Well most of it. Old compost piles, the top stuff that didn't compost, purple/blue ruella, small elm and ash trees, lots of other weeds, some volunteer plants I ordinarily wouldn't mind., spiders, small snakes, chiggers, added 600 to 700 pounds of wet oak leaves and sand mix from a pond and worked it in. tomatoes and peppers went in the north end in May. now zucchini seed and yellow crookneck seed and watermelon and cantaloupe seed, 2 varieties, and the sweetpotato slips that came up in my garden are mixed in between the vines, as they take longer to grow. and a backdrop of Hope amaranth for salad "reds" and maybe even the seed for flour? doubt I'll get that far...
I hired one of my helpers to come out and help me, I couldn't have tackled this alone Photos tomorrow maybe. There is a path between the pines and the giant shrubs that leads to my tomato and pepper bed. The path is shady the veggie garden is in the sun. That compost pile had a significant non-poisonous spider population. The underlayment I put down in 2006 and 2007 is now removed, most of the weeds came up with it, the finished compost got spread, and a nice thick layer of cypress mulch went down on the path. compost and bone meal with a bit of potash and a bit of epsom salts all stirred up to a 9 inch depth, and that is partially finished oak leaf compost with sand in it to lighten the clay soil.
I am exhausted, but tomorrow evening I can put my beneficial nematodes down on actual soil maybe. That would be nice, I'm mighty tired of chiggers.
And the bee tree drowning of the carpenter ants worked... Now i can take it out and maybe keep the ants out how?
garden is in.
It sounds like you have been extremely busy, but I an sure also very proud of all the good things you have done.
I but it will grow like crazy with all the good stuff you have added, be sure to let us know how it all works out so we can rejoice with you.
That sounds great! Post photos so we can see the beauty.
So where's the photos?
I am tired just reading about what you have done! Bravo! Sounds like a fantastic start. Good soil is the best investment
Good soil is heavy work, I'm going back out there today. Title would have been too long if I had put: traditional garden is in, meaning tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, swiss chard. Now the untraditional parts. I thought I would be finishing another 10 x 10 ft section but the weeds were 1/4 inch apart in my asparagus, and that isn't a rototiller job, it's nit picky. Then I found a tiny swarm with a queen in the apiary, and shiny thing syndrome hit, they got in a nuc just before sunset. Hopefully pics after dark today, not one moment of cool daylight going to waste and I have to go through 3 beehives. I am actually looking forward to 100 degrees, I'm tired, want to nap. oh, beneficial nematodes need to go down tonight too...... This is the year, I've been whacking at this for 6 years...
Hours later a pond is emergency repaired, and my neighbors bees also have European Foul Brood. Note to beginning beekeepers. No matter who tells you how urgently you need comb to start your bees on, if it is wild comb from a bee tree that deaded out do NOT put it in your hive.
Or your neighbors when he catches your swarm.
There will be photos, the garden will be finished, but probably not today. I have a 3 box hive of my own to go through with a toothpick in hand....
Roundup plants, (scullcap, columbine, lily mixed in with some of my amaryllis, a lot of discount dahlias, blue salvia, several types, a couple of cyclamens, and a smattering of weeds between the flowers and the strawberries that had to go somewhere. Shrubs in the bank, indian hawthorn and abelia started from cuttings. Shrubs in pots are scheduled for the fall roundup, this is the front side of my house. Spot is a fixed feral cat, male, and he thinks there is a little lizard living in that corner, which is why I put the shrub pots there...
I was going to post a photo of all the gladiolus that did not bloom in time for my daughter's wedding. She still had a lovely wedding, one day they were bloom.
This message was edited Jun 8, 2013 10:39 PM
Wow!! I am SO impressed!!
That was a LOT of WORK!!! whew!!
I feel so lazy after reading all you did... BUT inspiring me to get out there early today.
