Turan in the Western Mountains

Maybe we should change the name of the thread? "Turan in the Western Mountains" or "Turan in Colorado or Turan's Rocky Mountain High/Garden."

Wonderful supply of potatoes, squash and apple products.

sanderson wrote:Maybe we should change the name of the thread?  "Turan in the Western Mountains" or "Turan in Colorado or Turan's Rocky Mountain High/Garden."

Wonderful supply of potatoes, squash and apple products.

+1

I like "Turan in the Western Mountains", because I was trying to give a reference of sorts to other gardeners. Also I am in Montana, not Colorado, though the Rocky mountain High reference is still applicable.

Thanks. Finding a spot were summer hail wouldn't set back the squash worked out really well. I just am not sure I want to use that space for that again.

Great pictures, love the apples, I need to replace my apple trees....

Yukon Gold?  Nice haul!  Potatoes and a few Patty pans are all I have left from summer, radishes, carrots.

It is cold and no one is here but me and the cats and dogs. Soon I must head out to feed hay but right now I am enjoying thinking about the garden.

That apple tree is maybe a Haralson? I bought it from Gurney's Nursery as a pole or columnar tree. They created those by doing a triple graft- a dwarfing root and then a non branching section and then the variety. I just did some research and find that they are not doing this anymore, instead they have developed a columnar root stock. But any ways, I digress. When I first moved here I planted a lot of apple trees, all of which died, mostly due to the winter dry wind, so a columnar tree that could be planted a couple feet from the house seemed like a good idea. I was worried about those grafts freezing in the winter though I should of remembered that a drift will build on the lee side of a barrier, so I planted deep to get the grafts protected in the ground. So the final graft sent out roots and I have a full size Haralson apple tree growing a couple feet from the house. Haralsons are a very hardy tree for my area, you see them behind all the old farm houses. They make good cider as well as pies.

The potatoes shown are related to Yukon Gold, I forget the exact variety. I do not recommend them or Yukon Gold for our intense growing methods. They do not respond to deep mulching. All that aside though I do love my home grown potatoes. We ate the last of them on Thanksgiving.

Here are some pictures taken September 31rst.
Starting in the greenhouse

Sungold tomatoes~


Krimson Peppers~


Wasps.  There was a paper wasp hive in the peak of the greenhouse roof.  They do not bother us as long as we are respectful.  In turn they eat a lot of pesky bugs like caterpillars and aphids.


Then in rest of the garden~

Lots of sunflowers and I let most of the broccoli bolt and bloom for the bees as well.


One of the asparagus is apparently female.  I let the berries ripen and hope they will eventually spread the bed,


And a late rose~

At this point in January we are still eating rutabagas, carrots, winter squash, canned and dried tomatoes, and herbs. O and dry beans.

Here is my mutli color carrot harvest- 11.75# from 9sf.


And here are the rutabagas.  I carefully weighed them and then forgot to write it down.  


My conclusions for the garden is that something is off in the greenhouse.  Production was ok (except a total lack of cucumbers) but there were leaf lesions on tomatoes and beans I could not explain. I took some young leaves to the extension office, suspecting a disease, and they said they could not find anything but suspected a Boron deficiency.  So I need to send some samples off for testing, greenhouse and garden beds.

For next year I want to figure out how to grow cucumbers and zucchini.  

I wonder if I should start a new thread for this new year, or just keep on here.

Oh Turan!
 I love rutabagas !  Those look fanstastic.  Your carrots look great.  I didn't get it together this year to do either. Hope you enjoy those, I am envious.

llama momma wrote:Oh Turan!
 I love rutabagas !  Those look fanstastic.  Your carrots look great.  I didn't get it together this year to do either. Hope you enjoy those, I am envious.

+1

Thanks. We have been enjoying the rutabagas, mostly in stew or mashed with potatoes. Next week we will be bringing a big pot of Neeps and Tatties to Burns Night. My daughter introduced us to daikon radishes in curry and I wonder if rutabagas would not be a good substitute, they are related.

Turan, this is your post. You can continue it as a running journal.

Turan wrote:Thanks.  We have been enjoying the rutabagas, mostly in stew or mashed with potatoes.  Next week we will be bringing a big pot of Neeps and Tatties to Burns Night.  My daughter introduced us to daikon radishes in curry and I wonder if rutabagas would not be a good substitute, they are related.

 Rutabagas in curries ... BLEK !

 They tend to develop quite a unique evil taste of their own , for me that woiuld result in ruining the curries & even stews if the ratio of use is close to or greater than that of the rest of the veg .

 I suspect it is do do with the juices released during the cooking from raw . One thing we've never done for curries & stews if there is a lot of them is to pre cook the rutabagas before hand , drain off & rinse off with boiling water to try & remove that  taste .

I dunno Plantoid, I have never had rutabagas develop an off taste while cooking. We like them cooked in stew quite a bit, though consider them to be rather bland.

I got my seed order in to Johhny's  

Here is my garden plan for this year.

If I remember correctly, the greenhouse is in the lower right. What is the blank square?

I wish i could figure out how to inset text onto the plan.

You remember correctly, the greenhouse is in the lower right, full of tomatoes, peppers, beans and cukes etc.  I need to go seed it in lettuce soon.

