Dewdrop's Doings

[flowerbug]

i just picked a thumbnail from my site because i didn't want to post the full image, but you can get it via my website by removing the /thm and the _thm parts of the path and file name and that will give the full image i have posted. for those with slower connections i like having pages load faster and then if they want to look at a picture in more detail they can click on the link i provide on the page.

as for websites and such, yeah they can take some time to get going, but i'm ok with that.  i used to do all the design and coding for my website manually, but eventually that was too much so i tried out several website generator programs.  i had found one i liked but it just so happened that it was no longer being supported so i had to yet again go find something else.  it is nice to be able to focus on content now and to just let the generator chug along and spit out the html and style sheet codes and all that.

[Dewdrop]

March 30th: I helped to till most of the garden the other day. I finished tilling the garden today.
Here is the 'blank slate', aside from the volunteers and the weeds to come.  This is a picture of part of the garden, all of which is finally tilled, with the right side in view raked smooth again, facing North.  My row is a 'wide row' again this year, but only about 15" wide this time.        


  Facing North-East.  Back/left trellis has Sugar Magnolia Sugar Snap peas , front/right trellis has Extra Early Pedigree peas.  The trellis were 'cattle panels' that were cut shorter (be careful of razor-sharp edges until you grind them to file them down where you cut them).  They are held up with metal t-posts (green posts with white paint at the top) and tied on with leftover jute baler twine (which I'll probably reinforce again about halfway through the growing season).     

April 1st: I planted most of my Sugar Magnolia Snap Peas, 20 seeds total so far.  The directions said to plant them 1" deep, so I planted them half-thumb deep.  I intentionally didn't plant them as thickly as the directions said.  Since it just rained last night, the garden was well watered.      
April 6th: I finally put up the trellises and planted the remaining four Sugar Magnolia Snap Peas.  I usually wait until after I put up the trellis, but it helps to know where the t-post pounder was stashed away, as I wasn't inclined to dig the post-holes myself. 

I planted 23 Extra Early Pedigree (shelling?) peas on the front/right trellis today.  It is the trellis with the weathered baler twine hanging on the middle of it.  The topsoil is dry to the touch, but the soil underneath has moisture.        

One of my siblings and I planted some 'mutt sunflowers' seeds I saved from last year into the 'first' row (it was an extra row), on the very right side of the garden.  

[Dewdrop]

There was just enough snow to cover the ground, but not the grass the other night.

[Dewdrop]

I finally took a look at the garden yesterday. I have four of the Early Pedigree Peas and 16 Sugar Magnolia Snap Peas sprouting up so far. The Sugar Magnolia Snap peas have a more reddish coloration to the stems and leaves.

Picture of Early Pedigree Pea sprouts with a penny. Facing North.

Picture of a Sugar Magnolia Snap pea sprout with a penny. The 'sticks' were sections of an old sunflower stalk or a 'branch' of a multi-headed
sunflower.
  A close-up of two Sugar Magnolia Snap pea sprouts, with a penny in between them.  

[Dewdrop]

I may have to do something different in the garden. The good news is the peas seem undaunted by even freezing night temperatures. The bad news is something decided that both kinds of my pea sprouts were delicious, and ate most of them. I lost a few pea plants for good, possibly to being eaten at least twice in a row. The remaining ones appear to be trying to grow back again. It could be local rabbits or some other wildlife, whatever it is bites right into the pea plant stem. I cut some plastic bottles into tubes and used them for some quick protection for the ones partially eaten.

I might try to put up some pictures at a later date.

The garden was tilled in between the rows to help manage the weeds. I planted my Country Gentleman corn and flax seeds. The flax seeds I 'planted' are all from the flax plants I grew last year.

[xdrix]

The slug like eating the grow of peas.

[Dewdrop]

Thank-you xdrix. I'm not sure it is slugs, I'll try to put up a picture later of the damaged pea plant. I've consistently seen slugs before in previous years, but mebe they don't bother Wando peas or it could just be a 'funny year'.

I was suspecting a local rabbit, but I am now wondering in particular about a mature groundhog which is now dog-food. I never noticed groundhogs coming so close to the yard, garden, and house before. I don't know the reason why it came this way. The dog found and cornered it at the house (once bit, twice shy), and the groundhog was dealt with. The dog appears to be ok.

[flowerbug]

groundhogs eat just the tops of plants here, but i now have improved my fencing hoping to help improve keeping them out (and the other creatures). i have more fence i'd like to do yet to get a complete enclosure but until then i'm happy if i can just cut down on their predation. i do hunt them if they come into the gardens and i also have some spots where i need to plug up any dens they try to make.

[Dewdrop]

I'm hoping to add a belated update on my garden patch. I didn't do so well with the corn, but I had plenty of snap peas.  

[Dewdrop]

Here is my belated garden upade:
My Cascadia peas did wonderful. I had plenty of peas to eat, although I messed up for saving them for seed. I tried to blossom-bag them. I learned the hard way not to blossom-bag the 'branches' and tendrils that like to keep growing when well watered. Then I had tiny black bugs in the pods and the peas themselves, so I didn't save any for seed from the garden.

