PNW: May 2014

Some of my lettuce in my mesclun mix wilted badly in yesterday's 95 degree heat, as is to be expected. But my red romas are doing so well I think I'll plant them next year too. Marvel of Four Seasons tiny lettuce seedlings seem to have started growing more quickly during the last two hot days, and not in a bad way that I can tell. Same with toy choi. Lamb's lettuce has bolted, but I'm still getting leaves out of most of it. Bolting doesn't turn them bitter, either. Nevertheless, I uprooted it and put it, with some soil, out back in the wild hills. If it lives and/or reseeds itself, cool by me. But now it's time to turn that big deep pot over to a bush tomato.

Got a bunch of wire baskets at the dollar store. I'm going to be trying to use those regularly in hopes that they discourage moles and gophers when they bump into them. Even if nothing gets eaten, the holes are so disruptive, and so is the uprooting those critters do. I'll plant my lettuce and cabbage in the wire baskets, then sink the baskets into the ground. I think I may leave an inch above ground and pour mulch into it.

I got a comfrey leaf from the school garden last week and stuck it in a small pot filled with compost. It isn't dead yet, so I figure it must be growing roots. It's supposedly such a fantastic and versatile plant that I'd like to see if I can plant it around in the wilds behind the house and come harvest it here and there.

 we had a gorgeous week of warmth and sun!

our cucumbers are up   along with most of the beans!

we had to re-sow our Painted Mountain corn out in our 3 sisters SFG bed that was growing so nice in with our spinach and lettuce.....well....once we harvested all of the radishes, spinach and lettuce.....trying to give the corn more light....guess who showed up and took out all but 4 seedlings??....our local RAT...we think it was the rats but could be any critter that lives around us....blah....hubby was suppose to cover this bed, but it got late and we thought all would be ok until the next day....ooops!

we will soon be collecting seeds from last years kale   

carrots in the green house and containers are doing good....not so great in the SFG beds....I believe due to germination & critter problems...we replanted so we shall see.....

sugar snap peas are flowering!

newly sown radishes, lettuce & spinach in containers are up and doing well

some of the potatoes in our back garden have flower buds on them   

everything else seems to be growing great (celery, onions, broc, cauli, cabbage, bok choi, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, artichokes, strawberries, raspberries, huckleberries, blueberries)

will try and get some photos up this week   

hope you all are doing well and enjoying our good weather!

hugs
rose

Wow, you have a lot of stuff growing.

I think bugs or birds must be eating my kale seeds. Something is picking off the pods or whatever. I wonder if I have any daikon pods left. I want to leave some on the plant to ripen fully so I can collect the seeds, but I don't know if the critters will save me any.

Most of my stuff is still in 4 inch or 1-gallon pots awaiting transplant. Most is behind the house, where it is a bit sheltered from winds and the worst of either heat or cold. It's all hardened off nicely, but the place I want to transplant it to, my neighbor's garden, can be ten degrees cooler than my place, and we're due for lows in the 40's again. So ... most of my stuff is on hold until the soil is more reliably warm. I think by the middle of next week we'll be a longer-term warming tend and it may be worth planting up some beans and cukes, and transplanting my tomatoes and peppers etc. I may transplant some chard tomorrow, though. Chard likes cold.

This burst of temps in the 90's last week really set my peas to growing nicely. I hope they can adapt back to night-time 40's without stressing too much. I'm dying to eat some fresh peas! Not that I have any flowers yet.

I had to move some of them out of the dog kennel where I grow most of my stuff at home, as it's time for them to start climbing something and I don't want to disturb them after they've latched on to the chain link fence around the kennel. I'll be clearing about half the kennel out over the next month because in about a month we'll be getting a new dog and keeping her in there at times. I hope to be able to wall the doggy off from half the kennel and continue to grow in pots there.

Marc, can you get hold of some pantyhose or muslin or something? 

You could tie it over your seed heads & pods so they don't run or fly off with something.

Hmm, I wonder if the dollar store sells pantyhose ... thanks for the suggestion.

Walmart sells cheap panty hose and knee highs.  The knee highs might work better for your purpose.  And I believe the Dollar Store might too.  Also another use for tulle cut into squares and tied around the seed pods.  I did that for my redbor kale one time.

Kay

Excited about this year!  We have added several more boxes/containers and have a little greenhouse.  I sure learned a lot from you folks last year and am off and running for a new garden adventure!!

