8:40 AM [19 Jun 2007 | Tuesday] |
Just About There |
Over this weekend we finally got the rest of the garden planted. You have to motivate yourself. How do you motivate yourself to work in the garden?
It’s a beautiful Saturday morning, the birds are singing, the sun is shining, perfect weather to go out and plant. But when you get up, you realize you didn’t do last night’s dishes, you forgot to set up the coffee pot, you’ve got to brush your teeth and the cat really wants to have a good petting then a can of food. Where do you start? If it wasn’t for the cat I might turn around and go back to bed but she won’t stand for that, no how, no way, she wants someone up. And there is work to be done, so start with the cat, maybe the rest will fall into place. But other issues take priority. We don’t have garbage pick up out here in the country, we have to go to the dump and if garbage is left outside black bears turn into garbage devouring hoodlums. You leave the garbage out there two or three times and those bears are ruined, they’ll come into your house looking for your leftovers. I keep the garbage in an out-building that is well sealed but you can only do that for two long, so before we start work in the garden, it’s time for a trip to the dump! And right down the road from the dump is the Pakatakan Farmer’s Market. That’s our local green market where you can buy everything and it’s all local produce, local meats, local fish, local crafts, local plants and hanging baskets. So after heaving the week’s refuse into the dump, (wouldn’t it be great if there was some way to use all of it to run the power in your house) it’s off to the Pakatakan. We bought a beautiful hanging Fuchsia, then a trip to the local Garden store to fill the propane tank for the barbecue, a trip to the local usurious gas station to fill the gas can for the lawnmower, (wouldn’t be great if I could run the lawnmower with the garbage) and finally back home to put the rest of the garden in, right? Wrong! A thunderstorm came a calling. So I run around gathering up all the pads from the outdoor furniture and it starts to pour. That’s good news for the plants that are in the ground. We also set up buckets to catch the rainwater to fill a water cistern in the garden so we don’t have use the water from our well. It pours, then stops, gets sunny, then pours again. Finally around dinner time it stops. Then the sun comes streaming through the valley, as the steam rises from the ground we realize it’s time to walk around and ogle. When the ogling is done, it’s time for a barbecue and guess what, none of those plants got in the ground. But what a grand dinner we had as we watched the sun set and the next day, Sunday, we got the plants in the ground.
First I prepared the soil with my pick-ax, a useful tool and a great work out for the shoulders. Just make sure you don’t miss when swinging it and puncture your shin.
We planted:
Lancelot Leeks, Walla Walla Onions and Olympus Shallots my wife grew from seeds.
Purple Trionfo Pole Beans around a teepee I lashed together from old six foot poles.
Shallot and Red Weathersfield Onion Sets from Johnny’s we’d ordered just in case the planted ones didn’t work out.
A flower garden
Hubbard Squash and another Winter Squash with a French name that escapes me now.
Not to mention, alyssum, marigolds, petunias and snap dragons all over the garden.
We also weeded the beets and boy those carrots and chard need some assistance but that may have to wait for another day, according to the calendar, there’ll be more of them.
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Mood: content
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9:08 AM [15 Jun 2007 | Friday] |
More Plants in the Ground |
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At 8:30 AM ET it was 56 F. It got rather cold last night.
The tree Swallows next to the garden are fledging. They always make tight circles around objects (like our pole bean towers) as if they are going to fly into their bird house. Sometimes I'll be sitting in the garden and they'll make a tight circle around me and I imagine their parents are chidingly chirping "stay away from the humans, how many times must I tell you stay away from the humans! Fledglings, what are you going to do?" and they shrug their wings skyward.
The cedar waxwings are back, another one of my favorite bug catching avians. They tend to congregate in gangs and as they fly through the sky they appear to hit the brakes with their tail feathers and dart to the side to grab a bug. The way they ride their tail feathers sometimes reminds me of a dolphin. They fledge later in the year because they feed their young berries so that means August babies. I have a photo of them in the nest in my Garden Friends group. A beautiful bird I'd never seen until I moved to the Catskills.
We did a lot of planting that I neglected to mention last Saturday and Sunday, so I will list what we did:
We Planted:
Pole Beans
Angelino, Gold of Bachau, Romano
Bush Beans
Masai (they're up), Dragon Langerie (already up), Royal Burgundy
Onions (from seeds)
Super Star, Ailsa Craig, Red King, Sweet Spanish
Tomatoes
Black Krim, Super Marmande, Yellow Pear, Big Rainbow, Sun Gold, Speckled Roman, Amish Paste, Buffalo, Red Zebra, Stupice, Peron, Nyagous, Larissa, Sweet 100. I may have missed a few.
