GROWING TIMELINE AS OF MAY 23, 2011

HOOPHOUSE TAKEN DOWN MAY 22

GARDEN: Swiss Chard (wo hh, ds 5/3), Spinach (wo hh H 5/10, ds 4/11 & 4/14), Lettuce (wo hh, ds hh 2/17 & 2/6), Mesclun (wo hh), Mesclun (ds hh 2/6 & 2/17), Broccoli (T hh 3/1), Swiss Chard (T hh 3/1), Peas (ds hh 3/14, ds 4/11 & 4/14 & 5/3), turnips (ds 5/10), garlic (wo), kale (ds 3/16), onions (ds bulbs 4/7), Bush Beans (ds 5/3, 5/11), Carrots (ds 5/3), Parsnips (ds 5/3), Herbs (ds 5/3), Cherry tomatoes (si 3/1, T hh 4/4 & 4/18, dt 5/11), Roma tomatoes (si 3/1, T hh 4/4 & 4/18, tg 5/11), Beefsteak tomatoes (si 3/1, T hh 4/4 & 4/18, tg 5/11), Peppers (si 2/8, T hh 4/11 & 4/18, tg 5/11 & 5/23), Zucchini (ds in pot hh 4/28, tg 5/11), Acorn Squash (ds in pots hh 4/28, tg 5/11), Cukes (ds in pots hh 4/28, tg 5/11), Marigolds (si 3/1, T hh 4/4),

si = sown inside
ds = directly sown
wo = wintered over
hh = hoophouse
fc = fall crop
H = harvested
T = transplanted
B = bolted
tg = transplant into open garden

THE HOOPHOUSES ARE DOWN!

Yesterday we took down both hoophouses and put up bamboo tomato supports.  The tomato plants are large, flowering and even have some tomatoes already.  These are the tomato plants that I started indoors on February 1 and then transplanted into the hoophouses on April 4 and 11^th.  The peppers have survived, but they are not as impressive as the tomato plants.  They are small, and have a lot of growing to do.  The marigolds that I started indoors on March 1 and transplanted into the hoophouses are bushy plants with lots of flowers.  They stand guard around the tomatoes hoping to ward off pests.  The Swiss Chard, basil, and nasturtium that were directly seeded into the hoophouses on March 7 are coming here and there and promise to do well with the tomato plants.  Overall, the winter/spring hoophouse growth has been a success, except for the broccoli.  Starting the tomatoes in the beginning of February gave them a great start, although those plants almost outgrew the window sill.  So now that the hoophouses are down for the summer, the garden will progress as any other Eastern Pennsylvania garden, except that I will be harvesting much earlier.  The hoophouse will go back up in early October.

I finally finished mulching the front perennial garden and it looks beautiful.  The mulch definitely defines the plants and showcases each one.  But what a job it is!  It took me 7 hours to mulch the whole garden and I am glad that it is finally done.   And although the constant rain has been depressing, it made weeding so much easier and mulching not such a hot, buggy chore. 

While walking through the garden this morning I noticed an odd green shape on my sedums.  Upon closer inspection, I found two Luna Moths having an interlude.  This year is the first time I’ve ever seen these beautiful large green insects other than in a museum.  Maybe I just never noticed as they are very well camouflaged.   

HERE’S A FORK IN YOUR EYE!

No, I’m not getting mean or sadistic.  I’m just trying to keep the squirrels out of my flower pots.  Inevitably, the day after planting my porch pots, the squirrels dig like crazy in the soft soil.  Why?  I don’t know why, but maybe because they want to hide seeds (although I haven’t found any) or are looking for something that they planted last year.  Or maybe they too like to garden.  Anyway, I put plastic forks, prongs up,  in any bare spaces and it deters those pests from digging my flowers up.  If I don’t, every morning I find my plants torn from the soil and thrown to the porch floor.  And a big mess of soil everywhere.  It looks kind of weird in the beginning of the growing season, and my visitors always ask what’s with the forks in the pots, but once the plants fill in, you don’t even see the forks.   This year I decided to use a lot of my house plants to fill the porch and deck pots.  I divided the Asparagus fern and although they are small now, I know that they will quickly fill out and provide interest.  The Wandering Jew also looks a little sparse but I added some impatiens to fill in the holes, along with the forks!

We finally got the fish pond clean with a new filter and pump.  Actually, it wasn’t new, but was from a house that my son just bought.  But it was new to me and much stronger than my old pump.  I was afraid that a stronger pump would make the pond into a vortex and the fish would go spinning around as though they were in a toilet or a whirlpool.  But that’s not happening and they are swimming around happily and love going under the small waterfall.  I have 2 koi, 3 goldfish and a new little baby that is still too shy to come out in the open.  I see him every once in a while hiding in the plant roots.  The new frog seems pretty friendly and maybe we can train him to eat worms out of our hands like we did 3 summers ago.    He was the hit of the Silver Lake Pond Tour and the kids eagerly dug worms out of the garden to feed him. 

