Season 3 Post-mortem OR How 'bout this heat?

What a strange year this has been. What started out as a very cool dry summer turned into a very wet and hot one, just in time to become very dry again. I have to admit I haven't been doing this very long, but that is a lot of variability in one year.

This is a bit early for the complete post-mortem, but I pretty much know what will happen between now and the first hard frost in a few weeks. I still have tomatoes producing as well and jalapenos a-aplenty. I am sure they will be producing past Guy Fawkes Day like last year. So I don't feel too much like I am jumping the gun here. So, without further ado:

Ye Olde Pumpkin Patch:
Alas my poor orange gourds. What an amazing show they put on this year, snaking the whole 30 feet from the patch, over the fence and onto the periphery of the Main bed. Several baby pumpkins formed only to be aborted when the temperatures hovered around 100 for a few weeks. Once it cooled back down to the standard Virginia 90 degrees, the patch was beset with PM. This stuff spreads fast. Faster than you realize. I've found that once you really see it, it's already too late. Something to be proactive about when you get a long period of very sultry weather. I ultimately mowed down all the vines in September since I could not compost them because of the disease. Next year I plan to move the pumpkins into the main bed but a little further west than where the 3 Sisters were this year. Need to have the crop rotations since I will be experimenting using no-till next year.

The potatoes. The plants did very well, they got tall and green and lush. When the plants died back in July (as they are want to do) I dug them up and only found a few anemic spuds. This soil was new, they plants fertilized with broad-spectrum fertilizer, but just nothing happened. I'll chalk it up to heat stress and hope it doesn't become a theme.

The Main Bed:
The 3 Sisters did very well, however I timed it wrong and overestimated the ability of Virginia Piedmont clay to hold itself together. Since the mounds washed away in July, I will have to either forgo them next season, or build a berm around them with bricks to hold the soil in. After harvesting all my corn in July, my squash in September and my beans last week I think I understand the timing; Plant the corn in May, the beans in June, and the squash in July. This way the beans don't pull the corn stalks down, and the squash don't over shadow the baby corn stalks. The beans are drying on my porch, 6 stalks each with bunches of bean pods with 5-6 beans. I also plan on succession planting the corn so that I can still be harvesting in August. It seemed so short to have it all over by mid-summer.

The spinach and onions did well in the spring and we ate spinach plenty until it bolted. Like the potatoes, the onions did not produce. No lettuce came up at all, but I suspect it may have been eaten by forces other than me (I'm looking at you Slug Sappers). I planted more in September, and there are lots of onion stems, nothing else came up. Strange, but the jury is still out on the new onions. The broccoli only grew stalks, no florets. Other gardeners have told me: heat stress. *sigh*

Sunflowers had absolutely no problem growing and I was impressed at how big they had actually gotten. Both varieties (Mammoth and Evening Sun) were the hit of the garden. I noticed passers-by stopping in my driveway to look at what I had wrought from the Earth. It was quite cool. The sunflowers were ready in August and I cut the heads off to keep them away from the birds. Sadly I left then too long in the house without taking the seeds out and they molded. I had to compost them uneaten. I have to remember to get them out of the flowers within a week, or wrap them with cheesecloth next season and let them dry on the stalks. The Evening Sun's made flowers until mid-September much to the delight of the bees and The Littlest Giant: "fow-were, beezzzz bzzzzz." Again, the most native variety of anything in my garden makes the Giant the most happy. It goes without saying they will be back.

Carrots. I actually have some! Not the huge size or numbers like last season, but they are there and more like the baby carrot variety. Nothing was happening until September, and then they started packing on the size. Say it with me now…"heat stress." They taste great and will be replanted with the tomatoes next season. Speaking of which, the tomatoes did great. They were hit with blight but by the end of the season they were growing much faster than the disease was taking. I have to remember to trim them back next season since they turned into a bramble and probably hurt production. Jalapenos, the success story as usual, I have to give then away. No need to plant so many next year. No Thai peppers, dunno why, but the Jalapenos were so hot it doesn’t matter.

