Frugal Upstate's Garden Journal

Garden Update June 2008

2008-06-06T17:35:00.002-04:00

The hay bale garden has been planted up for about 4 days. I finished putting the extra dirt on and planted lettuce seeds yesterday.

I started seeds this year at the time recommended on the package (ie 7 weeks before average last frost date etc). Next year I'd like to start them even earlier and then transplant them into larger pots so they will be larger at planting out time-more commensurate with the seedlings you would buy at a nursery. Maybe if I backed it up about 4 or 5 weeks. . .

For expenses thus far this year:

$90 30 Hay Bales
$10 water timer
$9 Potting soil
$28 2 bags garden soil and bean innoculant
$32.78 self watering greenhouse, coleus seeds, grow bulb
$22.90 self watering greenhouse, chamomile seeds
$38.75 wave petunias, 36 each (for flowerboxes)
$100 Petunias, geraniums, ivy, wave petunias (for flowerboxes)
$45 self watering window boxes for front porch
$50 hanging plants for front porch
$20 seeds and seedlings via mail for veggie garden
$24 raspberry canes

Obviously some of this stuff is reuseable.

6-21 Fertilizer

2006-06-21T14:06:00.000-04:00

I bought some organic fertilizer and fertilized all of the vegetables in the back. I still need to hit the ground cherries, tomatoes, and peppers out front.

6-20

2006-06-21T00:23:00.000-04:00

Thinned out the chard to 4 per sq foot. The thinnings made up a large bowl of sauted greens for dinner, as well as a few in the salad.

Pulled up 2 more heads of buttercrunch lettuce, and all of the measly spinach crop (must get that in MUCH earlier next year).

Planted carrots around the 2 back peppers in the second raised bed. Still need to interplant some crops around the eggplant and cabbage that went into the future asparagus bed.

picked about 15 more pea pods. The kids ate them!

No sign of germination for the scallions or the kohlrabi yet.

Started throwing scraps in the second compost pile. That will be the pile for the rest of the summer (dh will continue to mulch around the pumpkins and the squash planted into the old compost pile with grass clippings)

6-18 Update

2006-06-18T12:02:00.000-04:00

Well, I have not kept up with what is going on!

This week a few of my petunias in the front circular bed have blossomed. Very exciting. The candytuft there looks like it will be blooming soon as well.

Something seems to have eaten my zinnas, I bought some wax begonias and impatiens to fill in that side of the figure 8 bed.

Last week I finished filling in the asparagus bed. tues I went to frog pond farms and bought dill, Summer savory, parsely (which went in the regular garden beds) and 4 red cabbage, 1 white eggplant and 1 purple eggplant (which went in the asparagus bed-asparagus will be planted next spring).

I planted the purple podded stringless beans on the 7th, they are all finally up and showing the first set of seed leaves. All the kentucky wonder and the few scarlet runner I planted next to the peas have been up for a while.

The bush beans and lima beans have been up for about a week.

I planted carrots (thumbelina) around the peppers, and plan to plant more in between the eggplants and cabbage.

Yesterday I finally go the soil mixed up for the tire tower and planted my seed potatoes (bought again on tues from frogpond, then cut and let dry outside for 2 days).

I gave up on the scallions I had planted originally in the old bed this spring. There are no signs of anything. I went ahead and planted in kohlrabi instead.

I had also harvested some lettuce and spinach, and re-sowed with slo-bolt lettuce.

I drew a small trench to the south of the purple podded stringless beans and sowed another packet of scallions. We'll see if we get anything from them.

Bought an ornamental gourd seedling and an acorn squash seedling. Planted them directly in the compost heap yesterday.

bough a new cherry tomato plant-planted it on the side of the house where 2 of the 4 ground cherry plants had died. Dug a trench and laid it on its side after pinching off the leaves to give it a better root structure. Also took the 3 in the back corner of the side there and buried part of their stems as well (they were sort of leaning down on their sides anyway.)

Have been reading "the 20 minute vegetable gardener" which has some good recommendations for spring salad greens I hadn't considered (for next year) and for some fall crops like asian radishes and asian cabbage. I'll post that info later.

Stuff is up

2006-06-06T15:24:00.000-04:00

My scarlet runner beans are all up. My regular pole beans, lima beans and bush beans are poking their heads out in varying degrees. I planted the row of purple podded stringless pole beans today.

