Friday, June 6, 2014

Squash, cukes and corn! And more maps!

Getting close to having everything in the ground that's happening this year.  I'm still debating on carrots.  I've got parts of three beds left and I can't make up my mind on how I want to use them.  Tomorrow is Saturday and Saturday is Farmers' Market day.  Last chance to get stuff not already in the ground.  At this point the only thing I'm looking for some additional herbs (basil, thyme, dill, etc.) and maybe a really interesting tomato variety I haven't tried before (or a favorite I didn't get this year).

Those last few spots in the garden are going to go quickly, I've got a good number of squashes still to go in, as well as a few cukes and melons.  I haven't planted any beans yet, that'll be in the next few weeks.  I've got a number of varieties, both bush and pole.  Hopefully this year we'll actually have a decent bean crop.  Last year we got nothin'.

I really don't know if I'm going to plant carrots this year.  We've had diminishing results every year since the second year.  Last year we got almost nothing.  What we did get was heavily eaten by something.  I am planning on doing some late season crops once the garlic has been pulled.  I'll plant some kale, watermelon radishes, brussels sprouts, beats, kohlrabi, and more peas.

Today I planted seven squash plants:  4 butternut and 3 sugar hubbard.  3 of the 4 butternuts were pretty hardy, one was not much more than a sprout, but there was room in the bed, so I figured I'd give the guy a shot.  The three sugar hubbards, I probably put too close together, but there's limited space so, I did what I had to do.

I transplanted four cucumber starts as well. The cucumber starts were from Natural roots and look way more vigorous than my own.  Next year I'm going to try start mix again, and see if I have any better results.

Last weekend I quickly got some corn in the ground.  Another attempt, most likely another year of failure with corn.  One of these years, I'll actually read up on it and figure out what I need to do to grow corn up here.

Below are three maps, two new (corn and squash) and one update (beds 1- 8).


Beds 1 - 8 are getting crowded.  I've got a little bit of room here and there.  It'll be enough to get in some more herbs, beans and maybe a run at early season carrots.

 The squash bed is also home to some onions (Copra, 45, storage type), a few odd ball garlics, and a lonely potato plant.  So far I've got seven winter squash plants in the bed.  All were started at home.  3 Sugar Hubbard and 4 Butternut.  The butternut seeds are several years old and sprouted surprisingly well.

The 'corn' bed is currently half full of corn.  I think the other half will have squash in it.  Maybe some beans.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

More transplants!

So tonight I decided not to be lazy for at least fifteen minutes.  In that span of time I got two tomato plants in the ground (an Old German and a Moskovich), six peppers and five swiss chard starts.  I've previously posted the map image with all the tomatoes listed, but here's a complete list of veggies planted in beds 1 - 6:

Tomatoes:  31 plants; 20 different varities

Atherton Farm:
  • MS - Mr. Stripley (1)
  • OG - Old German (1)
  • YW - Yellow Brandywine (1)
Bear Roots Farm:
  • AP - Amish Paste (2)
  • SG - Striped German (2)
Crabapple Farm:
  • MM - Moneymaker (2)
  • PR - Purple Russian (2)
  • YB - Yellow Beefsteak (1)
Dancing Bear Farm:
  • SC - Sungold Cherry (1)
  • LD - Lemon Drop Cherry (1)
  • SW - Snow White (1)
  • MR - Martin's Roma (2)
  • FL - Florentino (2)
  • CC - Chocolate Cherry (2)
Good Bunch Farm:
  • SGA - Striped German (1)
  • MO - Moskovich (1)
Natural Roots:
  • SR - Speckled Roman (2)
  • GP - Garden Peach (2)
Red Fire Farm:
  • SRF - Speckled Roman (2)
  • HD - Honey Drop (1)
  • HB - Hillbilly (1)
Peppers:  11 plants; 4 varieties

Good Bunch Farm:
  • PC - Carmen, Sweet (6)
Bear Roots Farm:
  • PJ - Jalepeno (2)
  • PH - Hidalgo
Red Fire Farm
  • PB - Banana
Additionally, Swiss Chard from Good Bunch has been planted, along with some herbs (Bush Basil, Cuban Oregano, and Rosemary.  I still want to get some regular basil, parsley, and need to transplant the sage and thyme.

I've direct seeded some squash (ZR - Zucchini and PP - Patty Pan) and corn.  The corn is several years old, so I'm not terribly optimistic that it'll produce anything.

Still to be transplanted:  lots of squash and some cucumbers.