The Driveway Bed:
Soon to be the Main Bed Annex as I plan on connecting the extra 8 feet between them next season. What did not come up; Strawberries, sweet peppers, eggplant, bell peppers. What is it with bell peppers? I can grow some of the other hot varieties, but not this run-of the mill type. Next season I will plant them in pots in the front of the house (the former Front Bed) and see if it has to do with my soil. There must be a common pH issue with these that did not come up. I'm still looking into it.

I thought that the Cayenne peppers had not come up either, but last month one did. It's about a foot tall now with flowers. Since the frost is soon I don’t expect anything, but it's nice to know something happened and that the seed hung out all season. The watermelons I planted are still nice green vines with flowers, but that’s about it.

Cantaloupes were anemic but very tasty. The Littlest Giant loved them, and so did The Wife. I'm thinking of switching them out with honeydew next season or maybe just watermelon as I prefer those species. The 3 bean salad beans did very well. They were very crowded though, and I didn't know which to thin. Ultimately the Squirrel Squadron ate the beans in the pods as they all came in at the same time (as bush beans are want to do). It's ok, they can have them, this was just a proof of concept. More sunflowers here did amazing like the others, and just broccoli stems.

Take away
Heat stress seems to be the buzzword this season. Fertilizer still plays an important role as well. PH and soil composition is important too. Man, how do people do this for a living? If you mess up, you don't eat. So much knowledge passed down was lost to the average person. It's hard pulling it all back.

For next season it would be wise to get some heat-reflecting fabric for the root veg to keep the ground cool. Leafy veg need to go in as soon as I can work the soil because they will bolt by June. Pumpkins have to wait until Independence Day to keep them productive instead of playing host to disease. All crops need to be rotated. Lots of work. I need more kids to help me. :)

Future
I will be experimenting with growing tomatoes and peppers indoors this winter as soon I get some cleared space in The Engine Room. Grow-lights, pots, maybe some hydroponics. The works. Will keep you updated. I am also looking for cheap farmland further out west. 2 acres should do it. Anyone have any they want to sell? Yes, I know. Solar Panels. Need them to offset the pump and now the grow-lights. I wish Toyota would come out with the plug-in Prius so I can upload to the grid at night. That would make things much easier.

With this I close out this season, and bid you peace:

The Harvest Prayer
(Anonymous 17th Century Sermon)

Please be gentle with yourself and others.
We are all children of chance,
And none can say why some fields blossom
While others lay brown beneath the harvest sun.
Take hope that your season will come.

Share the joy of those whose season is at hand.
Care for those around you.
Look past your differences.
Their dreams are no less than yours,
Their choices in life no more easily made.

And give.
Give in any way you can.
Give in every way you can.
Give whatever you possess.
Give from your heart.
To give is to love.

To withhold is to wither.
Care less for the size of your harvest
than for how it is shared,
And your life will have meaning
And your heart will have peace.

Squash baby!

I know it has been a while. The Higher Mind of New England has me in its clutches again. A quick update:

1) No potatoes, pumpkins, bell peppers or thai chilies. Tiny carrots.

2) Some cantaloupes. Got watermellon plants but no fruit.

3) Lots of Corn, beans, sunflowers, tomatoes, jalapeños, lettuce and spinach. AND SQUASH!!! Something like 15 fruits, they grew like crazy. A pic of one cut open by The Wife is included.

BTW the jalapeños, so of which are now red, still very fiery to cut (actually had chemical burns on my hands). Interestingly they have no bite once cooked.

I'll have more when I get a few minutes to give a run-down.


Looks great! Can't wait to eat!

Jalapeños of FIRE!!!

So I have been eating some of my jalapeños that I have grown. I have a TON because I planted so many plants and didn't have the heart or desire to cull them. I have been getting edible ones since July but I have noticed that they are very hot. The hottest jalapeños I have ever eaten and I have had by share. What could have caused this? Its the same thing that has basically killed my pumpkins: super hot weather. All those 100 and upper 90 degree days have super charged my chilies. This is weird though considering that most commercially grown jalapeños in the States come from Texas or New Mexico, so you can't tell me that they are having 70 degree days there. I wonder if they shade them to keep them from getting insane? I am going to attempt to grow them in the house over the winter and see if that makes a difference in temp.

