PAR Davies 5/11/13

Workers today were Anne, Mary Elizabeth, Sally Dunn (intern and first time worker), and myself. Sally had attended our garden classes at Davies last year. There were not a lot of us, but we got some much needed chores done. We enjoyed having you work with us Sally, and hope you come back.

Anne tackled the broccoli and cabbage for the Harlequins. She didn't see a lot of bugs but got a lot of eggs. She said to look for the eggs around the bottom leaves on the broccoli. She did mention that she saw some tiny heads of broccoli forming!! Hooray. I am ready to get the cabbage and broccoli outa there.

Sally mulching the carrots and basil

 Sally mentioned that in her home mulch pile, she had trouble with raccoons getting in it. She started topping it off with coffee grounds and they have let it alone since. We haven't had this problem, but someone might like to try this.

I have cleaned off the unit inside the gate for workers to put their keys, phones, drinks, etc. We can keep this area free of garden stuff since we have our sink area now. Sometimes if you stash your things on the bench or table, they get mixed up with other things. This way your things will stay clean and you won't forget them when you leave (maybe). There are even little pegs to hang whatever. And if you bring your wine glass, there are slots at the very top.

Handy catch-all

Barbara Pierce gave me some sedum that does well in the sun, so Mary Elizabeth filled 3 file drawers with that. She then busied herself with weeding and mulching. There will be more of that to do Wednesday. Sally and I worked on tomatoes. Sally planted a row of some more Jet Star. We still have the Florida 91's to get from Sharon, and we will put these in Bed #1. That should about do us on tomatoes, except for some sickly plants we've been nursing along that are almost ready to transplant. Speaking of tomatoes….they are coming along and growing very fast. They are loaded with buds and blooms, and I expect to see some tiny tomatoes by Wednesday. I checked the Beefsteak where we fertilized half of them with Comfrey. They are all still alive, and it may be my imagination, but it seems that the Comfrey ones had more blooms…like I said, it may be my imagination. So Wednesday we will have a Comfrey Fest and use up all we've brewed so far. All of you with sensitive olfactory systems will have to keep your distance.

While mulching and weeding we discovered pretty many earthworms in the beds! Does that make you happy G.A.? Well, we all should be happy about that.

The Dixie Butter Beans and Santa Anna Pole Beans are emerging. The watermelon is up but not the cantaloupe (these are on the hugelkultur). I picked our first strawberries. We couldn't send them to the shelter, so I gave them to Mary Elizabeth, since she is the one who brought the strawberry plants and planted them last fall on a very cold day.

Our first harvest of pretty berries

We have plenty of bags for now and won't need any more for a while. The storage container is full, so I have hung the extras in the barn (see below) to keep dry. We are still accepting plastic produce containers though.

 

I think Saturdays are going to work out just fine, and for now we will consider it permanent through the summer. There will be lots to do Wednesday and I will give you a list when I send out my email Monday.

I hope you who are mothers had a great Mother’s Day.

'Til later,

Dianne

Hard vs Soft Garlic

Greetings to all Saturday workers….

I will meet you there at 8:00. It will probably be wet but no rain is predicted. Be sure to wear boots or old shoes. It will be a perfect time to plant and I have lots of things to go into the ground.

I forgot to show you our potato tower. I have never seen these types of potato configurations yield much…maybe this will be an exception. We dusted the cut side of all of our seed potatoes with bone meal when we planted (in ground and in towers). I think since the planting mix in the towers is rather sterile, it might be a good idea to water in some more bone meal and maybe a little fish emulsion at this point (can't hurt).

Leaning tower of potatoes

 Our garlic seems to be doing well. The link below is one of the best I've seen on garlic. We have 13 varieties of garlic planted…soft neck, hard neck, porcelain, purple stripe and artichoke varieties. I have the names of all the varieties and a description of each for anyone interested. I didn't know that the hard neck varieties are the ones that have all big cloves, and that the soft neck that we usually get in the stores have those irritating tiny cloves as you get to the center of the bulb. I did get some at Fresh Market the other day that had ALL big cloves, and now I know this was the hard neck type. I like those best, even though they do not keep as long. And, the hard neck type gets 'scapes,' which I think I saw one forming the other day. That means a month to harvest according to the article. Scapes are used by 'fancy chefs,' and we should harvest them to help the bulb develop. The second link shows how to use the scapes. So, please read the articles, and we will all be so knowledgeable when it comes to harvesting our garlic!

http://awaytogarden.com/the-tricky-matter-of-when-to-harvest-garlic

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/06/the-crisper-whisperer-what-to-do-with-garlic-scapes-recipe.html

See you later!

