Simply Photos - Project Feederwatch and Fall Garden Cleanup

Welcome back.  It's hard to believe that this coming weekend will be the 6th week of Project FeederWatch .  I have enjoyed it as always, although the lack of snowfall (prior to today) has limited the birds so far that I have observed.  With today's snowfall and onset of winter conditions, I have already noticed an increase in the number of bird species visiting my feeders.

In this post I will share a few photos I have captured thus far.  It's a challenge to get good photos, as it requires a great deal of patience at times.   As I mentioned above, I have observed a limited amount of species to date.

In case you missed my last post regarding project FeederWatch, it can be viewed in the right hand margin of this post as a "Featured Post".  That post will give you all the specifics you would need if your want to participate in this great project.

Hungry Blue Jay

Dark-Eyed Junco

House Sparrows

Fall Garden Cleanup

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Even though Winter is settling in, I am sharing a few photos and information from the fall garden cleanup process during Late September and October.

It is important to care for your garden in the Fall, so that in the Spring it will be easier to get it ready for planting.  It will also help to ensure that next year's garden will be a success.

The main chore in the fall is obviously to remove the remaining plants and to till the soil.

It is good to leave a few decomposing plants to till into the soil as the organic matter is generally good for the garden with one notable exception.  If you had plants affected by blight, it is recommended to dispose of those plants completely to help prevent it's return next season.  For more information about early and late blight, refer to this post from 2014.

Another important aspect is to amend the soil.  If you compost kitchen scraps and other organic matter, that is excellent to use to enhance your soil,  Since I don't currently compost, I use chopped leaves and grass clippings, which also add nutrients and character to the soil.  As a rule, organic matter not only adds nutrients, but also improves the soil consistency in a way that allows it to retain moisture better and to prevent it from hardening in harsh conditions during the summer.

Lower and Upper Gardens Ready for Winter

Upper Garden

Fading Sunflowers

Farewell To Fall

In my next post, a look at some new seed catalogs that already are arriving for 2018!

Project FeederWatch Begins This Saturday, November 11th!!

Welcome back.  As time continues to fly by, we find ourselves in November.  I always look forward to November for several reasons.  First, the end of the gardening season signals the beginning of the winter bird watching season.  Even though I love gardening and summer, it is refreshing to get a break from all of the other summer chores.  So my interests shift from gardening to bird watching, and of course the anticipation of the coming holidays.

As the blog title implies, Project FeederWatch is again upon us.

Do you-already enjoy watching birds, or maybe you want to learn about this fascinating hobby?  Are you looking for a great activity (low cost) that involves the whole family?  Then Project FeederWatch is for you.

How do you begin?  Below are some simple instructions to get you started and even a video to watch:

1. Sign up – If you have not yet signed up, join today! During the season, it takes a few weeks from when you sign up for your kit to arrive with your ID number and for your ID number to be activated in Your Data.
2. Select your count site – Choose a portion of your yard that is easy to monitor, typically an area with feeders that is visible from one vantage point.
3. Choose your count days – Select two consecutive days as often as once a week (less often is fine). Leave at least five days when you do not count between each of your two-day counts.
4. How to count – Watch your feeders as much or a little as you want over your selected count days. Record the maximum number of each species visible at any one time during your two-day count. Keep one tally across both days. Do not add your counts together!
5. What to count – Please count
   • all of the individuals of each species in view at any one time
   • birds attracted to food or water you provided
   • birds attracted to fruits or ornamental plantings
   • hawks and other predatory birds that are attracted by the birds at your feeders
   But do not count
   • birds that simply fly over the count site, such as Canada Geese or Sandhill Cranes.
   • birds seen on non-count days
6. Report your counts – Submit counts through the Your Data section of our website.

So sign up today as the project starts on November 11th and runs through April 13, 2018.  The website not only has information regarding how to participate, but also offers a wealth of other information including how to feed birds, feeder location, bird identification, bird diseases, a blog, bird cams, and information on the photo contests and prizes involved.

