This and That

I haven't been posting a lot recently. Not much was going on in the garden. This last week I did get a few things done though. My zucchinis have gotten a bad case of powdery mildew and quit producing. All of their female blossoms started to get very very small. So I cut them back severely. I'm not expecting to get much from now on more due to low light levels than the mildew. Probably just tiny zucchini. But something is better than nothing.

I harvested the last of the melons. There were a few small melons left on, but they rarely taste that good when harvested in late September, so I pulled the vines and planted with bok choy. It is too late to plant in the main part of the garden, but in the circle garden it gets less shade in the fall. The light levels though have gotten much less and they may or may not size up well. It is worth the chance. Usually I'd plant overwintered spinach. But I decided this year to forego that and try something new.

I didn't take a before photo, but the landscape of the garden has changed now. I picked the last of the corn and then took down all of the stalks. So now it is much shorter. And I have seas of squash growing all alone.

I braided the last of the onions, which you will see on Monday. And tore down the drying rack. I also cleaned up around the compost piles as they were getting kind of ratty. I need to get a new broom. My old one barely has any bristles on it. It makes my brick path really hard to clean.

This year I tried to keep the morning glories from climbing up the compost pile. Obviously I wasn't totally successful. They sure are pretty, but they are hard to clean off and get in the way of the drying rack. And they make it hard to access the piles themselves. So I ripped them down again. It is sad to see them go, but now I can get to the leaf pile again.

Giving the Squash Some Light

Yesterday I finally got in to clean up some of the corn stalks on one side of the bed. Once we take off the ear, we hardly need the corn stalk to stay up. So I take it down and give the squash more light. I've been complaining about the Upper Ground Sweet Potato Squash, but I was wrong.

The nasty invasive aggressive squash is the Thai Rai Kaw Tok. I messed it up before even though it is written down in my journal which plant went where. But since a squash finally set it made me look it up again as I knew I was wrong. I may never grow it again. As you can see it is heading out of its bed and going behind the upside down garbage can and beyond. That isn't all that unusual, but I have about four vines going there and I've been trying to keep them back. I've had to go into my neighbor's yard and cut it back. At least it has set a squash though so I can taste it. I do tend to like the oriental squashes. And a squash that I don't have to peel is always a bonus. Maybe it will set lots and make me contemplate growing it again.

The stalks were taken over to the compost pile.

And they got a bit chopped up to compost better. I know a lot of people would shred them before putting them in, but I don't have any power tools for the garden. Well except the electric lawn mower. Even our trimmer is a hand trimmer.

And having absolutely nothing to do with my corn, I give you a gratuitous peach photo. Yum. They are starting to take over my kitchen. Not that I'm complaining. Lots of peaches is a great thing.

Kale, Lettuce, and Weird Corn

Usually I plant Winterbor and Blue Curly Kale to overwinter. This year I was going to plant Red Russian to eat in the fall and curly kale to overwinter and eat in the spring. Well the new packet of curly kale seed wasn't any good. The few that came up were weak. So all I have is Red Russian.

In addition I'm growing a red onion I hadn't before and it was very slow to fall down. In the end I knocked them down when I saw a few had gone down. They should be out of the bed by now so I can plant the whole bed up in kale, but they aren't. It isn't a huge issue as the replacement kale seedlings are still a bit small. I wonder this year if I'll get enough kale to make this planting worth it. Hopefully it will and they will grow well and come October I'll be in kale.

Another issue was my bean plants. Some disease is in them and large spots are appearing on the beans themselves. So I decided to pull them up to make way for lettuce.

In addition I pulled the rest of the onions out of the lettuce bed. They got way too big for the spot. Most of the lettuce bolted in the last hot spell we had, even some of the smaller ones. So any bolting lettuce got pulled too.

But I had sown a nursery row of lettuce not long ago. I transplanted them to the now more empty bed.

I hope they grow fast enough to produce before winter. I'm guessing they won't because of the fall shade, but there is a chance.

I'm picking a lot of corn now. I did find one that was pretty strange. I tied the ouside stalks to a bamboo pole so the wind won't lodge them. One of the strings ended up being wrapped around the ear. I tied them before the ears formed and I had no clue where they would come out. Most of the time the ears grew away from the string so there was no issue. But this one grew under it. You can even see the indentation of the pole in the corn. Though it looks weird, it still tasted wonderful.

