Things are swingin' at Westmore! As you may have seen on our Facebook page, we've been harvesting a pea here and a pea there, along with the occasional strawberry. The peas have been of good size and quite delicious - one challenge they have presented, however, is differentiating between the shelling peas and the sugar snap peas. We had marked each variety, but when the cats got under the netting (repeatedly), they not only disturbed the pea seeds and - I suspect - greatly reduced the number that germinated, but they also took away the markers. Therefore, I have no idea which plant is a member of which variety, and I have to play a "wait and see" game with the pods. The ones that don't get fat quickly are the ones that I assume belong to the sugar snap variety, and the ones that do puff out are probably the shelling peas. So far, we've just stood in the garden and sampled them. Not that I'm complaining about that!
The strawberries have been sort of tricky - we've discovered that they're difficult to see even when they're nice and ripe, unless you're bending down next to the plants and specifically looking for them. I was a little slow on the uptake for the ones that have ripened so far, and we've either missed them entirely or gotten to them when they're past their prime. The good news is that the one or two perfect ones that we managed to sample have been absolutely delicious - sweet and bursting with strawberryness! Their amazing flavor is also impelling us to keep a closer watch on the strawberry patch for ripening berries - right now, we have about ten on their way.
The beans I planted the day after the hail storm are coming up nicely. The Empress and Golden Wax bush beans are coming up the most reliably - the Kentucky Wonder pole beans have had kind of spotty germination, for some reason. Hopefully, they'll all come up soon.
The first round of beets and carrots are getting big! They are really quite leafy, and I believe we'll be harvesting some soon. The second round are coming up and sending out some true leaves. I'll be planting a third round soon!
I replanted some cucurbits a few days ago, this time using two seeds per desired plant. I'm tired of them refusing to germinate! I replanted one cucumber, two yellow squash, three butternut squash, three cantaloupe, and one Tigger melon, and they should come up within another three or four days. If not, I give up! I also still need to call Nick at CSU to see if he has any leftover pumpkin starts that I could buy - Frank says I waited too long to plant our Howdens; they are too long-season to yield much before the season is over if I plant them this late.
About a week ago, I picked up the next three tires for the potatoes, again from Alpine Tire Center, painted them using free recycled paint from the Larimer County Landfill's Home Hazardous Wastes Department, and stuck them on top of the first layer of tires. I also drove in the rebar stakes I'd gotten - two per tire stack, to hold the upper tires in place against wind, shifting soil, etc. I only put on a base coat of light yellow; Ben and I will be adding some colorful designs pretty soon, to make them a little bit less of an eyesore. After I stacked the second tires on, I filled in their centers with soil from around the first tires, covering most of the potatoes' leaves. Then I stuffed some dead leaves around the inside of the tires (where the tubes would go), as per Louis' suggestion. Actually, Louis had suggested straw, but straw is a lot harder to find than dead leaves, and I think the same principles will apply to the leaves. They will probably break down a lot faster than straw would, but I think they'll be fine for this growing season. The potato plants only took a couple of days to pop right back up through the soil again, and now they're going strong once more.
We have a very healthy population of flea beetles at WOG. I first noticed them on the tomatoes, and now they are also on the potatoes and a few peppers. The eggplants alone of the solanaceae have been left unscathed. Flea beetles aren't a big deal at all in small numbers, because all they do is chew little holes in the leaves. Of course, this is not ideal, because it makes the plant take energy away from growth and fruit production and put it toward repairs, as well as reducing the number of photosynthetic cells, which is where the energy comes from in the first place. I have been smushing the beetles I've been able to catch (not many), but I'll have to purchase some Pyrethrum to get rid of them if their population explodes. However, Pyrethrum is a broad-target insecticide, so it would also kill any populations of beneficial insects we've built up, and that's the last thing we want to do. Here's hoping the population stays small, and that the beneficials we have will help to control it.
We also have some aphids. So far, I've only noticed them on the kale - Ben and I were sampling a kale leaf the other day, and I turned it over and discovered those darn little green bugs. Not a whole heck of a lot, but they were on the other leaves as well. I smushed them all, and so far they haven't made a comeback. There aren't any on the cabbage or the other kale plant, as far as I can tell, or anywhere else. Yet. Come on, ladybird beetles!
I finished the entire roll of netting yesterday. The roll was enough to cover the beets, carrots, cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, yellow and butternut squash, eggplants, and peppers. Ben was a great help stretching the ungainly netting over tricky hoops - it was a lot easier to do with two people! The only things left uncovered that I'd like to cover are the melons. Gotta get more netting!