The big brown square has a shaggy compost pile on it.  I may yet plant squash around its edges and let them cover it in vines.

I did the soil sample and the test came back high to very high on everything except sodium chloride (table salt) which was very low.  A prescription for a 116g (3/8ths of a cup) of table salt to be worked in per 30 sqf was declared.  The pH was 7.5, a tad high but acceptable around here.

Yesterday and today I got one side of the greenhouse done.  Salt sprinkled and weeds pulled.  This is the first year I have not had willing young labor to help get the garden going.  I bought a bale of peat and a bag of perlight.  A couple pails of each were mixed into that one bed.  I figure the peat will help lower the pH and I am ready to have lighter soil to work.  If there is any of the perlight/ peat mix left after I do the other side It will go into the carrot bed.  Any left over peat will go in the potato tower.

I planted peas; golden snow peas, Amish snap peas, and Super Sugar snaps.  On the shade side of their bed I planted lettuce and bokchoy and cilantro.

 

PS, It snowed the last couple nights.  Typical mountain springtime

Turan wrote:I did the soil sample and the test came back high to very high on everything except sodium chloride (table salt) which was very low.  A prescription for a 116g (3/8ths of a cup) of table salt to be worked in per 30 sqf was declared.  The pH was 7.5, a tad high but acceptable around here.

Yesterday and today I got one side of the greenhouse done.  Salt sprinkled and weeds pulled.  This is the first year I have not had willing young labor to help get the garden going.  I bought a bale of peat and a bag of perlight.  A couple pails of each were mixed into that one bed.  I figure the peat will help lower the pH and I am ready to have lighter soil to work.  If there is any of the perlight/ peat mix left after I do the other side It will go into the carrot bed.  Any left over peat will go in the potato tower.

I planted peas; golden snow peas, Amish snap peas, and Super Sugar snaps.  On the shade side of their bed I planted lettuce and bokchoy and cilantro.

 

PS, It snowed the last couple nights.  Typical mountain springtime

Interesting about the table salt.

How big is your green house?  I'm planning on using hoop houses and an underlying of green house cloth I think they call it.  Greenhouse(s) are definitely on the long term goal sheet.

How are your potato towers set up?  I did a hundred square feet of potatoes last year, a tad too much.  I like the idea of having a way to harvest as they grow, but it seems difficult to get those taters on the bottom without disturbing the upper layers.  I have some large nursery planters and may try using them staggered a week apart.

I was setting and filling my bags on Friday in flurries and sleet! I figure if I let a little weather keep me indoors I'll never get anything done!

I'm behind already! Our weather has been unseasonably warm and I wasn't ready I've gone out and stirred the beds and added some compost but not much more other than cleaning and straightening things out. My hops are growing between 3-6 inches a day right now so I have been trimming the shoots back and trellising the main bines. Later this week, I hope to get my carrots planted for Carrot Week 2017, and lettuces and radish.

I've also planted 2 trees!
My daughters horses have also eaten 2 trees!

mlpii66 wrote:I was setting and filling my bags on Friday in flurries and sleet! I figure if I let a little weather keep me indoors I'll never get anything done!

Dedicated gardener. Reminds me of a Meme that Camp posted one year. Darn, can't find it right now.

mlpii66 wrote:
How big is your green house?  I'm planning on using hoop houses and an underlying of green house cloth I think they call it.  Greenhouse(s) are definitely on the long term goal sheet.

How are your potato towers set up?  I did a hundred square feet of potatoes last year, a tad too much.  I like the idea of having a way to harvest as they grow, but it seems difficult to get those taters on the bottom without disturbing the upper layers.  I have some large nursery planters and may try using them staggered a week apart.

I was setting and filling my bags on Friday in flurries and sleet! I figure if I let a little weather keep me indoors I'll never get anything done!

If you scroll back a bit I put a garden plan and that shows the greenhouse in the bottom right corner.  I bought a kit that is 8'x 12'.  It replaced one I made with cattle panels and greenhouse film that was 6'x8'.  This one has double wall sheets.  The wind is always trying to tear it apart and we keep adding more structure to it. I grow direct in the ground in 2 long 2.5'x12' beds.  I added some sand and my compost to my garden soil for the beds.  What does greenhouse cloth get you?  Weeds grow through it and I like letting my plants go down as far as they want.

I don't really do potato towers.  I have an old cold frame that the top wore out so it is a 3'x4' high rise.  I plant the potatoes in the bottom and then hill with mulch especially leaves and pine needles until start they stat blooming.  I let them be after that.  The idea of multiple layers of potatoes setting is not as easy as the catalogues claim.  I get a couple layers with the fingerlings, not so much with others.  A couple plantings of short season varieties should work better, or maybe several different varieties short through long season for what you want.
 I got my seed potats a couple days ago, French fingerling.  Now to decide when best to plant.

RoOster, this sure is a hard spring to get ahead on.  Did you start any tomatoes?  I am going to have to buy my plants this year.   

Sorry about the trees.  I have been on both sides of that equation, the kid whose horse ate the trees (plum) and the parent whose kid's horse ate my apple tree.

Turan wrote:

That's it! I just found it about 30 minutes ago.

Turan wrote:

Yep. that was the sentiment!