorial Seed Company a few years back and never got around to using it. Yesterday afternoon the soil temperature 6″ below the red plastic was 64°, while 18′ away the soil temperature was 59°; so it makes a difference. I will use this same technique with some of the remaining tomatoes and plant some without at the same time for a control.

Before we took off on a ten day trip two weeks ago, I planted the cukes, squash, lettuce, broccoli, and brussels sprouts starts. And over the weekend I planted seeds (quite a bit later than normal) for radishes, fennel, beets, carrots, and two kinds of celery. I have had mixed success with celery in the past, but decided to try again.

Just waiting now for the fava beans to be ready for harvest and that will free up some additional space for the remaining tomatoes, eggplant and pepper starts.

The garlic is looking very good this year, must be the prolonged cool and wet spring weather.

And lastly, a couple of nice heads of Slyvesta Butterhead lettuce near harvest size.

APRIL SHOWERS BRING SOME MAY FLOWERS!

12 Thursday May 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in May flowers, Musings

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hostas, peonies, tulips

THIS LOVELY PINK TINGED PEONY has, to me, a very feminine, girly aspect. Ruffled edges like a crinoline petticoat. It will change from pink to pure white.

In order to avoid repeating myself I took a look at a post from May 11, of last year. Most of what is pictured in that post is not even close to blooming and I have not spotted one fava bean! The continuing cool weather has really set bloom times back by a week or more.

That said, tulips are still coming on and the apple tree began blooming around the first of May. It is so beautiful and we’ve had some warm, dry days so the hope is that it has been enough to bring out the pollinators.

I really like this tulip mix, ‘Valentine Candy’, lots of pink and red shades. They look great poking through the mixed foliage of japanese anemone, stachys, lilies, and sedum of the Autumn Joy type.

I like unexpected little vignettes, like this one with the hosta ‘June’, wood hyacinths, and a few of the ‘Valentine Candy’ tulips.

This morning we have sunshine and the promise of a good day for gardening chores and transplanting of tomato seedlings which seem to be in sync with everything else—behind schedule! But complaints about the weather here are silly and shallow when compared to the devastation taking place all along the Mississippi. My heart goes out to all of those effected. Consider helping here.

READY TO PLANT

11 Wednesday May 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in Vegetable garden

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chicken manure, compost, vegetable bed

I FINALLY GOT MOTIVATED and cleaned out a couple of wintered over vegetable beds and prepared them for planting. I began by laying down alfalfa, bone, cottonseed, and kelp meals as my first layer.

COMPOST is the second layer and piled on about three to four inches thick. I used to sift the compost, but it was so much extra work and all it really achieved was to remove some sticks and stems not fully composted. I finally decided that the compost could finish breaking down in the beds; it has worked out well ever since. Anything that is obviously large or not broken down is pulled out and returned to the bin. I’m happy and so are the plants.

COMPOSTED CHICKEN MANURE is the last layer. Since I don’t raise chickens I have to buy this product. I became a believer in chicken manure when I used to raise chickens many years ago. I now favor Gardener & Bloome products after an unpleasant surprise (chicken bones in all 18 bags!) with Whitney Farms chicken manure two years ago. The Gardener & Bloome product is better composted and has less odor.

NEXT STEP is tilling it all in with my favorite garden device: the electric Mantis tiller.

The tilled beds.

FINAL STEP is raking into shape. The raised beds are about twelve inches high and about thirty-six inches wide when finished. I water with rubber drip/soaker hose. The paths between the beds are just wide enough to maneuver a wheelbarrow through and covered with wood ‘play chips’ to keep the weeds and the mud down.

This is one of the lettuce volunteers that I have frequently mentioned; ready to move from the path into a newly tilled bed.

APRIL PHOTO A DAY: FIELD OF TULIPS

30 Saturday Apr 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in April flowers, Spring bulbs, tulips

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friendship gardening, Spring flowers, tulips

FINAL APRIL PHOTO A DAY (#23): A TRIP TO THE SKAGIT VALLEY TULIP FESTIVAL. The big bloom is winding down but there are still several fields of tulips to see and we found just one field of waning daffodils. The groundskeeper had never been on this adventure and it had been many years since mom or I had made the trip, so it was a nice Friday afternoon diversion. And we missed the weekend crowds.

After completing the tour we stopped at Christianson’s Nursery where we lingered for an hour browsing their amazing selection of plant material. They have one of the better selections of herbs around here and must have had ten or more varieties of mint alone and better than average selections of tomato and pepper starts. Of course, we did not drive away without plant purchases. If you live in the greater Puget Sound area it is worth a trip to this nursery. Today I will be planting yesterday’s booty and then get the vegetable garden beds ready for new seeds.

APRIL PHOTO A DAY: MORE GARDENING THE LAZY WAY

29 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in Vegetable garden

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lettuce, plant starts, planting, potatoes, shallots

AS I NOTED TWO WEEKS AGO in this post I am often a lazy gardener or maybe I’m forward thinking. The bed above was planted last fall with immature shallots and purple potatoes, lettuce starts, of which two are volunteers, the red oakleaf and radicchio. This means I will have heads of lettuce to harvest while I wait for my new starts to reach transplanting size and the potatoes and shallots are months ahead of the normal spring planting schedule and growing well. The air and soil temperatures have been so cool well into April that I have not had the enthusiasm to get the beds tilled and sown. Lettuces and members of the brassica family are sprouting in the coldframe and cukes and squash are starting in the house under lights, along with tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. I haven’t been a complete lazy bones!

Today we are off the see the tulip fields in the Skagit Valley around Mt. Vernon.