I planted German Butterball potatoes to methods this year. I had some 'seed potatoes' on the soil surface, cut side down, with a very thick layer of straw on top, until it was half an arm deep in straw. This method worked better with my overtime for a few months, as it retained the moisture better and smothered out the weeds. The other method I tried produced worse due to the weeds taking over when I had so much overtime. Both ways gave me more back then the 'seed potatoes' planted, but it was a poor harvest. The good news is they they taste delicious. I hand pollinated the flowers and blossom-bagged them, but I couldn't find any signs of the true potato seed 'berries' (poisonous). I'm not sure if it was too dry a summer for them, especially since I didn't really have time to water towards the end of their growing season.

I planted Country Gentleman corn, each a foot apart, and it germinated nicely. Unfortunately, the overtime was at the wrong timing for tending my corn, so not all of the corn plants survived against the more vigorous weeds. I only managed to weed the corn rows thoroughly twice. The corn plants that did were not very uniform in their growth and height. They had tassels and at least one had silks, but I didn't harvest any corn this year. However, it is possible the corn had too much shade from the row of sunflowers alongside it. I did not get around to planting any Painted Lady Runner beans to grow up my corn plants this year. I planted some of the beans along one t-post, but didn't have time to weed them, so they didn't make it.

I started the rest of my Spagetti Squash seeds indoors under a grow-light. Then with the overtime I didn't get to planting and tending them as soon as I hoped. I tried putting them under a grow-tunnel fabric, but I think I need to consider watering or irrigating them in hindsight, I think the fabric basically keeps the rainwater away from the plants somewhat. When I did plant them, they didn't grow much, but they were also in bloom. This time I didn't have time to pinch the first flowers off. So I didn't find or harvest any Spagetti Squash either.

I'm not really surprised at the harvest results this year, for about 4 months of overtime at the timing in the growing season. I basically gained some more experience and ate well on peas. I will save the Painted Lady pole beans for next year.

[Dewdrop]

April 16-17th:
The garden was tilled once. I have two rows this year to start with, which I plowed with the push-plow/cultivator three times in each row, which happened to be before the nice rain shower. I have two 16 foot 'cattle panel' trellises set up in my Eastern row, but I had to overlap them a bit in the middle of the row.

I set up a small folding trellis in between my rows and planted 21 'old' Wando peas that arrived in the mailbox in 2019.

[flowerbug]

what i normally do is go back and edit a previous post and then i can copy and paste the code and change the URL address and other info to match the new picture. i know it might now be as quick but i just prefer to see things in text and then preview to make sure it is right before posting.

[Dewdrop]

Here is a very belated garden update. I didn't really have time to garden when it counted, due to a lot of overtime and my long commute. I managed to plant some Painted Lady pole beans. Some made it despite the neglect and I was able to save the seeds from a few bean plants. I had one Wando pea plant thrive, so I shelled and ate some of the peas, and let the remaining pods go to seed. I planted several spagetti squash seeds, but unfortunately they didn't produce, probably because I planted them too late in the season. Luckily, one of last years neglected Spagetti Squash plants left to sprawl out on the ground, had gone to seed, and became a comparably more vigorous volunteer for this year.  I initially pruned back this 'mystery vine' a bit to keep it off the trellis, but once I realized it was a Spagetti Squash volunteer and my only vigorous Spagetti Squash plant, I switched to training it onto the trellis for more sunlight.  The volunteer Spagetti Squash produced 9 squash, including one 'baby' spagetti squash.  Two of them were definitely yellow and fully ripe, the others were as ripe as I could allow time for with the anticipated hard frost.  I saved the fully ripe Spagetti Squash for storage, and observed the 'less ripe' ones yellowed some more after being harvested.      

On the upside, I happened to inadvertently discover the easy way to remove spagetti squash seeds. If I cut the Spagetti Squash in half (like a watermelon), use a large tablespoon to 'scoop' seeds upwards. This made it nearly hassle-free to seperate the seeds from the spagetti squash 'guts'.  Scraping seeds and 'guts' side to side to remove them, led to a large task of separating out the slippery seeds.  I am very glad to have some delicious volunteer spagetti squash to enjoy late into this year.  Even the 'baby' Spaghetti Squash was ripe to cook and eat.    

[flowerbug]

i've found that with many squash it is easier to just cut them in half or quarters and then pick the seeds out of the pulp that i want before scraping or doing anything else. i can squeeze the seeds in my fingers to remove them from the pulp and then i dry them from there without getting them any wetter. after they're dry if i want them to be super cleaned looking i can rub them to remove the shiny coating and any remaining small bits of dried squash that might be left on them. saves a lot of extra work in my experience. takes up room though as i do need to spread them out to dry them. once they're fairly well dried i can put them in containers but i leave the tops slightly off to let them continue to dry for a while. after a month or two then the tops can be put on all the way.

i've never grown spaghetti squash far enough along to get viable seeds and as a summer squash we're not too keen on it so we've only grown it once.

glad you were able to get some seeds out of the project in the end.

[Dewdrop]

I have a news update. I am expecting to move into my own home, which is also in the same state. Since there is no obvious vegetable garden there yet, I want to create one from scratch. Naturally, the family garden is likely to be downsized again.