oldmobie's Doings

[oldmobie]

Had to take a pic of the strawberry bed to show how they've filled in so far this season. Right now the wisteria is the only weed that can compete. The berries that haven't been ruined by slugs have been pretty tasty. Just a couple pretty common store-bought varieties. Thinking I might staple on some copper wire for the slugs to have to cross to get in, and beer trap the the ones that are already in.



Marked a few radishes for seed saving today. It doesn't seem to be radish weather anymore, they aren't growing very well overall. These were pretty large, with no cracking, while others planted at the same time are still pretty small. Gotta start somewhere.



I've come to realize that seed saving and square foot gardening aren't always as compatible as I'd like. Today we did something about the Michihili cabbage. Lost a few limbs along the way, but it's mostly intact. It may be hard to tell, but there's a stake in there.



My kohlrabi is growing well. I'll have to research how and when to harvest it. (My friend Abe helped me measure today. If anyone finds any little green portraits of him, please send 'em my way, I've been looking for them...)



I think I may soon be glad I started my buckwheat in the old chicken pen, rather than the garden. I don't have a very good stand, it's not crowded together. None of it's knee high. I bet I saw at least ten in bloom today, though. In the garden, I'd have to top it or mow it now, and it's not even had a chance to smother anything. (I tried to do it "One Straw" style, throwing the seed down, then chopping the other plants on top. Tilling probably would have brought a thicker stand.)



My wife mulched the new weeping willow today. Also, I got this more recent picture of it.



She also worked in her flowerbed today. She remulched the sunflowers, planted geraniums in her boxes, and put out her bee balm and butterfly weed. I only got the one picture of that. Please forgive the crudity of this photo: it's not to scale.



Also started mulching the corn. Only did about 10 feet of row (on all 4 rows) before running out of grass clippings and straw. Gave me some idea of what to replant, so that's next.

[oldmobie]

Finished shearing grass and weeds around the corn in the northern most row, in preparation for mulching and replanting. Replanted all the bare spots with an assortment from a GardenWeb trade (Stowell's, Hooker's & True Platinum). This was the original contents of part of the row. The west end was planted in Golden Bantam, which I was out of anyway.

Scrounged enough posts to drive them on 8' centers and make a row for trellised tomatoes and cucumbers. At ~56', it should hold my 10 best tomatoes @ 3' spacing and 15 cucumbers @ 2' spacing. Or 12 of each. Still need mulch and a trellis...

The grape vine now has a branch being trained to grow up to the next level of its trellis.

[oldmobie]

Got a new toy today: a "Hound Dog Garden Tiller". It's a cheap(ish) knock-off of a C.L.A.W. Takes some persuasion to get through the sod, but it seems to get the job done. Came in pretty handy planting my ten tomatoes today. I'd twist it in about tine deep, and toss that "plug" with the sod. Then I went back in and "tilled" inside the hole.



My wife added compost and planted. Later I watered and fertilized with knock-off osmocote. I also fertilized the watermelons with it.

Pics of a few, with straw mulch added:





They're all wintersown. Some of them even came from jugs I planted tomatoes in. Hopin' for last year's yellow slicer and roma, plus yellow pear from a trade. Expecting a lot of cherry tomatoes from contaminated compost. Found enough 5' tall 2" X 4" wire to trellis them. Need about 22' more to finish the row for cukes.

A sample of my corn, "weeded" with hedge shears:



How it will be, when I'm done mulching:

[oldmobie]

Mrs. oldmobie planted a new flowerbed today. It's a permanent bed for glads, and a grow-out bed for iris. Due to overcrowding, they haven't bloomed for so long she has to find out the colors before putting into permanent locations.

I took some of my old WinterSown jugs and planted malabar spinach, orach, apples and some old wheat seed that might still be alive. First three are for transplant. The wheat is more of a germination test. I wanna do some cover cropping with it, if it's alive.

She did likewise with easter-egg plant, black eyed susans, clematis (rooted cuttings), papaver red poppy, pink phlox. Sweet peas soaking overnight before joining them.

I tied up the pak choi because it's flower stalk fell over. Tied it to the michihili. Bet they cross now.

Finally got out the duster and sent a cloud of 5% sevin over most of the old garden. I'm hoping to switch to something like rhubarb spray, but it's not big enough to cut yet. Maybe I can brew up some hot pepper spray next time. Have to look for a recipe.

[oldmobie]

Didn't feel well today, didn't garden much. Did mulch most of the unmulched corn in the north row. Had a little help at the end. Also watered the newly replanted corn a bit.

[steev]

Doesn't do to over-do, although I tend to believe in the benefits of "working up a sweat" as a sort of "voluntary fever", to combat bacterial attack.

