All posts by james

Garden update 2009-07-29

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While it has been nice to compare the current garden to last year’s results, I realize that won’t be possible next year unless I get some photos posted. Since we still haven’t replaced our dead camera, I have decided to start taking pictures with my iPhone. Its camera sucks, but at least we’ll have something to look at this time next year.

I’m also motivated to do it now that I’ve installed the iPhone WordPress app, which is what I’m using right now. I guess we’ll see how it turns out. If I don’t like it, this may very well be the last post till we replace our camera… and who knows when that will happen.

Snow Peas

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We finally managed to get some work done outside yesterday, but it’s snowing again today. It’s almost the end of April, but winter just won’t go away. Luckily we got a row of Pole Peas planted along the side of the house yesterday before it started snowing.

I tested all the sprinklers yesterday… we didn’t have any broken heads this year! So we have pressure in the system now, but there’s no reason to turn the system on with all the rain and snow we’re still getting.

A garden blog isn’t as much fun without pictures, but our camera isn’t in working order after a recent trip to San Diego. But I’ve decided to blog anyway, because a blog isn’t much of a blog without posts… boring or not.

All of the starts in the kitchen are doing really well, just waiting for it to warm up enough outside to be transplanted. All 20 of the Ed Hume Heirloom Tomatoes came up and are doing well. All 10 of the Ed Hum Tomatillos came up and are doing well. Of the 20 Lily Miller Peppers, only 4 have come up so far. Of course, peppers take much longer to get started, so that’s probably the reason they’re behind.

We also started 14 Roma Tomatoes that are doing well. We planted 2 Cantaloupes and 4 Watermelons that have sprouted. And we have 2 Giant Pumpkin starts looking good. I just hope all these things can get moved outside before they overrun their containers. (A few pictures would go nicely here.)

Peeking Out

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The seed pouches claimed we would start seeing sprouts 7 to 10 days after we planted them. It’s been 7 days. We are indeed seeing sprouts. So far we’re just starting to see some tiny tomatoes poking their necks out (their heads are still in the dirt).

The good news is that we got our camera back, so I can finally post a few shots of the planters.

Peppers, Tomatillos, and Tomatoes
Peppers, Tomatillos, and Tomatoes

Roma Tomatoes
Roma Tomatoes

Poking Out
Poking Out

First Planting of 2009

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Charmaine came home from Costco with a seed planter, some potting soil, strawberry roots, and turnip seeds. I was excited to get started, so I dumped a bunch of potting soil in the 50 pods of the seed planter.

Brett and Jess brought some pizza over tonight, while we extracted data from an old laptop hard drive. They also brought Nathan, who helped us plant our initial round of seeds in starter pods.

We planted:
20 pods of California Wonder Bell Peppers (Lilly Miller 2009 Lot F1)
10 pods of Toma Verde Tomatillos (Ed Hume 2009 Lot 1)
10 pods of Cherokee Purple Heirloom Tomatoes (Ed Hume 2009 Lot 1)
10 pods of Rainbow Heirloom Tomato Blend (Ed Hume 2009 Lot 1)

We are still without a camera, but hopefully we’ll get it back soon.

Welcome to 2009

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Just a few weeks ago we gave away the last of the winter squash from last year, and it’s already time to start planting again. 2008 was a great year, but I think we can do even better in 2009. Before winter set in, we borrowed a tiller from Charmaine’s parents and went over most the garden areas several times. It really made a big difference. The dirt is looking great, but I think we’ll want to till it again before we start planting this spring… and it’s already time to start planting the cold weather crops, so we better get moving.

We left some plants to die over winter, but to our surprise, they kept right on growing. It will be interesting to see how the Leeks and Green Onions taste after growing all winter. I will get some pictures up as soon as we find our camera.

About the same time we gave away the last of the squash, we saw seeds start showing up at the store. One day the seeds were on sale and we went a little crazy. Here’s what we have so far:

Pumpkins:
Jack Be Little (dwarf pumpkins)
Big Max (up to 100 pounds)
Spooktacular (small size for kids)
Sugar (perfect for pumpkin pie)
Orange Smoothie (Hybrid)
Connecticut Field (20 pound average)

Winter Squash:
Butternut (Waltham)
Banana (Pink Jumbo)
Vegetable Spaghetti
Acorn (Table King – Bush)
Golden Hubbard

Summer Squash:
Zucchini (Ambassador Hybrid)
Zucchini (Gold Rush)
Golden Summer Crookneck
Scallop Bush Mix (Pattypan)

Root Vegetables:
Green Onion (Evergreen White Bunching)
Parsnip (Hollow Crown)
Parsnip (Andover)
Carrot (Danvers Half Long)
Carrot (Nantes Coreless)
Carrot (Rainbow – Red, Purple, White, Yellow, and Orange)
Carrot (Big Top)
Beet (Early Wonder)

Herbs:
Cilantro (Coriander)
Florence Fennel (Finocchio)
Garlic Chives
Basil (Italian Large Leaf)
Sage

Peas:
Peas (Sugar Snap – Pole)
Peas (Super Sugar Snap – Pole)
Peas (Oregon Sugar Pod II – Bush)
Peas (Little Marvel – Bush)

Beans:
Beans (Slenderette Bush)
Beans (Blue Lake Pole)
Beans (Rattlesnake – Pole)

Corn:
Corn (Earlivee – Hybrid)
Corn (Kandy Korn – Hybrid)
Corn (Golden Cross Bantam T-51 – Hybrid)

Cucumber:
Cucumber (Armenian)
Cucumber (Lemon)

Melons:
Watermelon (Sugar Baby)
Cantaloupe (Charentais)

Tomatoes:
Tomato (Cherokee Purple Heirloom)
Tomato (Heirloom Rainbow Blend)

Other stuff:
Tomatillo (Toma Verde)
Pepper (California Wonder)
Kale (Nero Toscana)
Cabbage (Red Acre)
Sunflower (Mammoth Grey Stripe)

Seeds we’re still thinking about getting:
Radish
Pumpkin (Giant)
Tomato (Yellow Pear)
Tomato (Roma)
Onion
Potatoes
Eggplant
Cucumber (English)
Lettuce (Romaine)