Bought More Seeds

I keep telling myself I don't need that many more seeds. All I needed are Juliet tomatoes and acorn squash. I was at Lowes yesterday and they had the Juliet seeds, but no acorn squash. Did I just buy Juliet tomatoes? HAH! Of course not, lol.

Here's the complete list:

• Juliet tomatoes
• Rutgers tomatoes
• Marigolds - petite mixed colors
• Butterfly flower
• Larkspur
• Cleome
• Bachelor Buttons
• Zinnia

And so I only "need" a few more seeds. Larger marigolds and acorn squash are about it. And Calendula, delphinium, toadflax, poppies, pincushion flower. . .

Fruits and I'm a Little Bit Nuts

I've been debating what fruits to plant. I had thought about planting a couple of Asian pears, but I'm afraid they would add more to the high maintenance I already have. I have 4 apple and 3 cherry trees - and in this part of the world they have to be kept bug free. So, I don't think I need to add more bug worries to my list. I thought about a nectarine and finally came to the conclusion we have enough fruit trees. The list:

Apple:

• Akane
• Liberty
• Honeycrisp
• Fiesta

I bought them from Raintree Nursery last year. They are dwarf trees that are only supposed to get six feet tall. It should be easier to keep bug free that a 25 foot tree. They are planted next to the west fence where my veggie garden is. I plan to espalier them, but in a natural form not formal. I plan to use some sort of method to bag the apples so I can minimize spraying.

Cherries:

• Rainier (Sweet)
• Black Tartarian (Sweet)
• Meteor (sour/pie)

These I bought at Lowes last year on a whim. I try to plan things, but sometimes (okay a lot of the time) things just go astray. I plan to prune them heavily so I can keep them maintained. I think I will probably have no choice and will have to spray them. Hopefully, something not to horribly toxic.

The remainder:

• Plum - Santa Rosa
• Peach - Red Haven
• Apricot - Wenatchee-Moorpark

The peach came from a local nursery, Mac's Garden Center. The plum and apricot came from Lowes. I might plant another plum (Satsuma) and apricot (Tilton) - sort of in the same hole kind of thing. It's explained here: Dave Wilson Backyard Orchard Only thing is, I should have planted them all at once.

I planted 2 types of strawberries last year - Tri Star(Everbearing) and Shuksan (June bearing). These came free with my order from Raintree. :) The Shuksan are running rampant and I need to take care of when the ground thaws out. I might try adding Alpine strawberries as well.

I also want to plant blueberries and blackberries. Some serious challenge there. I think 3 blueberries, against the east fence. I had thought about putting them in half barrels, but the dang things are $30.00 a pop at Lowes. For 3 that would be $100.00 not including potting soil and plant. So I have some hydrangeas to move and the blueberries should work nicely in this spot. Will have to add some more acidifying amendments.

And then there are blackberries. The biggest requirement is that they be thornless. ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, NO BLACKBERRIES THAT ARE THORNY. I'm thinking of one of the thornless upright varieties from the University of Arkansas, probably Ouachita. Theortically, you can plant them without have a support structure.

I would think that would be enough fruit for 3 people. We will see what happens.

New Mistakes

John Hammond: Don't worry, I'm not making the same mistakes again.
Dr. Ian Malcolm:No, you're making all new ones.

That was from the movie, Jurassic Park II. Not a great movie, but I love the quote. And I'm quite sure it will apply to this years veggie garden. . .

And with that in mind, I'm working on planning this years veggie garden. Here is the list of what I'm currently thinking of planting:

Spring

• beets
• carrots
• scallions
• onions
• celery
• lettuce
• spinach
• radishes
• kohlrabi
• peas
• turnips
• potatoes
  

Summer

• beans
• cucumbers
• watermelon
• cantaloupe
• summer squash
• winter squash
• tomatoes
• sweet peppers
• hot peppers
• sweet potatoes
• tomatillos

Fall

• beets
• carrots
• scallions
• onions
• lettuce
• spinach
• radishes
• kohlrabi
• peas
• turnips
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• Brussels sprouts
• garlic

Herbs (annual)

• parsley
  
• cilantro
• dill
• basil
  

Yikes, that's a big list! There is no way it will all fit in the square foot garden beds. The summer squash has to go somewhere else. The sweet potatoes may have to as well. And the annual herbs may have to go in the bed with the perennial herbs.