Nice picture, but I sure would like to see more ;-))
If I mess up and go to preview I don't know how to add more photos. But there are some on the butterfly/caterpillar thread. Unfortunately for the photos, the rest of those plants are going in today. During the near 100's I will update my website with photos and do bookkeeping and office work. We finished cleaning the last pond on Monday June 3rd so I only got a week of decent weather for garden and beekeeping. Bees consumed yesterday almost completely...
still struggling to finish planting with full dig and amenities. In addition to debugging chickens after I finished packing 9 pints of honey and putting wax in the solar wax melter,
planted today: mexican black sweet corn, tiger eye amaranth, butternut squash, sweet halbert watermelon, butterbaugh pink sweet potato, and the sweet potato left over from last year that sprouted 3 months ago. (no idea which one it is, but they were all good.) Chicken pen on the lot clean and debugged AFTER I got done working with honey and frames. The big hive is pulling a leaning tower of pisa, will have to fix it in the morning and hope they don't spill tonight...
You are one busy lady.
about to go move 2 older hens to the "old hen pen" on the lot. then a bath and bed... I'm exhausted. I work too much in the spring and its usually too hot to do any of this, but this year it has been cool longer and I'm impatient. I've been beating the wilderness back on that lot for 12 years. This year I want to totally eradicate the bermuda and only water flowers and good things to eat.. I am so close and so impatient.
You are one amazing woman!!
i'd love to see your place. sounds like a slice of heaven ;-)
and I LOVE Fort Worth! lived there 8 years. and I miss it.
I know what you mean about getting done all you can in the spring.
I've been working like a house afire, trying to get SO MUCH DONE before the heat arrives here and stays until late September.
we have been VERY fortunate this year for the later onset of summer. I can't believe it's mid-June almost and just now in the 90s.
I still have a few things to do (ha! nothing like you though!) ~ and I will... just don't have enough cool mornings to do it since I work Mon-Fri.
would love to see more pictures, Gypsi!
I was outside this evening it was much less humid then this morning. I was shocked that it was actually pretty comfortable outside. I need to finish running the soaker hoses so my friends can water when we go on vacation. This cooler weather seems to really be helping production.
I'm going to put a few seeds in today and leave the garden alone otherwise. Yesterday was long, garden, work, bees and more work, and I need to rest a little. I am running on one sprinkler right now. I AM going to look at the caterpillars on the grapevine this morning though.
my strawberries are finally in the ground, and the ground they are in got all the amenities to help them thrive first. And the ground for cucumbers and eggplant is almost ready for planting. The sweetcorn is up about 2 inches tall, planted about a week ago, and my red beans (closest I could get to kidney beans) are also about 2 inches tall. All watermelon is up, all summer squash is up, the first batch of butternut squash planted is up, and most sweet potatoes are in the ground. Have a couple of more sprouted, think I am going to give one to my daughter for her new garden They will make in the heat.
I saw my first tomato on one of my heirlooms yesterday or the day before. I think it was the Arkansas Traveler
My ark traveler is loaded, even sprawling all over everything else in the garden, and with the first blush of red on one came a stinkbug... got him. My eggplants - Calliope and Ping Tung have fruit, but fertilizer and water again today before I leave tomoro. Your garden is looking great from here...
See, your garden isn't late, it's right on time.....I'm amazed how fast fruit is setting and everything is loaded with blooms I don't remember a season like this...I've never had tomatoes set on every plant this fast, it's amazing.
Maybe more photos tomorrow evening. Tonight I got the cucumber seed in, and some eggplant seed, even though I have never tried eggplant. And thai peppers and basil. And the cherry tomatoes, thai basil and cilantro went near the front porch, finally. A feral female cat and her 2 kittens showed up starving this morning, they are well fed now, sleeping in the junk next door I suspect, but my place is frequented by older ferals looking for a quick meal, so they will be safer there. They spent the day under my trailer and in the organic garden I raise my swiss chard in.
I've never direct sowed Eggplant seeds. I always start them like peppers and tomatoes. Please let us know how that goes. Luv Thai peppers I have 2-3 different types. I won't know which is which until they set pods.
I don't normally direct sow half this stuff, but this is a "hail mary" garden, throw it in the ground, water twice a day and wish it luck. Direct sown doesn't have the adjustment coming out of the greenhouse, but it is late June now.
