Beautiful flowers

I'm glad I planted the mixed flower seed mix. The giant zinnias, marigolds, and cosmos are especially pretty right now. They bring the butterflies. Today a black and blue one fluttered around. 

The plot is just a mess! It's been nearly two weeks since I went out there and over three since I really worked it.  The weeds and grasses have nearly taken over, but the peas and tomatoes are fighting hard to maintain their spots. 

Today I picked two baskets of tomatoes and peas plus several ears of corn, two delicata squash and a mess of butter beans. 

And tonight, I froze a bag of corn and shelled peas for two hours. It'll be worth it this fall. 

You Can Tell It's Been Cool

The polar vortex after massive rainfall is very noticeable in the garden. The plants are lush and green. The lady peas are so thick, you can't even see the rows. But, they are missing the heat because there has been little flower production so far. The corn taste good, but looks a little weird. Instead of tassels up top, some of the plants have skinny corn cobs instead. Some of the cobs have a few tough purplish kernels. The tomatoes are coming along. I picked two shirttails full of cherry tomatoes and a couple of the smaller slicers that were starting to turn. Had to get a couple of green ones for broiled green tomatoes for dinner. We also had cornonthecob, stewed San Marzano tomatoes, broiled yellow squash and sliced cucumbers. 

What's growing

The tomatoes are looking great. One row are all from HD. The other row are the ones I grew from seed except for one or two that came up from last year. I labeled all the peat pots, but over the weeks before planting it got difficult to read them. Here are my best guess as to what is in the last three rows:

Garden last three rows

First:

Two jalepeno

Yellow pear

Mr. Stripey

San. Marzano

San Marzano

Super sweet 100 red

Golden pear

Parks whopper

Yellow sun sweet cherry

??better boy??

Big boy

Second row

4 California wonder bell pepper

Gypsy pepper

Red bell pepper

*space*

Haricot vert green beans--did not sprout

Henderson baby butter beans 

Third row

Big boy

Indigo blue cherry --died

Mortgage lifter

??sun sweet??

Big red heirloom

Mortgage lifter

Mortgage lifter 

Mortgage lifter

Unknown

Brandywine

Brandywine

Sunsugar

Last two are unknown

Frankie Baker

I met Mr. Baker again. We had forgotten each other's name so we reintroduced ourselves and he offered me some squash. His plot is behind Caroline and Greg's. His corn is almost ready to harvest (jealous)👺. 

I did take a couple of squash and zucchini and if he offers corn in a couple of weeks, I'll take that too. 

I got the sign in the ground today and brought home a couple of fists full of snow peas and a handful of green pea. 

The tomatoes look very healthy and most have multiple blossoms. Lady peas are so easy and are about 8" tall.  This week I'll be working on watering and weeding. 

A full day's work

The beautiful sun was out all day. The morning temp in the low 60's made a full day at the garden a real treat. I was there from 8:30-3:00 with a quick lunch break at Burger King. I tilled the entire plot then hand weeded the corn (again), the tomatoes, squash and most of the peas. The water was off so I couldn't soak in the fertilizer. It can keep a couple of days. 

Let the wild harvesting begin!

So hhappy to be at my HHappy Place today! Really need to get my sign out there. It has been eleven days since I've been out to SFCG because of work + all the rain. So glad to see nearly everything thriving. That of course included the grasses and weeds. However, I hand weeded the four rows of corn then got some triple 13 down on them. Also, planted the gypsy pepper, cantaloupe and honeydew plants. One good thing about the the cool, wet weather is the snow peas are putting on quite a show. Also the romaine lettuces are heading nicely, onions are thickening up and I got our first tomato--a Sun Sugar cherry yellow.   The mystery squash/pumpkin is flowering and more rogue tomato plants are popping up. 

Corn in the Ground, Ants in My Pants

Sounds like a line from a really old country music song. It is my reality today. I tilled in compost and got four 20 foot rows of corn seed planted. I also tilled around the other rows that have been planted. Caroline planted fennel and I think that area would be good for any herbs we might want to grow. 

Watered with Miracle-Gro everything that has been planted except the peas. They just got regular water. At the end sat down next to an anthill to put the wheels back on the tiller. Only that was not the sole anthill. Oops. Glad I figured that out fairly quickly. 

Now onto yard work at the house. 

April 21, 2014

I am so happy that we can get in the garden a full month earlier than last year. The folks that volunteer to manage the plots and stake them out are saints! HH has expanded. All the rows shifted away from the road which gives me about 12 good sized rows instead of 8. Still square footage-wise, the plot is smaller than most. That's ok because it is still plenty for me. I am happy, but may not feel as joyous when the weeds started to flourish.

On Saturday, after tilling just a couple of rows, I set out some fencing and by fencing I mean rebar woven through some plastic chicken coop plastic and shoved into the ground. Under that I planted snow peas and English peas. I know I'm a little late 'cause these treats like cooler weather. I had thought about planting them at the house in front of the blueberry bushes, but with the graduation party only weeks away, I didn't want that rather tacky contraption out for all to see. At the garden, it's fine. But it looks MacGuyver'd and I'm trying hard to get my yard looking good for Spring.
I also planted the rest of Caroline's pea seeds that are supposed to bush. And in a mad rush, I sprinkled some romaine, cosmic carrot, parsnip, dwarf carrot and radish seeds on a couple of rows.

Today, I ran out there to water and say a little prayer that we get the predicted rain, but not too much. The water has not been turned on yet. I hauled the watering can and a half of a bucket of water from the house. Yes, it sloshed in my van. And yes, my van is starting to smell....earthy. I also brought the rechargeable weed eater. I may bring that every time I come. Part of weed control, you know.
Once home I finished re-potting the tomato and pepper seedlings into bigger peat pots. I'll probably try getting those in the ground next week. Getting the corn in is Job One. I do not want to deal with worms like last year. Blech.

HH

Third year, and it's still exciting driving up and seeing the garden plowed and marked. I plan to get out early tomorrow to work a couple of rows and get peas, carrots, lettuce, radishes and onions in. 

Spring 2014

So excited to drive out to the garden and see the tractor cutting down the old growth and the plow turning the soil. Hopefully this means we could possibly be planting in a week or so. 

Mulch

Yesterday I spread 25 bags of leaves out at the garden. I hope all the wind we had today didn't blow them away. 

Thinking about Summer 2014

I've been thinking about how to plan the garden this year. 

I'm thinking corn in the northwest corner, tomatoes along the south. If we do two plots then peas and corn in the second plot. I'd like to try lettuce, onions, snap peas and spring plants in Mar./Apr., but it was so discouraging last year and this fall. 

This year is last chance for the corn. If it turns out like last year then I'll just buy mine at EasyWay.