Whoopsy, seems as though I have been neglecting the garden blog again.  Not good for record keeping purposes!  Truthfully it has been quite rainy in these parts and until this past weekend I had not been out there much.  It has been an interesting season so far. This year the tomatoes are separated into three beds- no "tomato alley".  Asparagus beetles have been wicked this year, along with the caterpillars that de-foliated the beach plums, apples, and low-bush blueberries to the point that there will be no fruit production.  It was an abnormally bad spring for insects in my yard.  My theory is that with the warmer than normal weather we experienced early in the season the asparagus beetle larva emerged earlier than normal, so last years fronds were still in the asparagus bed (rather than in the woods) when the bugs came a  calling.  I have been cutting and bagging spears in an effort to reduce next year's population, though doing so will also decrease next year's spear production.  Small price to pay if I can stop the beetle cycle going forth.  Here is an arial view of the garden, much greener than the last time I took one back in April:

Excuse the toys and mess in the garden, I ran to take a photo before it did not happen, so stuff is everywhere.  Today I put in some peppers, eggplant, and summer squash seedlings.  My beloved Magda would not germinate for me, and something got to the stem of my Sungold plant, so I went to the nursery and picked up some Eight Ball squash and Sun Sugar tomato to try instead.  I also stocked up on herbs I did not start from seed and threw in a pimento pepper for good luck.  This year I finally got it together and tried to house *most* of the herbs in one bed:

The basil overflow is stuck amongst the tomatoes (salad leaf, sweet, pistou, and thai).  In the herb bed I have thyme, lemon thyme, orange thyme, sage, oregano, chives, garlic chives, bulbing fennel, lavender, rosemary, basil, summer savory, parcel, cilantro and alpine strawberries.  YUM- lots of great flavors to be had in there!

I did something else that has been on my wish list for years as well, which was to use wire fencing to make an A-frame trellis for the cukes:

I find cukes in my garden want to spread out more than up, so I am curious to see if this will be a good system (the trellis is taller than it appears in the photo); the variety is Persian Baby, a first-timer for us.

As an experiemnt I put strawberries on the perimeter of one bed tomatoes were going into.  So far it has worked quite well though I am curious to see if the berries become unhappy later in the season when tomatoes are shading them out.  At least fruit production will be done by then as they are june-bearing varieties:

Blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries are flowering like mad which is fabulous.  A few tomatoes and pepper plants are beginning to blossom so things will be coming along in no time.  Mostly we have been harvesting pea greens, strawberries, herbs, and asparagus (before the beetles began munching).

HAPPY GARDENING!!

Live! Red-tailed Hawk Nest at Cornell University

Live! Red-tailed Hawk Nest at Cornell University - should be two chicks by the morning if anyone is interested.

Gardening Marathon

We put in a solid 18 hours in the yard this weekend.  Transplanting shrubs, mulching beds, weeding, fertilizing, and planting.  The garden is finally recognizable again now that the weeds are dwindling in numbers.

Those blue things are grow bags for peppers and eggplant.

This is the new blueberry bed, 14 lowbush and 4 low-high crosses are in there. 

 I left a few feet on one end for the musk strawberries when they arrive.  The lowbush blueberries are not the 2 year old transplants they are supposed to be, so since they are barely visible the company sent 18 instead of ten.  I was not planning on this number, and it will now be years before they supply any type of decent harvest so that was a disappointment.  I had to put sticks is so we know where their rows are in the bed- they are that small.

I decided to lay out the tomato cages, then stick a plant marker in to mark the plant's spot while fine tuning the garden layout today.

  Going to try growing strawberries as ground cover in one of the tomato beds for kicks.  At the very least it will serve as a source for new plants via runners.

Until this week I had herbs scattered around the entirety of the garden.  I finally dug them up and put them in one place.  This is a lousy picture, I manages to not even capture the entire bed.....there is room to put in basil, cilantro, and parsley when the time is right.  The bed currently houses lavender, rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme, fennel, chives, and garlic chives.