Dianne

Beautiful Peonies

I couldn't resist showing you the wonderful blooms that my friend Debbie cut for me out of her jillion gorgeous peonies!  Thank you, Debbie.

Debbie's garden is on this year's Through Our Garden Gates tour.  It is a "not-to-be-missed" garden!  Mark your calender now for June 8.

PAR Davies 5/8/13

TOTAL HARVEST TODAY 24 lbs.           TOTAL HARVEST TO DATE 260 lbs.

Today was 'Ladies' Day.' Our guy workers took a break today, but we still got a lot done with Virginia, Suzanne, Mary Elizabeth, Susan Pam, Cathy, and another newcomer and intern, Lauren Bangasser. It was great to see you again, Lauren. We did have a harvest today too… romaine and leaf lettuce, spinach, kale, onions and herbs, and Cathy delivered it to the shelter. We now have a large box to put the plastic containers in to keep them dry and clean. The container box and the bag box are both over in the area were we weigh the produce.

The Harlequin bugs were much fewer in number today. The ladies attacked them first thing. We decided since they seemed to be diminishing, to leave the mulch down in the cabbage and broccoli beds. They have not found the kale in the opposite end of the garden, and kale is their favorite meal. Now we are wondering if the cabbage and broccoli will head up before the hot weather sets in.

The pole beans planted in the middle of the cabbage last week have not emerged yet, and I see evidence of some critter plucking out the seeds. If they are not peeking through by next week, we will re-seed. No planting was accomplished today except for three serrano pepper plants and two blackberry bushes.

Squash - recovered

We did uncover the squash and decided to go ahead and remove all the leaf mulch in that bed, so the squash bugs will not find an opportune place to hide. More cedar mulch was put in the squash bed and we covered everything back with a new cover. Something else I just read regarding the squash vine borer is injecting the squash stem with Bt using a hypodermic needle. If anyone has one of these needles that they care to donate, please bring it and we will try the injections. Below is a link that tells about how to do it (scroll all the way to the bottom).

http://gardening.yardener.com/Solutions-For-Squash-Vine-Borer

We finally mixed up the Comfrey tea (and boy did this stink), and doused the squash with it in addition to half of the Beefsteak tomatoes. With the awful smell, maybe it will be an insect repellant too! This was a test, and if the plants seem to be happy with it, next week we will apply the tea to more tomatoes. Another harvest of the Comfrey was done and put into a bucket to start another 'brew.'

Several ladies got serious with the carrots and parsnips….thinning and weeding (below). The bed looks pretty now.

Carrots & Parsnips

Epsom salts were worked into the soil around pepper plants and the peppers, basil, tomatillos and the tomatoes in the pots were given some fish emulsion. We mixed up more potting soil to fill the last large container. The Minnesota Midget cantaloupes that were planted last week in the big pots did not survive the cold snap. We put in one last plant that we had, and will direct seed the others.

Below is our beautiful Italian Silver Rib Chard, looking like little soldiers marching. 

Italian Silver Rib Chard

The espalier pears are sprouting and are almost ready to start training on the wires. They don't look very pretty now, but I have hopes they will.

Pam brought us a big sack of really nice boxes that we will be able to use for the tomatoes. No smashed tomatoes this summer. She was also able to take some plant containers off our hands and deliver them to Lichterman. Thanks Pam.

We are starting to get peas and the fava plants have tiny beans (below), although not a good picture. We should be able to harvest some peas next week.

Fava Bean

There is still more planting and weeding to do Saturday. Right now there is a 40% chance of rain, so I will send out an update Friday on whether we will be able to garden Saturday.

