Nuts to Crows

It's been a while since we updated this blog about our gardening. Since then many of our seeds have come up. Overall, our garden is off to a great start, finally!! However, the crows have cleared out a section of sunflowers, corn and beans that were adjacent to each other. That was our second planting of corn, so it looks like we won't have very much corn this year although we are hoping for a third section of corn to come up. It is too early to tell if they have eaten that too!

On the positive side, the tomatoes are starting to bloom so that is very promising. Also, one type of potato is flowering- our blue ones. We noticed some of the areas that were fertilized with the aged chicken manure are way ahead in their growth compared to the ones that have not been fertilized yet. (You can see in the photos below that the top cucumber is much smaller than the bottom one). Many of the rows of beans have come up very well and our squash plants are coming along nicely.


The weeds have really taken over because it rained so long this year that we weren't able to get in there to weed as much as usual. And, now that the weather is fairly hot the roots are hard to dig up. On the other hand, we got out there for a while in the morning and this afternoon to weed and have made a lot of progress. We concentrated on clearing the rows of Brussels sprouts, brocoli and cabbage and we also got the blackberry and thistle plants out before they can go to seed.

Projects this week are to stake the tomatoes and spread the chicken manure to fertilize more of the garden. The chicken fertilizer is decomposing nicely so it won't burn the plants- it is already growing mushrooms in it!


The weather has been pretty hot this week- in the high 80's and 90's here. The boysenberries are looking pretty promising as far as having quite a few berries on them. Their leaves are a bit spotted due to all of the rain we had in May and June. Some of the raspberries got a similar blight although there are some berries on the vines as well. Adam enjoyed picking and eating some of the raspberries as you can see in the photo above!

Quick Suburban Garden Report:

This week has been very, very hot in the suburbs as well. As a result, our garden is doing very well. I have harvest a lot of rhubarb to make pies, so new stalks are growing quickly on the plants. Also, there is a second crop of strawberries coming on to our plants.


The sharecropper pumpkin is doing great! As you can see it has very big blossoms like the one in the photo above. There will be several pumpkins to choose from this Halloween! The sweet potatoes are getting a bit of new growth on them as well and are looking healthy!

Here's to summer!

Tomato Dash - Fight to the Finish!

We seem to have tapered off from the deluge of rain. However it still was quite cold this morning- 52 degrees Fahrenheit! We had to hand dig a larger bed to finish planting the rest of our many tomato seedlings. Why did we have to hand dig the bed? Well, Dale (Trista's Dad and Serena's husband) and Stuart (Trista's brother) were working hard on fixing the tractor to be able to till the garden up for planting. But, as we really needed to get some planting done on a dry day, we had to just go for it!

First, we dug the bed and then we used hoes to soften up the dirt as much as we could. We decided crowding the tomatoes a little more than we usually do would be are best strategy. We are short on time and so we knew we needed to plant them all as soon as possible. It was do or die time!

During the time we were planting the tomatoes it actually started to warm up and get sunnier. I (Trista) dug the holes while my Mom (Serena) put chicken manure in the holes, put the tomato plants in and put dirt around them to finish planting them.

In all we planted 46 more tomato plants for a total of 90 plants in all! We ought to have a few tomatoes this year! Today we planted four varieties of tomatoes. They are as follows:

--Jaun Flamme- This is a good tomato for drying and takes 70 to 80 days to mature.

--Federle- This is a good tomato for making tomato paste and matures in about 90 days. This might be a difficult one for us at this point, but we will see!

--Purple Calabash- This is an all purpose tomato which takes 70 to 80 days to mature.

--Italian Heirloom- This is a good all purpose tomato which is very good for canning or slicing. It takes 75 days to mature.

We planted our 90 tomato plants between June 4, 2010 and June 14th, 2010.


Trista's Quick Suburban Garden Report:

On Sunday, June 13, 2010 I planted around 10 sweet potato plants (one is pictured above) and around 10 or so seed peanuts in my raised bed garden. I cut slits or small holes in the black plastic I had placed on the beds around 2 or so months ago to warm up the soil. In these slits I planted the sweet potato plants. Then, I removed one of the black plastic garbage bags in another area of the planter in order to plant my seed peanuts. The soil felt very warm and I am hoping that these plants will do well. In other news the "sharecropper" pumpkin plant (pictured below) is doing very well indeed! Great news on the home front!


A Walk on the Wild Side:

After we planted tomatoes my Mom took me on a walk around the property. Normally the grass would be mowed at this time of year but it was "hip high" and we had to take big steps to get through it to the wooded area.


