May Arrives!

Another basket of leaf lettuce...and an onion

The month of May has arrived, with welcome sunshine and much calmer weather.  I don't know about you and your garden (wherever that may be...:), but we are happy for the respite from the severe thunderstorms and tornadoes of April.

So, how is our garden doing these days?  I've neglected this blog for a variety of reasons, one of which is that I've spent more hours in the sun than I have at the keyboard.  And, that's as it should be...this time of the year.  From April 15th (often quoted as the Average Last Frost Date for this area, although there is data to show that it's as early as April 3rd for High Point) onward, there is something going into the ground almost daily.

Speaking of the Last Frost Date, I broke the rules and put five tomato plants in before April 15th. Three of them succumbed to the blistering hot temps and high winds we had the day after I put them in the ground, but two of them survived...and are thriving! Here's hoping for some Better Boy tomatoes by July 4th!
And with the more-than-an-inch-every-week rains we have been experiencing, the lettuce (photo, above), onions, carrots, beets, and peas are leaping out of the ground.  As are a wide variety of weeds.  Sigh.  I wish I could say the same for the spinach, which is sadly stunted.  Still, I mustn't complain...for, this time last year, we had no lettuce, peas, or spinach.  The bunnies had eaten them all.  The onions shriveled up and died from a dry spell.  And, the carrots never even made it up through the hard-packed Piedmont clay soil.  So, all-in-all, our 2011 Spring Garden is a winner already!

Why no bunnies this year? you ask.  Well, remember...we put a temporary fence across the back property line so that the dogs can now go into the Way Back garden without fear of their wandering away.  I believe that the bunnies don't care for the scent of the hounds...or, else, it's because I've planted onions everywhere this year, and the bunnies don't like that scent.  Whatever.  All I know is that we are harvesting lettuce in '11, thank goodness.

The potatoes plants are rising higher and higher, in spite of being covered with 5 bags of leaves.  I think we will have to mound some dirt on them to keep them from getting too much light.  And, I may have to wait until Fall for cabbage; but I'm not pulling up the plants just yet.  We'll see.



Strawberry bed...loaded with blooms...
looking toward the lettuce and onions

Oh, and I really should mention our strawberries.  I created a small bed (photo, left) and put in several plants last year, which did not flower due to how late I got them in and how hot and dry the Spring weather was in general in 2010.  So, just like it says in all my garden books, all the energy went to developing runners (or "daughter plants").  After I enlarged the bed last Fall, by incorporating the space formerly occupied by the sweet potatoes,  I transplanted the daughters.  They over-wintered under straw and row covers...and apparently settled in rather well.  Additionally, I allowed the 7-Top turnip greens, in the rows adjacent to the strawberry bed, to continue to grow from last Fall's crop through the Winter...right on into Spring.  They had loads of beautiful yellow flowers, which attracted lots of bees and other pollinators...who went right to work on the strawberry flowers as soon as they appeared last month.

Well, we have loads of berries that should begin to ripen this weekend!  What a treat that will be, to go out to the garden and pick strawberries for our morning cereal bowls.  I'm already picking so much lettuce every-other-day that I've threatened to start serving salads for breakfast (!).  Berries would be better, for sure.

Speaking of berries...the 3 new blueberry bushes we got at the 4-H sale are loaded with berries, too.  And, the 2 thornless blackberry bushes are flowering and showing signs of putting on berries.  The "naturalized" blackberries (the ones with the wicked thorns...:) have tiny flowers, too, so we shall see which have the tastiest fruit soon.

I noticed today that the pole beans I planted recently are beginning to pop up, as is the corn.  I had covered the corn with row covers to protect the tender shoots from the crows who frequent the garden, but the recent high winds just whipped the covers right off.



Mardi Gras Rose bud -
Way Back Garden, April - 2011

I did get some herb transplants in the bed that runs along the side of the center path:  sage, dill, parsley, basil, oregano, and thyme.  I planted some nasturtiums there, too, after I nicked the seed-pods with a nail file (called "scarification").   Then, I planted some zinnias and marigolds from seed we collected from last year's crop.  I started a new bed next to the picket fence with some gladioli corms and more zinnia and marigold seeds. We currently have roses blooming (photo, right), along with iris; soon, we will have daylilies abloom.  I think herbs and flowers are every bit as important to our garden as the fruits and vegetables.