I may find there are some things that just won't fit. (Can I dig up the front lawn?)

Cherokee Purple Tomato Seeds!

Finally made it to Fred Meyer today. They have their seeds in and they are 40% off. I am so thrilled that they have Cherokee Purple tomato seeds. YUM, YUM, YUM! I can taste them already!

The complete list of seeds I bought:

• Tomato - Cherokee Purple
• Onion - Walla Walla Sweet
• Onion - White Bunching
• Lima Beans - Burpee Bush (2 packages)
• Corn Salad/Mache/Winter Lettuce - Dark Green Full Heart
• Peas - Tall Telephone
• Cucumber - Armenian
• Squash - Waltham Butternut

I don't plan on buying many more seeds, I have a lot left from last year. I want seeds for Juliet tomatoes. And I may or may not get seeds for parsnips and acorn squash. That depends if I can find a spot to plant them. I've been working on planning my beds and there are some things that just won't fit.

Any winter squash will have to be somewhere else. I think I can come up with 3-4 spots for hills, but beyond that I don't think so.

The onions I bought for fall. I'm going to experiment with planting them and see what happens. The peas and mache/corn salad are also for fall planting.

And boy am I ready for spring. It's been 30ish, cloudy and attempting to snow for 3 days now. I would just settle for a little sunshine if I can't have warm weather.

What the yard looked like yesterday

Here is the last set of pictures for now. Some of the trees and things are a little hard to see since they are so small still and have no leaves right now.

This is to the left side of the back patio (east). The grass in the path is going to get replaced with pavers. This was a quick temporary fix. In the far left about center is a Red Haven Peach tree. Back against the fence, where the little obelisk is, I'm thinking of planting two Asian pears. I'll plant them in two holes and keep them pruned under 6 feet. The method is explained at this web site: http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/BOC_explained.html

The pergola is in the southeast corner. There are two grape vines planted by the back pillars (to itty-bitty to be seen in this picture). There are two climbing Joesph's Coat roses on the front of the pergola. In the planter to the left there is a Santa Rosa plum tree. I'm thinking of adding a Satsuma plum there as well. Also note, Garden Dog's jolly ball prominently displayed as a lawn ornament.


Back fence (south). The large tree is an Amur maple, it's actually dead center off the patio. It's only supposed to get to be 15-20 feet or so. In the far left are two sweet cherry trees - Black Tartarian and Rainier. Note bird feed strategically located next to cherry trees. . .


Looking along the right of the back fence and a little into the veggie garden (southwest). The little section in the middle outlined with small rocks is the asparagus patch. To the left of it is a Meteor pie/sour cherry. Also against the West fence, on the other side of the veggie garden are 4 apple trees - Akane, Liberty, Honeycrsip and Fiesta.


The right side of the patio (west). In the center planter, the little tree is a Wenatchee-Moorpark Apricot. I think I'm going to plant a second one, probably Tilton. The Planter against the house has some of my perennial herbs. There is a row of boxwood to hide the foundation. I don't care much for things that need to be pruned into boxes or circles, but it was the best way I could think of to hide the ugly foundation. And they are actually begining to grow and do their job.

Pictures from spring/summer '08

I'm still doing a little blog catch-up with all these pictures. I have quite a few things to post, and then it will settle down. And probably stop when I can actually go outside, lol.

Spring flowers.


Close-up of a lilac.

Here's Rosie the Garden Dog checking out the flowers. "Hey Mom, there's a couple of weeds over here ya need to pick."


And here is the Garden Dog making sure the pergola area is safe for her humans.


Here's a picture of the veggie garden. It doesn't look too bad in this picture, but it got so I couldn't walk the paths between the beds.

Pictures of the yard "before" :)

This is the vacant lot. There is actually a house being built on the left that isn't in the picture. But no other houses when this picture was take during the summer of 2006.

This picture was take on move-in day, Jan 17, 2007. We had been living in our motorhome and it was darn cold. We took our sleeping bags and dog and slept on the floor before the movers brought our stuff. And because the roads were icy, that was delayed several days. . .

Here is the back yard sometime during spring/summer 2007. Note to self: I don't ever want to trench for sprinklers or lay down sod ever again.

Here is Rosie, our official "garden dog".

