Garden Friday

Welcome back to Garden Friday!

Things are hoppin' in the garden.

Let's see what's going on this week...

 Lettuce is still doing well

and will hopefully continue.

Our temperatures during the day have been in the 80's,

with overnights in the 60's,

so I'm hoping it continues so that I can keep on pickin'!

 This Red Planet variety has been grown strictly for baby greens.

They will soon be big enough to add to my daily salad.

This is the first year I have grown mixed lettuces,

and the diversity of colors is quite appealing.

The buttercrunch (seen here) and the green oakleaf

have been favorites up to now.

What a blessing to have such an assortment to grow.

Three red cabbages are holding their own.

This is the first year I've tried growing cabbage,

and I think I will grow more next year.

They store well and I just love adding it raw to salads

or roasting it on a sheet pan as a side.

 This green cabbage is hiding underneath a giant kale plant.

Although the kale has had cabbage worms on it,

so far, this cabbage has stayed clean.

Hope I don't jinx it!

Here's the giant Premier kale plant I was talking about.

It's been harvested for a couple of months now,

but it's finally bolting.

I left it where it is as a trap crop,

to keep the cabbage worms off other things in the raised bed. 

(Did you notice the flowers on the peas behind it?

Whoo-hoo!)

The leeks are planted all around the perimeter on this side of the trellis.

The leek on the left have some smaller crops around them,

while the leek on the right are covered by that same kale plant.

It's easy to see that they are not getting enough sun,

as all other variables are the same.

Lesson learned for next time.

 The potatoes are growing by leaps and bounds!

I just hilled them on Tuesday with more straw,

and they need to be banked again.

Strawberries were transplanted into two straw bales.

I've never had much success with strawberries,

so I'm curious to see how they do.

The blueberries are a new crop too,

and they are doing great.

What an easy plant to grow!

I can't wait to have the first taste.

I see bowls-o-berries in my future!

 Last weekend was a planting marathon!

I got our cucumbers, eggplant, okra, peppers, bush and pole beans,

melon and watermelon all planted.
I had planned where everything would go
and tweaked it as I went along.

 To each new planting hole,
whether in the ground or containerized,
I added these three ingredients:
eggshells, coffee grounds, and worm castings.
The secret's in the sauce.

This is where the melons and runner beans will grow up the arches.

They are in pots and I plan to add flower seeds between them.

I'm so glad we added the arches and I can't wait to see them

with crops covering them to create a food tunnel!

This little corner of our property is right next to the veggie garden.

It's so peaceful to go out there and listen to all of the birds singing.

The assortment of trees we have is wonderful,

as they each attract and house different species.

Our yard is full of clover and I love that the pollinators

have an ample supply of what they need.

More clover, less lawn!

The parsley that made it through the winter with no problem

is finally getting ready to flower.

Plants are so amazing, they are all so different,

but equally beautiful, in all stages of development.

The mailbox bed is framed with iris,

which are getting closer to flowering.

A couple of weeks ago I seeded this bed

with daisies, rudbekia, echinacea, alyssum, sunflowers and zinnias.

Things are slowly popping up.

Spring is such an exciting time!

 I guess this sunflower is a late bloomer like me.

It came up before I planted the front porch bed,

so it must have been dormant all winter.

Better late than never!

Here's a cute lil' fella that seems to have taken up residence

under our outdoor garbage can.
The bonus?
Brown snakes eat slugs!
Yeah, have at it, bud!

What a fun time to be out in the garden.

Food is making its way to the table,

seedlings are showing themselves

and so many flowers are about to bloom

and grace us with untold beauty.

Every day is filled with abundance.

Garden Friday

On this Garden Friday,

we are happy to report that,

there's not much to report!

Hurricane Florence made her way across the state,

(she was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time she reached us),

and dumped rain and heaved some heavy winds.

We were blessed to receive little damage.

This dead tree fell over from the gusts

and is now making it difficult to reach the compost bin.

We should be able to get it taken down this weekend.

A couple of the tomato cages got blown over as well,

and I used a makeshift prop out of a 3-pronged branch.

I knew it would come in handy someday!

Overall, we feel very fortunate that our neighborhood

was mostly spared any real damage.

Of course, with the storm keeping us inside for a few days,

not much got accomplished in the garden.

The Sow True Seed order came last week,

so I was more than ready to get started sowing.