All of the potato plants are up, and all of the pumpkins planted from seed are up.
There is still room left in the garden and this weekend we'll finish planting. The garden is at that great stage where the weeds haven't come up in great profusion so we're not obsessed with weeding.
Soon we will mulch. |
Mood: cheerful
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10:32 AM [08 Jun 2007 | Friday] |
Cucumber Beetles! |
The frost was minor, killing some of the basil, the newspapers spared the rest.
However:
I have one word for you, cucumber beetles! Maybe that's two words. I saw one of the little pests on the cucumbers yesterday. Then this morning many more of them and I noticed half of the melon plants had died. The war was on. We'd ordered a cucumber scent lure from Johnny's so I dug it out. There were no directions on it. So I called Johnny's and was connected to someone who explained that I also should have received some sticky traps in another seed order from them. The lure is supposed to hang on the sticky trap, the beetles are attracted and get stuck. I didn't remember seeing the sticky trap but I did have some Safer sticky white fly traps, so I tried that. The traps are yellow and the beetles are attracted to the color. I placed it over the cucumbers and went away for an hour. When I came back I could see the cucumber beetles massing around the trap but it wasn't sticky enough to trap them. They'd just bounce off. So I rummaged around in the seed box until I found the sticky traps from Johnny's, these were uber sticky. I opened the first one in a hurry and got the sticky stuff all over my hands, becoming the trap's first victim. I ran up to the garden and reattached the lure to this one, and waited. Some were sticking on it along with a ton of these big house fly looking insects that breed this time of year that eat the tent worms we have. But it wasn't enough for my taste. I took matters into my own hands and started dispatching them by hand. Hopefully between the traps and my manual ministrations we can keep the population in check but we'll have to plant the rest of the squash in another location or we'll never get anything. There is also the nagging suspicion that I'm attracting the more of the beetles to the plant by putting up the lure. At least I'm getting on them earlier than last year, so we'll see.
Here's a bit on cucumber beetles.
Cucumber beetle
Cucumber beetle is a common name given to members of two genera of beetles, Diabrotica http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabrotica and Acalymma , both in the family Chrysomelidae.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysomelidae The name stems from the tendency for adults of these beetles to be found on the leaves and flowers of cucurbits; which are plant species of the melon, cucumber and squash varieties. The two most common pests in this family are the striped cucumber beetle and spotted cucumber beetle, which looks very much like a green ladybug However, unlike the ladybug, cucumber beetles are not considered benefical insects. They are sucking invaders which harm crops and ornamental plants. At two stages of their approx. 8 week lifespan, these insects cause damage to plants. Adults will attack the tender young growth of stems and leaves, and the buds and petals on mature specimens. They also carry and spread the bacterial wilt organism, Pseudomonas lachrymans. Eggs are laid in clusters on the underside of host leaves, and hatch into yellowish larvae (coloration varies) approx 1/2" long. The larvae then commence to feed on plant roots by tunneling into the ground. In some areas, the larvae is called the "corn rootworm". Cucumber beetles can attack and overwinter in corn and bean fields; in some areas they may hide out in compost or trash piles. Eradication consists of manual removal, pyrethrin-containing insecticides applied directly to host plants, and in keeping cultivated areas free of litter and debris from infested plants. Caution and strict adherence to safety instructions and directions-for-use are advised when using insecticides, especially on plants bearing produce for human or animal consumption.
