Gardening

[cineater]

Too cute.  For all you growers.

[cineater]

16 hours of mulching in 3 days.  And I'm not done yet.     Plus I can step on the scale fully clothed, in the middle of the day and think, doesn't matter what I eat tonight.   

Leaf mulch is the not so secret to my success.  I don't decorate with it, it's weed control.  I'm a good 4 to 6 inches and it goes on right over the baby weeds trying to come up.  I rarely weed or water.  My beds over the years are to the point where I can dig in them with my hand.  Plus the gardens just pop when they get mulched.

Just the Bird Garden left for me to crank out.  I imagine people are going to freak tomorrow when they show up for a work session.  2/3's of a double load is gone.  They'll bitch that members came and took it.  Nope, that was your garden lead.  You know how I am.   

[pilferk]

Finally getting back out there now that Covid has pretty much left the house.

Starters are starting to make their way out of the greenhouse and into the ground/planters.

2 types of pole beans planted, bush beans planted, slicing and pickling cukes planted, kale planted, lettuce planted, next round of radishes planted, strawberries replanted/spruced up, peppers (in pots) are in our "pepper cage" raised bed but not in the ground yet, herbs planted (rosemary, sage, thyme, basil, lavender, dill), chives planted, bunching onions planted, broccoli planted, beets planted, potatoes planted...and topping off the bags today since they poked through yesterday.  Really, the only things left are the tomatoes (cherry and slicing) and squash (spaghetti, zukes, and yellow).  That's this weekend.  I need to amend, expand, and till the squash bed first.  Tomato beds are ready!  Just have to transplant the starts.

I think that's it! Peas went out a long time ago and we're harvesting now.

Gonna try to do a video of the garden this weekend.  I'll post it if I get a chance.

[cineater]

Finally getting back out there now that Covid has pretty much left the house.

Starters are starting to make their way out of the greenhouse and into the ground/planters.

2 types of pole beans planted, bush beans planted, slicing and pickling cukes planted, kale planted, lettuce planted, next round of radishes planted, strawberries replanted/spruced up, peppers (in pots) are in our "pepper cage" raised bed but not in the ground yet, herbs planted (rosemary, sage, thyme, basil, lavender, dill), chives planted, bunching onions planted, broccoli planted, beets planted, potatoes planted...and topping off the bags today since they poked through yesterday.  Really, the only things left are the tomatoes (cherry and slicing) and squash (spaghetti, zukes, and yellow).  That's this weekend.  I need to amend, expand, and till the squash bed first.  Tomato beds are ready!  Just have to transplant the starts.

I think that's it! Peas went out a long time ago and we're harvesting now.

Gonna try to do a video of the garden this weekend.  I'll post it if I get a chance.

I wish you were my neighbor.  You have a lot going on.  Would love to see the video.

Tell me more about growing the potatoes in bags.  I've heard about that but don't know anybody who did it.  It inspired me to grow some of my vines in bags.

Woke up at 4 and got to the gardens before 7.  Had 2 of the nine wheelbarrows to go when the rain came in.  Was able to finish and made the lead over that garden happy.  I try to give each of the leads a big helping hand or send a helping hand or two their way to get us going.  We're running behind.

[pilferk]

I wish you were my neighbor.  You have a lot going on.  Would love to see the video.

Tell me more about growing the potatoes in bags.  I've heard about that but don't know anybody who did it.  It inspired me to grow some of my vines in bags.

Woke up at 4 and got to the gardens before 7.  Had 2 of the nine wheelbarrows to go when the rain came in.  Was able to finish and made the lead over that garden happy.  I try to give each of the leads a big helping hand or send a helping hand or two their way to get us going.  We're running behind.

Man, the potato growing in bags has to be the easiest thing ever.  And we get pretty good yields.  Last year, first season, we had 15 growbags going with potatoes...and yielded somewhere around 7 lbs of potatoes per bag. Yes, that's right...we yielded over 100lbs of potatoes! Some bags were planted with half a potato, some with a whole potato...just depends on size of the grow potatoes we have.

