Happening Now

October, November, December 2013

11/21 – Garlic and Shallots have emerged and looking happy in wheat straw mulch. Except these onions and perennials, the rest is tilled and irrigation hoses coiled up. Still have Cilantro. Deer are in rut and keeping out of the garden, but mangling peach trees in orchard with new antlers. Saw two nice bucks last week. Neighbor has loosed Bobwhite quail and is feeding them.

10/9 – Getting beds ready for Garlic, Shallots and a seed bed for onions. Still getting green beans and okra.

• Planting
  • Garlic
  • Shallot
  • Seed onion for transplant in March
  • Leek (cultivate seedlings in small garden
• Harvest
  • Beans
  • Peppers
  • Okra
  • Herbs – shipped big box of Cilantro, Chive, Sage and Rosemary.
  • Sweet potatoes – planted late and did not produce
• Composting soil improvement
  • Turn piles
  • Begin new pile with okra stalks
  • Spread compost in onion patch.
  • Test soil and amend onion patch.
• Fencing – deer are getting in again. Bait with peanut butter again. Last treatment only lasted 3 weeks.

September

9/14 The melon patch is pulled up and in the compost. Getting 2 small boxes of beans per picking. Cucumbers have a white mildew or fungus. Treating them.

9/4  The fall pole beans and cucumbers are producing. The cucumbers are 1 foot or longer.

•  Harvesting:
  • Okra – picking daily. Late crop producing as first crop wanes.
  • Cucumber
  • Green Beans
  • Tomato – pruned heavily last month. Getting 2 box a week.
  • Melons – 185+ cantaloupe. 20 watermelon
  • Peppers – Picked 4 times.
• Prune blackberries
• Corn stalks ground up and mixed into compost pile
• Planning 2014 garden layout and varieties.
• Buy garlic bulbs and onion seeds. Maybe more shallots and leek seed?
• Prep onion and garlic beds.

 

 Past Months in 2013

January 2013

• Build seed starting enclosure in barn Awaiting shelving.
• order seeds
• Contact food pantries and find best to serve with produce (Other Options,…)
  Will introduce them to first crops. These people live in the now. They need not be bothered with ‘futures’.
• buy seed starting supplies (pots, markers, soil) need 4″ pots in Feb.
• Seed Starting (see a blog post on seed starting  and the seed starting enclosure)
  • onions (bought sets instead) and chives
  • cabbages
• install garden gates
• mulch roads in garden with pecan hulls
• buy composted steer manure
• test soil with sample from each zone (PH 6.8, Nitrogen little low, Phosphorus good, Potassium deficient) Adding 10-20-10 and Potash to beds.)

February 2013

• Buy deep sod breaker
• break garden
• buy blackberry, potato sets, scallion sets, herb plants (Sage, Rosemary, Oregano)
• Seed Starting
  • tomato grafting (Brandywine fruit with Colosus root stock) 50 plants each
  • risky tomatoes (risk early frost) 25 Celebrity & 25 Big Beef plants to plant on 3/15
  • Tomatoes
  • tomatillo  low germination. Trying again
• Till and amend early beds
• irrigate early beds
• Planting
  • onions
  • cabbages
  • asparagus
  • blackberry (cuttings rooting in enclosure)
• May use compost for mulching rows

March

Ouch! March will be a very busy month. Lots of seed starting and planting. Including planting some very early tomatoes which will be at risk from frost. Last year’s last frost was early March. Beds and trellis materials on site.

• Buy trellis materials
• Till, amend  and irrigate.
• Seed Starting
  • Peppers: Bell, Poblano Jalapeno
  • Melons (plant as seed next month)
• Plant
  • Cabbage
  • Carrot
  • Dill
  • Peas
  • Potatoes (Irish and russets)
  • Early Tomatoes (risking frost)
  • Rhubarb (not suitable for this garden)
  • Strawberries (if transplants have not done well)
    

   

April

The garden is really taking shape. Garlic is 18 inches tall, strawberries are blooming and setting fruit. Asparagus and potatoes are emerging. The rye grass clover field that surrounds the garden looks fair. Maybe will add another grass to the mix. Wet and cold weather are delaying planting.

• Plant –
  • Tomatoes – mulch rows
  • Summer Squash
  • Peppers – plastic mulch for Bell peppers
  • Tomatillo – mulch row
  • Cantaloupe
  • Watermelon
  • Basil
  • Corn
  • Okra – mulch after emergence
  • Sunflower along border
• Build Trellis
  • Peppers and Tomatillo (stakes are cut)
  • Peas (and same used later for Beans and Cucumber) Looks good.
  • Tomato (build spiral stakes with heavy wire and support with T-posts) Nice work Adrian!
• Find and test plastic mulch under peppers
• Buy row covers for squash
• Turn both compost piles into one. Start new pile.

May

Cultivating the garden will be the biggest chore. Pulling weeds, tilling, mulching, pruning, pest management.