Along the way we saw a young fig tree that has 8 figs on it. (Pictured above) We're excited about having even a small harvest because this tree is about three years old and this will be the first time we're able to get figs off of it.


Later on, we came upon a native Pacific Crabapple tree. (Pictured above) We were able to see an apple on it. It is supposed to attract bees and butterflies and it bears edible fruit that can be used as any other apple can be.

Just as Adam and I were about to head home, the tractor had been fixed and Dale (Pictured below) had begun to finally till the garden! Hopefully in the next couple of days we can get the rest of our planting done!


Happy Gardening!

Rural Garden, Suburban Garden

Rural Garden Report:

Our dill isn't coming up, even though we planted it about three weeks ago. There are a lot of little plants there, but I think they are weeds. The cold and wet period between the time we planted it and now is a reminder that Pacific Northwest weather has its own challenges. Although we don't have freezing past the middle of April, the rain, rain, rain hampers seedling growth. It's warming up and drying out, so we will try again. It shows us that no matter what a seed packet says ("plant 1 week after last frost"), we have to pay attention to local conditions. We will buy another packet of dill seeds and try again.

I (Serena) have been hardening off the tomato and pepper seedlings that have fully developed true leaves. I put them out on the deck in an area that gets a couple of hours of sun a day, and then the rest of the day it is partial sun. I think I can more them to a sunnier spot now that they have had time outdoors with some direct sun. The soil in the garden is not yet warm enough for us to plant them, however, by my reckoning. I don't have a thermometer yet.

Since some of our seedlings didn't develop, I decided to plant a few more. There were two pepper types that didn't germinate well, so I thought with longer and warmer days, they might do better now. Well, we did get some more, but I have learned that Ancho peppers do have to have a lot of warmth. I ended up putting the little pots into a plastic bag in my sunny south kitchen window. They liked that, and most of them germinated. I did even better with the Tolli's Italian Red Pepper. Meanwhile, the seedlings that we planted a while back in the garden like the cabbage pictured above are doing very well!

I also started some flower seedlings: bloodflower, spider flower, columbines, and blanket flower, and snapdragons. They are all coming up, even the native columbine seeds I got from Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Since they are native to this area and came to Jefferson from Lewis and Clark, I am excited about this, as I hope to reintroduce them to our woodlands.

We want to move the young chickens outdoors this weekend, and also would like to fence the area next to the garden and orchard so that the older chickens can work on that spot. Those chickens spend a lot of time over by the garden where they used to dig worms, and are looking at it rather wistfully. I think they miss both the worms and the greens. It will be good to get them into a larger area that isn't so picked over.

We got the rest of our new trees fenced, so they are protected from deer now. The deer managed to get at one more tree before we finished the project, but fortunately the tree still has plenty of leaves.

Trista and Adam came today, and it is beautiful! The sky is blue, and the temperature is in the 70s. Trista brought along some organic potatoes she had bought at the supermarket, but since they are sprouting we have decided to plant them. We should have plenty of potatoes now!

Adam discovered rhubarb today! He brought the first stalk to his mother, and when she ate it, he decided he ought to get another for her. After picking that, he brought it to her, but not without tasting it first. He is pretty adventurous, and likes most everything, so we are not surprised.

Suburban Garden Report:


In my (Trista's) backyard the plants in our new raised beds made out of concrete cinder blocks are doing very well for the most part. Most of the plants I have planted in these are ones that I had elsewhere but they weren't getting enough sun where they were. In the bed where I have 2 rhubarb plants and some strawberry plants one of the rhubarb plants is really starting to thrive while the other is rather lackluster. It is probably still shocked from the move earlier this spring.


On the other side of the planter my everbearing strawberry plants are thriving! This is their third year and they have many strawberries forming on them as well as many more blooms. Before they were in large pots but I think having more soil and sunlight has done wonders for them.


In another area my six blueberry plants are slowly getting healthier. One of the plants is considerably larger than the rest and actually has a few berries starting to form on it. The other plants are just getting up to speed so they won't produce any berries this year.

The third planter just contains our one "sharecropper" pumpkin plant and some soil covered in black plastic awaiting the peanuts and sweet potatoes that I plant to plant there later on in the summer when the soil has warmed up considerably.

I have also tried to plant some flower seeds in outdoor pots. I have had varied success with this due to the cold and wet weather that was mentioned above, as well as the squirrels who dig up the ground for their hidden nuts or places to put them! After almost giving up I noticed last weekend that many of my nasturtiums have finally come up. Some pots have many seedlings while others have none or one! I will fill in with other seeds or small starts later on. I also planted my front yard planter with blanketflower and marigold seeds so hopefully those will come up soon with the warmer weather.

See you again next week!