2011 GARDEN PLAN

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

I’ve already been planning my 2011 garden! I don’t know yet how well I’ll keep up this blog, but I’ll give it a shot, and if anyone’s listening perhaps I’ll keep it up.


Soon I’ll be starting seeds for a few crops that will go in a cold frame, probably early April here in Colorado, Zone 5b. I actually already have one cold frame planted. I started the process too late for fall-early winter harvesting, but I did put in a few spinach & lettuce plants in November that will hopefully survive enough to begin growing as it warms up in spring. It’s an experiment–we’ll see whether it’s worth trying again.

I’m using the garden planner offered at GrowVeg.com, which has been fun to play around with, and much improved after I tried it when it first came out. Here is a snap of my 2010 garden. 2011 is on the way, but changes are still being made!

Leeks

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

I’ve just harvested the last of my 2010 leek crop. Some leeks (sown 3/11 indoors) were put into a cold frame early April, these were harvested first, but the early planting out didn’t give them much advantage. The rest were planted outside 4/28 and most were harvested in December. Some of these had frozen and weren’t the best, ubut edible. Due to the semi-frozen ground, they were difficult to pull up. We used a garden fork and dig up lots of soil with them, then had to warm the dirt clods in the sun to in order to clean them up.

Other leeks started 5/16 indoors, were later planted outside. In November these were mulched well with hay and had a cold frame placed over them. They were harvested 1/30, after several warm days in the 50-60’s. The soil was not frozen and the leeks were quite healthy. It would have been better to bury them deeper in soil before adding the mulch, for more blanching and protection. Otherwise, these are a nice winter treat. I’ve had several leek-mushroom quiches and potato-leek soups. I also dried some I have not yet used.

New Year, New Garden

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

It’s a new year and a new garden. I’ve just finished getting everything planted. We’ve added 8 large beds, which includes one along the fenceline for raspberries, blackberries, currants, and honeyberries. Other new items this year: tomatillos, ground cherries, anaheim peppers, mizuna, arugula, beets, parsnips, rhubarb, stevia, gourds (luffa), kohlrabi. I was more careful to choose varieties of corn & tomatoes that will mature at different times, for increased length of harvest. I’m also being more careful to plant a few things at a time in successive intervals for the same reason.

My peppers and tomatoes did very well in potting blocks, first the 2″ then up-potted to the 4″. Broccoli and kale did very poorly in the soil blocks and died, until I changed the block recipe to include vermiculite and ground eggshells. Those succeeded much better.

We started a few things in a cold frame, and most of those did very well. We’ve eaten our first spinach and lettuce from that batch. We plan to do much more cold frame items for fall, as long into winter as things will grow, then start some other things much earlier the following spring (late winter). I have an idea we’ll have the grow lights in the house most of the time, successively starting more and more things all the time.

I don’t know if or how often I’ll keep up this blog. I am keeping much better records of my efforts on a program Tim created for me, where I can log dates planted, transplanted, how much yield, where planted, and more than anyone (including myself) may ever want to know, but it will be there if next year I wonder what I did this year that did or didn’t work.

Eating Local

by with No Comment Wellington

Along with all of our garden produce, we’ve been trying to “Eat Local” as much as possible. So far we’ve made the following changes:

  • Milk: from a local organic dairy, delivered in glass returnable bottles
  • Honey: from beehives just about a mile away, as the crow flies, purchased in my own reusable mason jars
  • Vegetables: from our own garden – fresh, frozen, dried, canned
  • Eggs: from a neighbor’s chickens
  • Beef: we just ordered a quarter of beef from a neighbor
  • Bread: although I’m purchasing the flour, I’m making sourdough bread on a regular basis

Even though we typically haven’t been eating a lot of beef, we watched “Food, Inc.” and “King Corn” recently, and have been thinking about changing our eating habits from commercially raised meats to grass-fed meats with no hormones, antibiotics, steroids, etc. I think that eating better beef is better than eating commercial chicken, so until I find a good, local, affordable source for better chickens, it’ll be nice to have the beef and help out a neighbor who needed to sell another share of their beef. We’ve tossed around the idea of raising our own chickens, for eggs and/or meat, we just aren’t there yet.

