The First Seeds Have Been Planted

I'm in trouble. It's not even March and I'm already behind on the blog. Not a good sign. Three weeks ago Camary and I planted some broccoli seed. Those plants are now getting their second true leaves. Last week we planted some more broccoli, as well as some onions and some peppers - jalapenos and anaheims to be more precise. It's still early to be starting peppers, but I plan on potting these few up, so I can bring them back into the house next fall and have fresh peppers through the winter. I'm hooked on salsa, so I need a steady supply. Here's a link to the planting schedule I posted last year.

And finally, a picture of my new batch of chickens.  Grasshoppers beware!

Thinking about gardening yet?

Well, last year certainly was a bummer. But I'm looking forward to a better year in the garden. I plan to move the fence around the garden so that the chickens can roam around all four sides and keep the grasshoppers under control. Unfortunately, some red tailed hawks have found our little flock and decided it's an easy source of food. Hopefully our chickens will actually be able to roam later this summer. But that's another story.

It's time to order seeds for this year's garden. I got a catalog from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (rareseeds.com) and they have Anaheim peppers, which neither Seed Savers Exchange (seedsavers.org) nor High Mowing Seeds (highmowingseeds.com) carry, unless they're under some name I'm not familiar with. Anaheims make a great salsa. It looks as though Baker Creek's prices are a little better than the others, and they're closer (California), so I'm going to order as much as I can from them. SSE and HMS are both excellent, so I will continue to buy certain seeds from them that I can't find elsewhere.

So, I'm plotting out where I'm going to plant what, determining what seed I have left over from last year, and getting ready to order for this year. Happy gardening!

Pioneer Day Gardening

How can you tell when a tomato is ripe? It's been half-eaten by grasshoppers. That's the joke, anyway. Another version says that the chickens you let into the garden to eat the grasshoppers ate it.

After a few weeks of neglecting the garden, it's time to pay the piper. Actually, I'm thinking this story began early in the season with all the rain we got. I didn't control the weeds adequately and they turned out to be quite the living space for an unbelievable crop of grasshoppers. I wish I could convey how bad they've been this year. There are literally scores of them jumping away from me as I walk down the paths in the garden. The boys and I have tried on several occasions to scare them into the area the chickens roam, but we've hardly made a dent.

They have stripped almost all the beans down to the stems,


decimated the corn and potatoes,


and have done serious damage to the cabbage.


They have even eaten the onion tops down to the ground. I didn't even know grasshoppers would eat onions.


And every ripe tomato gets attacked before we even know it's ready.


When I wandered through the garden today, I got mad. I took out some of my frustration tearing down the dead pea vines, uprooting some corn and beans and squashing with my bare hands any grasshoppers unlucky enough to get caught. Pretty nasty. It was enough to bring me to the verge of tears. I was ready to throw in the towel. As I stewed and fretted, I thought about the experiences the pioneers had when they came to these valleys and had their crops overrun by insects. I don't depend on my garden to sustain my family, so I can't imagine what kind of frustration and fear the pioneers felt as they watched their crops destroyed. Maybe I got a little taste today. We should definitely revere those men and women who settled the west and endured so much hardship.

On the bright side, my hot peppers and melons seem to be doing well.



And the potatoes look like they got big enough to use before the tops were wiped out.


All these grasshoppers have put a serious damper on my fall-crop plans. I need to figure out some way to protect the young plants I'm ready to put out.

The dog days of summer are nearly upon us. It's one of the hardest seasons for me to garden in, whether due to bugs, disease, weather or apathy. Keep your shoulder to the wheel!

2009-06-27 The Rain Is Finally Done

We've had quite the wet month here in Loafer Canyon. A weather station up on the hill has recorded 3.3 inches of rain in June, which is well above average. I have only had to water the garden by hand once or twice since the middle of May. The same station recorded 1.21 inches two years ago and ZERO last year for June. Of course, all the rain means the weeds have had their way. I need to get out there with some Roundup as soon as they dry out.

Of course, the cool wet weather has been great for crops like peas, lettuce, broccoli, etc. I harvested all but one head of broccoli over the last two weeks, and will replant those squares with something else.