So the pumpkins. Powdery Mildew (PM). This stuff thrives on warm, humid, nights. Hmmm, could that have anything to do with the 100 degree days? :( Its spread from the patch all the way down the vines like wildfire. I sprayed with a biological (I forget the name) it seemed to work, then went back to before. *sigh* Probably none of the beautiful gourds this year either. I have tons of squash though, which have PM as well, but they seem to produce more. Suggestion from the Mother of All Giants: plant them later in the year so I don't spend 2 months not growing fruit but mildew. Next season I am planting them on July 4th. Also going to talk with some local growers about what they do when I go picking in October.

No true cereals in the Americas?

I was watching "America Before Columbus" last night. The tile was somewhat misleading in that I thought the whole thing was about pre-Conquest America, but was really 1/2 before and 1/2 after. I won't go into too much detail, but it was talking about how both cultures benefited from each other in the Columbian Exchange (we won't go into the gift of smallpox which killed 50 million natives). One of the points it made was that The Americas were transformed by the introduction of true cereal grains from Europe (wheat, barley, oats, etc.) and that the Americas had nothing really comparable except Maize (a grass) and Potatoes (a tuber). To which I thought; "A 100 million people did not live just eating corn." And guess what? They didn't.

Quinoa and Amaranth were also staple pseudocereals. The Aztecs used to make cakes out of Amaranth grain in the shapes of their gods, and then eat them during celebrations. The Spanish thought it looked too much like Communion wafers and outlawed it. Of course.

After doing some research, Amaranth looks like a great plant. The seeds don't have hulls (so they don't need to be threshed) and can be made into things like porridge (similar to oats) or actual breads. It has higher protein than any of the true cereals, is gluten-free, and looks amazing with red/orange heads. Apparently the orange varieties are easier to digest than the red/brown ones. Its also a warm weather plant (its September and STILL in the 90's) and doesn't need a whole lot of rain.

I'm my continual quest to have a "Native Garden" (an having a miserable success rate on European cultivators) what do you think I will be planting next year? Bet you can't guess???

;)

Pics of the Jungle

Everything is over-grown, but it looks kinda cool being wild and yet productive. :)


Coming up from the driveway, Mamoth Sunflowers greet you.



Closeup of the multiple flowers on the sunflower head.


One of the 5 cantaloupes up close.


Tomatoes in one of the cages. I wonder if I should prune them?


Jalapenos though the fence. I pick it and eat it.


Sunflower. Never realized how "Day of the Triffids" these guys look.


Squash. Everywhere.


Ye Olde Pumpkin Patch marches on.


The biggest of the 4 baby pumpkins. This one is on a piece of wood to prevent rot from all the rain we have been getting lately.


Had to seal off the rain barrels for the rest of the season. Mosquitoes again. Its really bad, take the lid off and 30 of those buggers come flying out ready to bite and mate. They got in when I took the lids off to water with the pump. Next year I am going to have to stick the power cord and hose though the openings and seal them up with caulk.

Eight Nine Ten

I wish I was counting the amount of pumpkins I have. That was the date that I saw the first two though. :) Yay! Finally! Its supposed to be 100 the next two days though, so I hope those babies don't abort. *crosses fingers*. Of course they are both on the same vine, and it is the secondary shoot, which apparently the pumpkin plants don't really rely on, but I will take what I can get at this point. From what I have read, this is about the time they set fruit in my area. Well, at least when its a normal year, not the hottest year ever. *sigh* Thanks Al Gore. ;)

I did not take pictures of them, but I will today and post them here.

Until now, the Giant has been on vacation with the rest of the Clan. The Littlest Giant is now a confirmed water baby, just like her old man.

