Tag Archives: Garden maintenenace

Sweet Corn, Blueberries, and Taters

I planted corn this spring in my little greenhouse to get the earliest start I could in hopes of beating the expected mid July stinkbug invasion of my garden. I left some in the greenhouse, hoping that if all else failed, I could close it up and foil the bugs that way. The corn transplanted quite well into the garden rows, without any setback at all, and grew better out there than what I left under plastic. We have had so much rain this season that it could not help but grow well. We put cardboard down between the rows to keep the weeds down and covered it with the chicken yard and horse barn cleanings for mulch and fertilizer. We ate our first corn June 28th and it got better and

Corn on the young side
Corn on the young side

better. It was a little on the young side the first night. We had to leave for the family vacation on July 4th and I spent the evening of July 3rd, steaming, cutting and freezing all that was ready, which amounted to only 5 quart size freezer bags. Lots of ears were still coming on out in the garden though and I really hated to leave it. Who plans vacations in the middle of summer harvest? Luckily, after 6 days away, the corn was still good. It had been cool the whole time and slowed it down some. So we got to eat corn every night for dinner from the 11th through the 18th and I gave a few dozen ears to friends too.

Fresh Corn Ready to Eat
Fresh Corn Ready to Eat

Our tomatoes are still not ready since I did not push them, but I got some tasty homegrown ones from a stand on the way home from work. You have to have fresh tomatoes with fresh sweet corn. There is nothing better. Our yellow squash is ready now too , along with peppers and green beans. The last two years I have not been able to get enough green beans to can because the stinkbugs got to them first. Yesterday, I put up 14 quarts and there is a big bag in the fridge to eat fresh. Perfect, unmarred, long straight green beans. Yum.
The potatoes I planted in the pallet bins grew way too fast for me to keep up with burying them every time they poked through the soil and I was worried it might not work at all, considering how close I planted them, so I also planted some rows in the garden. I used the left over Yukon Golds from last year that had sprouts about a foot long and planted them whole. They were mostly small ones. I always use the biggest prettiest first. They are so much easier to make a meal with. I am going to step out there right now and see if we have any taters yet. Even though I am clean and cool and it is really hot and humid out there. Just a quick check. Be right back…
OK, so the taters in the garden rows seemed to have done really well. I just pulled up the remains of one plant and brought in 2 good sized ones and left the other 3 that I could see poking up down in there. The bins aren’t looking too good. I found some small red ones in bin number 3, but when I poked into bins 1 and 2 where the Yukon Golds were, I came up empty. I will check back later since I was not wanting to mess with the wet soil much and it is miserable out there right now. They may have rotted with all this rain.
The blueberries have been producing pretty well but are about done

Blueberries
Blueberries

now. We froze 8 gallon bags and have been eating a lot of fresh ones for breakfast. I lost a couple of plants, maybe to the rough winter we had, maybe to the Ph getting too high. I need to check it again and will probably need to add some sulphur to bring it back down. They are under planted with strawberries and we were able to freeze a lot of them. I have not counted the bags but the freezer down in the basement is very full. I freeze them on cookie trays and then bag them into gallon bags so they don’t stick together and you can pour out what you need each time. We use them for breakfast smoothies every morning. I also made a batch of low sugar jam.

Strawberry Jam, Low sugar
Strawberry Jam, Low sugar

The blueberries mostly get dropped in hotcakes and local Maple syrup for French toast.
Our sugar snaps did well this year too and are also all gone. I don’t like them frozen or canned so we eat them all fresh and gave away the extras. I dip them in Humus for lunch and that along with a hardboiled homegrown egg makes a pretty good meal. Sometimes I add some cheese and crackers or some nuts.
The chickens are laying about a dozen eggs a day (that I find, anyway). They should be laying more but it does not bother me. We have plenty and I sell the extras to folks nearby. It looks like there may be a few hens missing and some of them are getting a few years on them. I only count them when they are roosting and there are at least a few that roost up on the wire under the main roof. It is possible that a fox has picked off a few (without my wonderful, useful dogs noticing) but as long as we have enough I will not worry too much. We have chicken fed fox around here sometimes. Just doing my part for the wildlife. Usually, when I clean out the freezer at the end of each winter (which I have neglected to do so far this year) I will throw any freezer burned old venison out by the fox holes in the fence line. They have plenty of dens nearby and usually need extra food for the kits in early spring. I know one woman who used to put wormer in her fox feedings to help them that way. One of my dogs got in a tussle with a fox a few years ago and caught sarcophagal mange from it. The poor dog had to be dipped in a smelly lime sulphur mixture weekly for 6 weeks. No one would go near him, he smelled so bad, and he got depressed. Eventually it wore off and it did cure the mange. Maybe that is why he doesn’t do all that great of a job keeping the foxes away these days.

