Seeking advice for my first spring garden

[Purrfluff]

I've had chickens the most of my life and determined they don't care for wheat much so you could consider winter wheat as a cover crop if you can find the seed and possibly the birds wouldn't be so bothersome. Wheat straw makes excellent mulch.

The birds have been a much bigger problem than I anticipated. They are not only eating cover crop seeds but attacking seedlings of all kinds. Squash, peas, beans, melons, cucumbers, etc.

The birds aren't stupid though. I planted some cover crop seed (mostly oats) out in an area far from the garden. A mount of dirt that's been sitting there for years. The chief purpose of this planting is to generate straw for mulch and more cover crop seed for fall use. But the birds barely touched it there. Whereas in the garden area they attack nearly everything small and eat all the largeish seeds they can find. I can only assume that the birds have learned that this a rich feeding ground. Which means the pressure from birds might not let up all year. In August last year they left my seeds and seedlings alone. But they started going after them in late September and they've been at my stuff since March.

My germinating nasturtiums got munched down almost to the soil line. I this case I suspect slugs or cutworms. But other seedlings have the tell tale wedge shaped damage from birds.

I still think it was premature to plant squash seeds since I have had very poor germination from them. Nights are still relatively cool here so I'm guessing the soil, even in the raised beds, is just too cold for them. I don't care for squash myself but my mother is very fond of squash so I'm trying to get them going for her.

I also learned a lesson about not messing with my soil, at all, when it is too wet. I planted a row of cauliflower and romanesco broccoli. It was drizzling rain but I was desperate to plant something. I lined the row with some (very wet) potting soil I had left over. I hoed the soil in the row first and it kind of clumped up. But I did it anyway.

A month later and I got very poor germination so I dug into the row and... it was hard as a rock. No wonder the plants that did germinate looked so stunted. Not even a jackhammer could get through the hard soil. I'm sure they couldn't put down roots or access water below the small amount of potting soil I put in.

The next tricky thing to plant will be corn. The ground might not be warm enough for germination but I've got to take a chance on getting them in soon or they won't have enough time to mature. I think I'll have to create a bird netting tent to protect the corn seed and seedlings.

The other issue with corn is that we often have high winds here. At least once before the wind has flattened and killed the corn stalks. I guess I just have to cross my fingers and hope that doesn't happen. There really is no wind free area in the garden.

 

[Purrfluff]

Update on 6/1/2018:

This has been the second driest May on record. We got a tiny amount of rain yesterday. Not enough to give my plants a good watering. I will have to start irrigating again soon. Typically it starts to dry up in June and goes completely dry in July and August. I am truly concerned about the dryness. I may have to cut back significantly on my planned garden because of the sheer cost of that much irrigation. My folks are already throwing a fit about the water bill and I don't blame them.

Amazingly I am still having issues germinating squash and cucumber seeds. I would have thought the warmth would have germinated them almost immediately. I'll try chitting.

I finally stuck some of the ground cherry transplants into the ground. Hopefully they make the transition well and start growing soon. They are very dinky. I did start a final batch of them indoors and will make a short row outside to direct seed the last of the remaining seed. The ones that have germinated and grown are Aunt Molly's. I also tried starting some "Pineapple" variety ground cherries. But it looks like I got a bum seed packet from Botanical Interests. Next year.

I also started some tomato seedlings a couple of weeks ago. I didn't actually expect them to do anything but they are growing fairly quickly. I was going to give them away as gifts but I need to harden them off first. And I'm not sure anyone really wants them. They are very small and they probably wouldn't produce fruit until almost the end of the growing season. I'll probably stuff them into some out of the way place and see what happens.

In a month I hope to start sowing for fall crops. I want to try some of the cold hardy lettuces. Territorial Seed sells a mix of cold tolerant lettuces. The question is... will they actually survive the winter? These are lettuces, not cabbage.

