Rototilling the Garden/Bird Photos

Welcome back and happy Friday to everyone!

Well it's that time of the year again to re-discover the garden.  With the hard winter we had this year, I was wondering if I would ever get back "in the garden" again.  Even a week or so ago it was extremely wet in our yard, but over the last week it has dried out considerably with the help of a lot of windy days.

So this past Monday night, I broke out my vintage 1979 Ariens Rocket V rototiller and went to work:

Lower Garden Before Tilling

The Ariens Rocket V

Last Fall I used my trim mower with a bagger to mulch some leaves around the yard which I then placed on my vegetable gardens,  Mulched leaves is one of the best organic materials to use to enhance your garden soil.  Of course cow or horse manure works well also.  As a general rule, it is always better to place any of these on your garden in the fall, so they have time to compost over the winter.

Upper Garden Before Tilling

In a few weeks I will be able to start the planting process, beginning with onions, a variety of lettuces, radishes and Swiss chard.

After tilling, the gardens looked a lot more inviting, at least to a gardener.  The long winter takes it's toll on the soil.  You may be thinking that it is a little early in the season to turn up the soil, however I like to work the ground before the sun has a chance to bake the soil which then makes it so much more difficult. Some areas I may re-till later in the planting season if necessary.

Lower Garden After Tilling, Being Investigated by my Resident Ducks

Upper Garden After Tilling

More to come in future posts about my ducks, the progress of my tomato and onion plants, and much much more.

Finally, some more bird photos thanks to my son who apparently has caught the birding bug!:

Northern Cardinal

Northern Cardinal & Song Sparrow

Until next time

Transplanting Tomatoes/Bird Photos

A few days ago, I transplanted some tomato plants from the original seed starting tray (with peat pellets), into peat pots, using a good potting mix.

So what is transplanting and why is this process important and necessary?

The transplant stage is a very important step in developing strong and healthy tomato plants.  It allows each plant to have adequate space and nutrients to develop strong root systems.  During this stage I will also place them outside in my greenhouse as much as possible to help "harden them", which means to acclimate them to more realistic weather conditions compared to indoors.  If tomato plants are kept indoors, most likely they will become too tall and "spindly" compared to those allowed to be outside as much as possible.

I normally use a three inch peat pot.  Be sure to label the pot with the tomato variety.  For this I use a permanent marker, which will hold up to moisture, since the peat pots will become damp as they act like a sponge when watered.

The first step is to fill the peat pots about three-quarters full with a good potting soil or seed starting mix, and wet thoroughly.

Next, I make a small indentation in the soil, and place the tomato seedling into the peat pot.

Add a little more soil around the seedlings to support the stems, and water again.  I normally use Miracle Grow for Tomatoes when transplanting to give the seedlings a good start.  Also, most potting soils/seed starting mixes have plant food added which will help in the development process.

It is very important to keep the plants indoors for a few days (out of the sun), to allow them time to adjust to transplanting, since it is always somewhat of a shock to the plants.  After a few days, I put them outside in the greenhouse (in the sun), of course still being mindful of night time temperatures, since often they will dip below freezing this time of the year.

Finally, a few bird photos from this week:

Northern Flicker

Northern Flicker

Northern Flicker

Song Sparrow

I had fun watching this lone Northern Flicker.  He was working hard to dig out whatever bugs and/or worms he could find in the ground.  Also, this song sparrow has arrived back to enjoy the warmer weather.

Until next time.

Vegetable Seedling Progress - Winter Sowing Success

Welcome back everyone and continued thanks for reading my blog.

As I write this post tonight it is once again snowing.  Yes, April 15th and still snowing!  We just finished enjoying a weekend with temperatures near 80 degrees.  Hopefully this will be the last snow, but who knows.  You may recall in my last post on April 7, 2014, I posted a few pictures of the last snow storm on March 30th, during which we received 8 inches.

First of all, the sweet Spanish onions that I planted on March 8th, 2014, are doing quite well.  I described in detail how I planted them on my post of that same date (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/03/its-time-to-start-some-vegetables.html).

