A Giant's Footprint

The 2015 Plan is done

2015-02-02T13:51:00.000-05:00

Well here's to another season. I know, its Groundhog Day (yes, Phil saw his shadow) and this is traditionally when the wife starts looking at beach houses and I start planning out the garden. Like last season, I am only going to fertilize when I plant, and the rest will be compost, weeding, and leaves. Also not sure if I want to get manure this season, there are a lot of weeds in that poop. But I will be using the water from my fish-tank which I clean weekly, and there is a lot of nitrogen in that. (Its a really dirty goldfish). I'm not sure if I am going to till again this season or just make really good use of my stored leaves for mulch. It really did help with the weeds. I am planting the corn where the beans were last year and see if it really fixed into the soil. Hopefully it will.

Without further ado, here is the layout.

Wish me luck!

What happended with last season?

2015-02-02T13:40:00.000-05:00

So I realized that I did not do a post-mortem on the last season. I was very remiss and I apologize. There were some interesting results. I will enumerate as follows:

My bean trellis. Yeah bad idea with strings. After a certain point, the entire thing collapsed because the beans were just too heavy. They were crazy wild growing though. It was really cool to see. But once the strings snapped and it collapsed, none of the vines actually grew any pods. I hope they put some nitrogen in the soil though. The lonely patch of beans in the Driveway Bed actually produced just enough that I was able to get enough beans to replant this season. I have been growing these guys since 2009(?) and have yet to have enough to eat.

There were a decent amount of potatoes. A lot from the bags in the front, but not a whole lot from the patch in the back. I think I might have already posted it, but here are some of the spuds. Red potatoes from Whole Foods, do well in my yard. Works for me

A smattering of spuds

The volunteer tomatoes did incredibly well on their own. All I did was add some compost and they kept on giving. Right up until the frost (which was about November 10th). They did great, proving that you don't need a heck of a lot of fertilizer if you compost and weed properly.

A bowlful of goodness.

Lastly, and probably the biggest success story in a season with a lot of failures were my pumpkins. Some were the "Daughters of Bertha" from a few seasons ago, others were volunteers from pie pumpkin cast off's from last Halloween. We had so many pumpkins that we were able to make pumpkin pie (which was good)! The biggest one was just barely big enough to carve, so I chose to keep her for seed for this season coming up. We carved one of the medium sized ones. I don't know what I will get this year since the two varieties will be mixed, but at least they will be big enough for pies. :)

Some of the pumpkins growing out of the Main Bed.

The whole family together. The big one I saved. Its still fresh.

So what didn't work? The corn. Man that stuff needs a lot of water. I realized it to late and the crop withered. I am going to try one last time this season in the area where I had beans last season. There should be enough nitrogen. As long as I water a lot, hopefully I will get some. If not, that's it for me, too much effort. The sunflowers did ok, and I saved a head for seed, so lets see how that does this season. Most of what I have been replanting seems to do well. The store bought seeds did not. Good, the more that I get that is successful, I will be saving those for next season.

I need to start a seed bank in the house. Just so I can categorize and save in case of a catastrophe. I don't want to have to re-do natural selection again.

Its strange. With the climate shifting to cooler summers on the East Coast, everything I learned the previous seasons is on its head. I had pumpkins by May one year, and now last year everything that was in the ground before May died. Unpredictable growing seasons are a result of climate change, and I am starting to see the data add up.

Mid July 2014 or Dang its hot!

2014-07-13T15:35:00.002-04:00

As a Gentleman Farmer, I can take time with my gardening. I'm not raising crop for income, nor am I doing so to feed my family. And its a good thing too, otherwise we would all be dead. :)

Its been an interesting season so far. Three things I have to take away now that it is midsummer:

1) Everything that I saved from seed last year had no problem taking root this year
2) You don't really need to fertilize to death if you truly are rotating your crops and watering them as needed.
3) I hate to say it, but tilling actually really helped break up the clay VA soil.