One of the main requests for call crops I've gotten is brussels sprouts. But I only have about a dozen seeds of a hybrid sprouts variety (Hestia). I don't know whether I should order more hybrid seed or try out Long Island Improved from Ed Hume. The Hume packets contain a lot more seeds for a lot less money. But I've read that open pollinated brussels sprouts aren't any good. Any observations people have had about good tasting brussels sprouts variety would be appreciated.

The corn finally got sown! I covered it with bird netting as best I could. No germination yet and I really, really hope I don't have to resow that stuff. I got Silver Queen corn and it will need every day it can get if it is going to produce this summer.

 

[roadrunner]

Droughts are just another good reason to do the heavy mulching method of gardening. Mulching doesn't just trap moisture, it also breaks down into organic matter for the soil and for every 1% increase in OM, the soil holds an extra 20,000 gallons of water per acre. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ss661

 

[Purrfluff]

Update on 6/14/2018:

This will be a relatively short update. I will post a longer (and therefore more annoying) update later.

I am finally starting to get fairly reliable germination on squash and cucumber seeds. I tried the paper towel chitting technique. I can't say it made a hell of a lot of difference but three weeks ago it might have.

We finally got some substantial rain. Not enough to truly recharge the soil but it was certainly welcome. The long term summer forecast is for hot and dry. The downside is that I will have to irrigate like crazy (and I do so hate the heat) but the upside is that the eggplant and melon starts might actually produce something. I've ended up with four honeydew melon starts. Small and leggy but that was what I could find, even at Portland Nursery. They are a crapshoot and I'm not going to shed any tears if they don't produce.

I am worried that my cukes and squash are growing so very slowly. Yes, I got some decent germination on the cucumbers finally. But they don't seem to be moving rapidly. I fear that I won't get a harvest until September.

On the other hand, when I tried to sow seed in early May almost nothing came up. And the one or two things that did aren't very big. With one exception: Pumpkins. I sowed seed for small sugar pumpkin and the germination was fairly rapid and strong. It's been a pleasant surprise. I truly don't know why the pumpkins seem so much happier than their other squash counterparts. But I hope to harvest them later for making pumpkin pies. I will probably freeze excess pulp. And my mother will toast and eat the seeds.

The wall o' water is still around the eggplants. I plan to leave it on until July. Once the nights stop being cool I will take off those watery cloches to allow in more sunlight and air circulation.

I have been mulching as much as I can. The problem is I don't have enough mulch materials. I saved a substantial piles of leaves from last fall. I chew those up with the lawnmower and turn them into mulch. The other thing I am trying to do is cut the lawn grass and lay out the clipping to dry. Once they are dry they become a mulch.

I also have barkdust. Which is an a tempting option. The barkdust is really good at keeping down the weeds and I think it traps water fairly well. But everything I've read says it is not good for the soil. And I can attest that barkdust left over from even two years ago has not broken down in the soil. It stays there in chunks. I have put bark dust on a few plants that will be in there for a long time, like the melons and tomatoes.

Last but not least: My Marshall strawberries appear to be transplanted well. But every single ripe strawberry has been eaten by slugs before I could consume it. This is despite the gobs of sluggo and diatomaceous earth I have used. I tried the beer bait trap to no avail.

The slugs (or maybe cutworms) also ate almost an entire packet's worth of sunflower seed I sowed. Chomped the leafy parts right off. I suspect slugs because the leaves were gone. This is also despite putting in Sluggo and Sluggo Plus. The diatomaceous earth gets inactivated when wet which makes it of dubious value.

 

[Purrfluff]

Update on 6/15/2018:

A more comprehensive picture will be painted. Yes, I can hear the groans already.

I'm finally getting reliable germination on most seeds. It's too bad it took this long but that isn't unusual for my area. I tried planting cucumber and squash seed a while ago and, as I feared, I got terribly germination. The soil was probably not warm enough yet, despite the hot May.

I'm really hoping the cucumbers grow fast because I feel kind of stupid not having cucumbers in mid June. I feel a little less bad about the squash.

