Merry Christmas to whomever may end up reading this.
This is my first post since July. The family is in a lull from post-present hysteria while the kids are playing with toys and whatnot so I figured I'd try to do a post for a change.
This year was WET. Just for reference, as of late November Baltimore had received 22" of rain over the yearly average and had broken the previous record for rainfall established in 2003. We've had more rain and a little snow since then.
We also didn't get a ton of heat. Our typical summer alternates between very dry and marginally wet, but extremely hot and humid throughout. Although we had temps over 80 pretty reliably, we generally didn't spend a lot of time in the mid/upper 90's (as is typical) until August.
Garden
Tomatoes
Unfortunately, our tomatoes were very sad this year. Last year Wifey did a lot of canning of tomatoes; this year was the opposite. Thankfully, we were able to harvest a few of her grandfather's heirloom tomatoes. We saved seeds from those.
We learned we didn't like the Black Vernissage tomatoes. Too hard to figure out whether they were ripe or not.
Beans
The purple pole beans did quite well this year. We saved seeds from them to reuse for next year. Thankfully, I planted them relatively early this year allowing them to get reasonably established before the deluge began. They were a real topic of conversation at the farm market and at the farm stand where we "tithed" veggies.
The green beans really struggled, however. I planted the entire gallon bag of seeds I'd accumulated from the previous year with most rotting in the ground. I should have considered mounding the soil up where I would plant them for better drainage. This practice is recommended in a book I have about gardening in Colonial Williamsburg (VA). I ended up getting quite a few beans, but they weren't as prolific as if even a majority of the beans had grown.
Cantaloupe
I built a small arbor for them to climb at some point. They did, but all the rain eventually rotted the roots as well as the single cantaloupe that reached harvesting-size. Worth trying again.
Tomatillos
The tomatillos were pretty prolific despite all the rain. We harvested a lot of them and Wifey was able to make a few batches of tomatillo salsa for our tacos al pastor. Very enjoyable! Worth growing again.
Pumpkins
The baking pumpkins turned out reasonably well. They vined out aggressively which eventually became somewhat invasive. We harvested about 6 pumpkins which made for good pumpkin bread. Worth growing again in a smaller number particularly if I could figure out a way to trellis them.
Peanuts
The peanuts grew somewhat, but rotted in the ground. Not really worth growing again.
Cucumbers
The Edmonson cucumbers are really strange-looking. It wasn't obvious from the catalog pictures. Although they were a decent size, they didn't have a ton of flavor. Probably better to try another variety. We were able to barter some at the farm market, though.
Peppers
Once again, the bell peppers didn't do anything. For one, they were shaded mightily by the tomatillos. The rainfall couldn't have helped, either.
Wifey planted two starters of jalopenos in the front bed. They did quite well. Don't know why.
Okra
Holy cow did we get a lot of okra. Wifey fried some and we froze quite a bit to go in soup or jumbalaya. I also saved a lot of seeds from when I was pulling out the plants.
Strawberries
Our strawberries really didn't do
much. Possibly due to all the rainfall. We're not sure they're worth
the space they're taking up.
Orchard/Yard
Pear
We only ended up with a single pear this year. We got a lot of rainfall right after the flowers came out. As a result, most of the flowers came off the tree. The single pear was a good one, though.
Figs
Once again, no figs we could harvest. We did end up with some very small ones toward the end of the season. I'll chalk it up to having to regrow all the above-ground growth due to last year's extremely cold winter.
Apples
We didn't harvest any apples this year. Similar to the pears, we lost a lot of flowers due to rainfall. The few apples we did get had a number of rot spots.
Blueberries
We were able to get some blueberries this year. Not a ton because the bushes are still small, but some. The deer nibbled on some of the new growth reminding me that I need to cage those plants in.
Peaches
We bought two peach trees for the orchard. Unfortunately, I didn't put up deer netting in time. They ate all but three of the peaches on the trees as well as lower vegetation. The peaches that survived rotted on the trees.
Persimmon
We bought and planted a persimmon tree
this year. I put up deer netting as soon as I lost the peaches so the persimmon fruit was saved from the deer. I lost a few of them due to rot, however, we were able to
harvest and eat 3 or so. Tasty.
Quince
Wifey saw someone online was giving away quince plants. We took them off his hands. I'm not sure if one or both survived the transplant. We'll see in the spring, I suppose.
Kiwi
I built the structure for a kiwi arbor and bought 6 kiwi starters. Unfortunately, all but one of them died. I'll retry the experiment in the spring.
Mulberry
I bought two mulberry starters. Each is quite small, but seem to have made it through the rainy year.
Elderberry
I bought three elderberry starters. One was assaulted by tent caterpillars (which traveled from nearby black walnut trees), but seems to have survived.
Raspberries
We got a very few raspberries this year. The canes are all still getting established. Interestingly enough, the ones I got from a friend at work are sending out volunteers nearby. Great news!
Inherited Peach Tree
We learned that the dwarf peach tree we inherited when we purchased the house is some sort of Korean variety. A woman at our old church was very excited when she learned what it was and made some sort of peach "wine" out of it.
Inherited Japanese Dogwood
We have learned that an unknown variety of dogwood in the front is actually a "Japanese Dogwood" or "Kousa Dogwood." The fruit (which it grows in abundance) are edible, apparently. Unfortunately we didn't learn this until the tail end of the fruiting season.