So, the take root part: I normally buy seeds from one of two seed exchanges. One I don't really like, the other, I thought up until this point, was pretty good. None of them took root. None. I made a second planting. None of those took root. I even insanely (yesterday) did a 3rd planting. Lets see if anything happens with those. Yet, everything I planted that I saved seeds from last season took root and is growing fine. Conversely, those were seeds that I had purchased from the a fore mentioned seed exchanges. I don't get it. But you can bet your bottom dollar that the seeds I get this year will also be saved. (And Monsanto can kiss my big red hoe.)

Also, I have a good deal of volunteer tomatoes that have come up from last year, as well as some volunteer pumpkins. And I'm glad the tomatoes did too, because I would have none if they didn't. (except 2 plants that actually did come up from the second planting, a whole month after I planted them).

Fertilizer: Normally I fertilize every month when I have a crop, and it is usually my favorite sea bird guano. This year I only used it when I planted. Which completely when to waste with the stuff that did not come up. Since then, I have basically just been covering my beds with crass clippings, shredded leaves, and my homemade compost. Everything seems to be doing well, as if I didn't need it.

My goal has always been to make it so that I don't have to spend any more $$ to get a crop. I might be hitting that point.

So on to pictures:

These are potatoes taken from my big potato hills in Ye Olde Pumpkin Patch. Again these were just some reds I forgot about that I purchased from Whole Foods. Reds seem to do well in my yard. Russets make it, but they get diseased and full of worms. My first batch from the potato bags looked similar. I still have 4 more plants I have not dug up yet.

One of the potato bags in the front of the house. These are actually replants, as I took the first batch. I want to see if you can get 2 harvests from the bag if the plants are still good. Who knows, its just an experiment. I got more spuds from the front bags than from the hills in the back.


What's left of the hills in Ye Olde Pumpkin Patch. Still a few more to go.

My group of volunteer tomatoes in the very front of the Driveway Bed. The plants on the right are cherry tomatoes, and beefsteak on the left. I left this section alone planning to plant corn there. I even covered it all up with grass to prevent weeds (which it did) but these tomatoes would not be denied.

Closeup of the cherry tomatoes. Just waitin'.

Closeup of the beefsteak. Hopefully the compost/leaf infusion will help these guys out.

Yeah, so what, more dirt. This is the 3rd spot for the purchased sunflower seeds. Let's see. To the left looks the same with all the remaining corn I had. I know its 60-100 days, but this is Virginia, and I don't expect a frost until Halloween. Even last year with the Polar Vortex it still didn't frost until then.

A lonely patch of beans. These were supposed to be with the purchased variety of sunflower that I bought, but the sunflowers didn't take. These beans (mine from 2 season ago) did. These guys are in front of the newly (again again) planted corn.

Carrots, planted in early May. They are pretty pathetic. I only have ever had success with carrots the first season. I mean they look good, but I pulled one and they are teeny.

The Main Bed looking up from the driveway. Pumpkins, then beans, then sunflowers. I didn't intend a staircase effect, but its cool now that there is one. Also my water barrels sitting on the side, that one is so heavy it pushed into the ground and tilted

My tiny Pumpkin Patch. All of these are "Daughters of Bertha" from 2 seasons ago, except the ones in the back, they were discarded pie pumpkins that regrew.

My Pride and Joy so far. The largest of 6 that I have counted, and she is only 3 weeks old. Remember I have large hands. :)

The smallest of the six that I can safely say is viable. She is only a week or so old.

My "Bean Trellis" which is just twine strung back and forth between 6 poles. I have no idea how many plants have sprouted, but there is a lot. Also, I have to admit, I have never eaten this variety before (grown from pods 3 seasons old), and this was just to fix some nitrogen. I hope they are tasty cuz I'm going to be up to my neck in them.

The sunflowers. Grown from 1 head that I saved from last season by hanging it on my back porch. This one is easily 7 foot.

