Re-seeding and General Update

First true leaves on my daikon seedlings.

A happy garden hastily photographed due to mosquito attack.

My garden is coming along nicely, and the tomatoes and herbs especially seem to be thriving. Some seeds didn't do so well and I got low germination, so yesterday I re-seeded. The problem was worst among my green beans, where I got less than 50% germination and zero germination of the Carson Yellow Wax variety. I suspect that the seeds were predated in whole or in part and then rotted beneath the soil. My reasoning is that when I dug in the rows I found few seeds, and those that I found seemed to have holes in them and were rotted. (Though the rotting itself could have caused the holes, so who knows).

July 29th:
Re-seeded

• Toscano Kale
• Champion Collards
• Hakurei Turnips
• Scarlet Queen Turnip
• Amour Pickling Cucumber
  
• All varieties of green bean
  

Next I need to pop in a couple of more cabbage plants. I had one more red cabbage plant die on me--for whatever reason they didn't take to the transplanting. My sorrel hasn't germinated, or if it has I can't identify it. I will wait a while longer and then decide if I want to re-plant or maybe put in some Thai basil.

A red sorrel seedling from the Ohio State Website. My sorrel isn't red, but the seedlings should look something like that.

Beyond some low germination, things seem to be going well. I'm getting some leaf predation by flea beetles on my turnips and radishes (though fortunately as that's increased the nibbling on my cabbages has decreased). I might look into getting some floating row cover, but I haven't been able to find it at the couple of stores I checked at. I don't know how much aerial holes will prevent root development--I'm most interested in the roots and if nibbled leaves is the cost of keeping my cabbage un-eaten, I'll happily sacrifice my turnip greens.

My peppers are still playing head-games with me, but haven't died or anything, so that's good. Many of my tomatoes plants have unripe fruit now, byt I've learned not to 'count one's chickens before they hatch' when it comes to tomatoes, so I'm cautiously excited.

Amazingly, I have one pickling cuke! It matured so quickly because I bought it as a large greenhouse seedling. What do I do with one pickling cuke?

Weather-wise it's been a pretty typical few weeks of summer. Hot days in the low- to mid-eighties with rain or a thundershower every 3-4 days. I pulled back on watering a bit, but I'll go back to it to keep the new seedbeds moist. We're going to have some extremely hot weather this weekend, so hopefully it won't damage anything.

Weed-wise, the redroot pigweed is finally starting to pop up significantly. The seedlings are still quite small, though, so they're easy to control. It's the dominant weed, joined also by lambsquarters, purslane, and cheese-weed, and a few grass species in the mulched areas. I think the mulch brought in the grass seed--I should make more of an effort to identify it, but I usually pull it out before it's big enough to do so conclusively.

Carrots are Catching up, General Update

Carrots

My carrots are starting to emerge, so perhaps I didn't doom them to rot in the ground after all. The dill and cilantro seeds I sprinkled around at the last minute are coming up too, so perhaps Apiaceae simply take a little longer to get going.

Other Veggies

On the other hand, many of my collards and beans have not yet emerged, so I may have to re-plant. We're going out of town this weekend, so I'll give them until Monday to hustle up out of the soil.

One of my cabbages died (a Red Acre) out of the 15 or-so others. That's pretty good for a plant that's known to transplant poorly. I still have a few extra seedlings, so I'll put another one in. The red cabbage has looked the most unhappy, so I don't know if it's the variety or how they were treated before I got them. Hopefully the green varieties will keep doing well.

The peppers are back to wilting again, but now they're growing dark green leaves up top. I can only assume that's a good thing, as I have no idea what to think at this point.

Water Management

I think I was over-watering things, so I'm going to pull back a bit. I'll try to keep it more around the recommended 1" per week, with the exception of the seedlings, which I've been watering every 1-2 days to keep the soil moist.

Phenology

The corn in our 'neighborhood' is finally tasseling. It's so tall we can't see the road anymore, which is nice. Hopefully the harvest will be good after such a crazy spring.

