misadventures of Little Minnie (Tamara)

[littleminnie]

They are mostly Asian Lady beetles which are plentiful this time of year.

[zeedman]

Sept 29, 2013 22:04:33 GMT -5 littleminnie said:

They are mostly Asian Lady beetles which are plentiful this time of year.

Yes, they are out here too, and hungry. Any fruit which has been bird pecked gets swarmed by ladybugs & yellowjackets. They are not just hungry for fruit, either... got bitten today for the first time this year. The darned things bite HARD.

[littleminnie]

I feel they bite because they are thirsty.

[littleminnie]

I checked out a new market this evening. I work on Mondays and plan on possibly altering my job and accommodating this market. It was underwhelming in a way but at least I am not intimidated like I thought I would be.

[steev]

I *on't know wh*t you'* *in* intimi**ting.

[littleminnie]

I had thought some of the vendors were large operations.

[littleminnie]

Well by the end of the season my low tunnel plans were not epic fails anymore.
I have been working on low tunnels of various types. Windy and cold week; not fun for putting on row cover alone. I am tired from carrying blocks and sandbags all week.

Here are two low tunnels made with EMT I bent with my foot. I had these pieces on late tomatoes, basil and eggplant and then moved to kale and spinach beds. The background one has two layers of row cover and the foreground one had it put on after the pic. Also can see several of the wire hoops with row cover.


Here is the successful (?) low tunnel I worked on all summer. I know it annoyed everyone but I wanted it to span 2 beds so 9 feet at the base but yes EMT is 10 feet long, not 13 feet. I monkeyed around with attaching it to rebar pieces and sliding it into tubing sleeves. The tubing is much firmer when cold and the rebar and EMT finally got along and affixed firmly. I also made support sleeves for the connection out of heavy duty 1 inch tubing. This now has a thin row cover on and I am debating opening my greenhouse film package and using it. I don't want to have anything bad happen to it and want to use it in spring so I am afraid to try it now.


The extra tubing purchased this spring and extra rebar was made into these mini hoops. These now have old clear plastic on them. All beds but one are covered with row cover and most have 2 layers. I am about out of weights and need to fill more sandbags for the last bed. Something like 26 beds are covered and still growing.

[littleminnie]

Check this out.

Sunchokes growing right inside a potato. I had to snap it to separate it.

[richardw]

Thought it was Yacon when i first saw it

[littleminnie]

It got down to 11 degrees here Tuesday morning so when I picked for market Thursday afternoon I wasn't sure which crops would make it even under row cover. Mizuna under one layer got touched enough to be unpickable. Napa under 2 layers was ok but outside leaves were damaged. Chard under 2 layers seems about done but a few inner leaves were fresh. Most lettuce under 2 layers was ok but some of the outside leaves died. Broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower was not dead but was soft. I didn't get a chance to check beets. Kale, spinach, tatsoi, arugula and bok choy were all quite good under 2 layers and have shown growth. Pea shoots under 2 layers were still alive and delicious. Turnips in the open didn't look great leaf-wise but were pickable. Carrots and parsnips were fine as well as leeks and scallions. Parsley, dill and cilantro under 1 layer were fine but had no growth. I plan on another picking of greens and carrots.

[littleminnie]

This morning I was watching PBS some show like Chefs a Field or similar. They had a chef go to a farm outside of Hollywood. The farmer was asked about open pollinated vs. hybrid and entirely botched up the answer. He basically said hybrids were sterile. He was so erroneous it made me quite upset.


This was the show:
Chef Suzanne Goin-lucques / A.o.c.: Los Angeles, CA


L.A.'s hottest chef joins farmer Phil McGrath, grower of the best fruit and vegetables in California, to harvest organic strawberries, tomatoes, squash and beans. Recipes: New World Pork & Beans; Kobocha Squash & Radicchio Salad.

[littleminnie]

I emailed the farm.

[12540dumont]

Minnie, your garden looks great. I wanted to tell you that I bought a Greenhouse tarp last year. It's a plastic with mesh imbedded in it.

This stuff took a whole winter of beating and still looks great. You can get them in custom sizes. Just don't be tempted to buy their tarp holders...they are not worth a damn and whatever elastic they used on them was not suitable for the sun. Leo's Idea for putting them over the conduit is to zip tie them on one end and use clips or bricks on the other. This stuff is way easier to deal with than row cover, but the rain and snow won't go through it, so you have to make certain that you deal with the weight if the snow really starts being Minnesota Snow!

I have never been able to get row cover out of the field without tearing it. Something about wind and a 50 foot long row cover is just about ridiculous to deal with. Hope your new market works out.

[littleminnie]

I am always cursing with the row cover and the wind.

I did an inventory of my seeds today, all done. Now to make a need list and to get my trade list posted everywhere.

[steev]

An inventory of my seeds; there's a noble ambition.