90 days till first frost

It is hard to believe given the relatively cool summer we have had, but we are only 90 days away from October 20th - the date known as our average first frost date. Our first hard frost date is scheduled for October 31st. This morning I did some fall/winter seed planning and a little planting. With 90 days to go until the first frost, any of the long season veggies that I hope to harvest need to get in the ground soon. Cabbage, beets, and carrots come to mind. If these have the time to reach full size they can be harvested even after the first frost. Carrots can be harvested well into the winter - and I have heard that their taste sweetens after frost. Peas, and beans have a slightly shorter days to maturity - along with some of the chinese cabbages and kales. The shortest days to maturity veggies are the spinaches, and lettuces.

This morning I worked a couple empty spots in the chimney garden. The three spots I worked had previously held garlic, lettuce, and spring snow peas. In that order, I planted early wonder beets, spinach, and green arrow peas. I also tossed in 3 random red cabbage seeds in a little corner of the spinach bed. Before planting, I composted heavily. This section of garden doesn't get a ton of light, so I am skeptical about the beets, but I think the peas and spinach will do just fine. The beets are also suceptible to the ground hog, so there is another strike against them. But my beet crop has been so crummy this year that I just felt I needed to give it one more crack. The spinach I planted inside a fenced area, so they should do fine. The groundhog hasn't eaten my peas yet.

Our harvest weight now exceeds 120 lbs and tomatoes are being harvested daily. One of my co-workers has a father who is a big gardener. She has been bringing zukes, cukes, peppers and cabbage in to share with us. Funny but I have harvested exactly zero zukes (groundhog), 3 cukes (groundhog), zero peppers (late start from seed), zero cabbage (still kind of small - waiting till fall), so these veggies actually are quite a welcome addition. I picked our first corn, and it was a dissapointment. It was from the earliest sun garden planting (golden bantam). Either it wasn't ready yet or this is a strange variety. We used it and a bunch of other random veggies to make some veggie stock.

The work I did last week on the rain barrels seems to be holding up. Instead of securing the spigots with silicone caulk as I had done previously - this time I used that foam insulating sealant called "Great Stuff". So far so good. The barrels are all full and holding their water with no visible leaks. Some of the barrels fill much faster than others, which I can't quite figure. I guess it has more to do with the roof and downspout placement than it does with the barrels, but I does always surprise me how slowly some fill (including my double-stack).

How many rain barrels does one garden need?

How about 7 - holding 300 gallons of water. Does that sound like enough? We'll see.

I added two more rain barrels to my collection yesterday. The boys and I went for a romp through the Allegheny river flood plain hoping to identify another barrel or two, and we had much fun and success. As an ancillary benefit - I learned about the history of this area (from my sons) which evidently includes a ghost train and thousands of hoofed aliens. Every piece of litter we passed along the way (and there was plenty) was an artifact which helped us reconstruct the truth.

We found the mother load of rain barrels along plum creek, a small tributary feeding into the Allegheny. Altogether we found 6 barrels of various shapes and sizes and took two of them home. We took home one nice looking grey 60 gallon barrel. The only thing missing was a lid for this nice little barrel. But I liked it enough to add it to our collection. I fashioned a lid out of the plastic bottom to a pot. I didn't drill a spigot hole in this one because without a lid - it will be perfect for dunking the watering can, which fills it much faster. The other rain barrel I saved was a small 30 gallon clear one called the "cube". It has very thick walls and a handle on top. I think it was used for ice in it's past life. I drilled the spigot hole right at the very bottom of the barrel and set it up on blocks burried behind the privite along the stairs leading up to the house. This barrel and another 35 gallon one will water my roma tomatoes and corn in the two lower wall gardens. With my two new barrels in operation - I reorganized. I now have a 120 gallon double stack right beside the sun garden. Right on cue - not twenty minutes after completing and reorganizing my barrels - it started to rain.