The instructions above indicate it can take several weeks for your kit to arrive with your ID number.  Not to worry,  You can record your counts on paper until your ID arrives, then catch up online with the data entry. 

Finally, I leave you with a photo I took last winter.  Enjoy.

Extending The Growing Season Over Winter/Harvest Photos/Project FeederWatch

Welcome back.  Thanks as always for visiting.

In this post I will talk about several techniques that can be used to extend the growing season, even to the point of growing during the winter.  Although the latter may seem impossible, I will explain.

Succession Planting:

I have used this method for a long time now.  This technique is fairly simple and involves multiple plantings (sometimes overlapping) during the growing season to ensure a continuous harvest from Spring to Fall.  This works best for vegetables with short maturation times, such as lettuce, spinach, and radishes, even squash and cucumbers..

For example, if you want a continuous supply of lettuce throughout the summer, consider planting 3 times during the season,  the first would be in late April or early May, followed by a second planting in mid June.  Finally, a third planting in mid to late August will ensure a Fall crop.  Typically, lettuce will do the best in cooler weather, so the first and third plantings will probably do the best.  The use of shade cloth in hot weather will enhance the lettuce production as it filters a percentage of sunlight from reaching the plants.

This technique works well for almost any vegetable with a maturation time of 4 to 6 weeks

Winter Growing (Winter Harvest) :

This is a technique used to actually grow vegetables during the winter.  This is a fairly advanced method but can be accomplished by the home gardener.  This technique involves the use of row tunnels (either low or high) to protect the plants during the winter.  A wide variety of veggies can be grown including lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, radishes, and carrots.


Overwintered Crops (Spring Harvest):

This method involves over wintering plants for an early Spring harvest.  This can be used for vegetables including kale and spinach.


Refer to this Winter Growing Guide from Johnny's Selected Seeds for detailed information on all of the above topics.  In the Northeast where the growing season is relatively short, these methods can be useful for the serious gardener.


Season in Review/Harvest Photos:

Unfortunately, this year's growing season has cone to an end (unless you are adventurous and try some winter gardening techniques), as we had our first killing frost on October 16th.  The gardening season always goes by fast, leaving us with the long winter to reflect on our gardening.

Overall, I was very satisfied with the gardens this year, despite the very difficult conditions in May and early June.  The excessive rainfall and cool temperatures made it very challenging to get the garden underway.  The summer was also quite wet but warm enough for optimum growing conditions.

This year's winner was definitely the cucumbers, the best crop I've ever had (see my post of 9/22/17).  They must like warm, wet conditions and rotted manure.

The loser was the potatoes, which I replanted three times as they kept rotting before sprouting (see my post of 7/4/17).  I finally did end up with some good plants, but it was too late in the season for them to produce potatoes of decent size.

Tomato Harvest

Leeks

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Last of the Heirloom Tomatoes

Sunflower Glory

Hibiscus in a New Flower Bed

Project FeederWatch:

In my next post, I will highlight Project FeederWatch, which begins on 11/11/17 and continues through early April of 2018.  This is a great, low cost activity for bird watchers and their families.  Each week you can record and enter your bird watching data online, which helps track bird population patterns throughout the U.S. and Canada.  You can even enter your photos in the photo contests for a chance to win great prizes.

Sign up soon so you receive your project materials on time.

Finally, a nice October sunrise photo.

Garden Harvest Time

Welcome back.  It's been a long time since my last post,  as we've been busy with summer vacation trips, etc. It's hard to believe it's September already!  Summers always seem to fly by.  Over the last week or so ( as of 4:02 PM today it is now officially Autumn) we have gotten the best stretch of weather we had all summer with little or no rain and temperatures way above normal.  The summer of 2017 was not that fantastic hear in central New York State.

Normally September equates to the garden winding down and time to think about fall cleanup. Although that is somewhat true this year, this year is a little different.   Many of the crops are late this season, due to the unusually wet and cold May and early June weather which made it difficult to start the garden on time.  The advantage is I am still enjoying many veggies even as Fall is here.