Review of Last Year's Veggie Garden (Part 3)

Getting into the home stretch!
1/18 - 12:13 pm Edited to add parsley

Potatoes (Yukon Gold) - I can't believe how productive these were! I planted 1/2 a bed worth and they took over! Well, I planted them stupidly - half on one long side, half on the other, and peppers down the middle. Can we say FAIL? So one whole bed this year, just taters.

Sweet Potatoes - Total crop failure. I tried starting slips but I didn't start soon enough. I bought some at the farmers market. They sulked the entire summer. Again, they were crowded by other plants. Going to try planting again this year.

Winter squash(Spaghetti Squash, Burpee's Butterbush) - Both were victims of overcrowding. I really want to try spaghetti squash again. We usually eat it quite a bit, although it's too expensive to buy right now (but then, all produce seems to be too expensive now). Apparently the Butterbush squash are pretty itty-bity. If I decide to grow butternut squash, I'll pick another variety.

Summer squash (Grey Zucchini, White Patty Pan, Rond de Nice) - Planted to close to each other and too close to the bush beans. Also had squash bug problems. I got a few squash, but not a lot.

Peppers - I failed at my seed starting with the peppers. I started hardening them off too early. Also didn't water enough when I started hardening them off. Ended up buying pepper plants from various stores and nurseries. Bell peppers did okay considering they were crowded by potatoes. Cayenne peppers did well. Also had a mystery pepper that did okay (I think it was a serrano). The rest failed - Anaheim, Habanero, Jalapeno and whatever else I planted. Crowding issues for some; locations issues (not in raised planters) for others.

Tomatoes - At, last the queen of the vegetable garden! Some of these were started from seeds and some were bought as plants. Most of my productivity issues were from overcrowding. Except for Brandywine, I think that plant hated me.

Brandywine (Bought plant at farmers market) - This is a tasty tomato, but I only got 3 off of one plant. It refused to set fruit. I've had trouble trying to grow it in California as well.

Amish Paste (Bought plant at farmers market) - This one might have produced better if I had trained it. I put it in the ground and intended to cage it, or something. . . I think it would be good for canning, but I didn't care for it fresh.

Stupice (started from seeds) - Tasty little tomato, but it wasn't productive as some of the other tomatoes I grew this year.

Beefsteak (started from seeds) - Tasty, but not terribly productive.

Sweetie - (started from seeds) - These were sooooo good. And very productive. I planted 3 and they were very productive, and tasty. Did I mention that they were very productive?

Chocolate Cherry (Bought plant at farmers market) - Was an okay tomato, but Sweetie was much tastier, and productive.

Oregon Spring (started from seeds) - Some of these were huge and some weren't. It was like there might have been more than one variety involved? Was hard to tell because everything was a mess!

Juliet (Bought somewhere. . .) Very tasty and very productive. Roma shaped, and a little larger than a cherry tomato. The vine itself was all over the garden!

San Marzano (started from seeds)- Small paste tomato. Very productive bushes! Didn't care for them for eating fresh. Pretty good dried. Because they are so small, they would be a pain to peal for canning. But I suspect they would be could for sauce or ketchup or something that would be run through a strainer?

Roma (started from seeds) - Last year was the best luck I've ever had these! Good for drying, canning (ok, the only tomato canning was salsa and it was with whatever tomatoes I could find at the moment), pizza. Mmmmm, pizza.

A few more random odds and ends.

Asparagus (Purple something or other) - Planted 24 crowns. They took so long to start growing I thought they were dead. But slowly, they came up one by one and all sprouted. Hopefully we will get a couple of tastes this spring.

Basil (Sweet, Dark Opal Purple) - I interplanted with the San Marzano tomatoes. They were doing well until the San Marzano's took over (think: Little Shop of Horrors)

Cilantro - Easy to grow in cool weather. I think its one of those love it or hate herbs. I love it! A lot of it went to seed and there are seedlings out there now!

Dill - Also easy to grow in cool weather. And like the cilantro, I have a lot of seedlings out there now. I can't seem to have dill to go with the cukes and cilantro with the peppers, tomatoes and tomatillos.

Parsley - Grew really well. I lost one plant, but I think Rosie the Garden Dog had something to do with it. The plants are still out there, and I'm guessing the will bounce back in the spring and then flower?

