by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  July 7, 2014 mini update here. July 7, 2013 update here. The 2013 post includes the “zucchini breakage disaster” and a picture of the raspberry plant when it was new.

This time I tried taking pictures at dusk. An overview from last night:

The peas in the front yard are dying from the bottom up. I think it’s too hot:

We left a few little peas on the vines to see if they’d get bigger. Everything else is in the colander. We’d been nibbling off of the plants — the total yield was maybe 50% more than this (it’s more than it looks like):

Considering the late start, I’m fine with that output.

The basil was well overdue for a haircut. I cut out most of the flowers. The bowl contains 1/4 pound of basil leaves:

An attempt at a different camera angle — standing next to the “pretty flower container”, looking towards the zucchini:

The “De Mipa” tomatillo is losing some leaves (note the yellow leaves on the right of the photo), but they’re all on the same position on each node (bottom center). The rest of the plant looks healthy. I’m guessing the plant is sloughing those off on purpose(?)

Cucumbers, Tomatillos, and Tromboncino zucchini. The nearer two trellises are 6′ tall, the rear trellis is 8′. The “De Mipa” is the sprawling tomatillo. The “Mexican Strain” is now growing over the top of the trellis. It’s a good combination from a space-utilization perspective:

Closeup of the Tromboncino trellis:

I’d pruned out a few of the worst looking “loser” leaves earlier in the day. Overall though, they’re still looking pretty healthy and there’s no sign of powdery mildew. The back-right Tromboncino is around 24″ long:

The determinate tomato plants are in full output mode. The Taxis:

The Romas. A different cluster of fruits from last week’s picture, these are on the west side of the plant:

A big, fat Marketmore 76 cucumber that I found while poking around taking pictures. A fun surprise:

National Pickling cucumbers, getting there. 6″ is full size:

(For reference, the “Calypso” are full-sized at 3″ long.)

There are a bunch of Lemon cucumbers around this size. They will will double or triple in size before they’re ready:

 

I think we’re about to get overwhelmed with veggies.

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  June 28, 2014 post here.  June 23, 2013 post here.

An overview picture:

We’re still ahead of last year. I’d attribute that to better weather, mostly. We also made a point not to cramp the plants quite as much this year.

We’re also learning as we go — in late June 2013 I was trying to nurse along lettuces. Now I save my effort for stuff that’s inclined to cooperate.

One thing that I noted in the 2013 post was the absence of predatory insects. We had lots of leafhoppers and some aphids. Now we have lots of predators, especially wasps and spiders. I’ve only seen a couple of leafhoppers. Hopefully that’s “equilibrium”.

The flower barrel is much happier lately — I threw a little fertilizer into the container, and we increased the plant density. I think there’s less direct sun hitting the dirt now, and it’s reducing the amount of evaporation, leading to less stress on the plants… That’s my theory for now anyway:

The “late peas experiment” is going well. We’re now harvesting super sugar snap peas:

The pot of raspberries is doing well too. On a typical day we harvest 3-6 of them. It’s a nice little treat:

The basil needs a serious haircut. I’m guessing that will happen on Tuesday:

The King of the North are our biggest and earliest peppers again:

And:

The Roma tomatoes:

Tigerallas:

The tallest of the Tromboncino are now climbing over the top of the 8′ trellis:

A reverse-angle view:

 

We’re going to have a lot of zucchini soon. I didn’t get a picture of the 6-12 largish fruits at the bottom of the plants..

 

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  June 21, 2014 post here.  June 16, 2013 post here.

More beautiful, warm weather means more happy plants. The overview:

The basil is … sprawling:

The Sun Gold tomatoes:

The Sweet Millions are at more or less the same stage:

The first little Jalapeno:

One of the two Lemon cucumbers in the southeast corner is shriveling, but only the bottom leaves. It’s been going on for more than a week. If the top starts to go we’ll cut out the plant. This is the perfect example of why I don’t like to prune to one plant per hole:

The earliest cucumbers — “Calypso”:

The Tromboncino zucchini is well taller than the door. Still no sign of powdery mildew. The milk treatment is “working”. Or it’s still just early:

Zucchini flowers:

The biggest fruit. It’s going to be dinner sometime this week:

The tomatillos. They can’t be controlled. Or contained:

The peas by the front door are doing their thing, finally:

Probably my favorite cartoon:

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  June 21, 2014 post here.  June 16, 2013 post here.

Reviewing the pictures, this post is very similar to the June 21 post of last year. I even took pictures of most of the same things (Oregon Spring tomatoes, King of the North Peppers, the first Tromboncino zucchini.)

But I’m just now figuring that out, so here goes, starting with the overview:

Overall, I’d say we’re basically one week’s growth ahead of last year.