In fact the only thing I have that is havestable is leafy greens. Lots of lettuce and a fair amount of spinach. Peas are coming along nicely though. There are already some snow peas and the snap peas are putting out flowers.

The tomato and pepper plants already have some fruit on them but my mother handles those so I can't take credit.

There continue to be some frustrations though. I mentioned that something munched off the tops of my sunflower seedlings. I couldn't find that exact variety again so I got a different packed and resowed. I also started some of the seeds in pots to act as insurance. They will be transplanted once they get large enough not to be consumed by slugs.

I have close to a dozen ground cherry seedlings. I put most of them in the ground and... not much is happening. They are still alive, which is good. But their growth is incredibly slow. If they don't put on a serious growth spurt soon they won't produce. But if I had moved then outdoors earlier the cold would have killed them. These are Aunt Molly's ground cherries. If they do grow I hope to train them upwards on a trellis or tomato cage. If I have the equipment I want them to go vertical to save space. Also, I read that ground cherries drop when ripe (presumably the husk protects them) and I figure it will be easier to notice them dropping if the plants are vertical. I really am hoping to get a large amount of ground cherries so I can turn them into jam. I've also never tasted one and would like to try some.

The Millionaire eggplants have already put out a couple of blossoms. I think they are going to drop without fruiting because of the wall o' waters. But it's still much too cold at night to remove the wall o' waters. It also seems like the plants are too small to produce fruit at this point. If they do I might cut the developing fruit off to encourage the plants to put their energy into roots and leaves for a while.

The Black Beauty eggplant is still tiny and not doing much. This is to be expected as I've read that it's quite rare to get Black Beauty to flourish in our climate. So I'm not going to worry about whether it produces or not. Same with the honeydew melons. It's possible they will produce a melon or two.

Most things I started from seed are still tiny. Beans are only about a couple of inches tall. Bugs or something got to a few of them but for the most part they are still intact and they look pretty healthy. I'm hoping to get some beans from them in a month and a half or so. These are bush beans so I don't think I can train them vertical. The leeks and green onions will probably have to overwinter before they are large enough to harvest. Possibly the same with the carrots but I wouldn't be surprised if I have a few small carrots by mid July.

The next conundrum is when to plant for the fall. I know that most fall veggies are planted in July. Once September rolls around the days are significantly shorter growth slows way, way down. By October it has ground to a halt. So I need to get stuff in on time. At the same time I need to not put stuff in too early.

My understanding is that you don't want things to fully mature before first frost. Especially brassicas. I have some Hestia, Roodnerf, and Long Island Improved brussels sprouts seeds. As a precaution I sowed a row of Long Island Improved sprouts this week. I hope they don't mature in the heat of late August.

The same thing goes with broccoli, cauliflower, and leafy greens. I know that if I plant broccoli in August I won't get a harvest. I'm thinking of doing a massive broccoli planting binge in early July. Cauliflower and heading cabbage are a little trickier. Last year my heading cabbage and cauliflower rotted in the rain. So I am little trepidatious about planting them again. On the other hand I still want to grow them and harvest them in winter if I can.

I'm also hoping to get some seeds for cold hardy lettuce. If the winter is mild they might survive the winter. I'd love to be able to pick fresh lettuce in December. I hope for spinach t play a prominent role as well. I am thinking of getting this mix: http://www.territorialseed.com/product/yukon-winter-lettuce-mix-seed

I've also read that Continuity is a good lettuce for cold weather. I guess we'll find out.

I'd also like to grow miner's lettuce. It is supposedly very cold hardy and makes ok salads. I'll probably put in some mache/corn salad as well.

Last but not least I would like to try cover cropping this winter. But I will have to find a way to plant cover crop seeds when the warm weather crops are still going. I might be able to stick some seeds betweens the rows of corn. I'm hoping to cover crop with winter wheat and cereal rye. I've read that those will germinate even in October. Probably not very well and the birds will probably attack the seeds and seedlings. I can't put bird netting over the entire garden so I guess I'll just have to live with it.

