The Upper Garden

Welcome back.  Again it's been awhile since my last post, as I continue to be busy with gardening, and, oh yeah, working full time.  

In my last post I highlighted the lower garden, one of the 2 main gardens I plant.  I basically showed the whole planting process of that plot.  Since it's been almost a month, the upper garden is now well established so I will show up to date photos.  I did include the planting of peas in a previous post which are in the upper garden.

As is the lower garden, the upper is also packed with veggies.  In a year where I was going to cut back a little, well, it just didn't happen.  

Starting at the bottom, the upper garden starts off with peas as mentioned above.   These were planted on May 3rd, about a week before we got 3 inches of snow, the last snow of the season.  Due to the cold weather, only some of the peas came up.  Actually, it's amazing any came up.  So I replanted the ones that didn't germinate (pre-soaking them to speed up germination), and eventually I had a full row.

Finally the work paid off as I picked the first peas of the season,  We enjoyed them in a stir fry, they were so fresh and delicious.

Right next to the peas are a row each of scallions and leeks, both of which I started from seed.  The scallions are the Evergreen Bunching variety and the leeks are American Flag.  

As you can see, I also built another lettuce box out of scrap lumber from around the house.  This allows me to start a new batch of lettuce and greens to eventually replace the plants in the lower garden as we use them.  I have it covered in 30% shade cloth, as I do all the lettuce and kale at this time, to prevent the plants from growing too fast and/or bolting in the hot summer sun.

Next up are the potatoes.  I wanted to plant all Yukon Gold, however, I didn't initially buy enough seed potatoes for the whole plot.  By the time I went back to the local farm store for more, the Yukon Gold were all sold out.  I did manage to get some Kennebec which is a good white variety. My parents always grew Kennebec and were always happy with the results.  

From Wiki:  Kennebec is a medium- to late-maturing white potato. It was bred by the USDA and selected by Presque Isle Station, Maine, in 1941. 

From Wiki:  Yukon Gold is a large cultivar of potato most distinctly characterized by its thin, smooth, eye-free skin and yellow-tinged flesh.  

Both varieties generally yield well and also.store very well.

Overall I will end up with about 50 hills in the 4 rows.  As you can see, some didn't come up and I had to replant.  However, the replants are all sprouting so the end result will be good.  I already hilled the plants once.  I will do it again to ensure the new potatoes growing have plenty of soil to develop in without turning green.  Potatoes will turn green if exposed to sunlight.

Right above the potatoes are a row of green beans and also carrots.  The beans are a slender French type.  They are now blossoming and should be ready to pick in 10 days to 2 weeks.

 

Bean Blossoms

The carrots I planted this year are from Burpee Seeds:

  

From the Burpee seed catalog:  We've combined five distinct colors of carrots in one special blend for a pretty rainbow effect that is sure to be noticed at the dinner table, even by the kids. After testing hundreds of carrot varieties, we developed this easy-to-grow mix of five crispy carrots: Atomic Red, Bambino, Cosmic Purple, Lunar White and Solar Yellow. Smoothly tapered roots grow to 8" x 2" in loose soil.

I am looking forward to harvesting these in the fall.

At the top edge of the garden are pumpkins, sunflowers, and pole beans.    

The last few seasons I have been having problems with sunflowers.  When planted, birds would eat the buried seeds right out of the ground, which I thought was very strange.  How do they know the seeds are a half inch under the soil?  Then, the plants were eaten off by woodchucks, the sunflowers being the only plants in both gardens that were bothered.  At times I have trouble with woodchucks, I am usually able to live trap and relocate them.

So this season I have had tried something new.  I built yet another box to use for the sunflowers.  After planting, it was covered with netting until the plants reached about 6 or 8 inches, then the netting removed, and the plants thinned and some moved outside the box.  So far so good.  I will keep a look out for varmits.

Some of the pumpkins I bought as plants, some were planted from seed.  I have Jack O Lantern and some other large varieties from Livingston Seed including Big Moon.

As always, thanks for reading.  More updates to come soon.

