Posts in category: Garden-Wellington

As before, this plan was created on growveg.com.  It’s a lot of fun to play around with, and allows me to easily move things from one place to another while I decide what to do, with crop rotation reminders of what had been previously planted in each bed.

Here is a shot looking west, where we plan to house the ducks.  We’re thinking of putting their house and run either along the fence, on the other side of the long berry bed, or behind/between the pines and the cottonwood tree, along a fence that will border that area (in front of the small trees in a row).  We’ll remove the bed in the foreground that’s framed with railroad ties, and put a gate in the fence leading to the duck area.

Other than that, I’ve received all the seeds I ordered, and started a few more seedlings on Monday.

I thought I’d show some pictures of my garden working area. First is indoors where I have my grow lights. So far I’m only using the one light. The seedlings are on a rolling cart, and the seedlings can be raised or lowered according to how much space they need to be below the lights as they grow.

Outdoors, under the porch, I have my potting bench area, which Tim put in last summer. We found this cart (on the left) which was called a “serving cart” at the thrift store for just $35. It’s perfect. There are slots for two pans that are perfect for making my soil blocks, and at a good height for me. I can keep a lot of fertilizers and tools below. The sink and its cabinet and the counter to the right were all items also purchased at the thrift store. We did well. This area has been very handy for me.

Looking out from where the bench area is, we have plans to build a greenhouse area off to the right. We plan to put some hoops down from the porch above, out to the ground, to be covered by plastic or other greenhouse material. We might make it removable, so it can be open in the summer, or make a way to roll shade cloth down in summer. It can be quite hot there, as this faces the south.

Looking out from the upstairs window, this is the west side of our garden today. I look forward to planting and seeing green things! It’s kind of gloomy today, but this is the most snow I think we’ve had all winter–much needed moisture. Our nifty “manure makers” are hanging out back there napping, I think.

I finally finished buying/ordering my seeds! I really get myself into a tizzy trying to decide what varieties to get, particularly when it comes to tomatoes and peppers. I go back and forth from one website to another, trying to choose which one has the most varieties I want. I want to get as many organic, heirloom seeds as possible, but still get varieties I think will do well. I don’t want to pay shipping to too many places, so I want to keep it to just one, if possible. I also like to buy locally. Sheesh!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.