Well, I didn't make it over to the farm as early as I would have liked because we had a list of things that had to be done at home first, but we were only half an hour later than I had planned.
When we got there Ira was just getting ready to till a couple of rows for me to use for flowers. One row was left because I had dahlias planted there but they were seed dahlias and none of them anything I couldn't live without so he mowed the row and then tilled it as well as a couple of other rows. I am thinking about planting the watermelons there. It is next to the asparagus so the runners would have lots of space.
David wheedwhacked some of the aisles overgrown with grass. I think I'm going to have to do that chore myself because he is timid about cutting my flowers. Oops, it's just a flower, not the end of the world! There is a lot of rye grass and I'd like to get it cut before it sets seeds, which is like, this week!
We got the tomatoes planted. Three rows, 19 plants in each row. We were done planting by lunchtime. After lunch we planted the peppers. I had almost a full double row and I thought I had cut back on them this year. We look at it this way, if we don't have trouble with the meadow voles eating the peppers this year, they are a good money maker at market, especially the Gypsy and Nardellos. Marconis sell well too. They are all good peppers. I don't do hot peppers except a couple of Jalapenos for Matt.
We put the weed barrier down the center of the aisles and will finish mulching with newspaper and straw, hopefully on Sunday. Tomorrow is harvest day so I don't try to do any weeding or planting.
Before we left I planted the partial plug tray of celeriac and mulched it well. It will be interesting to see if it does anything.
Here are some pictures of the garden taken today.
Rusty old cages around the tomatoes. I plant borage along one outside edge of the tomatoes. I plant basil along the other but I had to replant my basil on Monday because I lost it all this year.
Cauliflower, Chinese cabbage and holey Tatsoi.
Okay, I saw I haven't really posted many photos here so I'll post a few from earlier. I'll be taking more tomorrow so it will be interesting to compare the progress. There is quite a difference now.
East side of garden. No, the building is not my son's. He wishes!
West side of garden. The building in the background is the goat house. I don't think you can see the electric fence surrounding the garden area.
Looking at the garden from the north side of the house. This photo is about three years ago. I mainly wanted to show how the garden dips down and then slopes back up as it goes north.
After Jackson went home we headed over to the farm. The first thing we did is put some netting up in the greenhouse bed for the pole beans planted in there. They were already starting to wind around each other for support. I had to pull out what I originally thought was volunteer watermelon but after they grew a bit figure it's Delicata squash plants that were thrown into the compost tumbler a few months ago. I pulled out what was there because I am sure there will be more volunteers and I will transplant them. The actual ones I planted in the garden did not germinate!
We decided the no till thing for the area where the clover was just wasn't going to work for the tomatoes and peppers so we un-lined up all the tomato plants that were in place, wound the string and pulled the row markers out and Matt took the spring toothed plow through it. Ira was going to till it today. Ever since they got the tiller for the tractor it has been a breeze to till now whereas David used to till and was wore out by the time he was done.
We're hoping to go over tonight if it's not too late and remark the row and set the plants in place again so we can quickly plant them Thursday. We already have mix ready for all the holes. We'll add some Epsom salt and mycorrhizae and maybe some dried molasses too. The tomatoes are one thing I'm good about mulching right away too. We use concrete reinforcement wire cages instead of stakes or ties.
I have a small raised bed at home that I planted more radishes in yesterday, mostly because I haven't been able to get more planted at the farm. It seems like I'm not getting any time over there lately. We will have all of June and July because Jackson's mother is a teacher so we don't have him in the summer.
Yesterday I moved my Heatwave agastache because I think it was too wet where it was and it was looking really bad. I put it in my new flower bed out front and put my Black Magic elephant ear where it was, between two double red knockout roses. I'll probably have to lift it for winter since we have been having such cold winters but I think the contrast should look stunning. I hope anyway.
2015-04-22
I forgot to post this so I'm joining tonight's events as well.
We made it over to the farm a bit later and I really needed to water the tomatoes in pots because of the breeze today. Got that done and David had already started marking the rows again. I ran the string and set the tomatoes in place, again. We'll plant tomorrow morning. I have a partial plug tray of celeriac to plant too. First time planting it so we'll see if it makes it. I'm going to plant it close to the hose since it likes to stay moist.
That's all we got done at the farm tonight. Lots to do here tomorrow morning before we go over so I have to hit the sack early tonight so I can get up early tomorrow. I am hoping to take lots of pictures tomorrow.
I did get a few photos at market last week.
Tub of lettuce
More tomorrow. Not working right now.
I did not get much done today. No energy. Jumped around the garden here and there, pulling weeds. Picked the asparagus and some broccoli. No decent broccoli, mostly small side shoots. There is, however, a cauliflower about the size of a baseball. It was exposed so I bent a couple of leaves over it.
I saw some zinnias in the greenhouse bed where I threw a mix of old seeds. There are a ton of watermelon from the compost and I'll transplant some of those. That bed has a huge ant hill so I need to get some dried molasses in there. I had DE on it but then I cannot water it. The beans in the bed are starting to want to climb so I have to get some trellising in there soon. The cukes in the Earth Box in the GH are also starting to climb.
Put up the netting for the pole beans in the garden. They all came up really well, especially the butter peas. The corn and summer squash is up as well. David marked the rows for the tomatoes, peppers, cukes and melons. Then we put up the fencing for the cukes and melon. He had to mow the tomato and pepper rows, the wheat grew a lot since Ira mowed the area last week. Of course with all the rain we've had...
We set the tomatoes out, three rows of 19 tomatoes each, but I just had no energy to plant them. We said tomorrow, after we pick, wash and bag lettuce, but David gets a hair cut at 12:30 so I doubt it will happen as I don't want to be the one digging the holes. David even had soil mix ready to go in the holes! We'll just see what happens.
