May 2021 – Grow All I Can

May 29, 2021June 21, 2021

2021: Sugar Snap Peas (Spring)

I must confess that I have no idea when to pick sugar snap peas. I don’t want to pick them too soon because then they’ll just taste like grass (or what I imagine grass would taste like had I ever eaten it). But I don’t want to leave them on the plant too long, either, and risk adversely affecting production. The ones for sale in the grocery store are a little puffier than the one in the (second) picture below. So I’ll leave that one where it is for another day or two.

These plants were direct seeded in the garden on March 23 with Ferry Morse seeds. They sprouted fairly quickly, in about a week. These pictures were taken on May 23, so the “62 days to harvest” information on the seed packet is spot on. The seeds were not inoculated but the bed was amended with compost and a general purpose organic fertilizer before planting. I only had room for one eight-foot row, but I have lots of seeds left so if the yield is good I’ll plant more in the fall.

If I remember correctly, the plants only produce for a few weeks. They don’t like the heat. Fingers crossed for a bumper crop before summer sets in. We’ll update in a few weeks.

June 21: I ripped the plants out today to make room for the sweet potatoes. The total yield from my eight foot row was 3.23 pounds. I don’t know if that’s good or not. I do know that sugar snap peas cost about $5.00 per pound in the grocery store, so I grew over $15.00 worth of peas from a $1.78 packet of seeds. Not a bad return on investment.

May 23, 2021May 23, 2021

(Mostly) Monochromatic Me!

Apparently I’m partial to purple flowers!

May 23, 2021July 8, 2021

Did I Kill It? Lavender

Occasionally, as gardeners, we have to move stuff. Maybe because it’s not growing well where it is, maybe because we have to make room for something else. In this case, it’s the latter of the two.

In an effort to simplify (and hopefully, beautify) the front of the house, I bought 6 knockout roses to fill the beds that stretch across the front. This way, I won’t have to think about what I’m going to do there every year. The bulk of the beds will be occupied and I’ll just have to fill in with a few annuals.

In order to do that though, I have to move this lavender. It’s been growing here for four years, and measures almost four feet in diameter. I brought it from our old house, so this is the second time it’s been dug up and moved. It’s mid-April, probably not the best time to move it, but I don’t have a choice.

Grosso Lavender before trimming and move

I gave it lots of compost and a good watering. Every few days I check it, but it just looks like dead wood.

Until…

Today!

It’s May 20th and that’s definitely new green growth.

I did have a few false alarms. I saw green and got all excited, but it was just weeds growing up through the base of the plant. But this is the real thing! Fingers crossed for flowers!

July 3: We have flowers! So happy my little plant made it.

May 20, 2021June 1, 2021

2021: Onions, Part 2: Growing

So the plan was to get the onions in the ground by April 1. That didn’t happen. It was cold. It was damp. I think we even had a few snow flurries that morning. I wound up planting them on the 5th. And the 6th. And the 8th and 9th. Apparently I had grossly underestimated the number of onion plants I had, and grossly overestimated the number I could fit in a 4 foot by 8 foot bed. When I was finally finished, there were onions in the onion bed, onions in the salad bed, onions in the bean bed and in containers with the flowers. I thought I had about 130 onion plants, but I think the final count was closer to 200. I planted them on 5 inch centers to give them plenty of room to grow. The beds had been amended with compost and organic fertilizer a few weeks before planting. This is what the onion bed looked like on May 10th, about a month after transplanting.

Ailsa Craig onions one month after transplanting — Ailsa Craig onions about a month after transplanting

This is what the onion bed looked like on May 31, almost 2 months after transplanting.

Ailsa Craig onions 2 months after transplanting

They’re getting quite big, but I don’t think the bulbing process has begun yet, at least I hope not. Each one has seven or eight leaves. If possible I’d like them to add a leaf or two before the onions start forming. As a long day variety, the bulbs should start forming when the day length reaches 14 to 16 hours. We’re at about 15 hours now, and the longest day of the year is only three weeks away, so something should start happening soon (if it hasn’t already)!

May 20, 2021June 4, 2021

Poor Planning on my Part

So in order to reach my goal of producing 375 pounds of vegetables from my little garden patch, I have to make the most of every inch for every minute of the gardening season. That means planting and replanting as the seasons change. But what if the old plants aren’t harvest-ready when it’s time to replant with the new?

Case in point: Bed #1. According to my plan, the spring planting of Quickstar kohlrabi should be ready to harvest by May 1, and the spring planting of Ferry’s Round Dutch cabbage should be ready by May 21. That leaves the bed open for the tomatoes and eggplant which will occupy it through the fall.

It’s May 9. The kohlrabi can be picked anytime now. The cabbage, however, is nowhere near ready, and will probably need another month. The tomatoes can’t wait that long.

If I harvest the kohlrabi and weed real well, I’ll be able to see how much space I have to work with. If there was room, I could plant the tomatoes amongst the cabbage. It would only be for a month.

Apparently that’s a no-no. Most gardening sites agree on the inadvisability of planting nightshades and brassicas together.

Bed #3 is another problem. The sugar snap peas, carrots and beets are nowhere near ready and the sweet potato slips are here and need to be planted. Now, if I remember correctly, it took the sweet potatoes a while to get going last year. However, the carrots, peas and beets probably need another 4 weeks. The sweet potatoes could be enormous by then! I’m afraid they’re going to completely overwhelm the spring stuff. I’ll keep an eye on the vines and cut them back if I have to. I’m also going to plant some in Bed #3 and some in Bed #5 so nothing’s too crowded.

I don’t know why this is happening, I mean, I can add, after all. Which is all that’s required. Days to germination plus days to maturity equals days to harvest. I should have added in a few days (weeks?) to account for the unexpected. Like a very (very!) cold, wet spring, and covid-corrupted shipping schedules. Not complaining though! I’m happy and healthy and planting sweet potatoes! Life is good.

May 6, 2021June 1, 2021

2021 Garden Goals

Every year I draw up a plan for the garden. This is this year’s.

It’s not a terribly sophisticated rendering, and I’m sure the scale and orientation are more than a little off, but it keeps me organized. It lets me easily see if everything I want to plant is accounted for and if I have any sun-blocking issues caused by taller plants. I can also compare it with last year’s diagram to make sure I’m rotating properly.

The growing areas are outlined in blue and the fence is in black. Natural obstacles like stumps and trees are outlined in red. I have left some things out though: there’s another fence and a line of trees behind Bed #6 (they belong to the neighbor).

Each bed is 4 feet wide and 8 feet long. The planting areas for the cucumbers and zucchini are each about 2 square feet. The containers for the potatoes and peppers are actually grow bags that are about 21 inches in diameter. That gives me about 192 + 4 + 9.6 = 205.6 square feet of growing area.

Last year’s yield was 250 pounds. This year’s goal is 50% more, or 375 pounds. Can we do it? Gosh I hope so.