My mom came to visit yesterday, and I showed her around the garden. We had asparagus for dinner, which was delicious. There isn't much left to harvest at this point, but we'll do the best we can. I think I can squeeze another meal of asparagus and at least three salads out of our current crop during her visit. The harvest isn't so important. What I really need the compost pile to do well during her visit. This blog and my mom's Ellensburg friends have turned my compost pile into the stuff of internet legend. I need that pile to heat up and turn to the finest peat by the time she leaves or else my reputation will be ruined. I plan to secretly bring compost into the house in the morning before my mom's arrival. One yard in the dryer and another in the oven should get the pile sufficiently heated up. I hope my wife won't mind.

3 more small harvests (asparagus- twice, lettuce, spinach, radishes, beat leaves, shallot leaves, onion leaves) since the last harvest update. Estimated total 2009 harvest now sits at 3 pounds.

Easter chores

These photos are of the strawberry wall (see previous post). Yuck - I hate this section. The strawberries are on the low side of the hill, very top of the wall. In the plastic I planted pumpkins and mellons last year. I have the same plans this year. Like I said yesterday - a wonderful permanent solution awaits. I just haven't been inspired yet.

I planted some corn today. One of the sun garden rows is dedicated to corn. I have a variety called Golden Bantam. This variety is supposed to stay about 3-4 ft tall. I didn't want the 9 ft variety I planted last year in the sun garden rotation plan because it would likely shade another row or two, but I am hoping the golden bantam plays nice with the neighbors. I planted about 1/4 of the row (the east section - gets the most sun). I planted corn in the sun garden last year on 4/20 and it did well. It came up fast, so I needed to cover it a few chilly nights, but for the most part it was a nice garden success story. Not entirely sure I have enough goldam bantam seed to fill this row.

I planted three herbs that came in the mail from Shumway. I think they are chives and taragon. These are for Sarah's herb garden, but they had been sitting around the house for a couple of days, so I just stuck them in the ground in a temp location.

I potted up some tomatoes yesterday. I started these in flats a while back, and I have them scheduled for either pots or cold frames soon. I potted them in soil/compost mix to give them some nutrients and a little more room to grow. Their roots had pretty much filled out the six packs.

1. Early bird garden - started 2/27 - 3 seelings - final destination is likely in large pots
2. Shebyogan - started 3/9 - 5 seedlings - this variety is said to do well in hanging baskets, so I might try that
3. Silver fir - started 3/7 - 5 seedlings - These may get a row in the sun garden along with the cherry tomatoes that I have going. I may move them to the cold frame next.
   

The pepper seeds are now doing much better. 17 have emerged and one flat is still pretty fresh, so I expect at least that many more. I will have enough.

I did another 1/4 lb kale, beet leaf harvest for Easter dinner. We had a side dish of carrots, kale, beet leaves mixed with balsmic vinegar. Total 2009 havest to date 1 3/4 lbs.

I rowed on the water this morning. While we were rowing I noticed a rain barrel washed up on the shore. After the row I nabbed it and made another one. This now gives me five working barrels. I still need one more for myself, and a few more for friends who have put in orders.

Shallots coming up

I saw the shallots poking through last night. We also harvested more beet leaves, spinach, rosemary, carrot tops, and asparagus for dinner this evening. I am basically out of salad supplies. Only about 6 tiny little spinach seedlings are left. Lettuce is all gone. The "2nd round" of lettuce and spinach is still too small to pillage. I have some sprouts to tide me over and could probably make one more salad out of these 6 spinach seedlings. The asparagus is also coming in pretty well now. I counted over 20 of them this morning.

This year will definately go down as a successfull "test year" for spring season extension. But in order for next year to be a success, I will need much more quantity. I think a good thick fall cold frame planting of spinach, kale, swiss chard, beets etc will be the key. I also plan to improve my cold frame lids (possibly making a double layer of protection), and planting seeds in January. The fall planting of stuff will be my round #1 harvest and the January seeds should be round #2.

