Doggie gardening

Time 5:25am
Temperature - Sparks 58, CC&R Farm 48


Soil temp - still don't know where thermometer is

Is this dill?

This could be dill but I'm not sure.  I seeded a bunch last year but not much grew. This is just one of about 8 plants like this.

I think I'll try fall seed sowing this year.  Plants seem to have more vigor when they pop up where they want rather than where I want them.

Random pics and progress in my Northern Nevada garden

Is it too late for these bush beans?

Time 6:45am
Temperature - Sparks 51, CC&R Farm 51
Soil temp - unavailable; thermometer is lost in the plants

 
These bush beans should have been planted a few days ago. They had been wrapped in a moist paper towel inside a plastic bag, the point being to increase germination success by introducing the seeds to moisture before planting. I'm going to plant them anyway and see what happens.

Red Heritage raspberry blossoms

These canes were planted last year. We took the necessary yet painful step of removing all the blossoms they produced the first year so the plant would focus on root development instead of fruit development.  Hopefully this year we'll get to eat raspberries growing 6 feet from the kitchen door.  Yippee...I can harvest them in my pajamas.

Jerusalem artichokes? When did I plant these?!

These showed up in the garden in March.  I don't remember planting them but here they are, none the less.  At first I thought the plants were perennial flowers but then, while digging for something, I pulled out a Jerusalem artichoke. They're spreading fast!  I may have to take drastic measures next year if they get out of hand because they're in the prime bed.

They want to liiiiive!

Time 5:48am
Temperature - Sparks 55, CC&R Farm 47
Soil temp 60

Even though the weather has been crappy the Lazy Housewife pole beans we planted June 7th have sprouted.  I cover them with bottomless drink cups, anchored with bamboo skewers to protect them from birds.  It also helps keep the pill bug invasion down long enough for the plant to get established.

Pole beans, bush beans, third round of beets

Time 7:18am
Temperature - Sparks 57, CC&R Farm 66
Soil temp 62

Yesterday I planted onion starts that should have been in the ground at least a month ago...if they don't get to full size we'll eat them as baby onions.

Sowed third round of beets (Baby Ball and Cylindra).  The pill bugs in our raised beds really love these and ate the other two batches.  I'm going to start picking them out of the beds.  There's no mulch so no place to hide.

Sowed Kentucky Wonder, Contender, Lazy Housewife, and Empire pole beans, and Tri-color bush beans.  Some on the slanted fence trellis, other at the base of 6 ft bamboo poles inserted into the keyhole bed soil. 

Last year pill bugs ate most of our bean crop right when the seedling emerged, and birds picked what was left to death.  Lesson learned?  Pull the mulch about 6" away from the planted area to discourage pill bugs, and cover everything with something to keep the birds out. I use the flat racks nursery pony-packs ship in (see pic).  Nurseries will usually give you a few if you ask.

To increase bean germination success rate I roll the seeds in moist (not wet) paper towels, put the roll into a sealable plastic bag, and let it sit for hours prior to planting.  Then the seeds were coated in legume inoculant right before they went into the soil.  

Windy Sunday made both me and my garden cranky, but yesterday was a better day

Most of the transplants survived the wind we had the other day and yesterday's calm weather gave them an opportunity to recoup and settle in.  The summer squash and cucumbers especially took a beating but might be OK.  I planted extra seeds next to the plants just in case. 

This is a White Scallop summer squash, an heirloom variety that I recieved for my birthday last year. Because this plant went into the ground just a couple of days ago I cut the blossoms off so the plant can put all its energy into root production.  It's hard to remove blossoms but plants produce more and better when root systems are strong.  And bonus...the blossoms were really tasty chopped and sauteed with scrambled eggs

Here's a wishful thinking crop that I fully expect to fail in this region....fava beans.  Why do I expect them to fail?  Fava beans, or broad beans, require a 120-day growing season; ours is 90-days.  Why do I hold out hope that this might work?  I've read (though not actually experienced) that fava plants are frost tolerant to a certain degree so perhaps our frosty days will count as growing season days. Why do I insist on trying to grow them?  Because I love fava beans and I don't mind failing.  Everything I learn this year, through success or failure, will improve my skills next year. And the blossoms are beautiful!

This is a pic of our Nyagous tomato, an heirloom variety purchased from Seed Savers Exchange.  We grew these for the first time last year and had some success.  The single plant didn't produce a huge crop but the mature tomatoes are beautiful and the taste is fantastic.  We're off to a better start this year so I hope to get a bigger crop in 2010.

Distorted leaves on our Calville Blanc d'Hiver apple tree

Time 6:38am

Temperature - Sparks 58, CC&R Farm 54.6

Soil temp 61.7

A healthy Calville Blanc d'Hiver apple tree looks like this:

The leaves on our tree look like this:

Hoping for a diagnosis I contacted Michael Janek, the owner and orchardist at Michael's Apples.  Michael grows and sells, among many other fruiting trees and canes, heirloom apple trees.  Here's my answer:

"Crinkly leaf. It's probably frost damage from that freeze a couple of weeks ago. It happens when the leaves are just starting to unfurl."

Planting warm weather veggies and fruit in !#%&*! crazy weather - welcome to northern Nevada

Time 5:48am
Temperature - Sparks 54.1, CC&R Farm 51.6
Soil temp 60

Most of these were started from seed in April, potted-up in May.  Only a few were ever-so-slightly root bound so I'd call all of these successful.