Hickory
Technically not a fruit, but regardless I'll write it up here. No hickory nuts this year. From some reading I did the other day, I've learned that hickory trees generally don't produce nuts except for every other year.
Black raspberries
There are some residual inherited black raspberry canes by the woods line here and there. We got no fruit this year. I'm not sure if it's because of the rain, because we'd never pruned them (until this fall), or something else. We'll see what next year brings.
Showing posts with label Past Mistakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Past Mistakes. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
Monday, December 11, 2017
2017 - Looking back, part 3
This continues the series looking back at our
crop-list for 2017. The first post is found here and the second is here.
Food Production
Unfortunately, we didn't weigh and catalog everything we harvested; there were times when Wifey would harvest something and not get a picture or times we'd get something for a recipe (or fresh eating) and not get a picture. For example, there have been a number of salads and smoothies made using the spinach, kale, and/or lettuce with no accounting of how much was used. Looking back, we regret not cataloging what we grew. It's really nice to have an idea of how much money we saved (or not) vs buying at a market.
We'll have to resume that in the future.
Food Preservation
Tomatoes
Wifey canned 52 quarts of tomatoes as well as 7 quarts and 2 pints of marinara sauce. There is also a 1/2 gallon of frozen cherry tomatoes. Lastly, we have 2 quart bags of frozen marinara sauce.
Beans
We have 1 gallon bag as well as 10 quart bags of frozen green beans. All have been trimmed and blanched to make for easy cooking when we need them.
Nuts
We have a gallon bag of float-tested hickory nuts (in shell) as well as 2 quart bags of shelled hickory nuts. All the hickory nuts are in one freezer or another.
Apples
Although we didn't harvest any of our own, we made a couple of trips in the fall to Larriland Farm and picked apples there. We dehydrated two gallon bags of sliced apples for snacking and addition to oatmeal. The apples also provided for a lot of our breakfasts and lunches over the last two months. Hopefully, I'll be able to do similar posts referencing our own apples instead.
Food Production
Unfortunately, we didn't weigh and catalog everything we harvested; there were times when Wifey would harvest something and not get a picture or times we'd get something for a recipe (or fresh eating) and not get a picture. For example, there have been a number of salads and smoothies made using the spinach, kale, and/or lettuce with no accounting of how much was used. Looking back, we regret not cataloging what we grew. It's really nice to have an idea of how much money we saved (or not) vs buying at a market.
We'll have to resume that in the future.
Food Preservation
Tomatoes
Wifey canned 52 quarts of tomatoes as well as 7 quarts and 2 pints of marinara sauce. There is also a 1/2 gallon of frozen cherry tomatoes. Lastly, we have 2 quart bags of frozen marinara sauce.
Beans
We have 1 gallon bag as well as 10 quart bags of frozen green beans. All have been trimmed and blanched to make for easy cooking when we need them.
Nuts
We have a gallon bag of float-tested hickory nuts (in shell) as well as 2 quart bags of shelled hickory nuts. All the hickory nuts are in one freezer or another.
Apples
Although we didn't harvest any of our own, we made a couple of trips in the fall to Larriland Farm and picked apples there. We dehydrated two gallon bags of sliced apples for snacking and addition to oatmeal. The apples also provided for a lot of our breakfasts and lunches over the last two months. Hopefully, I'll be able to do similar posts referencing our own apples instead.
Saturday, December 9, 2017
2017 - Looking back, part 2
This continues the series looking back at our
crop-list for 2017. The first post is found here.
The Weather
This year the weather was interesting. Not the norm. I'll quote the intro page of the Southern Exposure Seed Catalog.
Crop List
Peanuts
We purchased a peanut starter for The Boy's part of the garden from a local food market that trends heavily toward organics. It grew and looked great, but we didn't harvest it until it was too late. All the peanuts rotted in the ground. I think it'd be worth trying to grow another in the future.
Corn
We grew a variety of open pollinated sweet corn called Aunt Mary's. We've never grown corn before. Although the corn got nice and tall and had a number of well-formed ears, they tasted very starchy. It never got sweet.
Lettuce, Spinach, and Kale
We grew Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce, Long Standing Bloomsdale Spinach, Lacinato (Dinosaur) Kale, and Red Malabar Salad Greens (summer spinach). I would grow all but the Red Malabar again; the leaves tasted like dirt. I only ate it raw, but really didn't care for it in the least. Didn't bother trying to cook it. It's a shame. I liked the idea of a heat-tolerant spinach variety. That said, it was pretty. I liked the purple vines it grew on.
Carrots
We grew Scarlet Nantes and Cosmic Purple carrots. The Nantes were tasty and grew well in our soil. Due to my goof in planting -- accidentally mulched over them preventing them from doing anything -- we didn't get any of the Cosmic variety. I'll try both again.
Sweet Potatoes
Holy cow, did we ever get sweet potatoes. We had never grown them before and had no idea what to expect. We weren't sure when to harvest them due to there being varying info available on the internet and in my gardening books. As a result, we have some huge ones as well as some smaller ones and they are everywhere in the garden. It would have been even worse if we hadn't cut them way back a few times.
