ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on May 24, 2017 23:46:07 GMT -5
Finished planting the corn this evening. Had just finished tamping down the last row when a storm hit, ended up running to the house in a down pour lugging seeds and equipment. lol No need to water stuff for a few days.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on May 23, 2017 0:11:16 GMT -5
Planted out brassica and tomato starts. Planted a 3rd double row of corn, actually I guess they qualify as beds now. The corn also has flowers and stuff mixed with it. I'll plant more corn tomorrow and looking at the forecast I could probably start planting everything else.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on May 21, 2017 15:49:47 GMT -5
Took some pics of what's growing in the garden so far, mainly cool season legumes. Last year I planted spring grains in with the peas, the peas had support with out me having to put in poles or a trellis and where less of a pain to pick, and I got two crops from the same space. I did get poked in the face a few times while harvesting the peas, but overall it turned out great. Only problem was I planted things a bit sparse. I did the same thing this year with most of the early legumes and added some flowers to the mix. Hoping the flowers will attracted more pollinators, maybe increase the out crossing rate. Also most likely added more weed varieties to the garden. The flowers I used are: Marigolds, Cosmos, Zinnia, Flax (linum), Bachelor's Button, Sweet Alyssum, African Daisy (Dimorphotheca aurantiaca), Tree Mallow, Black Medic, Dutch Clover, Crimson Clover, Snapdragon, Celosia, and Aster. Depending on how things go I may add Malope, California Poppy, Moss Rose, and Pansy next year. Got some green seeded chickpeas to add to the brown, tan, and black I have, now if I could just find some red seeded ones to round out the mix. Also growing favas for the first time this year, thanks Joseph! Got them in a late, hope they will still produce some seed. A close up of the weeding mess I made for my self. More peas. The soup peas need more support than just the grains. Update of the Biskopen Peas for keen101. The first pic is the speckled seeded ones, the second are the reds. Some watermelons I sowed a moth ago just to see if how they would fair, most of them survived the snow and 29f weather I had last week. I did plant a row of lettuce and radishes but apparently I didn't need to. Onions, parsnips, carrots. TPS start, the covers are to keep them from sunburning, 'cause that's how I harden things off, put them strait in the garden with a cover for a week. Seed carrots, also have a clump of seconds else where. Seed brassicas, kohlrabi and collards. I also had some cabbage and a purple sprouting broccoli make it though the winter. Seed grown strawberry entering it's second year. Seed grown raspberries entering there second year. Apricots grown from seed from my brothers seed grown tree. His tree produces more reliably than most in our valley, the fruit is sweeter than my trees, and the seeds are sweet too. Seed grown irises entering there third year. "Moo", oh wait, I mean "mewo"
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Apr 2, 2017 2:07:05 GMT -5
bluemeadow, as far as I know they are common blue violets. We've had them growing in the yard my whole life, since we stopped using cides they've really started to spread. I also have dandelions, white Dutch clover, yarrow, narrow-leaf plantain, black medic, wild perennial aster, several other unidentified "weeds", and a dozen or so grasses.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Apr 1, 2017 18:09:44 GMT -5
My lawn is like the Lawn Service guys white whale, they always come knocking but never catch anything.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Jan 10, 2017 19:26:04 GMT -5
Impressive photos, so do you pay someone to clear ya driveway Ya, lol, that's how I pay my parents for room and board, clear snow in the winter and grounds keep/garden in the summer.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Jan 9, 2017 12:45:06 GMT -5
I grew a blue cherry and a blue slicer last year mixed in with all my other tomatoes, maybe there will be a bit of excitement in the 'mato patch this year.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Jan 9, 2017 0:11:32 GMT -5
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Jan 8, 2017 23:00:38 GMT -5
Started the year off with two storms in two days each putting down about a foot of powder, with a low of -29.4f and highs in the -10s. Today it warmed to the high 30s and rained for an hour or so.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Dec 27, 2016 13:52:21 GMT -5
Some interesting peas from Joseph's mixed soup peas. If not i imagine those could be seeds from Josephs red-podded soup peas, sometimes purple coloring shows up from gray speckled pea lines, but it is never stable. The only stable colored peas lines i know of are Biskopens and Purple Passion. keen101 I think that ^ is what these are, there wasn't any seed like that in the stuff I planted, and there where a few plants with red blushed pods. interesting, good thing I saved all the seed from that planting as specimens. So if that seed was F1/F2 that means I'll have more fun stuff to look forward to. Thanks again Joseph!!