The 7 footer from the front with the head just about to open. Not as big as its mother, but they keep getting bigger after they open so hopefully I will have enough.

That's it for the July update. Planting late seems to have helped the pumpkins stave off powdery mildew, and I think the cold winter beat the crap out of pests, because I have not seen any. I was having the worst aphid problem last year.

Nest, Google, and the Rise of the Internet of Things

2014-06-02T15:36:00.000-04:00

As a lot of my loyal readers know, the renewable giant often tests out new products and gives reviews on them. My readers also know that I don't always have the time to write as often as I would like. I'm not into self aggrandizement and sometimes I just can't articulate things in a way that's interesting or enjoyable. And frankly there are a lot of things that I just don't feel are worth the trouble.

I was remiss in writing one particular review that should have been done last year. For my birthday The Wife purchased for me a Nest Thermostat, and it promptly changed my life. Gone was my venerable yet dated programmable thermostat that came with the house. To be fair it was a good thermostat, easy to program, told the time, kept the climate controlled. But it was old, developed a short circuit, yellowed, not sexy at all, and was, well dumb.

Not dumb in the sense that it could not speak, but rather that it did nothing else but sit on the wall like a beige, tilted on its side version of The Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Then came the Nest, unabashedly styled like the HAL-9000 of the aforementioned movie (BTW the greatest movie ever made.) It was cool, sleek, minimalist, unobtrusive, and knew when I was home, almost as if it were sentient. (I know though, its just a motion detector like a automatic door).

Its strange in the Brave New World of "The Internet of Things" I loved that I could hit the thermostat from anywhere on using my iPhone. I could change the settings, turn it on and off, have it turn on the fan etc. I can even check on my family when I am away simply by knowing if the thermostat has turned on recently. I don't want to run though all of the specs here, but if you want to see all the cool features it has you can check out their website.

As you can probably tell, it was designed by a couple of guys who worked at Apple, and left to make one of the myriad Silicon Valley Start-ups that we hear so much about. I loved that it was a start up, I loved they were ex-Apple, I loved that it didn't have a clock (just to be an awesome thermostat and nothing else), and it would light up when I walked past it.

What I didn't love was that it was bought by Google.

Yes, the mega giant that I once swore my loyalty too in its attempts to stick it to Microsoft. Which has now gotten so fracking big and pervasive that it just knows everything. Hell, even this blog is written on a wholly-owned Google site. As soon as that happened (just before the sale of the Nest Protect) I cut my thermostat off from the cloud. It became dumb. It would still glow blue when the AC was on and orange when the heat came on, and I could do everything if I was standing in front of it, but I couldn't collect any data that was crucial to saving money and analyzing my patterns of use.

I had mixed emotions. I took back control of my device, but then I couldn't do all of the cool things that were a 'convenience' for me. It made me think, what then, is the price for the convenience? And is that what I paid for apart from a cool design? Does the whiz-bang factor really trump the fact that Google (intentional or not) now knows when I am home? Or at least when I haven't walked past it to go to the bathroom?

In the end I hooked it back up to the cloud and it rejoined "The Internet of Things". I bought it for the convenience, and if I want that I have to suck up that I will be giving away some data on my habits. Google already knows everything though my email, and my maps... but this far and no farther. I probably will not buy the Nest Protect simply because it is designed to talk to the Nest. Who knows when insurance companies will get hold of that data and see "Hmmm, the Giant household had 2 alarms go off last month. We are raising their rates."

So now when I walk past it on the way to the bathroom, I still think it looks cool and was worth the purchase, but somewhere, in the back of my head, I warily wait for the day when the cool blue light turns to red.

So yeah, that didn't just happen

2014-05-28T19:29:00.001-04:00

Well out of everything I planted in early May, virtually nothing came up. It must have been that cold snap. I also have never had really good luck with Johnny's seed exchange. So in desperation I went to whole foods, I usually do well with their seeds. Nada. So I went to Home Despot cuz I was desperate. Get it??? Haha.