Composting Has Begun

I finally got my compost pile started. It took a lot of machete-ing to clear the weeds out of the NE corner of the garden. There were a lot of boxelder saplings growing there, so I chopped them down to make stakes for my tomatoes. I'm not sure if they'll be sturdy enough late in the season, but for now they'll at least keep the leaves off the ground. Now I guess it's time to read up on composting.

Seedlings Starting to Emerge!

Daikon radish seedlings peeking out of the soil to say 'Hi'.

How very exciting--my seeds are starting to emerge! It's truly amazing how fast they can grow. I went out to check this morning and saw a few radish and purslane (cultivated) seedlings, and by the afternoon there were turnips, beans, cucumbers, and basil as well, and the radishes had already grown much larger.

It's funny to see how my seeding deteriorated throughout the afternoon that I planted. My first block of radishes are in a perfect offset grid. By the time I reached the end of the mound, I basically scattered them in the rows, telling myself I'll thin them later.

My carrots haven't yet emerged, but from what I've read it sounds like they take a while. I may have made some mistakes in planting them...I just found a guide here. It rained right after I planted them, which may have compacted the soil. The publication recommends covering them with vermiculite instead of soil to prevent this problem. Also, the fertility of the spot I chose might be a bit high. Oh well, it's all just an experiment. Here are a few more photos of my lovely seedlings.

These cucumber seedlings just can't wait to provide me with delicious pickles one day.

Happy little bean seedlings with purple stripes. It will be interesting to see if the adult plants will retain any of their dappling. The seeds were certainly beautiful.

Garden Update

So far nothing's germinated yet, but that's not surprising. I think I see some cracking in the soil over the beans, so hopefully they're doing their sprouting thing.

Half of my peppers are quite wilted now. I'm not sure what the problem is, since we got drenched in rain yesterday and it seems unlikely they'd be thirsty. From what I've read and heard, pepper plants often wilt, especially in hot weather. However, today was pleasant and in the low 80s, so I would think they'd be fine. Five out of five look happier than they did before the rain and the other five look wretched. I guess I will have to keep monitoring them. Like I said, they're in prime real estate so I can always replant. What I'm afraid of is phytophthora stem rot due to too MUCH water. Maybe I should back off with the hose.

My cabbages are looking happier now than before the rain, but I've seen some insect holes on the leaves. I was hoping not to have to get floating row cover this late in the game, but it might be necessary if they're going to make it to sauerkraut stage.

Planting Turnips, Carrots, Radishes, Greens, Green Onions and assorted seedlings

Whoo hoo I did it! I finished planting everything I needed to get into the ground right away. The only things left are finding space for the remaining cole crop seedlings and digging a mound for my fall garlic planting. I finished not a moment too soon, since we're expected to get pounded by storms this evening.

Freshly planted garden, viewed from the SW corner.

And from the NE corner. Yeah, my rows aren't perfectly straight, but I don't think the plants will care.

July 16th Planted:

Roots

• Hakurei Turnip (38 days)
• Purple-Top White Globe Turnip (55 days)
• White Satin Carrot (68 days)
• Sugarsnax Carrot (68 days)
• Miyashige Daikon Radish (50 days)
• Scarlet Queen Green Stem Turnip (43 days)
• Shunkyo Semi-Long Radish (32 days)

Greens

• Garnet Giant Mustard Greens
• Toscano Kale
• Champion Collards
• Redleaf Amaranth
• Goldberg Golden Purslane
• Summerfest Komatsuna Greens
  
• Cooking Sorrel

Onions

• Evergreen Hardy White Bunching Onion
• Nabechan Bunching Onion

Cucurbits

• 8-Ball Summer Squash (2nd planting)
• Sunburst Patty Pan Summer Squash (2nd planting)
• Amour Pickling Cuke (2nd planting)

Misc. Seedlings

• 2 Watermelon Seedlings (var. unknown)
• 4 Cayenne Pepper Seedlings
• 4 Brussels Sprouts Seedlings
• 2 Purple Kohlrabi Seedlings

For most of the plantings I did a box-style layout, giving turnips 6-8" and carrots and radishes 2-3". I planted a lot of the Hakurei turnips, because I liked them so much. I really hope they grow well. The greens should be exciting too, though I don't know if the kale and collards will get beyond the 'micro-greens' stage. I tried to arrange the root crops so that the quick-maturing varieties were in a very sunny spot, which I can sow with a fall crop of greens or peas.

