the berry box

Years ago when my kids were small we had a sandbox.  I have been considering what to do with it since it is no longer used and have also been considering adding more fruit to the farm.  Last year I began reading about cranberries as I love craisins in salads and learned that cranberries grow in a part sand/part peat mixture.  I divided the sandbox in two parts and built a little platform in the center as that part of the box would be hard to reach to plant, weed or harvest without climbing into the box.  I moved the little bit of sand that was remaining into the north part of the box for the cranberries and planned to put another fruit in the south U-shaped portion.

Over the course of last summer it became apparent that my efforts to amend the soil in my row of six blueberry plants was not working.  The plants were alive but just barely.  They were not thriving.  they were not increasing in size and although they had a few leaves the leaves were yellow in color.  I used a pH kit to try to see what the pH of the soil was.  I added vinegar and coffee grounds and sulfur with no improvement noted.  I am not sure how long those amendments need in order to cause a change  I bought a pH meter and still my soil was not acidic.

Over the winter I did some reading and video watching about gardening blueberries in containers and began to think about moving my blueberries and decided to put them in the other part of the sandbox.  One of the videos I watched suggested a container mix that was 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 wood bark chips and 1/3 azalea potting mix. Early this spring I began trying to source those products in order to prep the space and hopefully move the blueberries while there were still dormant.  In this post  there is a picture of the sandbox  with its two sides with their special soil mixtures and here is a picture of the planted bed.  Right now I have the sundial sitting on the center platform but I can also picture it with a birdbath or some form of garden art.  It would also be pretty with some potted flowers. 

The cranberries are looking great.  It is hard to tell for sure about the blueberries.  Are they still dormant?  Just starting to notice that it is spring?  There are the brown twigs but also some paler twigs which I am hopeful are new growth.  not having had any successful experience with blueberries I am not sure what to expect.

Got my fingers crossed.

a garden update--where to start

So I worked outside a lot this weekend and took a bunch of pictures tonight before i came in the house and now the question is how to pull it together into a post that makes sense.   One of the reasons I write about the garden is to create a garden journal of sorts.  My photos are more to document than decorate.  Maybe someday I will take pictures that are just beautiful.

So where to start?  Maybe with the lawn.  We had some rain and then we had some hot weather and the lawn grew like crazy.  It was hard to keep up. I didn't keep up.  So, part of it had to be mowed twice, once with the deck up and then again with the deck down.  There was all those grass clippings to pick up.  So I have been using the lawn sweeper to collect the clippings and I am using them as mulch to keep down the weeds in the garden and it has been working so I decided that with the abundance of clippings that I could use them a few more places.

Here is the blueberry bed after I weeded it, added a soil amendment to help acidify the soil, threw on some old pine needles to also acidify the soil, watered it well and then covered the soil with a nice thick layer of grass clippings.

And here is a picture of my few berries just starting to turn blue.

And here is a shot of my black raspberries.  They turn red before they turn black and I have been checking them every day or two.  They have not started to turn black yet but there are many that are missing so i think the birds are not waiting for them to get ripe.  I am going to have to come up with a way to cover them with bird net next year.

red berries

no more berries

I have been pleased with how they are doing and I think that there will be more berries next year.  We still have lots of volunteer canes around the yard so I think i am going to start another row in the cornfield.

Here is my apple project that I worked on Saturday.  I noticed that when I mow I cannot get close enough with the mower so I dug up the sod to make the circle larger and mulched with grass clippings to help keep the weeds down.

Can you see the apples?  They are getting bigger!

 And here is the other apple tree.  It is next in line for a bigger mulched circle.  These apples are getting bigger as well.

And as long as we are talking about fruit, here is a shot of the developing grape crop.  We have four grapevines and here are pictures of the fruit of two of them.  One of these will turn dark purple when ripe.  They are a small grape with seeds, not easy to eat like a table grape but great for jelly.  This year I think it might be fun to try making a few bottles of wine.  I think a little research is needed.

Here is the Johnny corn.  The tallest stalks are as tall as me or taller. 

And they are getting tassels.

No ears started yet.  Here is the other variety we planted, the Perry corn.  It was planted several weeks later and is half as tall but the stand seems to be more consistent probably because the weather conditions were better--warmer and drier soil.

Here is Cody standing between the yellow squash plant and the Perry corn.  As usual she is trying to hide from the camera but it gives an idea of the height of the corn.

While I have been mowing I have not been weeding so you will see a few (I wish it was only a few) weeds in these pictures.  Here is our dill.