[oldmobie]

Weeded a bit, pulled out all radishes that weren't for seed saving. That frees up a 4'X4' bed for peanuts. Mostly tinkered with a mix of old and new sprinklers, trying to establish zones and get enough water where it's needed with minimal waste.

Now to look up peanut spacing and involve my youngest in planning.

[oldmobie]

Planted peanuts today in the NE bed. NC giants in the 8 north squares, 1 per square. Tennessee Red in the 8 south squares, 4 per square.

[oldmobie]

Still having a terrible time with bean germination. Most of my second planting of pole beans haven't come up. (Planted on the 3rd.) Think I may start a whole mess of beans in mel's mix and transplant the healthiest. Same strategy for the bush dry beans. About 1/3 to 1/2 germinated.

Still mulching corn. Also planted two hills of pumpkins between the north row and the next one south. Finally switching myself to more of a day schedule. (I worked nights until recently.) Gotta hit it early. Getting up around noon, going out and deciding it's too hot to work in the sun makes a pretty poor farmer/ gardener.


Noticed my first potato bloom yesterday, or maybe the day before. Also the first bloom on the Joseph's peas. Way late for both here. If the peas produce viable seed, I'll have to save 'em seperately; the beginning of a heat tolerant population.

[kazedwards]

I have worked overnights/ 2 a week for last few years untill recently. They suck but getting off in the morning and then going out and working in the garden was nice. Now I work all evenings and don't get home until midnight or later. So it is all heat for me. Sounds like your garden is doing great minus the beans. I haven't had a peoblem with them but I only grow bush snap beans (to windy for pole). My peas stoped producing a little over a week ago and only did so for two weeks. I missed them bc of my 10 trip and only had a handful that were tender enough to eat. So they are for seed this year. Do you plant peas in the fall aswell as spring. I believe we are pretty close so if you can I should be able to aswell. Good luck with the beans!

[oldmobie]

Jun 20, 2014 0:30:25 GMT -5 kazedwards said:

Do you plant peas in the fall aswell as spring. I believe we are pretty close so if you can I should be able to aswell.

So far I haven't been successful with fall crops. It seems to be a combination of inadequate research, (not knowing when to plant) and inadequate space. I intend to keep trying, though.

I bet trials and good record keeping would benefit: plant small test plots each week, recording dates and quality of output. Compare that data later to temp records and first frost date. I may try to keep a bed or some ground space free for that.

[kazedwards]

I might try this year aswell. Only time will tell

[oldmobie]

Planted green beans twice. Planted cukes twice. Crappy germination of store bought beans. No germination of cukes. Today, I've planted more than I need, to ensure something grows. (I do have a spot in the new garden to transplant the extra cukes.)

Cucumbers:

• Joseph's landrace
• My saved cross
• Straight 8
• Marketmore
• Chicago Pickling
• Picklebush

Pole Green Beans

• Rattlesnake
• Kentucky Wonder
• Blue Lake
• Trionfo Violetto
• Top Crop

Also soaking dry beans to sow tomorrow.

• Joseph's landrace
• Carole Deppe's Resilient (Joseph's strain)
• Joseph's tepary

Mrs oldmobie's flowerbed is finally starting to show good growth:

Sunflowers



Mixed pumpkins and decorative gourds

[oldmobie]

Came home from a visit with family yesterday. Found that my wife, after a short day at work, had come home and mulched a row and a half of corn. It's starting to look more like a corn patch now, and less like a pasture. (To my eye. Shut up.)



Found a red (Ok, pink and fuscia.) pea bloom today! What's that gonna mean to the pod color? It was among the store bought seed.





Some of my store bought "pole beans" that did bother to come up are starting to bloom. Might they still vine, or do I have mislabeled bush beans?



My trade pole beans mostly look better and more true to the expected growth habit.



I have one hill of watermelon that for some reason is always first. First to germinate, first to show true leaves, now first to start to vine. It can't be the variety, as I alternated them. They're black diamond. There's another hill, further down the row growing at a lower speed like the others.



Some of Mrs oldmobie's new sown flowers sprouting (one of my apples too, though it doesn't show in the picture):

[oldmobie]

Found 2 corn plants tasseling. The taller one is about knee high. Also multi-stemmed. Think I've seen that called tillers? These are assorted hookers, true platinum & stowell's evergreen.



Trionfo Violeto (my purple podded "green" beans) finally blooming!



Finally some cukes!



A few peas starting to form pods.



Peanuts germinating.

Also germinating: new planted green beans, tepary beans, apples, malabar spinach, poppies.

Edit: I have one sad little sweet potato plant I overwintered. I meant to propagate my own slips, but the vine was never long enough. Yesterday, I potted it up into a pot about 12" across, in Mel's mix. I put it near the peanut bed, where it can get lots of sun and water.