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!