My Garden 2012

[pa_friendly_guy]

I replanted the spinich and lettus today, the germinating of the 1st seeds was a bit spotty, Watered the asperigus, 17 out of 20 are now up. Had a bunch of Volunteer sunflowers coming up, so I moved them around and replanted them as well as planting the seeds for the Kids Sunflower garden fort. I need to reorder the goose berrys, only one out of 3 is actually growing. The 2 Pixwell didn't come out at all. Fixed my old Garden way cart today. The plywood has rotted and the bolts were coming out and hitting the spokes on the wheels. Put in some bigger washers and I am good to go. Actually started the old Farmall and hauled away some ashes that had built up on the burn pile from all of the brush I burned after the snow brought down all those Maple trees. . Then I went down into the woods and pushed around a large stump that I have lining the old Mine opening. I want to make a line of large logs and stumps to make the mine area feel secluded then you walk down there. Sort of a Hugelbed above ground. I will plant ferns, hostas etc down around there for color and interest.

[dave brenneman]

Last year the landlord told us we could only have one raised bed out back, but we could extend it farther along the back of the wall. So now there's about a 10-12ft bed, which has been planted with a variety of stuff, just to see what takes off. The rosemary and thyme from last year are still going strong; the two varieties of beans i planted are looking okay. The tomato seedlings are looking pretty sad though. We had a week or two of warmer temps and sunshine, and then as soon as we got the tomatoes in the ground, it started raining again... carrot and radish seeds have sprouted admirably well. I thinned 'em out last week and replanted them farther apart.

I'm trying the "hanging string" trellis for the pinto beans, we'll see how they do.

[matt walker]

Dave, interesting thought on the hanging trellis for pintos. I'd love a photo if you could manage. When I was there a couple years ago I felt like the climate was similar to here, and it's a bit early here for beans yet. Glad to hear you are getting to garden a bit, even with the limitations.

I had another big garden weekend. I'll just itemize it here to keep up to date.

5-7-12: Transplanted starts from the low tunnel into outside beds; Beets, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Broccoli, and some greens.

Transplanted starts from in the house into the low tunnels; Peppers, Tomatoes, Tomatillos.

Should be just about time to start squashes and beans this week, so I'm going to be digging some old beds into "tilters" for this season.

[dave brenneman]

sorry matt, haven't gotten a photo yet. So far it's not what I would call a rousing success; I might have planted these a bit close together....

[pa_friendly_guy]

My garden is pretty much all planted and mulched now. I put in 1 hill of Zuccini that has been up for a week or so, I will plant 2 more hills later. I have one row of green beans up and leafing out, I will plant another one later. 6 tomato plants in, 6 still in the green house at the neighbors. Everything else is planted. The asperigus is all growing well and the ferns are getting big. I just replanted the gooseberrys that came as replacements. My garlic looks great, nice size stems. The onions need to be thinned out some, I planted them very close together with the idea of eating alot of green ones in salads early. I guess I need to eat more greens. The lettus is about ready to pick. Spinich is doing nicely. The potatos were stunted by the several frosts and the snow we had 2 weeks ago but they are coming back nicely and are about 6" high now. I planted 5 Doz peppers, 2 kinds of red, yellow, orange, purple, Hot, a doz green bells and a doz Bannana. I put in some beets, carrots, yellow squash, egg plant, cabbage and cuccumbers. I used rotted wood chips as mulch this year. I had it handy, and my garden tractor blew the motor and I am waiting for it to be fixed befor I can collect any grass clippings for mulch. I am way ahead of the curve this year. Memorial Day is when most people plant their plants out in the garden around here. I am taking a bit of a chance, but I think we are done with frost here. [ it did go down to 39 the other night, but no frost ]

[matt walker]

Sounds great Guy, and I know how much work all that planting is. Good job man, that's a big push. I also plant my onions very close, and have found that I can plant a four foot square area with onions on a 4" grid, and still grow pretty big ones. I do thin and eat baby onions and the greens throughout the season, but also side dress with bone meal, and have had some large harvests using that technique.

My garden, well, I've been out of town for 3 days and of course it was the hottest it's been all year. It's dark now, but I'll go check in the morning. I'm expecting my tomato and peppers to be cooked dead in the low tunnels, but there's plenty of time to start more here, so I won't be too upset if that's the case.

[matt walker]

We finally have been having some warm weather. I had to be out of town for the weekend, which was apparently glorious, but so far this week it has been wonderful weather. Typically once it's been warm for a few days the inland metro areas heat up and suck the freezing ocean air right down the strait so I end up freezing in the wind while they bake in Seattle. That pattern started yesterday and it's windy this morning with the fog threatening. Nonetheless, it's time to start some of the warmer stuff.

5-15-12: Prepped three beds, planted bush beans, more arugula, orach, radish, sunflowers, nasturtium, poppies, evening stock, and golden berry. Transplanted squash from starter trays in the house outside, Red Kuri, an Italian zucchini, and Delicata.

Hoping to get pole beans in today as well as some more bush beans. I am not sure how my tomatoes I transplanted last week are going to do. They did get a bit cooked in the low tunnel while I was out of town, they look a bit sorry. We'll see, there's still plenty of time. I might hedge my bets and purchase a couple monsters from the nursery.

[matt walker]

Well, the weather turned, it's been pouring rain for a week, and hasn't gotten much above 50* all that time. We had some nights in the mid 30*s as well. Those squash transplants died on the first cold night, but I just direct sowed more seed next to 'em, which I think will do just fine. Due to the weather and a big new project, I've been out of the garden, but guess what?

I built a greenhouse! I'll do a thread on it, but it's all part of this big picture I've been working on since we started this forum this winter. Due to the RMH being so awesome, I no longer need so much wood storage. The South side of my house has a 32' long shed roof, 12' wide running along it. It was OSB and three tab asphalt roofing, and was the woodshed. I could put about 10 cords in there. Don't need it any more, and of course the OSB was rotting. Well, as of last weekend, the old roof is gone, and double wall polycarbonate is on the truck to me as we speak. I'm sooooo excited! I'll get some pics up in a new thread when the roofing gets here, for now I have greenhouse film over it to keep it dry and it's amazing having that bright space where there was dark, dank and rotting wood chips.

[Lollykoko]

Hurrah on finding a spot for a greenhouse! Is there a door in that south wall so you can access the newly utilized space easily no matter what the weather? Was the polycarbonate available locally or did you have to order through an online company?

Looking forward to photos.

[matt walker]

Thanks Lolly, hurrah indeed! It is one of the patterns in A Pattern Language; An Attached Greenhouse. I have been thinking about it incessantly and just finally started demolishing stuff last weekend. There is a sliding glass door and concrete pad porch with a hot tub out that side of the house, and a covered breezeway connect it all. It's pretty nice, but I imagine I'll blow out the house wall into the greenhouse and put french doors in there someday, it connects to a small dressing room in my bedroom, which would be an awesome little sunroom if I open it up in that way. That's phase 34 or some such, but I'm dreaming about it, for sure.

The polycarbonate I got from Farmtek online, where I've always bought my greenhouse film. It cost a bit for shipping, but all told was going to be about equal to me sourcing it "locally", which here means 3 hours away one direction. They are great, and walked me through the installation materials and steps. I'm just soooo dang excited. I've got other big news too, but it'll have to wait until the weekend.