Wrapping Up 2013

December view of Box Garden,
from Center path in Way Back

Here's a snap (left) of the Box Garden, all covered up for the recent cold weather.  You'd never guess there are carrots, beets, spinach, broccoli, collards, and lettuces under those row covers, would you? And onions...lots and lots of onions! Oh, and some garlic in the Center Square...almost forgot about that.

Turnip Greens, growing in
the Way Back Row Garden

You might also see a row of green in the middle-upper left. That's a row of Seven Tops turnip greens, which don't seem to mind the frosty temps in the least. The more frost, the better the taste! Here's a close up I took of that very productive row a few weeks ago, right:

Unless you are a gardener...or farmer...you may think that the Winter months are a time of rest and reflection; a time to relax, have another cup of coffee, and enjoy the arriving seed catalogs...far removed from the soil. You would only be partially correct.

As the year comes to a close, there are several things on our To Do list before we can put the Way Back gardens to bed:

1. Apply dormant oils to orchard trees, berry bushes, and roses. (That's what I'm working on later today...when the temps hit 50. Remember my motto: "Between 50 and 90...no lower, no higher." In summer I say, "Noon or 90...whichever comes first." But that doesn't apply here...:-)
2. Remove the remaining vegetation in the Kitchen Row Garden.
3. Till up the rows in the Kitchen Row Garden.
4. Add lime to rows and to rose garden, per Soil Test Report.
5. Mow over and collect remaining leaves on the ground in the Way Back. Add to gardens for mulch and compost. (Mr. T actually got the leaf-mowing done a couple of days ago, so we can check this one off the list.)

To elaborate a bit...

Dormant Oils -- So called because they are applied in the dormant season (winter months in the Northern Hemisphere) before bud break in late February to mid-March (in USDA Zone 7b in the Piedmont area of NC), a more accurate name would be horticultural oils, because they can be used at other times of the season (at lesser strengths). Because there are NO leaves or buds on the plants to be sprayed, we can use the oils at full-strength, as directed on the label ("the label is the law"). The winter applications of these include "All Seasons" Dormant Oil, Copper-Sulfate, and Lime-Sulfur Oil, which we purchase in concentrated form and then mix with water in a 2-gallon pump-sprayer.

As I have said before, I try my best to use the kindest, gentlest methods of pest control possible, preferring a natural choice...although I stop short of saying that I am an "organic" gardener.

The trickiest part is getting the "environment" right: temperatures must be above 45 degrees (preferably less than 70) when sprayed; there must be no rain and/or freezing temperatures forecasted for at least 24 hours; and the wind should be negligible-to-light (less than 5 mph). Finding a day that meets all of those criteria in December is tough...but fortunately today is almost perfect to get started! Yes, we could postpone until January...but we can't wait too long because (ideally) we will want to do another spraying after 30-45 days, and that second spraying MUST be done before bud-break...which can sometimes surprise you in mid-February. Plus, we can't spray the Lime Sulfur or the Copper Sulfate at the same time as the Dormant Oil without risking vegetation damage; we have to wait 1-3 weeks...and until we have ALL the right "environmental" conditions.

A good way to remember WHEN to spray is to think in terms of Holidays: New Year's for the first spraying, Valentine's for the second. That should give you a little wiggle room for dealing with the vagaries of the weather.

Here is some great information on Dormant Oils:
http://extension.missouri.edu/phelps/documents/Horticulture_News/Time_for_Dormant_Oil_Application.pdf
http://ucanr.edu/sites/marinmg/files/116758.pdf

Remaining vegetation -- As you have seen, we still have a good stand of turnip greens in one of the rows that we need to till (more on that in a minute), which I will harvest and cook for my "Good Luck Greens" on New Year's Day...putting the rest in the freezer. I'm the only one that eats turnip greens, so I'll have plenty to keep me busy until next Fall...no worries! My original plan was to leave the greens to "go to seed," which means they send up flower stalks...and serve as excellent attractors for the pollinators (bees, mainly) that we will need for the orchard in a couple of months. And, we still have a few okra stalks still hanging on to their roots that must go to China. All of that has to be removed so we can...