At this point my space is pretty much used up. I'm kicking myself for not having the neighbor till the garden further east, but I was too lazy to move the giant rock pile out of the middle of the paddock. Most of the west side is unusable because of the shade from the maple trees. Oh well...I can always refine it next year.

In other news, my peppers are looking droopy. I'm trying to water them well, but they just won't perk up. Maybe with the coming rainstorm, all the fertilizer will be mobilized and the plants can take it up and be happy. If the peppers bite the dust I'll gladly plant other stuff in their place, since it's prime real estate.

Birds A-go-go

Hold still you naughty goldfinch!

Just wanted to make note that our bird diversity is even greater than I expected. Today I saw a pheasant in the far SE field and I'm watching a juvenile Northern Flicker play in the sandbox right now. This is in addition to the Rosebreasted Grossbeaks, Goldfinches, mysterious little greenish songbirds, Housefinches, Hummingbirds, Orioles, Cardinals, Turkey Vultures, Hawks, Kestrels, Bluejays, countless Robins, and more that we've already seen. If only my camera could capture them from a distance--I always scare them away before I can approach.

Planting Herbs, Cucurbits, Celery

Yesterday I got the herb seedlings in, seeded some cilantro and basil, planted some of the cucurbits, and threw in the celery I'd picked up. Of all the seedlings, the celery seemed amazingly happy considering it was in a pot for so long--it seems like it will be a good performer. I also prepared the seedbed for my radish/carrot/turnip plot.

July 15th:

Herb Seedlings

• celery
  
• oregano
  
• marjoram
  
• rosemary
  
• thyme
  
• sage
  
• flat-leaf and curly parsley

Herb Seeds

• cilantro
  
• basil
  
• dill

Misc. Seedlings (from Joel's Greenhouse)

• 1 bush-style cucumber seedling
• 1 acorn squash seedling
  

Cucurbit Seeds

• Amour Pickling Cuke
• 8-ball Summer Squash
  
• Sunburst Patty Pan Summer Squash

I will probably plant more cucurbits when I find the space. I also neglected to get the watermelon seedlings in the ground, and I'm not sure where to put them since they get so dang big.

The herbs are almost all in the back (east) side of the garden. Their bed might be a bit small, but I can always move them if need be. With experience my bed preparation has improved, and now all the beds have a water-retaining lip. All the plants in the back row were heavily fertilized with manure, but did not have added fertilizer.

Next up: seeding my root vegetable bed and fertilizing and seeding my leafy green bed. It's expected to storm heavily tonight, so I won't have to water.

Water Management

This year I finally got the galvanized aluminum watering can I've always dreamed of. It's great for small amounts of watering, but time consuming if I want to water an entire mound. Now I have a series of hoses and a nozzle with 7 handy settings. I could try setting up the sprinkler, but I'm not sure that moving it around every hour or so is any less work than just standing out there with the hose for 20-30 minutes.

I shored up the edge of the mound with the peppers so that I wouldn't lose as much water to the walkways, and it seems to have helped quite a bit. The soil here is quite sticky so it maintains its shape well, even when battered by watering and heavy rain. Next year I definitely need to integrate this micro-irrigation technique into my mounds better. It's low tech, but I can already tell that the water stays in the depressions I've made a lot longer.

Next I need to measure all my watering approaches to see how long it takes to yield an inch of water.