The row for the pole beans was totally dug in by ants yesterday. I mixed about 1/4 cup cinnamon and 1/4 cup cayanne pepper into the soil last night, and today they were gone. Yeah natural stuff! I didn't want to kill them, just to get them to move.

My NZ spinach is also up. I thinned it to 2 sprouts at each location, will thin down to 1 in a few days when I see which is stronger.

Need to transplant some of the chard. They are getting big. Also need to move the Lima beans (where I accidentally overplanted them with the pepper plants.)

Some of my candytuft in the bed nearest the house is blooming. The other two beds out front don't have anything that looks like a flower yet.

Memorial Day

2006-06-01T16:53:00.000-04:00

A very busy garden day.

I transplanted 8 peppers, 3 cukes, Basil, Dill, Cilantro into garden beds. Transplanted 3 tomatoes around the clothes line, as well as some swiss chard (thinned from regular bed) Planted the Lovage next to the chives, planted up the "herb"pot and strawberry pot.

On side of house transplanted 4 ground cherries, and 5 extra tomato plants.

In front beds transplanted 4 candlelight peppers, all the pinks, all the zinnias, all the petunias.

In the wiskey barrels transplanted 4 pattypan squash, 4 acorn squash, 3 watermelon, 4 jenny lind melon.

Planted bush beans, kentucky wonder beans, trombucio squash, lima beans.

Last week transplanted 4 pumpkins behind the shed, and planted the scarlet runner beans in the window boxes.

5-24 update

2006-05-25T11:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday (the 24th) I planted lima beans, radishes, turnips, and kohlrabi. I also watered all the non germinated seeds down. I noticed that some of the slo-bolt lettuce is up, but no movement on the scallions or carrots.

growing blueberries link

2006-05-20T10:30:00.000-04:00

Here is a good article on growing blueberries.

5-17

2006-05-18T06:04:00.000-04:00

Dug the asparagus bed. Piled the sod next to DH's "Barn". Ready for the crowns to show up in the mail!

I do need to add some compost into the bottom-will buy some today (thurs 18th) Also saw that phosporus is supposed to be very vital for the crowns to produce well-we'll see.

Also thinned the little chard sprouts out to one per planting spot (There were about 3 or 4 sprouts at each spot)

5-15 & 16

2006-05-17T08:28:00.000-04:00

I spent a lot of my free time the last two days planting out seedlings from my winter sowing. I planted the dwarf petunias all through the middle part of the round bed, then I planted the Candy Tuft at one ft intervals around the edge. My research says these are perennials, and they should be mulched with pine boughs for the winter. We shall see.

I took some of the extra petunias and planted them in the bed near the house. I also totallly weeded the front bed between the trees, and some of the bed near the house (which is full of itty bitty weeds)

I have my nicotania and pinks to plant out in the next day or so. In about a week I'll start hardening off the teddy bear sunflowers, zinnias and veggies.

Also, the tulip foliage is starting to look pretty nasty. I'm going to leave it as long as I can to nourish the bulbs, but then those babies are going to get hacked off at the soil line. The daffodill foliage doesn't look as bad so that will stay even longer.

Gardening Sat 13th May

2006-05-13T19:43:00.000-04:00

Made 2 batches of soil mix. Filled 4 cedar 1/2 barrels (used plastic tubs, egg cartons, milk bottles etc as filler for 2/3 of it) 3 long and 2 shorter window boxes, Princess's garden, and the area for the sweetpeas in the front beds.

Mixed compost in with the soil around the base of the clothesline poles. Scratched 1 trowel of compost into every open square in the original Sq Ft garden. Also scratched in compost along the pea row and around the cabbage seedlings.

Mixed compost in with the soil behind the shed (will plant pumpkins there)

Planted out Sweet Pea seedlings from Winter Sowing containers into the front flower beds.

Friend came and took all the rosebushes on the left side of the house (leaving nice area for Blueberry bushes) and most of the Bleeding heart.

Cut edge of left side flower bed, totally weeded, broke up soil and mixed in 1 1/2 bags of compost.

Buried 4 milk jugs in the front bed with 2 pinprick holes as watering jugs.