Till up the rows -- We have two main reasons for tilling up the rows in the Kitchen Row Garden: (a) to turn the soil over to expose overwintering pests, especially the squash vine borer; and (b) to add amendments like lime (per our Soil Test report) and compost (like leaves). While adopting a no-till policy is admirable, we find that a winter-till is more beneficial to our soil and our harvests. Hence, the change in plan about the greens being left to flower.

Of course, we have to wait until we have dry soil to till...and that has thus far eluded us this month. We got another 1" of rain yesterday, so it will be early January before we can check this chore off the list. Sigh. Oh well, while we are awaiting dry soil, we can catch up on a couple of things inside...by the fire...with a warm beverage in hand...

Journaling -- I have been pretty faithful in keeping my Garden Journal this year, but the Holidays played havoc with my resolve to write. I want to have a good verbal "picture" of the gardens in 2013 so that I can begin planning 2014 in earnest.  That's where the letter carrier comes in!

Perusing the arriving Seed Catalogs -- Oh yes, they are arriving daily, sometimes 2 or 3 a day...making me feel for our letter carrier. And I see that along with the usual suspects (red tomatoes, green peppers, and orange carrots), the Color Purple is becoming quite popular in the vegetative universe. Purple carrots. Purple-podded (green) peas. Purple-skinned potatoes. I kid you not.

And, we know how I love to trial new things in the gardens!

Happy hoeing!

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!

Ah, Sweet (Corn) Mystery of Life

We planted a block of Silver Queen corn (3 wide double-rows = 6 rows, with about 56-58 surviving plants) on April 15th ("pay your taxes, plant your corn"). About six weeks later, I interplanted (down the center of the wide rows) with pink-eye purplehull peas...for the weed protection, for the crop of peas, and for the nitrogen "fix" they will provide. And all was growing well until...

Corn patch, flattened
after high winds

This week. Monday. High winds (clocked at about 40 mph at the airport) and driving rain. After it all blew over, I ventured out into the Way Back to find our corn flattened. Broke my heart when I saw it.

I immediately started researching what to do. I grabbed several of my gardening books; only one had anything about storm-damaged corn...and that was mainly about how to protect the corn before the storm comes (shoulda, woulda, coulda). I then began a web search and got many suggestions (stake it, pull it up and replant, do nothing, etc.) all over the map.

I posted the photo to Facebook, seeking sympathy as well as advice, and received several responses. One of those was from a friend whose father was both a rural letter carrier with Daddy out of the Henning Post Office and a farmer. He suggested I try to right the stalks before the heat baked the ground to bricks again.

While it made sense, it proved more difficult than I anticipated. I had to abandon my first and only attempt to raise the stalks when I slipped in the mud...and realized no one was around to hear me if I wound up on my back, calling "I've fallen and I can't get up!" It would just have to wait.

And "wait" is exactly what I did. I left the corn alone. I did nothing. And, amazingly, the stalks righted themselves!

Corn standing again...on its own...
three days later

I am still having a hard time believing what I am seeing. Hence the pictures...

Of course, I have no idea whether these stressed stalks will make a crop...or even if these stalks with survive the storms that are predicted for today: winds in excess of 60 mph...plus hail! That's almost hurricane-strength, folks. And hail took out my corn crop 3 years ago, although I had time to replant a late season crop then. Not this year...we are two weeks past the last day to plant corn in the Piedmont, so that's not an option.

We will just have to wait-and-see how things turn out after today's storms blow through. I'll keep you updated.

We've Been Slow to Mow

Keeping a tidy, well-mown lawn might be a reason to get outside for some...but not for me. I get no special thrill from a lawn, which is, as a Master Gardener friend of mine says, a monoculture...and b-o-r-i-n-g.

One of the reasons I love this property so much is how little of the real estate is dedicated to lawns. Of course, the main reason for that is the number of towering trees around the house, making grass-growing an exercise in futility in the heavily-shaded areas. Ah, but in the Way Back, where the full-day sun would support more grass than the shade around the house, there is no lawn. None. Can I get a hallelujah? 

We do have to mow...on occasion. And by "we," of course I mean "Mr. T." The weeds and wildflowers that pass for grass in both the Orchard and the Berry Patch can get pretty tall and unkempt-looking if left to their own devices for too long. 

But in the Spring, I make a special request "to leave the daisies alone." We need to attract all the pollinators to the Way Back that we can, and the wild daisies are just the ticket. 