That's all the updates we have for today! Thanks for reading.
WOG out.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Tale of the Hail - and Other Stories
Hello, friendly readers! I apologize for my absence of late. It's been pretty hectic around here - I got a job, and they've kept me working almost every day, so it's all I can do to keep up with the garden, let alone write about it! But I have some time on my hands at the moment, so you're in luck.
My last post covered the trellising of the peas, which involved their (and the onions') de-nettification. Not long before that, I had planted all of the cucurbits, with the exception of the pumpkins. Since cucurbits spread so much when they grow, I gave them plenty of room to frolic and vine as they would. This means that they covered an awful lot of ground in the garden - too much, in fact, to cover with netting. We had enough netting to do so, but we lacked the tubing to make enough hoops. So I just left them all uncovered, with the exception of the cucumbers - they were close enough to the rest of the netting that it was no big deal to extend it over them.
Exactly one week after planting the cucurbit seeds, they began to sprout! I was ecstatic, as the zucchini and squashes sent up huge, healthy leaves, and the cucumbers poked their little heads up. The melons came up more slowly, but were still looking swell. The peas were starting to bloom, and the strawberries were flowering, too. Based on what happened soon after, though, I guess Mother Nature was just having a good laugh.
We got hail. Not a few tiny balls of ice, like we sometimes get in the winter when it sleets. We got real hail. At the apartment, each ball was about the diameter of a quarter. I'm not sure how large it was at the garden, but Anne Marie said it was really bad. This I saw quite clearly when I went over to the garden the following day.
The first thing I checked was the pea patch. Since they're climbers, their stems are a little more fragile, and each hail ball can do a lot of damage as it plummets through the peas' foliage. Most of the peas had been hit pretty hard - broken stems, tattered leaves - and many had been torn from the trellises and plastered to the soggy ground. The blossoms were still there, barely opened, and drooping forlornly. I wondered if they would open at all, now. The good news was that the peas were still early in the flowering stage; they had not been carrying any pods. If they had, it would have been disastrous. It is hard enough to recover from losing flowers and having to take energy from the blossoms and put it into repairing stems and regrowing leaves - it is much worse to redirect energy from seeds to regrowth. I think most of the peas will still recover and bear fruit.
From the peas, I went to the onions. All of the plants had some damage, in the form of broken leaves, and some only had a few undamaged leaves. A few were bolting, though that was probably a result of the recent hot weather.
Next, I checked the cucurbit seedlings. The cucumbers were fine, having been under the netting. The zucchini looked mostly okay. The four yellow squash seedlings that had emerged were pretty much decimated - it was hard for me to tell where a couple of them were, because they were so ripped up and mud-splattered. The butternut squash were in a similar state. The melons were okay, except for the one cantaloupe that had come up - both of its poor little cotyledon leaves had been ripped off, leaving only the stub of a stem.
The kale was pretty badly damaged. Each plant had only a few leaves before the hail, and some of them had been completely torn off. The cabbage fared somewhat better than the kale, perhaps because it was larger and had sturdier stems. The two broccoli plants didn't look good; one was very badly damaged (and would soon die).
The strawberries did all right. There was damage, yes, and some plants would soon be reduced to only a couple of leaves each. But for the most part, the strawberries looked only slightly the worse for wear.
The heroes of the night were the potatoes. I'm not sure whether the house had somehow protected them, or if their foliage was dense enough that the damage was less stark, but they actually didn't look all that different from the previous day. They would rebound within a couple of days, and would soon be overflowing their trainer tires.
Now, on to the other updates. The day after the hail, I planted the remaining solanaceae, in addition to a few varieties of fabaceae, and two pumpkin seeds. First, I put in the beans. I planned to use a three-legged trellis (similar to the ones we're using for the peas) for the one pole variety we have, so I planted those seeds in three groups of six, each group in a circle around a stick to mark where a leg of the trellis would go. I planted ten seeds of each of the two bush varieties.
Next to the beans, I planted the tomatoes. Although I had plenty of seedlings, I only planted five cherry plants, four slicing plants, and five paste plants. The remainder of the seedlings will go to ReSource - apparently their garden didn't do so well with the hail. Unfortunately, the leftover seedlings aren't doing very well in the coldframe (which is where I put them after transplanting their brethren). I think it must be too hot in there. I shall take them to ReSource soon.
In the middle bed, next to the onions, I planted the eggplant. I put in nine Black Beauty and two Swallow - the Swallow were all that remained of the many eggplant babies Ben and I got from Drew. I have several Black Beauties left over, as well, which are also going to go to ReSource ASAP.