• Planting
  • Corn
  • Peppers
  • Tomatillo
  • Squash
  • Okra
  • melons
  • Rosemary
  • Basil
• Harvesting may start late May
  • Peas – picking fourth time today!
  • Cabbage – follow with clover – 6/6 need one more week – must pick before heat comes.
• Side dress tomatoes with chicken litter compost – done June 5
• Side dress corn with nitrogen – volunteers weed, feed and hill the corn!
• Build a wash stand (a place to wash and rinse veggies like carrot, potato)

 

June

6/28/13: Just shipped 9 boxes to Other Options! Bobby picked it up. Yeah! Squash, and the last of the onion, peas and garlic.

6/15/13: Garlic and onion harvest looks very nice. Harvested 18 heads of Rubicon cabbage. It needs a home or refrigeration. The heads are about 3-4 pounds each.

With the late planting several crops will not be ready this month. Tomatoes, Okra, and peppers are behind schedule. Heavy rain (15 inches last 30 days) has disrupted volunteer activities and is making cultivation difficult. Squash and Okra both should be re-planted.

• Harvesting and crop succession
  • Peas – followed with Beans and Cucumber – got 70-80 pounds of peas.
  • Squash – getting a few squash. High wind and standing water killed all but 4 vines.
  • New Potatoes (35 pounds harvested 6/21) – follow with clover – 6/6 new potatoes not ready
  • Carrot – follow with 2 rows of Okra
  • Early Tomato (crop failed in April frost)
  • Tomatillo
  • Okra
  • Cabbage – follow with clover
  • Onions (150 pounds harvested)

    

    Box of fresh onion

    – follow with squash (More yellow summer squash and winter acorn squash).

  • Garlic – follow with cilantro – got excellent garlic harvest of 70 heads of softneck. Will get another 20 heads of stiffneck which is ready now 6/15.
  • Pepper
• Build trellis for peppers
• Heavy mulch on black berry and add trellis posts
• Build benches from cedar logs for under elm

July

7/7 – Cut some Okra yesterday – the first pods were ripe. It will need picking every other day. Melons, corn and potatoes look really fine.

7/23 – The corn harvest was really nice. We got 225 ears that shipped. They are very tasty (chickens are eating the sub-par ears). Got 5 Burpee PMT cantaloupes today! there are 30 or so in the field + 30 Heart of Gold and 10 Crimson Sweet watermelons. Yeah! First pepper harvest is tomorrow. All varieties are productive. We will make our biggest shipments this week!!!

7/26 – Just after our largest shipment ever yesterday, today we picked 20 more melons. You must tight-rope walk in the patch to avoid stepping on melons. The Heart of Gold cantaloupe is 1/3 the size of the Burpee PMT but deliciously sweet. Picking watermelon too.

• Harvesting
  • Sweet Corn! – Shipped 200+ ears – I wonder how many bushels this is? (answer: 4 bushels)
  • Tomatoes – finally! Getting lots of Juliet and Big Beef. Brandywine is sluggish.
  • Peppers – nice first picking of 4 full boxes – they loved compost mulch – grade A+ quality!
  • Squash –  is done. Squash bugs, wind and floods. Next round ready in August

  • 

    Ripe PMT cantaloupe.

    Okra – slow start, but growing fast.

  • Cantaloupe – counted 30 PMTs and 30 Heart of Gold and more coming. One PMT vine has 7 melons!
  • Potatoes – Red Norlands have done best. Harvest and cover with clover. Shipping last harvest of French Fingerlings and Reds 7/23
  • Tomatillos – slow steady production
• Trellis
  • Bell Peppers
  • Blackberry
• Heavy mulch every isle in perennial garden (what mulch? wheat straw would work)
• Fertilize strawberries and okra with nitrogen
• Spray corn and tomatoes for worms
• Composting:
  • Turn oldest compost pile. One more turn after that and it will be ready to put down as mulch
  • The newest pile is very hot. Turn it in August.
  • Build new pile.
• Did some earth work to divert upper pasture run-off away from the garden.

 August

8/29 – Picked 5 boxes of peppers! Cucumbers and pole beans are coming. Original Okra is peaking as second crop begins blooming and producing. The melons continue to amaze me. Picking 5 to 10 a day. Second squash planting is fading (ate up with squash bugs).

8/21 – Fall cucumbers are setting fruit and climbing the trellis. Picked 3 boxes of peppers, 2 box bell peppers and balance Jalapenos, Pablano and a few Serrano. Okra is picked very day. Getting 5 melon per day.

8/17 – Fall beans, squash and okra are nearing production. The beans and okra are blooming and the squash is producing nice daily harvest. Getting 1/2 basket of tomatoes per day too. More than half are rotten from the damp. Snakes in tomatoes (eating mice who are eating tomatoes). Yikes, we need some pruning!

• Harvesting:
  • Okra – picking daily small amounts. Late crop blooming (another 100 feet).
  • Tomato – staking failure. Much of crop on the ground.
  • Melons – 150+ cantaloupe. 15 watermelon
  • Peppers – Stunning crop. Picked 4 times.
  • Tomatillos – wormy, getting very few quality fruit. They need more space and are jammed in between Okra and Melons.
• Composting:
  • Turn oldest compost pile. One more turn after that and it will be ready to put down as mulch
  • The newest pile is very hot. Turn it.
  • Build new pile.
• Earth work: add soil in low areas in perimeter.
• Mulch perennial area.
• Trellis Blackberry vines