The potatoes I got for whole foods are going insane in Ye Olde Pumpkin Patch and in the bags out font. The seed potatoes I bought in March? Nada. These were just some reds that I bought to make mashed potatoes and forgot about.

Anyway, did you know Burpee had heirloom seeds? I didn't either. So I bought all the ones to replace what did not come up and I replanted. It's suppose to rain all day tomorrow and the soil is nice and warm, so we shall see.

This will also be the last year the Main Bed is planted in succession. I'm switching to a 2 field rotation and the old bed will be taken out of service for the 2015 season. I should also have my biochar in the ground as well, and figure giving it a season to settle might be beneficial. I'll keep you posted.

And so it begins...

2014-03-10T00:29:00.000-04:00

The 2014 season is underway. With the help of The Littlest Giant, the green leafy veggies (lettuce and spinach) are in the ground. Also the potato bags in the front of the house have potatoes in them this year (instead of pumpkins). They are red potatoes donated by my neighbor's son who had more than he needed. Eyes sprouted and planted.

There is a good deal of work that I need to do on the driveway bed as the wood has rotted or eaten away. Good thing I have all that extra plank wood lying around in the shed. And they said I was mad for keeping it MAD I TELL YOU!!!! MUAH HA HA!!!!!

Here are some pictures, they are in Ye Olde Pumpkin Patch this year as there were pumpkins in there last year:

The lettuce is to the right, spinach to the left. Littlest Giant to the top. :)

Everything bedded down nicely

Baby its cold outside

2014-03-03T11:58:00.001-05:00

Ok here it is March 3rd, 2014 and we are getting 8 inches of snow. The strange thing is this is how winter is supposed to be in the Virginia Suburbs, not the warmth that I had grown accustomed to over the last 14 years. Its amazing how climate change makes you start to think that warm is normal. In years previous I had already had my beds made and the grow-house out. Its supposed to go down to 3 degrees tonight.

So with that having been said, looks like I'm going to wait until April to start everything. Its just too cold and I am afraid that if I proceed as normal (read: what climate change has led me to believe as normal) noting will grow, or everything will be stunted like they were last year. I just ordered my seeds, and I got some seed potatoes yesterday from my neighbors, but we're just gonna have to wait.

Maybe I have been planting too early since my garden essentially goes to seed by late August anyway and the first frost isn't until November. So let's play Mother Nature's game her way and I will wait until April 5th or so to start the grow-house. Hopefully the soil will be warm enough for planting in May. Except the lettuce and spinach, those guys go in as soon as the ground thaws.

And yes, looking into chicken coops. Its already too late because the chicks won't give me any eggs until October (which means none), but if I get them in October, then they would be ready by next spring. I think I'm going to need 4. I already picked out the name for one of them: Billina.

Version 7??

2014-02-10T15:40:00.000-05:00

Here it is, the layout for the latest version of the garden.

I'm not exactly sure the no-till aspect really helped last year. The garden was pitiful. Also, no matter how much fertilizer I put on it, I hardly got anything. Looks like I have to test the soil again and see what's missing. Also, I really do need to till it. The crabgrass is just insane and is taking over all my beds. It needs to get shredded. I also need to do a better job of weeding. I'm trying to find lower intensity means of doing this, so I think I will be adding some of that black bedding cover to keep the weeds down, still deciding. Or at least some way of making it much easier to weed.

The driveway bed downslope side is also collapsing, so I'm going to flip it over, and then think about how to replace it with something more sturdy next year. Some kind of low retaining wall.

So without further ado, here is the plan:

April to Post Morterm?

2013-10-31T15:37:00.000-04:00

Sorry folks, I didn't mean to lapse until now to get anything online. Doing a lot of work so when I get off the computer at the end of the day, I don't want to keep blogging. Also, working on another novel so I...well its just too much typing.