Next, adjacent to the eggplant, I planted the peppers. First, I put in six Gourmet. Next were six Sweet Bullnose, then six Early Jalapeño. Finally, I put in one Sweet Chocolate, one Santa Fe, and one Thai Hot, all three from Drew. I have some leftovers from the first three varieties, which, again, are going to ReSource.
Finally, I put in about twenty broccoli plants, all Di Cicco. There aren't any healthy-looking leftovers of these, so I don't think ReSource will be getting any, unfortunately.
After all that, I sawed off some more tubing for netting hoops, stuck some rebar along the bed where I'd planted the beans and tomatoes, bent the tubing from one rebar to the next, and stretched the netting over it. Then, I staked it down. If it hails again, the tomatoes, beans, and zucchini will be protected, but the peppers, eggplants, and onions won't be - yet.
I went to ReSource a couple of days ago, and got some more tubing for hoops. One of the next things on my To-Do List will be to make hoops for the section of the garden that has in it the onions, eggplants, peppers, and melons, and then to stretch the net over them. Unfortunately, I think the broccoli, potatoes, strawberries, kale, and cabbage will have to go unprotected the whole season - so hopefully, we won't get any more big hails.
Well, that's all for now. As always, thanks for reading!
WOG out.
My last post covered the trellising of the peas, which involved their (and the onions') de-nettification. Not long before that, I had planted all of the cucurbits, with the exception of the pumpkins. Since cucurbits spread so much when they grow, I gave them plenty of room to frolic and vine as they would. This means that they covered an awful lot of ground in the garden - too much, in fact, to cover with netting. We had enough netting to do so, but we lacked the tubing to make enough hoops. So I just left them all uncovered, with the exception of the cucumbers - they were close enough to the rest of the netting that it was no big deal to extend it over them.
Exactly one week after planting the cucurbit seeds, they began to sprout! I was ecstatic, as the zucchini and squashes sent up huge, healthy leaves, and the cucumbers poked their little heads up. The melons came up more slowly, but were still looking swell. The peas were starting to bloom, and the strawberries were flowering, too. Based on what happened soon after, though, I guess Mother Nature was just having a good laugh.
We got hail. Not a few tiny balls of ice, like we sometimes get in the winter when it sleets. We got real hail. At the apartment, each ball was about the diameter of a quarter. I'm not sure how large it was at the garden, but Anne Marie said it was really bad. This I saw quite clearly when I went over to the garden the following day.
The first thing I checked was the pea patch. Since they're climbers, their stems are a little more fragile, and each hail ball can do a lot of damage as it plummets through the peas' foliage. Most of the peas had been hit pretty hard - broken stems, tattered leaves - and many had been torn from the trellises and plastered to the soggy ground. The blossoms were still there, barely opened, and drooping forlornly. I wondered if they would open at all, now. The good news was that the peas were still early in the flowering stage; they had not been carrying any pods. If they had, it would have been disastrous. It is hard enough to recover from losing flowers and having to take energy from the blossoms and put it into repairing stems and regrowing leaves - it is much worse to redirect energy from seeds to regrowth. I think most of the peas will still recover and bear fruit.
From the peas, I went to the onions. All of the plants had some damage, in the form of broken leaves, and some only had a few undamaged leaves. A few were bolting, though that was probably a result of the recent hot weather.
Next, I checked the cucurbit seedlings. The cucumbers were fine, having been under the netting. The zucchini looked mostly okay. The four yellow squash seedlings that had emerged were pretty much decimated - it was hard for me to tell where a couple of them were, because they were so ripped up and mud-splattered. The butternut squash were in a similar state. The melons were okay, except for the one cantaloupe that had come up - both of its poor little cotyledon leaves had been ripped off, leaving only the stub of a stem.
The kale was pretty badly damaged. Each plant had only a few leaves before the hail, and some of them had been completely torn off. The cabbage fared somewhat better than the kale, perhaps because it was larger and had sturdier stems. The two broccoli plants didn't look good; one was very badly damaged (and would soon die).
The strawberries did all right. There was damage, yes, and some plants would soon be reduced to only a couple of leaves each. But for the most part, the strawberries looked only slightly the worse for wear.
The heroes of the night were the potatoes. I'm not sure whether the house had somehow protected them, or if their foliage was dense enough that the damage was less stark, but they actually didn't look all that different from the previous day. They would rebound within a couple of days, and would soon be overflowing their trainer tires.
