A Little Soil Prep

I took advantage of the 55 degrees and sunny weather to do a little soil preparation.

Late this fall, I adopted the neighboring garden plot. The gardeners hadn't been able to come by and it was untended. So I watered and weeded and last week pulled up the frozen tomato plants. Today, I turned over the soil. Like my plot, they have six inches of top soil on top of hard-packed gravel. I didn't bother digging through the gravel though. I've done that in parts of my garden and it's a huge job.

In my garden, I pulled up the (beautiful) swiss chard to make way for garlic. It's supposed to rain tomorrow so it would be ideal to get the garlic in this evening. I made a 3'6" by 3' bed. Depending on how densely we plant the garlic, it can hold from 56-192 heads. I don't think I'll be able to eat 192 heads of garlic, so it may be wise to space them out a bit!

I also planted some Allium flowers around the chives. I hope the Allium gigantum bulb I planted survives. It will be a fun flower.

Garlic bed in the far corner. To the left you can see the freshly tilled neighboring plot.

Colorful kale, mums, and dianthus. I expected the mums to bloom more than they did. They have lots of blossoms, but few flowers.

Note the long shadows. I took this picture at almost exactly noon today.

The Weather Changes

63 degrees and sunny today with a warm breeze.

More Snow

Yesterday, I went out to my garden and removed the dead tomatoes, peppers, and marigolds. The plan was that I was going to go out to the garden today and work the soil for the garlic bed. But then we woke up to a 2" blanket of snow. I probably could work the soil today, but I'd like to be able to see the ground so I don't accidentally dig up any of the onions I've left in the ground to overwinter.

First Frost and Snow October 9

"Welcome To My Garden"

It snowed last night and we got our first frost. I knew last night that it would get cold. But the days are shortner now and I got home right as it got dark. So I decided that what was meant to happen would happen. I slept in this morning and woke up to a blanket of snow. I took these pictures at about 9:30am after a lot of the snow had started to melt.

It's supposed to get down to 26 degrees tonight so I thought it was time to get out into my garden and do a little work.

I did some harvesting: tomatoes, swiss chard, leeks, cucumbers, bell peppers, onions, cabbages, and one carrot that was living under a tomato plant. I removed the tomato cages and cucumber/morning glory trellis. This meant pulling up the tomatoes and cucumber plants.

I'm pretty sure the peppers are done for. But I'm not sure about the leeks, onions, swiss chard, cabbages and kale. I know these plants are more cold-tolerant, but I'm not sure how cold they can get without dying. I'm also not sure what to do to keep them alive. Cover them? Go out and buy those mini-greenhouse hoops?

These are my seedlings: carrots and radishes. I was optimistic putting them in as late as I did and we didn't get the late season warm spell I was hoping for. They're so tiny, but they don't seem bothered by the cold...so far.

Thai peppers are pretty with snow on them.

Tomatoes.

Zinnias.

September

Now that it's mid-September, the weather is finally getting warm. My tomatoes have just started to ripen and the okra has just started to make new fruit.
These tomatoes have been on the vine, green, for over a month.


You can see the okra blooming and starting to bear fruit.

I planted seeds for winter crops last month. I know it's late and I'm an optimist. But with such a cool summer, we're due for a warm fall!

Radish & Turnip Seedlings

Now I look forward to October so I can plant the four varieties of garlic I have collected.

Garlic Chives

The only problem with having a fall garden is that it makes it harder to dig everything up and work the soil. The front half of the garden has bulbs in it. The back half has seedlings and will soon have garlic. So how do I aerate and fertilize if I can't till these areas?

Garden, 9/12/09


Swiss Chard

Morning Glory

Territorial Seed Company Winter Garden Planting Calendar

Progress Report

This growing season has been cool and dry. When my plants first went in, I didn't harden them off, so they got pretty burnt and took a while to recover. It is just now starting to get a little warmer and wetter.

I'm wondering if I misunderstand the word "mature" as used on seed packets. It seems, based on the dates I planted seeds and what I'm seeing in my garden, that "mature" does not mean "ready to harvest".

1. Thai Dragon Pepper
Should mature 5/18. Just started turning red.

2. Spanish Utah Onion
Should mature 6/17. A little bigger than a golf ball, sitting on top of the soil.

3. Candy Hybrid Onion
Should mature 6/2. A little bigger than a golf ball, sitting on top of the soil.

4. Sweet Basil
Small bush now. Harvesting regularly.

5. Marigolds
Going crazy, growing like weeds.

6. Petunia Pearls Royal Blue
Growing well, not as bushy as last year's seeds.

7. Morning Glory Clarks's Heavenly Blue
At the top of 3 foot trellis long since having reached to grow even higher.

8. Pepper Carnival Mix
Should mature 5/26. Tiny peppers, just got done flowering.

9. Pepper Big Dipper
Should mature 5/29. Medium sized green peppers, OK to harvest.

10. Cabbage Earliana
Should mature 5/16. Harvested weeks ago.

11. Tomato Super Beefsteak
Should mature 6/15. No red tomatoes yet, just green ones.

12. Snapdragon Tall Deluxe Mixed Colors
A couple snapdragons came up, just about done flowering now. Harvested seeds today.