So here is the deal with the 2013 season: It sucked.

The season was really cool, we hardly had any 'hot' days down here. Spring was really wet and cold, and when summer got here it was perfect, but has no water. Fertilized numerous times, watered, etc. but things just didn't yield like I wanted them too.

I planted a bunch of sweet corn in the Main Bed that got pulverized in July in a hail storm (really felt like Laura Ingalls dad in one episode of "Little House on the Prairie.") After they all got smashed I replanted. They finally came up and I got some sweet corn out, but they were really stunted and only had 3 ears or so that we big enough to eat, although they tasted good.

That was pretty much it.

Killing Frost

2013-10-26T08:05:00.001-04:00

The week before Halloween this year. They seem to be getting earlier and earlier. I planted some spinach last week in the hopes of having some green veg over the winter. I even improvised a cold bed for them. I have a bunch of pics from this very unproductive season. I think it's time to let the main bed go fallow next season. Or at the very least just plant beans. Going to try my biochar as well. Hmmm, guess I need to buy the pieces for the kiln. Ok let's see if I can put up some pics.

Baby green peppers. Everything was dwarfed this year.

Tiny, but tasty corn. After replanting from a hail storm in July.

Dragon chillies. HOT!!!!! I have no problem growing anything spicy.

Beans drying nicely on my twine trellis.

The only pumpkin that made it. All of my other 8 vines died. This one is in my window now, still green.

Volunteer cherry tomatoes. They were still growing until this morning.

The ones I did plant. The Wife and the Littlest Giant loved them.

Regular yet dwarf tomatoes. Apparently they tasted good too.

I had dozens of sunflowers. This one is drying on the porch so I don't have to buy new seeds.

So that's pretty much it for this season. Pretty disappointing as I got none of the potatoes I planted. Only 1 pumpkin. Oh but I did get a bunch of watermelon but they were really tasteless. Might just buy a sweet one and replant the seeds.

Hopefully I can get some pics up of the cold bed I am making. But who knows. ;)

The smell of a good crop

2013-04-08T11:30:00.001-04:00

What does 20 bags of manure smell like? Like 20 bags of horse poo. ;) But it also smells like completely full beds that I will probably never have to fill again. I didn't take pics of it yet, I probably will today and then put them online. Its supposed to be in the 70's this week, so that's good to warm the ground up (since the manure is black) and warmer ground is better in the spring.

The plants in the grow house are coming along slowly since it has been so cold until recently. The sunflowers have popped up, and so have the pumpkins, also the cat grass went nuts, and of course the cats ignore it. Still quiet on the tomatoes and peppers, but they don't germinate until the soil hits 70 or so.

I have a bag of seed potatoes, but they don't have any eyes yet, as soon as those come up, they go in the ground. They aren't going in the bags but rather will be planting in rows to see if I can get them in larger quantities. Also, they are red potatoes which seem to do better in my soil than russet potatoes. Keeping my fingers crossed on them.

I need to order my bird poo and then that's pretty much it. I may get another compost tumbler and leave it next to the main bed, simply because its easier there for garden waste. I have to get creative with the water barrels since the termites have come back and the bug guys tell me to get all sources of water as far away from the house as possible. Maybe some underground hoses I'm not sure yet. Sunflowers and pumpkins should go in the ground on the 20th.

Pics soon!

I made my bed, wish I could sleep in it

2013-03-18T08:54:00.001-04:00

The beds are prepped, except for some more dirt and manure that I have to spread out over the main bed, but that's the easy part. I spent 4 hours on saturday tilling the bed by hand. Yes, I know I said I would use no-till, but the crabgrass was taking over the entire patch. And these roots were big, one was at least 2 meters long. I'm not joking. I am so sore it takes me 1/2 an hour just to get out of bed, and I find myself fighting to stay awake the next day. I didn't take pictures, I'll do it once everything gets planted in a few weeks.

