Closing out the year. I'm going to start another blog for 2012 so if you happen to be following here, follow here.

Thanks for watching!

Season winding down

We're just about there. We've had a couple of hard frosts. Out in the main garden I did find one decent tomato to bring in as I pulled up the cages. Time for some fall cleanup.

I am still picking a few things. There is one basil plant in the side garden that has survived the frosts so far and I am pulling some leaves to add to salads where they make a really tasty addition. There are also chives, parsley and walking onions. The whiskey barrel herb garden still has Oregano and Sage. I should pot them up and put them some place where they will over-winter. (Note to self... Why no Rosemary? I'll need to plant from seed again next year I guess.)

2011 Garden Report Card.

It's time to reflect on the garden and note what did well and what did not. Overall this was not the best garden I've grown. things that did well in previous years didn't do as well this year. Some experiments were pretty much total flops and others limited success.

Weather was probably the limiting factor. We had a lot of hot days compared to a typical summer. Early July in particular was hot and dry and then late July finished with a lot of rain. I don't think that uneven moisture conditions were good for a lot of plants.

I covered some plants for the first time last night to protect from possible frost. When I looked out this morning I think there was frost on the grass.

I'll start with the good:

• Tomatoes - These eventually started producing around mid-July. The two proprietary varieties I saved seed for were pretty much total flops. Either they were hybrids or just didn't like local conditions. And speaking of local conditions, it's not worth trying to grow tomatoes along the side of the house. They just don't do well there. I'm not sure I like the Mortgage Lifter variety. They're large and pink and seemed to have a pretty mild flavor. Texture tended to be mushy. Early Girl was a reliable producer and Sweet 100 provided a nice change up. I'll pick another heirloom variety to try next year. On the plus side, my concrete reinforcing wire tomato cages performed admirably. The plants are [pretty ragged looking but still producing.
• Zucchini and yellow squash - One plant of each reliably produced fruit through the end of summer once they got going. At this point they look a little ratty. I think that's a result of powdery mildew and perhaps insect depredation. I found and smashed a lot of eggs from those little squash bugs on the yellow squash. But the plants haven't given up and are setting fruit again. We have some highs in the 70s coming so perhaps they'll yet make size before the season is over. Things to do next year: consider giving patty pan a try as well. Maybe make a later planting to see if I that extends the season later into the fall.
• Butternut squash. These wandered about the garden and when they tried to escape, I gently directed them back. I think I've got 4 decent fruit but I'll know for sure when I pick them. I planted several in a 'hill' and I'll definitely do these again. Maybe I should give another fall squash variety a try in addition.
• Basil - Some self seeded in the side garden and I planted more in a half whiskey barrel. Both did reasonably well and we're getting some nice added flavor in our salads and other dishes. The only thing to do different is to find a large leaf variety to wrap around shrimp (ala Steve Raichlen's shrimp on the barby.)
• Lettuce - Another success. The first harvest was actually some oak leaf that had self seeded from the previous year. Of course I let it go to seed again. :) I should make successive plantings to stretch out the season.
• Spinach - We got plenty for some early season salads. This is another thing I should plant later for succession.
• Rhubarb - We get all we need form our little patch and since I lifted and replanted some this spring, we'll get even more in years to come.
• Various other herbs - I've got a little oregano and sage growing in a whiskey barrel planter. I should either transplant some or pot and bring inside to overwinter. Maybe putting them in the side garden would help them overwinter. My clump of chives did well on the side and I have more coming up in the back garden where I planted seed. (If I can find them!)

Mixed results

• Wax beans - These never really produced much. Many of the plants seemed to get off to a poor start and then a couple that were going like gang busters got stepped on by a neighbor's dog. :( We only ever got a couple hands full - not like the steady production the previous year. I'll try these again. Maybe I should look for a variety of bush bean that will be more reliable in hot dry weather.
• Various peppers - There was never much fruit set and when they did, the fruits were small. The yellow banana peppers seemed to do the best. Toward the end of the season, one Jalapeño plant in the back garden set a bunch of fruit. maybe I'll get one decent picking off that if we get a few more warm days. I'll give these peppers another shot next summer as I think funky weather put them off this summer.
• Sugar Snap Peas - Got a couple handsful and that was about it. I'll probably give them another shot and hope for better moisture conditions as they mature.
• Carrots - I picked some out of the whiskey barrel planter and a couple had decent size. I have yet to pick any from the main garden but it looks lke some are making some size.