Coming up this week...the Annual Master Gardener Passalong Plant Sale at the Guilford County Extension Center on May 5-6. I've been tending several "babies" that I started in the Propagation Workshop we had in March.  I've also been working on a Culinary Herbs display for the Festival area. 

Going in the ground next:  the rest of the tomatoes, the peppers, the squash (yellow, zucchini, and patty pan), the cantaloupes (which are really muskmelons...:), the watermelons (3 kinds!), and the eggplants.  All of these are currently growing in the controlled environment known as the plasticized screen porch.  Then, I'll purchase some sweet potato slips, and lastly I'll plant some okra seeds and some purple hull (AKA: Southern) peas.  And, then it should be time for the pumpkins to be planted.  It's so exciting!

OK, that's the Garden Report for the first week in May.  If you'd like to see what you should do in your Piedmont garden this month, be sure to check out my article on GoGreen.com:  http://gogreentriad.news-record.com/content/2011/04/29/article/mastering_the_possibilities_of_may.  I'm sure it will have a short shelf-life, so look quickly!

Happy Hoeing!

This Week in the Garden

New Beginnings:
Southside Community Garden
in High Point

With apologies to the Chinese...

Give a woman a vegetable and she'll eat for a day.  Teach a woman to garden, and she and her family can eat well forever.

OK, so I trampled that Chinese proverb about fish(ing) for my own purposes.  Sorry.

Still, it says what I want to say about my latest Master Gardener volunteer activity, working with the Southside Community Garden here in High Point (photo, right).  Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself here.  Let me take it back a couple of paragraphs.

Last week was a busy one, gardening-wise.  I got the seeds started for some tomatoes, green and cayenne peppers, eggplants, and more herbs.  They are all currently basking in the glow of the light-tube on the shelf in the plasticized screen porch (AKA:  our greenhouse), as I mentioned in my last post. 

Thomas and I tilled up rows for more lettuce and carrots, and I planted a row of beets.  I purchased some red-leaf lettuce plants, some cabbage (3 kinds) and broccoli plants and got them in the ground just before the rains came, along with three kinds of potatoes:  Kennebec, Irish Cobbler, and Red Pontiac.  Whew!

On the Master Gardening front, I had lots on my plate.  On Tuesday, I was the assistant for the Speaker at a presentation on Culinary Herbs to a group in Whitsett (a very long way from High Point...:).  I really enjoyed this experience and hope I'll be able to do Speaker's Bureau more often throughout the year.

Wednesday was our regular class day, with the topics being Flowers and Houseplants.  Then, on Thursday, I found out that my article on "What To Do in the Garden in March" had been published online at GoGreen.com. Yippee!  Writing gardening articles is another activity I enjoy...and hope to continue.

Also on Thursday, I assisted with another speaker's bureau presentation...again on Herbs...but this time beyond McLeansville.  A really, really long way away.  I had no idea Guilford County was such a whopper!



Move that mountain of mulch!

 Then, on Saturday, I got to help get that new community garden going...this one, right here in High Point!  I loved working with the folks who are just starting...or, in some cases, returning to...their own gardening journeys.  Such a joy! 

My job for the day was to help move a mountain of mulch that the city of HP had delivered to the site...one wheelbarrow-load at a time (photo, left).  When someone mentioned how wonderful the mulch smelled, I realized that it was because of the Christmas trees.  Yep, our Christmas tree had indeed been recycled into mulch for the garden paths at the new Southside Community Garden.  How great is that?  (Sealed the deal on whether to have a real or an artificial tree...:)

Back on the home front, we got over an inch (!) of gentle rain, so everything is looking happy and healthy.  I'm already seeing the spinach and the peas popping through the clay crust that is our soil.