And the last news for the week is good. I started picking peaches. They aren't big, but they sure are tasty.

Melons and Dirty Boots

Yesterday I was dutifully turning the melon vines back into the bed and away from the path and I saw my first melon forming. Whoohoo! So I looked carefully and found a couple more that haves started. This year's melons were a bit late after slugs took down the first sowing. But it looks like I'll get melons after all which makes me happy. Now all I need is hot weather and not too much rain when they are ripening. Last year's melons were the best ever because of the weather. I can always hope for a repeat. But even if they turn out to be just decent melons I'll be pretty happy.

My boots have nothing to do with my melons. But I ended up tracking dirt all over my floor as I didn't notice how dirty they were. I was out gleaning at Kimball's Farm. I've never gleaned there before but I'm really happy I got to as Kimball's is one of the farms that comes to our farmers market and I buy a lot of apples from them in the fall. They are an IPM farm which I like. For instance they never spray their strawberries after they start blooming, so the pesticides won't end up on the fruit.

The farmer talked out the corn we were going to pick. His farm is just over the border in New Hampshire or at least the part we were on. The University of New Hampshire uses it as a test field for when pests and diseases come up from the south. So he knows exactly how many pests are around. They tell him when to spray and how much. Though he doesn't always follow the recommendations. Right now they are telling him to spray for corn earworms every five days. He knows that if he sprays only once a week instead, he will still have 95% of his crop free of worms. Which he thinks is good enough.

We got to glean in this field because it had been picked twice already. What was left wasn't economically viable to pay someone to pick it. But we gleaners are volunteers, so we were out sweating for our corn. Many of the ears that were left were small but still otherwise perfect. Occasionally we would get a patch that was big lovely ears. The biggest problem with picking was the 6' high ragweed that grew between the rows. We could have used a machete. It was a true jungle in the weeds. Some of the ragweed was taller than the corn and it certainly was thicker.

Two Sisters

As many of you know, I grow my corn and squash together. The main reason for doing it this way is that squash takes up a lot of space. My yard is small at only 9000 sqft with two townhouses and shared by two families. As you can see from my raised bed set up, I don't leave much room for the walkway as large paths take up space too. But it means that I have to control that squash.

In addition to Waltham butternut, this year I'm trialing Upper Ground Sweet Potato squash and Thai Rai Kaw Tok. There won't be a really fair comparison between the two as I plant the corn in succession and I plant the squash when I plant the corn. If I wait longer to plant the squash it won't have as much time to produce and our growing season isn't the longest. If I plant earlier than the corn, the corn won't survive as it gets smothered. So The UGSPS is bigger as it was planted a bit over two weeks earlier than the Thai squash.

UGSPS already halfway up the corn stalk

I have noticed that the UGSPS is aggressive. Waltham butternut will try to climb the corn, but only sometimes. Often it will clamber up a little and then stop. It is a fast grower, but it can't compete with UGSPS. The UGSPS will climb straight up and send out multiple branches that grow very fast. And all the squash will try to escape their beds. So every day I tuck the ends back into the bed and break off tendrils of the squash that have wrapped around the corn, and push the plants back to the ground. This method of growing a Two Sisters bed is time consuming, but so worth it if you have little space. We love our corn. It is such a treat in the summer. And squash is a winter storage staple.

And can you see what the two stalks of corn have in common? Each of them are producing three ears of corn. Not that I expect to actually get those. Last year my corn mostly produced two each, and the second ear was pretty sad. Maybe with three, two will be good. I can hope.

So why the difference this year? In addition to trialing different varieties of squash I'm trialing mycorrhizal fungi. In the spring for the peas and lettuce I saw no difference in the plants at all probably because the soil was too cold. But here it seems to be helping. Most of the beds all got the fungi, but one bed I only put it on one side of the bed. The northwest side. Usually the corn gets taller and produces better on the southeast side. This is the side on which I'm getting the three ears. However in that one bed where only some got the fungi, the corn is a little taller on the northwest side. So it seems to be helping. BTW I'm also doing a trial of it in my sweet potatoes. I haven't noticed a difference in growth there, but now the bed is so over grown I can't tell which plants are which.