I think we’re making great progress toward eating more sustainably and leaving the “formal economy”. Next, I’d like to consider getting a grain mill, to grind my own flours. I’d still have to buy the grain, however.

Berries & Seedlings

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

The seedlings I’ve planted are coming along nicely, for the most part, and I’m busy making more plans and reading more tips to ensure better and more consistent harvest…fewer things at a time, planted in succession as much as possible.

I’m a little concerned that the tomatoes have not all emerged, but they seem to be coming up at different times for each variety, so perhaps some varieties are just slower than others. I hope that’s the only issue, and that there isn’t some other problem. I’m also a little concerned that I may have started the things for the cold frame a bit too soon, and they may get too big to put them outside before the cold frame is ready. I was planning not to re-pot them before transplanting outside.

Tim ordered some berry & grape plants, and planted most of them this week in a new bed along the western fence. The blackberries came as plants (not bare root like the others) so they won’t go out until May. In the meantime, I put them into the large size soil blocks to continue growing before transplanting. I was delighted that I made 6 successful large blocks with none of them falling apart! I recall that last year the big ones were a bit difficult. The grapes will grow up an arbor (yet to be built) by the porch, so we can have a shaded area for relaxing in summers.

I’m still frustrated by reading different information from different sources, and don’t know which suggestions are best. I’ll just have to figure it out for myself! Some things say “don’t start indoors” others say it’s ok; some say to plant at one time, and others suggest another, etc. I guess to some extent it really doesn’t matter, or depends on other variables such as climate, methods used, etc.

Bring On 2010!

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

Well, I obviously was too busy to post at the end of the 2009 season. Now it’s 2010 and we’re getting ready for the next planting season. We will be expanding the garden to include the west side, the slope along the east side, and some fruit trees outside, to the west.

Yesterday I started my first batch of seedlings in the soil blocks: kale, spinach, arugula, romaine lettuce, mesclun varieties, onions & scallions, and four varieties of peppers. Tim will be putting up a cold frame, so the lettuce, kale, etc. that I started now will go into that as early as possible.

I’ll be starting tomatoes and a few other things in the next couple of weeks. I’m much smarter this year as far as quantities, and being careful not to plant too many. I will be adding a few new things for the new beds, such as tomatillos, ground cherries, melons, and maybe potatoes. Tim is doing research and ordering some fruits & berries! We plan to put the berries by the fence so they can climb.

Before the winter began, Tim sheet mulched the west area in preparation. I sprinkled manure on all the beds previously used, covered them with hay and bedded them down for winter. Unfortunately, a lot of the hay has blown off, and I haven’t kept up with replacing it.

In the fall I planted some garlic and onion sets, and mulched them well. There are a few beginning to shoot through the mulch, and I’m sure they’ll begin growing soon. The 2009 garlic never really got big enough, so I left them in the ground and I’ll see if they continue to grow this spring. I’ll be planting more garlic & onions as well, for fall harvest.

I don’t know how well I’ll keep up the blog…I’ll just have to see how it goes.

August Garden

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

Obviously, I have neglected this blog! I’ve been busy in the garden and with many other adventures, including a week of horse-camping in southern Wyoming.


The garden is going great, and we are learning a lot. There are quite a few things we’ll do differently next year, but all in all, we are very happy with the results of all our labor. We’ve been enjoying many vegetables and sharing extras with others, as well as learning to can, dry, freeze and preserve whatever we can for the winter months.

The icky fungus that was in the garden has been gone for some time. We’ve found cabbageworms in the broccoli and tomato hornworms on the tomato plants, earwigs in the ears of corn, and we are working on controlling them organically with neem oil spray and garlic-pepper spray. I guess I hadn’t believed the bad bugs would find us, but they did–I should have been more proactive about preventing their arrival (garlic spray, for one). Next year!

The roma tomatoes are weighing down the vines and sagging from their heaviness. I should have done better at staking them, I suppose, and next year will plant them farther apart, perhaps with more beneficial companion plants interspersed. I’ve made a couple of batches of marinara sauce from them and am amazed at the amount of work and cooking that goes into one pot of sauce! The cherry tomatoes are prolific as well, and the brandywines are finally ripening. Unfortunately, most of the brandywines have deep cracks in the top, apparently due to inconsistent watering from a few heavy rainstorms (per one of my books).