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Mood: anxious
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2:34 AM [07 Jun 2007 | Thursday] |
Frost!?!? In June? Argghhh! |
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It’s 2:00 AM and the temperature outside is 35 F. We are in danger of frost. My procrastinating on planting the tomatoes may have paid off. I drove up from NYC this evening and didn’t arrive until 11:00 PM. My wife had already put all the unplanted plants in the greenhouse anticipating a freeze. She gave me a look and I knew I had to go out and protect the planted plants in the garden, even thought what I wanted to do was put my legs up and watch The Daily Show. So I put on my headlamp, pick up some old New York Times I use to start fires and made my way up to the garden. It was a beautiful clear starry night with just a hint of wind, but for the most part, calm and cold. I started by bringing in all the hanging baskets, I’d hate to lose them. Then I laid the newspaper over all the plants that might not be able to handle a frost, squash, cukes, basil, baby’s breath, melons. It won’t be a hard frost, but who knows? I can’t take that chance. As I was laying the New York Times on the plants I recognized a story I’d meant to read six months ago and was tempted to take that part back to the house, but I resisted. The plants needed protection. Then I saw a story about fall gardening with beautiful photos and I thought maybe I should read this, but what could be more appropriate than protecting your plants with a gardening story, so I soldiered on. That New York Times does it to me every time. Often when I’m building a fire with the NYT, I’ll see something interesting and put it aside but not tonight! Must protect plants! Anyway the plants are covered, even the baby beets though I know they could withstand a light frost, they’re just so small I don’t want to lose any. Also saw a webworm eating one of my cuke plants which I immediately dispatched. My neighbor saw their first Japanese Beetle today so I must get those traps out tomorrow. |
Mood: anxious
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12:05 PM [05 Jun 2007 | Tuesday] |
Beets are up |
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Eureka, the beets are coming up! I’ve put a photo in my collection. This morning the weather at 9:00 AM was 72 F under kaleidoscope skies, alternating with clouds and sun. Must plant rest of garden, beans, pole bean, tomatoes and all the other stuff I can’t think of. So far, no cucumber beetles or Japanese Beetles but something is eating the eggplants and it ain’t me. We've had lots of rain so I imagine the slug and snail armies led by their spineless Generals are out there planning a massive assault. I'll put out those slug saloons today. |
Mood: determined
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2:12 AM [04 Jun 2007 | Monday] |
Moving Forward |
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Oh what a weekend. Beautiful, sunny and the birds are nesting and really yakking up a storm when you go out for a sunset walk. We have one pair of tree swallows nesting in a bluebird box next to the garden and I bring them grubs I find in the garden. What I do is put them on the deck. Do they eat them? I'd like to think they do. No sign of the Cedar Waxwings yet, although it's early for them here. There are plenty of bugs happening so when they get here there'll be food for them. They usually visit in the garden if you keep still. They are a beautiful bird and prolific bug eaters.
We were able to get some planting done this weekend, despite the usual setbacks, sleeping late, reading, eating that sort of thing. In my growing area the last frost is traditionally done after May 31 and though this has been a very warm spring, we haven't had frost for over two weeks, we still waited with the delicate things. This weekend we planted:
Cucumbers, Tasty Jade, Diva, Lemon, Suyo Long, Armenian
Winter squash, Delicata Pumpkins, Howden, One Too Many, Rouge Vif d'Etempes
Melons, Moon & Stars, Oka, Eden's Gem, Passprt, Alaska, Collective Farm Woman
Eggplant, Diamond
Peppers, Not sure of the name, should be red, probably will stay green,
There are also onions interspersed in the cabbage patch, which is looking fantastic. Because of the warm weather the weeds are high and you have to cut the grass every 5 days or so, I don't of course, but you should. Now we are being inundated with rain and it makes working in the garden one big mucky mess. The mud sticks to your boots and then the mud sticks to the mud on your boots and next thing you know you're getting heavier and you feel like the garden might swallow you whole.
For the squash melon patch I spread some cockadoodle-doo, a chicken manure product and broke out the roto-tiller and worked it into the soil. Then I spread out some heavy landscaping plastic, both ends get rolled up in two by four and I bury the other two sides with dirt and rocks. We then get a scissor and make little x's in the plastic and plant the plants. It's very effective at keeping down the weeds and garter snakes like to live below it. I've got a photo of last years in my photo collection. It started to rain intermittently while we were doing this so we'd plant, plant, plant, thunder, lightening, run, run, run. Dry off. The rain would stop, plant, plant, plant and so on.
For the cucumbers we picked a patch and I worked in the cockadoodle-doo again but this time with my new favorite garden tool, my pickax. One side had a sharp end the other has a hoe and it's fantastic for digging fast. I then put up a cucumber fence roughly 8 feet long and planted. I'm still traumatized by last year's cucumber beetle infestation, so I worry for our cukes. I have some sticky traps and where they were last year (the cucumber beetles) we've planted garlic, potatoes and beets and soon an onion patch. Hopefully that will keep the little monsters at bay.
Earlier in the week we planted the
carrots, Dragon, Rainbow, Purple Haze, Purple Dragon, Bolero and Health Master.
Chard, Five Star Silver Beet, Ford Hook
Fennel, Florence.
Basil has been planted as well as an ongoing planting of Marigold and baby's breath.
Things are coming along nicely out there but there's lots more to get into the ground. Right now, outside the window I hear the rain falling, which is good but I worry about those carrot seeds. They are so small and could all wash away. I'm frankly amazed each year that the carrots actually grow. We always wind having more than we can eat but they are such a tiny plant. |
Mood: sleepy
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