Gardening Time - The Lower Garden

Welcome back.  It's been awhile since my last post.  To be honest, I've been busy planting.  And planting.  And planting.  Every year I say I am going to cut back, however, this year the gardens are once again full.  For those of you who follow my blog, you know I have 2 main gardens, the "Lower" and "Upper'.  I also have the "Auxiliary" garden, a small plot out behind the pond.  This year, I even expanded that.

This post will focus on the Lower garden. As you know, I have the lettuce and greens box in this garden which I built last year and modified this spring to make into a cold frame.  It was put to the test in April and even as late as Mother's Day as we were still getting snow and cold temperatures.  Once the temperatures warmed, I removed the windows (lids), and still use the greens box with netting to protect them from birds, and woodchucks.
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In late April and early May, I planted lettuce and kale in the cold frame as you saw n a previous post  The plants are now flourishing and I have begun to harvest lettuce and kale. I replaced the normal netting with shade cloth, which decreases the amount of sun that reaches the plants, which prevents the lettuce and kale from growing too quickly (bolt) in hot temperatures.

In the photo below is lettuce, both romaine and butter head, kale, and even some mesculun.

Around May 17th, I started the main portion of the Lower garden starting with onions,  As you can see, I am using planting paper to hopefully reduce weeds and possibly even watering as the summer progresses.  After securing the paper using plastic pins (reusable), I used a box cutter (carefully) to cut slits wide enough to plant the onion sets.

I planted 2 types of onion sets.  Snowball, a sweet white onion, is shown above.  Also, I chose Stuttgart, a yellow type that stores very well. 

In addition, I planted some of my Sweet Spanish onion plants that I stated from seed.   I covered this in a previous post.  This is a go to variety for me, and is generally not available as sets.  At times they can be found as plants, but not always.  therefore, I normally start them from seed.

You can see in this photo the 4 rows of onions on the right.  The cold frame at this point still had the windows, before being removed and replaced with netting.   This also shows my use of the garden paper,which I am optimistic about so far.  It is easy to work with and seems to be fairly durable.

Along the left edge is cucumbers, pickling and burpless, and yellow and Zucchini squash.  At the bottom of the photo is a hill of miniature pumpkins.

Pickling Cucumbers

When planting the cukes and squash, I cut a circle instead of individual holes for plants.  I tried to leave as much paper as possible to suppress weeds, within reason.

The jewel of the Lower garden of course is the tomatoes.  In my post on 4/22/20,  I describe starting heirloom tomatoes from seed and background information about heirlooms, why they are so desired the last 4 or 5 years.   By the time I planted the tomatoes on May 23rd, the plants were decent size and healthy.

Tomatoes on June 15th

To complete the Lower garden, I added peppers.  This year I planted Bell, Jalapeno, Hungarian Wax and Sweet Banana varieties.   As you can see I utilized the planting paper, I am getting used to it.

Peppers (Top)

Finally, a couple of more views of the Lower garden and some lettuce and kale I have harvested..

Thanks for reading.  Stayed tuned for my next post on planting the Upper garden. 

Planting Peas/Fighting the Cold Weather/Using Planting Paper

Welcome back.  Almost 3 weeks ago on May 3rd I planted peas.  They have started to sprout but are pretty sparse. I will  have to replant to fill in the row..  Gardening isn't always successful.  I normally have very good gardening results overall.  Usually the weather is the culprit for poor gardening outcomes.  This Spring definitely has been very challenging in regards to weather.

I chose a good year to try using a cold frame. it has proven to be a life-saver for my lettuce and kale.  We have had many very cold nights with temperatures down to the mid twenties.  We have also continued to have snow well into May.  

The above photos were taken on May 9th, the day before Mother's Day.  I remember snow on Mother's Day in years past, but I don't think it was 2 to 3 inches and temps down in the mid twenties.

Getting back to the cold frame, I even added some heat using a heat tape which turns on when the temperatures reaches freezing.   I kept asking myself if this effort was really worth it, but I had some nice lettuce and kale plants started and didn't want to loose them.    

Usually in late April and throughout May, I have lettuce, kale and other greens started in the garden, even onions.  This Spring the temperatures were unusually cold from mid-April to mid-May.