Chores for this coming week:

• Pull the weeds in the strawberry patch.  Rake away some of the straw mulch.
• Keep checking on the seeds in the greenhouse.  Remove the protective covers when they sprout.
• Empty the compost barrel onto the garden; mix into the soil.

Happy hoeing!

Let's Get This Season Started!

There has been just enough warm weather to make me want to get outside and play in the dirt...how about you?

First things first, though...

Under the Grow Light:  Lettuce and Herbs



I have a metal 5-shelf shelving unit set up inside the screened-in porch, which has been "plasticized" and is where the ferns, palms, and assorted over-wintering plants are residing during the cold weather.  I keep a small fan/heater going most of the time to attempt to keep the temperature from ever dropping below 50 degrees.  Think of it as a greenhouse...I do.  And, last weekend, Mr. T attached a fluorescent light fixture under the top shelf to give me direct light for starting seeds (photo right). Yippee!!


Over the past week, I got started with my herbs (parsley, rosemary, and thyme), including a couple of pots of chives that were created when I divided one big, overgrown pot from last season.  Then, I couldn't stand it, so I popped a few Ferry-Morse Early Girl tomato seeds (left over from a packet from the 2010 season, which I'd kept in the refrigerator in an effort to keep them "fresh") in some seed starting mix (I use Jiffy Organic Seed Starting mix which I purchased at Tractor Supply last weekend).  And, last but not least, I seeded an oblong deck planter with Grand Rapids leaf lettuce, which is said to be the best variety for "greenhouse" or cold-frame plantings.  Am happy to report that the lettuce has sprouted and is growing toward the light!

Season 3:  Row Covers protecting (r. to l.)
carrots, spinach, lettuce and onions

Right now, about the only thing growing in the garden is the onions planted last September.  I've got several rows seeded and row-covered (for protection against the cold nights) in the garden (photo, left).  I haven't checked them today, so I'm hoping I'll find that things have germinated since the Big Rains of the past two days.  I also put in a half-row of garlic last week, knowing full-well that garlic goes in in the Fall...but I couldn't find any seed-garlic last Fall, and I did find some last week at (you guessed it...:) Tractor Supply.

That's not all we found at TSC:  bare-root apple trees!  I know, I know.  My Master Gardener Training class a couple of weeks ago convinced me that we had to make a change in our plan of planting our orchard this Spring to planting it this Fall, when there is a better chance of success.  But, who can resist little tiny sticks with colorful tags picturing fat, juicy Cortland and Golden Dorsett apples?


Season 3:  Planting the first apple trees in the orchard
A Cortland and Two Golden Dorsetts

In watching the weather report for the week ahead, we saw that the Big Rains were on the way for NC, so Mr. T moved all the machinery into the Way-Way Back to do the final digging on the holes to plant the new apple trees (photo, right).  He'd already made the first dig last year, mulching the tops of the holes with oak leaves for the Winter.  Now, it was time for the deep digging, so he used the big tiller to assist him.  We also incorporated a "Sidney" idea:  when planting a tree, add a vertical length of pipe that will help you water directly to the roots for the first few years.  I remember my Daddy doing this with a dogwood tree he planted near the back door of our house in Henning...and I remember how healthy that dogwood was.  He finished the plantings off with water-collars (berms of soil around the tree, to aid in getting more water to the root system) and a layer of oak leaves for mulch (photo, left/below). 


Gus supervises Mr. T as he plants the
Cortland Apple Tree - Season 3


Of course, if these apple trees don't make it through the Long Hot Summer to come, I'll feel terrible...and totally responsible.  But, if they do...I'll be ecstatic!  Fingers crossed...trowels, too!










Tasks for the week ahead:

• Start seeds of broccoli, cabbage, and peppers in the greenhouse.
• Plant a row of beets, a row of head lettuce, and another row of carrots in the garden.
• Cut up the Yukon Gold seed-potatoes to let them "seal" before planting in the garden after March 1st.
• Continue to set up beds and rows.  April will be here before we know it!

