June is still spring in the PNW



Radishes, Collards, Chard, Purple Peacock Broccoli/Kale

While it is now officially summer according to the calendar, we continue to have temperatures in the 50s and 60s here in the Pacific Northwest. But with a nice tall cloche in place, my garden is flourishing.

I have updated my irrigation system to accomodate the taller, leafier plants of a June garden, and I have already rotated a few crops out of the garden.

 

Irrigation system with central tubing and several barbs

As you will see, the new irrigation system features one central 1/2" pipe or hose, with 1/4" tubing running into the beds with an assortment of different sprinkler and drip heads on the ends. This system is surprisingly inexpensive, endlessly customizable and can be changed throughout the season to suit the needs of different stages of growth for the garden. One of the beds also has a soaker hose pinned in a zig-zag along the whole length of the bed and it will provide good soil saturation when there are too many leaves to let much sprinkler-water down to the surface.

I got my system from Home Depot (DIG system), but I have picked up additional parts from Lowe's (Mister Landscaper system) and have found that they are interchangeable.

In the last month or so I have harvested bolting spinach, kale and beets, as well as cycling through several crops of radishes and lettuces. I am now picking salad greens on an almost daily basis and have broccoli, collards, radishes, baby fennel, kales and ridiculous amounts of chard ready to go. You may recall that I planted peas in the area formerly known as the corn plot, and they have remained uncloched and subject to the less-than-ideal weather we have had, so they are just now blooming with flowers and still have a few weeks to go before they will be ready to eat.



cedar trellises

 

At the suggestion of my friend and fellow-gardener, Christi, I decided to try and grow my summer-squashes as vertically as possible this year to save space. Those plants can sprawl so much that they take up precious ground space that could be used for other crops. Since summer-squashes aren't as viney as their wintery cousins, the trellis I built needed to be more or less a 'ramp' for them to grow up. I decided on an a-frame construction with an open back so that I could easily reach short rows of radishes, lettuces and carrots planted underneath the trellises. I shopped around at garden stores a little, but it seemed like buying a ready-made trellis would be much more expensive and far less fun than building my own. I found an amazing deal on cedar 1x1s at Limback Lumber in Ballard (25 6-foot pieces for $10!) and once they trimmed them for me, all I had to do was nail them together and install bolts and wingnuts for the braces.

Trellises in action



lettuces, tomatoes, fennel and chard



April Showers Bring May Showers

Well, it hasn't stopped raining here in the PNW and we haven't seen 70 degrees since November, but under my cloche the plants don't know the difference.

I have been harvesting radishes for a few weeks now and this past weekend my mom helped me get mountains of spinach and Red Russian kale into the house.

Last week I had my first all-garden salad and it was a revelation! I plucked some of the larger lettuce leaves and mixed in some very small kale, bok-choy, beet and chard leaves as well as a few Italian parsley leaves and some thinly sliced French breakfast radishes. A light dijon vinaigrette and a sprinkle of blue cheese really took it to the next level. Yum...

SLUG UPDATE:

I ended up addressing the slug problem 2 ways:

1. Slug pellets. They really are the easiest, most maintenance-free way of dealing with slugs in a large area. It was the best option for the lettuces and other densely-planted areas.

2. Copper. I bought a spool of copper pipe-hanging strap stuff for about $4 and fashioned little collars for the affected plants (kale, chard, broccoli).



SEED STARTING:

I started planting in the second raised a few weeks ago. It is partly covered in plastic and is now home to lettuces, fennel, beans, corn and some brussels sprouts that overwintered. I am trying to be mindful of succession planting so that I don't end up with the same kind of glut of those things as I did with the spinach, so I am planting one row at a time and leaving space to fill in with more of the same in about 10 days.