Fertilizing, Planting Beans

I had hoped to plant my beans in the cool of the evening last night, but I had forgotten to order rhizobium inoculant. I know it's not essential, as there should be some living in the soil already, but it's strongly recommended for first-time gardens. Planting so late, I didn't want to take a chance by not using it. I called around a few places, but they asked like I'd asked for the spleen of Jimmy Hoffa, so I gave up on planting last night. This morning I was in luck--I called Joel's Greenhouse in Pine Island and they had some packets left. It's really a great greenhouse (I hadn't gone before because the quickest route there is a gravel road that my Hyundai hates), and I couldn't resist buying a few other things.

I got a cayenne pepper plant, a burpless bush cucumber, an acorn squash seedling, some curly parsley, and some dill seeds. Can never have too much parsley around here. I also picked up a pair of fine-tipped Fiskars snippers like mom has, and a pair of lightweight gloves with nitrile fingertips, which are both very difficult to find. I think the seedlings, which were very well-established, must have only run me $8 or 9 since everything's on sale. Their prices are higher than at the garden stand by The Hub, but they had far better quality and selection, so I'll probably use them exclusively next year.

Fertilizing

Since I haven't had a year to accumulate any compost or develop the soil, I decided to use synthetic fertilizers. I picked up a bag of Vigoro Tomato and Vegetable Fertilizer, which is 12-10-5 plus some micronutrients. I probably should have added this when I was planting, but I didn't have any yet. I sprinkled something approximating the recommended amount around the tomatoes, peppers, and cabbages. Since I had to sprinkle it over mulch, I have no idea how much will actually make it to the root zone, but I figure that something is better than nothing. It wasn't expensive, just $3.66/bag and I'll only need 1.5 bags. I tried not to get any on the leaves or stems, for fear of causing fertilizer burn. I also integrated a small amount into the soil before planting the beans (I tried to keep it minimal because I didn't want to discourage the rhizobium.

July 15th: Planting the Beans

These I planted across the mound, next to the peppers (which are planted along the south side of the mound). I planted two rows of four beans 12" apart and 36" from the next set of two rows. The beans were spaced at 2-3" within the rows. After placing the beans in each furrow, I sprinkled the rhizobium inoculant on top and buried the beans 1" deep. I watered well and mulched the area between the sets of double rows. The soil is nice and warm, so hopefully they will germinate quickly. If I find any gaps in a few days I'll plant more seeds.

The varieties were: Cupidon French Filet, Carson's Yellow Wax, Provider Snap Beans, and Jumbo Green Beans. I alternated rows of these to allow for within-mound variation.

I bought the smallest packets of each, and each one contained a ton of seeds, so I may sow some more in a low-demand area and see if they grow. Maybe I should clear an area next to the fence so they can grow up it.

Getting your seed shipment may be even more exciting than getting new shoes.

More about my Field Layout

Since it was so late in the year and I needed to take quick action with planting, I didn't do much research before I carved up the garden. I just followed my instincts and the lessons I'd learned in the past. I wound up with wide, deep rows and evenly spaced plantings, instead of the more traditional narrow rows with crowded plantings. Of course, there's nothing new under the sun, and it turns out that this called 'wide row gardening' and 'block style layout'. Here are two publications that discuss it in more detail:

Wide Bed Gardening for Easier Gardening and Higher Yields (Cheyenne Botanic Gardens)
Block Style Layout in Raised Bed Vegetable Gardens (Colorado State University Extension)*

*This one has good information about planting distances for block layout, which can be hard to find.

It looks like I made some good choices with this garden layout, though I could have set things up better for water management by adding a lip at the edge of each mound. I think I will continue this approach next year. The landlord even said I could cut off some branches from the trees that are shading my plot, mostly volunteer white ash. I'm getting my compost pile going now, so hopefully I'll have some good stuff to add to the garden next year. Hopefully we won't be moving again (at least not until we're ready to buy a house--then my garden will be off da hook!).

Our Soil

Just diggin' soil here, boss.
Yeah...it was 91 degrees that day.

