FarmerGirl Report - Ramblings April 12 2010
No major updates - just notes to self about upcoming tasks and purchases and favorite things.
The garden plot is coming along. It is my INTENT to visit it in the mornings on the way to work to at least put a few pails-full of water down at least three times a week when we don't get rain, but we shall see how that goes.
The peas are still doing gang-busters. I've probably got about 30 pea plants all at the same stage of development, set to climb the trellises we constructed out of leftover deer fencing strung through posts. Had I been thinking clearly, I would have staggered the planting of some of these so that the harvest wasn't all at once and somewhere around June we'll be COVERED IN PEEEEEAAAAASSSS!. haha. Well? in actuality, I am going to plant another dozen or so plants next weekend, so perhaps we'll get a bit of a staggered harvest. Its slightly out of the ideal window for getting them started in the garden, but dangit: i like peas. so there.
Having spent some more time at my favorite site evah: www.growveg.com (They just improved their Garden planning tool to make it even MORE intuitive!!) and reading some of their interesting articles, I've decided to make a mess of my garden by interplanting a bunch of lettuce and spinach amidst the tidily ordered tomato and pepper rows. Everything HAD been thoughtfully planned out to allow plenty of space between plants, but according to the articles I read on GrowVeg.com and through the Virginia Extension Office, there's no reason NOT to use those spare bits of dirt while the tomato and pepper plants are still small. So I'm gonna throw some lettuce and spinach plants in there and they'll get harvested before the bigger plants get too massive and block out all the sunlight. That concept kinda blew my mind because there's a quality of having to think four dimensions, but I see it now and am kinda excited about the prospect of having even MORE crops.
The early season potatoes (Yukon gold) have now all sprouted out a bit so I will need to acquire more non-compost/non-manure filled dirt to mound over them. (Potatoes will develop "hollow hearts" if grown in heavy composted or manure-rich soil.) so don't do it. Go for loamy fill soil instead.
I also decided to use some of the non-bed space in the plot for some of the veggies that like to "branch out" - including cucumbers, melons and squash. To accomplish this, I took the pitch fork and started turning up the dirt in the areas I've designated for each and have begun to add compost and topsoil to the turned-up dirt. I'm still a few weeks away before its time to plant those seeds, but it will allow those areas to get a good airing out. I've covered them up with the split plastic topsoil bags and will leave the mounds covered for a few weeks to kill off any of the opportunistic plants whose seeds I may have encouraged to grow with the nutrient boost. That way, when it comes time to plant my cukes and melons and squash, I know whatever that sprouts in the mound will be my intended plants and NOT weeds.
I also reorganized my gardening notebook last night and created a form to keep my garden observations together. This will make the process of gardening so much easier next year. Lordy.
My tomatoes, peppers and herbs are all coming from the Master Gardener program of Loudoun County and won't be available for pick up for TWO WEEKS. Its killing me to wait because there are mass-produced hybrids of all of these available at the home & garden stores now, but I was really committed to stick with these locally and organically grown heirloom varieties. Its also helping to support the Extension Service which I am discovered to be JUST AMAZING. I'm so sad their funding was cut from the state budget this year, so its good to support them by buying the plants through this sale, whether it really will help, I don't know. I can't wait to get my hands on all the neato-varieties that I have not seen anywhere else. eee! THE WAITING IS KILLING ME! OMG. I am so glad I kept the little plastic tabs that came with the varieties I planted last year so I know what I bought, and what did well. I think they were all hybrids from the local big-box stores, and while I certainly got a lot of vegetables from them, I would not have been successful in trying to save the seeds from last year to this year. I will be saving seeds from this year's heirloom varieties and am kinda squeey/wobbly over that prospect too. that feels seriously old-skool. ~farm sign~
Anyhoo: this is just a long ramble about not that much.
OH: and here are some resource book recommendations for any of you who managed to actually slog your way through this post:
The Veggie Gardener's Answer Book (So far, its answered all the questions about growing particular vegetables I've had in clear, easy-to- understand language.)
and Grocery Gardening - written by the ladies who produce one of my favorite gardening podcasts: "Good Enough Gardening" - which makes up in irreverence and singing for what it lacks in real information and technical advice. I love those women.
