Well I did not fill up every inch of space but I came close. I am calling the spring planting phase at Mar-Duke now done and don't plan on doing any more other than weed and water and harvest. This weekend I got the last bit of work in. I staked up all the tomatoes, did some weeding, got the rest of the transplants in and added some line for the peas to crawl up.
So far I am very happy with the soil in the plot. We keep having torrential downpours and I can still work withing the plot a day later. So are my favorite thing about community gardening is watching what everyone else is doing. For each plot out there, there is a slightly different way people are going about getting their plants in. Most are tilling. A few like me are no till. So far tilling versus non-tilling seems to be making no difference with respect to weeds. They weeds are popping up right away in the tilled and no tilled areas alike.
Here is a quick picture of how things are looking now.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Mar-Duke+muddy
Heat +thunderstorms this past week has lead to a whole lot of growth. I need to harvest my bok choy and spinach already! Its crazy. The potatoes are also taking off. I will need to mound them up this week. Pretty much everything that was suffering during the cold is now turning around. Edamame is now sprouting. Still no corn. Billions of weed. I'm really glad I did landscape fabric or thick straw for must of the beds or I would have a serious mess.
Too muddy to plant today. Many inches of rain this past week. I did however do a bunch of weeding. It was perfect weather for that.
I have to say I am rather freaked to be harvesting already. I was hoping of a few weeks of doing nothing. :)
Too muddy to plant today. Many inches of rain this past week. I did however do a bunch of weeding. It was perfect weather for that.
I have to say I am rather freaked to be harvesting already. I was hoping of a few weeks of doing nothing. :)
Monday, May 23, 2016
Mar-Duke: What a difference a week makes
The weather has turned (again). Things have warmed up to mid-fifties at night and upper seventies/low eighties during the day. The warmth has brought things to life!
I've been working hard trying to get things in the ground. Plot is now about 3/4 full. I'll sum all that up later this week for now, here's whats happening.
Bok Choy: massive growth in one week and now bolting. :/
Peppermint celery: about 50% size increase, very healthy looking.
Spinach and Kale. Now actively growing and looking good.
Deadish cukes, did not come back. Replanted (Lemon, Armenian, Burpee Hybrid and Poinsette)
Cucamelon: Hail took it out. Drat. replanted.
Fennel: Improving color. No growth yet.
Peas: Sprouting and growing!
Beans: Sprouting and growing! Mostly dead beans are coming back as well. I have too many beans.
Cauliflower: 180 turn around, no visible growth yet but much healthier looking
Purple peacock broccoli: Growing!
Purple potatoes and Red tenderlings: Sprouting! Man potatoes sure have pretty foliage
Tomatoes: all are in the ground. No losses. No visible growth yet. Looking less beaten up however.
Peppers: Looking good, blossoms are starting.
Winter squash with smushed stem: Still alive and still green. It proves that I cannot kill plants I don't enjoy eating.
Cantalope, watermelon, zukes, butternut. Planted today.
Popcorn seeds: No sign of life yet
Popcorn plants: Look terrible, sort of shrively as if they got hit with a herbacide.
Radishes: growing slowly. Fighting through weeds
Carrots: sprouting I think.
Onions: growing and looking good!
Artichoke: 1 happy 1 pouty
Eggplant: 1 happy, 1 pouty
I'm starting to meet my allotment neighbors. Its fun seeing what other people are doing. This has been a lot of hard work getting it all in, even with no till but I am close to seeing light at the end of the tunnel with respect to the hard stuff. Well other than the hauling of the water. Fingers crossed for Rain every 3 days of approximately 3/4 of an inch. ;)
I've been working hard trying to get things in the ground. Plot is now about 3/4 full. I'll sum all that up later this week for now, here's whats happening.
Bok Choy: massive growth in one week and now bolting. :/
Peppermint celery: about 50% size increase, very healthy looking.
Spinach and Kale. Now actively growing and looking good.
Deadish cukes, did not come back. Replanted (Lemon, Armenian, Burpee Hybrid and Poinsette)
Cucamelon: Hail took it out. Drat. replanted.