The hoophouses are still up, but if it EVER stops raining, I’ll take them down for the summer.  Actually, I’ve been using them as a bit of an umbrella so that the soil doesn’t become so saturated.  It appears that the flat-topped hoophouse is pretty much ripped from the winter winds, but since it lasted 3 years, I can’t complain.  The rounded hoophouse is still OK and should last at least another year.  I’m not sure if I’ll make a new one to replace the flat-top though.  One hoophouse of greens seems to be more than enough.   The tomato plants in the rounded hoophouse are touching the ceiling and need to be free.  I think that they are as anxious as I am for the warmer, sunnier weather.  No more rain!  No more rain!  No more rain! 

TREE SWEATERS

Are you ever surprised and amused by what odd things people do?  I am all the time and I love to see humor used in the weirdest ways.   On Sunday we drove into Philly to just walk around the city and enjoy ‘town’.  We discovered that the Italian Market Festival was being held that day and strolled through the large crowd and smelled the smells of Little Italy.  Every vendor that lined the street offered Italian dishes, cheeses, spices, oils and fresh produce.  Beautiful cut flowers and potted tomato plants  were being sold on the warm and mucky day.  The weather forecast threatened scattered showers, but luckily, the rain held off and our umbrellas went unused.  After walking down Fabric Row and Society Hills, we had a great dinner and then headed back to the car.  That’s when I saw one of the oddest things ever.  Somebody had hand crocheted sweaters for their two trees out in front of their townhouse.  I never thought that trees would need to stay warm around here and if that were the case, I’d have a lifetime of knitting for our three acres of poplar trees.  At 80+ feet, a tree sweater would look like leg warmers! 

Nearby there was a great community garden filled with blooming irises and vegetables of every description.  It was well tended and looked to be a popular neighborhood meeting place.  I think that if I lived in the city, I would have to find a community garden to join.  I couldn’t live without getting my hands dirty somewhere.  A Topsy-turvy balcony garden just wouldn’t cut it. 

So, between helping my son rehab his house on Saturday and enjoying Philadelphia on Sunday, I didn't have time to get out into my own garden.  In the spring, there is always so much to do and I now have a huge pile of wood chip mulch waiting for me.  It appears from looking at the 10 day forecast that I will have to wait until next week to do anything serious out there.  Last night I left the hoophouses open in hopes that the rain would water the tomatoes and peppers.  I think that it is warm enough, although I worried over them like a mother hen.  But this morning, the plants seemed none the worse for wear and I think that by next week, I'll be able to take down the hoophouses for the summer.  We'll see, as this has been a cool, late spring.  The Swiss Chard is ready to bolt and I'll cut it all down today, between the raindrops.  I hate to do that because that will be the end of it until the newly planted chard gets large enough to eat.  This spring I also planted head lettuces and I am surprisingly pleased by it. I like its neat, compact way of growing and makes my garden more organized than it really is. The Oakleaf Lettuce is especially beautiful.  The other bed of loose greens is totally overgrown and we are getting tired of our constant diet of salad, if that is possible.  I'll be cutting all that down too, feeding the neighborhood, and getting the bed ready for the pole beans.  The slugs are grazing on the lettuce so I'll treat them to a pan of Bud.  They can drown their slimey little worries in beer.  What a way to go! 

GROWING TIMELINE AS OF MAY 11, 2011

HOOPHOUSE: Cherry tomatoes (si 2/1 & 3/1, T hh 4/4 & 4/18), Roma tomatoes (si 2/1 & 3/1, T hh 4/4 & 4/18), Beefsteak tomatoes (si 2/1 & 3/1, T hh 4/4 & 4/18), Peppers (si 2/8, T hh 4/11 & 4/18), more tomatoes (si 2/14, T hh 4/18), Marigolds (si 3/1, T hh 4/4), Impatience (si 3/25 dropped flat DOA), Zucchini (ds in pot hh 4/28), Acorn Squash (ds in pots hh 4/28), Cukes (ds in pots hh 4/28)
 
GARDEN: Swiss Chard (wo hh, ds 5/3), Spinach (wo hh H 5/10, ds 4/11 & 4/14), Lettuce (wo hh, ds hh 2/17 & 2/6), Mesclun (wo hh), Mesclun (ds hh 2/6 & 2/17), Broccoli (T hh 3/1), Swiss Chard (T hh 3/1), Peas (ds hh 3/14, ds 4/11 & 4/14 & 5/3), turnips (ds 5/10), garlic (wo), kale (ds 3/16), onions (ds bulbs 4/7), Bush Beans (ds 5/3, 5/11), Carrots (ds 5/3), Parsnips (ds 5/3), Herbs (ds 5/3), Cherry tomatoes (si 3/1, T hh 4/4 & 4/18, dt 5/11), Roma tomatoes (si 3/1, T hh 4/4 & 4/18, tg 5/11), Beefsteak tomatoes (si 3/1, T hh 4/4 & 4/18, tg 5/11), Peppers (si 2/8, T hh 4/11 & 4/18, tg 5/11), Zucchini (ds in pot hh 4/28, tg 5/11), Acorn Squash (ds in pots hh 4/28, tg 5/11), Cukes (ds in pots hh 4/28, tg 5/11)


si = sown inside
ds = directly sown
wo = wintered over
hh = hoophouse
fc = fall crop
H = harvested
T = transplanted
B = bolted
tg = transplant into open garden

WEEDING - UGH!

