Clearing out

So, today I pulled out the last summer plants: all the peas, beans and tomatoes. Hoed the greens and lettuces. I like this fall gardening-the plants don't seem to need much help and I'm learning to like the taste of greens and kale. 

More fall gardening

A week ago I planted 9 cabbage plants, a row of kale and a row of purple top turnips. Still got tomatoes on the vine, so that's nice. It's still pretty warm for early October. Today is cloudy and humid with a breeze that makes the low 80s temps not too bad. The cotton plants have lots of bolls and are still blooming. I passed some in the field that were already open.

I've come out to the garden to gather our hardware and hoses and to hoe around the new plants. I'll have to trust God to provide the water now.

Fall garden

Spent about 3.5 hours in the garden. Tilled where the corn was. If you're standing at the HHappy place sign you'll see 8 rows. Left to right are: a row of beets, 1/2 row cosmic carrots 1/2 row parsnips, row of radishes, row of romaine, row of mixed lettuces and 2 rows of spinach. They are small, but it's a start!

We planted purple hull peas....

....and this is what we got! The hulls were definitely purple but the peas inside were always a surprise! I guess some crazy cross pollinating went on to produce this. Next year we buy seeds instead of saving.

Welcome to the jungle

One thing I will not do next year is allow plants to grow with wild abandon out of the compost dirt. What a mess we have. Next year the ones we want to keep need to be transplanted.

Corn

Not so good this year. TOO MANY WORMS.

The good news is we are finally picking tomatoes and eggplant.

The garden likes RAIN!

(Post from 7/6/13)
A pretty day in the garden. There are a few green beans, cucumbers and squash. Lots of green tomatoes. Starting to get buds on the peas. 639 has got lots and lots and lots of weeds. Spent a long time hacking at them.

The sunflowers are from Wilson's plot.

Attack of the Lady Peas

Did some picking in our peas-gone-wild garden. I don't remember the plants last year being as tall and lush as this year's crop. Must be the rain. Anyway, the new vining growth of the lady peas were lashing at my arms while I picked. By the next day my arms looked like I owned a feral cat!

What's What

The weather this past week has been warm and humid-no surprise there. Highs in the low 90s. There have been two days of significant rain; Monday and Wednesday which has been very helpful.

In HH:
5 rows of corn are about knee-high, 5 rows are in the sprouting stage.
3 rows of lady peas and 3 rows of purple hull are sporting their second set of true leaves or more. Noticed brown aphids on a few plants.

The row of butter beans has tiny buds on them. Same with the 2 rows of beans : 1/2 row wax beans, 1/2 row harticort vert, 1/2 row blue lake bush beans, and 1/2 row bush contender green beans.

Radishes are big enough to harvest with a second batch sprouting. Carrots have finally sprouted, parsnips nowhere to be seen.

The mystery tomato starts are doing very well. I say mystery because labels got lost and I'm not sure what's what. There are Cherokee purple, sun gold, brandy wine, mortgage lifter, and sweetie cherry tomatoes in that bunch. Additionally from HD there are a black cherry tomato, a yellow pear, a solar fire and a better boy.

The basil patch has some sprouts that I moved so they wouldn't be crowded.

The compost pile has given us many, MANY volunteer tomato plants and other.....squash? Cucumber? Peppers?Hard to tell at first! They are sprouting up everywhere!

In AHP:
The first zucchini was picked yesterday! About a 1/2 pounder. The other zucchini and yellow squash have buds as does a cucumber. We had to replant some pickling cukes from seed because the starts had died.

All but 2 of the 19 sweet potato slips are thriving.

The jalapeño and poplano peppers have buds; still waiting for something from the sweet peppers

The bedding tomato plants that I put out 2 weeks ago are not doing so well. I only got 2 Romas and 2 Arkansas travelers to make it. More Roma and big red heirloom were planted. We'll see what happens.

Pumpkin and watermelon are up and beginning to vine. Sunflowers look healthy.

The herb patch needs a little more weeding, but the basil and cilantro have declared themselves.