The pepper plants are doing fairly well, and I’m waiting for the red peppers to turn red. So far they are getting bigger but still green. I made some pretty good chiles rellenos out of the ancho peppers, and am experimenting to find the best way of canning the pepperoncinis. The first batch came out mushy, so I’m looking into lacto-fermentation with salt & vinegar (not cooking) for my next experiment. That may be today. The jalapenos are going into the freezer.

The summer squash has been good. Three of the plants shriveled up, but I still have plenty of squash on the others. The trick is to cut them quick, while they’re small, or I end up with monsters. I’ve made a couple of roasted vegetable lasagnas with them, which are delicious, and have experimented with drying them as well.

The corn is coming out now, a couple of ears at a time–just enough for dinner for two. A couple of the ears were “bonus ears” with one large ear and another small one on the side, growing inside the husk. I never saw anything like that before. Last night I had my first bad ear of corn–the kernels were small and only about half the ear had kernels at all. Win some, lose some, I guess.

The basil, oregano, thyme and sage are all doing well. The basil is especially delicious. Today I plan to prune it way back and freeze and dry the harvest. The cilantro was great for the first batch, but the second batch I planted was taken over by the prolific oregano and didn’t have a chance. I’m planting more now and will hopefully have another harvest before it gets too cold.

Some of the flowers I planted got way bigger than I’d expected and are taking over. The calendula were pretty for a while, but I’ve pulled them all out after they got big and lanky with not many flowers.

There’s plenty of winter squash growing, and I’ll have to figure out when they are ready to pick. I’ve got cucumbers, both lemon and Japanese burpless. They are in the same bed as the peas, snow and sugar snap. The snow peas aren’t doing as well, and I forget to pick them when they’re small and tender–there’s never enough for a meal, so I just eat ’em fresh. The sugar peas are better and I think I’ll limit myself to those next year.

The lettuce did well, but there was too much at one time. I gave a lot away. Same for spinach. In mid-summer these aren’t doing so great, I pulled up most of them, but I’m planting more now for later.

The celery looks real beautiful but tastes awful. I had read that it might not do well in this climate. When it looked so good I thought that the warning might be inaccurate, but perhaps this is why. I guess it’s too hot here??? Anyway, I’ve thrown some away, some of the better stuff is in the refrigerator in case I decide to eat it, but it isn’t enjoyable eating. Bitter and tough. I end up spitting out the strings. I’m trying to blanch some of the remaining celery to see if that helps, but with celery so cheap at the grocery store I’m certainly not going to grow it again.

I harvested my first batch of rutabegas, and planted some more seeds but they didn’t make it. I’ve just planted more in some soil blocks to give them a better start for a fall crop, along with more broccoli, kale, brussels sprouts, lettuce & spinach.

The onions are doing very well, and I hope I can successfully store them to last a long time! I’m also looking forward to the garlic, and apparently soon will be the time to plant another crop for next spring’s harvest.

The strawberries did not do well. Perhaps next year I’ll get a different variety and/or plant them differently, possibly in a different location. Perhaps they need more acidic soil. I did not test the soil before planting or do anything to add acid.

Whew! I think that’s a pretty good overview of the crops.

After some repair issues with the tractor, Tim is getting our compost bins situated, so we can have good compost for our spring planting. With the horse manure, garden waste & kitchen scraps, we should be able to get a good amount of compost cooking. Next we plan to work on sheet mulching the rest of the garden space to prepare for next year. We will expand, spread things out a bit more, plant more of some things and less of others, rotate our crops, plant some fruit trees and vines, and definitely more corn!

Maybe next month I’ll get around to posting again, and maybe I’ll add some photos.

It’s July!

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, and we’ve been busy! We have experienced a great deal of rain, which has been wonderful for the garden (except for a couple of hailstorms, see below). We are discovering a few things which we will do differently next year, but overall, the garden is coming along nicely.


We installed soaker hoses on timers all throughout the garden, but have rarely used them because of all the rain. When it is not raining, they are doing great.