Fennel: Improving color. No growth yet.
Peas: Sprouting and growing!
Beans: Sprouting and growing! Mostly dead beans are coming back as well. I have too many beans.
Cauliflower: 180 turn around, no visible growth yet but much healthier looking
Purple peacock broccoli: Growing!
Purple potatoes and Red tenderlings: Sprouting! Man potatoes sure have pretty foliage
Tomatoes: all are in the ground. No losses. No visible growth yet. Looking less beaten up however.
Peppers: Looking good, blossoms are starting.
Winter squash with smushed stem: Still alive and still green. It proves that I cannot kill plants I don't enjoy eating.
Cantalope, watermelon, zukes, butternut. Planted today.
Popcorn seeds: No sign of life yet
Popcorn plants: Look terrible, sort of shrively as if they got hit with a herbacide.
Radishes: growing slowly. Fighting through weeds
Carrots: sprouting I think.
Onions: growing and looking good!
Artichoke: 1 happy 1 pouty
Eggplant: 1 happy, 1 pouty
I'm starting to meet my allotment neighbors. Its fun seeing what other people are doing. This has been a lot of hard work getting it all in, even with no till but I am close to seeing light at the end of the tunnel with respect to the hard stuff. Well other than the hauling of the water. Fingers crossed for Rain every 3 days of approximately 3/4 of an inch. ;)
Monday, May 16, 2016
The Sad State of Affairs at Mar-Duke
First, a note of optimism. These guys have NOT been in my plot. The fence is thankfully, working. Birds this size can do a lot of damage. I have watched them merrily ripping out the seedlings in other plots but mine are untouched by fowl. Mother Nature on the other hand has not been so kind.
In this area our springs can be a little wild. 50 degree temperature swings are not unusual. Nor are 50 mph winds, tornado warnings, snow advisories or rain totals of 3, 4, 5 inches in a week. In the last week my poor little seedlings got hit with 4 inches of rain, 30 mph gusts and temps that went up to 80 and then crashed down to 35. Needless to say, the babies are not thriving. The images below sum up the carnage and disarray currently in place in my plot at Mar-Duke. Tomorrow night is another temp crash and fingers crossed that hopefully, after that, recovery begins.
This first plot isn't so bad. Its the first plot I did at Mar-duke. It contains Bok Choi, Peppermint celery (red stem), two kinds of spinach including Montreux , and chinese kale. Everything is growing. The celery started as teeny tiny seedlings and I can already tell I planted it way too close but to be frank I only expected 30% survival. So 100% are alive!
Bed 2: AKA tomb of cukes. This bed is in rough shape.The fennel in the background is struggling. In front of that is a row of cylindra beets, that did sprout and then stopped. In front of that are the carcasses of the lemon and other cukes, killed by cold, despite the wall of water that was around them. Also of note the inch of fine leaf mulch is mostly blown away or eaten by worms. This bed had a ton of them. In the very front row is some sporadic sprouting of some watermelon radishes and a lot of weeds. I threw a few lemon cuke seeds in the bed after the first kill but I'll be shocked if they sprout. They have been really wet and really cold.
Bed 3: Peas and edamame
Apologies for the tilted photo. I was trying to avoid mud. Not much success to report in the Pea and edamame bed. The couple of pea plants are pale and not growing. The pea seeds and edamame seeds have not sprouted. The entire bed I suspect is not happy with all the rain we have gotten and how wet everything is. I also cannot find my pea inoculate, which I really need to do soon.
Bed 4: Potatoes
Aren't all the pictures of straw fascinating? This is the potato bed. Purple potatoes and red fingerlings. Chitted weeks ago, nothing has sprouted. Not even weeds. I planted a couple of cosmos in this bed yesterday to make it a little less pathetic. Fingers crossed they survive tomorrow.