I also have a fava beans plan. I planted Sweet Lorane favas last fall. The overwintered nicely but they were in the way so they got sent to the compost heap. They didn't have enough time to produce beans. But there was one plant in a pot that I left alone and, frankly, neglected. I took a look at it a month ago and it is starting to produce flowers. So I finally move it into a bigger pot. Not much bigger but it was the biggest I had. And the plant was incredibly pot bound. I figured the transplanting might kill it but it didn't. It's starting to produce pods. I plan to save any beans that mature and replant them into the ground as a cover crop for the winter. I think I put the favas in last year around late September and they still germinated. I plan to do the same thing this year. Except I will probably leave the cover crop in place until late March this time. I really couldn't even begin to put in transplants this year until April so getting rid of what cover crop I had in February and March was foolish. Most of the soil lay fallow until I was able to get buckwheat to grow in mid May. The drought conditions have delayed the decomposition of the buckwheat I turned under.

I have three raised beds and a fair amount of native soil to plant in. I have to figure out what will really benefit from the lighter soil and better drainage of the raised beds over the winter. I plant to put the brussels sprouts into the native soil. My thinking being that these plants get tall and heavy and may need the heavier soil to get a grip into. Assuming the roots can penetrate it at all, which is always the issue.

All in all, things are going reasonably well. I'm eager to see what happens by the end of June. If things like cucumbers and corn aren't growing quickly by then they probably won't yield a harvest.

 

[Purrfluff]

Quick update on 6/22/2018:

I wanted to share some simple good news. The pollinator flowers I sowed have matured and the bumble bees seem to like them very much. I've only seen one honey bee on them so far. The honeybees seem to prefer the raspberry blossoms.

While the seed packet had a mix of different seeds one species has dominated strongly over the others: lacy phacelia. I think it just outgrew and shaded out the other species in the mix.

I am pleased to be helping out the bees. I've always found honeybees and bumble bees to be gentle creatures.

There are other pollinator packets which haven't matured yet I put those in near the new berry plants. While the berries won't produce anything this year I wanted to put in pollinator friendly flowers to get the bees to think of that area as a good spot to hang out in. With the hopes they will come back next year and pollinate my fruit.

 

[Purrfluff]

Update on 6/30/2018:

I feel like I over planted and the garden is getting out of control. I have have way more lettuce than I know what to do with. It started off nice and small in March/April and is now going insane. And for some reason I can't get people to take it.

I had to yank some spinach because it bolted before the plant even put on many leaves. The mesclun mix bolted and had to be yanked because I couldn't protect it adequately with BT. I've been pretty scrupulous about using BT and spinosad to protect my brassicas and yet there are still cabbage moths popping running around. I'm not seeing much leaf damage on my brassicas so I don't know where they are coming from. The BT has been very effective at reducing damage from cabbage worms. There populations should be sharply reduced so where are the moths coming from?

I think getting a harvest from the cukes is still iffy. I'm not having huge problems with germination but the growth of the plants is still fairly slow. Even the largest of the cucumber plants still only have one or two true leaves. If they don't start putting on rapid growth soon I won't get a harvest. But I just couldn't get them to germinate before mid June. Even with chitting. And the one or two seeds that did germinate were incredibly stunted. They seem to need heat.

I'm hoping the squash and cucumbers will grow quickly in July and give me fruit by early August. I may do transplants next year to get a jump on things.

However, the small sugar pumpkins are doing great. They've grown more quickly than any of the other squash and look absurdly healthy. They were the only cucumber family seed that germinated easily in May.

The very dry May has really screwed things up. The natural soil moisture I am used to having is just not there. Even deep waterings seem to dry out in a day. And now I'm finding that our raspberries and blueberries are water starved. Typically they have been able to survive off of rainfall moisture over the summer. But one of the new blueberry plants got neglected and is now almost dead. I'm hoping I can nurse it back to health.

