pictures

A few flower pictures which are blurry due to the very windy conditions:

lilac flowers starting to open

west apple tree

east apple tree

ornamental flowering crab

 a few greenhouse pictures:

Kohlrabi

peppers (three kinds)

asparagus

tomatoes (five kinds)

marigolds

East end of the greenhouse

eggplant

sage

west end of the greenhouse

butternut squash

and half done with the raspberries

the row of raspberry canes

the unfinished half, old canes and long grass

the finished half, canes tied to wire and weeded

I have been working on the raspberries.  A couple years ago I dug up some black raspberry canes that grow wild on the edges of our grove.  I was hoping that by moving them to a dedicated space of their own that I could get bigger, easier to pick fruit.  Usually by the time the fruit is ripening the weeds have made it difficult to get to the berries to pick them.  These raspberries fruit on the second year canes.  So each season there are three types of canes, the new ones, the one year canes from last year that will fruit this year and the two year old or older canes that have fruited.  The growth habit of these canes is that they grow tall and are arching.  When the tip of the cane touches the ground they develop roots and will start another plant.  This habit will eventually create a thicket or bramble if not managed.  This is what happens on the edge of my grove.  Last year was the first year that we have gotten much of a crop off of these plants and so this spring I am cutting back the spent canes and tying the year old canes to the top wire to keep them from arching all over the yard.  Last year it got to be impossible to weed or even mow close.  This year I am determined to do a better job of keeping the canes fastened.  I have been pruning the old canes and pulling the grass that is growing around the plants.  Then I am using long twist ties to fasten the prickly canes to the wire.  I have a low wire that is not helpful at all and I will remove that once I get the rest of the row done.  I am using the stirrup hoe to weed out any remaining grass or weeds and when the row is finished I will mow close, cutting the long grass on the edge of the bed that has been growing under the arching canes.  Once the new canes start to grow they will need to be tied up as well but getting these done will make it so much easier.

I am transplanting more raspberries into the big garden.  They will be planted between the posts alternating with rows of asparagus, four sections of each.  I started last year and hope to finish this year.  It will be a couple of years before we are able to harvest a crop.  Last year I made a jalapeno onion black raspberry chutney (recipe here) and I have been pinning raspberry recipes on pinterest and keeping my fingers crossed that we get a big crop.  

April showers...

After missing the last couple of predicted rains we are finally getting some moisture.  So far the rain has been a gentle shower.  I don't have my rain gauge out yet as we are still in line for some lows in the upper 20s and sure enough I would forget to empty it and it would be done for but I am glad to be getting some precipitation.

I have been working on getting the tomato and pepper seedlings up potted into cups and tomorrow should be the last of them.  This year we are trying two hot peppers and a bell pepper.  I have not grown peppers from seed so it is a new this year.  So far they seem to be doing okay.  We selected six different tomatoes, a hybrid slicer, two heirloom slicers, an heirloom paste and two cherry tomatoes, one a standard sized cherry and one a grape sized cherry.  Both of the cherries are heirloom as well.  So far the plants are looking healthy.  It is fun seeing the tub after tub of cups lining the tables and shelves.

I planted a few potatoes.  Last year I didn't get all of my potatoes dug before the snow came.  This year I am going to grow some above ground in containers.  I started some in containers last year but they did not get the attention that they needed as they were in the potager which was mostly neglected.  I am hoping that having them planted in the big garden will work better.

Yesterday I had a chance to work on the raspberry row and the asparagus row that are near the potager.  I raked away as much of the dead plant material as I could but will still need to do some hand weeding.  No sign of asparagus popping through the soil yet but the raspberries are starting to get some leaves on the canes and I noticed some signs of life in the row of sand cherries as well.  Mom and Dad have rhubarb coming but theirs is a bit protected.  Mine is only protected by weeds. :) 

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.