Carrots are not doing well in the garden at all so far. I think I planted those teeny, tiny seeds too deep because I was afraid of the cold. I need to start another batch this weekend. The 10 inch pot with carrots is doing quite well. I thinned them yesterday and had some carrot tops on my sandwich for dinner. The carrot roots were still very small, but were running nice and deep and were starting to turn orange.

I woke up at 5:30 - all excited to do some spinach and green onion planting. Yuck - steady, soaking rain. No gardening at all this morning, but at least the rain barrels are all full. Any chance I will need all that rain water? Doesn't seem like it right now in spring - but July and August? I bet we will need it. I pulled another barrel out of the river a couple of days ago and need to get it cleaned out and fixed up with a spigot. It was pretty dirty on the inside. I think I am going to go crazy with detergent and tri-sodium phosphate to get the gunk out. I will let water cycle through it for a couple times before I use this barrel for the garden.

Barrels and Drawings

Yesterday was compost day and today was rain barrel day. I finally got the two remaining rain barrels water tight and attached to the gutters. I also completed one barrell to deliver to a work friend of mine. We are now rolling with 4 working rain barrels and 230 gallons of water. I still have one more barrel to work up to complete my barrel collection. On my downspouts I use a device called a water saver (clean air gardening $30). It diverts the water from the downspout to the barrel through a rubber hose. When the barrel is full, the backpressure in the hose sends the water back down the downspout. It is about an hour job for each downspout requiring some hacksawing and tin snipping, but for the most part is pretty easy. The extra work is worth it because the water saver automatically shuts off the water flow to the barrel when it is full. That little device saves me the pain of hooking up some silly looking overflow devices on each barrel and cursing an swearing every time I trip over them or they leak. The water saver is about $30. I'd recommend it.

That double stacked barrel in one of the photos is a new experiment for us this year. These barrels are closest to our main garden, so it saves us a long walk with the watering can. It puts almost 100 gallons right where we need it. There is also the hope that the additional height provided by the top barrel will give me enough pressure to water with a hose. We'll see if it works. I tested the water-sharing mechanism today and it worked fine. The bottom spigot on the top barrel is connected to a top spigot on the bottom barrel by a laundry hose. Both these spigots are continually left open. The water enters the top barrel from the downspout. When it reaches the height of the spigot, it drains into the bottom barrel. When the water in the bottom barrel reaches the height of it's top spigot, the water has no where to go, so it doesn't drain down and fills the top barrel. Pretty neat little system. I don't think I invented it - I'm sure I read about it on-line somewhere.

The other photo here is Sarah's drawing of our back yard. She is teaching herself to do landscape art drawings. They are very helpful to our planning and also quite pretty. I have always liked architectural drawings and pencil sketches as art. These drawings have a little of both.

Rain

The plastic drop cloth approach to making lids to the cold frames isn't very good. They don't hold up very well to the rain. The water pools on them and smushes the plants. We had a lot of rain the last couple of days. I might have lost some broccoli, lettuce and onions because of the smushing. When I am off for the baby this summer, I am going to build some permanent lids for the big frame.

The rain barrels are full. Both compost piles are letting off a ton of heat. That mushroom manure certainly is the key to getting those things fired up.