Now, on to the other updates. The day after the hail, I planted the remaining solanaceae, in addition to a few varieties of fabaceae, and two pumpkin seeds. First, I put in the beans. I planned to use a three-legged trellis (similar to the ones we're using for the peas) for the one pole variety we have, so I planted those seeds in three groups of six, each group in a circle around a stick to mark where a leg of the trellis would go. I planted ten seeds of each of the two bush varieties.
Next to the beans, I planted the tomatoes. Although I had plenty of seedlings, I only planted five cherry plants, four slicing plants, and five paste plants. The remainder of the seedlings will go to ReSource - apparently their garden didn't do so well with the hail. Unfortunately, the leftover seedlings aren't doing very well in the coldframe (which is where I put them after transplanting their brethren). I think it must be too hot in there. I shall take them to ReSource soon.
In the middle bed, next to the onions, I planted the eggplant. I put in nine Black Beauty and two Swallow - the Swallow were all that remained of the many eggplant babies Ben and I got from Drew. I have several Black Beauties left over, as well, which are also going to go to ReSource ASAP.
Next, adjacent to the eggplant, I planted the peppers. First, I put in six Gourmet. Next were six Sweet Bullnose, then six Early Jalapeño. Finally, I put in one Sweet Chocolate, one Santa Fe, and one Thai Hot, all three from Drew. I have some leftovers from the first three varieties, which, again, are going to ReSource.
Finally, I put in about twenty broccoli plants, all Di Cicco. There aren't any healthy-looking leftovers of these, so I don't think ReSource will be getting any, unfortunately.
After all that, I sawed off some more tubing for netting hoops, stuck some rebar along the bed where I'd planted the beans and tomatoes, bent the tubing from one rebar to the next, and stretched the netting over it. Then, I staked it down. If it hails again, the tomatoes, beans, and zucchini will be protected, but the peppers, eggplants, and onions won't be - yet.
I went to ReSource a couple of days ago, and got some more tubing for hoops. One of the next things on my To-Do List will be to make hoops for the section of the garden that has in it the onions, eggplants, peppers, and melons, and then to stretch the net over them. Unfortunately, I think the broccoli, potatoes, strawberries, kale, and cabbage will have to go unprotected the whole season - so hopefully, we won't get any more big hails.
Well, that's all for now. As always, thanks for reading!
WOG out.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
WOG and the Giant Pea Stalk
Well, they're not giant. not yet, anyway. But they could be! Because, ladies and gentlemen, yesterday was a great day for WOG. Yesterday, I erected two trellises (trelli?) for the peas to climb.
This was a greater ordeal than it may seem at first. The peas, you see, were under the netting system that is currently shielding the onions, carrots, beets, and cucumbers from the menaces we know as cats. Hail, too, but we haven't really had any yet. What I had to do was to cut the netting at the borders between the peas, the onions, and the beets. This wasn't particularly difficult, except that it had to be done without losing tension in the net - that made it a little more challenging. However, I accomplished that task eventually, and the peas were out in the open air! Then, I had to actually make the trellis.
You may recall that Anne Marie and I had previously acquired some wooden floor trim from ReSource, for the purpose of constructing trellises for various crops. I used three long pieces to make two trellises. This required measuring their approximate lengths by means of comparison with other objects (there was a tape measure available, but I was just too lazy to go and get it. Plus, that wouldn't have been as fun). Then, I sawed each piece in half using a hand saw. Not too difficult. I gathered the six halves into two groups of three - the three tallest in one group, the three shortest in the other. The taller group was for the more spread-out pea plants. I chose the tall group for that purpose so that the trellis stakes would be sure to have enough space to reach all the peas and still meet in the middle. I stuck the stakes into the garden bed and tied them securely together at the top, using pieces of Anne Marie's green garden twine (essentially, one long roll of twistie-tie). I repeated the process with the shorter group, and voilá! Two simple pea trellises. The peas should be happy - they'd been trying to attach themselves to the netting and climb up that, but I wouldn't let them. Now, they can climb all their little pea hearts desire.
You may be wondering how I'll protect the peas from our little friend, Joseph, who so dearly loves to fall on the onions. Well, the bittersweet truth is that Joseph, his brother and sisters, and his mom are all going back to Quebec for the summer - they're leaving within the next couple of weeks. This is bad news because we'll all miss them, but good news for the garden. By the time they get back, most of our crops will be harvested and therefore beyond important harm.