This year we have planted:  various flowers, corn, watermelon, canteloupe, collards, several types of lettuce, spinach, carrots, celery, green/red bunching onions, kale, arugala, strawberries, red/white potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut/acorn/yellow/zucchini squash, beets, brussel sprouts, 2 types of green beans and peas, cauliflower, broccoli, red/green cabbage, red/sweet onions, shallots, asparagus, artichokes, raddish, 6 kinds of peppers, 7 kinds of tomatoes, ........

blueberries, grapes, and of course the apple and cherry trees.

We have already had some salads and broccoli from the garden.    

Sounds like you are all off and running too!!

Holy cow, you planted a ton of stuff! Sounds like you're going to have a lot of variety and volume this coming year. Best of luck to you!

At the neighbor's garden where I plant most of my stuff, I see that green pickle worms have really done a number on two of my brussels sprouts in just a day or two since I've been there. Last time I was there, I squashed some between my fingers and inspected the plants very carefully. Shoulda put some BT on them. Will tomorrow after double-checking whether anything else is any better. If I recall correctly, some cabbage family plants supposedly react very poorly to hot pepper or garlic sprays, but I don't remember which ... Those BS's went in last fall and have yet to show a sprout. They look great, but I wonder what they're waiting for. Probably to bolt.

I transplanted four Marvel of Four Seasons lettuce, three toy choi, a few rainbow chard, and maybe ... half a dozen? perpetual chard that I'm hoping will hold up through the summer season. I've got them in a hoop house, but it's the winter weight cloth. I know it will keep out some sun, but not too much (both good things!), and with our flee beetles, pickle worms, cabbage moths, and birds and rabbits (lots of rabbits this year!) and critters of all types, I don't think I'll have a crop without keeping it completely covered all the time. I may go looking for some tulle, though. I had the impression that may be more breathable than most covering cloths.

A neighbor gave me three extra tomato starts. They're from seeds she got from Baker Creek -- "Tomato Blueberry." Small blue cherry tomatoes. I'm not sure how thrilled I am with the "small" part, but I'll try them. Dunno what the point of being blue is when they're not ripe till they're red! Maybe they should call them "Temporary Blueberry." At least it rhymes.

She also gave me two "orange glow" watermelon seedlings. I've never grown watermelons before, but had lousy luck with all squash besides patty pan last year. Maybe I can make a go of it with these?

I'm sterilizing some starter trays so I can plant up some more toy choi and MO4S lettuce, as well as some marigolds. I'm way overdue for marigolds! Also some more borage and some malabar spinach. After germination (should I be so lucky), I'll put them out into the garden when it looks a bit more like summer. I'm a little confused about the malabar spinach, since it says it's a summer crop but also says that it blooms in summer. Durrr ... I hope that means the leaves still taste okay in summer.

Oh, I also have to check if it's too late to start plants from the package of "Pineapple Tomatillos" I got a while ago.

Lonely comfrey leaf is still surviving in its small pot, but nothing new is sprouting up from the ground yet.

Woops they're not pickle worms.

So what are they?  Don't leave us in suspense!!!

I've never heard of a pickle worm, so I went looking for pictures.

Which led me to this picture:



Marc, just in case you do some canning this summer, here's a ready-made jar label for you!

(With permission from Marc, of course.)

Surely Marc's referring to cabbage worms? Or cabbage loopers they're also called? They've finally hit my broccoli's. No matter since all my broccoli bolted with the last heat wave.

My peas are blooming! The girls are excited. I'm impressed with how well my new trellises held them up. And I'm thankful for the crazy heavy rain we got Saturday night for re-saturating my mix for me that I'd let dry out. Doesn't pay to neglect watering duties with Mel's Mix folks.

boffer wrote:I've never heard of a pickle worm, so I went looking for pictures.

I have had pickle worms each of the last 3 summers.  They are little green worms that bore into the fruit and make it unappetizing.  From research, the best way to combat them is to cover with a row cover or tulle.  Of course you have to take the cover off for pollination.  The eggs are laid in the late afternoon so you can cover at that time and leave uncovered in the morning (or so the literature says).  Or you can raise the kind od pickles that do not need pollinators (can't remember the name though).  I think that is why I bought those little Persian pickles although I have not been covering them.