Bed 5: Beans
The pretty kale and mizuna in this bed are hiding the bean tragedy that has occurred. On the left are the beans that got hit by the 35 degrees and the winds and rain. They are mostly dead. In the ground are all the bean seeds that have not sprouted. Two varieties, Kew Blue and a yellow pole-they are probably rotted but I will give them another weeks. On the right are the new plants I planted this weekend before the forecast changed to more cold. Hang tough little beanies, its only one night!
Bed 6: Onions
While clearly unhappy about all the rain (note the yellowing) This bed is still looking mostly OK. On the right is a variety called Candy. On the left is Spanish utah (much younger plants). In the far back left is a lone artichoke that is looking pale but alive. In the center is a mostly mushy french marigold that I don't expect to make it.
Bed 7: Purple tomatoes
Tomato plants turn purple when they are cold. Their leaves curl when they are too wet. These eight plants are purple and curled. They are so purple they are blending nicely with the color of the landscape fabric. If the warmth comes quick enough they should turn around. If not, I have 9 others in reserve. I never plant all the tomatoes at once. Behind the tomato row is the other half of the plot not yet planted and full of weeds In the very back corner is the strawberry popcorn under landscape fabric. It has not sprouted-too wet and cold.
Bed 8: Cold Cauliflower and Sad Shiso
This bed contains snowy cauliflower. I put them in this weekend to replace the armenian cuke carcasses> They are looking rather pale. I give them a 50:50 chance.
I give the Shiso seedlings to the left even less. These clearly show frost damage and they were so little when they went in, I will be shocked if they recover. Oddly, these two marigolds have no damage at all and the one 6 feet to the right is mushy.
More cauliflower:
Here is the cauliflower that went though the storm. Orange and Purple cauliflower seedlings. They were very small when they went in and are now almost invisible between they hay. They clearly have some cold damage. Survival chances not looking so good for most of these.
Bed 9: Leeks, Carrots and Arugula and Black Peanuts
I thought if anything was going to croak it was going to be the black peanuts and the basil. The basil did not disappoint. While not completely dead, its mostly there. The black peanuts on the other hand are totally fine. Huh. Go figure. Carrots (Romaine-F1 via seed tape) have not sprouted.
Of course everything is so small you are mostly looking at straw but gorgeous close ups are for things that look good. Carnage is best viewed standing back and squinting over a steaming cup of tea.
Bed 10: Purple Cabbage and Shallots
Purple cabbage, very purple and growing! Shallots very tiny and disappearing. There are some monster night crawlers in all these beds that I mulched with leaves. I wonder if they are eating my shallots? This bed has some beet seedlings coming up as well...in between the weeds.
Bed 11: Peppers
This bed looks pretty good. Primarily because other than the 5 peppers planted in the straw, all of these in the landscaping fabric I planted yesterday. They were all planted in pretty wet soil so fingers crossed there. The pepper varieties are "fooled you" Jalapeno, Purple Beauty, Sweet Orange, Yellow banana, Cubano, something that began with an M that sounded big (sweet red) and I think there is an ancho poblano in there too.
When I check these today the surface soil was already dry so that is a good sign related to drainage. Fingers crossed!
This first plot isn't so bad. Its the first plot I did at Mar-duke. It contains Bok Choi, Peppermint celery (red stem), two kinds of spinach including Montreux , and chinese kale. Everything is growing. The celery started as teeny tiny seedlings and I can already tell I planted it way too close but to be frank I only expected 30% survival. So 100% are alive!
Bed 2: AKA tomb of cukes. This bed is in rough shape.The fennel in the background is struggling. In front of that is a row of cylindra beets, that did sprout and then stopped. In front of that are the carcasses of the lemon and other cukes, killed by cold, despite the wall of water that was around them. Also of note the inch of fine leaf mulch is mostly blown away or eaten by worms. This bed had a ton of them. In the very front row is some sporadic sprouting of some watermelon radishes and a lot of weeds. I threw a few lemon cuke seeds in the bed after the first kill but I'll be shocked if they sprout. They have been really wet and really cold.