Here is a yellow squash plant...

And a peek at a yellow squash...

These are acorn squashes...flowering but no fruits yet.

And butternut squashes in the front and pumpkins in the back...

Zucchini on the right...

cantaloupes and yellow watermelon...

gourds on the left and a double row of bush beans on the right...

The vine crops are starting to move so it is time to begin evaluating the spacing of the plants for next year and to consider which would benefit from trellising of some sort to grow vertically.  At this point in time the zucchini and yellow squashes are just starting to set fruit, the butternuts, acorns and pumpkins are flowering and the melons are not flowering yet.  The melon plants are also smaller, lower to the ground with smaller leaves.

This is the row of cucumbers green ones on the left side of the fence and lemon cukes on the right side of the fence. 

This is looking like it could be a challenge.  The cucumbers are all over the place, I will need to look at plant spacing and better trellising.  The plants are planted in a double row and the plants are only 5-6 inches apart in the row.  The trellis is looking like it is not going to be up to the task.

Pole beans climbing the fence...

Next post--tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, potager




 

first of the month garden update-berries and 'gus

Last year Caitlin and I transplanted some of the black raspberry canes that have grown wild along the edges of our grove into a row near the potager.  We nursed them along hoping that without competition from weeds and trees and a little TLC they would take root and provide bigger and better berries than the wild ones.  A few of the plants did not flourish and later in the summer these were replaced with more.  This is what they look like now.

The old growth from last year has smaller leaves and had flowers this spring.  Here is a shot of some of last years growth with the developing berries.

 And here is a shot of the new growth.  These did not have flowers and so there are no developing berries.  I will be watching to see if they fruit yet this fall or if we wait until next year.  I love the pleated look of the leaves.  There is quite a bit of this new growth especially at the north end of the row. 

The raspberries always remind me of my kids' Grandpa Warren who would stop over every summer to forage for berries.

Here is a couple of shots of our asparagus.  We have had so much wind that they seem to be growing at an angle.  I took some string and tried to keep the fronds out of the way of the mower.  There are still spears coming up and the temptation to pick them is great but I know I must let them go to get stronger plants for next year.  The two replacement plants are doing well.  Today I added a little more dirt to their holes.

And then the blueberries.  I have been worrying over these six blueberry plants.

We planted them in 2011 and last year they did not do much.  They didn't really grow and all my efforts to acidify the soil seemed to have no effect.  It was with bated breath that I watched in the spring to see if they would come up.  They did.  I have six plants, two each of three varieties and each of the pair seems to be doing  similarly.  I have one variety that is small and more yellow in color.  I am still worried about these guys.

One variety that is more green,

And one variety that has berries forming!  These guys give me hope.

Not a lot of berries but I am excited to see even these few.

watering the cornfield

Well, we didn't get the rain that was predicted on Friday so on Saturday I hauled water to the cornfield to water.  The little green wagon that pulls behind the lawn mower holds 8 cat litter boxes and I think that I made six trips.  I got all of the south half and the melon patch done and half of the Johnny's sweet corn.  I am still considering laying a hose through the grove to allow for easier watering.  I may have to get some measurements to see what I have for hose and how wide the grove is.  I am not sure how easy it will be to drag that much hose to the end of the cornfield. 

The weed situation is pretty grim.  With all the moisture that we have had the lawn and the weeds are flourishing. I did weed the orchard, rhubarb, blueberries, asparagus and black raspberries.  There were two holes in the row of asparagus and the two new transplants that were grown for those spots are now planted and everything got a drink of water.  There were a few blossoms on one variety of blueberry and lots of blossoms on the raspberries. 

I am noticing that there are blossoms on the older growth of raspberries (what we planted last year). There is also lots of new growth coming which is not flowering yet.  Perhaps it will not flower until next year.  I will have to note where the fruit comes and then make note what to prune.  These plants are transplants from those that have grown wild on the edges of the grove so we do not know what variety they were. 

The grape plants got weeded and watered but I still have to weed the patio stones under the arbor.  All four of the grape vines are getting lots of little baby grapes.

I have lots of weeding left to do in the flower beds so that will be on the agenda for this week as well as planting the rest of the sweet corn.  It will be interesting to see if there is a benefit come harvest to staggering the plantings of the corn.   

Took Sunday off to go to the lake for Father's Day.  The mosquitoes were thick by the time we got back to the farm so there was no chance for evening weeding.  I did harvest a few radishes and made some kale chips to take along to the lake. 

Happy Father's Day, Dad!