Imported cabbage worms, I'm figuring. Though they're a brighter, yellower green than the pics I've seen -- more like the color of the caterpillars of the diamondback moth. They're very small and thin; I think I may have bumped into them as babies the two or three times I saw them. Their segments are too small to distinguish from each other, making them look more like a worm than a caterpillar. Didn't see any today, and it's been raining off and on so I didn't want to waste neem or insecticidal soap or BT on the leaves just to have it wash right off. I'll have to check very actively though, or even re-cover those brussels sprouts. Luckily I don't need them pollinated.

I did transplant two of my better bush tomatoes into the beds today. Repotted a lot of starters into 4-inch pots too, and some 4-inchers into gallon pots. They were overdue, but it's still too cold nights for some of the stuff to go in the ground. I'd rather just hold off till it's warmer.

Planted seeds from malabar spinach, more MO4S lettuce, and more toy choi. I don't have any basil or marigolds planted yet, and I need to get on that already. The basil I seeded earlier either didn't germinate or failed after germination -- too cold. But now it's time.

For how small the toy choi is supposed to get (5 inches), how many people want to eat it, and how close you supposedly can crowd it, I need to plant a lot more of it. I saw the ones I transplanted into the beds at my neighbor's place just the other day, under a hoop -- wow, they really took off even in that short space of time.

Stuck a bunch of thin bamboo poles into the pots I'm growing peas in, slotting them through the chain link fence behind to make an impromptu trellis. Punched a few holes right through the burlap bag a bunch of them are in. Guess they degrade fast enough that a second season with them requires care. I'll have to remember that if I wind up moving them -- don't want the bottoms to collapse out from under me! They're a square foot each, filled almost to the top, and that's a lot of soil to lose or have to clean up.

I know I'm supposed to, but I haven't been able to make myself pinch off the fruits on my new strawberry plants.

Marc if it makes you feel any better we don't pinch off any of our flowers on strawberries.....anything can happen to them....from now until next year... so we rather get something out of them and then hope for better the next year and so far it has worked out great for us   

hugs
rose

Thanks, Rose. I hope I have as much success as you do. All the strawberries but one look to have taken to their beds very well. The berries are tiny, but that's because I wasn't expecting them to produce many yet and have been letting them get watered only lightly by our light rains the last week. Maybe if I water them more, the berries will get bigger. Lots of learning to do -- I haven't grown strawberries since I was a kid.

Grrr, ants are chowing down big time on my strawberries. But only at one end of the planter. Hope they don't spread. And the little buggers are making like birds, eating half of one and then half of another instead of just eating one and leaving me one!

Transplanted a Better Bush tomato today, and two indeterminates. Could be either jubilee or big beef; I don't know because those were part of my crew of pots I labeled with ink that the rain washed away. D'oh! Also transplanted four small Golden Wonder peppers, a cuke simply called "Burpless," direct-seeded about a dozen dragon tongue bush beans and put row cover over them to keep the birds off, direct-seeded about a half dozen Armenian cucumbers, and transplanted two Red Ruffles basil plants. That variety was just outstanding last year, an incredible trooper, really vigorous, performing through a record hot summer and right up to snowfall without bolting or having any real trouble with bugs or disease or even blight.

Yesterday I bought two tomatillo plants. I'm going to grow them in 5-gallon containers this time, since they spread so wide over a raised bed. I'll just put them somewhere sunny, out of the way. Got a big bag of very nice vermiculite, too, so I'll have to mix up some new MM with it for the 5-gallon containers.

Also, two of my elephant garlics bolted. I snapped off the seed stalks. I don't think it's been more than two or three days since it formed the flower bud. I've never grown elephant garlic before. As a member of the onion family, I guess this means the bulbs will stop growing now. I wonder if I should pull them out of the ground or if there's any point to leaving them in. The leaves are all big, green, and vibrant, and I had been thinking you're supposed to harvest them when they fall over.

Transplanted five more tomato plants today, four more peppers.

In their permanent homes, so far I have 10 tomato plants, 8 peppers, a few bok choy, maybe 60 peas(none flowering), two cucumbers, a dozen lettuces, 8 miserable spinaches, five red brussels sprouts (3 getting slaughtered by worms), three pod-producing daikons, something around a hundred onions of varying types, a horseradish, five elephant garlics, daikon radishes and kales going to pod, various herbs, and a half dozen swiss chards.