Wifey is convinced we will find them in the asparagus bed and far garden path for years to come. I have a hard time disagreeing with her.
Others
I'd intended to grow some other things -- brussels sprouts, cantaloupe, zucchini -- but because almost all of our starters died (I think from the water softener), we had to go with what we could get from the food market that we trusted. Most places we could get plant starters beyond there sell GMO stuff. Won't do that.
Front Bed
We converted the front planter bed from overgrown juniper bushes and scrubby ornamental pines to a permaculture bed. We planted a dwarf Kieffer pear tree, four artichoke starters, and a number of herbs. I'm happy to report that the pear tree did well and produced over a dozen large, tasty pears in its first year. The artichokes survived and have been mulched to try to help them survive the winter. Most of the herbs we planted survived with a few perishing. In the spring, I'll be evaluating what did and didn't make it through the winter and plant more to supplement.
The Kieffer pear sent out a shoot (a sucker, I guess) from the base. I've removed it, got some fledgling roots to come from it, and planted it in a pot (currently in the garage to overwinter) and am hoping I can get it to survive another year with the idea of planting it elsewhere in the yard in the future.
Others
Nut Trees
We discovered that we have 3-4 pig nut hickory trees in the side yard going to the orchard. We have harvested, float tested, dried, shelled and consumed the nuts and have been pleasantly surprised by the maple flavor they have.
Peach Tree
Wifey did some reading and found that by thinning the extensive peach growth on the dwarf tree we have in the front year, you will end up encouraging the peaches that are left to grow to an edible size. Although there appeared to be some merit to that theory, she didn't discover that nugget until later in the summer so the results are still somewhat inconclusive. We're looking forward to thinning things out considerably earlier this year.
Citrus Plants
Wifey and the kids got me two tiny citrus plants last winter. Neither survived. I can't help but wonder if they succumbed to the same water-related issues as my seed starters. I'd like to try one more plant in the future to see if my theory that watering with the condensed water from the dehumidifier fixes that problem.
The Weather
This year the weather was interesting. Not the norm. I'll quote the intro page of the Southern Exposure Seed Catalog.
It's been another interesting weather year - in Virginia, we had a mild summer, with only a few hot spells. Then August here was downright cold, staying in the 70s and 80s, and that slowed down our heat-loving crops[.] Warm early fall weather helped us get some harvests off these crops, but still had is longing for a more "normal" summer next year!Although we are in Maryland instead of Virginia, we had similar weather with similar results.
Crop List
Peanuts
We purchased a peanut starter for The Boy's part of the garden from a local food market that trends heavily toward organics. It grew and looked great, but we didn't harvest it until it was too late. All the peanuts rotted in the ground. I think it'd be worth trying to grow another in the future.
Corn
We grew a variety of open pollinated sweet corn called Aunt Mary's. We've never grown corn before. Although the corn got nice and tall and had a number of well-formed ears, they tasted very starchy. It never got sweet.
Lettuce, Spinach, and Kale
We grew Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce, Long Standing Bloomsdale Spinach, Lacinato (Dinosaur) Kale, and Red Malabar Salad Greens (summer spinach). I would grow all but the Red Malabar again; the leaves tasted like dirt. I only ate it raw, but really didn't care for it in the least. Didn't bother trying to cook it. It's a shame. I liked the idea of a heat-tolerant spinach variety. That said, it was pretty. I liked the purple vines it grew on.
Carrots
We grew Scarlet Nantes and Cosmic Purple carrots. The Nantes were tasty and grew well in our soil. Due to my goof in planting -- accidentally mulched over them preventing them from doing anything -- we didn't get any of the Cosmic variety. I'll try both again.
Sweet Potatoes
Holy cow, did we ever get sweet potatoes. We had never grown them before and had no idea what to expect. We weren't sure when to harvest them due to there being varying info available on the internet and in my gardening books. As a result, we have some huge ones as well as some smaller ones and they are everywhere in the garden. It would have been even worse if we hadn't cut them way back a few times.
Wifey is convinced we will find them in the asparagus bed and far garden path for years to come. I have a hard time disagreeing with her.
Others
I'd intended to grow some other things -- brussels sprouts, cantaloupe, zucchini -- but because almost all of our starters died (I think from the water softener), we had to go with what we could get from the food market that we trusted. Most places we could get plant starters beyond there sell GMO stuff. Won't do that.
Front Bed
We converted the front planter bed from overgrown juniper bushes and scrubby ornamental pines to a permaculture bed. We planted a dwarf Kieffer pear tree, four artichoke starters, and a number of herbs. I'm happy to report that the pear tree did well and produced over a dozen large, tasty pears in its first year. The artichokes survived and have been mulched to try to help them survive the winter. Most of the herbs we planted survived with a few perishing. In the spring, I'll be evaluating what did and didn't make it through the winter and plant more to supplement.
The Kieffer pear sent out a shoot (a sucker, I guess) from the base. I've removed it, got some fledgling roots to come from it, and planted it in a pot (currently in the garage to overwinter) and am hoping I can get it to survive another year with the idea of planting it elsewhere in the yard in the future.
Others
Nut Trees
We discovered that we have 3-4 pig nut hickory trees in the side yard going to the orchard. We have harvested, float tested, dried, shelled and consumed the nuts and have been pleasantly surprised by the maple flavor they have.