In my last post I promised to detail the upper garden plantings.  Since it's been 2 months since that post, I will focus now mostly on harvest results.

I will begin recent photos of my sunflower crop:

Glorious Sunflowers

Autumn Beauty

Next, some upper garden photos from mid to late July:

Heirloom Tomatoes

Cucumbers (Right), Peppers and Squash (Left)

Cucumbers - The Best in Years!

Onions, Carrots, Indian corn

As you can see, after the rough start in May and early June, the garden actually did very well, although somewhat behind compared to other seasons.  The tomatoes have done well, and have just begun to ripen in the last few weeks.

As I mentioned above in the photo caption, the cucumbers this year were phenomenal.  I bought the plants at a local farm stand, they were a pickling variety.  I planted then in some well rotted manure.

For some reason in the past few years, the cucumbers were susceptible to early blight and the yields were poor.  This year was a pleasant surprise, as I picked dozens of cucumbers.

Last, but not least, some harvest photos:

Cukes and Zucchini

Peppers and Tomatoes

Pumpkins and Gourds

Heirloom Tomatoes

Heirloom Beauty

As always, thanks for visiting.  In my next post, I will research ways to extend the growing season as the cooler weather approaches.  The gardening season doesn't necessarily have to end as colder weather settles in.

I will also be gearing up for Project FeederWatch, which begins on November 11th.   So check out the website, and sign up early.  This is a great family activity. 

Garden Update/Bluebird Sighting

Welcome back fellow gardeners and bird watchers.  You may have thought I disappeared from the blogging scene, however, I am returning with a post to update you on the garden progress.

It's been a very frustrating season thus far due to the heavy rainfall, however I have had moderate success in the vegetable garden thus far.

In May we received 7 inches of rain here in central New York State, and in June we got 4 inches. Lately the weather has a tropical feel as the humidity has been high with frequent rain showers. Today was a beautiful 4th of July, sunny and lower humidity.  Let's hope this is the beginning of a good stretch of weather.

Following is an update for the lower garden.  I have two main gardens with an "auxiliary" garden down behind the pond used for extra plants, fall squash, etc.  In my next post, I will cover the upper garden.

Lower Garden:

You may be wondering why all of the empty space.  I will explain below.

In  the foreground, are kale and lettuce.  For more information on the varieties of kale and lettuce, see my post of  March 18, 2017.   The kale and lettuce were started using a technique known as winter sowing, also explained in the post of March 18th which can be viewed to the right under the "Featured Post."   The seeds were planted in containers and placed out in the snow and cold until they sprouted this Spring.  It is a technique I have used for several years with good success.

Along the right hand edge of the garden are pumpkins.  The varieties  I am growing this season are Big Max, Cinderella, Connecticut filed, Jack Be Little, and Howden.

Today I harvested some Romaine lettuce and kale.  It has grown wonderfully this season.  Plenty of rain, not too much sun, ideal conditions for these plants.  In the future I want to enclose the lettuce/kale bed with a wooden frame (like a raised bed frame), then cover it with shade cloth.  This year I used wood shingles and netting, which helps tremendously to keep birds and other critters from eating it, including my pet duck.  I think shade cloth would work even better, as it is available in various degrees of shading.  I think a 70% cloth (allows 70% of the sun to penetrate) would work well.  If it gets too hot, lettuce will usually bolt.

Harvesting Romaine Lettuce

Kale and Romaine Lettuce

The remainder of the lower garden is potatoes.  This is a story in and of itself.   I initially planted them on 5/24/17.  I planted two rows of Yukon Gold, which is one of our favorites, and one row of Yukon Nugget, similar to Yukon Gold, just a smaller size..  However, only the 3 hills of Yukon Gold in the first row above on the left came up out of the approximately 45 hills I planted.

Then, around mid June, I planted a row of Keuka Gold potatoes that I purchased at a local farm stand.