For both beds the real story will be in the harvests. Putting out seemingly extra ears of corn is only useful if they all grow and fill out and produce more. OK it would be just as useful to make the corn more nutritious, but I have no way of determining that, so production and taste will be the deciders.

A Very Nice Morning

Sweet potatoes vines that need to be tucked back into their beds

We have been having such hot and oppressively humid weather recently. I was sweating even when I went out early in the morning to do garden chores. But this morning it broke. The temperatures dropped as did the humidity. At 58F I even had to wear a sweater. I love mornings like this.

First corn succession starting to silk

I'm sure the corn prefers it a little hotter. I've been shaking the plants each morning to help pollinate the ears. Often I see swarms of of some kind of black bee on the tassels, but so far this year I've only see one or two.

It was also nice to see the other summer crops coming along well. These will be my first cucumbers in a day or so. Yesterday I picked my first small zucchini and three beans. Yes just three, but they will add up over time as more start to flower and produce. Remember only two plants survived the groundhog attack and the rest that were replanted have to catch up.

The lettuce hasn't been doing so well with the hot weather. The plants have been bolting before they size up. Some that have sized up are bitter. I ate my last salad last night. I don't know if I'll get to have other any time soon or not. The onions should have been picked already, but I never needed them. I'm now using the sweet onions as they bulb up.

Winter savory is in the upper left

This morning I picked and dried winter savory for the first time ever. I've tried in past years, but this is the first year it has done well. I love the scent. It is kind of like a lemony oregano.

I also picked some chard. I blanched about a pound this morning to put in the fridge for meals for the next few days.

While picking I noticed that some of the stems had spots on them. I've never seen this before. It only seems to be affecting the stems, and I don't eat the stems. I don't know if I should be worried about it or not.

Another thing I noticed was some leaf miners in the amaranth. They have attacked the green leafed ones, but not the red ones yet. I don't know if they are worth covering or not. Amaranth is a new crop for me. If the damage is small, I'll just pick off those leaves. If they damage most of the leaves, I'll have to cover them. I'm not growing these for grain, but for eating the leaves, so the leaves matter. Since my first carrot bed was starting to come up and one section of amaranth is by the carrots, I covered both of them at the same time. I'll leave the other amaranth section open and see how it does. A new crop always requires a bit of learning about how to grow it well.

It was just a lovely morning. I hope the low humidity lasts for a while.

This and That

Cappuccino Rudbeckia

Most of what I do in the garden is never recorded. Deadheading some flowers here. Pulling some weeds there. Trellising, tying up, harvesting, pruning. So many little chores that don't take very long. But I'm out in the early morning to get them all done before the heat hits.

Prairie Splendor Echinacea

Since my perennial bed around the peach trees is new this year, I've been enjoying seeing what the new flowers look like as they bloom. I have the above two right next to each other. I think I'll have to fix that in future years. Both are beautiful, but they really don't go well together. The Rudbeckia would be much better off by another pale yellow echinacea that I have with some coreopsis in the front. Right now I have the red Rudbeckia by that one. A switch is in order. But not now. Maybe in the fall, or maybe next spring.

The cukes got tied up. They love to go sideways across the trellis instead of climbing it. I have to encourage them. While I do this I check the plants for cucumber beetles. I knock them into a jar of soapy water whenever I see them. I do this check every morning and also if I'm out later in the day. I've only gotten a few so far, but they always multiply.

Behind them are the zucchini. I check them every day. When I see both a female and male flower at the same time I ought to uncover them. They really want to get out. I figured the squash vine borer ought to be gone soon, but I read the Extension Service Newsletter. "In years with mild temperatures such as we are having this summer, SVB adults tend to remain active throughout the summer rather than dropping off in summer. . . " Damn. They aren't going to go away. I'll have to uncover and just cross my fingers. I haven't seen a ton of them around, but if I see a few, you can bet there are more out there that I can't see. And it only takes one borer to severely set back the zucchini if not kill it.