Peach Tree
Wifey did some reading and found that by thinning the extensive peach growth on the dwarf tree we have in the front year, you will end up encouraging the peaches that are left to grow to an edible size. Although there appeared to be some merit to that theory, she didn't discover that nugget until later in the summer so the results are still somewhat inconclusive. We're looking forward to thinning things out considerably earlier this year.
Citrus Plants
Wifey and the kids got me two tiny citrus plants last winter. Neither survived. I can't help but wonder if they succumbed to the same water-related issues as my seed starters. I'd like to try one more plant in the future to see if my theory that watering with the condensed water from the dehumidifier fixes that problem.
Saturday, December 2, 2017
Figuring out why our indoor plants die
I've been thinking. Last year almost all of my plant starters died. I never had that problem in the townhouse. We also had two fledgling geraniums, a baby bay laurel, and two citrus plants die.
We don't overwater, occasionally fertilize with organic fertilizer, don't put the plants in direct sunlight (that don't want it), and maintain proper temperatures for them.
I don't know why I think so, but I think it's our water that's causing the problems. We have hard water at our house which has caused problems with mineral buildup in some of the water lines. To address this, we had a salt water softener installed. I've assumed that the tech who did the work calibrated the unit to provide the proper amount of salinity to the water, but I'm not so sure.
To test it going forward, I'm going to solely water our plants with water obtained from the dehumidifiers in the basement.
I'm also going to do some digging into how to control the softener control system.
We don't overwater, occasionally fertilize with organic fertilizer, don't put the plants in direct sunlight (that don't want it), and maintain proper temperatures for them.
I don't know why I think so, but I think it's our water that's causing the problems. We have hard water at our house which has caused problems with mineral buildup in some of the water lines. To address this, we had a salt water softener installed. I've assumed that the tech who did the work calibrated the unit to provide the proper amount of salinity to the water, but I'm not so sure.
To test it going forward, I'm going to solely water our plants with water obtained from the dehumidifiers in the basement.
I'm also going to do some digging into how to control the softener control system.
Monday, November 20, 2017
2017 - Looking back, part 1
This will be the first of a multiple-post series looking back at our crop-list for 2017. I don't know how many posts I'll do in total.
Seed starting
In the townhouse I started most of our veggie, herb, and flower plantings from seeds for each of the last few years we were there. At the new house, I took the same approach with dismal results. I don't know that any of our tomato plants survived and none of the tomatillos, flowers, or herbs survived. Only a few of the peppers made it.
After a bit of thought, I've come to the conclusion that I think they died because of our water. We have "hard" water at the new house and use a salt system to soften the water. With that in mind, it would stand to reason that the water I was applying to the plants is a bit salty. The next question is what that is doing to our bodies, but that's for another forum.
Going forward, I intend to collect and keep the water coming from the basement dehumidifiers to use for watering our started seedlings.
Crop List
Tomatoes
We planted a number of varieties of tomatoes in the garden. Of those varieties, only the Roma (San Marzano) and Early Girl were ones I would grow again. Here's the catch: Early Girl is a hybrid and owned by a company under the Monsanto umbrella. Because the vast majority of my seedlings didn't make it, I purchased seedlings from a store near us and was labeled as non-GMO.
Unfortunately, the "Monsanto" label kills it for me. Much as I thoroughly enjoyed the plants, I won't grow them again. And, being a hybrid, I can't start them from seed, anyway.
Peppers
The few pepper starters that survived their salt-water demise didn't produce much. I keep trying "California Wonder" and never get anything larger than 1.5". I need to do more reading on why they do what they do. I did purchase some supplemental peppers that went red and got sweeter with age. I don't recall the variety, but it doesn't really matter. They also didn't get all that large, either.
Beans
As with previous years, I grew Kentucky Wonder pole beans and Scarlet Runner beans. The Wonder did great and we have a number of bags of trimmed/blanched/frozen green beans from them. The Scarlet Runners didn't do much of anything and didn't produce. I suspect a large part of that was due to my planting them late due to all the yard rehab we had to do this year.
Potatoes
Wifey and The Boy thoroughly enjoyed harvesting the potatoes (both sweet and regular). The Yukon Gold Seed Potatoes and Carolina Ruby Sweet Potatoes seem to be winners. Wifey also planted some variety of purple potatoes, but I can't figure out where she got them. Not Baker Creek or Southern Exposure according to my records.
Onions and Garlic
The continuation of the Egyptian Walking Onions are doing reasonably well. I expect there to be even more next year once they're better established.
The garlic did nothing this past year. I discovered that I had mulched (leaves from the property) too heavily and buried the cloves. Thankfully, they didn't rot but they also never developed into anything usable for this year.
We planted Yellow Potato Onions in the early fall for next year. Supposedly these are perennial onions so I look forward to seeing how we can cultivate more for future years.
Asparagus
We planted a number of crowns (3 bags' worth) in raised boxes. A number of them have come up. We're following conventional wisdom to leave them alone for a few years to expand to usefulness.
Strawberries
This fall my parents gave us a number of cast-offs from their strawberry patch. I planted half of them in the downslope side of our garden. There wasn't room for more without crowding.
