PNW: MAY 2015

(Marc has his hands full taking care of several senior citizens; we wish him the best.)


No Webfoot Awards for PNW gardeners this year!  

It's been a good year for getting stuff started early.  I love the fact that I've been harvesting  veggies already, but my row gardening neighbors  just got their gardens rototilled last week. Heck, another 6 weeks or so, and it will be time to start seeds for a fall crop!

If you got started late this year, there's still time to seed cool crops. They should do OK unless we get an early freakish hot spell.  I've been watching the long range forecast.  It's almost time for me to direct seed some beans and corn, and transplant some winter squashes and tomatoes outside.  If you live closer to the Sound or in a sheltered area, it's probably safe  to get them planted now, if you haven't already.

Volunteer potatoes are one of the first plants to rise and shine every year.  If you keep them protected from most of our winter rain, they over-winter just fine in the rainy part of the PNW.  

Flowers on volunteer potatoes.


The bumblebees are loving the Rosemary flowers.


First pea flowers.


Cabbage is slower than last year, but they're starting to head up.


Sunbathing on a beautiful day sandwiched between grey, cool days.


One of multiple TT jungles.


Some greenhouse tomatoes.  These pics were taken last week.  I now have multiple plants with blossoms.


Greenhouse broccoli and cauliflower.  In this pic the inner leaves of the cauliflower are tied together to blanch the head.  (to keep it white and prevent ricing)


Kohlrabi is bulbing nicely this year.  I've had very good luck with a variety called Kongo from TSC.


This is the first year for my cool crop greenhouse.  I already have a list of things to change for next season.



What have you been eating out of your garden so far this year?  Any anomalies that have you scratching your head?  

I have one TT that is a dud: the plants look like I used poor quality bagged compost.  But it was amended with the same compost as all the other boxes; it had the same plants planted as other boxes; it was planted later than other boxes so cold shouldn't be an issue.  Just weird!

Looking good there! I can't imagine your neighbor hasn't built a couple of beds by now. I can just picture you intentionally sitting in a lounge chair, with book, beer and a cat, watching him rotolilling, occasionally hoisting the beer in the air to toast him. "Looking good there, neighbor."

That's pretty much how it goes. Except I do save a couple cold ones for the neighbor who gives me a yard of horse manure every year!

I Cant believe it's May already!  Boffer your T-Tops, green house and garden looks   awesome!!...LOVE the photo of your girls sun bathing too!

yesterday hubby helped me transplant 2 Purple Tomatillo seedlings & 12 seedling tomatoes into a few containers and also in-ground in our BTE front yard....we also transplanted 4 pepper seedling plants into the green house....(all above started from seed)

Sunday we direct sown all of our beans.....this year we have planted more pole beans than usual ( 4 SQ's of Scarlett Runners, 4 SQ's of Rattle Snake, 4 SQ's of Golden French,  4 SQ's of a mix of yellow, purple, green + a container full of yellow wax bush beans)....hoping to can up a bunch for winter use ( we are on the last couple of jars from 2 years ago   plus extra's to feed to our hens as they love green beans

I believe the only thing we have left to direct sow is corn....also need to start our sunflowers.....

we still need to purchase transplants of winter squash, pumpkin, crookneck squash & a watermelon.....

what we have been eating so far out of the gardens is:

leeks,
green onions,
lettuce,
spinach,
bok choy,
kale,
swiss chard,
Oarch,
parsley, (dehydrated a bunch of it too!)
oregano,
radishes,
asparagus (1) so far .....but boy oh boy was it a beauty!

seen our first green strawberry today!

Happy gardening
rose

Rose, I'll match your cool crops harvested, and raise you cauliflower and broccoli!   While you were drinking eggnog on Christmas eve, I was planting seeds in the greenhouse.  The broccoli plants  had some really gnarly doglegs from limited sun, but they finally produced.  What a treat to have fresh broccoli again.

I planted corn  yesterday in the sunshine, so of course today the weather is cool and wet, and the soil temp has dropped quite a bit.  The box is covered with a hoop house, so at least the seeds won't drown until it warms up again.

I think you're gutsy planting tomatoes in the ground already!  Do you have cloches or other kinds of protection for them?

boffer wrote:
It's been a good year for getting stuff started early. 