1) Prepare your potatoes as usual.  You can chit the big ones if you want.  Just wait for the eyes to sprout and green up.

2) Put two inches or so of soil in the bottom of the bag.  These are the bags we use...I think they're the best.  You want tall grow bags that aren't super wide.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B096X46CMG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Honestly, the window is unnecessary.....but you want "felt" bags vs "Plasticky" bags, because they shed and control the moisture better.  Even if you get a period of wet weather!

3) Put the potato or chit in, eyes/sprouts up.  Don't push them in...just set them on top of the 2 inches of soil.

4) Put about 6 to 8 inches of dirt on top.  Honestly, I fill to just below the top of the "window" because its an easy eyeball measurement.

5) Wait.  Eventually, you'll see little green potato plant break through the dirt. Just anecdotally, that process took about 10 days with our batch this year.  Planted them on May 14, noticed they'd poked through on the 25th.   As soon as you see this (within a day or two...you don't want them topping the soil very much before you do this next step).

6) Bury them.  Fill the bags the rest of the way, leaving an inch or so of space from the lip.

7) Wait. Eventually, those potato plants will poke through.

8. ) Wait some more.  Our potato plants typically get about 4 or so feet high and most of them flower.

9) Wait some more.  When the plants have their flowers fall off, lean over, and look about as dead as they can look...wait about a week.

10) Dump bags and harvest potatoes.  For us, when we plant in early May, this takes til early August or so?  We plant another batch in august, after our first harvest, and usually can harvest again in late October/early November.  The taters are smaller for our 2nd harvest because usually the frost gets the plants before the taters are quite ready....but they still work!  Nothing better than potatoes, mashed, from your garden, on Thanksgiving that have been out of the ground about 2 weeks!

We don't really do anything else to them but water them.  We don't even usually feed them (unless there's leftovers from another plants feeding we have to dump).  Keep them off the ground on raised "benches" which helps with the potato bugs/slugs.  But other than that?  They are probably the least maintenance plant in the whole garden!

[cineater]

Cool.  I like those bags.

Wait.     My favorite, don't fuck with them just leave them alone, takes very little time.  I have perfected the lazy gardener.

[cineater]

My Orchid has 3 new branches.  Have never grown these.  It needed to be rehomed.  While I said I wasn't taking any, I made the mistake of looking over at it.  "Okay, I'm coming to get you."

Don't know anything about these.  It has a tag that says CTL 34.  And another that says Dennis Kone but that may have been the guy who died.  Any of this mean anything?

Update, Dennis Kone is the name.

[cineater]

And through the knee.     Knew I was working these jeans hard.  Never understood the designer touch that puts holes in new jeans.  I earned this fucking hole you posers!

[cineater]

78 St John's Wort planted all along the rim of the basin.  I hope they take.  They are just babies but they have good roots.  We have serval days of off and on rain so that should help.  4 flats of Turtlehead left to go and I'm done planting.  The basin is looking really good.  I have a Blazing Prairie Star.  Love those they look like purple Cattails.  It will go to seed and spread all over.

Marsha called, "I don't know how you put out flats.  I did one and I'm beat."  The secret is dig the holes first and then come back and just tuck the plants in.

[cineater]

So my side project, with my friend, presents to me last night a whole professional design for her yard using natives.  Leaves in the "side project" I designed for her.  She has a couple of acres and this design has it packed every where.  I'm thinking holy shit, looks cool but that's a lot of work.  And how much did you pay for this design?  I'm thinking I can grow all these plants from seed, if I can find them, but she wants instant garden and your talking $6 a plant.

And I hate working with her.  I swear she has ADD.  9 times out of 10 she cancels a planned work session.  You get over there and you can't get her moving, she's changing her mind and going from one thing to another.  Fuck!  I'm focused and on it type of person.  I get started and there's no stopping until it's done.  No breaks, no food, no letting the dogs in and out and I'm only taking a phone call from family if they leave a message that requires my immediate attention.  This is me having fun working.   