The squash that grows under the corn needs constant work. I have to keep it UNDER the corn but of course it goes to the light and tries to escape. My garden isn't big enough to let it run free. So every couple of days I check them and tuck the tips back where they belong and make sure it isn't actually climbing up the corn. While I do this I pull any weeds I see.

Yesterday I needed a bit more. The shorter ones had some bamboo poles under them to keep the cats from digging. But I didn't think I needed them anymore. The corn was large enough to keep them out. So I pulled out the poles. At the ends I put in some smaller sideways stick to keep the cats off the bare soil around the squash. Those won't last long as the squash is growing fast.

In addition since I'd removed that big row cover next to the corn, the wind could now knock it down. One of the problems with growing corn in a raised bed is that it lodges easily. The soil is very soft and you can't hill the stalks up. So I stake the outer most rows, which protect the inner rows from the wind enough that they are usually safe.

Next up was the cilantro. I let it go to seed every year so I can collect both green coriander and ripe coriander (the former for the kitchen and the latter for sowing). Once the seed starts to set the plants can get top heavy and fall over. So I tied them to the fence. Hopefully it is good enough to keep them from trailing on the ground.

The last chore was to pick and prune the currants. I pick the gooseberries while I prune to make picking easier. The currants are younger and I haven't had them very long. It didn't hit me until afterwards that I should do the same thing. It would make the picking so much easier. Live and learn. I like how the Pink Champagne currants grow. They send out new strong shoots from the base instead of lots of side shoots. So I could cut all the old wood out. The Jonkheer van Tets likes to have some of its stronger shoots as side branches which makes it harder to prune. That last one I have to really keep under control as otherwise it blocks the path. But I can't let either get too large, so pruning every year is a must.

I do have one more currant, Rovada, but it isn't quite ripe yet. Soon though. That one I'm trying to train as one leader across my fence, but it is resisting. Hopefully if I'm persistent it will work. If not I'll just let it bush out as that space can take it. But if you have ever seen a photo of Lee Reich's espaliered currant bush you will know why I want one. The red fruit hanging down from my white fence would be very striking. But only if I can get it to grow correctly.

Today was pretty similar, though I didn't get outside as quickly. I deadheaded the daisies and dianthus. I weeded the front perennial bed and near the garden shed. I uncovered the zucchini as it indeed had both a male and female in bloom. I tied up the cucumbers. I extended the trellis for the beans a tiny bit. I staked the last succession of corn. I tucked in the squash, melon, and sweet potato vines that were trying to escape their beds. I swept part of the walk that had sand all over it (the ants have moved in). I noticed some signs of aphids on the Brussels sprouts - ack! I'll have to bring out the sprayer tomorrow and deal with that. Sigh. I watched the hoverflies dance around the cilantro flowers. Then it was time to go in for breakfast. I love my mornings in the garden.

This and That

I had to get my lettuce seedlings planted. My wonderful successions are starting to fall apart. Some lettuces take longer than others. To plant these I took out four plants. One that just wasn't growing. A Deertongue which I know gets bitter in the summer heat, so I didn't want to leave it in very long. A romaine that sort of headed up. And a nice pretty red oakleaf. And two of the lettuces I planted in the spot the basil used to be in.

So now I have a patchwork quilt of lettuces. I'm finding that two week successions is too short and three is too long. Somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot for my space. Though the pretty crisphead that is growing well and sizing up nicely, is taking a long time to grow. I think these kinds of successions work better if you know what you are growing. When one lettuce takes a month longer to size up than another, it just doesn't work well. It either leaves holes, or you are pulling plants prematurely, or just not planting all of the seedlings.

I also planted out the next attempt at basil. If you will remember my first set all died from downy mildew even though I planted them in random spots in the yard. This one was planted in the herb circle. I hope it survives for a couple of months.

The last succession of corn needed thinning out. I plant three seeds. Most of them come up, but some are stronger than others. I also thinned out the squash at the end of the bed.

I was checking on the first four successions. Three and four have caught up to one another. I always plant toward the fence first. That bed is more shaded. And it gives the squash a chance to get going faster. But it does bring the beds together in timing a bit.