Additionally, we have several good randomly-placed patches of bird-planted milkweed (the host plant for Monarch Butterfly caterpillars) that need time to develop and flower. Monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on milkweed, and their caterpillars only eat milkweed. Many folks cut milkweed down in their yards because it doesn’t smell very good, or they think it is a weed. But these same people don’t realize that monarch butterflies need the milkweed in order to survive, and the monarch butterfly population is dwindling. Plus, milkweed isn't an easy seed to germinate...or, to transplant once it has been seeded, usually by birds and usually in an inconvenient spot. Protecting it is almost a mission.

We are in the process of adding a small (64 sq. ft) Pollinators Garden in the Orchard, complete with a bird bath...the second one in the Way Back. We want to increase the habitat for bees, butterflies, moths, beetles (like that soldier beetle on the daisy above), hummingbirds, and other pollinators. There is a marvelous online resource at www.pollinators.org where you can enter your zip code, and then get a PDF guide and plant list for your area. We will have four fav perennials suggested for our zip (aster, coreopsis, phlox, and hollyhocks); annuals like zinnias, marigolds, and sunflowers; and room for a couple more buddleias...as soon as I root them from cuttings from the one in the back yard.

Why all this attention on pollinators, you ask? According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife publication Attracting Pollinators to Your Garden: 

• Pollinators are nearly as important as sunlight, soil and water to the reproductive success of over 75% of the world’s flowering plants.
  
• They are crucial to the production of most fruits, nuts, and berries on which people and wildlife depend.
  
• Over 150 food crops in the United States depend on pollinators, including blueberries, apples, oranges, squash, tomatoes and almonds.

We want to make a conscious effort to ensure our little spot on this Earth is a welcoming oasis to the critters and creatures that make our plants healthier and our lives richer.  We have reduced our use of pesticides to almost nil (remember...even organic pesticides kill bugs, both bad and beneficials), and when we do spray or dust, we try for early mornings...when pollinators are least active. We plant herbs and flowers to attract beneficials as well as repel pests. We allow our natives as well as our weeds to have some growing room.

We will all benefit if we continue to be slow to mow.

Tomatoes from Suckers in Ten Easy Steps

Tomatoes in Row Garden, May 25

Hopefully, by now your tomato crop is coming along nicely. Ours is too, thank you very much for asking.

Row Garden, June 1:
Tomatoes in center row

Here in our Zone 7 Way Back Garden, the 6 transplants (two Celebrity, two Goliath, and two German Johnson...in foreground of picture, above/right) that were planted April 5th...ten full days ahead of the "optimum" time (AKA: the average last date of frost for the Piedmont, which is usually quoted as 4/15)...are growing strong and tall and bearing beautiful green fruit already. Even though we had to use row covers to protect the lot of them on a couple of occasions when the temps dipped below 45 degrees, I gambled and went against what I said in the recent Master Gardener program I did on Totally Tomatoes: "to be on the safe side, wait a week to ten days after ALDF before you plant your tomatoes." So much for playing it safe...and for "do as I say, not as I do."

Bush Early Girl, June 1,
in container on deck;
56 days after transplant

All the other tomatoes in the Row Garden (9 online-orders from Burpee added around 4/23: 3 Sun Golds, 3 Big Daddy hybrid, and 1 each grafted OPs Brandywine Pink, Brandywine Red, and Mortgage Lifter; 11 started indoors from seed, added about a month later: 3 Lemon Boys, 4 Roma, 2 Jet Stars, and 2 Juliets) are coming along well also, with a couple of those online-order Sun Golds fruiting up remarkably well already. The four bush varieties in containers (2 Early Girl bush, 1 Goliath Bush, and 1 Ace 55) are loaded with green fruit and yellow flowers. The Bush Early Girl that was planted 4/5 in a container on the deck actually has a red tomato (pictured left), only a couple days away from being my first BLT of the season.

In addition to bearing fruit (and tomatoes are fruits, botanically speaking, of course), tomatoes also go to great lengths to reproduce themselves by creating whole new plants...right there in the crotches between the main stem and a lateral branch. Those little suckers are known as, well...suckers.