5/12 Chard Seedlings

2006-05-12T11:10:00.000-04:00

Finally, we have germination on the 3 squares of chard I planted out in the garden.

5/10 update

2006-05-10T08:14:00.000-04:00

Bought 6 large bags of compost from a local farm yesterday. Then went to Frog Pond Farms and bought more scarlet runner beans, 2 blueberry bushes, and a bunch of veggies to eat.

I was also offered 5 hills of rhubarb from a neighbor. I need to dig some of it up and move it over (now that I have compost to fortify it with). She said that I could wait until fall if I though that moving it now would kill it. I'll probably move some and then leave some growing over at her place to harvest, just in case!!

No sprouting yet on the Chard I planted. I am studiously keeping them moist.

Tied up the Clematis that has started growing on the clothesline posts. I bought those last year and they did NADA! This year they suddenly took an interest in life.

Ordered Slobolt lettuce seed, asparagus crowns, and new zealand spinach seed online last night.

5/4 update

2006-05-05T07:17:00.000-04:00

Well, on the 3rd DH and I put the string markers on my two square foot gardens so I could see where the 1 ft squares are.

Yesterday (4th) I planted 3 squares of Chard. I'll probably plant more. I planted them 1 per 2" (6X6 block) in each square. When they are bigger and need to be thinned, I'll take the "thinned" ones and plant them out in the front flower beds. I think that will work better than my orignial idea for Kale since the Chard doesn't bolt.

5/2

2006-05-02T19:13:00.000-04:00

Well, between yesterday and today I finally mixed up the soil for the new 4X8 raised bed. It took a 3/4 of a large bale of peat moss, 2 big bags of vermiculite and about 8 bags of compost.

I planted 2 cabbage seedlings that were given to my by the neighbor in the original bed. I also filled 3 more flats with soil. I plan to start Kale and the Scarlet Runner beans tomorrow, as well as to use the new nylon string I bought to mark off my square feet in the gardens.

I need to buy more compost to mix up the soil for the 2 "squash" planters and for the window box planters on the deck that the scarlet runner beans will be planted in.

Still to be figured out are homes for the rubarb, asparagus, blueberries and raspberries that I want to plant this year. I am especially anxious for the asparagus and rubarb as they take a few years to really get goint.

4/28 update

2006-04-28T08:07:00.000-04:00

Well, it is Friday.

Last saturday I thinned out all my indoor seedlings. I did prick out and transplant some of the tomatoes, mini bell peppers, zinnias, and basil. They all seem to have survived the shock. Otherwise I either pulled out or cut off the seedlings to leave only 1 per cell, with the exception of the acorn squash. Usually you want to have a few of those per hill anyway, and their stems were so close I was worried that I'd kill them both trying to separate the roots. The petunias planted in the peat pots are up, and I planted some beets in the super small cells yesterday (according to victory garden you can transplant beets.)

Outside, my peas have been up for about 4 days. Some of the actual seeds had swollen and worked their way to the surface, If they sprouted already I left them where they were, if not I sort of reburied them. None of the reburied ones have come up yet.

Also my seedlings for the buttercrunch, turnip greens and a few of the spinach are up outside. The Turnip greens from last fall are growing like gangbusters, but the Kale and Spinach left over aren't doing much of anything.

I dug out about half of the Bleeding heart I want to get rid of in the front bed. They are sitting in little pots to be given away. I'll dig the rest soon, to include some to go down to mom's house, then add some compost/mulch into the bed. I want to try to interplant some cool weather crops in that bed as it is very shaded. Lettuce and some ornamental Kale I think. Then impatiens (store bought) and Nicotania (the ones from my winter sowing exp)

The winter sowing flats are doing fine. The petunias I pricked out are still doing fine. Weirdly enough the Alyssum and Marigolds all seem to have kicked off with the frost the last couple of nights, but everything else is doing fine. I should be able to start planting some of that stuff out.

The Daffodills are all up in the front beds and have been for a couple of weeks. The yellow tulips just came up about 3 days ago, and the red tulips are all just buds at this point. I noticed last night at mom's house down the hill that her red tulips were already out. Our microclimate is a bit cooler so ours are usually about a week behind.

Plans for today. Mix the soil up for the 4X8 bed, the planters, and Princess's personal little garden container.