Before I left for the trip, I decided to harvest what I could of the corn before the Squirrel Squadron got to the rest. I didn't realize that harvesting the ears killed the whole stalk but this whole thing is a learning process right? Another thing I learned is that gardens actually should be pruned. In the fight for supremacy among the 3 sisters, once the corn died the beans and squash went insane. I have more squash than I can shake a stick at and the beans, although not fruiting, have grown everywhere. Almost as bad as all the kudzu in the area. I did have to prune the tomato plants which were out of control, and I had to cull some of the jalapenos that were just too small and sucking resources. All the sunflowers are now so big that the heads are tipped over. One actually fell after a rainstorm and I decided to chop off the head and see if the seeds will mature on my porch. The finches (which I never see except when they are going after sunflowers) were already picking that one apart. I ate a seed, but it is not ready yet. Very watery and not tasty at all. The cantaloupe have a few fruits, but the vines have all but wilted. I' not sure if its borers or the fact that the sandy soil holds no water at all. Obviously I'm keeping an eye on them. The watermelon are going nowhere. Maybe its a soil thing again. The bush beans have pods, and I am waiting for them. The potatoes are ready I think, just need to dig some up. The carrots still need time, really small.

I harvested 8 ears of corn. Man did it taste good, you didn't even need to cook it, but I did for about 10 minutes. So sweet. I can see why the natives didn't like it, its almost too sweet. But I'm not going to plant field corn as I don't have the time or inclination to make masa



So, thoughts at this point:

4 sisters: no mounds. only plant 1 bean per group. 1 squash/pumpkin per 2 rows. 1 sunflower per row. Succession plant the corn so that I can have a lot. I harvested in July, so no fresh corn in aug, sept and oct? What a waste.

pumpkins: wait to plant until june, that way I don't have to spend an extra two months fertilizing the vines and anguishing over fruit.

Need mix some more of my clay soil into the front bed which is mostly sand at this point. It doesn't hold much water and the sunflowers all tipped over because there is nothing for the roots to hang onto.

Seedlings really need to be culled. Things just get too crowded. I know I am anxious to have plants, but in the end it kills productivity when its a jungle and I can't reach in for the tomatoes.

Need to build space into the beds so I can walk around the sisters after they get big. The closest row to the house should be kept open. Right now I have to jump squash to get in.

More photos to come.

Varmits, Varmits, Varmits

*Sigh* why is it that no one is safe from marauding animals? I know its a circle of life thing, but when you put your blood, sweat and tears into it, its so frustrating. My stalks of corn that tipped over are still growing, albeit at a weird angle. They are good and healthy and I think harvest is very soon. However when I was leaving for work this morning The Wife said "Uh oh, what's that on the corn stalk?" So I go running over like a fireman trying to save a child from a burning building, just in time to see the bushy tail of a member of Squirrel Squadron bolt from the stalk. He ripped open an ear and was munching away apparently. The corn looks really good inside as well, prompting me to think that I should do an emergency harvest today. My scouts inform me that there has been another raid while I was out working for The Man. Why God???? ;)

I don't have pics for all the progress, which is VERY significant from the last time, but I will get them up soon. Here is a pic I snapped of a cantaloupe. I didn't realize when I took it, but there is one twice its size hidden behind the leaves directly behind this one. There are many others. Hopefully they will make it.

The only fruits I have at the moment are these cantaloupes and tomatoes. Still waiting for the jalapenos to fruit but they have flowered. Carrots and potatoes are still small. Pumpkins and squash are flowering, same for the beans. Watermelon is still to small yet since I planted that in late June.

All looks promising. Considering a greenhouse for starters or leafy veg early or late in the season.

3 girls in a small room

I think I might have over-done it with the 3 sisters. In each mound - of which there are nine - was planted 4 corn, 4 beans, and 3 squash. Experienced squash growers are now laughing at me. Sooo much squash in such a limited space is presenting a big problem. I can't walk among the plants without trampling on the vines. The gate for the garden is, of course, on the side makes me have to walk though the sisters to get to the tomatoes and peppers (which are flowering nicely.)Need to remember to better lay that out next time with possibly 2 gates depending on where the early leafy veg goes vs. the fruits.