That's why I direct sow what I can bc there is no acclimation. They usually do great. I'm leaving for LA tomorrow for a week and by the looks of my tomatoes they may not be ready until I get back. Ya...
What type of eggplant did you sow? Let us know how it does. I still have stuff to plant out when I get home. I was going to do it before but I was afraid it wouldn't get the attention it needed. It has warmed up just a bit...lol
How's your garden growing, gypsi? I'm seriously considering starting some peppers inside for the fall.
I am going out to take photos this evening, will update. Just got in, hope it is still alive.
and the results are in: peppers and eggplant have not sprouted, I suspect they will not. Beans and cucumbers have come up. I have weird twisted tomato plants from heirloom seed, not sure which variety, will upload pics and look up Annie's receipt to figure this out later, I think my Arkansas Travelers are ok. Sweet potatoes LOVE the heat, they are taking off well, and my black mexican sweetcorn is about 5 inches tall now. grapes making a recovery, and I ate all 26 of the ripe blueberries all by myself. *(bird netting is a great mockingbird deterrent). Ate a handful of blackberries as well. I have watered, now I have to go to the grocery store. It is dark. I'll upload later and see if I can find last year's annie's receipt for those tomato seeds.... peppers and tomatoes that started in the greenhouse and transplanted late are doing great though. The compost and sand lightening the clay, and the bone meal and potash and epsom salts can't hurt much, All tomatoes except the twisted ones are blooming, my cherry tomatoes and romas have fruit. Small and green, but fruit
well eggplant seeds in the greenhouse watered with only pond water still haven't sprouted, but I do finally have photos of the garden in the computer. Going to try by date here, bear with me.
These are all June 19th. First one, Roma tomatoes, with cucumber and strawberries either in behind or the cucumber were just seeds (not sure). 2nd one, Queen Elizabeth Rose under my Eldarica pine tree. 3rd, baby sweet potatoes, and where I put seeds for one variety of red dry beans and red beets, peeking behind my in bloom abelia. 4th one the tomatoes in on mother's day along with bell peppers and their soaker hose. 5th one, back fence has seed for Hopi Red Amaranth, a sweet potato vine, Black Mexican Sweetcorn to the left, Butternut squash to the right, blackberries and grapevines on the fence, and a lot of compost worked in all under this stuff. Next photos are todays... It's a growing thing!,
This message was edited Jul 15, 2013 12:38 PM
Today the tomatoes that were put in on mother's day are 48 inches to 60 inches tall, but the ones on the north side have leathery skinny leaves, either not enough water or something is wrong nutritionally or diseased. many of the direct seeded things did not come up, or were up briefly and then eaten by grasshoppers, sowbugs or who knows what. But many things did grow spectacularly. Here are todays pics: front flowerbed growing up, lily in bloom today,
2: swiss chard with larkspurs, 3 roma tomatoes, blurry, it's raining, 4, arkansas travelers, bradley, and bonnie's best tomatoes, 5 the skinny tomatoes on the right, probably bradleys, that I think have a problem.
Today pics, July 15th
don't know how to delete pic 3, the romas. Obviously the camera was in motion when I pushed the button. I have to do bookkeeping or I would retake
This message was edited Jul 15, 2013 12:58 PM
This message was edited Jul 15, 2013 1:00 PM
more pics from today, the spectacular growth was the vines - squash of all kinds, watermelon, cantaloupe and sweet potato. Once I started watering in the morning instead of the evening, and forgetting the sprinkler was on, well between that and the wonderful sand/oak leaf compost mix, (and other organic amenities) well you can see the results here.
photo 1 with gray box (sterilizing bee stuff still), cucumbers and the one and only bean plant that didn't get eaten.
photo 2, zucchini, yellow squash foreground, sweetpotato vines underneath (they will outlive the summer squash and produce in november), pic 3, mix of cantaloupe, watermelon and sweetpotato vines, pic 4, sweet potato with backdrop of mostly eaten beans, beets on the left, grapevines and blackberry behind, pic 5 asparagus on left, acorn squash next left, butternut squash right, grapevine far right, back sweet potato, one hopi red amaranth, and on left back black mexican sweetcorn. My most successful red dried beans group is to the right of the corn but probably too short to see.