The Orchard
Apple Trees
I really goofed up this year by not putting deer netting up around the apple trees until late-spring (or was it early summer?). As a result, they were decimated by deer. They all rebounded for the most part, but we didn't harvest any apples; the deer had them all. I have since removed the deer netting and relocated the supports to provide a larger diameter around the trees. I will be hanging new netting this weekend.
Blueberries
In addition to the 4 blueberry bushes we had last year, we planted two more in the spring. I'm tempted to plant two more in 2018. Yes, they'll get large enough in time to provide for the family, but I just like the idea of having plenty. Besides: why not?
Raspberries
Raspberry plants were a new addition to the burgeoning homestead this year. I planted 4 "Royalty" purple raspberry starters in September followed by 6 transplanted red raspberry canes transplanted from my friend's property. I don't know much about the red raspberry canes other than that she said they produce twice a year.
From the University of Maryland webpage about raspberries and blackberries.
Seed starting
In the townhouse I started most of our veggie, herb, and flower plantings from seeds for each of the last few years we were there. At the new house, I took the same approach with dismal results. I don't know that any of our tomato plants survived and none of the tomatillos, flowers, or herbs survived. Only a few of the peppers made it.
After a bit of thought, I've come to the conclusion that I think they died because of our water. We have "hard" water at the new house and use a salt system to soften the water. With that in mind, it would stand to reason that the water I was applying to the plants is a bit salty. The next question is what that is doing to our bodies, but that's for another forum.
Going forward, I intend to collect and keep the water coming from the basement dehumidifiers to use for watering our started seedlings.
Crop List
Tomatoes
We planted a number of varieties of tomatoes in the garden. Of those varieties, only the Roma (San Marzano) and Early Girl were ones I would grow again. Here's the catch: Early Girl is a hybrid and owned by a company under the Monsanto umbrella. Because the vast majority of my seedlings didn't make it, I purchased seedlings from a store near us and was labeled as non-GMO.
Unfortunately, the "Monsanto" label kills it for me. Much as I thoroughly enjoyed the plants, I won't grow them again. And, being a hybrid, I can't start them from seed, anyway.
Peppers
The few pepper starters that survived their salt-water demise didn't produce much. I keep trying "California Wonder" and never get anything larger than 1.5". I need to do more reading on why they do what they do. I did purchase some supplemental peppers that went red and got sweeter with age. I don't recall the variety, but it doesn't really matter. They also didn't get all that large, either.
Beans
As with previous years, I grew Kentucky Wonder pole beans and Scarlet Runner beans. The Wonder did great and we have a number of bags of trimmed/blanched/frozen green beans from them. The Scarlet Runners didn't do much of anything and didn't produce. I suspect a large part of that was due to my planting them late due to all the yard rehab we had to do this year.
Potatoes
Wifey and The Boy thoroughly enjoyed harvesting the potatoes (both sweet and regular). The Yukon Gold Seed Potatoes and Carolina Ruby Sweet Potatoes seem to be winners. Wifey also planted some variety of purple potatoes, but I can't figure out where she got them. Not Baker Creek or Southern Exposure according to my records.
Onions and Garlic
The continuation of the Egyptian Walking Onions are doing reasonably well. I expect there to be even more next year once they're better established.
The garlic did nothing this past year. I discovered that I had mulched (leaves from the property) too heavily and buried the cloves. Thankfully, they didn't rot but they also never developed into anything usable for this year.
We planted Yellow Potato Onions in the early fall for next year. Supposedly these are perennial onions so I look forward to seeing how we can cultivate more for future years.
Asparagus
We planted a number of crowns (3 bags' worth) in raised boxes. A number of them have come up. We're following conventional wisdom to leave them alone for a few years to expand to usefulness.
Strawberries
This fall my parents gave us a number of cast-offs from their strawberry patch. I planted half of them in the downslope side of our garden. There wasn't room for more without crowding.
The Orchard
Apple Trees
I really goofed up this year by not putting deer netting up around the apple trees until late-spring (or was it early summer?). As a result, they were decimated by deer. They all rebounded for the most part, but we didn't harvest any apples; the deer had them all. I have since removed the deer netting and relocated the supports to provide a larger diameter around the trees. I will be hanging new netting this weekend.
Blueberries
In addition to the 4 blueberry bushes we had last year, we planted two more in the spring. I'm tempted to plant two more in 2018. Yes, they'll get large enough in time to provide for the family, but I just like the idea of having plenty. Besides: why not?
Raspberries
Raspberry plants were a new addition to the burgeoning homestead this year. I planted 4 "Royalty" purple raspberry starters in September followed by 6 transplanted red raspberry canes transplanted from my friend's property. I don't know much about the red raspberry canes other than that she said they produce twice a year.
From the University of Maryland webpage about raspberries and blackberries.
Red raspberries produce new canes as suckers from the root system, so they are usually grown in a hedgerow. They are the most winter-hardy type of raspberry and may be either of two types:With that in mind, I think I have primocane-bearing raspberries.
- Summer-bearing types have the typical biennial life cycle of a bramble. They fruit from late June through July of their second growing season.