The cauliflower is finally heading up. I'm not sure how big it will get before starting to flower, so I'll have to watch it closely.



The pumpkins have been flowering, but apparently only one or two have been fertilized because most of the little pumpkins are shriveling up. The cayenne, jalapeno and bell peppers have been blossoming as well, and we have tomatoes on all the varieties but the Soldacki, which seems to set fruit really late for some reason. Probably won't do those again. I started a couple of mini-boxes with lettuce, spinach, radishes, onions and carrots. I'll planning to put those on the north side of the house when it gets hot and I'm hoping to keep them going through the winter.

2009-06-16 First Broccoli and Zucchini!

Four-and-a-half months after planting, I cut the first head of broccoli today! It was unlike any of the garbage the supermarkets have, a deep green color, and very tender after just a couple of minutes of steaming.



I'm amazed at how big the plants are. Here's Xander standing next to them:



I also took the first zucchini and hope to get peas pretty soon. The peas are just reaching the top of the trellis and the first pods appeared late last week.



Not much to write about. It has been raining often enough that I have only watered once or twice in the last month. Unfortunately, that means the weeds have been getting plenty of water, too. The nice thing about growing this way is that there isn't much to do once the boxes are put together, just a little weeding and watering. Go garden!

2009-05-30 Update

A couple of quick thoughts this week: I was supposed to plant my fall crop of broccoli two weeks ago and forgot, so I did it this week along with some more cauliflower. I'm thinking I want to stagger my planting of these next year so I don't get eight heads of cauliflower at the same time.



I also gave up on the celery. It never really thrived in the peat pots, and it pretty much withered up as soon as I put it in the garden, despite being hardened off. I'll have to treat it like broccoli next year, starting early in February. The habaneros are not doing well. I will probably try them earlier next year, too.



We've been enjoying fresh lettuce, spinach and radishes for the last couple of weeks. And we have our first tomatoes, pumpkins and zucchini, as you can see. Happy gardening!

2009-05-22 Update

Just a brief status of each thing in the garden:

We have been harvesting lettuce, spinach and radishes all week. I planted more lettuce and spinach earlier this week and need to do the same on radishes. The onions are doing well, but a few of them have been eaten off at the base. A co-worker suggested it might be snails. Not sure what to do about that.

The peas have really taken off, already climbing up the trellis. I expect to see some blossoms in the next week.

All the beans have sprouted, but I went too long between watering on some of the dry beans and a few of them are toast. The yellow bush beans look like they were eaten by a bird as soon as they came up, so I'll probably just replant some of those squares with something else. The pole beans are doing well.

The broccoli was blown partially over by the wind on a couple of occasions this week. I think I'm going to try putting some horizontal nylon trellis around them to give them support. The broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are all huge, but don't look like they're even close to producing what I'm actually after.

The summer squash is doing well, each plant having about four true leaves and a bunch more starting. The winter squash is just getting its first true leaves. The pumpkins are growing quickly, and the baby pam and jack-o-lantern varieties already have tiny pumpkins on them. Don't know if they'll actually set, but it's fun to see them this early.

The corn looks good, about 2-3" high already. I need to build up the potato boxes and get some more soil on them. They're growing almost as fast as the morning glory.

The tomatoes are growing quickly, too. The two early varieties have already set some fruit! Yum! The peppers are doing alright, although the hot peppers seem to be struggling somewhat. It may just be too cool for them.

I transplanted the celery sometime in the last couple of weeks and it is pretty much dead. I think I need to start it in early February with the broccoli. I'll probably plant some more radishes and/or carrots in the two celery squares.

And lastly, the melons. I transplanted them this week and they're doing well so far.

I'm really wishing I had put down some weed cloth under some of the boxes, or that I had some protection over everything and could turn the chickens loose in the garden to knock the weeds down. I need to find something to put between the boxes to kill the weeds.

I spent some time earlier this week putting up some more frames. Tonight I got the nylon trellis netting up on all the frames I have. I need to do three more frames, then put a horizontal support in for the broccoli and probably the green peppers and the bush tomatoes. Oh, and build up the potato boxes, too. I thought I was done with all the hard work!