The patio grow house is set up and ready with the new seedlings already planted. Its so cold this spring as compared to last that I am really worried that they won't make it, or at the very least wont germinate for a while. By this time last year it had already hit 80, today it was snowing. The 'onion snow' apparently, as it happens after the onions have been planted. I still do not have my seed potatoes, I will go to whole foods tonight and get some.

More to come.

Version 6.0?

2013-02-25T14:00:00.000-05:00

Have I really been doing this for 6 seasons? Ok I impress myself here. Slowly but steadily things have been increasing. I know I didn't do the postmortem on last years garden. I will, now that I have to get started with the new crop. Suffice it to say, the last one was a mixed blessing. Things did very poorly since that drought last July was so bad. But I did get some things that I never got before. Namely: PUMPKINS!!!!!! Yes I have pictures. We even carved a few for Halloween and one of them still exists even now on Feb 25th. I also got copious Bell Peppers, Cherry Tomatoes, Sunflowers and Cucumbers. Essentially everything else died. I planted spinach and lettuce in November and have been eating spinach ever since. (Even just now for lunch). The lettuce didn't make it. It never does, giving up on that.

This year I am not experimenting with new plants, or things we rarely eat. What I am looking for is increasing the crop size, or yield, of any particular species. This year: potatoes. They did amazing that 2nd season, but have been lacking ever since. I will try to do rows this year.

I must till the main bed. Its too full of crabgrass and such, and I need to mix in a ton of dirt and manure. I just have to find out where to rent the tiller. (Yes I know, "But Giant, you said you were practicing no-till agriculture?") but its really overgrown and even covering the ground with grass clippings and mulch could not stop the crabgrass and I simply don't have the energy or time to either pull it all out by hand, or let the plot fallow and cover in black plastic to kill everything. I really should be tilling in some bio-char, but I didn't make any this winter. I still need to make a kiln.

Anyway here is the 2013 Master Plan.

This weekend I will pull the grow house out and get the needed supplies. I also already have a bunch of seeds saved from Bertha (last year's earliest pumpkin) and the biggest Bell pepper I grew. Planting is April 14th, and I need to get started.

So God Made a Farmer/ Post-Morterm

2013-02-04T14:27:00.001-05:00

I know its been a long time, and I didn't do a proper close down. But I do have some pics here. Its been a difficult last 9 months for the giant, and I will try to post more.

One of the 7 pumpkins we got. Her name was Bertha. Saved her seeds for 2013 season.


Carrots from last season, pulled in the spring. Didn't taste great, must have been the drought	.


Some corn (before it all wilted in the July drought). With a Ladybug we bought to fend off the aphids. Photo: The Littlest.

Tomatoes before the drought/wilt/blight took them all. Photo: The Littlest.

Ladybug on a sunflower. Photo: The Littlest

As you can see that drought in July really beat the crap out of all my crops. The only ones that made it were the stuff that was already fruiting by May (Pumpkins and such). Even the potato crop was anemic. I guess I have to give it a LOT more water. But there was a severe drought everywhere that season.

So it closed out a bad season, but I did get Pumpkins and peppers a plenty so that's good.

Ending with something inspirational:

I had to share this from the superbowl ad. I know, it was intended to pull at heartstrings and get all nostalgic, but I think it sums up all that I want to be, and a lot of what I simply can't. Paul Harvey's "So God Made a Farmer"

And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker.” So God made a farmer.

God said, “I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the field, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board.” So God made a farmer.

I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say,’Maybe next year,’ I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from an ash tree, shoe a horse with hunk of car tire, who can make a harness out hay wire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. Who, during planting time and harvest season will finish his 40-hour week by Tuesday noon and then, paining from tractor back, put in another 72 hours.” So God made the farmer.

God said, “I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales, yet gentle enough to yean lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-comb pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the leg of a meadowlark.”