My biggest problem with last years garden was planting too much too close. A lot of my failures were from overcrowding. Although, don't think I could have done anything to get a corn crop. I planted a lot of tomatoes very close. They crowded out a lot of plants including the basil, parsnips, spaghetti squash, etc. Also, I lost a lot of tomatoes because I couldn't get to them to harvest them. I couldn't get to the lemon cukes because they were tangled in the tomatoes.

The bush beans smothered some of the summer squash. And the summer squash were too close to each other to begin with. And that made it impossible to battle the squash bugs.

One thing I seriously miscalculated was how long it would take from seed to harvest for carrots, beets and turnips. I harvested some of them pretty small so I could plant summer crops. And the ones I didn't, got over ran.

So now what? I'm working on what to plant (and almost as important, not what to plant) for this years vegetable garden. I have 6 raised beds that are 4X8 and I can only plant so much! I need to make some decisions based on what we eat or don't eat and what is the best productive use of the space. Do I try growing parsnips again which have to be in the ground for next to forever? Or do I plant more beets? And how do I deal with tomatoes? These are the kinds of things I'm trying to work out in terms of the vegetable garden. But, I can't let it turn into the jungle I did last year. It got pretty frustrating. So much so that I did not want to deal with it by fall.

So, its a new year and a new veggie garden.

Review of Last Year's Veggie Garden (Part 2)

Parsnips - These were a total flop. They didn't germinate well and they were overrun by tomato plants. Still debating whether or not to try to growing them again.

Onions (Walla Walla, unknown red) - I started seeds for these inside. The never got very big. I plan to try again from nursery plants for this year. I may experiment with starting seeds in the fall for next year. I actually still have a few in the garden, will see what they do.

Turnips (Purple Top White Globe) - Another crop I need to give a little more time to grow and not have to remove for summer crops. I want to plant some for fall as well.

Rutabagas (American Purple Top) - I think I left them in the ground to long. I was saving them for fall, and they got HUGE. May try again, then again I may not.

Kohlrabi (Early White Vienna) - These took forever! Anyway, plant more. I also have some Purple Vienna to try. Want to plant for fall as well.

Peas (Little Marvel, Sugar Snap) - Sugar Snap were tasty and productive. I think they would have lasted longer in the season if I would have kept picking them. Little Marvel are a bush type pea and produced so-so. For garden peas, I think I plant a taller pea.

That was all the cool weather crops. Now on to warm weather crops.

Beans - (Bush Blue Lake 274, Kentucky Wonder - Pole, Pencil Pod Wax Bush, Royal Burgundy Bush, Anasazi, Lima) - The Royal Burgundy were amazing producers. They out produced the other bush beans by a mile. The Blue Lake and Pencil Pod were okay, but I doubt that I will plant them. They rivaled the pole beans! And the poor pole beans, I was so overwhelmed by the time they started producing I didn't keep up with them very well. I only got a few lima beans, they were a victim of overcrowding. The Anasazi beans were a bit of an experiment. I had some in the pantry and threw a few in the garden to see if they would grow. If I'm really going to grow and harvest them, I need to plant earlier.

Corn - Too much room, corn smut, failed crop. I'll buy it at the farmer's market.

Eggplant - Bought 2 plants of different varieties. They grew well, but we don't like them well enough to plant in the garden. Also, had an occasional bitter one.

Melon (Cantaloupe -Heart of Gold, Watermelon - Sugar Baby) - Total failure. Victim of crowding. Also, the cantaloupe was planted in a section of bed where nothing grew well. This particular section was not dug and amended properly. It has since been corrected.

Cucumber (Lemon, Spacemaster, Boston Pickling) - The lemon cuke grew really well, but was tangled with tomatoes and I couldn't harvest them like I needed to. The pickling cukes just didn't grow well. They had room, but I don't know what went wrong. Doubt I will plant them again. I discovered other things to pickle (lemon cukes, beets, green tomatoes). The spacemaster needed a trellis. I think I may try an Armenian cuke instead. Just don't want to plant that many of any cukes - we eat a few, but not a lot.

Tomatillo - My seed starting for these failed. Bought plants from a local nursery. And they grew and produced and sprawled and grew and produced and grew and sprawled and . . . I'll attempt to grow them on one of the trellises this year.

Okay, we need to go walk Rosie. I still have sweet potatoes, peppers, squash, potatoes, asparagus and TOMATOES to jibber about. And a little about herbs, flowers, strawberries, fruit trees and some general random thoughts.