- Primocane-bearing types, also known as everbearing raspberries, are an exception to the bramble life cycle. Primocane-bearing types have the ability to fruit in the early fall of their first year on their primocanes. They then fruit a second time, in June, on buds below those which fruited the previous fall. The fall crop, however, is more abundant. Therefore gardeners treat the canes as annuals, rather than biennials, by mowing the canes to the ground in winter after the fall harvest. This keeps the plants more manageable.
Friday, November 29, 2013
2013 Year's End Review
Since the weather has finally become consistently cold and the plot is in the throes of winter hibernation, it's time to do a review of 2013.
2013 has been the most productive of any year we've gardened to this point. We had bursts of success in the past -- when The Boy was 1 and we didn't have a plot we had a lot of tomatoes in the yard, for example -- but this year was consistently good. From the snow peas in the spring to beans/tomatoes/peppers in the summer then lettuce and onions in the fall, it was a good year. A lot of the lessons I learned from failures in the past also panned out.
2013 has been the most productive of any year we've gardened to this point. We had bursts of success in the past -- when The Boy was 1 and we didn't have a plot we had a lot of tomatoes in the yard, for example -- but this year was consistently good. From the snow peas in the spring to beans/tomatoes/peppers in the summer then lettuce and onions in the fall, it was a good year. A lot of the lessons I learned from failures in the past also panned out.
Financial Review
In August, I wondered if gardening really could pay off from a financial standpoint. Unfortunately, my curiosity was a bit belated in that I hadn't weighed the snow peas from the spring harvest, but I was able to create a bit of a baseline. From that point, I kept a spreadsheet that tracked certain bits of info. It wasn't all-inclusive. I never harvested enough carrots (by weight) to justify comparing them vs store prices, for example. Having said that, I'm pleased to report that this year was "profitable" when compared vs the $191.50 that went into the plot this year. Even if I included money (which I would have had I tracked those expenses) spent on structure building this year, given the purchases were from Community Forklift I still would have come out ahead.Lessons to Learn
As I mentioned above, a lot of the lessons I learned from the past paid off this year. There's always more to learn from to improve. Here are things I want to do in the future.- Become more proficient with composting.
- My compost bin finally yielded some good soil this fall. It took two years to get to this point, though. There has to be a better method to use to get things to break down faster than what I've done to this point.
- Row covers
- In order to really become more organic (less/no use of "bug dust"), I'd like to use row covers for the beans. They could also extend the growing season.
- Fine tune crop rotation
- I lost the ability to grow more crops because I had an overlap in the growing seasons of snow peas and green beans with them in the same boxes.
- Learn more about crop plant dates
- Carrying on from the crop rotation theme, I need to get better at knowing when to planting additional crops of plants. I should have planted two crops of beans instead of the single crop, for example. I could have also done so with tomatoes.
- Improve soil prep
- I have a lot to learn here. Doing soil testing to amend the soil to add nutrients and adjust the pH are things I need to do.
- Figure out what I need to do to get cucumbers to grow.
- Two years of trying to grow cucumbers have yielded very few cucumbers. I imagine this has much to do with soil prep.
- Learn more about companion planting and other natural ways to deter pests.
- Sort out more efficient ways to support tomato plants.
- Cages take up a lot of space. Creating teepees from stakes doesn't really do a good job supporting them.
- Learn how to improve green pepper yield.
- This year I tried pinching off leaves of the plants when they were first getting established. That worked to a point, but I either need to do more of that or add something else.
- Experiment with emulsions.
- A neighbor at the plot occasionally makes a fish emulsion to use on his plants. This is a good organic way to fertilize his plants. It's also "free" in that he's fertilizing with his waste food products.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Little tiny hairs.....growin' on mah plants!
Okay, so it's not exactly on the plants as the title states, but I have issues with fuzzy mold growth on my soil for the seed starters.
I had this same issue last year. I had done a little bit of reading last year and found that it's largely due to minimal to no air circulation. Because I have some tendency toward laziness when I can't immediately think of a good solution (in this case, the right fan), I did nothing last year.
This year, while I didn't plan ahead and get a good fan or two for my plants, I have done some research. From what I've read, a good solution to "curing" my problem (since I didn't head it off in the first place as I should have done) is to scrape away the top layer of affected soil and dispose of it. Today, I removed approx 3/8" of soil. Then you're supposed to apply some cinnamon to the soil. From what I've read, it's supposed to help deter further mold growth.
I guess I also need to look into getting some very small low-flow fans to attach to my wire shelving, too.
 |
| Fuzzy dirt = bad |
I had this same issue last year. I had done a little bit of reading last year and found that it's largely due to minimal to no air circulation. Because I have some tendency toward laziness when I can't immediately think of a good solution (in this case, the right fan), I did nothing last year.
This year, while I didn't plan ahead and get a good fan or two for my plants, I have done some research. From what I've read, a good solution to "curing" my problem (since I didn't head it off in the first place as I should have done) is to scrape away the top layer of affected soil and dispose of it. Today, I removed approx 3/8" of soil. Then you're supposed to apply some cinnamon to the soil. From what I've read, it's supposed to help deter further mold growth.
I guess I also need to look into getting some very small low-flow fans to attach to my wire shelving, too.
 |
| Cinnamon scented plants |
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Learning from past mistakes - Seed Starting/Tomatoes
I successfully started tomatoes from seeds last year for the first time. Since I'd had no success in 2009, I was concerned that if I tried starting tomatoes from seed when you're supposed to (6-8 weeks before last frost) and failed, I'd have to buy a bunch of plants from stores. I was trying to avoid that. So I started a test batch with 2009 seeds in mid-February to improve on the failed method from a few years before.