The soil here is different than any I've tried gardening before. It's a collection of silt loams, the dominant one in the garden being N619A Kennebec-Lawson, channeled, complex 0-3% slope, flooded, according to the Goodhue County soil survey (thank you USDA-NRCS!). It has a lot more silt and clay in it than what you find on the Zimmerman sandy soils in Anoka county, so it's very prone to compaction. I hear that it produces great crops, but it's prone to flooding in this Zumbro River area. Bitter Creek, which runs behind the property, is known to flood, but in its highest year that the neighbor can remember it only reached the far edge of the paddock.

I think I've already observed the differences between the two soils from this map unit. There's one spot in the garden which stays wet long after the rest has drained and makes a fine, sticky mud. I think that most of the garden is the Kennebec series, but that spot is the more poorly-drained Lawson.

The parent material was silty alluvium from the many rivers and creeks in the area. The native vegetation was tallgrass prairie on most of the property, with alluvial forest along the creek. For more information about the history of this landscape, check out the MLRA (Major Land Resource Area, from the NRCS) factsheet: #105 Northern Mississippi Valley Loess Hills.

The soil pH should be around 6.5, which is great for growing things. It also has fairly high organic matter at 4.5-5%, which is also good for plants.

Anyway, that's the basic idea. I just wanted to record what I found for future reference.

Planting the Seedlings: Tomatoes, Peppers, and Cabbages

This weekend I began planting the starts. I planted:

July 11th : tomatoes
July 13th: cabbages and peppers

I also threw the dill plants into the ground because they were looking so wretched. I have little faith that they'll survive, but it's worth a shot. I still have more cole crops to plant, it's just a matter of finding sunny space for them.

Variety-wise, I basically went with what was available at the garden stand. The tomatoes are a random assortment including Better Boy, Brandywine, Rutgers, and some yellow full-size and cherry toms. The cabbages included Savoy, Stonehead, Discover, and Red Acre. The peppers weren't well-labeled, but I think they were all sweet peppers.

For all the seedlings, I tried to mix the varieties around so that I wouldn't have all of one type in a single location, in case that spot's bad for growing.

I also took a few approaches to the planting itself. The tomatoes were really leggy, so I removed their bottom leaves and buried them quite deep. Since they were already so tall, I had to mound soil up around them to keep the stems buried. This might have been a bad approach from a water management perspective. I mulched heavily around the mounds using oat straw. I placed the tomatoes in the second row from the north. They will get excellent sun there, but won't be shaded by taller plants. I may have spaced them a bit close--I used a checkerboard pattern with ~24" between plants, giving 3 offset rows in the mound. If I get a single tomato out of this I will be amazed.

When I watered the tomatoes I noticed that a lot of the water was running into the walkways, so I took a slightly different approach with the peppers. These I placed on the furthest north mound, where they will be next to the green beans, but not in their shadow. Between the peppers and the beans I made a trench, where most of the water flows. I hope this will make a little reservoir of moist soil whenever it rains or I water. I have not mulched these yet and I'm not sure if I will.

For planting the cabbages I got cleverer still. I placed each cabbage plant in a small depression, so that they will be surrounded by moist soil after I water and the water won't run into the walkways. I mulched heavily between the plants to discourage weeds, hold more water, and keep the soil cool. I've heard that cabbage roots are delicate and they often don't survive transplanting. I tried to be gentle with them, but they were terribly root-bound in the pots. I teased the seedlings apart while holding the rootmass in a pail of water--a technique I perfected on swallow-wort, of course. So hopefully these little guys will survive. I would really like to put up a bunch of sauerkraut from my own garden.

Next I need to plant the herbs and I'm trying to monitor the garden to find a sunny spot that's not in high demand from vegetables. I will be receiving my seeds early next week and then I will plant those.

Starting Out in 2008

Our house, with a vibrant sunset tinted by Canadian forest fires.

Well, Dan and I have moved out to a lovely country house in Zumbrota! It came with a fenced paddock in the backyard, which the landlord was keeping sled dogs in. It seemed like just the perfect place for a garden as it will deter the more lethargic deer and rabbits. Although it was so late in the year, mom and I have had good luck starting late gardens. From a weed ecology perspective it's a good idea, because all of the early weeds have done their thing by the time you start. Also, you're past the danger of late frosts.