Telling Secrets

Mr. Knowles is back and met his buddy, Ray. They told me the secret to good tomatoes. First dig your hole and fill it with water. After it drains throw in "some" Epsom salts to mix in the dirt plant 3/4 of the plant in the ground and fill in dirt mixed with fertilizer. Tried it. We'll see.

Back in Business

With a few hiccups and obstacles, we are finally back in the garden. Caroline and Greg worked hard all weekend tilling plot 639-another happy place or ahp. They planted peppers, squash, zucchini, eggplant, and sunflower seeds as well as a cherry tomato in HH. We already put the corn in last Friday and the puny tomato starters that had just about given up. Today I retilled some rows and planted 3 rows of lady peas and one row of butter beans. Sadly, they cut the water off just as I was starting so I'll need to go out tonight or in the morning to water everything.

1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back

So, the flags are out. That's good. Plot #639 is a little further down from HH, but the dirt looks richer.

Sadly, there is standing water in the furrows. No tilling and planting for now. I got roundup on about 5 rows of HH before the storms came in. Here's hoping it didn't wash away. We probably got another 3 inches of rain tonight.

Testing my patience.

Flags!

Finally! Caroline and Greg went to SFCC and the plots are marked! We will be tilling and planting this week.

Eventually

Most of the garden has been plowed, but has not been marked. Just as well because it is still too muddy to till. The grass and weeds are doing well.

Nothing

All this rain is really cramping my plans. Our section has been plowed, but there is at least 1/3 of the garden that has not been touched

Garden is Plowed

Steve went out Monday and checked and the gardens have been plowed. With the 3 inches we received on Thursday means it will be at least late next week before we can till and plant.

Is it Spring yet?

They may NEVER get the gardens plowed

We can not seem to get more than a day of sunshine followed by three days of rain.

And it's cold to boot. It should not be 40 degrees in Memphis in April.

Peppers are starting to sprout in the little cellophane greenhouses and the tomatoes have almost all gotten their second set of leaves. There are snow peas and English peas in egg carton starters. Just need a place to plant them.

The Tiller

Today Steve and I went out to the garden to spread out 8 more bags of leaves. It was bitterly cold with a damp brisk wind blowing snow flurries straight in from the northwest. It felt good to be out there! We walked up to Wilson's garden and  Steve pulled up three turnips (Wilson had told me to help my self whenever I came out there.) We then drove around Shelby Farms and stopped at the Outback to check out the off-leash area. Bailey would have loved it if she were a little younger and it was a bit warmer.

Once we got home. I ordered The Tiller! I have been looking and researching and planning on getting a tiller since last summer. I know gardening will be so much easier once we have one. I decided on a Honda 4 cycle tiller/cultivator after reading so many positive reviews. Besides being a Honda which I'm sure means "durable" in Japanese, it is relatively light weight and easily to control. I've been hoarding the cash-back bonus from Discover card for about a year so the money is already available to pay for it. It should arrive next week.

Aaaaand We're Off

Today I planted 6 different tomato plant seeds, 30 in all.

Sun Sugar-a small yellow
Brandy wine-a pinky-red beefsteak
Mortgage Lifter-large 1/2-1lb. fruits
Sweetie-cherry tomato
Cherokee Purple
Big Red-an heirloom

If half make it, we'll still have plenty to harvest. I also started red onion and mesclun seeds. The 5 paper egg cartons fit perfectly in the tray.

Getting ready for 2013

Ms. Griffin sent me a note telling me to let her know what plot near us we might want to farm this summer. While HH is probably enough, I was thinking a little more space for runners like melons and sweet potatoes might be nice.

It was just one year ago that I started my milkjug greenhouses for last year's garden. Probably time to get started on that for this year. Hopefully my seeds will be in this week. I've been saving paper egg cartons to use as starter cups. I'm hoping they'll work as well as the newspaper cups.

Getting ready

Last night I ordered seeds from the Urban Farmer site. They had some different items that I'd like to try.

Winter planting

It was cold, but sunny today. I planted 6 cloves of garlic in the herb bed.