Sweet Yellow Spanish Onions

The tomatoes that I planted on March 25th, 2014 (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/03/its-tomato-starting-time.html) are also coming along quite well.  I reported in an earlier post that the seeds didn't germinate very well, but since then more of them have sprouted.  In the meantime I also planted more seeds, so in the end I should have more than enough seedlings.

Tomato Seedlings - Planted 3/25/14

As you may notice, some of the tomato seedlings are developing their second set of leaves. At this stage, I normally transplant the seedlings into individual peat pots filled with potting soil,  I will detail this procedure in future posts.

The transplant stage is a very important step in developing strong and healthy tomato plants.  It allows each plant to have adequate space and nutrients to develop strong root systems.  During this stage I will also place them outside in my greenhouse as much as possible to help "harden them", which means to acclimate them to more realistic weather conditions compared to indoors.  If tomato plants are kept indoors, most likely they will become too tall and "spindly" compared to those allowed to be outside as much as possible.

Finally, an update on winter sowing.  You may recall that in my post on February 4, 2014, I described the winter sowing process (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/02/winter-sowing.html), which basically involves planting seeds in plastic containers and placing them outside during the winter.  In the spring as temperatures warm, the seedlings will emerge.

Below are the results I am getting from two different types of lettuce seeds that I planted using this technique:

Romaine Lettuce - Planted 2/4/14

  

Red Serpent Lettuce - Planted 2/22/14

These two containers are yielding good results.  At this point they should be treated as normal seedlings, that is they obviously can't be left outside at sub-freezing temperatures once the seeds sprout.  This process is amazing and it always surprises me that it really works!  Considering the photo below shows when the containers were buried in the snow in February:

Until next time.

Planting More Tomatoes - More Heirlooms

In my post on March 25th (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/03/its-tomato-starting-time.html), I described in detail my tomato planting process.

Since it has been about 10 days since I planted them, I have some good news and bad news:

As you can see, some of the tomatoes are coming nicely, however, quite a few haven't sprouted.  So what is a gardener to do?  The only answer really is simple:  replant.

Sometimes seeds can be finicky, even if they are the current year's seeds as these were, except for two of the peat pellets I planted.  By the way, the seeds I planted that were from 2103 didn't sprout, but some of the ones from 2014 didn't either.

So I used my last Jiffy seed starting tray and planted again.  This time, however, I chose some different varieties that I found locally since I had used up all the seeds that I ordered from Park Seeds and Jung Seeds (Rainbow Heirloom Blend and Artisan Blend).

The varieties I planted are as follows:

San Marzano - a plum tomato considered to be one of the best in the world.

Big Rainbow - the flesh inside is marbled with red in the bottom half of the fruit. It has a big, lumpy beefsteak shape with a very mild and sweet flavor. It's a knockout on a platter with slices of other tomato varieties. The large fruits (often 22 oz.) are borne on tall plants.

Pink Pounder - this 16 oz. shiny, pretty pink beefsteak has gourmet-worthy creamy, sweet, pink flesh and superb flavor.  Note - this is a hybrid.

Cherokee Purple - an old Cherokee Indian heirloom, pre-1890 variety; beautiful deep dusky purple-pink color, superb sweet flavor, and very large sized fruit. Try this one for real old-time tomato flavor.

Mortgage Lifter - this huge heirloom beefsteak (up to 4 lb.; average 2½ lb.) consistently wins taste-tests. Developed in the 1930s by a gardener who planted the four biggest varieties he knew and crossed one with pollen from the other three. He did this for six seasons and created a variety that produced immense, tasty fruit. He sold the plants for $1 a piece and paid off his $6000 mortgage in 6 years.

Crimson Cushion - a very old late-seasoned, wilt-resistant beefsteak variety. The fruits are large, fourteen to sixteen ounce, deeply ribbed, irregular, bright scarlet, juicy, yet solid and very prolific. Nice balance of tart and sweet. A real nice slicing tomato.

Finally, the weather has been slowly improving over the last week or so.  I have been putting my onion and leek plants outside in the greenhouse on sunny days.  I still am bringing the plants in at night since the temperatures have still been dipping below freezing most nights.  Next year it will be time to purchase a new greenhouse since the zipper on the left side has "blown out".