Planting Peas

In my previous post I hinted at a "planting paper experiment".  It all started with the peas.  I have been trying to come up with a way to cut down on weeding and cultivating once the planting is done.  It would be a great time and back saver.  The latter is becoming increasingly important to me with my ongoing back condition.

I have tried mulching with straw and hay, which does work but does in the end increase weeds and grass growing.  I did some research on using newspaper and cardboard.  I finally found garden paper which controls weeds, then decomposes by the end of the growing season and can be tilled into the soil.    

When I planted the peas, I had not yet received the rolls of garden paper.  Enter the new paper grocery bags now being used in NY since plastic bags have been banned.   I cut open some of these which we received from the groceries being delivered during this Covid-19 crisis.   

   

I anchored the paper using landscape fabric staples and extra soil/stones.  I then used a box cutter to cut a strip wide enough to allow the seeds to be poked into the ground and to sprout properly.  

Fast forward to May 24th.  As you can see the sprouts are pretty sparse.  I am going to replant the empty spots and see what happens.  To speed up germination of the replants, I will soak the pea seeds about 8 hrs.

Stay tuned for further updates on the peas, and the planting of the "lower garden".  I have recently planted tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, onions, peppers, pumpkins, and more.

It's Garden Planting Time For Cold Hardy Vegetables/Rare Bird Sighting

Welcome back.  May is here already and for gardeners it is a month to look forward to, especially here in the Northeast.  April was a strange month weather wise as there were some nice days, but it seemed there were more with snow and cold.

My tomatoes, kale, lettuce, onions, Swiss chard and leeks that I started from seed are doing well in my small greenhouse on the porch.  There were quite a few nights that I had to bring plants inside due to the cold temps.

There was enough nice weather to dry out the garden, and on Easter Sunday I tilled the 2 vegetable gardens.  Last fall I added mulched leaves which composted over winter and enhanced the soil this Spring.  Leaves are one of the best things to use for garden soil.

The Cold Frame Experiment

Last Spring I built a wooden enclosure, similar to a raised bed, but at the same level as the garden.  It worked very well to protect the lettuce and greens from critters,  I put netting over it also to further protect it.  During the hottest weather, I used shade cloth (for the first time) to reduce the sun by 30% to prevent bolting of the lettuce.  This also worked very well.  Shade cloth is available in different "strengths" to block varying amounts of sunlight.

This Spring I am experimenting  with a cold frame, using the same frame.  I found 2 old windows at my house and mounted them on the frame with hinges and prop bars to allow solar heating for the plants, and also to maintain a warmer temperature at night.

One advantage of owning an old farmhouse is there are plenty of old windows and doors sitting around.

I planted some of my kale and lettuce plants, and as you can see on the left above, they are struggling so far.  The kale will be fine, as that is extremely hardy.  The lettuce may not, so I bought some Romaine plants on the right above.  My lettuce plants were small, and the transplant shock and cool temperatures may have been too much.  The cold frame works well to warm the soil and produce greenhouse conditions.   At this time last year, I was growing lettuce and kale without the help of the cold frame.  It's been a different Spring for sure.

When the weather warms (the key word is when), the windows can be removed and stored.  I may even put them back on in the fall for some fall lettuce and greens.  The cold frame works well in both Spring and Fall.

Finally, a semi-rare bird sighting the other day, a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak.  I have seen these before, but not every year.  Apparently this bird is migrating, It was here for 2 days only.  Enjoy.

In my next post, I will cover planting peas and my new garden paper experiment.  Stay tuned.
 

Simply Photos - Birds of Winter and Spring

Welcome back.  This week  I take a break from gardening (at least writing about it) to share some bird photos from the Winter and also this Spring.  As many of you may know, I participate in Project FeederWatch which runs each year from November through April.  It is a large and important citizen science project in the US and Canada.  I also participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count which is a worldwide 4 day count each February. 

I enjoy capturing bird photos.  It is challenging and requires patience for sure as birds are on the move constantly.  Sometimes we get lucky as they will seem to stay still for a few moments, almost posing for the camera.

I  have included several highlighted Amazon links for your shopping convenience if  you are interested in a new camera.  I am currently using a Nikon Coolpix L830 which I have been very happy with thus far.  It is easy to use and the photos are good quality.  There are many other point and shoot cameras as well.