The basil — The mass is loosely the same as 2014, it’s just sprawled out:

The Tromboncino zucchini. They’re a little less than six feet tall:

The biggest zucchini. It’s around 4-5 inches long:

The tomatoes are trying to escape their cages. This one had to be coaxed back in:

The Oregon Spring:

It feels like we’re not seeing as many bees this year. Hopefully they’ll find the tomatillos attractive over the next few days:

The biggest King of the North. I may hit them with diatomaceous earth sooner than later. In theory it should keep the earwigs from eating holes in the peppers:

Because I haven’t done a picture of these in a while, the Marketmore 76 cucumbers:

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here. June 7, 2014 post here. June 9, 2013 post here.

Things have changed a lot in two years. The cucumbers and peppers are much larger this year than in 2013. I think a big part of that is because we spread the cucumbers out more — the EarthBox instructions call for four in a row along one side of the box. This year we put two on each side with the fertilizer strip down the middle. There is only one “Calypso” — it’s not competing with anything else, and it’s growing faster than every other cucumber we have. It has blooms! Progress!

(In theory the right answer is to prune out the weakest zucchini and cucumbers and leave only one per hole. I’m hesitant to do that though, because if something happens to the solo plant we’re starting over from scratch. This year we pruned the cucumbers back to two per hole, mostly. However, if the “Calypso” continues to beat the bejeezus out of the other cucumbers then we maybe we’ll need to take a deep breath and go with one per hole in the future… Ultimately the final yield will tell use what to do — two plants at 60% production create more food than one plant at 100%… we’ll see how it shakes out.)

Clockwise from front right on a very bright day:  “Calypso” cucumber, Lemon cucumber (2), National Pickling cucumber(2), Lemon cucumber (2) –

For comparison, here are the 2013 Marketmore cucumbers. (This year’s Marketmores are similar to the picture above):

The photo below is facing north. It’s a direction I don’t usually use to take pictures-

Left side, front to back – basil, peppers, tomato

Center – Marketmore cucumbers, pretty container, tomatoes

3rd row – cucumbers, tomatillo, tomato

Far back right – Tromboncino zucchini

A more conventional view. Tomatoes and zucchini on the left. Peppers in the front. The basil (front right) is still floppy, but it’s now growing upwards:

A closeup of the Tromboncino zucchini. The four plants have been trained to their own “space”. One plant on one half of each side of the A-frame trellis. Note the complete absence of powdery mildew.. so far the 1/3 milk spray is working. Or it’s just early yet:

The tomatillos. “De Mipa” on the left. “Mexican Strain” on the right. The “De Mipa” is doing it’s usual flopping thing, and “Mexican Strain” is catching up:

Next week I’ll try to get pictures in the early morning before the direct sun kicks in. I think that makes for much better photos. Today that wasn’t a possibility. Hopefully by next week we’ll have a lot more little veggies to look at.

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here. June 1, 2014 mini post here. June 7, 2014 post here. (Note the basil, third picture down, front right. More on that below.)

The growth in the garden is accelerating rapidly — here are the first tomatoes (Sweet Million):

The potted raspberries have around 100 fruits or so. It’s year three and they’re really getting going. There’s bird netting strung up over the cage:

The cucumbers and zucchini simultaneously decided it was time to start getting grabby. The “Calypso” cucumbers:

The Tromboncino:

Today saw the first dose of calcium nitrate for the tomato plants (1 tsp down the feed tube). Tomorrow I’m going to try a milk/water solution on the leaves of the zucchini as a preventative against powdery mildew. Hope it works.

—–

As compared to last year, this year’s basil is twisted, floppy, and sickly looking. The plan is now to harvest it next week and try again with better starts. I don’t think we’ll be using Tilth for basil anymore. Bah.

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here. May 30, 2014 post here.

I can’t imagine how blown away ancient man must have been when introduced to the concept of planting seeds. I’d guess that it happened like many other of humanities’ great discoveries — totally by accident. Uneaten seeds were thrown into a “garbage” pile, and after a while the garbage pile sprouted food. I’d like to think it wouldn’t have taken that long to figure out what was going on, but with people being people, who knows?

Just a few pea seeds, almost haphazardly thrown around, and bingo. Total Force Multiplier:

I broke down and attached a spare piece of netting for the peas. I’m sure it’ll improve the results.

As an aside:  We went to the local P-patch today to look around — Lots of peas, lettuces, carrots, and various types of alliums. Some tomatoes and tomatillos. One tiny little bit of corn, and one of beans. A little bit of squash. Not a cucumber in sight. The groupthink seemed almost monolithic in its decision making.

That doesn’t make any sense to me. Our cucumbers out-produce everything expect maybe the tomatoes. Maybe they’ll all plant cucumbers after the peas are done?