I usually don't let my rhubarb bloom like this. I like to keep it cut back better since it is in front of my air conditioner. I finally got around to it. Now it is much more under control.

The sweet potatoes have started to vine. Whoot! This meant I could take out most of the bamboo poles I put around them. I like to cover the ground enough to keep the cats from digging. We have a horde of cats living in the neighborhood. But they leave the soil alone once the plants grow big enough.

I was checking some photos from last year. My sweet potatoes seem to be a little bigger than last year, but the melons are way behind. I might be picking my melons in September, which is sad as they won't be as sweet that way.

Fourth Corn Planting

My husband loves corn. I start in May and do five successions each about a week apart. I'm hoping the last succession will still be producing when my mom visits in late August. Sweet corn is one of her favorites. But the timing will be tight. I could plant it later, but I always do corn and squash together. We have raccoons in the area and they don't like walking through a field of prickly squash, so my corn is usually safe if I train the squash to grow under the corn. But I want the squash to have time to produce. I can't plant it much before the corn as then it would overwhelm the small plants. So mid June is about as late as things get planted up.

I'm on my fourth planting right now. It went into the baby Asian greens bed. On Monday I picked the last of the boc choy and mizuna. You see the outside leaves I trimmed off but didn't dispose of (I was hungry at the time). And all that was left to pick yesterday was the mizuna. Much of it was starting to bolt, so I wasn't too unhappy to see it go. I'm wondering where I could squeeze in a plant or two though.

The schedule said to plant the corn on June 7th, not June 9th. But it is easy to keep up even if you don't have time that day to plant. On June 7th I put the corn and squash into little covered bowls with some paper towel and some water. The corn and squash seeds had begun to send out little roots by the time I planted two days later.

This is going to be my mycorrhizal fungi experiment. On the northwest side of the bed the corn has been inoculated. But the southeast side has none. The spring experiment was a bust. Adding endomycorrhizae to the soil didn't improve the growth of lettuce or peas. But then it isn't supposed to do well in cool soil. You don't get warmer than in summertime, so this will tell me if it is worth the price to buy or if it is just a waste of money for me. For all I know I have plenty of these soil fungi already in my soil.

First succession

The other successions are up and doing well. I have one corn plant in the first succession that is struggling for some reason. And one of the two squash plants at the end of the bed damped off in May so it was replanted. That is smaller than its neighbor, but it will catch up.

Second

Third

The third one is barely out of the ground. The squash in that one isn't up yet. Now I have four of my successions done. I have just one left to go.

Successions

I have several succession crops going in my garden. Corn and squash for a two sisters garden was planted for the third time yesterday. I have two more to go. Also I put in another succession of turnips. That one isn't doing as well. The second sowing never really came up. The soil was too dry. So I resowed what was bare and sowed another row too.

I can squeeze through - barely

My garden is small and some of my paths are tight to keep the area cropping larger. But keeping each bed in production is the most important thing. My carrot bed will be come a brassica bed for the fall, and the brassica beds will become carrot beds. Some of my broccoli will get ripped out to plant more broccoli, but some in that bed will stay to produce side shoots. When my onions come out I'll plant kale. And I do another sowing of lettuce every couple of weeks. I really don't need 20 heads of lettuce all at once, but six every couple of weeks is perfect.

Today I got my soil blocker out and made the block I'll be using until about August. None of these needs a lot of blocks, so I put them in smaller containers for each kind of plant I need. In the spring I get flats. In the summer I get small old take out containers with holes in the bottom. Most of these will sit and dry until I need them. Then they will be rehydrated for use. My calendar has the date that I'm supposed to sow each one. Though I still haven't figured out what I want to grow for my cabbage/kohlrabi bed in the fall. European cabbage rarely does well here in the fall. I'm not sure why. It might be that my garden doesn't have enough sun in the fall as the neighbors' houses and trees are pretty close. I love European cabbages, but I tend to do better with the Chinese cabbages. I'll have to think about it.

This is my last succession of lettuce planted on May 20th with the new one seeded today. Six plants of a summer mix. I segregate the mixed lettuce seed into white and black to try to not have too many duplicates. And when they come up I keep some of the reds and some of the greens. It is kind of fun not knowing what will pop up. I hope I like them.