4/22 Update

2006-04-22T08:04:00.000-04:00

Well, yesterday the only thing I really did was to cut larger holes in my winter sowing containers. My Alyssum seems to have lost a lot of the sprouts, but everything else looks really good.

We had rain last night and this morning. It is supposed to continue all day, so that is good for the peas, turnip greens, lettuce add spinach that I direct sowed in the garden. The turnip greens that I overwintered in the garden also seem to be doing very well-they are standing up all fluffy and growing well. I may have to do that on purpose again next year to get some early greens.

Today I have to muck about with my indoor sprouts.

I also really have to dig up some of the bleeding heart from the front bed-but I'll have to wait about a day after the rain stops for the ground to dry out a bit.

4/21 Update

2006-04-21T07:04:00.000-04:00

OK, on the 19th I transplanted some of the petunias from the winter sowing containers into little individual cells in a "greenhouse" container. They seem to be doing fine, or at least noone has died yet.

Except for the Petunias in the peat pots and a few herbs (parsley, cilantro, oregano) everything else indoors has sprouted. The tomatoes, cukes and winter squash are 2 or 3 inches tall, and probably too crowded. I need to clip off the tops of the ones I am not going to use so that there is only 1 plant per cell. It's hard though, you just got those little seeds to grow and it is hard to kill them off!

Still no luck in finding vermiculite. I have to find some soon so I can get the beds and pots together. We are also still having quite chill evenings, so I can still do some winter sowing. Since I have a good 6 weeks or so until I can plant things out at memorial day, I'm wondering if I should try winter sowing some scarlet runner beans for the planters. I'd start them inside, but I only have the one light and it is pretty much full under there. Maybe I'll try a few just to see.

4/15 planting update

2006-04-15T18:53:00.000-04:00

Well, I planted turnip greens, spinach and lettuce out in the garden. We'll see how they do

I also added some pea brush to the pea row.

The daffodils are finally in full bloom out front.

All of my winter sowing containers have germinated. I'm trying to figure out when I plant them out. It sounds like I need to wait until there is at least 1 set of true leaves on them, then I can break off little "hunk o seedlings" and plant them directly in the garden. So maybe another week or so. I figure that with the petunias I'll space them far enough apart so that I can alternate them with the store bought ones (since they will probably grow a bit slower).

Additional indoor seeds that have germinated: The watermelon and dill have come up. It looks like 1/2 the cukes are up and all the tomatoes, zinnias, etc. The ground cherries and all three types of peppers are the slowest to germinate. no signs of life there.

I also found my instant peat pots in the little greenhouse container. (DH had hid them out in the shed) so I wet that down, and then planted them inside with petunias.

I also totally cleared the gunk yesterday out of the Hosta bed, and then today out of the Iris bed along the back house foundation. I still need to finish cleaning up the side of the house and the front bed that is up against the house.

I'm thinking that I will get rid of the rose bushes. They really don't do anything for me. I'll see if anyone wants them.

4/14 update

2006-04-14T08:47:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I went to Frog Pond Farms and bought:

4 bags mushroom compost
3 bags cow manure compost
1 3.8cuft bale peat moss

total $21

I also bought 9 day lily bulbs, about half were stella d'oro and the others were some pretty pink and purple ones. I know the stella d'oro bloom all summer, not sure about the other two, I'll have to check online. I'm probably going to plant these at the end of the driveway. I'm especially interested in the daylillies ever since I learned the are edible. Pretty and edible-good combo!

I planted the pea seeds I had leftover from last year out in the raised bed garden. I did about 3 feet of super snappy (edible pod) and 3 feet of a mixture of early perfection and little marvel (both of which are shelling peas). I used some legume inoculant I bought for about $2 at the farm supply store down the street. There is plenty left for my beans etc.

My daffodils are starting to bloom out front! I'm lucky that the beds were planted full of daffodils, tulips and crocus when we moved in.

I also cleaned the junk out of the hosta plants on the side of the house. It looks much better now.

Today I'm going to see about planting a few more things in winter sowing containers outside. I know that it isn't winter any more, but since they are basically little greenhouses, it should give some ornamental kale and runner beans a nice start. It is sort of an experiment, so we'll see.