Growing
Growing

July always makes me remember how impossible it is for me to keep up with the rampant growth of my gardens and pastures. In the spring it seems like it might be possible to keep it all weed free and under control, but by mid July, I can no longer pretend. The good thing is that no matter how weedy it gets, I always seem to get what I need out of it. And then there is next year, when I will undoubtedly try again.

-Wendy lee

Writing at https://www.edgewisewoods.com

March Garden Maintenance

March Garden Maintenance

Spring Shearing of Miscanthus sinensis
Spring Shearing of Miscanthus sinensis
  1. It is time to cut your ornamental grasses down before they shatter all over the yard. Use either pruning shears, hand pruners, or electric/gas hedge trimmers, start about six inches off the ground and form a mound. I usually go the hand shear route because I like peace and quiet. Take a small section at a time and lay each cut group neatly over to the side. You can bundle it up and use it for mulch in the veggie garden. Grab hunks of loose, dead stalks from the center of the mound. Now is also a good time to divide the clump if it is rotting out in the center or has gotten too big for the space. Use a sharpened pointed shovel or a mattock and cut it into 6-12 inch sections and replant or pot up to share. This needs to be done before the plant greens up.

    Ornamental grass after shearing
    Ornamental grass after shearing
  2. Prune your fruit trees. Use freshly sharpened hand pruners or loppers and cut just above a bud.  If you leave a long stub  it will tend to die off there and allow disease entry. Good apple pruning fact sheets at http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1150.html     and     http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/22166/pnw400.pdf
  3. Prune your grapes     http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1429.html
  4. Prune your Blueberries  http://www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=227   If your soil is not acidic enough (Ph of 4.5-5.5), which is likely where I live , you will need to add sulphur. Mulch is very important as the roots are quite shallow. I have a soaker hose running through my blueberry bed under the mulch and they are doing well. I only attach it to the hose when it is very dry and when I have a new planting. One source for plants is www.noursefarms.com  where I ordered my 18 new bare root plants from for this year( to arrive mid April) The last ones have done very well even though I made them share a bed with my strawberries. http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/blueberries?page=0,1
  5. Put up new or clean up old birdhouses. I have some bluebirds and Carolina Wrens who seem to be demanding this although I have never supplied them with one before. We have a lot of hollow trees they must be using as there are quite a few pairs here. http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Bluebird-House
  6. As Perennial planting beds dry out some, start cleaning up by weeding, pruning out old growth, dividing overgrown plants and laying down fresh mulch. I don’t rush this but wait for the soil to warm some and leave it alone when its wet. April is not too late.
  7. Since I have a bed that sits too low that I have been wanting to
    Bunches of Daffodils ready to divide
    Bunches of Daffodils ready to divide

    add topsoil to, and the daffodils are starting to come up in it, I dug them all out, divided them and replanted them under the big Hickory tree. I limbed it up last year and now it is looking naked under there and  the many, many uncounted daffodils should solve that problem. It is not the ideal timing but I have done it before and they bloomed as usual and looked great the following Spring. I will mulch them today before it snows again tonight.

    Daffodils After Planting, before mulch
    Daffodils After Planting, before mulch
  8. On the lawn (bear in mind, I am not into the perfect lawn) pick up winter debris, reseed and spread limestone if needed ,fall is really better for the lime .
  9. Veggie Garden- Normally I plant my potatoes on or about St Patrick’s Day but I am going to wait a bit as it is supposed to snow again tonight. The ground was actually workable yesterday so I  tilled up the area where I had corn last year (or where the Stinkbugs had corn) and will plant my Yukon Golds maybe next week. The seed potatoes I bought need to form some good eyes anyway before I cut them into pieces to plant.
    Tilled and ready to plant Potatoes and Early veggies
    Tilled and ready to plant Potatoes and Early veggies

    The main point of getting them in early is to avoid insect problems like the Colorado potato beetle .  If you have raised or permanent beds you can usually get in your garden sooner than I can as they drain and warm up a little faster and you do not have to worry about compacting  the soil by walking on it.

Considering my Stinkbug problems last year, with my corn, beans and tomatoes being wiped out, I am not sure what I will do this year. If I can get some corn in early and have it ready by the first week of July, I will plant one planting. After that it is pointless. I suppose I might be able to build a ‘Remay’ tunnel for the beans but I am not sure it is worth it. I am giving over more space to blueberries and strawberries since they are producing well and so far the Stinkbugs have left them alone.

I ended the day with a ride on my horse and a full moon rising.

Moon Over Blue Ridge
Moon Over Blue Ridge