I've also got some flowers going, including a speedwell/Veronica that looks quite happy but is neither growing any taller nor putting out any flowers even though it's been in the ground for months. Hope at least it's getting some good root growth.

In pots awaiting permanent transplant are a dozen more swiss chards, half a dozen more tomatoes, three tomatillos, two watermelons, and a few things I can't even identify. Seeded into starter pots are malabar spinach, more lettuce, and shiso. Direct sown in the ground are a half dozen more cucumber and a dozen bean plants, to be followed soon by more.

I'm glad most of my real digging in the ground and churning up soil are done.

Marc, if it's any consolation, I share my strawberries with pill bugs. They take a big chunk out of almost every one and I get the rest.

What kind of temperatures are you folks experiencing? Yolos seems to be the only one with weather info at the bottom of the post.

CC

High 40's to low-to-mid 80's, but every week is pretty different. A week or so ago we had mid 40's(or slightly lower) to 95+! Not a lot of rain even though we've had a number of days predicting it; when we see it, it's almost always quick, light sprinkles.

Marc sounds like your gardening is growing!! You have a ton of stuff and I love all your updates!!....also love the pic from Boffer for your pickling jars!

We have had a bit of rain off and on.......and still our weather is staying warm....a bit muggy and I found one leaf with Powder Mildew on one of our squash plants...eek!..its to early for that   

sometimes I feel like this garden year isn't doing as much as last year.....but...I took a look today and refected on the last week or so and in fact our gardens are doing very well   there has been a few disappointments with starting our own seedlings and with a bunch of carrots that never came up....so we re-sown some carrots and did buy a bunch of seedling starts to replace what we lost.....I guess when you have a square foot garden there just isn't much work to do after you get things planted.... so it feels like you are not doing much with the garden.....LOL

All of the Painted mountain corn seedlings are up in the green house along with a bunch of beans and sunflowers.....will be transplanting the beans and sunflowers out front soon and this time we will cover our SFG BED #1 to keep those pesty critters out of our corn !

sugar snap peas have little peas on them!......our roses are in bloom.....the garlic is getting tall and looking very good.....we have TONs of green strawberries, raspberries and blueberries....we are also getting some small heads on our broccoli....so excited as I didn't think we were going to get any because our bok choy bolted already and our cabbages look so small....but after this last rain the broccoli bed exploded in growth   still iffy of the cauliflower.....

want to get to our local nursery this weekend, they are having a sale and we still need to pick up some acorn squash, as ours never sprouted, a couple more pepper plants....a sorrel plant as the ones our son planted came up but something ate them all...he is very disappointed.....so I hope the nursery still has some left.....and im sure we will find a few more veggie plants to bring home   

a neat little story   

in our back garden we have a couple of corn beds.....well in one we put down straw as a mulch and are growing potatoes with the corn as a companion experiment.....

the second bed we planted just corn....well to our surprise there is volunteer potatoes left over from last year growing and a bunch of radishes and some grass that came as a volunteer from the chicks brooder wood shavings that we thru out on top of that bed....the grass is from seeds that the chicks didn't eat and the radishes are from saved seeds from last year that I thru in for the chicks to peck at and didn't even think that they would grow because they had been sitting out in a bucket all thru the winter.....they are the best looking radishes we have ever grown LOL   

hubby, kids and I all said wouldn't it be cool to just toss a bunch of seeds up into the air and see what happens in that bed   maybe for fun we should do that for this fall planting in one of those bigger beds.....we want to grow some stuff for the chickens anyways and it would be fun to see what happens   

happy gardening
rose

Rose, I always thought it would fun to do something like that, to landrace squash.

And you're going to cover your corn? Wow ... how are you going to cover such a tall crop? Bird netting I suppose? But still, what will you drap the cover over/fix the cover on?

Marc Iverson wrote:Rose, I always thought it would fun to do something like that, to landrace squash.

And you're going to cover your corn?  Wow ... how are you going to cover such a tall crop?  Bird netting I suppose?  But still, what will you drap the cover over/fix the cover on?

  we are only going to cover the new baby seedlings with garden fabric over hoops until they get taller....the rats can sniff out the new seedlings and will pull them straight out to get to the corn that is at the bottom of the seedling....once they are about a foot tall we will take off the covering....but will have to figure something out when its close to harvesting because then the rats and other critters come back to harvest.....we are thinking an electric fencing of some type.....

happy gardening
rose