The method worked so I had a lot of "test" plant starters. After they grew, I transplanted into 2"x2" peat pots. Then I started the "real" batch and they came up great, too. Soon, I had over 60 tomato seedlings to nurture and find homes for.
When I transplanted my plant starters, I used potting mix that I had sitting out in the garage. Big mistake. What I used was almost entirely peat. While being nice as an addition to soil, for some reason this stuff didn't hold moisture. As a result, I started watering every other day because the plants would dry out.
Choosing the wrong soil mix caused many problems for me. Because the plants couldn't hold water, I had to water all the time. As a result, there was a lot of water running through the peat pots and collecting in the trays I had below them. Then I had standing water which is a problem. The combo of too much water, standing water, and no air movement resulted in fungus problems showing up in the plants. Fungus gnats also became prevalent. Having little gnats flying around your plant setup is a fantastic way to try the patience of your significant other.
In addition to water problems, I was contending with the volume of plants. As they grew, they needed more and more space. I ran out of space as the plants needed to be transplanted from the 2"x2" peat pots to something larger. I had nowhere to put them to continue growing. If I transplanted larger, I'd have even less space. So I tried to limp them along. Some died as a result while others became root-bound.
Compounding my space issues at home was that I also was thoroughly weeding the garden, building the garden boxes, sinking them, filling with soil/compost, and trying to begin the pathway work. As a result, I got the tomatoes into their boxes at some point in mid-June which is about a month after the last expected frost. That's a long time for them to be needing transplanting and dealing with the aforementioned water/fungus/gnat issues.
Once I got them into the ground, I made more mistakes. In following the square-foot gardening method, I planted my tomatoes with one foot of space between them. Also, since peppers are companion plants to tomatoes and also need a square foot of space, I interplanted them. As a result, my tomatoes all fought for light and grew very tall (approx 7') and spindly. In addition, the peppers never matured, likely due to lack of light caused by living in the shadow of the tomato plants.
I figured out that I was overwatering at some point in mid to late July. In addition, I was watering too late in the day which leads to fungus problems compounded with Maryland's notorious summertime humidity.
Hopefully, in adjusting from all these mistakes, my tomatoes will be much more productive in the future.
The method worked so I had a lot of "test" plant starters. After they grew, I transplanted into 2"x2" peat pots. Then I started the "real" batch and they came up great, too. Soon, I had over 60 tomato seedlings to nurture and find homes for.
Lesson learned: Don't get attached to your seedlings. They're not your babies even though they depend on you for food, water, and they sure can look cute!
When I transplanted my plant starters, I used potting mix that I had sitting out in the garage. Big mistake. What I used was almost entirely peat. While being nice as an addition to soil, for some reason this stuff didn't hold moisture. As a result, I started watering every other day because the plants would dry out.
Lesson learned: Choose a good soil mix to transplant into. Otherwise, you could have moisture and nutrient issues.
Choosing the wrong soil mix caused many problems for me. Because the plants couldn't hold water, I had to water all the time. As a result, there was a lot of water running through the peat pots and collecting in the trays I had below them. Then I had standing water which is a problem. The combo of too much water, standing water, and no air movement resulted in fungus problems showing up in the plants. Fungus gnats also became prevalent. Having little gnats flying around your plant setup is a fantastic way to try the patience of your significant other.
Lesson learned: Don't tick off the wife with gardening. She's wonderful, but there are bounds to patience with my hobbies.
In addition to water problems, I was contending with the volume of plants. As they grew, they needed more and more space. I ran out of space as the plants needed to be transplanted from the 2"x2" peat pots to something larger. I had nowhere to put them to continue growing. If I transplanted larger, I'd have even less space. So I tried to limp them along. Some died as a result while others became root-bound.
Lesson learned: Be realistic about the number of plants you need. While some seeds will not germinate or die in transplant, don't start so many that you can't care for them as they grow.
Compounding my space issues at home was that I also was thoroughly weeding the garden, building the garden boxes, sinking them, filling with soil/compost, and trying to begin the pathway work. As a result, I got the tomatoes into their boxes at some point in mid-June which is about a month after the last expected frost. That's a long time for them to be needing transplanting and dealing with the aforementioned water/fungus/gnat issues.
Lesson learned: Don't bite off more than you can chew. There can be trickle down effects from poor decision-making.
Once I got them into the ground, I made more mistakes. In following the square-foot gardening method, I planted my tomatoes with one foot of space between them. Also, since peppers are companion plants to tomatoes and also need a square foot of space, I interplanted them. As a result, my tomatoes all fought for light and grew very tall (approx 7') and spindly. In addition, the peppers never matured, likely due to lack of light caused by living in the shadow of the tomato plants.
Lessons learned:
This year, I will be segregating the tomatoes from the peppers but will keep them nearby to benefit from companion planting.
Adjust the spacing of tomatoes to deter upward growth.
I figured out that I was overwatering at some point in mid to late July. In addition, I was watering too late in the day which leads to fungus problems compounded with Maryland's notorious summertime humidity.
