The Good and the Bad

Sweet potatoes in the rain

We did get rain which is good, but they were predicting 1-2" and maybe more. I was so hopeful. But like other high predictions we have ended up with just over half an inch of rain. We needed so much more. I looked this morning and in the last month we have had 1.4" of rain. Our lowest month typically has 3.5". September is one of our wettest months at 4.5" on average. I can only hope that this rain was a shift from the pattern of summer thundershowers to the fall longer rains. We often get tropical storms coming up the coast and hitting us in the fall. We could use that. Right now the trees are starting to lose leaves from lack of rain. New England is known for its beautiful vibrant colors in the fall, but when the leaves curl up and turn brown, fall is not so pretty. The farmers have suffered too this summer. Though the apple and peach harvest was large, the lack of rain seriously hurt the corn crop.

When I went out after the rain, I saw this - holes in the Agribon. These are made by the squirrels thinking that the cloth will hold them up. It won't. The fabric is too fragile. So I took some time and repaired the damage. Then I went under the cover and sadly found that the root maggot fly had gotten in. I killed the ones I could find. They tend to like walking on the ground and are easy to squish. But only if I can find them. I'm sure there were plenty that I couldn't.

The good news is that the bok choy seedlings are up.

They came up well. I did a bit of thinning. Now I just have to cross my fingers that the root maggots won't be too bad. I did put out a couple of homemade traps for them. They are just some small white plastic containers with soapy water in them. Yellow would be better, but white does catch them.

Other good news is that my Brussels sprouts are really growing well. After two sprayings of soap the aphids seem to be gone. I've got some nice spiders in there helping out too. The tallest in there is about 4.5' tall. It is just huge. I only made the cover to go to about 4', so it is straining to get out.

If you look carefully you can see the stem is starting to curve. It wants to keep growing up, but there is no room. At some point it is going to lift up that row cover. I really want to take it off, but the butterflies are still around. I don't have swarms of them anymore, but on a sunny day I regularly see them in the garden.

Sprouts, Cucumbers, and Lettuce

I finally got around to spraying the Brussels sprouts with soap again. The broccoli needed spraying too. The aphids are taking over slowly. I find soap works OK if you cover every tiny part of the plant and spray regularly. I probably ought to look up how long it takes for eggs to hatch and aphids to reproduce to make sure I'm not getting multiple generations not being sprayed, but I've never done that. I try to spray once a week, but in reality it tends to be more like every two which isn't enough to keep them down.

But as long as my little Brussels sprouts stay aphid free I'll be happy. It sure does seem like a lot of work though. Especially this week. We are getting a heat wave that is lasting over a week. I'm a true heat wimp. I've been known to faint in the heat. Needless to say, I do all my work in the early morning during weeks like this.

Other bad news is that I saw my first wilted leaf. I never got wilt in the cucumbers at my last house. We had cucumber beetles, but they didn't seem to spread it. Here we get it ever year like clockwork. I've learned to use a row cover early and only let them out after they have started to run. It delays the inevitable. It is too bad the wilt has started as I'm trying to learn how to make fermented dills and I could use more cukes for experimenting. But it will take it a while for the wilt to take them down. Probably weeks. The bacteria starts with one leaf and it travels very slowly up and down the stem and the leaves die one by one. Hopefully it will be a while still before it gets transferred to all the other cukes. I'm trying Lemon cucumbers for the first time and they haven't even set any cukes yet.

But there isn't all bad news in the garden. I sowed some lettuce last weekend. It is up even with the heat. I'm using this as a little nursery row. I'll transplant them to better spacing when they get bigger - and all the other lettuce has bolted.

Spraying the Sprouts

The other day I noticed signs of aphids on my Brussels sprouts. All of the brassicas will get them if given enough time in the garden. I might have swarms of hoverflies, wasps, and preying mantises in my garden, but I cover the brassicas to keep out the dreaded white butterfly. So all those beneficial insects don't do me any good when I keep them out.

Get off my sprouts!

So I have to spray. I use liquid soap to kill them. Dr. Bronners is my current soap of choice in the house, so I just use it in the garden too. I used a quarter cup per gallon. I could go as far as one more tablespoon, but we will see how this dilution works. To work, you have to totally cover all the aphids, which means getting to the underside of the leaves where most of them are.

