garden journal // june 17

The gardener, and the essential sun hat.

Melons doing well. Just need to figure out where to put them…

The new planter boxes, built by the builder, have been filling up with herbs this week – mostly transplanted portions of herbs we have been growing in other areas of the yard. So far we have a few varieties of oregano, marjoram, a few varieties of thyme, and chives in them.

Ground cherry, a husk tomato. Thank you Amy! I had never heard of these until Amy shared about them a while back.

Artichokes ready for picking.

I think we are going to have a great winter squash harvest this year.

The hoop house! This is our biggest garden project of late. Steven (the builder) has been busting his butt on this. I am happy to say that we finished it today (shown here just a few hours prior to completion). We have a few small details to go, but it is totally secure and functional now. I am super excited about the potential here.

Tomatoes were the catalyst for the hoop house project. I planted 25 or so tomato plants back in May, not really expecting to keep them all.  After tending them all this time, it would be hard to see them do anything less than their best, and I have to admit, it would be hard to give any of them away either. Some serious labors of love here for the last couple months, with multiple transplants and daily moving outside and inside, tracking with the sun, keeping them safe from wind and rain and deer. Half of them are lined up in the hoop house tonight. Their first night out! I can just FEEL their excitement. They are so ready to get into the ground.

Marigolds. A late and feeble attempt at pest deterrence. It has been a tough spring with root maggots. We lost almost an entire cucumber planting and recently discovered the whole kale patch has hatchings of these fly eggs as well.

Round 3 on beans. This time waiting until they are pretty well established to put out in the garden. Why do slugs like beans so much?? They have eaten 95% of them literally down to the ground. I keep talking about slugs and a possible solution here and will try to get my act together soon… been so busy I haven’t fully been able to get the results I wanted to report on.

Purple basil. New for us this year. Smells amazing (of course!), and the color is so pretty.

Genovese basil.

This photo is kind of unrelated, but I wanted to share this fleeting view up the driveway. Right now, just a week or so later, that explosion of rhododendron color is gone until next year.

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Well the gardener has been quiet for a while, but she has had her hands full. It’s starting to look like a summer garden out there, but it’s taken some real patience to get to this point. A long cool and wet spell brought a record lot of root maggots. I could have taken pictures for you, but maggots are just so gross. After a bit of frantic research I purchased some beneficial nematodes from our neighborhood nursery. I am feeling hopeful about this organic pest control method.  I’ve done 2 applications now in the kale bed, and am watching closely. The lady at the nursery said she has also had successful results with beneficial nematode treatments for pear slugs, so if any of you with fruit trees struggle with those, you might give this a try. Our plum and cherry trees get pear slugs (aka cherry slugs… the leaf eating larvae of the sawfly) every year, so I will definitely be trying it there as well.

I thought I went way overboard with cucumber starts this spring, but in the end I am so glad to have extra plants. Not gonna let maggots get me down! I have a serious love for kale, so am really hoping what’s left out there makes it.

I’ll share more about the hoop house soon. Hopefully tomorrow I will plant all those tomatoes in there!

What’s happening in your garden these days? I’m curious, what are your worst pests?

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peas and beans

I was inspired earlier this year, by a post on tend written by Julia, about growing dry beans. I have never been a big green bean eater, but I do love cooking dried beans. I decided to let my runner beans and pole beans dry before picking this year, and the experience has been really rewarding. Something about planting a seed/bean/pea, and watching the resulting plant grow through all the cycles of life is a really satisfying experience in and of itself, but growing beans for the result of the actual bean seemed different somehow. Looking forward to cooking them, and I will save some for planting next year as well. I also left some peas on the vine to dry, for planting next year. Opening each pod is like unwrapping a surprise present. So beautiful and colorful.

Scarlet runner beans, back in April

 

Purple podded pole beans and Oregon sugar pod peas in August

 

Scarlet runner beans in August

 

One of each – peas, runner beans, pole beans – just picked

 

 

Just like their mothers

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early july

Marketmore Cucumber

 

 

Green Leaf Lettuce

 

 

Oregon Sugar Pod Peas

 

 

Quinoa

 

 

Purple Cherokee Tomato

 

 

Genovese Basil – A lot of this will be harvested soon and more will be planted.

 

 

Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli… This is the only survivor from the first planting. So far having better luck with the second planting.

 

 

It’s getting exciting in the garden, with visible change in growth each day. This week the cucumbers have really kicked in gear and are coming on strong; peas are ready to pick most every day, kale is ready to pick, and it looks like we could have quite a lot of tomatoes later this summer. If there is anything I have learned this year, it is to plant way more than I ever would imagine we would ever need. I keep sowing seeds, and will  continue to throughout the summer.

 

These photos might give the impression of great abundance, but there are many days I go out in the garden and think, “Where is all the food??” We have had a lot of challenges. Slugs devoured almost the whole first planting of carrots, dill and fennel. I go out slug hunting 1 – 3 times per evening now. Root maggots have killed many broccolis, most every radish I have tried to grow, and a few of my kale plants. And these last few days, the wind has been really hammering everything. I am not complaining though. I’m really not. Just learning, lots of learning. There is so much to consider, if we really want to grow a significant portion of our food. I think sheltered growing space is a must here – whether for slugs or for wind and heavy rain – and it would greatly expand the list of heat loving plants that we could successfully grow. We have started researching a design for a more permanent hoop house, and we are getting excited about building a greenhouse.

 

I really have a lot of admiration for farmers, who grow food for hundreds, or thousands, of people. There is a lot of hard work, patience, knowledge, finesse involved in growing food. It’s super rewarding though, and I can see why they do it. Sometimes I wish I could be a farmer of some sort. Maybe some day.

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