I am planting by the phases of the moon,

as per The Farmers' Almanac recommendations.

In the hugelkultur bed,

4 varieties of lettuce, 2 types of spinach and our sugar snap peas got planted.

One of the Master Gardeners with whom I  volunteer at the Community Garden,

grew this Freckles variety in her bed,

and I was so impressed with it, I knew I just had to make room for it.

It's a beautiful green leaf lettuce with red speckles.

Can't wait to add this to my daily salad bowl.

The other varieties which were sown are Buttercrunch, Green Oak Leaf, 

and Red Salad Bowl.

A square was left next to each lettuce planting,

to keep space available for succession seeding, 

approximately 4 weeks from this planting.

I'm really focused on having home-grown greens

to enjoy all winter long.

The trellis was moved to the center of the bed,

to make it easier to harvest the lettuces in front.

The bed is 4 feet deep,

so with the peas growing up the trellis,

they should be easily reached.

That leaves room in front for the lettuces,

which may also benefit from some shade provided by the peas.

On the other side of the trellis,

our carrots, beets, kale and spinach are struggling to get started.

Two pots each of Packman and DiCiccio broccoli

were added to the northeast side of the garden bed.

There were two more pots started earlier in the season

on the opposite side of the garden.

If I can get a hold of some more pots or 5-gallon buckets,

I will most likely plant more.

Broccoli is one food that even C will eat,

so I hope to be able to keep it comin' all winter long.

Aside from sowing seeds,

we're still harvesting okra, peppers and tomatoes,

and some of our flowers are doing quite well.

We have started nasturtium and alyssum 

for the downtown boxes on Main Street.

Looking forward to adding some of that color!

This lil' guy was hiding on the front porch near the birdhouses
that are awaiting installation.
You know, where there's one, there are more,
and this looks like a baby.
But, what a beauty.
C and I did some research and it is a harmless cornsnake,
handy to a gardener because they eat rodents and other critters.
If it were up to Big K, he woulda been a goner,
but C and I discovered him first.
He was let go in our wooded area,
and may he live a long and healthy life.

Hopefully, this weekend will be less eventful weather-wise,
and our seeds will germinate quickly.
It's hurry up and wait time.
Good thing God made me a patient woman.

Tomorrow marks the Autumn Equinox.
May 
    fall 
              linger 
                      on...

Wordless Wednesday

The Maple Hill Hop 120

Welcome to 

The Maple Hill Hop.

This is a hop for folks who love the outdoors.

Feel free to post about anything that's going on

OUTSIDE

in your neck of the woods,
no matter the season.

(Please share only outdoor posts.)

*Grab the button above to link back to Maple Hill 101.*

*******

Although our "Farm School" posts ended a while back,
I've still been frequenting the farm to help out each weekend.
It's been a wonderful experience,
and there's still so much to learn.
Here are a few snippets from my visit last Sunday.

The weather's been less than predictable here,
pretty much like everywhere else in the country.
This peat had gotten downright swampy.
(Peat is one of the ingredients that Lynn uses in his special soil mix.)

So he placed it in these pots to be dried by the sun.
Notice how they are tilted to get the best exposure.
Every so often he'd turn the peat over with a cultivator.

Why not let Mother Nature do some of the work?
Brilliant!

Lynn wanted to show me how to properly identify a coral snake.
Have no fear, it's dead.
He found this fellow slithering among the pots in part of the garden.
Its head was promptly taken off so that it could cause no harm.
These snakes are just plain deadly.
One bite can kill within hours.

The coloring is similar to the King snake, which is harmless.
The King snake's snout is red but has a similar ring pattern.

The snout of the coral snake is black.
This rhyme can be used to remember the difference:
"Red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow."

The best way to deal with them is to see them before they see you.
Here's another "Lynnovation".
He has a pipe with a piece of nylon twine inside.
The end of the twine is looped around within the pipe.
The other end can be pulled up after the loop is placed on the neck of the snake.

Eh, voila!
You can pick that puppy up so he can't hurt anyone.

We had some free time,
so Faye took me for a field trip across the street.
She drove me around her neighbor's house in the golf cart
and we checked out his vintage trailer.
Isn't it just adorable?

He recently sold his larger Airstream 
to downsize to something more practical for he and his wife.
It was a good move.
Faye and I just love our field trips!

What's been going on outside where you are?
HOP on!

  

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