Also, since all 3 were planted at the same time, there is a bit of a fight for dominance. The beans are wrapping all the way up to the tops of the corn, before the ears are set. I've had to unwind them from the tassels a few times. Lower down where I succession planted some corn, the squash totally blocked them from the sun. Can't let that happen. I guess I will have to cull some vines to at least be able to walk without poking my eye out on the tomato cages.

I was doing some research and it turns out that Native Americans gave the corn a month before planting the beans and squash. They also alternated the squash, with one plant every other mound. Essentially meaning that I only can plant 3 squash in the same pattern as I have it now.

As much as this is all kind of an experiment for me, I don't want to re-invent the wheel. I have been reading on the whole set up so much that I feel like an expert, or could at least write a Wikipedia article on it. ;)

Independence Food (Freedom Fries?)

Here is an update on how the garden is doing. I figured out a way to use the pump and the rain barrels to water the Main Bed. I'm very proud of myself, but I forgot to take pictures. :( Basically I submerge the pump in the barrel and connect it to a 15 foot hose with one of those shower-head like attachments. There isn't a lot of pressure, but it is more than enough for me to hold the head over the various crops and water them. Eventually, the solar array will power this so I don't have to use C02 to pump water (I'd prefer to be carbon negative in this whole endeavor, as the reader may well know). Doing some quick calculations on the capacity of the rain drums, I estimate that it takes 10 gallons of water for the main bed in its current configuration. I also use another 3 in Ye Olde Pumpkin patch, bringing that to 13 gallons per day. With 3 barrels to capacity, that's about 2 weeks of water for those two beds. The driveway bed is still watered with house water since the pump can't generate that much pressure. Its scary because this has been a particularity hot and dry summer so far with it raining enough to fill the barrels only once a fortnight. I am replenishing about 6 gallons a day with run-off from the condensers on the air conditioner, so its not all dependent on mother nature. I'm glad I'm not pulling all of it from the reservoir. I see water restrictions in the future. On a positive note, the grass has already gone dormant, and I haven't cut it in 2 weeks.

On to the pics:



This is the Driveway Bed from the street, those are the Mammoth sunflowers, with watermelon and broccoli underneath.




The Driveway Bed from the side. Cantaloupe in the foreground Beans and Evening Sun sunflowers in the back.



The Main Bed from the driveway. Chilies (no flowers yet) and carrots in the foreground. Tomatoes (with flowers but no fruit)in the middle and the 4 Sisters behind them.



The Main Bed from the side, showing the 4 Sisters, broccoli and onions (which you can't see here). Yes the corn is tall. How tall? The tallest one there is about 7 feet, you could say its "Giant" corn. How did it get so big? Fertilize EVERY 2 WEEKS!!!!! Last year the sunflowers were the tallest in the bunch, what a difference a year and copious organic fertilizer makes.



Did you know carrots were 2 season plants? I didn't know that. :) Here is the survivor from last season going to seed. Apparently the flowers attract predatory wasps and lady-bugs which kill things like: slugs. :) Guess what stays in the ground? Also there is evidence to suggest they are good companion plantings with tomatoes. Interesting that I always plant them together but didn't know that. I need to remember to leave some in the ground for next year. Even though the tomatoes will be moving. I harvested one of the orange roots yesterday, it was about thumb length, so they still have a while. Its curing today and I will take a bite tonight.




Just in case you were wondering how the Sisters are getting along, this is a pic of the beans climbing very surely up the corn stalks. Several times I have had to pull the tendrils down lest they completely restrict the tassels on their host's tops.




After repeated efforts to re-plant pumpkins to increase their number (no thanks to the robbing Squirrel Squadron) I am left with only 8 pumpkin vines which I labor over with the diligence of an expectant mother. Here the work pays off as the vines are on the march. I have buried the vines every 3 feet or so that they might develop secondary roots. You can't see it here either, but the longest vine has female flowers on the end. Very exciting!!! Not to be missed, the potatoes in the background are almost ready for harvest!