Dang boy!  You win the Mr. Green Jeans award if I ever see one!  Got serious greenhouse envy here.

Your set up is beautiful!  And your hens are cute, too.

CC

Boffer, everything looks GREAT!  Congratulations...!

You mentioned a list of changes you're going to make in the greenhouse.  Can you tell us what they are?

(Just sold our pontoon boat yesterday and am hoping to put a greenhouse in the spot where it sat...  Just haven't told DH yet, lol!  I'd like to see your suggestions.)

CapeCoddess wrote:

boffer wrote:
It's been a good year for getting stuff started early. 

Got serious greenhouse envy here.

Me too!!

Well...my greenhouses are just big hoop houses-go for it!  

I'm in a somewhat rural area, so I see a lot of 'portable garages'
similar to this one.


More often than not, the canvas is missing, and the frame is standing there unused.  A perfect start for a greenhouse!  

Marie, for next year, I'll be adding more boxes.  This year, I tried two hoop houses with heated MM inside the greenhouse.  That part worked great, but they  just didn't get enough sun early on.  I came across some 4 foot/4 bulb florescent fixtures, so I'll hang them in the hoop houses to see if I can get stuff off to a faster start.  

Oh yeah, I ate my first snow peas yesterday!

boffer wrote:Rose, I'll match your cool crops harvested, and raise you cauliflower and broccoli!   While you were drinking eggnog on Christmas eve, I was planting seeds in the greenhouse.  The broccoli plants  had some really gnarly doglegs from limited sun, but they finally produced.  What a treat to have fresh broccoli again.

I planted corn  yesterday in the sunshine, so of course today the weather is cool and wet, and the soil temp has dropped quite a bit.  The box is covered with a hoop house, so at least the seeds won't drown until it warms up again.

I think you're gutsy planting tomatoes in the ground already!  Do you have cloches or other kinds of protection for them?

we are pushing the garden limits again this year last year we transplanted our tomatoes around May 2nd..so just about the same time as this year.....hoping they will endure the cool nights and do as well as last year!....they are not covered so we shall see

Boffer did you sit on the ground in the buff like the Indians use too and check to see if the ground is warm enough for corn? We haven't planted ours yet....but...hubby is in hopes he will this week!....I told him the sooner you plant the sooner we get to eat fresh picked corn on the cob!!....not sure if he will set on the ground though LOL....we too are going to cover the corn beds....to keep the rats out and to give the seeds a bit more warmth....it worked great last year....

Jealous Boffer you had your first sugar snap pea!!....no flowers so far for us....

Happy gardening
rose who had a lovely salad from the garden tonight!....mixed lettuce, spinach, radishes & Oarch.....it was so pretty too!

FamilyGardening wrote:...Boffer did you sit on the ground in the buff like the Indians use too and check to see if the ground is warm enough for corn? ...

Nah, I didn't want to compact my MM!

Besides, I don't have to shower after using a thermometer!

Where?

May 9, 2015

Had to break out the big salad spinner.... the mini was just too small for today's clippings.
Deb's.... trying to squeeze in soil blocks of celeriac.

Hubby planted 94 SQ's of corn yesterday + 1 SQ Butternut squash & 1 SQ Pie Pumpkin

happy gardening
rose

What a guy!       (I couldn't find dancing corn!)

Was that an early Mother's Day present?

boffer wrote:What a guy!       (I couldn't find dancing corn!)

Was that an early Mother's Day present?

he was under-pressure from nagging

Then it was more like a present to himself! Happy wife; happy life!

boffer wrote:Then it was more like a present to himself!  Happy wife; happy life!

he is a good husband he puts up with a lot from me LOL....im cranky, because I cant do to much in the gardens right now as Im waiting to have neck surgery in the next couple of weeks.....Im hoping it will all be worth it, but I don't have much of a choice.....I want to get back into the gardens!!....so for now he calls himself my ranch hand..... ....and ranch hand is justified as we have chickens to wrangle

hugs
rose

Maybe you can write a C/W song for him called The Chicken Wrangler!