Bed 3: Peas and edamame
Apologies for the tilted photo. I was trying to avoid mud. Not much success to report in the Pea and edamame bed. The couple of pea plants are pale and not growing. The pea seeds and edamame seeds have not sprouted. The entire bed I suspect is not happy with all the rain we have gotten and how wet everything is. I also cannot find my pea inoculate, which I really need to do soon.
Aren't all the pictures of straw fascinating? This is the potato bed. Purple potatoes and red fingerlings. Chitted weeks ago, nothing has sprouted. Not even weeds. I planted a couple of cosmos in this bed yesterday to make it a little less pathetic. Fingers crossed they survive tomorrow.
The pretty kale and mizuna in this bed are hiding the bean tragedy that has occurred. On the left are the beans that got hit by the 35 degrees and the winds and rain. They are mostly dead. In the ground are all the bean seeds that have not sprouted. Two varieties, Kew Blue and a yellow pole-they are probably rotted but I will give them another weeks. On the right are the new plants I planted this weekend before the forecast changed to more cold. Hang tough little beanies, its only one night!
While clearly unhappy about all the rain (note the yellowing) This bed is still looking mostly OK. On the right is a variety called Candy. On the left is Spanish utah (much younger plants). In the far back left is a lone artichoke that is looking pale but alive. In the center is a mostly mushy french marigold that I don't expect to make it.
Tomato plants turn purple when they are cold. Their leaves curl when they are too wet. These eight plants are purple and curled. They are so purple they are blending nicely with the color of the landscape fabric. If the warmth comes quick enough they should turn around. If not, I have 9 others in reserve. I never plant all the tomatoes at once. Behind the tomato row is the other half of the plot not yet planted and full of weeds In the very back corner is the strawberry popcorn under landscape fabric. It has not sprouted-too wet and cold.
This bed contains snowy cauliflower. I put them in this weekend to replace the armenian cuke carcasses> They are looking rather pale. I give them a 50:50 chance.
I give the Shiso seedlings to the left even less. These clearly show frost damage and they were so little when they went in, I will be shocked if they recover. Oddly, these two marigolds have no damage at all and the one 6 feet to the right is mushy.
More cauliflower:
Here is the cauliflower that went though the storm. Orange and Purple cauliflower seedlings. They were very small when they went in and are now almost invisible between they hay. They clearly have some cold damage. Survival chances not looking so good for most of these.
Bed 9: Leeks, Carrots and Arugula and Black Peanuts
I thought if anything was going to croak it was going to be the black peanuts and the basil. The basil did not disappoint. While not completely dead, its mostly there. The black peanuts on the other hand are totally fine. Huh. Go figure. Carrots (Romaine-F1 via seed tape) have not sprouted.
Purple cabbage, very purple and growing! Shallots very tiny and disappearing. There are some monster night crawlers in all these beds that I mulched with leaves. I wonder if they are eating my shallots? This bed has some beet seedlings coming up as well...in between the weeds.
This bed looks pretty good. Primarily because other than the 5 peppers planted in the straw, all of these in the landscaping fabric I planted yesterday. They were all planted in pretty wet soil so fingers crossed there. The pepper varieties are "fooled you" Jalapeno, Purple Beauty, Sweet Orange, Yellow banana, Cubano, something that began with an M that sounded big (sweet red) and I think there is an ancho poblano in there too.
When I check these today the surface soil was already dry so that is a good sign related to drainage. Fingers crossed!
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Pond after Rain
It has rained the entire week and as a result the pond is in rough shape. The winds in the storms blew every single crab-apple blossum into the pond plus a fair number of sticks and other debris. Visibility is only about a foot and a half. When the pond is in good shape its crystal clear to the bottom Part of the issue is also the DOCs. See all those bubbles under the waterfall? That is not good. Those are DOC's or dissolved organic compounds. Its the result of leaves blowing into the pond and starting to rot for the entire winter. Leaves I have only started to remove. Normally I would be farther along but the water is still only 55 degrees and putting on waders and spending a few hours scooping up methane loaded rot is the recipe for a bad day which one has to mentally psych oneself up for. The cool weather has not inspired me so instead I have been doing a scoop or two at a time, in between rain storms.
