ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Dec 21, 2017 3:36:07 GMT -5
Ok, thanks.
Now before I do too much damage, which wiki page are we using?
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Dec 21, 2017 0:05:22 GMT -5
I've got a bunch of pics but not sure how to add them.
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Nov 15, 2017 18:03:02 GMT -5
Yesterday I returned the last of the watermelons back to the garden, there was 2 dozen small ones left, most of them where half compost already.
Filled a 30-ish gallon pot 4/5 full of wood chips, applied 4 gallons of human sourced liquid fertilizer so the wood should have the nitrogen needed for decomp. Topped the pot off with compost and planted a hundred or so "white" (they looked yellow and orange to me) plum pits. Found a colony of feral plums this spring, don't know if it was genetics or location but they where loaded with fruit even though most stone fruit in the valley was lost to frosts. Picked a bunch, half where eaten fresh the other half got dried. Hopefully next year I'll have a good crop of plum seedlings to pick from. Did the same thing with apricots last year and got plenty of saplings, I should try it with apples and pears.
Today I finished cleaning up the "deciduous bounty" and applied it to the garden.
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Nov 4, 2017 3:17:03 GMT -5
I only shelled a few just to see, I only got a few dozen pods but it's a start. I put a pound or so of seed in the ground to get what I did, good thing they where bulk food from the market and not from some seed company.
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Nov 4, 2017 3:09:59 GMT -5
So Joseph, since that image is from last year, how did those behemoths do at seed production? I'm betting your going to get lots of inquiries about carrot seeds here soon.
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Nov 2, 2017 20:51:43 GMT -5
And yes I did get mature peanut seed!
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Nov 2, 2017 20:49:36 GMT -5
Busy day. Harvested sunflower heads and seeds, collected marigold and tree mallow seeds. Chopped up the sunflower stalks. Mowed down the garden, mulched up leaves and put them on the garden. Half tilled the garden.
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Oct 15, 2017 14:30:40 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't see how the moon phase would affect your planting schedule, unless of course you're a werewolf then It's totally understandable.
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Oct 9, 2017 2:47:26 GMT -5
Hmmm... root crops... oh oh, I know this one, there's licorice, sassafras, ginseng, hydrangea, ...ginger?.. no gingers a rhizome, uh... Nope can't think of any others at the moment.
Oh wait, those are flavorings and medicines not food, do they still count as crops?
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Oct 4, 2017 16:40:16 GMT -5
I started a new project this year, a landrace of storage melons. Only got 7 small fruit but it's a start. It was third times the charm for the peanuts, or at least they have pods this year, I'll find out if there seed in a few weeks when they're dry.
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Sept 25, 2017 14:43:28 GMT -5
I have it growing everywhere of it's own accord, lawn, beds, containers, garden, even after 40 years of conventional lawn and garden management, yep its a weed. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, four of the main "weeds" in my garden (lamb quarter, common mallow, red root amaranth, purslane) are edible and have more nutrition than the vegetables I grow. I have also inadvertently manged to introduce several kinds of flowers and a few vegetables as weeds in my garden.
The reasons why I intentionally planting it:
1. It's a legume. Legumes are important members of most terrestrial ecosystems even one as unnatural as the vegetable garden.
2. It attracts pollinators and predatory insects. I'm trying to encourage out-crossing in legumes, particularly lentils and chickpeas, so I'm offering the pollinators as much of an incentive as possible.
3. Ground cover. This one's a double edged sword, black medic will definitely smother small and young plants, good for keeping other "weeds" at bay, could be trouble for some vegetables. I found that tilling it sets it back enough for most crops to stay ahead of it, but I would keep it away from most non-tuber root crops, especially onions from seed.
That thing with the onions I learned the hard way this year, planted the onion seed next to the edge of the garden (the garden has no edging, tilled soil strait to lawn). The black medic in and seeded by the lawn had smothered the onions into dormancy by mid season, I was focused on other areas of the garden and didn't get to it in time.
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Sept 24, 2017 14:29:19 GMT -5
The growing season is pretty much over around here, Time for a couple of highlights. I planted the watermelons way too crowded, not sure what else I could do, trying to bred stuff with insufficient space. Got lots of small fruit, nothing over 5lbs, but there should have been a good mix of pollen floating around and lots of the fruit managed to reach maturity so the population is moving in a good direction. Had some problems, wilt, splitting, blossom end rot, most of which led to self elimination so good riddance. Frost harvest from a few days ago. The chickpeas ended up getting too weedy and not producing as well as they could have. Super excited 'cause I found my first hybrid chickpea, the speckled things on the left. Also found a few brown ones that are almost as big as the large tan variety, not sure if their hybrids too but they'll get there own spot next year.
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Jul 26, 2017 14:51:33 GMT -5
Monsoon season, rained for an hour this morning so I'm taking a rain day. some pic from a few days ago. First snap bean harvest Now for pics of this years crop of biomass Whats left of the shelling peas The other spring legumes The "corn" patch The beans are doing well Brassicas are not doing too hot, the aphids are real bad this year. Whats left of the other pea patch Watermelon patch, looks like I'll actually get some melons this year "potato" patch, the volunteer corn decided to pick up the slack for the other corn and I decided to let it. Most of the potatoes where dying back from early blight anyway.
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Jul 19, 2017 1:28:50 GMT -5
I'll admit it, I'm a lazy millennial (although the rest of my gen would disown me), and your right about gutting an animal, I might last a week or two longer than the rest of my pack. That second week would be due mostly to what I've learned here.
I've got a Flickr account now so... maybe some pics of this years crop of "biomass" soon.
|
|
ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
|
Post by ethin on Jul 17, 2017 16:08:20 GMT -5
Well steev you know how some of us feel about inputs.
Jokes aside, I've been busy... -ish. I don't post all that regular anyway, and what with photobucket banning external linking of images on free accounts my thread has become rather boring.
|
|