My old sprayer was failing, so I got a new one this year. I like that it is smaller - one gallon as opposed to two, but my last one had an angled sprayer which made getting under the leaf so much easier. This one does not. So I have to lift each leaf to get to the insects. While I was at it, I checked the broccoli, which is the only other brassica that will stick around all summer long. I found some on one leaf, which I sprayed, but the rest seemed clean. For one leaf I could probably just wipe them off. It is what I do for the growing point of my espaliered apples. I just squish them with my fingers.

I also tested the soap spray on the raspberries just to make sure they don't mind the soap. They were just fine the next day. Mites are hurting the poor things. If I have extra spray next time I do the Brussels sprouts, I'll spray the raspberries too. I'm not as worried about the mites as I am about the aphids. The aphids will spread and infest every sprout if I'm not careful. They make it inedible. The mites will slow my raspberry production down, but mites aren't big pests here as we tend to be wet.

I'm hoping I won't have to spray the broccoli again. I found one of my myriad preying mantises and put him under the broccoli row cover. I hope they eat aphids, but what are the odds it will eat all the spiders first? Mantids aren't very discriminating when it comes to eating.

My Brussels sprouts were also trying to burst out of their cover. So I sewed up a bigger one for them. If this gets too small they are out of luck. I don't have supports that are taller, but the cover is so light it shouldn't matter. The cover is nice and loose and the sprouts could push it up another foot if they want.

Brussels Sprouts

I'm constantly being shocked this year by my Brussels sprouts. I've tried growing them before many times. Never successfully. The best I've ever done has been small pea sized sprouts. But this year the plants are huge.

For plants I don't know much about I start by using "How to Grow More Vegetables" by John Jeavons as s guide for plant spacing. But many times experience tells me that his spacings are too close. For instance when you plant onions in a grid 4" is a bit too close to let them really size up well. He says broccoli needs 15". I think 16" is a bare minimum and I currently give them 19" x 24" which gives me a better harvest. This year each Brussels sprout plant was given a 2' by 2' spot which they have totally filled out. Their leaves are now overlapping. I'm glad I didn't follow his 18" suggestion. For those of you who grow Brussels sprouts, what spacing do you use?

I underplanted the middle and the edges with my extra onion plants. I figured they would grow until the Brussels sprouts needed the space then I'd pull them. I really thought the would size up first though. The onions aren't very large. Maybe the size of a very small bunching onion. But any onion now is nice so I'm happy for the harvest. I took out the middle rows. As soon as these are eaten I'll work on the outside rows.

It is exciting to see little sprouts starting to form. If the plants don't have some horrible disaster, it looks I might actually get something this year. Of course it is far from certain. I have two worries. One is that the plants will outgrow their row cover. I suppose I can sew more on if necessary. But I have hordes of white butterflies dancing in my garden. I want to keep them covered. The other issue is where it is growing. That spot gets some serious shade in the fall. Will it have enough light to produce when it needs to?

Catching Up

I pretty much ignored the garden while my family was here. But yesterday I got a long day in the garden to catch up. I have a few more things to do, but I got most of my list done.

I had tossed the Brussels sprouts in the ground right before they came, but had just put on some scraps of a row cover. I needed one that could handle a full sized plant. That meant tall. So I sewed two pieces of netting together and used some more of the old irrigation pipe for the supports.

I had hardened off some plants and had to get them in the ground. Our weather is hot right now so they will do better in the ground that sitting in small soil blocks that heat up too fast. Above is the first planting of lettuce in this bed. I have three 2' x 2' sections with onions down the middle. Every three weeks I'm going to put in more lettuce. That gives the oldest lettuce nine weeks to mature. That is probably too long as I put them in from starts, but if I did it at two week intervals it would be six weeks and that might be too short. I'm still trying to figure out the lettuce during summer thing. Last year I gave them some shade, but they hated that. They grew weak and spindly. So this year I'm giving them more room and more sun.

And since I planted out the lettuce it was time to sow more. This time I used a summer mix by Fedco. Since I only sow six plants and they have twenty varieties in the mix, who knows which ones I'll end up with. I'm not sure I'll be happy with that.

I also put in my basil. Usually I wouldn't put it in this early, but the long range forecast says the worst low we will get will be in the high 40Fs (9C). And this week is so warm they will love it. So I'm risking an early planting. We won't get frost, but basil really doesn't like the cold. It can turn brown before frost hits. Since basil downy mildew has been so problematic these last couple of years I've put the six plants in three different spots. One near the lettuce. One near the driveway. And one in the front perennial bed. Last year I planted them in two spots and one spot got hit fairly early. The other was much later and I got a good harvest from it. So I'm trying the divide and conquer strategy again.

