Transitioning to 2012 - 2nd year garden.

tomperrin wrote:Consider throwing out the zone map this year (even tho its changed) and invest in a soil thermometer.

I totally agree. Only thing to worry about is frost, soil temp drives the rest. Here on the East Coast (Philly) I put plastic domes over many items that wintered just fine, cabbage, carrots, etc. Then my Swiss Chard and New Zealand spinach was uncovered and lived through this winter, eating it already.

With the boxes we get to cheat the soil temps a bit because they warm up quicker in the spring.

Hey Tom......

That's a very beautiful property.

How much do you charge for tours??

Too Tall Tomatoes wrote:Hey Tom......

That's a very beautiful property.

How much do you charge for tours??

One dark chocolate coated espresso bean.
Tom

Looks great Tom. I'm chomping at the bit to get mine started. Just waiting for a little warmer weather. Keep up the good work.

Soil thermometer? You mean the oven instant read I keep in my garden bag?

LOVELY place Tom! NJ has some beautiful places.

Ava

After more than two inches of rain yesterday, the MM in the boxes is thoroughly damp. The ground outside the garden is saturated and soggy, not fit for planting. A testimony to MM!

These two photos show the expansion of the garden beyond the fence. This is as far as I dare go this year.



Blackberries, potatoes in the background. The double squares in the middle are asparagus. The first of these came up 4 days after planting. I'm really pleased with the rhubarb along the fence line. These grew very fast, and I'm trying to grow more from seed. The squares behind the trellis will be for melons, squash and pumpkin. The squares in the foreground are also earmarked for potatoes.



I'm just about done making MM. I've done so much of it this year I think it's permanently embedded in the pores of my skin. Beloved Spouse and I are looking forward to cleanup and making everything look neat and tidy.

Almost all the fence line should have some vertical growth by the time we are done this year. In addition to the two blackberry plants on the back fence, I've started three grape vines between the squares.

So far all the nursery starter plants have done well. I did have one stunted Brussell Sprouts, and that was because there were two plants competing with each other that I failed to notice when I was transplanting. One square of heirloom tomatoes has sprouted, and I'm looking forward to seeing some growth in the others. Garlic and onions doing well. I've put mint (in its own container) in each square that has cabbage or sprouts and there are a few other companion plantings as well.

I have not kept track of costs or quantities of bagged compost consumed. But it looks like we've gone through more than a dozen bales of peat moss, and about 30 bags of vermiculite. We've bought most supplies in bulk, on sale or at some kind of discount. A lot of supplies were things we had on hand, and which could have ended up at our next yard sale had they not been diverted to garden use. The issue was not how much the garden was going to cost. We intended to eat anyway, and the choice was to eat food of our own growing or something grown and packaged by someone else.

Tom