Happening in the Garden This Week

The four-letter weather-word has shown up on our forecast for tonight: SNOW! If it happens, we will be ready for it.

One would think with the arrival of cold weather that we'd be hanging out the "Closed for the Season" sign, wouldn't one? One would be wrong! We have quite a bit of activity going on around here.

Fall Broccoli - 2013

1. The Kitchen Garden - The Third Season is in fine form out in the Box and Block Gardens. The raised beds in the Box Garden are sporting carrots (harvested the first three of the Fall last week), lettuces (3 kinds...my fave being the Red Sails), spinach (coming in fast and furious), beets (a little late here...had to replant), broccoli (pictured, right), cauliflower (replants), collards (replants), and one lone cabbage (a replant...all its friends succumbed to the dreaded cutworms, which were the cause of the replanted brassica). The Block Garden has been completely surrounded by a temporary fence (no worries...I can "open" one side of it...:-) that is supporting a good stand of (English) peas ('Wondo'...just picked some of those and popped them in our pot of soup)...and enclosing the rows where stands one lone surviving Red Cabbage plant (yes, cutworms again...you better believe I will be using cardboard collars come Spring-planting time!).

All the raised beds are sporting winter-weight row covers (purchased two years ago from Gardeners Supply...and still showing up for duty...:-), clothes-pinned to the hoops that bend over the plantings, so they should be OK down to 28 degrees. Mr. T came up with the clever idea to corral all the leaves that our neighbors are steadily gifting us with inside the fence around the Block Garden...brilliant, indeed! They provide protection to the peas...better than straw...and, of course, that lone cabbage must feel coddled, like being wrapped in a warm blanket.

We got most of the spent plant materials pulled up and into the yard waste toter, including the 5 pepper plants and the lone eggplant. Because of the high risk of overwintering of pests and pathogens on the members of the Solanaceae family (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc.), I don't compost this debris...I get it off the property. Good riddance to blights, I hope!

[By the way, I finished my latest Master Gardener article yesterday, written about the End-of-the-Season Clean-Up. Be sure to check it out here if you have the time...and LIKE and SHARE it if you are on Facebook! (If you have arrived on this post before that link is active, check back later. Thanks!)]

2. The Orchard - Granted, there isn't much activity going on amongst the fruit trees...and, since the squirrels and their pals picked all the fruit before it ripened, there wasn't much clean-up required. Still Mr. T harvested the seed pods from the zinnias and pulled up the remaining flower stalks, while I planted 6 pineapple lily bulbs (from Lakeside Farms) in the new-this-year Pollinators Garden. When the front-porch mums are finished with their blooming, I will plant them here.

I also tilled up a long bed in the back of the Way Back, across the Orchard and the Berry Patch, and planted 110 daffodil bulbs (that have been hanging out in the garage fridge for 6 weeks, as directed). They will be putting on a show, come Spring...fingers crossed; toes, too!

Seeds of the butterfly weed
Asclepias Tuberosa - 2013

We have several wonderful outcroppings of butterfly weed, Asclepias Tuberosa, in the Orchard...planted by either the birds or the wind. And, now is the time to harvest the seeds which have broken out of the pods following the recent frosty nights [shown in the picture Mr. T snapped with his iPhone (right)]. Aren't they just amazing? They are designed to be wind-dispersed, with fluffy, silky tufts. We'll keep them in a paper bag in the garage fridge until Spring, then plant...and cross our fingers and toes because butterfly weed is notoriously difficult to grow from seed. We shall see...

3. The Berry Patch - All is quiet on this tasty front. Mr. T has filled the blueberry boxes 3 (raised beds, containing the 9 blueberry bushes) with bags and bags of our neighbors' shredded (mostly oak) leaves...remember, blueberries love an acid soil and oak leaves can help maintain that. I also tilled up and refurbed another strawberry bed, this one containing the newest Ozark Beauty runners. (No snakes were found this time!)

4. The Rose Garden - All of the hybrid teas, the grandifloras, and most of the David Austen ("English" shrub) roses are winding down, forming as many rose hips as rose buds. The two notable exceptions are the coppery 'Pat Austen' and the lemony 'Molineaux.' So, when you look toward the Rose Garden from another part of the Way Back, you will see the colors of Fall: orange and yellow. Beautiful combination!

Additionally, the 'Mardi Gras' floribunda rose bush (located just outside of the Rose Garden, in the Rondel) is still budding, producing the flamboyant pinks, oranges, and yellows...all swirled together into colorful blooms. Makes for fabulous bouquets, especially when you add the prolifically-producing 'Gethsemane Moonlight' mums that now dot several corners of the property. I pruned the original 6 plants after their first growth spurt in the Spring, in order to assure lush flower production in the Fall...then dipped the "prunings" into rooting hormone...lo and behold, WORLDS of new plants. Gotta love propagation!!

The rest of our weekend activity revolved around general cleaning up and taking relaxing breaks in the swings. Since it has been a difficult week around our house, we needed some time for rest and contemplation.

And the garden is the very best place for it.  Happy hoeing!

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!

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!