The bees are happy though. The bee mix flowers I planted are going great guns. Well, sort of. One type of flower has completely dominated the others. Lacy phacelia. The bees like it but it is crowding out everything else around it, including the peas and broccoli. I kind of want to yank them but the bees like them so much I don't really have the heart to do so. Bumblebees are especially fond of them.

The ground cherries have yet to flower and I don't know if they are large enough to produce much fruit. I think they needed to be started indoors earlier under strong grow lights. But I might get lucky. I have about ten plants in various stages of growth and I have some hopes they will put out enough fruit to make jam with them. I want to try one.

And now is the time to start planting crops for fall harvest. It seems kind of insane to be thinking about fall harvest when I am still trying to coax the cukes to grow. But July is the month for this.

I've already sowed some seeds for brussels sprouts. The timing is going to be tricky because I would like the sprouts to mature October through Christmas. If I plant too early they will mature too early and may have to face heat that will make them bitter. Too late and there won't be any sprouts at all or at least very few.

Similar issues exist for broccoli. I know broccoli sowed in August won't mature in time. I tried that last year and it didn't work.

The basic goal is to have a bunch of brassicas during fall and winter. Kale, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. As well as arugula, leeks, carrots, raddichio, endive, spinach, chicory, and hopefully some cold tolerant lettuce. Though last year the autumn rain pretty much destroyed the cauliflower heads. I'm thinking of trying another sowing of celery though it is unclear to me whether this is the right time or not. I have had great difficulty properly thinning the celery that germinated.

I have three brussels sprouts plants that I started in the spring. They are still much too small to produce sprouts. I have them in an area that gets partial shade with the hopes they won't get burnt to a crisp in July and August. I put some other brassicas in that area as well working under the same theory.

To my surprise I have at least one fruit on the millionaire eggplant. They have grown pretty well and while they aren't full size they seem to be in good shape. Perhaps the wall o'waters really work. I do plan to remove the wall o' water sometime in July in order to give the plant more sunlight and better air circulation. The Black Beauty eggplant is much smaller. And while it looks healthy I just don't know if I'll get any fruit out of it. It was a long shot regardless.

I think I am going to have to invest in some seriously powerful grow lights this winter. The pissant one I have isn't strong enough to really raise decent seedlings. Next year I'd like to try growing indoor seedlings for melons, ground cherries, cucumbers, eggplant, and tomatoes.

It's predicted to be a hot summer so I hope that will work well for the solanums and cucumbers.

 

[SQWIB]

Kale will overwinter in my zone (7A)
Leave your plants that have gone to seed in the beds to flower for pollinators.

Don't go spendy on plant lights, purchase cheap shoplights but try to get the highest kelvin possible like 6,000k or 6500k
I made mine from LED's and Fluor tubes.
Heat mats on a thermo switch help. Also a fan on a timer helps prevent damping off and legginess.

For your cover crops, plant a legume with your oats like Crimson Clover and cover with cardboard until germination.
Oct 2

Oct 13

For slugs I have used wood ash with OK success and sluggo was better, this year no slug problems due to the mulch on top.

 

[Purrfluff]

Update on 9/8/2018:

The garden is starting to wind down. I probably have about 20 or so growing days left. I assume towards the end of September growth will cease. Sometime in October frost will hit and kill half the plants.

I did finally get some cucumbers but not enough for pickling. Because I kind of gave up on them I didn't pay a lot of attention. And the cucumbers got large. Too large.

The ground cherries finally came true. Their flavor profile is unusual. It does kind of taste like a pineapple but overall I would say they don't have a lot of flavor. They did produce pretty well. I think I have enough for ground cherry jam and I might be able to toss together a ground cherry pie before frost or heavy rain kills the plants.

My small pie pumpkins are ready before they should be. Or at least before I would like them to be. I intend to use them for making pumpkin puree for pumpkin pie. It's been a long time since I've done that. If I remember correctly I have to bake the pumpkin for a while before I can use the flesh.