I discovered several volunteer (sprouts from the fruits that fell to the ground last year) tomatoes growing in the cloched bed and I decided it might be a good idea to foster them, so I picked the hardiest ones, dug them up, planted them in small pots and put them inside of a plastic tote (aka portable greenhouse), which I put in the sunniest window in the house. Within 2 weeks they had grown tremendously and I ended up moving them back to the coldframe so that I could start some cucumbers, basil and other warm-weather plants in the tote.

I started squash and corn in the cold frame a couple of weeks ago and they now all have decent-sized second leaves, so this weekend I transplanted them to bigger pots. It is still not quite warm enough for them to be out but I didn't want to stunt their growth by keeping them in tiny pots, so they will continue to live in the cold-frame for a few more weeks and hopefully they will be very strong by the time I get them into the ground.

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Slug Update


 

What I am trying to avoid

 In desperation, after discovering slimy slug trails on the soil-blocks I had planted in the cold-frame, I decided to try some new slug-deterrent methods. I am really not a fan of beer traps because they need to be tended to on a daily(ish) basis, and you have to deal with a lot of gross slug carcasses. I had been using pellets, a product that eventually kills off the slug population, but is not an immediate protectant. This is not good enough when it comes to tiny baby seedlings. Every night counts! So I decided to pull out all the stops. I sprinkled the whole tray with a mixture of coffee grounds and crushed eggshells to form a physical barrier and keep my seed-babies completely slug-free.

First, I will tell you that this seems to have worked! Second, I will tell you why. Caffeine is a neurotoxin to the slugs, and the eggshells are sharp and dangerous for soft slimy slug bodies--plus they take a long time to degrade, so they work as long as. What I discovered in my collection of this material, however, was that you really have to remove the membrane from the inside of the eggshell before you crush it up, otherwise the whole thing just kind of sticks together. Luckily I (evidently) use a lot of eggs, so this wasn't a huge challenge, but it was kind of annoying and mildly gross to peel the membranes out from all of the eggshells.

In conclusion, the verdict is that this is an excellent (and FREE!) method of keeping slugs off of baby plants. I will continue to use it and will update again if I discover otherwise.

Back in the Saddle





March 15th, 2010

 
Well, I thought I was going to be accomplishing a lot in February this year. By this time last year (see photo at right), I had radishes and green-leafies well on their way to harvest.

But we got a serious February cold snap this year and it threw me off a little.

On the 13th I had planted a whole bunch of radishes, beets, lettuces and spinach in my cloched bed, and they are just now starting to germinate, nearly 3 weeks later. In ideal conditions, the radishes would be ready to eat 30 days from planting, but that is obviously not going to be the case this month. So I am being patient, trying to keep the moisture levels in the cloche just right, and waiting.

Meanwhile, I actually put some seeds into "the corn plot" last night after work.

First I worked in 1.25 cubic feet of Cedar Grove compost and a good helping of steer manure as well as about a cup full of all-purpose organic vegetable fertilizer. Working with the loose sifted soil was a dream and it was quick work. Since I am going to start the plot with peas, I rigged a trellis for them to grow on first, made of pipes and netting. I planted an 18" swath of sugar snap peas and 18" of shelling peas, separated bu about 12" of radishes. I sowed a row of compact lettuce seeds in front (why waste space?!) and threw some bright lights chard seeds into the corner beyond the trellis. Hopefully I will get some photos up soon!

I'm ready for Spring!

My wonderful husband bought me a pair of coveralls for Valentines Day!
The idea was that during these days of meager evening sunlight I could rush home, throw the coveralls on over my work clothes and dash outside to squeeze in a little gardening. And once the sun stays up later, I will still have an outfit I can put on without having to think about it and can leave hanging by the back door when I'm done outside.