I often start weeding my perennial beds as soon as the weather breaks.  The onion grass is popping up waving, taunting me to dig it out.  It is impossible to eradicate this pest, and I've learned to pull it out when I do a general spring clean-up a little later on.  Nevertheless, it always returns the next year.  But because I've learned to be somewhat patient, the soil remains undisturbed so that the Woodland Phylox gets tall enough for me to recognize it from the weeds.  Every year I look at it, get ready to pull and then it dawns on me just what it is.  It comes up everywhere and then scatters its seeds for the following spring.  I don't mind that those white or purple flowers have a mind of their own and seed themselves in the darnedest places.  It doesn't matter since my perennial garden is supposed to be a free spirit made up of many wild flowers.  Today I noticed the Jack-in-the-Pulpits rising up out of the soil and unfurling their leaves.  Along with many other wildflowers, I have included hostas (which the deer think is their personal salad bar), azaleas, wild geraniums, ajuga, tiger lilies, bee balm, ferns, forsythia, burning bush, hydrangea, pachysandra, candytuft, spring bulbs and a bunch of other things that I can't even think of right now.  Some things do well, while other things languish and die.  I divide my perennials often and plant them in other parts of the garden - to share the wealth.  I've been working on this shade garden for 20 years and even now, it is in a state of change.  But I guess that is what gardening is all about.

The vegetable garden is doing great and I water it with my fish pond water as much as possible.  The wintered-over spinach just bolted and I think that the lettuces will soon follow.  But for now, we continue to enjoy fresh salad every night.  The strawberry plants have started to get little fruits and promises to be a good year.  The tomato plants that are in the hoophouses are looking very strong and have lots of flowers.  I planted a ton of tomatoes and I know that we are going to be making lots of sauce.  Since I transplanted the tomato and pepper plants (si 2/1) in the hoophouse the first of April, they got a great head start.  At night I zip them up as the nights are still in the 50s, but then I uncover them during the day so they don't bake.  On cooler days I unzip the top so that they are protected but ventilated.  Today in the open garden, I planted some of the tomato and pepper plants that were started March 1 (si).  It might be a little early for them, but we'll see.  Surely I can sacrifice a few plants for my experiment.  I could always cover them at night with a row cover.  The peas (ds 3/15) are starting to climb up the lattice and the bush beans (ds 5/3) are just coming up.  The kale and Swiss chard look good.  The only disappointment is the broccoli that I started Feb. 1 and transplanted into the hoophouse on March 1.  Only 2 broccoli starts survived and they look lost surrounded by all of the greens.  I noticed today that the Chinese cabbage is coming up and actually, I forgot that I even planted it.  One 4' x 4' bed is dedicated to flowers, which is kind of frivolous considering the size of my vegetable garden.  I just couldn't resist those beautiful seed packets.  This week, friends have been stopping by to pick up their tomato plants.  Hopefully they'll have another successful year too.

SWISS CHARD EXPLOSION

The wintered-over Swiss Chard is starting to take over the bed of greens, but I don’t mind.  I plant all the chard that I can, sowing every two weeks starting in the warmth of the hoophouse and then free range in the spring.  I tuck a few seeds here and there among the other vegetables so I have Swiss Chard in every nook and cranny of the garden.  And best of all, it is so versatile and delicious in almost everything.  I love to chop it up and add it to my breakfast scrambled eggs or my chicken noodle soup for dinner.  Sometimes I sauté a big bunch in olive oil and garlic until it cooks down into two small servings as a side to grilled fish.  But my very favorite way to eat it is in a salad, without any dressing – just naked.  It tastes delicious and green! 

GROWING TIMELINE AS OF MAY 3, 2011

HOOPHOUSE: Cherry tomatoes (si 2/1, T hh 4/4 & 4/18), Roma tomatoes (si 2/1, T hh 4/4 & 4/18), Beefsteak tomatoes (si 2/1, T hh 4/4 & 4/18), Peppers (si 2/8, T hh 4/11 & 4/18), more tomatoes (si 2/14, T hh 4/18), Marigolds (si 3/1, T hh 4/4), Impatience (si 3/25 dropped flat DOA), Zucchini (ds in pot hh 4/28), Acorn Squash (ds in pots hh 4/28), Cukes (ds in pots hh 4/28)

GARDEN: Swiss Chard (wo hh, ds 5/3), Spinach (wo hh), Lettuce (wo hh, ds hh 2/17 & 2/6), Mesclun (wo hh), Mesclun (ds hh 2/6 & 2/17), Broccoli (T hh 3/1), Swiss Chard (T hh 3/1), Peas (ds hh 3/14, ds 4/11 & 4/14 & 5/3), garlic (wo), kale (ds 3/16), onions (ds bulbs 4/7), Bush Beans (ds 5/3), Carrots (ds 5/3), Parsnips (ds 5/3), Herbs (ds 5/3)

si = sown inside
ds = directly sown
wo = wintered over
hh = hoophouse
fc = fall crop
H = harvested
T = transplanted
B = bolted