A male flower just after it opened this morning. I hope some pollen gets transferred. If there is no development in 2 weeks or so, I may have to pollinate by hand, just to be sure.


Good progress all around. I just wish we had more rain.

3 Sisters made from clay

I have been experimenting with Native American farming methods. One of the ones that I have spent a good deal of time on is The 3 Sisters. You can read about it in the wikipedia entry I linked. This form makes sense to me, its companion planting to balance out each plants needs, and physically done so that squash (which like to be on hills) are appeased. Unfortunately I have found that the soil type has a lot to do with the success. My soil is clay. Brown, clumpy, and hard as a rock when it is dry. I've been told that it is the best soil once it really gets going.

Well, the mounds that the 3 sisters are in (actually I practice the 4 sisters since I plant sunflowers as well) are made of clay. "in time the Rockies may tumble / Gibraltar may crumble / they're only made of clay" Sure enough, yesterday in a heavy rain, my corn started to lean over. I thought it was weak roots and heavy rain. When I went out to look, I realized that the mound was simply disintegrating in the direction that the corn leans (east, toward the morning sun). The mound felt like a sponge in my hand. They fell over like dominoes, still rooted, but laying down, as they do in crop circles.

So now I have to stake them. Stakes for corn, isn't that supposed to be the other way round? ;)

So note to self, either prepare to stake, make some kind of border for the mounds to keep them in (a possibility with my infinite brick supply), or don't make hills.

I hope I can save them. They were chest high!

Pictures!

Ok I only have a little time today, but here are the promised pics. The deer fence is up on the Main Bed, but the driveway and Ye Olde Pumpkin Patch are currently undefended. *crosses fingers* Enjoy!


Ye Olde Pumpkin Patch





The Main Bed, 8'x20'






Closeup on Corn






The Driveway Bed, 4'x20'






Cantaloupe Up close

Insane growth

Ok that's just crazy, I replanted on Memorial Day and now just 4 days later I have germinated seedlings. The broccoli, and 3 beans are already popping though the soil. That's just crazy. I'm thinking soil temperature may have helped as well now, and we have had a lot of rain this week. Very interesting.

Yes, I promised photos, but the aforementioned rain (actually a very strong thunderstorm) kept me from taking pics. I have to fix the fence and stuff this weekend, so I will snap some then.

The importance of fertilizer

Hmmm, methinks that manure does not count. When I planted in mid-april, I turned everything, added some new soil and amended with manure. Two things were in the back of my mind: 1) Why do they mention manure AND fertilizer as something you amend the soil with? 2) 'soil' that has a lot of wood chips in it robs the soil of nitrogen. Too bad this was all I could find.

See the problem there?

So after a month everything I had looked pathetic. Half of the crops didn't come up either. A brief tally:

Ye Olde Pumpkin Patch
Potatoes: yes and doing very well
Pumpkins: yes but weak

Main Bed
Spinach: yes! and very well. Already harvested a batch VERY tasty!!!!!
Onions: yes, but hard to tell the status since its just that one string of green popping out of the soil.
Lettuce: Nope
Tomatoes: 2 very weak plants.
Carrots: none, but 2 survivors from last season
peppers (thai and jalapenos) : none

Main bed 4 sisters
Corn: yes but weak (about 12 of 36)
Pumpkins: nope
Lima Beans: 2 out of a possible 36
Sunflowers: 3 out of 9

Driveway bed
Mammoth Sunflowers: yes and very tall
Eggplant: none
Cantaloupe:7
Cayenne: none
Sweet peppers: none
Bell peppers: none
Strawberries: none

Now I am suspecting that the wild temp swings killed out some of the sensitive stuff (i.e. no lettuce or strawberries) because it was 90 one day and then had a frost the next night. Also, all of the varieties I planted were Heritage. As in, there are not just not GMO but are also not hybrids. As in the "original" crops. Which is kid of a misnomer since 'original' corn is teosinte and that has but 4 kernels on it. But I digress.

So, when I got back from the beach on June 1, I did a second planting.

Ye Olde Pumpkin Patch
Added more pumpkins in Ye Olde Pumpkin patch.