13. Petunias from last year's seeds.
Going crazy, growing like weeds.

14. Tomato Sun Gold Hybrid
Should mature 6/3. I have been eating these since 2 weeks ago.Moderate amount of tomatoes ripening now.

15. Tomato Big Boy Hybrid
Should mature 6/16. No red tomatoes yet, just a couple of green ones.

16. Cabbage Red AcreShould mature 6/15-20.
One of two survived. Small head, not quite ready to harvest.

17. Cabbage Premium Flat Dutch Late
Should mature 6/20-7/10. Small head, not ready to harvest yet, but soon.

18. Cabbage Early Jersey Wakefield
Should mature 6/3. Large head, past ready to harvest. Multiple smaller heads growing alongside primary head.

19. Okra Red Burgundy
Should mature 7/1. Each plant has only one okra on it, but each plant is now growing more leaves.

20. Zinnia Sombrero
Healthy, small plants. Some have gone to seed.

21. Cilantro
Way past prime. Seeds about to mature.

Fall Gardening Begins

So far I've found the following dates for the average first frost for Minneapolis: 9/20, 10/3, 10/5, 10/13. October 5 seems to be the most quoted date, so we'll go with that.

Today I planted the following seeds:
Early snowball cauliflower
-germinates 7-14 days, matures 65 days (10/27)
Early white vienna kohlrabi
-germinates 6-12 days, matures 58 days (10/20)
Early purple vienna kohlrabi
-germinates 6-12 days, matures 58 days (10/20)
Olympia hybrid spinach
-germinates 5-10 days, matures 45 days (10/7)
Avon hybrid spinach
-germinates 7-14 days, matures 44 days (10/6)
Indian summer hybrid spinach
-germinates 8-10 days, matures 39 days (10/1)
Bright lights swiss chard
-germinates 7-12 days, matures 35+ days (9/27)
Scarlet nantes carrot
-germinates 10-17 days, harvest 70 days (11/1)
Petite & sweet carrot
-germinates 14-21 days, harvest 65 days (10/27)
Purple top white globe turnip
-germinates 5-10 days, matures 50 days (10/12)
Sparkler radish
-germinates in 5-10 days, matures 25 days (9/17)

I also planted small plants of mums and kale and I harvested seeds from my petunias, snapdragons, and dill.

Weeds

I admit it. I like my neighbor's weeds. I am fascinated to see which seeds are contained in the soil. It is satisfying to see how my garden would look if I wasn't tilling the soil and weeding.

That said, I'm lusting after the neighbor's untended garden. I don't really want it, I would rather that we gave another person the opportunity to garden (an opportunity that I am very thankful for myself). But I would love to plant my winter garden in a fresh, clean plot of soil. It would be so much less cluttered than putting my new plants in amongst the old.

Dreaming of Winter

Hah! Today is the FIRST beautiful, hot day of summer this year. And I just realized that I should have planted my winter garden ???last month???.

I'm not sure though. I've never planted a garden that's supposed to produce in fall, winter, or spring. With the notable exception of spring bulbs.

Right now I am enjoying the butterflies in my garden. Last year, the first year of the garden, there were few insects and next to no butterflies. Now, I can see them when I drive by. Lots of cabbage moths, a yellow swallowtail, a monarch...

So, unlike my summer garden, which I dream of during the cold months, in this month of plenty, it is hard to dream of a winter garden. But I should. Time to get those seeds/bulbs in the ground!

Mid-July

It's mid-July. The garden is on auto-pilot right now. We're expecting rain tonight so I can just sit back and enjoy.

I've been enjoying herbs and onions. Some of the cabbages can be harvested any time. And soon there will be tomatoes and cucumbers.

I'm particulary proud of my plants since I grew them from seed. Most of the marigolds in the picture below are from last year's seeds. The onions are even from seed. If you look back to March, you can see their baby picture.

Flowers

Marigolds.

Vegetables

Early Cabbage.


Onion seedling.


Tomatoes.


Pepper flower.


Okra.


Cucumber.

Mid-June

Here's my garden now.

Purple Cabbage.

Early June Pics

Here are some pictures from June 4, 2009.

I haven't added many pictures in the last few weeks because my garden was dormant. It was hot and sunny when I put my seedlings in the ground. But then we had WEEKS of cold, dry weather. The heat and sun initially stressed my plants (which I didn't harden off). Then the cool, dry weather did not inspire growth.

This week we've had rain and heat so my next post will show you the growth that my garden has seen in the last week.

Cucumbers.

Okra.

Dahlia.

Chives.

Petunia.

Dianthus.