We have been eating our lettuces, spinach, endive, radishes, scallions, basil, thyme, cilantro & oregano, a couple of jalapenos, lots of kale, and our first broccoli (and boy, was it good–way better than from the grocery store!). The kale is amazing. If I don’t pick it frequently it gets big and there’s way more than enough to eat. I’ve been giving it away, along with our lettuces. I blanched and froze my first batch of spinach, and need to get going on that project with the kale.

Most things are doing very well. I’m looking forward to having ripe tomatoes! The first summer squashes will be ready soon. My first snow peas have come out and we may have enough for dinner.

The bush beans have not done well at all. I replanted seeds about three times, and each time only a couple of them sprouted. I’m not sure what’s wrong, except that it may have been too cool and wet for them.

We have one red strawberry, about ready to pick, but for the most part the strawberries I planted (from roots) haven’t done well. Of the 36 plants started, only 5 or 6 of them have grown. I’m thinking I will buy a few plants to put in so that they have a chance to be established for next year.

The peppers have suffered from the hail damage, but there are peppers growing on a few of the plants. I’m hopeful that more will grow. Perhaps next year I will plan ahead by keeping them under cover for protection from the hail and the colder nights we had earlier on.

The tomato plants are huge. Our first cherry tomato is almost red. I’m confused about the things I’ve read regarding pruning. For the most part I’ve tried to prune the suckers off the indeterminate tomatoes as indicated in several resources, but I’m not sure why. I thought that the suckers would not produce fruit, but when allowed to grow, they do. Perhaps the reason is just to get better, bigger fruit from the main stem. I find that if I don’t watch very closely, those suckers grow quickly and I’ve found large branches that started as suckers. In some cases I’ve cut them off, in other cases I’ve let them grow. Later, I will determine which plants do better–the ones with suckers pruned or the ones with them growing. I’m sure I wouldn’t want ALL the suckers to grow. The roma bush (determinite) tomatoes have not been pruned, as suggested, and are huge and bushy. For this first year, it surely is experimental, and I will learn a lot. The tomatoes we planted in the upside-down planters are growing, but I shouldn’t have put two plants in each one, as suggested on the instructions. I think they are getting root bound. We also placed them to close the the edge under the porch, and the rain water from the roof seems to have damaged them. We have since moved them back for protection.

Writing in this blog is beginning to be wearisome, but I want to do it for my own reference, even if few are reading! I’m just antsy sitting here typing when I know I have plenty of other things to do! Hopefully I will post more info and pictures later.

Fungus Is Gone

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

After battling the fungus (see June 6), I removed the hay mulching I’d had around all the beds to keep the moisture in. It may or may not have caused the fungus, but whether the fungus came from the hay or not, it was keeping it moist and dark, with all the rain. After removing the hay mulch, the sides were able to dry out and for the most part the fungus is gone. Occasionally I find a little here or there, but I think I’ve tackled it!


I took a photo and a sample to a couple of nurseries, and they didn’t know what it was either. The best guess is that it may have come from the wood chips we used in the pathways. One of the people at the nursery thought it looked typical of a tree fungus. We got them from some felled trees in town, so I suppose it’s possible. (Next time we get free wood chips do we need to bleach them???)

Rain, Hail, Cool Weather

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

We had more hail yesterday.  I ran out and covered the pepper plants with chairs and stools from the porch, and they don’t look any worse for the wear.  They still have holes in their leaves from the last hailstorm.  This time there’s a few holes in the spinach leaves and broccoli, but everything else looks like it survived. 


The other day we ate kale for dinner!  I put some curly endive in our salad, too. I’ve also been using oregano and basil, and I plan to have a spinach salad soon. Oh, boy…we’re beginning to reap the harvest.  Can’t wait to have more.  There’s a few little tomatoes, but I haven’t seen many–so far they are small and green and hard to find.  I think it’s been too cool for them to do real well.

It’s been cool and wet a lot.  Tim is getting the soaker hoses set up, but we haven’t really needed them.  There’s been enough rain and the ground is so saturated already, we can’t really test them out before our trip to see how long to run them.  I guess we’ll just have to give it a best guess and hope for the best.