Enjoy the photos:

Hairy Woodpecker

American Goldfinch

Brown-Headed Cowbirds (Male/Female) and Mourning Dove

House Finch and Dark-Eyed Junco

Northern Cardinal

Blue Jay

American Goldfinch

Starting Heirloom Tomatoes

Welcome back.  As promised, I am writing a post about heirloom tomatoes.   About a month ago I started some from seed.  Before I delve into the details of planting, lets take a closer look at heirloom vegetables.  Exactly what is a heirloom?  I have included 3 highlighted links to Amazon products related to this post for your convenience.

Heirloom Vegetables

According to most sources, an heirloom is an old, open-pollinated variety that is of high quality and easy to grow.  As far as how old, some authorities say those vegetables introduced before 1951 qualify as heirlooms, 1951 being the first year hybrid vegetables were developed.  Some gardeners prefer even older varieties, as some heirlooms have been passed down for hundreds and even thousands of years.

Open pollinated means that seeds from the vegetable can be grown and will come back exactly the same as the parent plant.  A vegetable can only be called an heirloom after proving it remains true year after year.  On the other hand, the same is not true for hybrid plants.  Therefore seeds from heirlooms can be saved and passed down from generation to generation.

But why are heirlooms so popular?  One of the reasons I think is the nostalgic factor.  Growing varieties that your parents and/or grandparents grew certainly has an appeal.  I enjoy growing vegetable varieties that I remember my parents and grandparents talking about.

The main reason though is the flavor.  These old varieties have the true flavor that vegetables should have.  The more modern hybrids sometime lack in flavor and studies have shown that in many cases they are also less nutritious.

Hybrid varieties were developed over the years to produce more consistent looking, disease resistant, and higher yielding vegetables, which provide a much better mass appeal in grocery stores ,etc.  These are much easier to grow in large quantities with consistent results.

Another advantage to growing heirloom vegetables lies in the ripening process.  Hybrids are bred to ripen uniformly, thereby making it much easier to commercially harvest them all at one time.  On the other hand, heirlooms tend to ripen more unevenly, which can be advantageous for the home gardener.

With the information I have provided, you should be able to decided whether or not you want to grow heirlooms.  I highly recommend it, however I also grow some hybrid varieties as well.  They both have their advantages.

Heirloom Hybrid Tomatoes

Heirloom tomatoes are relished for their great flavor, but for some favorites, like Brandywine and Cherokee Purple, there’s a disadvantage.  When compared with modern hybrids, heirlooms are not necessarily the most productive or problem-free plants to grow.

Now there are heirloom hybrid tomatoes. No longer true heirlooms, these crosses between two heirloom parents offer the best of both worlds: higher yields, increased disease resistance, often earlier ripening than their parents, plus all of the great flavor of classic heirlooms.  So we are back to hybrids, but not as far back as to compromise flavor.

This year I have decided to try some of these heirloom hybrids to see if they are in fact an improvement over just regular hybrids.

Planting Heirloom Hybrid Tomatoes

About a month ago I planted my tomato seeds.  I ended up planting 3 heirloom hybrid varieties that I purchased from Seeds 'N Such.

Cherokee Carbon

From the Seeds 'N Such website:

To capitalize on the current craze, our breeders crossed Cherokee Purple with Carbon to create a robust purple beefsteak with intensely rich flavor. Big, 10 to 12-oz. fruits with a pleasantly sweet taste are the essence of delicious summer eating! Indeterminate.  78 days.

Big Brandy

From the Seeds 'N Such website:

The largest member of the Heirloom Marriage series at 12 to 15-oz., featuring gigantic, meaty, pink beefsteaks. A cross between Brandywine  and New Big Dwarf. Flavor is sensational and perfect for fresh salads and sandwiches. Indeterminate.  75 days.

Perfect Flame

From the Seeds 'N Such website:

Earliest to ripen in the series, producing perfectly uniform, blemish-free, 4-oz., saladette fruits of a bright luminous orange. Full-flavored with a delightful balance of sweet and sour. Bred from French heirloom Flammé and Argentine heirloom Peron to produce a stronger, more productive, indeterminate plant than either parent.  68 days.