Review of Last Years Veggie Garden (Part 1)

This is what my veggie garden looks like today. The beds are 2X6 fir. They probably won't last long, but they were relatively cheap (compared to redwood or cedar). The cement paving stone pad is for the green house. We have been working off and on as weather permits.

I've been working on what veggies I want to plant this year. I think I need to do a bit of review of what I planted last year. Tragically, a lot of the info I had from last year is on a dead laptop. I went through my seeds and compiled a new list of what I have. I finally found my green garden notebook which had some printouts of last years veggie layout. I have moments of organization and then it all falls apart, lol.

Okay now to the review of last years plantings:

Beets (Tall Top Early Wonder and Cylindrical) - These were so yummy! I need to plant more this year. I also need to give them more time to grow - I had to pull them all when there were real little to make room for summer crops. There are good as babies, but I would have liked some larger ones for pickling.

Carrots (Red Core Chantenay, Purple Haze, Rainbow Blend) - Purple Haze is only purple on the outside so if you peal it, it's orange! No more purple carrots or rainbow things, just plain orange carrots. And like the beets, I need let them have time to grow and not have to pull for summer stuff.

Radishes (Cherry Belle, Sparkler, Watermelon, Icicle) - Cherry belle grew the best and Watermelon was the worst. I won't bother with that one again. Sparkler, I don't remember, lol. And Icicle I would like to plant in a spot to give a little more time to get a little bigger. They are supposed to get 5", but I didn't have any that long. I wonder about the quality if they are that size?

Greens (Mescalin, kale, spinach, chard) - I planted greens from a package of mixed greens. They worked better being directly planted than from starting inside. I did start some other lettuces for a second crop but they got crowded by tomatoes and eaten by bugs. I'll use up the mix, but after that, I'll plant separate. The mix included some kale that bugs destroyed later in the season. I need to keep a closer watch on it. Spinach was a dud - I'll try direct sewing instead of starting inside. I've never had much luck growing spinach. And chard is as about as easy as it gets to grow. Only need a few plants - I would rather plant more beets.

Cabbage - Not going to bother again. We don't eat it that much, however the bugs loved it.

Broccoli, Broccoli-raab, Brussels Sprouts - I'm willing to try these again for a fall crop, but not for spring. The broccoli-raab was pretty bitter. I've grown it in So. Cal. in the winter, but I don't remember it being that bitter.

Well, I'll have to finish this later. Rosie has to go to the doggie doctor for a check-up and rabies shot.

Starting my Garden Journal

This is what the backyard looked like around Christmas. Snowy and unbelievably cold. And of course Jim and I were both sick and we didn't finish Christmas shopping.

But, now the snow has all melted and it is substantially warmer. Ok, 30 degrees is substantially warmer than 0 degrees. But we did have a 60 degree day a couple of days ago.

So this "warm" weather has got me to thinking of spring and GARDENING!!! I've been planning my vegetable garden for the year. I'm using the "Square Foot Gardening" method (Unofficially - I never did lay out the grids).

Last year my garden was overgrown by tomatoes. Planting one foot apart and training up a trellis failed for me. I just seemed to be unable to keep them pruned properly. And Some of the indeterminate type tomatoes weren't. So, I have to rethink the tomato plantings. But I did have lots and lots of tomatoes. Unfortunately a lot went to waste in the yard because of the mess.

Oh, but I had a lot of green tomatoes for the first time. Green tomato cake, baked "fried" green tomatoes. Pickled green tomatoes. I never realized the yummyness potential for green tomatoes.

Potatoes were a big success as well. Planted yukon golds and boy are they productive! This year I will dedicate a whole bed to them.

Corn was a total failure. Corn, smut, ewwww. Some places it's a delicacy, but ewwww. No corn this year. And no eggplant, rutabagas, pickling cukes, or bush cukes.

Although "Square Foot" is an instensive gardening method, I plainly planted things too close. Bush beans overran the summer squash, and the spagetti squash got buried by tomatoes. Flowers are going elsewhere - I just don't have enough room for them.

Ok, so I'm off to ponder this some more. Also on the pondering list are Asian pears (where?), Blackberries (where?), (Upright blackberries, hmmmm) and blueberries (the soil here is way to alkaline).