Cayenne Peppers

Our veggie garden is just about finished for the year. There are still a some tomatoes ripening. Our sweet potatoes are yet to be dug. And, the pepper plants are still producing. Jo harvested cayenne peppers yesterday.

Because of our humidity, the cayenne peppers need a little time in the food dehydrator before they'll be dry enough for long term storage.

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Cayenne Peppers

Garden 2011: Planting Corn

Jo planting corn while Rusty watches intently. Dogs believe dog treats are the one and only small items ever contained within small bags. One year we when we weren't paying attention, Rusty dug up and ate several of the green beans Jo had planted. We kept a watchful eye on him this time.

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Garden 2011: Planting Corn

Garden 2011: Recap #3

It just wouldn't be spring if we weren't running behind with everything.  The photos above were all taken on May 5.  The main feature of all of them is that it's obvious the grass needs mowed.  Between preparing for art fairs, traveling to art fairs and all the rain we've received, I'm very much behind with my mowing.  I was finally able to attack our garden area with the mower on Tuesday (5/10/11).  Now we can at least venture into the garden without having to wade in almost knee-high grass and weeds.


Clockwise:  

• 1.) Tomato plants are still under cloches.
• 2.) The cloches need to be removed from several tomato plants.
• 3.) Cauliflower.
• 4.) Chinese cabbage.
• 5.) Lettuce, spinach, chard, radishes directed seeded into the garden.
• 6.) Broccoli.
• 7.) Potatoes.

Our irises are well into their blooming sequence. We don't grow a lot of flowers, but have gotten into growing irises because friends gave us rhizomes when they thinned their beds. The flowers are beautiful, and irises are one of the few flowers deer won't eat.

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Garden 2011: Recap #3

Garden 2011: Recap #2

Center:  Jo removed the cloches from our broccoli, cauliflower and Chinese cabbage.  She then covered the bed with a wire tunnel to keep rabbits from eating their fill.

Clockwise:

1. Cauliflower (4/17/11)
2. Cherry Bell radishes (4/16/11)
3.  Comfrey does well in the spring, but suffers in our hot, dry summer.  (4/16/11)
4. Partially mulched broccoli. (4/17/11)
5. Lettuce (4/16/11)
6. Chinese cabbage. (4/17/11)

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Garden 2011: Recap #2

Garden 2011: Mid-April Recap

Strawberries are in full bloom.  (4/13/11)


Datura (jimson weed) is coming up from roots.  It's surrounded by garlic chives shoots which have since been pulled -- for all the good that did.  Garlic chives is very invasive.  It spreads by multiplying bulbs underground and abundant seeds.  It's requires a constant effort to keep it from taking over the bed.  (4/16/11)


It's about time to remove the cloches covering the broccoli, cauliflower and Chinese cabbage, especially since the plants are trying to grow out the tops of the plastic jugs.  (4/16/11)


We've been enjoying fresh asparagus for a couple of weeks or so.  We totally replanted the asparagus bed last year.  This year's harvest is modest.  (4/16/11)


I'm beginning to mulch the broccoli bed while the plants are still protected by cloches.  (Note:  The plastic jugs have since been removed.)  (4/13/11)

It's about time to remove the wire covering our garlic before the plants grow up through the wire.  We plant garlic in the fall.  The plants come up and then go dormant over winter.  Once spring arrives, they take off growing again.  Neither deer nor rabbits eat the garlic, but we cover it with wire over winter to make certain an armadillo doesn't come through and till the bed for us.  (4/13/11)


Our potato plants are poking up through the mulch.  I cover them with a layer of fresh mulch when they do.  (4/16/11)

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Garden 2011: Mid-April Recap

Garden 2011: Update Collage

Top Row:  Veggies sown directly into the garden on 3/22/11 are up and doing well.  They will need to be thinned soon.  These include (left to right) two different lettuce blends, spinach and chard.  (Yes, we raise rabbits.  The garden is fertilized with partially composted rabbit manure.)


Bottom Row (l to r):  Potatoes planted on 3/17/11 are starting to poke up through their mulch covering.  I'll need to add more mulch as they grow for a while.  Cherry Belle radishes planted on 3/22.  Dill is a weed in our garden, a friendly weed, but a weed nonetheless.  We first planted dill about fifteen years ago so we'd have it available for making dill pickles.  (Jo hasn't made dill pickles in over a decade.)  It grew well, flowered and went to seed.  Now, dill reseeds itself throughout the garden.  Hundreds of dill plants sprout and we pull up or hoe most of them.  Still, we allow dozen that are not in the way of some other planting to grow and go to seed.  Dill is attractive green plant, it releases a nice aroma when you brush against it, it's clusters of tiny yellow flowers attract a lot of pollinators for me to photograph, and it is a host plant for black swallowtail butterflies.

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Garden 2011: Update Collage

Garden 2011: Broccoli and More

After transplanting the full row of broccoli, Jo watered them with a fish emulsion mixture. The dogs think fish emulsion smells like something that really needs to be rolled in. (Part #1 of transplanting broccoli into the garden is here.)

Finally Jo covered the newly transplanted veggies -- broccoli, cauliflower and Chinese cabbage -- with high-tech mini-greenhouses, otherwise known as cloches, which I photographed the following day. We're not likely to get temperatures cold enough to damage the transplants, but the cloches also help keep them from drying out and protect the tender young plants from being buffeted around in our gusty south wind. (Yes, I really do need to crank up our lawnmower and mow the aisles between garden beds.)

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the garden... While it's not necessary to make an emergency run into town for whipped cream just yet, our strawberries are blooming.

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Garden 2011: Broccoli and More

Garden 2011: Transplanting Broccoli Into The Garden #1

Broccoli, cauliflower and Chinese cabbage sets ready to go into the garden. Jo usually starts our transplants from seeds, but this year she had a problem with the seed company and did not receive seeds soon enough to do that. Instead, she bought the sets at our local feed store.

We'd already prepared the bed, so all Jo had to do was lay out a center line and start digging. She'd purchased the transplants over a week ago, but a new cold front that arrived on Monday caused her to wait until Tuesday to set them out in the garden. Depending upon what kind of weather we were having, the transplants had either been soaking up a few rays under a grow light or setting out on the porch "hardening off".

And another broccoli goes into the ground. There's a hill directly to the west of our place, so sunset in the garden occurs a couple of hours before actual sunset. I thought I might have to start using the camera's flash before Jo finished planting.

Part #2 of "Transplanting Broccoli" will follow soon.

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Garden 2011: Transplanting Broccoli Into The Garden #1

Garden 2011: Planting Spinach

Measure twice; plant once.

On Tuesday, Jo planted seeds of spinach, lettuce, chard and radishes.

All gardening activities must pass rigorous canine inspection. Rusty is handling that duty as Jo prepares to plant spinach seeds.

Opening the seed packet can be the hardest part of planting.

Spinach seeds.

Dropping spinach seeds into the furrow.

Gently raking soil on top of the newly planted seeds while being careful to not step on Bucket.  Following planting, Jo watered a little.  Now it's the seeds' turn to grow.

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Garden 2011: Planting Spinach

Garden 2011: Planting Potatoes

Jo planted potatoes on St. Patrick's day, our first planting for Garden 2011. We always divide gardening chores equally: Jo plants and I photograph and document her work.

Potatoes like lots of mulch.  Fortunately, this bed had mulch remaining from last fall.  As the potatoes sprout and grow, I'll need to apply more mulch.

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Garden 2011: Planting Potatoes