Long story short, the Keuka Gold sets did not germinate, however the re-plants of the Yukon Gold did. So now I will fill in the missing hills with some Yukon Gold.

The end result will be that the different planting times will produce potatoes that mature at different times, but that may not be so bad after all.

Yukon Gold Potato

The following are descriptions from the The Maine Potato Lady:

Yukon Gold:

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Yukon Gold is a large variety of potato most distinctly characterized by its thin, smooth eye-free skin and yellow-tinged flesh.  Deservedly known as a nice potato, with great flavor and excellent storage. This is an early variety.

Yukon Nugget:

Uniform nuggets of gold are a treasure; enjoy them steamed whole or chunked, then tossed with balsamic vinegar, butter and salt, and a touch of dill. This recent release has Rose Gold as one of its parents. A large set of small- to medium-sized golden tubers with small red eyes, 4-5 more per plant than Yukon Gold

Keuka Gold:

Expect high uniform yields from Keuka Gold, a recent release from the Cornell breeding program. Part of the Public Seed Initiative in 2004, Keuka performed well under organic growing conditions. Though not as early as Yukon Gold, it may be a good substitute.  Buff skin and light yellow flesh with eating qualities similar to Yukon Gold.

Today I replanted, once again, some Yukon Gold potatoes.  I used some leftover potatoes from last year. Surprisingly, I still had enough to replant and hopefully I will end up with a complete potato patch.

The good news is that I will have just one variety, so no chance for mix ups.  The bad news, I really wanted to try both Yukon Nugget and Keuka gold.  But there is always next year.

Planting Potatoes - Third Attempt

Finally, There's the sunflower saga.  I love growing sunflowers, as I used to grow them as a child with my Mom's assistance.  I would grow the Mammoth Russian variety, and enter the seed heads in size contests (by submitting photos) in magazines.

Now I typically grow the decorative types, as there are so many to choose from and new ones each year. However, this year the birds seemed to dig up and eat the planted seeds, which I never had a problem with before,  So my solution was to plant them in a container indoors, then transplant into the garden. Hopefully they will survive and provide beautiful blooms in late summer, early fall.

Planting Sunflowers

Sunflower Patch

In my next post, I will cover the Upper Garden, which this year contains lots of goodies, including Heirloom tomatoes pole beans and much more.  Below is one photo to peak your interest for my next post.  Also, I recently started a new perennial bed which I will share, as it is a work in progress.

Upper Garden

Bluebird Sighting:

Much to my delight, this year we have bluebirds nesting in one of the nest boxes along the pond. They like to sit on my bird feeder that overlooks the pond, even though I haven't been putting any seed out lately.  I think I captured both the male and female.  These birds seems to have a little different coloring from typical bluebirds. I don't think these are juveniles, since they are still nesting in the bird house, although the coloring almost looks that way.  None the less, they are fun to watch.

Thanks for visiting, and have a happy 4th of July!

Photos - Starting Onions and Heirloom Tomatoes/Bird Photos

Welcome back.  I think Spring has finally sprung.  And I mean FINALLY.  The 3 feet of snow from the mid March storm has finally melted.  The peepers are out and we're ready to roll!  I am anxiously awaiting to see if any migratory birds visit the feeder.  April is usually when they start to arrive on their journey north.


Starting Heirloom Tomatoes:

Peat Pellets Absorbing Water.  Netting is Then Peeled Back, Seeds Planted and Covered With Soil.

Heirloom Tomatoes.  Left, San Marzano.  Right, Heirloom Rainbow Blend (Park Seeds)

Onions and Leeks - Update:

In the Greenhouse:  Sweet Spanish and Cipollini Onions, American Flag Leeks, and Tomatoes

Winter Sowing - Update:

Lettuce and Kale/Grown Using the Winter Sowing Technique

Finally, a few bird photos:

Red-Winged Blackbird

Brown-Headed Cowbird

Northern Cardinal and White-Throated Sparrow

Thanks as always for visiting.