The chipmunk damage in all of our planting beds is extensive, they ate 80% of our hostas amongst other things.  I fear the vegetable garden may be doomed again this year as the little buggers are still everywhere, it seems the mild winter did nothing to bring their population back down to 'normal'.

• Sowed (2) Fairytale Eggplant, and (1) Little Prince Eggplant.
• Sowed one each of Magda and Romanesco Squash.
• Sowed (3) Baby Cukes.

HAPPY GARDENING!!

Happy Easter

Building track in our pajamas.....

Egg hunt time.....

The irony of a child pouting because he can not find an egg (look above his head).

All found!

HAPPY EASTER!!

Asparagus!

It really is beginning to look like spring- the fig is fruiting, daffodils are blooming, and asparagus spears are rising from the earth.

CLAYTONIA- almost ready for cutting.

• Sowed Salad Leaf and Pistou Basil.
• Sowed Lacinato and Tronchuda Beira Kale

HAPPY GARDENING!!

Live Bird Cams

These are certainly worth checking out, if you hit it right you can catch a view of the eggs and some Mom and Dad activity:

Live! Red-tailed Hawk Nest at Cornell University

Live! Great Blue Heron Nest at Cornell Lab of Ornithology  ** I should add that the Mama Heron is expected to possibly lay her 4th egg around 6 p.m. EDT this evening.  Very cool stuff!**

March Garden Notes

1. Transplanted Curly Vates Kale and Duo Scallions into the hoop house today.
2. Peas are coming up nicely.
3. Garden apple trees are budding.
4. Potted up fennel seedlings into cow pots.
5. Weeds are taking over the garden beds.  Thanks mild winter.

2nd post of the day....

Today's earlier post on specialty strawberries is below, the day has been all about the garden I guess.

Peppers sown:

(2) Baby Belle (for containers)

(2) Spanish Padron

(2) Corno di Toro

Carmen

(2) Pizza (for containers)

Tam Jalapeño

Tomatoes thinned, potted up into Cow Pots, and given a fish feed:

We have a quite a cold snap coming tomorrow night, at least in relation to the recent day and night temperatures.  I will be plugging in the soil warmer and covering the smaller fruit trees and bushes  and garlic with burlap or row cover.  Lets hope the weather folks are wrong and we stay in the low 30's......the trees could sure use a gentler forecast!

(Edit: I decided to go out and cut some blooms before they are knocked off by the rain and cold.)

Strawberries

We love fruit at our house, and strawberries & blueberries are at the top of the list. My daughter and I especially love the little alpine strawberries that pump out fruit all summer long, so there were plans to expand our little patch this year.  My first seed sowing was strewn across the floor by a troublesome feline, but no worries, a replacement batch is in the works.

While waiting at the vet yesterday I read an article on alpine strawberries, and it said a family of four should have 26 plants or so if I remember correctly.  Yikes.  I only have 3 out there now, with 8 more in the seed tray.   Seems as though my plans are falling short.  Nothing that can not be fixed with a few mouse clicks though- looky what we have coming soon.....

From The Strawberry Store:

ALPINE
Regina (2)
Alexandria (2)
Pineapple Crush (4)
Reine des Vallees (2)
Deese des Vallees (2)

MUSK
Profumata di Tortona (2)
Capron (2)
Male (2)

I have always wanted to try musk strawberries, I hope we like them as much as the alpine.  This order should put us at the recommended capacity once my seedlings are in full production next year.

In the Garden

Today:

• Sowed peas.
• Pruned blackberries (should have been done after fruit ripened); 2nd year canes trimmed and tied to trellis.
• Rosemary overwintered with minor damage under row cover.
• Apple trees appear to be doing okay.
• Pruned raspberries that were not done in fall.

**To do: plug in soil warming cable; sow kale and chard; prepare blueberry bed & apple tree sites.