This year has been strange for weather. The spring was very long and wet--planting was delayed all across the Midwest and then we were hit by relentless rain leading to flooding. That, plus a few hailstorms, means that most gardens and all the crops have been delayed. I even picked and canned strawberries on July 4th! In most years they would be long over by then.

So far I've bought many started plants from the garden mart at the grocery store. Another benefit to late planting is that the starts are dirt cheap! Only $0.25 apiece for vegetables (but the herbs were more dear at $3 each). Getting the garden started was more costly than I'd hoped, but as I've learned in the past, you can't truly do it to save money unless you're comparing the costs to buying upscale organic produce. Also, there are more costs the first year. Here's the breakdown of the annual expenses:

$25 + 5 - having the neighbor till the garden + 2 straw bales
$30 - herbs and vegetable starts
$75 - seeds from Johnny Seeds (yikes!)
$25 - 6 40-lb. bags of composted manure

The garden, freshly tilled. It's in a handy, fenced paddock. The barrels in the background are the doghouses from the landlord's sled dogs.

I also got some wonderful gardening tools from Lehman's. My favorites so far are the ass-kicking Wilcox gardening tools. Each one is made from a solid piece of stainless steel, so there's nothing to break, and I've broken more trowels and dibbles than I can count. The craftsmanship is excellent and they're even marked to measure planting depth. The customer service lady I talked to just raved about them--she's been gardening for 40 years and she says the only tools she needs is a Wilcox trowel, a pair of snipers, and a new pair of gloves each year.

I also got the metal watering can I've always dreamed of, a large spade, a couple of pairs of gloves, and a heavy-duty rake.

The neighbor, a farmer himself, did a great job of tilling the garden. The soil seemed so compacted I was worried, but he fluffed it up really well and made it perfectly level. Then (after dodging a few nasty storms) I dug it into raised mounds. They're about 25' long and about 3' wide and about 1' above the walkways.

The mounds, mostly finished and planted with solanaceae.

I got enough manure for one 40-lb. bag per row (or maybe a little extra, depending on if I plant all the rows). I'm not sure if this is enough, so I might add synthetic fertilizers. Since it's the first year, I have no idea of the underlying fertility of the soil and this may be a good bet, especially for the tomatoes (those greedy bastards!).

So far the main limitation has been working around the shady areas. There are a lot of trees here, so I'll probably have to go with some irregularly shaped plantings to avoid the dark spots. I think that since I'm planting so late and the days are getting shorter, finding enough sunlight will be essential.

At this point I think the only other thing I need is an extension to the hose and one of those gentle shower head type attachments. I've been doing pretty well with the watering can, but once the whole garden is planted it will be really time consuming to water the whole thing. The landlord left a sprinkler here, as well.

I also want to get some garlic to plant in the fall, but it is outrageously expensive. Gardening books warn you off of using what you find at the grocery store, but when the option is spending $12-21 for only 3 bulbs from a fancy catalog, I may take my chances with the grocery garlic. Next: planting!

Introduction

With gardening I feel like in 30 years I might have some idea what I'm doing, if I start gardening now. I've tried gardening in the past, but the results have often been disappointing (typically because I go out of town part way through the summer and I come home to a jungle of pigweed). The same goes with my gardening notebooks--as delightful as it would be to stumble across them in a dusty steamer trunk in my attic when I'm a master gardener 30 years in the future (hah!), these usually start off strong and then peter out. So, taking a cue from the success I've had in keeping Extra Schmaltz up-to-date, I'm going to throw the paper notebook out altogether and move this endeavor online. Hopefully with this notebook on the computer, I'll be more inclined to update it in my free time. This is really just for my own purposes, but I'll keep the blog public in case someone stumbles across it and finds something useful.

A fiery sunset over County 10 Blvd and the neighboring farm. I feel like we're renting a little piece of heaven.