Many folks who grow tomatoes see suckers as annoyances, as they can redirect the main plant's energy from producing fruit and must be pruned or removed, especially in the lowest 1-2 feet of the plant. But those same suckers can be a source of joy for the serious tomato gardener. Where some people see "more work," others see "more tomatoes!"

It's easy to start new plants...which will be clones, retaining the same genetic make-up of the parent plant...from those suckers you have to remove anyway in order to maintain the optimum production of the parent. That's a even-better proposition than trying to reproduce the characteristics of your favorite hybrid from saved seed, because hybrids notoriously are unreliable in this effort. Plus, with the high price of decent-sized so-called 'heirlooms' (a better name might be 'open-pollinated'), getting an off-spring with very little work cuts the cost in half. Because you will start with a 6-8" "cutting," you will have a jump-start on replenishing your mid-summer tomato crop, should one or more of the parent plants succumb to disease or insect invasion come late June or July.

Here are ten steps to get your new tomato crop started:

Removing a sucker from
hybrid tomato,
planted in Row Garden 4/23

1. Pick an overcast day, preferably after a good, soaking rain (which will "plump up" the parent tomato), to remove a sucker for rooting. Suckers are those new stems that grow at the join of each lateral branch on a healthy tomato main stem. If you wish to start a new tomato by taking a cutting, allow the sucker to grow on the healthy parent tomato (no evidence of disease, please) to about 6-8 inches long, then gently cut the stem off just above the joint where it is starting, using sharp floral scissors (see picture). If the suckers have started flowering, that's OK.
   
   Helpful tip: Be sure to make a plant marker, showing the name of the parent tomato and the date you took the cutting...especially if you are taking more than one sucker-cutting from more than one variety of tomato.



2. For each sucker, fill a container with a mix of good potting soil and compost, avoiding soil from your garden.  Any suitable container deep enough to accommodate one-half of the length of the sucker plus one inch will do. [For instance, if your sucker is 6" from cut to top, choose a container that is at least 4" deep: (6/2=3)+1=4.] You can use a commercial potting mix with fertilizer, if you wish, but fertilizer is not necessary to root tomato suckers. Still, it can be a time-saver after the sucker has rooted in the container.
   
   Another time-saving tip: always have a prepared container or two ready to receive a cutting.


3. Gently snip off any branches or leaves on the lower half of the sucker, leaving at least 4 leaves at the top of the sucker. Avoid stripping any of the stem as this can create a pathway for pests.
4. Dip the end of the sucker in rooting hormone and tap off any excess. Do you absolutely need to use rooting hormone? No. Does rooting hormone give your cutting a jump-start on developing a good root system? You betcha! Plus, I find that I get more successful rootings, increasing my plant count.
5. Poke a hole in the soil in the prepared container with a chopstick or a pencil, and then push the sucker into the hole in the soil, being careful not to knock the hormone powder  (if used) off.   Plant the sucker at least halfway in the potting soil, with the leaves left on the upper portion above the soil line.  Gently firm up the potting mix around the sucker's stem.
6. Water the container thoroughly. If necessary, add some more potting mix to maintain the proper depth of the sucker. Place the plant marker in the container to help you remember the variety.
7. Place the container in a shaded area, providing protection from the harsh rays of the sun.
8. Water daily to keep the soil moist while the sucker is rooting.  Don't worry if new tomato wilts for the first couple of days. By Day 3 or 4, it should be standing straight again.
9. After about two weeks, begin checking the new tomato to see if roots are developing, by gently tugging on the stem.  In about three weeks, roots should have developed enough to  (a) move the new tomato to a larger container, if necessary to accommodate the root system, and (b) begin exposing the new tomato to direct sun.  You should also give the new tomato a feeding of diluted fish emulsion at this time.
10. After 4-6 weeks, sun exposure should be up to "full sun" (6-8 hours/day) and the root system should be developed enough and to move the new tomato to a permanent location.  Congratulations! You have rooted a new tomato from a sucker!

New plants from rooted tomato suckers

Here is a shot of my own Sucker Garden to date (left).  I have rooted cuttings of the following varieties:

Sun Gold (in the purple containers)

Goliath

Celebrity

German Johnson (an open-pollinated 'heirloom' variety)

Brandywine Pink (an OP 'heirloom' that I ordered as a grafted tomato)

So far...so good! Only problem...where am I going to plant all these new garden members, hmmmm?