|
Post by oldmobie on May 20, 2014 15:58:54 GMT -5
After 1 hour and 10 minutes of sprinkling the 3rd location of the new garden, we went out to plant watermelons and found this: I should have anticipated (but didn't) the water leaves the hydrant at the same gallons per hour, but arrives at greatly reduced pressure, sprinkling a much smaller area. Same volume, smaller delivery area = faster accumulation (per square foot of ground). My watering duration per location will have to be much lower. I'll just have to move the sprinkler more often. The watermelons got planted. Eleven "hills" in one row. Three seeds per hill. Crimson Sweet: hills 1 & 7 My cross (Black Diamond X Volunteer): hills 2, 4, 6, 8 & 10 Yellow (no name given): hills 3 & 9 (4 per hill) Black Diamond: hills 5 & 11 My own saved seed in every second hill to maximize crossing.
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 19, 2014 21:43:30 GMT -5
First half of the day spent fixing the hydrant the old garden is built around. More time consuming than hard, since my wife did most of the work, mainly needing me to tell her what to do. The steel pipe was cracked below the elbow, and I was afraid we'd have to dig out the whole pipe, or get a plumber who could re-thread it in the ground. Turns out it was a 3" nipple coming from a tee. If the hydrant was in the ground as deep as it was designed to be, or a shorter one was installed, the parts wouldn't break. There's just too much leverage. But I last dug it around 20-25 years ago. If it lasts that long this time, my boys can dig it next time. To hopefully help stabilize it, we picked up a u-bolt and about 2 feet of slotted angle iron for a sort of anchor. I put it parallel to the pipe that the elbow screws to. Not sure if I should have turned it. Or added another, 90° to the first. The carpet and wood chips for the butterfly garden were finished today. Lost the light. May post a pic tomorrow. Started watering the corn in the new garden. Turns out I had enough hose. At that distance, the pressure is terrible. I'm watering about a 15' circle. I'll have to reposition the sprinkler 4 times to finish the 4 rows of corn. I'm trying 2 hours per position. I'll have to put out the rain guage and see if I'm watering an inch or not. Planning to plant watermelons tomorrow next to the corn. Seriously considering pumpkins and/or squash in the walkways between the corn, but wonder if I shouldn't wait to plant them until the corn is up a bit. I'll research it first. Think I'll soak my watermelon seeds overnight. Edit: a google search indicated that watermelons don't like long soaking. Apparently they can drown, or be more susceptable to fungus? So I soaked 'em 1 hour. We'll see how that goes.
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 18, 2014 17:42:15 GMT -5
One thing to consider, a lot of feed corn is GMO. Good call. Threw 'em out. I won't knowingly incorporate anything patented, copyrighted, propagation prohibited or unnatural. Then if I come up with anything worth sharing, everybody can feel good about taking it, and I won't need a disclaimer.
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 18, 2014 17:17:12 GMT -5
Scratch that. Dog found 'em.
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 18, 2014 17:00:11 GMT -5
Still got the bunnies... Planted 4 50' rows of sweet corn 3' apart. Row 1: (on the north) Golden Bantam Cross on the west, assortment from a GardenWeb trade on the east (Stowell's, Hooker's & True Platinum) Row 2: My own saved seed from Peaches & Cream and Ambrosia, grown together and allowed to cross Row 3: Astronomy Domine Row 4: (on the south) LISP Ashworth I'm hoping to cross up all of my sweet corn genetics and start building myself a landrace. My wife wants a seperate planting of the P&C and Ambrosia to have a harvest of all SE. I'm planning a seperate, similar planting of decorative corns (pop, flint/ flour, dent), as well as a mass cross planting, my red/ white/ blue popcorn project, and an attempted cross between an Oaxacan flour corn and a short season sweet corn.
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 18, 2014 0:23:58 GMT -5
I found 7 viable looking corn seeds (as opposed to the broken ones) on the loading dock at a local farm store today. I picked 'em up to put in a "mass cross" area with samples of my other corns. I noticed some red streaking later, so I thought I'd show you. Only the one kernel has the same type of marking as yours, but a few of the others had a reddish discoloration. I'm sure this was intended as animal feed, and wasn't meant to be anything special.
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 17, 2014 23:44:58 GMT -5
Finished planting the tunnel today. Triumpho Violetto beans X 6, Rattlesnake beans X 2, Top Crop X 8, Contender X 8, Kentucky Wonder beans X 8, my own saved cucumber (Boston Pickling / Burpless, grown together and allowed to cross.) X 1, Joseph's landrace cucumber X 1, my own saved watermelon (Black Diamond / volunteer, grown together and allowed to cross.) X 1, Crimson Sweet X 1. Started taming the pasture area annexed for the new garden today. Staked off a 12' X 50' plot and mowed it (and the area around it) to the ground with a "DR" type trimmer. Sowed a pound of Dutch White clover seed. (I should probably google the recommended rate for that!) Plan is to plant it tomorrow with sweet corn 18" apart in rows spaced 36" apart. While teaching my boys to use the trimmer, my 10 year old uncovered a rabbit's nest with it. Can't imagine how we failed to kill any. One got scared, ran out of the nest, spotted my son, and ran repeatedly into the back of the trimmer while I yelled for him to shut it off. I can't imagine the trauma / drama to a 10 year old boy from having a baby bunny die bloody at your own hand! So as a precaution, I put 3 more stakes around the nest so we wouldn't kill the little fellas. On the other hand, they gotta go! Here's hopin' the mother moves 'em to quieter digs tonight.