What To Do in Your Garden in February

Let's face it.  Here in Zone 7, the month of February can be such a tease.  One day (like today) it's 48 degrees.  Another day (like last weekend), it's 68 degrees.  And yet another (like our forecast for tomorrow sounds), "38 with possible snow flurries."  What's a gardener to do?

Create a checklist of things that you can do, including some indoor activities for those bitterly cold days you know are standing between you and Spring.  Before we get to the checklist for February, be sure you've done the following first:





Soil testing in the veggie garden - 2011


1. Create your plan, if you didn't do this in January, including your kitchen garden (veggies, herbs, and edible flowers), your orchard, your berry patch, your flower and speciality gardens (such as a rose bed, bog or wetland garden, and containers), and your lawn and natural areas.  Get some graph paper to make it easier to draw your plan to scale, or invest in a software application that will do this for you, if so inclined.
2. Do your soil testing (photo, right) to determine what your soil needs for optimal conditions for what you plan to plant there, if you didn't do this in January.  Here in North Carolina, soil testing is free (as of today...:); you can obtain the soil test boxes and instructions from your county extension office.  Be aware that the longer you wait to submit your soil test(s), the longer it will take to receive the results.  This is the same time of the year that farmers are submitting their tests, too, so the line will be substantially longer than if you did your soil testing in December or January.  You will need to re-test every 3-5 years.
3. Contribute to your Garden Journal on a regular basis.  Keeping a record may sound like a time-consuming chore, but it is actually a time-saving tool.  You will be able to review what you did in the past, what worked, what you would change or do differently.  You will also have access to what your garden looked like two, three, or ten years ago...without having to rely on memory alone.  Consider creating a spreadsheet to keep track of monthly chores and planting activities.  Or, use one of the one's found by an online search.  Here's a link to one by the Farmer's Almanac folks that you can adjust by entering your own zip code:  http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/NC/High%20Point

Checklist for February, Zone 7, Piedmont of North Carolina --



First rows tilled in 2011
Peas planted

 Kitchen Garden:

• Select seeds from catalogs as early as possible.  Some varieties do sell out rapidly, especially some of the heirlooms.  Visit websites for the most up-to-date information.   Check out the extension service for your area to find suggested varieties that do well in your climate and soil, such as the one by the North Carolina Extension Service:  http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/pdf/hil-8103.pdf
• When the weather permits...and the soil is dry enough to work...till a few rows to prepare for planting early Spring crops (photo, right/above)
• According to the Wyatt-Quarles Seed Company's Seed Guide, you can plant the following, beginning February 1st:
• cabbage plants (Early Jersey Wakefield, Stonehead Hybrid, All Seasons);
• carrots (seeds of Danvers Half-Long or Imperator);
• endive (Green Curled)
• mustard (Southern Giant Curled, Tendergreen, Florida Broadleaf, Old Fashion);
• onion sets (Silver Skin, Yellow Danvers); garden ("English") peas (Super Sugar Snap for edible pods; Early Alaska, Wando);
• radish (Early Scarlet Globe, Cherry Belle, White Icicle);
• spinach (Dark Green Bloomsdale, Hybrid 7); and
• turnip (Purple Top White Globe, Seven Top for greens only, Just Right Hybrid)
• Beginning February 15th, you can plant:
• beets (Detroit Dark Red)
• broccoli plants (Italian Green Sprouting, Premium Crop)
• kale (Dwarf Curled Scotch, Early Siberian)
• kohlrabi (White Vienna)
• leaf lettuce (Salad Bowl, Buttercrunch, Black-seeded Simpson, Romaine)
• head lettuce (Great Lakes, Iceberg)
• As the end of the month approaches, you can start the following seeds indoors for transplanting later:
• tomatoes
• pepper plants
• some herbs
• If you have overwintered the plants, divide thyme and chives.

Orchard and Berry Patch:

• Plant fruit trees, blueberry and blackberry bushes, and grape vines.
• Prune established grape vines.
• Prune fruit trees.