Anyway, I just glanced through the plan last night.  Had the sunlight and the drainage.  No utilities marked.  I don't plant trees and shrubs by those.  And the whole thing kind of made me claustrophobic.   There's no open space.  Where are the dogs going to run?  Where is the maintenance area?  How am I running a wheelbarrow to where I want without covering half the yard to get there?

And then I'm thinking, you know how she is.  For me I would have had it done in a year, by the end of fall if she's buying the plants.  For her, it's probably a pipe dream, some of it will get done but it won't look anything like that design.   

[cineater]

We are going close to 100 with high humidity all next week.     We don't usually get this until the end of July.  Moving all my containers into the shade.  I'll be hiding out in the house.  Hope those 78 St John Worts make it.

[cineater]

We're getting a second week of around 100 and no rain.  The garden is going to look like shit.  I hope the plants can live off of the humidity.

[cineater]

Wow, Yellow Stone is closed due to flooding. 

[cineater]

Never heard the term flash drought.  And dust from the Saharan desert and drifting smoke from west forest fires.  It's not making for a great gardening year.

Amazon has a battery, backpack sprayer for $100.  That would be nice.  Those pump sprayers take forever when you're walking around 5 acres.

[cineater]

Okay, I give up.  It's too hot to plant any more seedlings in the ground in the basin where I can't water them.  No way am I transplanting them in individual pots to get them through to the fall.  That would be well over 100 pots, needing a lot of watering and I have no space for.  I'm planting them in groups in bigger pots.  I'll make some kind of arrangement on the driveway.

The good news is, I'll have milk weed in pots I can run over to people raising monarchs.  Those guys can eat through some milk weed.

[pilferk]

A quick garden walk through I filmed this past week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC0hDFHi0YQ&t=25s

We're in zone 6, so.....this is a pretty normal "early season" garden for us.

[cineater]

Wow you have a lot of growing bags.

Does the owl keep the birds off your cattle panel?  How do the water bottles work?  I've been looking at ollas but I don't want to waste the growing area.

I brought home 97 garlic to cure.  No vampire worries but my eyes are burning.

[pilferk]

Wow you have a lot of growing bags.

Does the owl keep the birds off your cattle panel?  How do the water bottles work?  I've been looking at ollas but I don't want to waste the growing area.

I brought home 97 garlic to cure.  No vampire worries but my eyes are burning.

The owl keeps the birds off the strawberries and...when the tomatoes ripen...off of those (he'll move).  

The water bottles work because it lets us figure out water dosage.  I can put an inch or two (or 4 or 6) of water in there, turn the handle on the nozzle at the bottom, and there you go. We have a tendency to overwater...this keeps us honest.  It really is just an easy dosing method for the bagged stuff.  Also, when the nozzles are closed, they function as nice rain gauges to measure.

The grow bags really do work great for some things!  Potatoes, Cherry tomatoes (basically because we want to use that side of the trellis where the greenhouse is...and the gravel foundation wouldn't really let us do that), bush beans, kale, beats and carrots!  Looser soil for the root veggies so we get better yields.

[cineater]

We finally got rain but only a half an inch.  We are slipping into drought conditions.

I got a Helleborus.  It lives in the shade and blooms late winter.  Not a native.  I've been a bad girl.

[cineater]

The problem with the drain basin continues to get bigger.  Now the subdivision behind us is not happy that bushes and shit are growing through and under the fence.  That didn't happen when the trees shaded out that area and stuff didn't grow unchecked by mother nature.  Those came up on their own, weren't planted and are thriving or rather aggressively taking over.  They had the alderman out there tonight and they are suppose to discuss it tomorrow at the city meeting.  I pointed out that fences are usually placed back from the property line and what they are complaining about may actually, partially, be their property.  The subdivision people ignored that but the alderman picked up on it and said he would check that out before the meeting.