It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed, and brake, and disk, and plow, and plant, and tie the fleece and strain the milk. Somebody who’d bale a family together with the soft, strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh and then reply with smiling eyes when his son says that he wants to spend his life doing what dad does. “So God made a farmer.”

Mid-June Update

2012-06-14T09:16:00.001-04:00

I was going to put the photos up last week, but I didn't get a chance. I have taken a whole bunch over the weekend and this is the result. I did finally get my bird poo, so I think that might have helped everything getting much bigger. In fact, everything is bigger than they are in the photos except the sunflowers. I think the Bambi Brigade took them last night. All the heads have been chewed off completely. Not cut (as if by humans) or raided (as if by Squirrel Squadron) just gone. Like what happened in the Great Raid of '08 to my corn. I didn't like those sunflowers anyway since they were hybrid and not mammoth, but it would have been nice if I could have gotten some of the seeds. Everyone in the cave heard it apparently. The Littlest Giant thought there was a baby outside. The Wife couldn't tell either but though she heard people or talking. I head it too, and thought it was maybe another owl or coyotes or something. Whatever it was all the heads were taken the same way. I didn't look for prints (which I should have) but I presume it was some deer and their fawns that took them. So, I'll replant some Mammoths there. Anyway, on with the pics!

Cherry tomato plant before I added the fertilizer. Plants are a little yellow, testing the soil this weekend. I think I need some lime.

The potted Bell Pepper plant now planted in the ground. It almost died in its pot. When I took it out it was very pot bound. Doing much better where it is, although no flowers at the moment.

The first of hopefully many baby pumpkins. I'm amazed, this orb has gotten twice as big since I took this photo only 5 days ago.

The flint corn. See the yellowing there too? Must be acid.

The tomato plants as a group. Yellowing there too.

The bell and cayenne plants. Doing very well, still no flowers though.

The peanuts in they spot that was the parsnips. These guys sprouted a whole 4 days after I planted the seeds.

The driveway bed looking up toward the house.

'Watermellion' as The Littlest Giant calls it. This was a replant as the first round didn't take. I think it was soil temp. As warm as March was, the soil was barely in the 60's when I planted these. Its routinely in the 70's now.

Cherokee beans learning to climb up their poles.

Alas, one of the lost heads. This one was almost ripe too. See the yellowing on the leaves? That's originally what made me think it was acid. Or lack of iron.

These are the only Mammoths I had planted. In the main bed. They are doing very well for themselves. I don't expect heads until sometime in mid July. Note how they are turning toward the sun even now.

Honeydew planted from the seeds of a melon bought at Whole Foods.

A family portrait of the now headless sunflowers.

Second planting of cucumbers. Doing well.

One of my other pumpkins sporting some nice flowers. You can't see it, but there are some baby pumpkins beneath. Hoping they last. I still have not decided what to do with the water barrels since I had to move them away from the house. Its not supposed to rain all week, so I think I will just drain them in the bed, and store them at the back there.

Finally, some tomatoes on one of the many plants I have. These are slightly bigger now, but not ripe yet.

June 1 update

2012-06-01T13:08:00.003-04:00

Interesting proceedings in the garden over the past month. Watermelon, cucumbers, and eggplant did not come up, even though it appeared they were. Either I was mistaken, or they just didn't make it, because what I thought was the actual plants did not continue their existence. One of the cayenne plants that I planted didn't make it either. I also harvested all of the parsnips, which yielded quite a lot of tubers. They were, after all, in the Main Bed 'sweet spot'.

I have mixed emotions about the peat pots that I used. They worked to get the plants up and running, but have not decomposed in the ground despite the tomatoes, sunflowers, and pumpkins all reaching large sizes. However, all the plants have already flowered (except the peppers), so they are all 'dwarf.' I have fertilized twice since planting, but they are all mini plants. The sunflowers (non Mammoth as I wanted, but a smaller variety) already even have seeds that the finches have promptly attacked. So is it the pots? The fertilizer? or did getting them out early make them produce early? I don't know. I need my bird poo to tell.