Rain Barrel Factory

I have a dilemma. All my gardening friends know I have rain barrels and they want one. I can find them for free in the river and I am happy to turn this riverbank garbage into something usable. The dilemma is that I am not very good at making them. The barrel in this photo is one of perhaps two barrels that I have successfully made that don't leak. I have always tried the easy and cheap approach to rain barrel construction - drill one hole, screw in a hose bib, caulk heavily with silicone. I think this approach can work if the hole is the perfect size, but as time and use of the rain barrel adds up, the hose bib sometimes loosens and the barrel begins to leak. I have tried every hardware store to find a 3/4 pvc hose bib thinking I would glue it with PVC cement. I can't find one anywhere. Last week I bought $15 of silly little fittings and stuff from Eilers in the hope of jimmy rigging a pvc bib. I think I'm going to return them. Too many fittings cost too much, look too silly and would probably leak anyway. The one thing I think I may have to do to ensure a good tight fit is to put some rubber washers and nuts on the inside of the barrel. The only way to do that is to be able to reach down in. The only way to do that is to cut a hole in the top. That complicates everything. Now we have to worry about screens and drowning critters and babies. I'll keep searching the internet. Some internet entreprenuer has a magic elixir somewhere, I just know it.

Rain Barrels and Seed exchange

I pulled another barrel out of the river today. This one had washed up on shore at Dori and Laci's house. It is a pretty nice clean blue one. I am also delivering a finished barrel to a friend of mine - Ryan. We are having a little seed exchange party later this afternoon.

I brainstormed some rain barrel strategies with Laci and Sarah this morning. I think the next spigot strategy I am going to try is a 3/4 inch pvc spigot, secured with pvc cement. Laci thinks that the barrels are made from pvc and that the cement will "melt" the spigot and the barrel together. I also want to step up to a 3/4 inch spigot to speed up the water delivery. It takes a long time to fill a watering can with the 1/2 inch spigots.

I am out of PVC cement, and Home Depot (basically the worst store in the world) didn't have any PVC spigots. So instead of the plan I want to try above, I just caulked the heck out of them with silicone and screwed the metal spigots back in. Two of the barrels I am cautiously optimistic will work without leaking. The other two don't have a prayer. The holes in those two are just not clean enough. I need to try something different with those if I want them to work without leaking. I now have two active 60 gallon barrels, which are about 1/2 full with water. I have another ready to go (sun garden), but I need to cut the downspout and install the water saver to activate it. I'll try to go to Eilers tonight and grab some PVC spigots and PVC cleaner and PVC cement. I should also get a matching 3/4 inch drill bit. I have not been able to get clean holes with the jigsaw.

Garden Goals

Every good project needs some goals. Here are some of mine for the garden season...

1. Don't buy nursery stock. Start everything from seed this year. Last year's seed starting was a complete failure. Not enough light made leggy stuff that I forced outside too early. The fact that anything survived was a complete miracle. This year's seed starting is going much, much better.
2. Better variety - Last year was marked by too many romas, and hot peppers and not enough of everything else. I want Mellons, rhubarb, beans, zukes, onions, potatoes, brussel sprouts - and much much more this year. Although I am not forbidding the Stacy family from buying veggies at Giant Eagle this year - we certainly aspire to grow all our veggies. In order to do this, we need much more variety. I can only eat so much spaghetti.
3. Extend the season - I hope to look back on this season and be able to point to some tangible evidence that I successfully extended the season. Perhaps that means spinach in April or Kale in December, but something to help justify all the lost seedlings and rolls of plastic.
4. Crop rotation/succession planting - Much like the goal around season extension, I want to be able to say at the end of the season (without fibbing) that I had some success with succession planting and crop rotation. I think succession planting will be a key to help me with goals #2 Variety and #3 Extension. Small little rows planted every two weeks will keep us in veggies all season, rather than being overwhelmed with a ton of one type of veggie at "harvest time".
5. Enough Compost - Can you ever have enough compost? I hope so. I don't want to have to skimp on the black gold this year. I have two 25 cubic foot bins of the stuff that I am cooking. I am gathering hair, ash and tree trimmings from the neighborhood. I want to have a surplus!
6. No Hose Watering - There has to be a reason I pulled all those rain barrels out of the river. Fix the leaks, divert the gutters, and make those things useful!
7. Compost Tea - Combine goals 5 and 6 and you get a big burlap sack of compost sitting at the bottom of one of my rain barrels brewing compost tea!
8. Family - Have fun and keep the kids involved.