Wall garden east side

Wall garden west side

Since the first strawberry blossoms are starting to lose their petals I had to get the netting up to keep off the squirrels. I like to do this early as if they even get one, they will be very persistent in trying to get under the cover. Right now I'm holding the bird netting in the back down with bamboo poles held down with U-pins. In the front it is on the wall itself so I'm using some T-posts as they are heavy. But I will need those posts for my cucumbers in June. I'm wondering if I need to go out and buy some more rebar for these. Also two sections have bird netting that is wide enough for this, but the eastern section it is pulled very tightly just to reach over the hoops. I'm afraid that I need something wider. I probably ought to find some more netting in the basement and cut it to the right size.

I was also cleaning up and taking stock of my scattered herbs. The above sage was half dead. I cut out the dead wood and the parts that were covering the wood slats where I wash my vegetables. It still looks ragged, but it grows so well here. I'm thinking of ripping out the rhubarb that is next to it. And putting in rosemary. I need two types of spots for my rosemary. In bad snowy winters I need a spot that drains well and this does. In dry winters I need a sheltered spot farther down the foundation of the house. Because the foundation area is too wet when it snows and the rosemary will die. Here the rosemary dies when there is no snow. I can't find a spot where the rosemary will live regardless. Even the hardy rosemaries aren't truly very hardy here.

I have four sages scattered around the yard. One I thought I had lost, but as I cleaned it up I found a sprout on one of the branches. So I took all of it out except that one spot. I'm also getting tons of little tiny sage plants sprouting up. If I had needed to replace any I could have used those.

My peppermint and chocolate mint are growing well, but the Mojito mint died. I'm shocked. Now I can joke that I have a brown thumb because I actually killed a mint. Nothing kills those. Even my erratic watering over the summer.

To replace all my missing herbs (remember I lost my rosemary too) and to see if they had a moonbeam coreopsis which I need for the front perennial bed, I walked down to our local nursery which is about a mile from my house. I was shocked they didn't sell hardy rosemary. They didn't even have any named varieties. They had "rosemary" and "roasting rosemary". They used to sell the hardy kinds and Tuscan Blue which isn't hardy, but one of the best tasting ones. They didn't have any coreopsis, much less the one that I wanted. They didn't have anything I wanted to fill in the front perennial bed. I didn't leave empty handed though. I picked up a pretty coleus for behind the peach tree in the perennial bed. But all in all I was pretty sad not to find anything I was looking for.

So I went online and found a place that had the two varieties of rosemary I wanted - Arp and Hill Hardy - and some Mojito mint. I also bought some Berggarten sage. I think that would look really nice in the front bed. I'm thinking of ripping out the sage that didn't do well last year. I could let the French thyme take over that area. It is a better size for the spot.

Birds and Flowers

Yesterday I noticed a flock of sparrows in my garden. They were on the netting row covers, hopping around. I was afraid they would break the netting as it is so fragile but they didn't. One however did get under one of my row covers. He is in the above photo in the upper left. Just a blur as he was desperate to get out. I went out and lifted the cover. I fully expected there to be a hole where he got in, but no. The only place I could imagine was at one corner there was a bit of fabric that wasn't tacked down well enough. But he would have had to crawl under a thick bunch to get under. Needless to say I tacked it down better after I let the poor bird out.

I haven't been out much over the last handful of days as I've had family in, but before they came I got a few plants in so I wouldn't have to keep them alive during that interval. I put in the last succession of baby Asian greens. I put in my zinnias in four spots - the wall garden, the new perennial bed, the front door flower pot, and the edge of the vegetable garden. And I put in four Brussels sprouts. I hope they grow. I really need to make them a row cover which I hope to get to today. Right now I just have them under some scraps. Now all I have left are twelve soil blocks. Two groups of six. A succession of lettuces and my basil. I should probably get those in soon too as the weather is going to be so nice over the next week.

I didn't get a lot of chance to go out and see what is happening in the yard. But we are in the middle of a long warm spell. So the blooms have been bursting out. The peach blossoms aren't particularly big or showy, but they are a pretty pink. I have two peach trees. Redhaven was planted in 2011 and has given us so many peaches already. It is just covered in flowers as you can see above. The other is Stark Elberta Queen and it was planted last year. It is still a pretty small tree even for a dwarf, but it is blossoming too. If it sets any fruit I'll pick them off. I need this tree to get bigger first. Maybe next year I'll let it set. It is supposed to be a later peach than Red Haven as I want to extend the peach season.