And the ugly.

• Lutz Beets - Protected by onion and garlic they remained unmolested. In almost all other respects they were a bust. Didn't hit golf ball size by October. Again I think early season lack of moisture was the culprit. If I try them again, it will only be a couple plants.
• Cucumbers - Got off to a promising start but the fruit were ugly and deformed before the vines wilted and died. One (either the wrong seed or surreptitious volunteer) turned out to be a cantaloupe. I picked it and it was not a particularly good cantaloupe. Again, weather probably contributed but I might look for a different variety next year.
• Radishes - Supposedly among the easiest of garden plants to grow, they just don;t like the conditions I provide. I've had them in the side and whiskey barrel gardens and I'm lucky to get one or two half decent roots. Maybe I should try them in the back garden next year.

Other thoughts.

• I need to get rid of that Yucca in the back garden. It's just a waste of space. In general I need to do a better job keeping weeds at bay.
• I wonder if I can provide a better border around the back garden. perhaps some landscape timbers? Otherwise it just tries to merge into the lawn.
• I want to try some fabric mulch. My sister on New York uses it on her commercial size garden and it seems to work well for her. Weeds definitely got away from me this year. 
• Side Garden - I'm going to just stick with herbs there and maybe some early season stuff like lettuce or spinach. Yucca and Prickly Pear do better there than anything else I've planted.
• Maybe the back garden should be a little bit bigger next year. :D And perhaps I could make the ends rounded to facilitate mowing around it with a tractor.
• Zucchini and yellow squash are really good cut into wedges, sprinkled with a little EVOO, salt and fresh pepper and then grilled on the Weber. So is broccoli. Maybe I should pick a cole out and give it a try. Perhaps an eggplant.

I'll finish up with a picture of this striking girl who's had a spot in the garden next to the garage for a while now. She's got two egg cases about the size of a nickel in diameter and judging by the size of her abdomen, she plans to lay another before her season is over.

Early July update.

It's time for another update. Actually, it's way past time. The thing about a garden is that there are mostly small changes every day so there are not Big Changes (tm) to log. But there are a lot of small changes.

Our garden is overall doing pretty well. We've harvested a few things now including Lettuce, Spinach, Sugar Snap Peas and today, our first Zucchini. Parsley, self sown Basil and Cilantro are ready to pick. In a day or three the first yellow squash will be ready to pick. I spent some time training cucumbers on a trellis made of twine strung between two poles. There are a lot of small cukes on the vines. I should get some pix of those with the blossoms still attached. There are wax beans that will soon be ready to pick. Other than that, the beans don't really  look so good. Some of the plants are wilting and two big healthy ones got knocked down by something passing through the garden. Beets remain unscathed by critters, but some of those are wilting as well. It's been a while since we got much rain so I've been spot watering by placing a dribbling hose close to plants that look particularly stressed.

I've made a bunch of tomato cages out of concrete reinforcing wire. They look a lot sturdier than the ones I saw at the store. And they have ten spikes that stick into the ground instead of only three. Most of the tomatoes look good and a few of them are already setting fruit. None look anywhere close to ripening.

How to identify Poison Ivy

This is a peripheral subject to gardening, but the consequences of overlooking poison ivy can be a burning, itching, oozing rash that lasts for weeks. This has been an annual problem for SWMBO so following a run at Herrick Lake Forest Preserve, I tried to capture some pictures of poison ivy so I could try to point out the characteristics that help identify it and hopefully enough pictures to familiarize the reader so recognition becomes instant and automatic.

The first guideline is Leaves three, let it be! That's a good place to start, but there are lots of plants with three leaves. My goal here is to present some pictures of poison ivy and highlight what I think are some key features that I use to identify and differentiate poison ivy from similar plants. Hopefully some familiarity with this plant will make it easy to instantly spot it in the wild or in the garden.

Larger size copies of the images can be viewed at my Picasa web album.