The big yellow koi is Luna. I have had her since she was 4" long. She spent November through March under ice with no problem whatsoever. This is because my pond is 4 feet deep and doesn't freeze to the bottom but more importantly it only has 4 koi in it, Luna, Fred, Bella and Ginny. The fewer koi the larger the margin of error. I don't have any intention of making this group any larger. This size herd allows me to go on vacation and ignore them there is enough in the pond where they can sustain themselves. Plus each time you introduce a new fish there is a significant risk of introducing bad disease
The goals this weekend is to get the leaf debris reduced by 75% at least, and get this final load of seedlings planted.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
How ya doin? Ahright?
Hi and welcome.
I was clicking around today and found a reference to this blog. It said I'm an author of a garden book and garden in Toronto.
Nope. Ima chick from ChiCAWgo and not an author....As obvious by my blog entries. Der
Thanks for the mention of my blog though!
I was clicking around today and found a reference to this blog. It said I'm an author of a garden book and garden in Toronto.
Nope. Ima chick from ChiCAWgo and not an author....As obvious by my blog entries. Der
Thanks for the mention of my blog though!
Monday, May 9, 2016
Weekend Gardening Blitz: Mar-Duke
 |
| Gack look at all those dandelion seeds off to the right! |
All I can say is man I am slow. I spent 8 hours on Friday, 6 on Saturday and another 8 on Sunday and I am only about 1/2 way done with filling up my plot space. I also can barely move.
I think it is the weeding part that is slowing me down. The plot has a lot of grass in it with very deep roots. Type A person that I am, I have been slowly picking--yes picking through each area to dig up and dispose of the grass. Most of my neighbors are Mar-Duke are just rototilling. No till philosophies aside. I'm not sure about that approach. Chopping these roots up just makes more grass sprouts to grow. It will be interesting to see how it all compares in a month or so.
OK so what we in the ground this weekend?
Strawberry popcorn
8 tomato plants (more to go)
watermelon radish
two towers of pea
1 bean teepee
purple cauliflower
orange cauliflower
2 artichokes
2 strips of Romance carrots
purple potatoes
pink tenderling potatoes
some borage, dill, basil and marigolds, nasturium seeds, sunflowers
cukes (replacements for the two lemon cukes that croaked from last week.)
4 sweet peppers. Bit cool for these but we will see what happens.
leeks
candy onions
spanish utah onions
Shiso-red Perillo
raddichio
purple peacock broccoli
Red Russian kale
mustard greens
Rain is now forecast for the next three days, so I am going to concentrate on pond plantings and the yard veggies for the next few days.
Sorry for the terrible pictures. I will get some closer ones next time.
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Deadbeat Duck
Originally the title of this post was going to be "Inconvenient
Duck". You see Taffy the duck that visits our pond each spring decided
to set up a nest and lay eggs directly beneath the main spigot that
serves my seedlings and my pond. Argh. To say that that was
an inconvenience would be an large understatement. I am in the middle of
spring pond clean up which is done exclusively with that hose. Nevertheless, we delighted by the thought of fuzzy
ducklings in 21 days, so we of course left her alone.
Sadly there is no cute picture of Taffy to accompany this entry. Taffy flew the coop and has not come back. While ducks often lay eggs, leave, go away for a few hours and come back to lay more eggs, I am virtually certain that the cold temps yesterday and last night have eliminated any hope of fuzzy ducklings from this particular set of eggs. Yet I leave them be. I hold out hope that our deadbeat duck changes her mind and comes back. She is awfully cute. Quack Quack
Update: Taffy did not return. Her boyfriend Daffy still shows up about every other morning around 6 quacking his fool head off for a few minutes and then taking off again. Poor Daffy, looks like Taffy split on him too.
