Tomato Day 2011

In fact these pictures are from about a week ago, so tomato day was really last week.

Aiden was a good assistant.

It's only been a week, but these have almost doubled in size.

Learning about worms.

Eventually toys won out over garden projects. Still a good tomato day!

Mid-May

Finally got out into the garden early enough in the day to take some pictures in decent light. Lots going on.

Milk jugs in the foreground hold the tomato seedlings with huge bamboo stakes next to each.

The peas are a' growin.

Winter squash, both started from seed in milk jugs and now transplanted into the ground. Eventually there will be a wire mesh over the bamboo in this picture that the squash vines can climb up.

Swiss Chard in the sunlight. This amazing plant was overwintered and is now thriving once again.

Potatoes around the edge of this bed with beans in the middle. This year I am going to mulch all the beds heavily with grass clippings from the lawn. Keeps the weeds down and retains water, plus I like the way it looks.

Closeup of the grass mulch around the potato plants.

Stunning rhubarb stalks. I picked my first batch of rhubarb the other day to make a strawberry rhubarb crumble for Mother's Day.

Tomato seedling in a milk jug. This process seems to be working well; next year I may try to just the start the seeds right into the jugs.

Melon seedling in a jug. All three types are still small but look good. I'm in the process of prepping the melon bed to plant out hopefully in about two weeks.

A sea of young lettuce.

I am very pleased that the black-eyed susans that I seeded last year at the front fence of the garden have come back even stronger. Excited to see them in bloom.

April Rains

Soaking rains have been almost a daily event for the last few weeks, and the garden has benefited immensely with nearly everything planted showing significant growth.

Peas growing- so far the Amish Snap are outdistancing the Green Arrow, but everything is growing well.

I started bean seeds directly in the ground under old plastic soda bottles. This is the first time I've tried this, but so far so good.

The melons and squashes that I started in milk jugs are all looking quite good. The only thing that has shown no signs of life thus far is the strawberries.

Trying something a little different with the tomatoes this year. Typically at this point I would transplant them into individual plastic cups and let them grow inside on the windowsill for a few weeks. This year I am instead going to transplant the seedling directly into milk jugs similar to the way I did the squash and melon seeds. If this technique works than it would be a lot less fussy as once I plant the stuff into jugs it usually remains pretty self-sufficient until its time to put it in the ground. If this works maybe next year I could try planting the tomato seeds directly into the jugs, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

jugs galore.

I have gone a little crazy with the bamboo structures this year. I already have climbing space for peas, beans, melons and squash, and I still have to put in the giant tomato stakes. It's starting to look like a swiss family robinson garden.

Potato Day

April 7th was Potato Day for 2011. It's about 2 weeks later than last year, and even with the extra time I am nervous about cold weather doing some damage. The forecast looks quite good for the week ahead though, so maybe I am in the clear.

I got two potato varieties this year: Purple Viking (pictured above) which is a new type for me, and Yukon Gold which I tried and had great success with last year.

The Purple Vikings were quite large, and had to be cut in half to make appropriately sized seed potatoes. Both varieties were delivered in mesh bags which I hung in the basement for about 2 weeks to start sprouting.

I also allocated more space to potatoes this year as they did so well last season. I was surprised and pleased at how easy and prolific they were, and I am hoping for more of the same this time around.

Trenched about 5-6 inches down and ready to be covered with 2-3 inches of soil and a blanket of leaf mulch.

This is my secret potato weapon: coffee grounds. We've been saving our spent grounds from our french press for the last few months and after I planted and covered the potatotes with soil they got dressed with a light covering of the grounds. The grounds will slowly release nutrients into the soil that will help the spuds grow strong.

Using leftover bamboo stakes as plant markers this year. Also, trying to write the planting date on the marker this year for quick reference.

Peas Planted

It may have been a little hasty, but the 2011 garden season is, at last, officially underway. With recent temperatures hovering in the 40's I have been delaying my first planting of peas longer than I would have liked. Yesterday, however, the sun was out and the weather felt suitably spring-like so I decided that it was time to give it a go and get some seeds into the ground.

I am planting two pea types this year. Green Arrow (which I grew last year) which is a productive low climbing shelling pea. And also Amish Sugar Snap which is a vigorous climber and good for eating raw, pod and all.

I have high hopes this year to incorporate Aiden into as many garden activities as possible. He got a garden tool set for Christmas and has seemed excited to put his little trowel and watering can to good use. Pea planting was a perfect 3 year old garden project. We pushed aside the top layer of leaves around the pea teepees that I had built and Aiden used the wooden dibbler to poke holes into the ground.

After carefully placing a pea seed into each hole we filled in the holes and gave to area a good smooth pat down with our trowels. A few of the seeds received some extra water from Aiden's watering can for good measure.

Peas successfully planted!

Hopefully potatoes will follow in short order. I would have liked to have them in ground earlier as well, but cold wet weather can spell rot for seed potatoes, so I am going to dig in my heels and wait. I may try to "chit" my potatoes this year, which means to put them out on a shelf in the basement where they will begin to sprout- this could give them a head start in the growing department while still avoiding the bad weather.

Also, I planted the tomato seeds into my mini-greenhouse flat in the kitchen. Again I am about a week behind when I started seeds last year, but in the end I don't think that this should make too much difference.

signs of spring

The Forsythias are in bloom and the bulbs have emerged- even though the weather is struggling to top 50 degrees there are signs of spring all over the yard and garden.

The first of my perennial vegetables emerged this week. I found 4 or 5 bright red heads of rhubarb poking up through the leaves in the garden. I could not be more pleased with the rhubarb as it seems to thrive in one of the garden's shadiest corners.

Last weekend I completed one of my first projects of the season. These bean and pea poles are part of my plan to maximize my vertical growing space this year. I'd hoped to have the peas in the ground by now, but the cold, wet weather has postponed any early planting.

This picture shows the rest of the pea/ bean poles. I need to get another load of bamboo as I still want to put in trellesing for tomatoes and winter squash. The foreground of this picture is the spot where I am hoping to put the duck house- another work in progress...

Panning Part III- The Master Plan

Here my high-tech 2011 garden master plan. Clicking on the image should enlarge it enough to make the text readable.

Additional note: First seeds of the season ordered this past week. Yukon Gold and Purple Viking potatoes, and Green Arrow and Amish Sugar Snap peas.