In addition to these varieties I also planted the following:  Amish Paste and San Marzano (heirloom paste tomatoes), Black Cherry and Matt's Wild Cherry (heirloom cherry tomatoes).  These seeds I had leftover from last year.  I also planted an experimental tomato which I received with my order from Seeds 'N Such.

Today I transplanted the tomatoes into individual Jiffy peat pots.  This can be done once the plants start developing the second set of leaves.  This is an important step in the hardening off process which will be complete once the tomatoes are planted in the garden, sometime around late May.  You can see the original seed starting tray on the left in the photo.  I planted about 6 seeds per cell, then of course separated them for transplanting.

 
When starting seeds, it is not necessary to have them in the sun to germinate, but keeping them in a consistently warm area is important.  The container I used has a plastic dome with vents to maintain moisture.  Once the seeds sprout, then sun is important.  When conditions allowed, I moved the plants to my outdoor greenhouse at least during the day to soak up the sun.

As always, thanks for visiting.  In my next post, I will take a break from gardening and will share some more bird photos.

Starting Onions/Kale/Lettuce/Tomatoes/The Amazing Goldfinch

Welcome back to my blog.  I posted many posts here on Blogger for about 5 years.  I hope you have enjoyed my posts where I talked in length about gardening and bird watching, and many related topics.  Photos are a large part of my posts and I hope you have enjoyed them also.

For the last year or so I have been posting on steempeak.com.  It is a very interesting platform that deals in cryptocurrency and has a large community of bloggers.  However, it has become unstable and I am not confident that it will remain viable.  In the meantime, if you want to visit and read my posts from the last year I would appreciate.   You can just search for "dansgardening" on this site to view all of my posts.

Since I have already posted in steempeak regarding some of my Spring plantings, I will recap here to get you up to speed.

Winter Sowing

This is a great technique which I have written about quite a few times on Blogger.  Since I am not sure how much longer steampeak will be available, I will reference you back to a post here on Blogger regarding  Winter Sowing from 2018.  It is a great technique which really does work.

This year I used this method to plant Romaine and Iceberg lettuce, and also several varieties of kale, and Swiss Chard.

This photo is of the Iceberg lettuce which has germinated very well and is growing quickly.  The Romaine, Swiss Chard, and Kale (see photo below) are also growing nicely.  I strongly recommend the Winter Sowing technique, although it is too late now to start seeds using this technique since Spring has sprung in most areas of the US.  However, if you live in a region of the world where there is still a month or so of Winter remaining, go ahead and give it a try.

 
In this photo you can see the kale on the far right started using Winter Sowing.  If you are new to gardening, I would recommend growing kale since it is easy to grow and is extremely hardy,  It will grow non-stop all summer, and can withstand quite a few frosts in the Fall.

On the left in the photo in the white containers, that I started from seed, are Sweet Spanish onions, American Flag Leeks, and Evergreen Bunching onions which are scallions.   I love to grow onions and leeks, and Sweet Spanish is one of my favorite varieties, as they are large sweet onions that also store fairly well.  Some onions are available as sets such at Stuttgart (yellow) and white onions.  Sweet Spanish, however, are only available by seed.  You may be lucky enough to find Sweet Spanish onion plants at your local garden center if you would rather not start them from seed.

I have also started some heirloom tomatoes from seed, and they are progressing nicely.  In my next post I will fill you in on the details of the varieties I am growing.  I am a huge fan of heirloom tomatoes and have been growing them for quite a few years now.  Their flavor is unsurpassed.  I have dedicated quite a few posts to heirloom tomatoes and will continue to do so in the future.

At the beginning of this post, I also mentioned that my blog involves bird watching, photography, and related topics.  Those of you who have previously read my blog know I am an avid bird watcher and I participate in several research projects.

To peak your interest, I will leave you with a recent bird photo of an American Goldfinch.  These birds are year round residents here in Central New York.  In the winter, the male's bright yellow color is subdued.  They are starting to get their brilliant color back during the last few weeks.  I captured this one at sunrise recently.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you continue to follow my blog.