Speaking of the improving weather, hopefully we can say goodbye to winter,  Below are some photos I took last Sunday night, March 30, 2014.  We had 8 inches of snow that night:

Until next time.

Planting Peppers/Springtime Birds

Today I planted some peppers, which will probably be the last of the vegetables I will start inside this Spring. Even though we are getting another blast of winter as I write this with four inches of snow so far tonight  and white out conditions, the calendar does point to Spring.

Bull Horn Pepper

Burpee Hot Pepper Mix

The first variety I planted is the Bull Horn Pepper, which is a sweet pepper that grows to be about six or eight inches long, and ripens to deep red or bright yellow,  This is an Italian variety which I thought I would try for something different.

I also planted a hot pepper mixture from Burpee, which includes an equal mix of the following varieties: long red cayenne, large cherry, Hungarian wax, Anaheim chili and jalapeno.  This a mixture which I have used for quite a few years.

To plant the peppers, I used a seed starting tray with peat pellets as I described in my March 25th post, "It's Tomato Starting Time" (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/03/its-tomato-starting-time.html).

Meanwhile, the Spanish yellow onions and leeks that I planted (see my post on March 8th, http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/03/its-time-to-start-some-vegetables.html) are doing quite well:

Finally, some photos of Spring birds, well at least two out of three.  The winter ones are still hanging around. The way the weather is tonight, the Spring birds may make a U Turn and go back South:

Dark-Eyed Junco

Common Grackle

American Robin

.
 Until next time.

It's Tomato Starting Time!

Welcome back, and thanks as always to all who read my blog.

Finally it is time to start tomatoes, at least here in central New York State.  The general rule of thumb is to start them about 8 weeks before they can be transplanted into the garden.  This will give the plants ample time to reach decent size by then.

As mentioned in a previous post, I use a seed starting tray with peat pellets to start tomato seeds:

The peat pellets provide a good seed starting medium and they are easy to use. All you have to do is add water, and a few minutes later they will expand to look like this:

The peat pellets are covered with a mesh material to hold them together.  I tear back the material and flatten out the soil to provide a better planting surface to place the seeds on.  In the photo above you can see which ones I have "modified".  

The next step is to carefully place the seeds on the peat pellets.  I usually place 6 to 8 seeds on each pellet:

After planting the seeds, cover them with about one quarter inch of a good potting soil or seed starting mix. Gently water to moisten the soil that was just placed over the seeds.  The best way is to use a spray bottle which will gently moisten the soil without washing it away.

Be sure to label the tray with the varieties that you planted.  It will be impossible to differentiate the tomato varieties if they are not labeled.

Finally, gently firm the soil with your hand and place the plastic dome on the seed tray.  Place in a warm location.  A sunny location is not necessary for germination, but a few hours of sun here and there will probably speed up the germination process.  I try to pick a location where the temperature remains pretty steady throughout the day and night.

You are probably wondering which varieties I planted.  In a previous post I wrote about which ones I purchased.  Below is what I planted today:


The first variety I planted is the Tomato Heirloom Rainbow Blend from Park Seeds:

Contains Aunt Ruby's German Green, Dixie Golden Giant, Black from Tula, Brandywine Red, Big Rainbow, and Cherokee Purple.


Next is the Artisan Blend from the Jung Seed Company:

Unique Appearance - Exceptional Flavor
Whether you're a master chef or a home cook, you'll love all the options these tomatoes bring to the table. The breeders of Artisan's focused on combining excellent flavor with unique colors and shapes. The results are these beautiful and tasty, round and elongated, striped and blushed cherry-type fruits that range from 1.5 to 2 inches in size, resist cracking and keep well. Indeterminate plants stay healthy and extremely productive over an extended period.

The third variety I planted is San Marzano, which is a good Roma type tomato, great for making sauce:

Finally, I planted an Italian bunching tomato called Grappoli Corbarino, which is also a paste tomato that I wanted to try.  I found these seeds at the Christmas Tree Shoppe:

It finally looks like the weather might break later this week and weekend with temperatures finally reaching the normal range for late March which is in the forties.  I will most likely get out my portable greenhouse this weekend.  I should be able to get my onion plants out in the greenhouse during the daytime starting next week, especially if is sunny.

Until next time.