Here's what we planted:
2 purple tomatillo
6 Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry
13 bush beans that already have teeny beans
6 Crystal Apple cucumber for eating fresh
4 Double yield cucumber for pickles
1 Delice de Table melon
3 Noir de Carmes melon
3 Golden Midget watermelon
2 Charentais melons
1 Valenciano pumpkin (white)
2 Sugar Pumpkins
1 Delicata winter squash
2 Butternut winter squash
2 Marina di Chioggia winter squash
2 Red Turi winter squash
2 Trombetta di Albenga summer squash (an heirloom Italian climbing squash)
1 Benning Green Tint summer squash - I put a couple more seeds in with the plant because it was scrawny -- I don't have much hope for its survival.
2 Ronde de Nice zucchini
2 Cocozelle Bush zucchini

We'll wait a week or 10 days then cull each variety down to one plant, two if we planned an extra one to produce enough to donate. 

It took two years to get my hands on the Trombetta de Albenga squash seeds so I'm really excited to see what happens.  I first discovered these at the farmers market a few years ago.  They were grown by a Nevada farmer who no longer grows vegetables on her farm due to a family dispute that effectively drove them out of farming on their property.  They wanted to farm but the sibling wanted to make big bucks...totally sucks!

It's northern Nevada, not to mention my day off, so the weather was crazy yesterday. The cloudy weather was perfect for planting but the alternating lashing wind and fairly intense heat when the sun broke the clouds was everything tender transplants hate.  To protect them we covered the entire planting space with agricultural fabric.  We'll leave it on for a while to protect everything and hopefully deny the squash bugs a place to lay their eggs. 

Just the other day I purchase one of the best gardening gizmos ever -- Tufbell Clips.  They hold agricultural fabric in place and are a great alternative to the concrete stepping stones we've been using for years. I am so happy!

Pepper and eggplant -- unseasonal clouds be damned, in they go!

Temperature: Sparks 61, CC&R Farm 59,
Soil temp 62

Yesterday I put the peppers and eggplants into the raised beds. This crop was seeded into paper pots on April 14th, and potted-up (transferred to 4" pots) on May 5th.  Every year spring fever gets me and it's a struggle to refrain from starting too early but this year it's looking good; the plants are just about perfect. I'll start about one week later next year. 

Pepper varieties - 3 Early Jalapeno, 6 Sunshine (sweet), 6 Szegedi (sweet), 3 Nu Mexico Joe E. Parker (anaheim-like)

Eggplant varieties - 3 Asian Baby, 3 Rossa Bianca

This might seem like a lot for 2 people but we're hoping to grow enough to donate this year.

The plants were placed closer together than the seed packet instructions say because space is limited and my experience has been that planting closer works under our conditions.

The raised beds are also hoop houses and are covered with both bird netting and plastic sheeting that is removed or adjusted depending on need.  We'll keep the netting on until the plants are established and big enough to withstand the finches and quail, and then it will be removed so that pollinators can reach the blossoms.  The sheeting is positioned to cover the western side only and will protect the plants from wind. 

First I positioned each pot in the bed to get a feel for space and aesthetics. Each planting hole received a 1/2 trowel full of worm castings from our very own worm farm.  All year we've been supplying our little worm-herd with kitchen scraps and shredded paper, and now we have a nice bit of nutrition for the root systems. I'll say it again...now all we need is sunshine.                     

Florence Fennel

Temperature: Sparks 62, CC&R Farm 59,
Soil temp 59

Florence Fennel started from seed indoors on April 21st, transplanted May 30th.

Snow-capped Peavine will not keep me out of the garden this weekend

Temperature: Reno 57, Sparks 53, CC&R Farm 51
Soil temp: 57

Northern Nevada lore says to plant warm weather crops when the snow is off Peavine or after June 10th, so we started hardening off our starts a couple of days ago. We'll be hoping for optimal conditions but will likely plant everything under less than ideal conditions.  The weather this year is completely whacked!

Seeds went into paper pots between April 12th-14th. Next year I might start a week or two later because the plants are really big.  Some sources say squash, melons, and cucumbers prefer to start from seed sown directly into the soil but the Northern Nevada growing season is short already, 90-days, and my yard is a week to 10 days shorter on each end.  Transplants are the only way to get around this so I take my chances. 

Peppers - soil temps at least 65 degrees; this year we're planting them in the raised beds with a wind break on the west side to protect them from inevitable evening gusts.

Eggplant - soil temps at least 60 degrees; protect from everything (wind, temperature extremes, pests) because anything throws them into shock.

Melon - soil temps at least 60.  We prepared a melon bed in November -- hope it's ready because the melons are going in it no matter what. 

Squash (summer and winter) - soil temps at least 60 degrees; first round of planting will be starts, but we'll plant seeds at the same time just in case the pests get these.  Last year we had squash bugs by July 23rd so this year we'll cover them with agricultural fabric (Agribon from Peaceful Valley) at planting.

Tomatillo and Ground Cherry - my two favorite sources don't have any advice for these but I know that last year they turned into slimy black masses at the first sign of frost, so I'll treat them like peppers.

Bush bean - started in pots but don't try this with pole beans;  ours have pale purple flowers already.  They're got sunburned the other day so I hope they'll survive.  We'll plant seeds along with the starts to prolong the harvest.

Now all we need is sunshine!