Dianne

PAR Davies 5/1/13

TOTAL HARVEST TODAY 20 lbs.      TOTAL HARVEST TO DATE 236 lbs.

Hi Everyone,

We definitely had another very busy day. The dedicated workers were G.A., Jamie, John, Cathy, Anne, Susan, Suzanne, Melba, Ann Allen (new volunteer) and myself. We checked off a lot of things on the 'To Do' list, but there is still more waiting for the Saturday crew. (Update:  no work at the garden on Saturday - it's toooo wet!) The first thing we had to do was get the bugs off the broccoli and cabbage. We picked all we could and then sprayed. Yuk! But things look better now.

We ended up having a harvest, which I wasn't expecting, of radishes, Egyptian onions, Romaine and lots of our lovely herbs…dill, oregano, cilantro and parsley.

Cathy and Anne washing off the harvest in our new sink.
We are loving this sink.

A closer look

Bob H. had dropped off some extra Big Boy and Better Boy tomatoes and 16 bell peppers in addition to lots of beautiful basil. Thank you for thinking of us Bob, we planted everything. Suzanne and John planted the basil all over the garden wherever we had an empty spot. Suzanne planted the tomatoes. G.A. planted some paste tomatoes over behind the arched trellis, and the two Italian Tree tomatoes that Kay gave us were put in that area near the front fence. Can't wait to see what they do. Aunt Ida's pole beans are coming up but some had to be replanted because of critters digging. Ann prepared some potting soil to freshen up the three big pots and then planted those with Minnesota Midget melons. Susan fertilized the lasagna bed and planted with Dixie Speckled Butter Beans. G.A. 'hilled up' the potatoes, and they are looking fine.

John watering in the basil.

Melba planted some pole beans down the middle
of the cabbage.

Jamie got some of the soil up off the walkways and filled the holes in the cement blocks in Bed #5. He brought a metal shelf into the garden from behind the barn. We are going to use this as a demo bed eventually, to show how old shelves can be reused and repurposed into a raised bed. For anyone who wants some of these shelves, there are still plenty left. They are behind the barn, so just stop by and pick them up.

Shelves free for the taking

We have voles. It finally dawned on me after some of our Romaine started disappearing…yes, it was voles. Below is a link to an article talking about Eliot Coleman's trap that he says works in his high tunnels. He mentioned this in his winter gardening book, and I thought we could give it a try. G.A. has volunteered to make us some.

Link to Eliot's article

APPRECIATION!!!  We ladies were talking last week about how we appreciate the men doing the construction, plumbing and heavy lifting. We couldn't do it without you guys, and I thought you needed to know how glad we are that you do the things that we're physically unable to, things that are very necessary. Thank you from all of us.

And that's all the news from PAR Davies, where all the men are strong, all the women good looking and all the vegetables above average. 

Til later,

Dianne

Monday Morning Tech

Just a couple of iPad tricks I learned over the weekend:

Print Screen from iPad:  Go to the page you want to copy.  Hold down the Home key (that round indented thing on the bottom), press the Power key (on the top edge), then release the Home key.  Your screen will blink.  Then release the Power key.  The image is now on your camera roll so you can do whatever you want with it!

Custom Shortcuts:  I get so tired of typing my email address.  Go to Settings, General, Keyboard, Shortcuts.  Click Add New Shortcut.  Enter your phrase (email address, in my case) and a shortcut name.  Now I can just type "ssa" and my email address appears in an auto-correct box.

What will I do with all the time I've saved???

Spring Rain

A Spring Rain

The world is wet today

luxurious, damp, drenched

drops hug the leaves,

anoint the still budded lilac blossoms

before their blooming

rich purple and plum

made richer by their watery skin

New leaves under the weight

droplets heavy, hanging

bowing the white pine needles

undersides exposed to drink

drink in the morning

hushed in the rain

temperature near the dewpoint

sprouts of just planted flowers

eager from the parched soil

new puddles bloom too

on the ground, the driveway

collect and gather

without the smell of summer rain yet

tears splash and spread

silent shimmers, heralds, messengers

in the spring rain

Raymond A. Foss

May 2, 2006 9:30am

Used by permission of the poet - see more at Poetry Where You Live.