Archive for the ‘Crops – Vegetables’ Category
August 23, 2010 – Moon and Stars Watermelon
It has been a good year for watermelon. It’s the first year we’ve successfully raised a bumper crop of these guys! This is an heirloom variety that we bought from Seed Savers. Now we can indulge in watermelon! one year ago…”We Know People”
August 15, 2010 – Fruits of the Season
The garden is in full production now. This is an heirloom cantaloupe. It’s the first year we’ve nursed them to juicy completion! one year ago…”Atlantic Whale Watching”
August 9, 2010 – Squash Tunnel Grown Over
The squash tunnel planted on the bent-over cattle panels has finally been completely covered with vines. Actually, the far side is pole beans, the part by Martin is squash. one year ago…”Rain, Finally”
July 29, 2010 – Buckwheat Cover Crop
A great way to rescue a garden from late-season weeds is to plant buckwheat. It establishes quickly and does a great job of smothering weeds. It also adds some nice bee forage. one year ago…”Chicago”
July 23, 2010 – Carrot Experiment Harvest
The carrots in 55 gallon drum experiment is over for this year. Although the carrots weren’t as plentiful and large as I expected, I take the blame for that since I had poor germination and didn’t replant, and probably pulled them too early as some were strangely flowering (carrots are biannual). They were frozen for ...Read more.
July 6, 2010 – Hauling Garlic
Today’s news flash is that all the garlic is curing up in the barn. I didn’t get photos of the entire process, just the getting it up in the hayloft portion. With a rare break in the weather, it was time to get it out before the next rains waterlogged the soil even more. Looks ...Read more.
June 4, 2010 – First Celery
We had some electrical problems in the barn (like the lights don’t work and the box keeps blowing fuses). At any rate, it was out of my league, so I called an electrician who hadn’t worked here for a couple of years – actually since the wind turbine was installed. But he’s got a great ...Read more.
May 29, 2010 – Garlic Off To Great Start
The garlic is exceptionally early this year. We’ve already had to pull off the first few scapes – can’t ever remember dong that in May. Here’s some of the garlic fairly close up. We were able to institute the new four foot alternating beds in some gardens where garlic wasn’t planted. These two new strips ...Read more.
May 25, 2010 – Getting Tomatoes In
Finally getting around to some gardening. Getting the tomatoes and peppers in the ground. Slightly new system this year. We’re out of end rolls from the cardboard factory, so I picked up some giant tarps from the lumber yard to use instead. Cut them to four foot widths, then cut holes in to plant, poked ...Read more.
May 24, 2010 – Spring Radishes
One of the first garden-planted crops of the year is radishes. We even had enough for the veggie tray for the party from the garden! Now it’s time to get the rest of the garden in the ground. one year ago…”Visiting TaTonka”
May 10, 2010 – Frosty Mother’s Day
Although a few mothers may have received frosty vibes from their children, at high hopes, the only frost was outside on the ground. As the sun came up, it quickly melted the frost away. I don’t think we’ll have any ill effects as we only had cold-hardy plants in the ground, and most of the ...Read more.
May 7, 2010 – Spring Lettuce
Latest E.Coli lettuce recall/scare – Not gonna worry about it – gonna go out to the garden! This lettuce is the Pinetree Seeds variety mix. Believe it or not, these are all volunteers from last year in an untilled portion of the garden. Lookin’ very good! one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #163″
April 28, 2010 – Urban Gardening Technique – Bin/Tire Potatoes
Another old gardening technique that has yet to come to high hopes is growing potatoes in straw. Many people grow them in tires and keep piling tires up and adding straw as the potatoes grow up. Instead of using tires, I used some old pallets wired together instead of tires. Martin went in and laid ...Read more.
April 23, 2010 – Urban Gardening Technique – Wading Pool Gardens
I ran across a novel idea for urban gardens (not that I won’t try it on the farm as well). This may also work great for school gardens as well. One of the banes of suburban existence is the leaky kiddie wading pool. Well, esteemed soil scientice Joel Gruver at Western Illinois, documented a great ...Read more.