For this reason, I think I will uncover the onions. The netting is simply squashing their leaves, which is definitely not what we want. Also, sadly, some of the red onions have started to bolt. This is not good, because it takes energy away from the bulb, which means the bulb shrinks instead of growing in size. Usually, onions bolt because there has been a sudden drop in temperature. That hasn't really occurred; although we have had several cooler days, they weren't cold enough to induce bolting. Plus, only the red onions are bolting, as far as I saw. So, I did some research, and according to this garden forum, red onions grown from sets are more likely to bolt. Aha! I looked into the subject a little more, and this site said that: in biennial crops, such as onions, "unsettled" spring weather conditions can cause bolting. Well, we've sure had those. The same site also said that red onions seem to be more prone to bolting than are white or brown onions. This also seems to be the case, so far. Finally, the site recommends direct seeding instead of the use of sets, and then covering the seeds with something to keep them insulated against extreme temperatures. If using sets, they should be heat-treated sets; apparently, treating with high temperatures helps suppress the formation of a flower stalk. My Google search also brought up a Texas A&M University resource, which supports the other sites' claims that temperature fluctuations are a primary cause of bolting. It also says - unfortunately - that once onions have bolted, the process cannot be reversed. The best thing to do is eat them. Looks like we'll be having some red onions a bit early! Hopefully they won't have the same mold as the other ones did.
That's all for now! Thanks for reading.
WOG out.
This was a greater ordeal than it may seem at first. The peas, you see, were under the netting system that is currently shielding the onions, carrots, beets, and cucumbers from the menaces we know as cats. Hail, too, but we haven't really had any yet. What I had to do was to cut the netting at the borders between the peas, the onions, and the beets. This wasn't particularly difficult, except that it had to be done without losing tension in the net - that made it a little more challenging. However, I accomplished that task eventually, and the peas were out in the open air! Then, I had to actually make the trellis.
You may recall that Anne Marie and I had previously acquired some wooden floor trim from ReSource, for the purpose of constructing trellises for various crops. I used three long pieces to make two trellises. This required measuring their approximate lengths by means of comparison with other objects (there was a tape measure available, but I was just too lazy to go and get it. Plus, that wouldn't have been as fun). Then, I sawed each piece in half using a hand saw. Not too difficult. I gathered the six halves into two groups of three - the three tallest in one group, the three shortest in the other. The taller group was for the more spread-out pea plants. I chose the tall group for that purpose so that the trellis stakes would be sure to have enough space to reach all the peas and still meet in the middle. I stuck the stakes into the garden bed and tied them securely together at the top, using pieces of Anne Marie's green garden twine (essentially, one long roll of twistie-tie). I repeated the process with the shorter group, and voilá! Two simple pea trellises. The peas should be happy - they'd been trying to attach themselves to the netting and climb up that, but I wouldn't let them. Now, they can climb all their little pea hearts desire.
You may be wondering how I'll protect the peas from our little friend, Joseph, who so dearly loves to fall on the onions. Well, the bittersweet truth is that Joseph, his brother and sisters, and his mom are all going back to Quebec for the summer - they're leaving within the next couple of weeks. This is bad news because we'll all miss them, but good news for the garden. By the time they get back, most of our crops will be harvested and therefore beyond important harm.
For this reason, I think I will uncover the onions. The netting is simply squashing their leaves, which is definitely not what we want. Also, sadly, some of the red onions have started to bolt. This is not good, because it takes energy away from the bulb, which means the bulb shrinks instead of growing in size. Usually, onions bolt because there has been a sudden drop in temperature. That hasn't really occurred; although we have had several cooler days, they weren't cold enough to induce bolting. Plus, only the red onions are bolting, as far as I saw. So, I did some research, and according to this garden forum, red onions grown from sets are more likely to bolt. Aha! I looked into the subject a little more, and this site said that: in biennial crops, such as onions, "unsettled" spring weather conditions can cause bolting. Well, we've sure had those. The same site also said that red onions seem to be more prone to bolting than are white or brown onions. This also seems to be the case, so far. Finally, the site recommends direct seeding instead of the use of sets, and then covering the seeds with something to keep them insulated against extreme temperatures. If using sets, they should be heat-treated sets; apparently, treating with high temperatures helps suppress the formation of a flower stalk. My Google search also brought up a Texas A&M University resource, which supports the other sites' claims that temperature fluctuations are a primary cause of bolting. It also says - unfortunately - that once onions have bolted, the process cannot be reversed. The best thing to do is eat them. Looks like we'll be having some red onions a bit early! Hopefully they won't have the same mold as the other ones did.
That's all for now! Thanks for reading.
WOG out.
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