Garden Notes - May 30, 2011

I turned the soil in the bed closest to the swing set and found not only more tree roots than I had anticipated, but tons of worms. So I grabbed a plastic tub and carefully plucked worms as I turned the soil. I was able to "plant" worms in the other beds that I had already worked in the previous couple of weeks.

Since my last post, I've planted jalapeno and red, sweet peppers (from sets) and onion sets closely together to produce green onions. I swore off tomatoes this year, but my neighbor had a couple of plants she offered, so I planted one in the ground, and one in a Topsy Turvy planter. What the hell, I thought I would give that a try.

Three of the cabbage seedlings are not coping well with the sun, so I babied them with a thin veil of grass mulch to provide partial sun. The other four cabbage seedlings are doing better. New things peeking through the soil include: butter crunch lettuce, red onions, carrots, brussels sprouts and butternut squash.

A surprise find: one more surviving cabbage plant in the bed closest to the swing set. Will this go to seed or form a head? Stay tuned.

Garden Notes - May 15, 2011

Worm heaven under a tree in a low spot that often-times has standing water after heavy rains (top picture). I peeled back a layer of last year's mowed-over leaves to reveal many inch long worms. I scooped up the wettest leaves and gently picked worms as I went. These all went into the hole where the previous year's compost pile was.

The bottom picture shows the pile of last year's compost in the middle bed. I park a wheel barrow near the wagon and put the dirt sieve on it. I sift compost a few shovel fulls at a time through it and dump the unwanted stuff in the wagon. The sifted compost is worked into the upper layer of a freshly turned and raked bed. The compost pile is hidden behind weeds under a tree (back and to the left of the wagon).

Worm castings are some very good, organic fertilizer. I might ask a local farm for some cow manure to work into the compost this year. I haven't before, but it may be time to take my compost a little more seriously. Kitchen scraps (veggie and fruit scraps) are good worm food to add throughout the summer too.

Garden Notes - May 8, 2011

I uncovered all the beds and found 15 surviving leeks and 20 carrots. The leeks will probably mature, but the carrots may continue growing or simply go to seed. I do need some more carrot seed, so I hope at least one or two go to seed. I was bummed about uncovering the leeks too soon in March. A hard freeze followed and killed some of them, so I would have had more like 24 plants instead of 15. Oh well.

I also have one surviving cabbage which will go to seed. I have three or four surviving brussel sprouts which will all go to seed, so I yanked all but one (one is enough).

I planted 2-1/2 rows of carrot seed and 2 rows of red onion. Two more rows of red onion will be planted by the end of the first week of June. I also started a couple sets of jalapeno seeds indoors. Apparently, I should have done this in April. I guess I'm too busy for the details.

The parsley is producing nicely as are the chives. We've enjoyed some salads with these items already this year. The hop plant is springing back to life, but I have bags and bags of hops in the freezer from last year, but no time or money for brewing lately!