Flowers, Scrubs, and Trees:

• Plant or transplant trees and scrubs.
• Plant bare-root roses.
• Divide perennials like day lilies and daisies.
• Prune trees and evergreen shrubs; however, wait until after blooming to prune forsythia and azaleas.
• Fertilize spring bulbs as soon as you see the leaves breaking through the ground; remember to leave the leaves on daffodils, even after the flowers bloom in order to feed the bulb for next year's growth.

Other:

• On those bitter cold days, tend to your indoor garden:  check all houseplants for pests or any signs of stress or disease; trim off any dead leaves; and make sure you are watering with room temperature water and diluted fertilizer solutions. 
• On milder days, clean up debris and downed limbs from the garden areas.
• Perform any required maintenance on mowers, tillers, and power tools to get them ready for the coming season.
• Clean and sharpen all garden tools, especially if not done at the end of the season last Fall.
• Check all garden furniture to see what needs painting or repairing.
• Check out garden catalogs, websites, and the library for new gardening titles to read on those indoor-only days.  On that note, I will be reviewing the book, "Garden Your Way to Health and Fitness," in a coming post. Watch for it!
• Be sure to keep up with your own off-season exercise program.  You do NOT want those muscles to go unused all Winter...and then feel every single one of them come the first warm day of Spring.  Let's be building our core strength in preparation of what lies ahead for us.  

See, we have plenty to do, even though we can't be in the garden every day of February.

Happy Hoeing!


======================================================
Sources for information for this post include:

• Piedmont Gardeners Almanac, North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service
• The Smithsonian Garden Journal, Galison Books, 1987
• Wyatt-Quarles Seed Company's Vegetable Planting Guide, available online at:  http://www.wqseeds.com/documents/WQVegPlantGuide-revised.pdf

Getting Ready to Garden

OK, so it's 27 degrees outside and there's snow in the forecast...again.  What can I do about gardening now, you ask?

Lots!

One of my personal New Year's resolutions for 2011 is to get organized:  in my office, in the garage (where my craft area is located), and in & about the garden.  I'm so excited about a way to accomplish that last one (...the garden) that I had to share it with you as soon as I could.

Background first.  I have always admired Thomas Jefferson for his journaling.  For 17 years, he faithfully recorded his daily gardening activities at Montecello in his Garden Kalendar, which became a part of his 60-year garden journal published as the Garden Book.  My garden hero!  Such devotion to detail!!

I learned last year that I love to journal about my garden, but I love to actually garden better than to write about it.  Write, as in with pen to paper.  Can you say hand cramps? 

I tried typing into a journal document I set up in Word, and that was a tad better, but I still felt disorganized.  I wanted to be able to keep up with my journaling, true; but it was just as important to keep up with what needed to be done in the garden at any given time (because those tasks will come due every year at the same time) and to catalog the plants we purchased, planted, and grew. And, the pictures.  Most of you know that it's a rare day indeed for me to head out into the garden without my Canon(s) tucked inside my garden tote.

My Journal Page with Photo File on
PlantJotter.com

I think I may have found an answer.  It's called PlantJotter.com.  I read about it in the Greensboro News and Record recently and thought I'd give it a trial.  They let you do that for 31 days...without even entering a credit card number!  That's refreshing, to say nothing of being unusual these days.

I just set up my account today, so I'll have to give you a report after I have used it for a while.  Still, I like what I see so far.  That's a screen capture of my first journal entry and a picture I uploaded of the Garden in June 2010.  Neat!

If you are working on organizing your gardening activities this year, and give PlantJotter.com a try, let me know what you think.  Maybe we can create a 21st century version of Mr. Jefferson's gardening legacy.

There'll Be Some Changes Made

Mammouth Queen Sunflower
Season 2

Last post, we looked back at the things that have gone well in our garden under the giants.  And, make no mistake, we are happy with our progress during our Second Season. 

In our 2010 garden, we planted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, squash, melons, peas, corn, sweet potatoes, onions, lettuce, pumpkins, strawberries, beans, turnip greens, broccoli, cabbage, basil, parsley, nastutiums, zinnias, marigolds, and sunflowers (photo, left). 