And now? I am spent.
The garden plot is coming along. It is my INTENT to visit it in the mornings on the way to work to at least put a few pails-full of water down at least three times a week when we don't get rain, but we shall see how that goes.
The peas are still doing gang-busters. I've probably got about 30 pea plants all at the same stage of development, set to climb the trellises we constructed out of leftover deer fencing strung through posts. Had I been thinking clearly, I would have staggered the planting of some of these so that the harvest wasn't all at once and somewhere around June we'll be COVERED IN PEEEEEAAAAASSSS!. haha. Well? in actuality, I am going to plant another dozen or so plants next weekend, so perhaps we'll get a bit of a staggered harvest. Its slightly out of the ideal window for getting them started in the garden, but dangit: i like peas. so there.
Having spent some more time at my favorite site evah: www.growveg.com (They just improved their Garden planning tool to make it even MORE intuitive!!) and reading some of their interesting articles, I've decided to make a mess of my garden by interplanting a bunch of lettuce and spinach amidst the tidily ordered tomato and pepper rows. Everything HAD been thoughtfully planned out to allow plenty of space between plants, but according to the articles I read on GrowVeg.com and through the Virginia Extension Office, there's no reason NOT to use those spare bits of dirt while the tomato and pepper plants are still small. So I'm gonna throw some lettuce and spinach plants in there and they'll get harvested before the bigger plants get too massive and block out all the sunlight. That concept kinda blew my mind because there's a quality of having to think four dimensions, but I see it now and am kinda excited about the prospect of having even MORE crops.
The early season potatoes (Yukon gold) have now all sprouted out a bit so I will need to acquire more non-compost/non-manure filled dirt to mound over them. (Potatoes will develop "hollow hearts" if grown in heavy composted or manure-rich soil.) so don't do it. Go for loamy fill soil instead.
I also decided to use some of the non-bed space in the plot for some of the veggies that like to "branch out" - including cucumbers, melons and squash. To accomplish this, I took the pitch fork and started turning up the dirt in the areas I've designated for each and have begun to add compost and topsoil to the turned-up dirt. I'm still a few weeks away before its time to plant those seeds, but it will allow those areas to get a good airing out. I've covered them up with the split plastic topsoil bags and will leave the mounds covered for a few weeks to kill off any of the opportunistic plants whose seeds I may have encouraged to grow with the nutrient boost. That way, when it comes time to plant my cukes and melons and squash, I know whatever that sprouts in the mound will be my intended plants and NOT weeds.
I also reorganized my gardening notebook last night and created a form to keep my garden observations together. This will make the process of gardening so much easier next year. Lordy.
My tomatoes, peppers and herbs are all coming from the Master Gardener program of Loudoun County and won't be available for pick up for TWO WEEKS. Its killing me to wait because there are mass-produced hybrids of all of these available at the home & garden stores now, but I was really committed to stick with these locally and organically grown heirloom varieties. Its also helping to support the Extension Service which I am discovered to be JUST AMAZING. I'm so sad their funding was cut from the state budget this year, so its good to support them by buying the plants through this sale, whether it really will help, I don't know. I can't wait to get my hands on all the neato-varieties that I have not seen anywhere else. eee! THE WAITING IS KILLING ME! OMG. I am so glad I kept the little plastic tabs that came with the varieties I planted last year so I know what I bought, and what did well. I think they were all hybrids from the local big-box stores, and while I certainly got a lot of vegetables from them, I would not have been successful in trying to save the seeds from last year to this year. I will be saving seeds from this year's heirloom varieties and am kinda squeey/wobbly over that prospect too. that feels seriously old-skool. ~farm sign~
Anyhoo: this is just a long ramble about not that much.
OH: and here are some resource book recommendations for any of you who managed to actually slog your way through this post:
The Veggie Gardener's Answer Book (So far, its answered all the questions about growing particular vegetables I've had in clear, easy-to- understand language.)
and Grocery Gardening - written by the ladies who produce one of my favorite gardening podcasts: "Good Enough Gardening" - which makes up in irreverence and singing for what it lacks in real information and technical advice. I love those women.
And now? I am spent.