Today 5-3-20
I planted my little Oregon Delicious cantaloupe seedlings out in the garden just in time for the biggest, hardest, hail storm I have seen in a LONG time! I don't know if they are going to survive. I have my fingers crossed because this is a new variety for me and I have really high hopes for their success.
On a side note ~ Here are some pictures from my dear friends garden. She has made all of these things. Sooo creative
This garden shed she painted free hand. I will have to get another pic of the whole thing.
Well, I am getting going with my garden. The garlic is doing fairly well.
I planted Monastrell, Walla Walla, and Patterson onions 4-8-20. They seem to be growing away.
The peas are growing slowly. They are about 6 inches tall and I am trying to use the tomato clamps to attach them to the twine hanging down from the t frame they are growing under.
March 11th I planted green arrow, Lincoln homesteader, Sugar Ann
I also planted carrots. Scarlet Nantes coreless at the same time. They are up about an inch.
End of March I put potatoes in the ground..... forgot to mark the date. They are breaking ground and looking good. I planted mostly russets, but also, a few white, red, and blue fingerlings.
On 4-5 I harvested a nice bunch of Rhubarb and made rhubarbque sauce and canned it. We tried some on bbq chicken. It was really good!
4-9 I planted out spinach, mustard lettuce, speckled lettuce, winter density lettuce. I think the ph was off from too much lime on the bed. I thought I killed all of the starts but after some really big rains they are starting to grow. As of 4-29 they now have a little new growth.
On 4-15 I started harvesting some asparagus! YUM
On 4-19 a not so good note ~ I planted Red iceberg crisphead (unknown source or seed year), and Delicata Heirloom (Lake Valley 2019 seed), but neither have germinated. That is very unusual because it normally takes about 2 days for lettuce and about 4 days for Delicata.... I don't know what happened. I may try those again tho just to be sure it wasn't a fluke, and compost the seeds if they are bad.
4-27 I planted out Ellie's Eden Copenhagen cabbage. It was raining so I didn't put out Sluggo, and of course the tiny slugs hit it hard! I got some bait out ASAP
4-29- Today is my baby's 43rd birthday. I got some Northern Candy Roaster, Cinderella pumpkin planted out in the garden. My fingers are crossed I didn't plant it out too early! I wanted to plant out the zucchini but on closer look, I would like the seedlings to have one more true leaf.
I will try not to wait another 4 years to post updates LOL
This year I am getting an earlier start on my winter sowing than I did last year. I started by convincing my husband to build me a compost sifter
Then I sifted my compost
Then I mixed my beautiful compost to make seed starting mix. The recipe follows:
4 parts compost
2 parts coir or peat moss ( I used peat moss)
1 part vermiculite
1 part perlite
Then I gathered all of my empty distilled water jugs I am recycling from work. I cut 3 sides, opened them, poked holes in the bottom for drainage, discarded the top, filled with my very damp seed starting mix, sprinkled desired seeds, pressed slightly, and then sprinkled more mix on top of the seeds, lightly pressed the soil. I made a tag using the small plastic coffee stir stick with duct tape flag with the seed name. This little flag I placed inside of jug, then taped up the slit with duct tape to seal the mini green house. I also marked a number on the outside of the jug which corresponded with a list I was making with the date, name of seed, and where seed was purchased.
The things I got planted today are
1. Red Wing onion
2. Celeriac
3. Pablano Peppers
4. Mortgage Lifter tomatoes
5. Butterhead Lettuce
6. Ringmaster Sweet Spanish onion
7. Red Burgundy onion
8. Roma Tomatoes
9. Moon and Stars Melon
10. Cantelope
11. Anise Hyssop
I will plant many more as time allows.
Now all there is to do is wait for nature to take over and stimulate those seeds to germinate and sprout when the conditions are right.
I went out in the garden to try and catch up on some maintenance and found that the sparrow eggs have hatched!
So, I didn’t get much weeding or trimming or planting done, but I got some photos :0
And I noticed a gazillion baby grapes on my grape vines. The red flame will be it’s first production year. YIPPEE
This blog is more of a question than a how to. I have been struggling with how to submit photos to this website. It is something I would like very much to get good at because seeing everyones photos is such a wonderful treat for me. I have been taking some photos of my property, some of them I have managed to post somehow, but I can not figure out how to post pictures I took today of my shade plants. So here goes
This is a wonderful viney varigated small shrub but I have long since forgotten the name
This is one of my beautiful Viburnums. It is such a fun shape, and the foliage although deciduous, turns such beautiful shades of orange, red, yellow, and dark green in the fall.
Here is the beautiful Japanese Maple followed by the Pacific Dogwood, covered by the Ponderosa pine
If anyone finds this post, and can give me some steps in which to post various photos that pertain to what the weekly focus of the site is ~ please, please send me a note.