Some in that list (i.e., sweet potatoes and broccoli) were complete "firsts" for us, as we've never attempted to grow them before.  A few in the list (corn, pumpkins, and English peas), we've attempted before, but without success.  A few (zucchini squash, sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas, and peppers) were the real winners, far exceeding our expectations.  And, several in the list (tomatoes, cukes, beans, carrots, corn, pumpkins, cabbage, and broccoli) were disappointing for one reason or another.
When reviewing the disappointments, it becomes clearer what changes we need to incorporate in the 2011 Garden.



Garden in July:  Corn and black-eyed peas
Season 2

 Changes will include:

1. Find out what the soil needs before planting.  No guessing this time.  As soon as the soil dries out enough (and is no longer frozen...:), I will take soil samples for testing.  [That will be a whole blog post by itself, I'm sure.]  I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll learn we need lots more compost and pounds of nutrients.  The tomato crop was so sad, primarily because of the inconsistent rain-drought-rain cycles we experienced; but, I imagine that a lack of calcium and other nutrients caused a share of the problems.
2. Plant at the proper time.  The Fall planting of cabbage and broccoli came just too late in the season to allow either to grow properly.  I have set up a spreadsheet with the optimum planting dates for our area; additionally I have entered all these dates into my calendar, with reminders being sent to my email address.  How cool is that for a painless solution?!
3. Maintain consistent moisture by using more mulch.  Although we watered this past season more often than the previous year, we struggled to maintain consistent moisture to certain crops:  carrots, corn, cukes, and pumpkins come to mind.  We'll be buying more bales of straw in the coming season.
4. Keep the insects and pests at bay with row covers.  I do not want to use chemicals if at all possible, so I see row covers as a good answer.

OK, four positive points..four opportunities for improvement.

Although it doesn't really apply today, I will begin the practice of letting you know how our garden is growing each week, and what we are doing.

Garden Shed
Completed at end of Season 2

How Does Our Garden Grow?

• This week, we moved some more of the "outdoor" equipment into the garden shed (photo, right).  There's been so much snow and ice on the ground, we haven't had a chance to shelter some of the tools until now.  We still need to decide how to best use this wonderful new addition.

• We rearranged the row covers that are protecting the onions and the strawberries(which are the only "crops" still actively growing in the garden).  Most of them had been blown up and over the rows by recent winds and weather, so the garden was looking a bit ragged.  Now, it looks a little neater.

• We added some more kitchen scraps to the composter and tossed in some leaves and grass clippings.  The latter had been "resting" next to the fence and had started to compost all on their own.  We discussed the best way to take advantage of that outside-of-the-box compost, and we decided that our new, to-be-built cold frame might go there (instead of next to the garden shed as originally planned).  We've got a bunch of old windows in frames, and we are researching how to turn them into a cold frame.  I'll post about that when we get it started.

• The seed catalogs continue to arrive, and we continue to plan how the garden will be laid out for Season Three.  That's exciting, but I'm so ready to start playing in the dirt again.

• Oh, and I started my Master Gardener classes on Wednesday.  Another exciting thing to report!  I'll post more about that soon, too.

Happy Hoeing!

Beginning...Again

I'll admit it.  I've neglected this blog...far too long.  Last year (2010) was spent in the garden, not posting about the garden.  Today, that changes.  Beginning of the year.  Beginning of new habits.  Perfect time of the year to get in the habit ("...that thing which we repeatedly do") of writing my gardening articles on a regular basis.



The Garden, Year One (2009): 
Ten tomato plants, ten pepper plants.  And, Ducky.

 To recap, we are now beginning the third year of a four-year plan to turn the undeveloped half-acre in the rear of our suburban property into a productive and beautiful garden space.  We commonly refer to this space as the Way Back, which is located under Duke Power transmission lines.  We are fortunate that we only have the lines over our property; there are no transmission towers to contend with, thank goodness. Still, because they have an easement on that area of our property, there are some challenges to reach our gardening goals.  This blog is all about meeting those challenges head-on...and achieving our goals.

The basic plan is this:  we've divided the whole Way Back into four quadrants, bisected by a wide, central, mulched path.  Quadrant 1 is in the lower left as viewed from the gate, beginning on the north side of the picket fence.  Quad 2 is on the lower right.  Quad 3 is in the upper left, and Quad 4 is in the upper right.