4/13 Germinated Seeds

2006-04-13T06:46:00.001-04:00

In the last 2 days the following seeds have germinated:

Cherry Tomatoes
Marmande Tomatoes
Jenny Lind Melons
Straight 8 and National Pickling Cukes
Basil
Summer Savory

I also purchased 6 cedar 1/2 barrels yesterday. I plan on stacking them on top of each other to make tall planters for melon and squash. The plan is that they will cascade down the barrels and not have to sprawl across my limited lawn.

I also purchased additional petunia seeds.

Outside even more of my winter sown seeds have germinated. Even the petunias have sprouts coming up.

4/13 Germinated Seeds

2006-04-13T06:46:00.000-04:00

In the last 2 days the following seeds have germinated:

Cherry Tomatoes
Marmande Tomatoes
Jenny Lind Melons
Straight 8 and National Pickling Cukes
Basil
Summer Savory

I also purchased 6 cedar 1/2 barrels yesterday. ($17 each) I plan on stacking them on top of each other to make tall planters for melon and squash. The plan is that they will cascade down the barrels and not have to sprawl across my limited lawn.

I also purchased additional petunia seeds. ($1.84) and 6 tall bamboo poles ($1)

Outside even more of my winter sown seeds have germinated. Even the petunias have sprouts coming up.

4/10 germinated seeds

2006-04-10T09:45:00.000-04:00

Well, I checked my flats a few minutes ago and I have seedlings coming up in my zinnia and Teddy Bear Sunflower flats! Yeah! So I turned the shop light on, took the cover off them and put them under the light.

No sign of life on anything else there

My winter sown plants seem to be coming up and surviving despite the very cold evenings. I'm considering doing a few scarlet runner beans and kale, and maybe a very few lettuce and spinach to see if it will give me a little jump on the garden (it is still too cold and wet to put them out) Then again, maybe I should just wait a week and plant straight in the garden.

Dh built me another bed on the end of my 4X8 bed that I already had. So I just doubled my garden space. Yeah! Now I just need to get the compost, peatmoss and vermiculite to mix up for the soil.

Daffodils are up with big flower buds out front. The tulips are up, but no buds yet. I also noticed that the bleeding heart is coming up in the front bed-I may dig some up and try to pot it for sale or gifting-I really don't want that little bed completely overun by bleedingheart again this year. . .

Starting Seeds 4-6-06

2006-04-07T14:29:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally started some seeds. We set up the laundry room with a shop light and table, probably enough for 4 small flats of seedlings to be under.

I used the Ferry Morse Seed Starting mix, firmed down into the containers, then the seeds were laid on top and covered with a fine layer of milled spaghnum peat moss. Per the suggestion in "The Victory Garden" I am bottom watering the pots-they are all sitting in basins of water soaking it up. The first ones sown have been sitting in there for at least a couple of hours and the top isn't damp yet. We'll see how long it takes!

Once they are all damp, I will pop the covers on (I bought little "greenhouse" things from the dollar store) and keep the covers on until some of the seeds germinate. I planted some of them rather heavily because some of the seeds are old. I figured I'd up my chance of germination. . . .

Here is what I planted:

in 2 1/2" cells
Tomatoes-cherry and grand marmande (a beefsteak type)
Peppers-Candlelight (hot/ornamental) Mini Red Bell, Golden Marconi
Jenny Lind Melon (scroll down to "melons")
Ground Cherries (scroll down)
Dwarf Sungold (Teddy Bear) Sunflower
Acorn Squash (Table Queen)
Watermelon (Sugar Baby)
Lilliput Zinnias
Cucumbers (Straight 8, National Pickling)

in 1" cells
Oregano
Extra Curled Dwarf Parsley
Sweet Basil
Long Island Mammoth Dill
Cilantro
Summer Savory

I will put a small blurb down when each one comes up.

Winter sowing update

2006-04-05T22:27:00.000-04:00

Well, there are seed leaves sprouted on my marigolds, dwarf petunias and alyssum. They all seem ok, even though it has been snowing for the last 2 days on and off. The regular petunias don't seem to be doing anything yet.

Winter Sowing #2

2006-03-27T07:59:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I winter sowed 6 more containers. Mostly petunias, marigolds and sweet peas.