Head Start on Seed Starting

The first year I had a vegetable garden in Seattle (2009), I was very nervous about how long it takes to get warm out here, so I started all my seeds indoors. I set up a rig with flourescent lights on a timer and trays full of seedlings in the kitchen where I could monitor them constantly. I planted a little bit at least once a week for proper succession planting and I ended up with pretty good results. But the amount of energy that I used for this method seemed excessive.
So last year I built a cold frame:

All in all it was decent, but I had a hard time getting the moisture levels right. Things got too wet and the soil turned green, and then they got dried out and the seedlings got all spindly. So in the fall I installed an irrigation system (sorry, no photo) with misting heads set up on a timer. The only problem I had with this is that the excess water collected in the trays in which my seedlings were placed, and they ended up pretty waterlogged. That and the slugs...

This spring, I filled the bottom of the cold frame with pebbles and I will put my little guys right in there, allowing the extra water to just drain off. I also got some diatomaceous earth and sprinkled that around the perimeter to try and keep the hungry little slugs away.

This week I put in the following seeds:

Several varieties of lettuces including:

• Cooks Garden All-Seasons Butterhead Mix
• Territorial Merlot

Raddicchio

Arugula

Curly Endive (Frisee)

I hope to get some peas and radishes into the ground shortly and to start some greens soon too!

The Early Bird Gets the Worm!

Here it is, the first week of February, and I am starting to make progress in the garden already. The days are getting a little longer, which means I have a smidgen of daylight left when I get home from work in which to throw on some dirt-clothes and get a little digging in.

Our last frost date is technically in the first week of April, 2 months away. But the industrious gardener can get a good head start on these sunny days we've been having. Here is what I have been working on

PREPARING THE SOIL
The first thing I did in the garden this year was conduct a soil test. I used one of the basic pH, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potash(Potassium) test kits

The results of the test indicated that I had a pH of about 6.5, Depleted Nitrogen, Sufficient Phosphorus and Sufficient-to-Surplus Potash.  So my pH and Phosphorus levels are fine and my Potash levels are more than fine, but I really need some Nitrogen up in there.
There are several good options for high-nitrogen. low-potash fertilizers including Feather Meal (12-0-0), Blood Meal (12-0-0), Bat Guano (10-3-1).

I decided on feather meal as my primary nitrogen source (12-0-0)
The reason I chose feather meal was kind of an accident. The price on the sticker was listed at $3.97 for 6lbs, a steal compared to $14.95 for 6lbs of bone meal. But when I took it up to the counter it turned out that the price sticker was wrong and it was supposed to retail for about the same as the blood meal. But they were willing to give me the listed price, so I ended up with a heck of a deal. If the prices had looked the same, I may have chosen a different fertilizer (probably the least odorous one), but for this application at least, its feather meal.

I did not plant a cover crop last fall (which would have helped with the nitrogen levels) so when it came time to prepare the beds, I just needed to turn in the straw that I mulched with and mix in my fertilizer.
An overwintered bed in these parts is pretty waterlogged, so the turning was hard work, but that is one of my favorite parts of gardening, so I am not complaining. After mixing in the feather meal, I set up a plastic cloche over the beds to help dry out and warm up the soil a bit. After a few days I will add some steer manure to the top, and right before I plant in it I will mulch with compost.


I also decided to dig a new satellite bed for growing corn this year. I am not going to make it as big a production as digging the raised beds was. For those I pulled up the sod, double-dug the area, built a 12" deep wooden bed and filled it with several tons of compost and garden soil from the nursery. Since I am not going to be growing any root veggies in this plot, I am just going to remove the sod, sift the soil, mix in some fertilizer and manure, and get started.

Since the bed is intended for corn, I will share the things I have learned about growing corn here:

1. Corn is wind-pollinated, so it is best to plant it in several rows at least 2 feet apart. Evidently it can easily cross-pollinate, so its not a great idea to plant several varieties in close proximity.

2. It is beneficial to grow legumes in the soil prior to planting corn. Legumes have very low nitrogen needs and help to fix the nitrogen in the soil, making it readily available to my baby corn plants. Legumes also have shallow roots, so it won't matter that I am not building raised beds for these dudes.

Welcome!

I have decided to give blogging another try.
Hopefully having a topic that I love will help, but that remains to be seen.
Here we go!