Mid May Update

The garden is quickly morphing from its spring state into full blown summer. I now have three batches of corn growing. The April 60 day corn is now over a ft. tall. The April 90 day corn is just over eight inches with a nice carpet of carrots emerging around it. The early May 90 day corn is just breaking out of the ground. I will be planting the first winter squash, pole bean, and corn mix this weekend. This will be done on two week intervals until the remainder of the yard is planted.

The first summer squash I set out in March is doing poorly. While I haven't pulled any of the hills out yet, I don't think it is going to produce anything. I believe that cold weather combined with soil fungus is responsible. However, the April plantings of summer squash which consist of mainly crook neck, are awesome. I have a picture of one hill below. The shelling peas are in full amazing production. They are six to seven ft. tall and loaded with peas. We barely can keep up with them. In my 34 years of gardening, I have never seen a pea crop like this. I credit the same cool weather which caused the summer squash to fail for this amazing success. We are getting huge cauliflowers right now. I measured one today at 9 inches in diameter. Again the long and cool days have been perfect for late spring cauliflower. The broccoli is in full production now. We are giving a lot of it away as we feast on the rest.

Onions are ok but complaining that they were set out too late. With my new strategy of having them follow carrots, they don't get transplanted into the garden until March. Ideally onions should be planted in early February. Due to onion white rot, I can no longer use the areas of the garden that are available in March. After a few years, I will rotate the onions back into those areas. In the meantime, I continue to explore bunching onions which like leek are not too susceptable to rot. They can be harvested 30 days after planting but continue to grow for months if left in the ground. I have some from September which are still in the ground. These have large white stems much like leek.

The 2006 leeks are bolting (going to seed) now. So it is use them or lose them. Most of the remaining leeks will be consumed by the compost pile as they are no longer edible once they have bolted. They are also being pushed out by peppers and eggplant as illustrated in the picture below. All peppers and eggplant should all be in the garden within the next three weeks. Note that it is important to get some growth on the eggplant before July when the wilt hits. A well established eggplant can outgrow it and then thrive in August through December after the wilt has mysteriously left. But July is a tough month.

The sparrows haven't arrived yet! However, I cover the new corn and beans with netting because they usually show up with no warning. They can destroy a new corn and bean crop in a matter of hours.

And... finally, I am planting winter squash directly in the garden now. Not too much is happening in the greenhouse except for peppers and eggplant waiting for a outside home and the 2007 leek flats. Note that this leek will be transplanted in June.

I include four pictures below:

This is Crook Neck summer sqush nestled among the onions. A few 2006 Kutiger white carrots are still in the ground in the upper left.


Here is a view of the awesome late spring cauliflower behind one of the few fava bean plants still in the garden. Most of the favas have been harvested with seed being saved for next year and plants providing green material for badly needed compost. I harvested the nine inch cauliflower from this batch today. Note that I have some purple and orange cauliflower just forming heads. This is exciting as I have never grown it before.


Here is a good view of the 60 day corn in the foreground with 90 day corn and carrots in the background. Notice the netting to protect the newer 90 day corn from sparrows.


And finally, this picture catches the peppers and eggplant pushing out the 2006 leek. These have been planted over the past week.


That's it for now. Happy gardening.

Hi all,

Below are some pictures taken from the garden this morning. I hope they are instructive in explaining what is happening now as summer is trying to start.

The first picture below is of the potato patch as seen from behind the tall poppies. The patch consists of four rows one of which is underneath the windmill. The tall green plants in the background are mostly fava beans producing edible beans right now. If you look hard, you will also find a small row of tall Oregon shelling peas.

The next picture shows my wonderful broccoli field in the background with the sixty day yellow sweet corn and purple bush bean mix in the foreground. Broccoli heads are just starting to form. I should be harvesting within a week. Note that these are the plants which were in the greenhouse in an earlier picture post.



The last four Fremont cauliflower plants from my January planting are shown in the next picture below. Notice that one is almost ready to pick. They will all be gone by the end of the week and the ground they are on is destined to be planted with 90 day corn/pole beans/carrots on Sunday. If you look carefully just above the plant with a head, you will notice a couple of corn plants just in front of some ripe favas. These plants are part of the April 90 day corn/pole beans/carrot planting which I started three weeks ago.

The following picture is of the Oregon Giant pea row in the back of the yard. It is surrounded by favas. Note that these peas are still flowering and producing heavily. They are about six ft. tall. These are shelling peas and therefore the pods are inedible. But the peas themselves are delicious. Note that this ground will be a corn/pole bean/squash field in the first week of June. I sure hope the peas are done by then. I don't think I have the discipline to pull them out. Notice the large plum tree in the background. If you look hard, you will also find a young apple tree to the left of the plum tree. These are on the southwest side of the yard. Note that I prune the plum tree heavily to keep it from excessively shading the garden area.


The next below is from the greenhouse which is now full of pepper plants awaiting initial planting this weekend. I have over 60 pepper and eggplant seedlings in gallon pots which will need planting over the next month starting this weekend. (Recall the picture of the same shelf a month ago which was then covered with broccoli plants.) I water these daily and spray off greenhouse aphids every other day. But the plants look great. Now if warm weather will finally arrive.

The last picture shows four tomato plants in the foreground. These are Early Girl, Super, Brandywine, and Sauce varieties. I'm not real happy with their leaf color. They aren't growing much either. I was forced to set them out over the past two weeks because they outgrew their gallon pots in the greenhouse. But nighttime temperatures are still dipping into the 40s and can stunt growth in tomatoes. They should recover fine though with heavy feedings of compost and regular drip irrigation. Behind the tomatoes are some more cauliflower plants from a February and March planting. Way in the back, among the favas, are some snow peas (peas and pod edible). They are producing heavy right now but have stopped blooming. Because of the cool spring weather, these guys have celebrated much longer than I thought possible. They do NOT like hot weather, however, and quickly succomb to it. Note that most of this ground is destined for corn/squash/pole bean mix in three weeks. The tomatoes obviously stay but I hope the cauliflower will be done by then. These favas will be composted this weekend.



The only other activity which I don't have pictures of is summer squash and pole bean plantings. Much like the tomatoes, the summer squash hasn't done well so far. However, I finally have one hill of crookneck squash which is showing signs of wanting to grow. The zuccini have been horrible. None have survived.

Happy gardening