Big Day

Today turned into a tiring but very productive day in the East of Eden garden.   Checked the forecast last night and they were predicting rain showers in the morning, but we rose to sun, mild temps, and very little wind.  This held up throughout the day, and between 8 am and 3 pm we got the rest of the planting and transplanting done.  June  1 is a little later than most years, but 2013 hasn't been most years.  

Far right-Asian radish; center-conventional radish; left-bibb lettuce

We are getting close to our first harvestable item--radishes planted April 27.    I didn't get very good germination on the lettuces due to old  seed, so I had to replant (areas that appear empty).  Hard to see, but I also have an onion or two mixed in there.

As I mentioned in the last post, we are using a new method this year involving wood chips over news paper to eliminate most weeding and retain moisture.   There is a bit of up front work, but we should more than make up for it by having less maintenance through out the season.   It also allows me to plant "no till", I don't turn the soil or rototill except for the little area where I plant; the rest of the garden is covered with a few layers of wet newspaper and topped with 3-4 inches of woodchip mulch we get for free a the city composting facility.

Peppers, kohlrabi, and cabbage transplanted today

Tomatoes transplanted last Saturday

So far we are  very pleased with the system.  The plan is to  extend this to the most of the garden, but we are only about half done.   We like it because it uses mostly free stuff--newspaper and mulch.  The proof is in the pudding, so if we save hours and hours weeding and watering--should be a good deal.   Next year should be a test too, as we see how we like planting into it.  In theory the wood chips should decay providing fertile soil, and over time we expect to keep adding more chips to the top.  It is also a nice surface to walk on--no mud, etc.

Back to East of Eden

I'm back after a long hiatus to attend to....life.  I had the best of intentions to follow through to harvest and even commissioned Mrs. Gardener to take photos of the harvest, but I never tracked the photos down on the old hard drive.  But now it is a new year, and suffice it to say we had a bountiful harvest of many of our veggies, and are back at it again.  April has been very snowy, and the first fit day was yesterday, so I planted   romaine, loose leaf lettuce, bibb lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and two kinds of radish (regular and Asian).

We watched a gardening video last night that promoted a philosophy of gardening that has wood mulch at its center piece.  The website, interestingly is "Back to Eden" and features the gardening advice of a fellow by the name of Paul Gautschi who  developed the methods after observing how lush and drought resistant forests were.  Motivated by his observations of nature and principles derived from thoughtful contemplation of (and sometimes creative applications from)  Scripture.   Mr. Gautschi described how he grows all his veggies in soil that is covered by a layer of wood mulch.  The mulch decays and provides nutrients, retains water, controls weeds, and keeps the soil loose and free from compaction.    Wood mulch (the kind made from ground up leaves and branches, not shredded bark) is cheap, plentiful, and readily available.   We have used it with some success in our perennial garden ("the berm") and around bushes but have been afraid to use it in the garden because I thought it would tie up nitrogen or make it hard to hoe.   As long as you don't incorporate it but let it break down from the top, it should be ok, according to the video.  Another advantage is less tillage required; I don't think the Back to Eden method turns the soil at all,   I wonder if the soil warms up and is ready for planting at the same time as traditional methods.

In any event, I think I would like to try it this year.  There are several options for obtaining wood mulch--the free stuff available from the city compost site; from a local tree service (advantage--delivered); or grinding my own from downed branches and tree trimmings (disadvantage--purchasing and maintaining a loud mulcher).

The Midsummer Garden

It has been quite some time since my last post, as I find summer is more about the living of life than its documentation.   The garden has gone from mostly to potential to actual production.  We have eaten our salad crops fairly regularly this month.  The winner of the new crop of the year award is kholrabi, which was easy to grow and delicious with Mrs. Gardeners famous dill dip.

Mrs. Gardener has also been highly motivated in the weeding an composting department, so that our garden still looks show worthy.  It was a very popular tour stop at the graduation party a few weeks back.

Very soon we will be getting raspberries, though in smaller quantities than previous  years.  The new growth is good, so next year should be back to our normal bounty.

Our one apple did not make it, and strawberries have been a bust, and are soon to be plowed under for good.

The pole beans are growing at a phenomenal pace and have shot up my lattice in a matter of days, and are soon to reach the top.   Where will they go then I wonder?

We had a pesky deer eat the leaves off the squash a few days ago, so I applied Deer Scram and hope that discourages future visits.  Meanwhile the squash has grown back rapidly.  Hard to keep a good squash down!

The foreground of this picture to the left is pumpkin, the far end is zucchini, neither of which the deer ate--they went right to the squash---go figure.

It will never look this good again

It has been a couple weeks since I have posted last.   Busy with work, and gardening, and politics.  On the 12th of May we had a big day--transplanting all the bedding plants, and seeding the large seeded veg like corn, beans, and various cucurbits and even melons. The asparagus is done for the season, the potatoes are getting bushy, the lettuces are nearly ready for first harvest, the strawberries have flowers, and we even have one apple!  The major addition for this season is the pole bean support, which was converted from my grow light stand (after getting a coat of Thompson Water Seal).  These are the golden days for any garden, when everything is small, neat, and weed free.   However, I don't garden just for looks, so I do welcome the fruitful days to come when squash will be taking over the yard, tomatoes will be groaning under the weight of their red globes, and giant zukes and cukes forming every time you turn your back.

  We are going to try to grow  tomatoes with out cages this year (cage-free!), training them to a pole and keeping the branches from getting out of hand.  Most of the good fruit comes lower down and close in any way.

  Lynn has been real busy weeding out the perennial gardens--strawberries, raspberries, and the flowers on the "berm". My job is now to haul in some mulch to preserve as much of the progress as possible.
  Below is our one apple--which I now think is on the Honeycrisp, not the Zestar, which didn't put out any flowers this year--not sure why.   Could be the warm March followed by the cold April.  Anyway,

one is better than none!   I can be patient.  It doesn't pay to get too anxious to eat fruit from a tree, no matter how good it looks for food.   There is ample historical evidence to attest to this principle.
   There is also historical precedent for not waiting forever either.  If a tree doesn't bear fruit, it gets cut down--not that we are considering that for our apples.   We will continue in Patient Mode, not in Judgment Mode, as this is only our fourth summer with these trees.  They are still babes.

First fruits

Our first crop from our 2012 planting has come in.  These radishes were planted March 17 and harvested  (by Mrs. Gardener) May 6.   That is 7 weeks and about 250 growing degree days (base 50).  I plan to plant some more as soon as the soil dries out, but with warming temps I should get a crop in fewer weeks.   These are very tasty radishes too--very mild.   We received 5.6 inches of rain this week, which should give the subsoil a good reserve in advance of transplanting activities in the next few weeks, once we are past the last average frost date.

Wascally Wabbit!

A bunny got to our lettuce last week, necessitating the construction of a security fence.  While I do believe in free-range lettuce, I didn't plant enough to share with the free-loading neighborhood rabbits.  However, they are welcome to all the grass they care to eat, so invite all  your friends, I say.   In fact, if they could eat the dandelions in the grass, that would be even better.

47 bottles of beer on the floor....

Last night I bottled a new batch of beer.  I started this hobby two years ago, and this is now my 6th batch.  So far I have made all ales from extract kits, this one being a German ale called Altbier.  Starting with my next batch I plan to forgo the kits, and branch out on my own.