My guess is no. The food bank boxes are densely planted and well maintained. The other boxes, not so much. It might be because they’ve got so much space to play with, but to my mind they’re “wasting” a lot of it. There are “big” areas with nothing going on… Today is basically June 1st, shouldn’t there be something growing? (Or maybe it’s just me, and that having to deal with super finite space all the time has made me feel like wasted space = wasted opportunity. It’s really my problem, not theirs…. Nah.)

Back to our stuff. Clockwise from the top left:  a “Calypso” cucumber (the other one got broken by something), Lemon cucumbers, “National Pickling” cucumbers, Lemon cucumbers.

For scale reference:  The squares are 8″ x 8″.

The tomatillos. The Mexican Strain is on the right. It’ll have a vertical habit. The de Mipa is on the left — it’ll sprawl somewhat. The de Mipa is “ahead” of the Mexican Strain. That’s the opposite of what happened last year. I think last year’s Mexican Strain was a stronger plant:

The tomatoes, with the Tromboncino in the back. Nothing is huge yet — the tallest of the indeterminates are about waist high. (The Sweet Millions, middle left.) Note the pvc attached with cable ties for cage support and the labels attached with clothespins. It’s less work, and less thinking every year that we continue to do this — those are old, and preassembled ideas. (Just like the new trellises this year, next year we won’t have to build them again.) I’ll likely reference this photo again in about a month for comparison:

It’s been cloudy the last few days, but it’s not stopping the peppers:

The Tromboncino. There are four plants, one in each corner of the box. They’ll need to be coaxed to the sides and onto the main trellis soon. I added some netting going from the box to the sides, just it case it helps:

Note the repurposed binder clips, holding the net onto the box. Those were used to attach the row covers this last winter. The clothespins now securing the labels did double duty that way too.

I really enjoyed this cat meme. Here you go:

 

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here. May 16, 2014 post here.

We spent five hours on Saturday building three new trellises and attaching the netting, assembling Ultomato cages, and caging & staking all of the plants as needed:

It looks really different than last year. The 8′ trellis contains the Tromboncino. The 6′ trellises are for cucumbers and the tomatillos.

I still need to add the tomato cage supports (pvc lengths with elbows.)

For reference, pictured below is a partly-completed trellis. It’s 6′ tall, the crossbars are 3′. Home Depot sells the RTA12 corner supports and associated screws. The tops get connected with 3 galvanized hinges that are 1-1/2″ on each side of the hinge:

Five hours was longer than we’d planned for. Everything took some time and it added up. Fortunately we won’t need to build any more trellises any time soon.

Next time I think I’ll spread the staking out over a few days. Oof.

by A.J. Coltrane

I’ll stick with “Container Garden”, though right now it’s basically “EarthBox Garden” again.

The vegetables were purchased on Saturday, May 2. The cucumbers and zucchini were transplanted on May 3. On the night of May 5 it got down to right around 40 degrees, so I rolled those three EarthBoxes into the garage for the evening. (The other stuff was already coming in every night.) By the middle of last week it looked like we didn’t have any more really cold nights coming up, so on the Thursday the 7th I transplanted everything else after work. As of yesterday, it’s all settling in:

Front Row: Determinate tomatoes (Cosmonaut Volkav & Roma), Sweet Peppers (King of the North), Peppers (Lipstick, Iko Iko, Carmen), Peppers (mix of sweet & hot), Basil

Row Two:  Indeterminate Tomatoes (Sweet Million & Black Krim), Determinate Tomatoes (Taxi & Oregon Spring), Pretty Flower Container, Cucumbers (Marketmore 76)

Row Three:  Indeterminate Tomatoes (SunGold, Tigerella), Tomatillos (Mexican Strain & de Mipa), Cucumbers (Lemon, National Pickling, “Calypso”)

Row Four:  “Tromboncino” zuchinni

 

Rear view,from a 2nd-story window:

Far row: Basil, Peppers, Peppers, Peppers, D. Tomatoes

2nd row:  Cucumbers, Pretty Flower Container, D. Tomatoes, I. Tomatoes

3rd row:  Cucumbers, Tomatillos, I. Tomatoes

Closest:   Tromboncino zucchini

 

We didn’t want to devote a container to peas, so I threw a few “seeds” into spare pots. They’re just now starting to peek out of the soil:

Those are Ultimato stakes stuck into where the walkway meets the grass. The string may need a little more help, but it’s a start. (I guess I could have used netting, but I already had the string..)

————————————-

Do you like mockumentaries? Does a silly movie about vampires sound like your thing? Then go see “What We Do In The Shadows.” It follows the “lives” of four vampires “sharing a flat in New Zealand”.

by A.J. Coltrane

High winds, intermittent heavy rain, and new plants. Not a good combination. The EarthBox with the tomatillos got rolled under cover next to the house. The tomatoes and peppers are hiding in the cold frame:

The picture makes the plants look shorter than they really are. As of right now the peppers are spindly enough that they need the protection. I left the lid mostly open so that they wouldn’t cook if the sun came out.