This first image shows the typical "three leaves" and highlights the notches in the leaf margins.

Young leaves and more notches. The youngest leaves have not developed any notches yet.

This picture taken in June shows the berries just starting to develop as well as the domed shape sometimes seen on larger leaves. The individual leaves can sometimes grow to be as big as my hand under favorable conditions.

In this picture you can see the beginnings of the adventitious roots that help the vines to cling to the bark. These can cover older vines giving them a downright hairy appearance.

Not Poison Ivy

This is Box Elder which can look a lot like poison ivy. Older leaves will be clustered as five or seven whereas Poison Ivy is virtually always three. It also has shoots and branches vs. vines.

Raspberries may have three leaves but is easily differentiated from Poison Ivy by the sawtooth leaf margins, thorny canes and raspberries.

Honeysuckle won't likely be confused with Poison Ivy, but it looked pretty in full bloom so I took pictures of it as well.

Got a few more things planted

Today is probably the biggest day in terms of getting things in the ground. Having tilled the back garden, the soil was ready for seed. the nights are still cold, but predictions are about 10° above freezing so we should be relatively safe from frost. By late morning the sun had made the soil surface pretty warm. The outlook for the next few days is gradual further warming with cloudy conditions. Seems like good conditions to keep the ground moist enough to sprout seeds. Here's what I planted:

• Garlic bulbs
• Chives
• Walking Onions transplants

 The previous three were planted on either side of a row of beets and will hopefully discourage rabbits. Two plantings last spring were eaten as they sprouted.

• Early Prolific Straightneck Squash (Yellow)
• Burpee Fordhook Zucchini
• Harmony Hybrid Spinach
• Sweet Burpless Hybrid Cucumber
• Waltham Butternut Squash
• Gold Rush Wax Beans
• Lutz Green Leaf Beet
• Short 'n Sweet Carrot
• Sugar Snap Peas

I also put most of my pepper and tomato starts in the ground. that includes:

• Sweet 100 (cherry tomato)
• Pepper Mix (Sweet red and yellow banana shape)
• Jalapeño
• Couple store bought tomatoes for which I saved seed
• Mortgage Lifter Tomato
• Early Girl hybrid

Most of these went in the back garden but I put some extras in the side garden as well. I even filled the space between the Yucca and A/C unit.

Now I just need to keep these things watered until they sprout. In a few days or week I'll need to make some second plantings of stuff like radishes and lettuce.

Time to catch up with this Garden Log!

Starting with most recent... I planted some Cilantro and Italian Parsley in the side garden. It rained last night and is drizzling this morning but the soil is only wet on the top layer.

Yesterday I tilled the main garden in back, making it about twice as big. :D But I didn't till in any compost yet. I guess I can dig some in as I plant. I also need to place some flagstones in it in order to reach different parts of the garden w/out stepping in mud.

Rhubarb and Walking Onions

We picked our first harvest! Yesterday I brought in a handful of Rhubarb stalks. The crowns that I transplanted aren't big enough to pick so I'm glad I left some undisturbed. Next year... We also have some self sown oak leaf lettuce on the side that I can pick any day now.

This Oak Leaf Lettuce is out competing the weeds!

About a week ago I planted a second whiskey barrel planter that sits where it gets full sun. I put mostly herbs in it but also included some radishes, peas and carrots for some small crops. I'm hoping that the peas can be trained over the edge so they don't take up space in the barrel proper. A complete list of what's in that planter is:

• Sugar Snap Peas
• Summer Savory
• Broadleaf Sage
• Rosemary
• Greek Oregano
• White Icicle Radish
• Chives? (Maybe - cannot recall.)
• Short 'n Sweet Carrot
• Sweet Italian Large Leaf Basil

Radishes sprouted first followed closely by peas. Some other herbs have also come up. Basil, I think and something else. I think carrots are up too.  We had some record hot days that resulted in fast sprouting and now it's going to be cold and rainy today and gradually warming through the week.

White Icicle Radishes

Peas 'n Carrots

Spinach and lettuce in the other whiskey barrel are doing well. they look bigger every day and I'll soon be putting thinnings in our salad.

Peppers and tomatoes started in peat pots have all sprouted. Some of the peppers took a really long time.