The celery has been kind of a failure though it is mostly my fault. I didn't thin it properly (I couldn't figure out where one plant began and another ended. So I never thinned enough and I have lots of leaves but very small, thin stalks. I probably won't bother again unless I use transplants from a nursery.

I was able to get most of my fall crops in though I am not sure I got them in on time. I planted seed for brussels sprouts in July and the plants aren't large enough to produce sprouts yet. And if they don't get taller very fast they won't produce sprouts before spring. To that end I have been feeding them heavily with Miracle Go.

I actually planted three brussels sprouts plant in an outside area in the spring and they still aren't very large. They've had at least 7 months to grow. I think most of the reason they are stunted is because the area I stuck them in has poor hose access. So they just didn't get watered in the summer. Though they tolerated drought better than the broccoli stuck in the same area.

However, I foolishly didn't look closely at the center of the plants for a couple of months. I checked them out yesterday... and they clearly were infested with white flies. The sooty mold was all over. But it was hidden under curled leaves (almost like a small head of cabbage) and I didn't notice. I cleaned off the mold and applied a combo spray of neem oil, pyrethrins, and insecticidal soap (it came pre mixed). I'm sure it's too late though.

I guess next year I will have to put in sprouts in late June. And keep the plants sprayed with pyrethrins or spinosad to keep off the whiteflies.

I did plant seeds for fall harvest of the following: Arugula, rutabagas, carrots, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, cabbage (red, green savoyed and Chinese napa), garlic, green onions, leeks, parsnips, beets, swiss chard, cold hardyish lettuce, and spinach.

I think I have a decent shot at getting most of this to come to harvest. However, the cauliflower is growing too slowly to produce heads before shorter days and lower light levels shut everything down. The same thing with the red cabbage. I don't think I will get fully developed heads of the napa cabbage but I think I will get some useable leaves out of them. Some of the carrots may be ready by late winter but many will not. They overwintered fine last year though and continued growing in the spring.

I have let the weeds, especially the grass, get out of control. And almost every square inch of the garden is covered by weeds or veggie plants. The pumpkins especially have vined all over the place. Which makes it difficult to just till everything under and stick in a cover crop. I will probably need to pick a few areas I can clear and throw in oats and fava beans to get them going. There is rain forecast for this week which will be nice.

Most of the plants will continue until October when the rain or frost will kill them. I am very reluctant to pull out plants that are producing, even if they are producing little. My cover crop seed will be mostly grown by myself. I got a decent harvest of oats in an isolated mound of dirt far from the garden. Most of the plants matured and produced oat seed. Now I have just have to separate the useable oat seed from the rest of the stalks. It is a tedious process and I have found that stomping or whacking the stalks isn't separating the seed.

And I saved the seeds from the one fava bean plant I let live from last year. I have a couple dozen seeds but I don't know what the germination rate will be. I let the pods dry down on the plant and then popped out the seeds. I did try planting a couple of them but got no germination. I think it may be too hot for them to germinate now. I will keep trying through September and October. I know the seeds are open pollinated (the variety is called Sweet Lorane). I want to have at least some cover crop where I can find room. I know I should have just gotten fava bean seed from Territorial but I wanted to try and grow my own.

It's going to be pretty dismal when the torrential rains return. It is badly needed but I can't get much done in the rain.

I am trying to grow a lettuce called Continuity. It is supposed to be cold hardy (for a lettuce) and might even survive from frost. I am also trying Little Gem lettuce. I had that last year and the Little Gem took quite a beating all through fall before it finally succumbed.

If I have room and time I might dump into some corn salad seed for cover cropping. I hate to leave the land totally fallow come October but I suppose the frost killed plants will serve as a kind of mulch of cover crop of their own.

 

[alp]

You have done such a lot. Like me, when we have too many pies going, some get forgotten.. but you haven't done badly. Well done.

Like Little gems and they keep quite well as well!

Now I wish I had bought some celery seeds as eating celery has helped with my arthritis. Would love to see some photos though!