Main Bed
Added more of 3 of the 4 sisters (no more sunflower seeds, but there are lots of mammoths anyway) Also planted squash instead of pumpkins in 1/2 of the mounds
Planted Broccoli to replace failed lettuce.
Added more tomatoes
Added more peppers
Replaced the failed sunflowers with something that escapes me at the moment.

Driveway bed
Replaced the Strawberries with 3 bean salad beans (the varieties escape me)
Replanted the Bell peppers
Replaced the sweet peppers with Dragon peppers (I know super hot)
Replanted cayenne
Replanted the eggplant
Scattered broccoli about.

But... I also added fertilizer. Sadly it was viagro non-organic. 10-15-10. I know, but I couldn't find organic fertilizer at the Despot and was pressed for time.

Suddenly...BAM!!! I mean the next bloody day the pumpkins doubled in size and the sunflowers were taller than the Littlest Giant. Everything that was 'weak' is now vibrantly green. The corn is higher than my knee and the beans (the two that made it), are now racing to get taller than the corn. I may have to cull them so that they don't fight the corn for water. Interestingly, I am seeing carrots pop up where I did not plant them. I am thinking that they got shifted around in the soil when I added the fertilizer (I raked the bed). Now I am thinking that I might suddenly have crops all over the place. Possibly the seeds that did not germinate at the original planting may come up now. If they do, its gonna be nuts!

I hope it was just the lack of fertilizer that made for such a pathetic start, because I would hate to think that the heritage variety (the most genetically diverse by definition) was to blame. Last year when I said that I had to fertilize at planting I thought that was manure. It wasn't. It would have to have been either my worm compost, or fertilizer.

I am hoping to get organic fertilizer for the next feeding which I guess is July 1 or sooner depending on who you talk to. Also I need to see about replacing the apple tree with 2 new ones, but I need to talk to the guy at the nursery. Also, the azaleas will be replaced with blueberry and raspberry bushes.

Yeah I know at lot of work, but the apples and berries are perma-culture, so I don't have to do it every year.

Deer fence is up, but was too short to surround the main bed. So I need to get some more posts to finish the job. I also need to make sure it doesn't sag or overlap because I needed to save a bird and bee yesterday that refused to fly backwards to get out.

Drip irrigation is useless since the beds are just too big. I need to think of a better system, since the pump works great.

Pics as soon as I can take some, probably today.

Garden 3.0 Update

The Higher Mind of New England has released me, for now, so I will actually have some time to write again (I guess I'll need it since I completely lost a manuscript I was working on. *sigh*) I had some pictures of the garden set-up but they are really bad. "Hey great! Murky water and dirt whoopee!" So I will take better pics probably this weekend. Everything has sprouted, except that I don't remember what I planted in most places. That might present a problem no? :) We had another frost, but it wasn't bad. Of course the spinach is already getting chewed by something as well.

Sadly, the apple tree in the front of the house was cut down. All that snow this year (37 inches total) really beat up the plants in the area. The tree split in half and then the other half was dying. That and 3 azaleas were cut down yesterday. So that one tree will be replaced with 2. Probably in the fall, so it gets planted dormant. Now I just need to decide which tress I want. (apple tress can fertilize each other, and can be different species. You won't get Granny Delicious or anything though.) I do need 2 since self-pollinating trees make crappy apples as the ones of the old tree illustrated.

I'll get some good pictures up soon. I'm just glad I don't have a paper to do, for at least 4 months. :)

Garden V3.0

The new one is expanded, planted, and waiting to sprout! Details as soon as I get a few minutes.

UPDATE: So far after several mild frosts, I have life in my garden. 2 Carrots made it from last year (I plucked one, it was very fibrous). Sunflowers and Spinach are sprouting. Nothing else has come up yet. I'm waiting for a little bit before putting up the deer fencing. One because I don't think there is much to attract them and 2 because I just have not had the time with taking care of The Littlest Giant (and yes, she is gigantic) and the Higher Mind of New England hasn't given me a break. 12 days, and then I will have some much deserved freedom.