Lesson learned: Research water requirements for plants. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
Hopefully, in adjusting from all these mistakes, my tomatoes will be much more productive in the future.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Learning from past mistakes - Watering crops
Somewhere along the way I learned that when you make a mistake, it's
best to admit it, try to learn from it, and do better in the future.
I've made a lot of mistakes (and there'll be more, I'm sure) since I
started monkeying around with organic vegetable gardening. Remember
that scene from Zoolander where Hansel and Derek finally realize, "It's in
the computer........!" That's reasonably close to how things have gone
for me with trying to work toward sustainable, self-sufficient organic
gardening.
Rather than have a number of incredibly long post threads, I'll do a series of, hopefully, shorter ones on a variety of topics where I've screwed up and what, I think, are ways around them. Or, at least, my attempt to improve in the future.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plants need water. No doubt about that. The question -- and it's an important one -- is how much do they need?
As I mentioned before, my parents have a 20'x20' garden. My father waters faithfully when they have something they're trying to grow. Grass, veggies, household plants, it doesn't matter -- that stuff is getting W A T E R E D. For the garden, it seems like it's 7 days a week for 1/2 hour via a pulsating sprinkler head.
With my garden plot (and also when I was doing square-foot gardening in the backyard), I tried doing the same. I found that there are right and wrong ways to water.
Lesson 1: Be careful when you water
Last year when I was screening the soil and sinking my garden boxes, I didn't want to work in mud. As a result, I held off on watering in the summer (I didn't have spring crops) until I was about done at the plot. 1/2 hour before I planned on leaving (generally at dusk), I pulled out the hose and started watering.
Many plants (notably tomatoes) developed some fungus problems. After doing some research, I learned that watering late in the day gave insufficient time for above-ground water to evaporate. Water still on plants themselves can create fungi.
Lesson 2: Don't overwater.
As I said, my dad faithfully waters his plants. He and I have joked about it: if in doubt, water it. I learned that that doesn't work in my back yard or plot, though.
This past year, it took me a long time to identify my problems at the plot. Complicating matters is that I had a lot of issues compounding one another. One baffling problem, though, was why my tomatoes and cucumbers did very little and looked very sickly. The cucumbers grew to approx 1' tall then stopped. The tomato plants always looked yellowish. A number of people at the plot would walk by and "helpfully" boast that I was doing it wrong and that I had _________ problem. The most common diagnosis was a nutrient deficiency. Well, I tried a number of different organic means of fertilizing in addition to the already well-aged plant compost I'd mixed into the soil when I first populated the boxes. No improvement.
The proverbial light bulb lit up, however. In reading up about my plants, I found that many of my problems could possibly be attributed to overwatering. I was watering each area in the box with a wand (water the roots, not the leaves) for approx 30 sec a nervous minimum of three times a week. If your hose puts out even 10 gallons of water per minute, that's a lot more water than the plants really need.
I cut back on watering to twice a week and the plants improved markedly.
Rather than have a number of incredibly long post threads, I'll do a series of, hopefully, shorter ones on a variety of topics where I've screwed up and what, I think, are ways around them. Or, at least, my attempt to improve in the future.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plants need water. No doubt about that. The question -- and it's an important one -- is how much do they need?
As I mentioned before, my parents have a 20'x20' garden. My father waters faithfully when they have something they're trying to grow. Grass, veggies, household plants, it doesn't matter -- that stuff is getting W A T E R E D. For the garden, it seems like it's 7 days a week for 1/2 hour via a pulsating sprinkler head.
With my garden plot (and also when I was doing square-foot gardening in the backyard), I tried doing the same. I found that there are right and wrong ways to water.
Lesson 1: Be careful when you water
Last year when I was screening the soil and sinking my garden boxes, I didn't want to work in mud. As a result, I held off on watering in the summer (I didn't have spring crops) until I was about done at the plot. 1/2 hour before I planned on leaving (generally at dusk), I pulled out the hose and started watering.
Many plants (notably tomatoes) developed some fungus problems. After doing some research, I learned that watering late in the day gave insufficient time for above-ground water to evaporate. Water still on plants themselves can create fungi.
Lesson 2: Don't overwater.
As I said, my dad faithfully waters his plants. He and I have joked about it: if in doubt, water it. I learned that that doesn't work in my back yard or plot, though.
This past year, it took me a long time to identify my problems at the plot. Complicating matters is that I had a lot of issues compounding one another. One baffling problem, though, was why my tomatoes and cucumbers did very little and looked very sickly. The cucumbers grew to approx 1' tall then stopped. The tomato plants always looked yellowish. A number of people at the plot would walk by and "helpfully" boast that I was doing it wrong and that I had _________ problem. The most common diagnosis was a nutrient deficiency. Well, I tried a number of different organic means of fertilizing in addition to the already well-aged plant compost I'd mixed into the soil when I first populated the boxes. No improvement.
The proverbial light bulb lit up, however. In reading up about my plants, I found that many of my problems could possibly be attributed to overwatering. I was watering each area in the box with a wand (water the roots, not the leaves) for approx 30 sec a nervous minimum of three times a week. If your hose puts out even 10 gallons of water per minute, that's a lot more water than the plants really need.
I cut back on watering to twice a week and the plants improved markedly.
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