Quads 1 and 2 are designated for vegetable and flower gardens, and have been the main focus of the past two years' work (2009 and 2010).  Quad 3 is to be the orchard and will be this year's main project (2011) .  Quad 4 is to be the berry patch and will be the main focus for next year (2012).  For folks who move, on average, every three years, making a four-year plan is quite a committment.  Making it happen will be just shy of a miracle!

So, what can you do in the garden in January, you ask?  Well, just like with personal habits, it's the month to take a look back at what worked in the garden last season/Summer, and then to make plans and set goals for the coming months.

Since it is so cold and damp outside at present, I am reviewing the photos I took of the garden this past season to refresh my memory.  When the weather warms up a bit, I plan to take a Coffee Walk (that's what I call my early morning stroll through the Way Back, where the garden space is located) with a small notepad in hand; I'll jot down some notes of things I want to do again...and things I want to change.

To keep it simple, I'll mention three things that worked great for us in the second year of the four-year plan:



Garden Year Two (2010):
Adding the wide center path

1.  We laid out the garden around a wide central path that leads to an area we call the Rondel (an oval-shaped area, directly under the center of the transmission lines.)  The path gives much-needed definition to the planting areas.  It is lined with recycled newspapers, covered with hardwood mulch; this keeps the weeds to a minimum.  It is also wide enough to accommodate the wagon and the wheelbarrow, making it easy to brings bags of garden soil amendments and mulch close to the spot where they will be used.  The Rondel (an idea we got from P. Allan Smith's TV gardening program) is where our resident pot-person, Hyacynth Bucket presides over the bounty.  Although the photo (right) does not show it, we lined the sides of the path with the rocks and stones that we removed from the planting areas.  More than one person has remarked on that little feature!

The Right Veggie Garden, Year Two (2010):
Adding amendments; setting up wide rows;
and creating a bean trellis (like Old Salem)

2.  We added loads of amendments to the (at times, rock-hard) clay soil, and we figured out how to get water to the area.  This area has not been worked or planted in years...if ever.  Duke Power whacked down any trees that sprouted and grew above their stated limit of 15 feet; any vegetation that lived was on its own for moisture and nourishment.  Remember:   there is no faucet to easily provide water to the Way Back.  Solution:  we had our sprinkler guy come put a faucet-like nozzle on one of the sprinkler heads, which he had re-positioned to be nearest to the garden.  Now, I can attach a feeder-hose from the nozzle to the web of soaker-hoses that snake through the rows and schedule watering of the whole area when the sprinkler goes off.  This is important because the water that comes through the sprinkler system is metered separately from the water that goes to the house; sprinkler-system water isn't charged the sewer fee...which is typically twice the amount of the charge for the water fee!





Garden in Summer 2010:
Flourishing peas and corn;
Rondel and Hyacynth are visible



3.  We planted the garden using wide rows, mulching them with leaves, with cardboard moving boxes, and with straw.  The leaves we got from our own and our neighbors' oak trees when they fell in the previous Fall.  The cardboard moving boxes came from our move to NC.  It's all good!

In addition to the wide rows, we added the use of row covers to length our growing season and provide us with a fall crop of lettuce.  How exciting!  We'd never had a fall crop before, so this was really a keeper as far as we are concerned.  We will also use row covers in the spring and summer in an effort to control pests without using pesticides.





Visiting the gardens at Old Salem, NC

4.  We took some time out to visit other gardens. OK, that's a fourth thing, but very important.  I got the idea for the wide central path from the kitchen garden at Biltmore Estates, and we were encouraged in mixing vegetables and flowers in our garden by the ones we saw in Old Salem.

In the next post, I'll outline some things I want to do differently in the coming season.  Meanwhile, take some time to review your own photos...or, if you are fortunate enough to have warmer weather than we have, get out in your garden for a walkabout.  Take good notes...there'll be a test!  (Just kidding, of course...:)

Happy Hoeing!