Sadly there is no cute picture of Taffy to accompany this entry. Taffy flew the coop and has not come back. While ducks often lay eggs, leave, go away for a few hours and come back to lay more eggs, I am virtually certain that the cold temps yesterday and last night have eliminated any hope of fuzzy ducklings from this particular set of eggs. Yet I leave them be. I hold out hope that our deadbeat duck changes her mind and comes back. She is awfully cute. Quack Quack
Update: Taffy did not return. Her boyfriend Daffy still shows up about every other morning around 6 quacking his fool head off for a few minutes and then taking off again. Poor Daffy, looks like Taffy split on him too.
Week of April 25: Pond Start up and Mar-Duke post Rain
The week has been rainy and cold. Not that misty rain that one thinks of when one thinks of spring. No this was multiple days of downpours. Very very cold downpours. Wind chill yesterday was 36 degrees in the 2" down pour.
Needless to say, there was no real planting that went on this week. Oh I tried today. I went out to scope out the allotment. I even took the shovel out of the car and make a few half hearted swings with it. It wasn't happening. Moving with tens pounds of goo on your boots is hard and getting the goo to fall nicely off the shovel without destroying your soil structure just doesn't happen after that much rain. So Mar-Duke was a wash this weekend. One thing I did note though was geese. Lots and lots of geese wandering around and yanking out plants. I was glad for my three sided fence. My plot so no evidence of geese or other traffic through it. I will need to make it a four sided fence soon. The other thing of note was that the fence saw 30 knots of wind this week and held. That's good news.
I did have some productivity in the pond arena. I got the bog filter and waterfall filter box cleared out of winter sludge and got the pump connected and flowing. This is good timing for this. I have not been feeding the fish regularly because the water is still too cold but I suspect that will change soon. I need the bacterial filtration established some before feeding resumes. That requires temperatures about 40 degrees and I have that. I also want the water moving to prevent any mosquitoes from hatching. Mosquitoes do not like moving water.
I took a few swipes of the leaf net at the bottom of the pond just now to see how bad it was. Verdict was BAD. There are probably about 500 pounds of wet leaves down there. The methane smell when you pull them off the bottom can give you a headache right away. This will be a project I will tackle in spurts. When the water is this cold, the koi's immune system is not up to par. I only want to disturb a little bit of water at a time so keep their conditions as decent as possible. It is important to get this off the bottom though. I can host a whole lot of bad bacteria an parasites and with the ducks hanging out here again this spring who knows what is being brought in. Here is a picture of the pond this afternoon.
Needless to say, there was no real planting that went on this week. Oh I tried today. I went out to scope out the allotment. I even took the shovel out of the car and make a few half hearted swings with it. It wasn't happening. Moving with tens pounds of goo on your boots is hard and getting the goo to fall nicely off the shovel without destroying your soil structure just doesn't happen after that much rain. So Mar-Duke was a wash this weekend. One thing I did note though was geese. Lots and lots of geese wandering around and yanking out plants. I was glad for my three sided fence. My plot so no evidence of geese or other traffic through it. I will need to make it a four sided fence soon. The other thing of note was that the fence saw 30 knots of wind this week and held. That's good news.
I did have some productivity in the pond arena. I got the bog filter and waterfall filter box cleared out of winter sludge and got the pump connected and flowing. This is good timing for this. I have not been feeding the fish regularly because the water is still too cold but I suspect that will change soon. I need the bacterial filtration established some before feeding resumes. That requires temperatures about 40 degrees and I have that. I also want the water moving to prevent any mosquitoes from hatching. Mosquitoes do not like moving water.
I took a few swipes of the leaf net at the bottom of the pond just now to see how bad it was. Verdict was BAD. There are probably about 500 pounds of wet leaves down there. The methane smell when you pull them off the bottom can give you a headache right away. This will be a project I will tackle in spurts. When the water is this cold, the koi's immune system is not up to par. I only want to disturb a little bit of water at a time so keep their conditions as decent as possible. It is important to get this off the bottom though. I can host a whole lot of bad bacteria an parasites and with the ducks hanging out here again this spring who knows what is being brought in. Here is a picture of the pond this afternoon.
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