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 16, 2014 23:39:43 GMT -5
South blocks at west end: added oregano today. Cattle panel arched trellis (AKA "the tunnel"): attached landscape timbers horizontally to bottom of panels, to prevent mulch from spilling into sidewalk. (Trellis runs above an old sidewalk, forming the floor of the tunnel.) Now we can mulch up to the panels, and keep the mulch in place. Planted 6 tomatoes at south end of tunnel. 1)Yellow slicer* 2)Yellow Pear* 3)Yellow slicer* 4)"Roma"* 5)Yellow slicer* 6)Beef Master *I WinterSowed these, not knowing the compost in the mel's mix I used was contaminated with seeds. All of my peas and peppers, as well as some of my moss rose, broccoli, cauliflower and collards looked suspiciously like tomatoes and lamb's quarter. These tomatoes were transplanted from the jugs where I sowed yellow slicer, Yellow Pear, and a tomato that was kind of an oblong blimp kind of shape I decided is a roma. They'll be tomatoes at any rate. Next time I buy walmart compost, I think I'll sterilize it. The Beef Master is store-bought. Each planting hole amended with compost and powdered eggshell. My wife read somewhere that tomatoes love calcium.
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 15, 2014 21:33:32 GMT -5
More salad greens today. Red lettuce finally big enough to harvest a little. Planted herbs in south concrete blocks at west end of garden Tuesday. Parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme & purple basil. (I know. I used to listen to the oldies station. That may be the song that broke me of it. Or "Monday, Monday". Or "Walkin' on Broken Glass".) Planted flowers in south blocks on east end today. Marigolds and moss rose. All from seed, except for WinterSown moss rose from one jug. No pics. Boys and I went into the old chicken pen, tossed around some buckwheat seed and cut all the weeds and sassafrass saplings down. I want to start using buckwheat as a smother crop. The plan is to use the chicken pen as a seed increase area. Since I don't garden in there, if it becomes a self seeding nuissance, it doesn't mean I have to fight it in the garden.
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 13, 2014 21:15:37 GMT -5
Sowed the last 4 squares of the NW bed today. Mixed lettuce, swiss chard, and mustard, mixed together. Also finished re-seeding radishes in NE bed. Noticed what I think are seed pods on my Michihili Cabbage. May be in time to try again right away. I'll have to google how to know when they're ready, and whether they have to be stratified. Put sweet peppers in an old WinterSown jug that only produced crabgrass. (I pulled it out.) Don't know what they'll make, they're from a store bought pepper that looked like a jalapeño, but tasted like a bell pepper without the bitterness.
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 12, 2014 19:07:55 GMT -5
Started re-seeding radishes today. Did the squares marked in red, then stopped because of the storm coming in. First potatoes just starting to peak out. I think they weren't coming up because they were too dry. I was hand watering until I noticed they were dry every time I checked. So I sprinkled once and here they come, 5 days later. One rhubarb coming up. Don't know yet if the other is alive. Prepping for Mrs oldmobie's butterfly garden. Woodchips over old carpet to kill the grass. One climbing rose planted in the far corner so far. The old swing set will host a porch swing, a climbing rose, a mandavilla, and some window box style plantings.
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 12, 2014 17:46:14 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 11, 2014 22:32:44 GMT -5
"Second harvest" of radishes today. (I don't know how others do it, my wife harvests the ones she thinks are big enough, then checks again in a few days. Second harvest is from the same planting as the first. Estimate 25% remain planted.) I was going to leave several for seed production, but realized today I'd be selecting for slower growth. New plan: a second planting, this time either mark several of the first to mature and leave them in place, or transplant some of first harvest to a seed production bed.
We had one 4'X 4' square foot bed going to waste, with just 2 squares of onions and the rest in weeds. So we put out more greens, and a few side by side trials.
North row: peas. Two squares of mixed store-bought on the east, two of Joseph's Landrace Shelling Peas on west. Next row south: West square: Spinach Mustard. Other 3 squares: mixed collards. Next row south: Still empty. Ran out of light. Probably will plant lettuce, chard, mustard, or some combination. South row: 2 west squares: already planted in onions. Next square east: Joseph's Landrace Spinach. Last (se) square: mixed store-bought spinach.
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 9, 2014 20:48:22 GMT -5
First radish harvest today! Second cutting of lettuce. First of spinach and collards.
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 2, 2014 20:54:44 GMT -5
Wintersowing is not appropriate for crops which are triggered into flowering by cold temperatures... I don't know all the crops and cultivars that fit into that category, but if I plant carrots too early they germinate and then go immediately to seed. I gotta wait to plant them until things are slightly warmer. I've also had early bolting happen with beets. Perhaps this Chinese cabbage has a similar response to cold. So I'll see if I have any more seed. If I do, maybe I'll try again, now that I expect the nights will stay warmer. Edit / update: I did a google search and found that this cabbage can be triggered to bolt if it has prolonged exposure to temps below 50°F. Or warm temps. Or if you transplant it. (I did.) Or if you let it's growth slow by only giving it moderate water. I'm kind of amazed it's ever formed a head for anyone. Maybe by saving my own seed I can adapt it. Or let it breed to something slower bolting.
|
|