Staring Onions Indoors/Lettuce and Kale Outdoors -Yes Outdoors!

Welcome back again to my blog.  Another month has gone by so quickly, and it's time I return with a new post.

As always the Great Backyard Bird Count was fun and interesting.  I will summarize my results and those of the overall count in future posts.  This project continues to grow each year with more participants and checklists submitted.

The weather continues to be extremely variable this winter.  A few weeks ago we enjoyed 60 degree temperatures.  Two days ago we had 3 feet of snow and blizzard conditions.

I now turn my attention to starting some vegetables for the upcoming season.  Although it is still a little early for some plants, for onions and leeks the time is right if you start from seeds.  Especially if you're starting late season varieties.

I also recently started some kale and lettuce and placed outside in the snow and cold, using a technique known as winter sowing.

Starting Onions and Leeks:

A few weeks ago, I started two varieties of onions.  Onions are more commonly planted using onion sets or onion plants.  However, I really enjoy Sweet Spanish which are hard to find either as sets or plants, but are available as seeds.  These onions get to be softball size and store fairly well, although not as well as typical yellow onions (usually Stuttgart).

I also am trying Cipollini, an Italian flat variety.  These onions are also sweet and their shape allows them to work well for roasting or pickling.

Preparing Planting Container With Soil

The containers I use were originally for holding peat pellets, but I re-use them using a good potting mix.  I like to use one that already has plant food added.

First, thoroughly wet the soil and level off.  Sprinkle seeds on the soil being careful not to plant them too densely.

Finally, cover the seeds with about a quarter to half inch of soil and tamp down lightly.  Again wet the soil, using a fine mist as to not to disturb the seeds.

Cipolloni Onion Seed

Sweet Spanish Onion Seeds

Leek Seeds

Onion Seeds

Sweet Spanish Onions Sprouting

I currently have the onions and leeks indoors since winter has refused to subside.  Hopefully in a week or so I can set up my mini greenhouse on the porch and get the plants outside, at least during the daylight hours.



Winter Sowing:  Yes, Plant Outside in the Snow!


Believe it or not, it is possible to plant seeds in containers now, place outdoors in the snow, and they will germinate in the Spring.  The technique is called winter sowing.

The best results will be with cold hardy, short season vegetables such as kale, lettuce, spinach, onions, leeks, radishes, and Brussels sprouts.  Tomatoes and peppers will also germinate, but will be delayed compared to those started indoors and will mature much later.  The nice thing is that seeds sown this way require absolutely no care once planted until they germinate.

For more information, visit Winter-Sown.org.

The technique is simple, start with a one gallon milk or water jug that is clean.  Cut the jug in half except to leave one area to act as a hinge,  Drain holes should be drilled in the bottom also.

Use a Knife or Drill For Drain Holes

Fill the container with a good seed starting mix or potting soil and wet thoroughly.  Potting soil actually works better since it tends to absorb and retain more moisture, whereas seed starting mix (usually just peat moss) tends to dry out very quickly.

The excess water will drain via the drain holes.  Never use your garden soil for starting plants, since the microorganisms (bacteria, fungus, mold) can hamper the germination process and even kill seedlings.

Plant the seeds and cover with the appropriate amount of soil as per directions on the seed packet. Water again lightly.  I use a spray bottle for this since a mist doesn't disturb the seeds during the watering process.

Planting Siberian Improved Dwarf and Red Russian Kale

The final step is to seal the containers with duct tape and place outside.   That's right, place them out in the snow with caps removed.  The opening in the top will allow moisture to enter and also prevent the containers from overheating once spring arrives.

Seal With Duct Tape or Clear Package Tape

Placed Outside (Before The Snowstorm)

I also planted two more containers (not pictured and now buried!), one with Romaine lettuce and another with Butter-crunch lettuce.

Thanks for visiting.  In future posts I will follow the progress of the onions and leeks, and I promise a post regarding starting heirloom tomatoes.   Also more bird photos to come.