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Dec 27, 2016 13:42:30 GMT -5
Ethin's garden is 300 feet lower elevation than mine. That gives him about an extra month of frost-free growing season. His garden is located on the brink of a hill which mitigates frost even further. I have a month over Joseph?! So about 120 to 130 days , that's good to know. Alright peanuts, I think you have some explaining to do as to why your not producing.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Dec 24, 2016 17:48:38 GMT -5
Some interesting peas from Joseph's mixed soup peas.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Dec 24, 2016 16:56:15 GMT -5
keen101 sorry but I wouldn't know if I have any carrots that could handle hard/compacted clayish soil, my soil is sandy/gravelly/rocky loam. The label that Joseph had with the Biskopens peas said 2016 so probably the newer seed. I planted half the seed Joseph gave me so about 20 seeds. The F1 plants where bigger and lasted longer in the heat, seems like they might have been earlier than the non-hybrid ones too. Excited to see what they do next year. I attempted some crosses with Biskopens as the pollen donor, mainly for the red seeds.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Dec 24, 2016 14:46:25 GMT -5
Ethin, you direct seed tomato in Cache Valley but Joseph can't?! I barely got a few ripe tomatoes this year from some direct seeded plants near Ronan Montana and it has lit a fire under me for more experiments next year. It seems to me like a direct seeded tomato landrace in a 100 day growing season would be pretty neat. I not sure why I've manged to get it to work, probably location. Ive only done this the last 3 years, the first year it was one plant from one variety, last year it was two plant from the first years plant, this year I just used some of all the home grown seed I had which bring the total to 5 varieties and the direct seeded line from one of those varieties, far from a landrace. I'm only getting a few fruit from each plant as well, not enough to stop doing starts. It would be interesting to get some of Joseph's tomatoes, but I don't have a lot of room. I suppose I could cram quiet a few plants into a 30' row, it would make selection a bit hard, but in the end I guess the only selection needed is to get rid of the slowpokes.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Nov 17, 2016 15:59:41 GMT -5
Well the garden is covered in snow so I guess I list some points of interest. Interesting to me anyway. First a grow report for Joseph. Spinach: Failed, not just yours but everything I planted, not sure why, very poor germination and the few plants that did come up got eaten off soon after. Parsnips: Failed, you did worn me that the seed was old. Shelling pea landrace: got a good return of seed. Soup pea mix: Did well, harvested each plant as a specimen so I could better evaluate traits and on the off chance of hybrids easier identification. Biskopen Pea: Did great, got lots of seed back from only a few plants. Some of the seed you gave me was f1, half the seed I got back was different than what went in the ground. Dry bean landrace: Did ok but not as well as what you gave me last year, but that was my fault. Tepary bean: Did ok, might have produced better if I had given them less water. Watermelon/Muskmelon: Poor, but I know it was my fault, poor garden layout and care. Medium moschata landrace/Buttercup squash: Poor, my bad again, the soil where I planted them was so depleted even the weeds struggled. But I did get some fruit off them. Other Garden highlights/notes for 2016. Attempted some manual crosses of peas and chickpeas. Lots of excitement with beans. Had 12 plants that where definitely hybrids and a dozen more that might be. Grew out the f2 seed from last years f1's, the Golden Wax cross generated at least 23 different looking seed types. Tried 3 new snap beans this year, all keepers. Tried some blue/purple/black tomatoes, I thought they where ok, for tomatoes (I don't enjoy tomatoes much). Had some very interesting lettuce show up this year. Had two large plants that where very red, had a very extreme form of the oak leaf trait, and where the last plants to bolt. I harvested the lettuce seed heads back in September but haven't threshed them yet, might be able to pick out those two. The Jicama didn't do too well, dug them at the end of September, tubers the size of large marbles, there now growing inside in a pot. Peanut project second year: Fail. Rice project second year: Fail.
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