Also in the front yard the strawberries are in bloom. As you can see some of the flowers are losing petals already. Usually I get the first berries in mid to late May. Last year the first harvest was May 31st - very late. I think the earliest has been the 19th. I'm hoping our warm spell right now will give us the earliest yet. Can you tell I'm impatient for my first strawberry?

Also in the rock wall garden are some newly planted fruit and some that were planted in 2013. So this is their third year. For dwarf trees sometimes that means fruit, but I've espaliered these trees and they grow more slowly when you have to cut them back to force branches in certain spots. So there are no blossoms. Though the pear tree is looking very healthy.

The currant and gooseberry blooms aren't really much to look at as the blooms are green, but they sure are floriferous. I'm always shocked by how many blooms a currant puts out on a small little plant. I suppose the berries aren't big, but still.

The Ginger Gold apple is just covered in blooms. I'll have a huge thinning chore this year. Last year it didn't do much, but the year before it did. It isn't supposed to be a biennial bearer and I did thin the fruit in 2013. I'm hoping it doesn't keep being biennial. The best I can do is thin and hope, unless anyone has other suggestions.

Our other apple tree in the back yard is Honey Crisp. It was planted the same year as the Ginger Gold. The Ginger Gold is 7' tall. The Honey Crisp is 4'. But at least it is blooming well this year. So I'll let the fruit set and just assume I'll have a tiny tree there. At least it will be easy to net to keep the squirrels out. I think I'll need help netting the Ginger Gold this year. Without netting I wouldn't get any peaches or any apples at all. The squirrels would eat them all - though the groundhogs sometimes get the low lying fruit.

I guess the only flowers that I haven't talked about are the blueberries. They too are in bloom right now. There are still a lot of buds that haven't opened too. I'm thinking about netting these this year. I always net my strawberries so I can get something but the blueberries have been unprotected. I often don't get more than one or two ripe ones. Interestingly enough I never net the currants or gooseberries and the squirrels don't eat those. But the blueberries they love.

Digging and Seeding

Stark sent me an email saying that my trees (plum, apple, and persimmon) were being shipped. They are supposed to arrive today. I wanted to get their planting area ready and Wednesday the rain was on and off. I picked an off time to go out. The first order of business was to take down the figs. Then remove the trellis. I left the eye screws in the fence as they might be useful in training the trees. The metal bar at the bottom however was sunk into the soil. It took some serious work to get out. Yesterday my fitbit told me that I didn't get my exercise. It lies. All told I got an hour and a half of work. And some of it heavy work. But the figs and trellis are now gone.

I also started to remove the old European plum. I got partway there. It is cut down to a stump, but today I'll have to go out and remove the stump. The trellis for this one is staying. I'm going to espalier an apple tree here. I will have to figure out how far apart I want the wires though. Currently they are 6" which is too close for an apple tree. I'm thinking four cordons 18" apart.

Thursday was yet another cold rainy day. So I decided I needed to get my indoor planting done. First up was the rooted slips of Garnet sweet potato. I had let the roots get a tad long, but I'm not going to be planting the whole plant. Come May I'll take cuttings from the plant and root those in water again.

I put them in 4" pots and put them under the lights. I'll move them to the sun later. If we ever see the sun again. I hate dreary days.

I was behind in seeding some of my plants. My schedule said April 3rd. It was almost a week late. But I got in another round of baby Asian greens, some Brussels sprouts, basil, and a mix of Zinnias. I also made some blocks for later in little tiny containers. I'm going to be sowing six lettuce plants every three weeks. I'll see if I can keep it up all summer long or not. It helps to have premade blocks to make it faster.

One of three trays

The seedlings that were sowed on March 25th are growing well except the choy sum on the right. Some didn't even germinate from the new seed this year. The older seed did better. But I'll plant what did come up. Choy sum is such a pain to grow, but I keep trying because when it works, it is so good. It is one of my favorites of the Asian greens.

I'll be hardening these plants off starting today once it warms up a bit. Our forecast is good with temperatures in the low 50Fs and into the high 60Fs for the coming week (which would bee teens for the Celsius fans).