May 11, 2015 thick gray clouds, birdsong and really good coffee

What is the projected recovery time on your neck Rose? The weather has been insane... manic insane and I am so sad that you only get to direct instead of get dirty. Ray and I had to switch hats because the place he worked for left town. I LOVE farming and cooking what I grow, but I go to work every day (at least until summer, then I need to look for work... whose gonna hire an old woman in this economy?) Ray has had to learn to chicken wrangle, we call him the Chicken Master. This is really irritating, but he is better then me at planting seedlings. All those years of tree-planting in the mountains translated nicely into onion planting in a SFG. He is AWESOME. He would rather work and bring home a check, I would rather be a full time urban farmer, we both remember when... and laugh about the path we are on. 

This weekend I did the warrior thing. Ray spread the composted horse manure he and Chris got me for MD and turned our compost (beautiful stuff when it is left alone to do its thing). Meanwhile I got the first tomatoes planted in a 4x8 with a few soil blocks of basil that were over-due for setting into soil. I also put in soil-blocks of celeriac that probably could have waited another week, but who knows what I'll be doing next week. While I was scooping out a place to put them I realized that I had a 4x4 of beets, carrots and spinach. There was space between the spinach for the baby celeriac so I stuck them in. The spinach will be gone (at lest by July) and all those roots can grow together. They will get each others jokes. The peppers are all up-potted. To do that I had to snatch pots from where ever I could. I had poor germination with feverfew and black cumin so I up-potted those to a clay pots, adding their 4" pots to the pile of tomato pots and got my peppers into new homes. The plan is to replace my spring salad box with peppers but I am still getting too much salad from that box to even think about putting in a plant that will not produce until August. Because space is so tight this season, I made tomato grids with mixed lettuces. There is always a big, unused space between the tomatoes (it is hard to reach when the tomatoes become a forest). I'm hoping to make use of that space with the lettuce AND to extend the lettuce season in the shade of the tomatoes. Time will tell.

The lawn got a nice trim, Guantanamo got cleaned up for the baby nuggets (they discovered the joy of bugs!) and a couple of eggplants were given new homes in the greenhouse. We snacked on the best parsley all afternoon then made burgers with fresh parsley, cilantro and oregano topped with grilled onions and some of Ray's green tomato pickles. I still need to make soil-blocks of corn, cucumbers, squash and pumpkins as well as get sunflowers and nasturtiums into the ground (plus a bunch more of their fancy friends). Tonight is payday and we have a few supplies we need to get, and my son and his girlfriend want us to come for a late dinner... stress is tempting, but it seems as if everything gets done in its time....except for pictures, seems like there is never time any more for pictures

Debs... praying for you get well soon because pain in the neck is a pain in the neck!

LOL Boffer on the song....if I keep hubby fed he is happy  wonder if I could make up a song on keeping the chicken wrangler fed & happy!

Deb's the doc said 6 month recovery with 12 weeks of it in a soft collar I was debating if I should wait until summer was over to have the surgery, but I figure if I have it done now I will be encourage to go outside and perhaps the recovery will go better instead of doing it come fall and wanting to just stay in bed all day long....at least I can keep moving in the summer time for spring I was able to start seedlings under lights and in the green house......and sow some carrot seeds....(cheating by just tossing them onto the wood mulch and watering them in ) but hey it feels good to just do that in the gardens I also am able to harvest and I have to agree with you....so far its a great salad year!!....like with your farmer Ray my ranch hand hubby is really good at gardening now too!

hugs
rose

It is the weekend and I still have not started that tray of corn or the vines. All those cabbages and broccoli are in and a tray of tomato plants have found new homes. Hope to find homes for a 2nd tray this week-end. This week will be a cilantro polusa! I've got an abundance and want to use them ASAP. It has been fantastic mixed with yogurt on greens but it is time for a pot of chili! A tray of pepper plants is nearly to the pinch-able stage, always stressful but always produces so many more peppers then letting them just grow. 

Still no sign of the green beans we poked into the soil last week, I know I need to just wait but I'm feeling anxious about that.

Debs... picked my very first (mostly ripe) strawberry last night (May 16)... gonna replace that store bought fruit in my lunch before too long!

Deb's ....it sure is awesome to be eating fresh from the gardens again!...your lunch looks fantastic!

some of our beans (Pole-Scarlett runner, French yellow, rattlesnake & purple) are coming up....Pole-green and Bush wax are taking their sweet time!....I bet you will see your green beans this week!  

hugs
rose.....