Very nice Gypsi, good job!!!!
I'm just thrilled. This is the garden of my dreams. I've been digging and planting and watering and getting much less in results for years. The 3000 lbs of oakleaves and sand are a big part of the responsibility.
Josephine, do you know what might be up with the tomatoes on the right? They are either Bonnie Best or Bradley, only one fruit, don't see any bugs, but the leaves are tough and leathery and thin. Bush is the tallest one out there. (could be a pocket of high nitrogen lacking in another mineral, working with fresh, not processed compost is tricky)
I wish I could help, but I just don't know much about tomatoes, sorry.
Thank you Josephine. I'll google too much nitrogen (first suspicion, I've done THAT with compost before)
Next section of garden, dug in 640 lbs of compost give or take, 8 bags,around 80 lbs each, last Thursday when it was 100 out, then it rained and I went after the fireants with nematodes. So this is my blank slate. I have seedlings of various kinds starting in the greenhouse,but hoping the nematodes will get some of the roly polies and the ants before I put the seedlings out. I added bone meal and epsom salts and greensand too. Ran the feed store out of potash for the 3rd or 4th time this year. This area is about 15x20 and extends up in behind that small pond. I've got surplus sweet potato slips that need to go somewhere too, and pumpkin vines, and squash, eggplant. Pretty much everything but tomatoes. When the rain is closer to stopping I will transplant them in.
July water bill about gave me a heart attack, but I've had a hose going under the house for the foundation, watered the tree out back for the dogs and the chickens, even watered the chicken pen so I didn't lose any birds to heat stroke. Oh my my has water gotten pricey...
We are still in drought mode, last year was a nice respite, but it isn't over yet. Too much nitrogen makes a lush tomato plant, all grow and no fruit. Pile the dirt as high around the lower stem as you can, like 4" to 6" if possible, check for the dampness around the root while you do...shake the mater a bit and see if it snaps into survival bloom set mode. Nitrogen gives a dark green color to leaves, like epsom salt will. If you have one plant stressed out it CAN make your other plants produce better, but that usually is only true of bug infestations, not viruses...add red color around the plant, tomatoes grow better with red collars, red mulches...
I wouldn't describe the foilage on this as lush. It's the tall skinny one on the right, silvery, thin leathery leaves. going to do a google search maybe?
http://customers.hbci.com/~wenonah/min-def/tomatoes.htm
looks like phosphorus or molybdenum deficiency. as long as it isn't raining I'm going to dig some bone meal and maybe something else in - I think greensand has molybdenum?
This message was edited Jul 15, 2013 4:04 PM
Went out and had another look. My sprinkler wasn't getting to that edge terribly well, maybe too much nitrogen not enough water, because leaves that grew after I soaked the plant are softer and flatter and more normal, and it has started blooming. oh my aching waterbill.... but I want healthy plants and lots of tomatoes. I didn't add a thing. Found another article that said too much sunlight could cause carbohydrate buildup in the leaves and curling, it is at the outer edge, who knows. If water fixes it I use more water...
Are you planting north to south? tomato loves sun, but they all look good, if a bit crowded. You get good air circulation? They do not appear to have too much nitrogen either. Better than water for the curling -trim off a few of the yellowing leaves, some tomatoes do have a natural tendency to curl- is it curling today with all the rain clouds sittin on us?
The new growth isn't curling, but the older growth is permanently curled, not yellow, kind of blue/silver and tough. They are north to south. I enrich and plant close, plenty of air circulation though, with open fencing and wind from 3 sides out of 4.
I enrich and crowd using "square foot gardening" methods to reduce weeds and maximize produce per space. I went out and re-shot photo of Romas (they have horrible spider mites right now, will probably spray with dishsoapwater in the morning and thin some of the leaves) first photo is roma
And I took closeups of these, which are either Bonnie or Bradley
Spider mite the leaves curl under, hiding the bottom of the leaf. These are curling upward hiding the top of the leaf, and I see no sign of bugs