All the plants that did survive the transplants are doing very well though. My potatoes are outgrowing the patch, the corn is almost knee-high, and the cherry tomato plant is producing, but small tomatoes. Hmm, why is every thing dwarfed? Potassium since they are already fruiting? I'll have to re-test the soil.

I have planted peanuts in the parsnip section. Replanted the watermelons. Planted honeydew in place of the cucumbers and finally planted ...something where the eggplants were. I can't remember what it was.

I do have some red delicious apples growing on their tree. Nothing on the fuji though, they didn't even flower this year, but I know they are an every other year thing. And I do have pics of that. Ill try to get more pics up this weekend when I do some weed and feed and prune the trees around the garden. Stay tuned.

May Day! May Day! May Day!

2012-05-01T16:16:00.001-04:00

Well, no, there isn't anything terribly wrong. Its May 1st. And when you are home and sick on May 1, you might as well update your blog right? It appears I have been remiss, but actually I have been quite busy in the garden. Its doing well, except that I had to rip out my 2 blueberry bushes. Seems termites have invaded the Giant's cave. Yes, we had to put all that nice poison in the ground to stop them. YAY! :( They used Termidor to do the dirty work. I know, directly connected to CCD, but what was I supposed to do? Baits could take a year, although that would be the next step. Yes, I'm anguishing about that, but I also don't want the cave getting eaten from the inside out.

OK on to lighter stuff.

I started this year with growing my tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins and sunflowers in my patio grow-house provided by The Wife. It worked fabulously! Assembled sometime in mid-February by the dynamic team of The Giant and The Littlest Giant 'helping'. My only critique is that the wood is quite soft (cedar) so be careful putting those screws in. You can easily strip the holes. Also, wingnut bolts that hold the top flaps open when you are hardening don't work at all. I just propped them open on the sill at that point anyway.

I got all my starter materials from our local nursery Campbell and Ferrara and there I essentially bought the entire Espoma Organic line; peat pots, starter soil, fertilizer, the works. Everything works great. Although I think that mow, the Plant Tone fertilizer doesn't have the kick that I wanted. Its only like 5-3-3. I think I will order my seabird guano from Home Harvest. That stuff is 13-12-2. That's some good shi.... well, you get the point.

All my seeds were from Johnny's Selected Seeds. I didn't think the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange seeds were particularly good last year. So if it wasn't left over, or if I didn't save from last time, I bought from Johnny's.

The Patio Grow-house circa March 15

Peat pots in the Grow-house

Of course, I knew that when you plant when its in the 80's (yes early March was in the 80's) you suddenly get the frost the last week. Sure enough the last week in March and the first week in April came a few frosts. So, like any good gardener, I covered up.

The Grow house protected against the chill

Finally after hardening off the plants, and a week after the last frost, I prepared the soil.

The Littlest Giant and I prepping the beds

The Main Bed being prepped by The Littlest

View up the Driveway Bed with the Main bed behind.

As you can see, the Driveway Bed had lots of extra dirt and manure added this year, it just wasn't full enough. The Main Bed however didn't have a lot of additions. One because I didn't have that much time to get enough dirt for both (50 bags total) and second, since I am doing no-till this year, I didn't want to change too much. However, there were some depressions caused by the 3 Sisters mounds last year, so I had to fill in the gaps. The Littlest was helping fill the holes in that pic. Rented the pick-up from Home Depot this year. $19 for an hour, only took me 35 minutes. Worth every penny!

For the first time ever, the Master Plan for garden! Usually I sketch it out (which I have) but is more legible if I transpose it to something digital. I did that on Gridpapr. Got the public account. No $$$. ;) Sow without further ado....

The Master Plan (not to scale). I have pumpkins and stuff in other places, but those are experimental at this point.

The 3 Sisters, just flint corn at the moment

Mammoth sunflowers, with a 'volunteer' potato in the lower right corner

Tomatoes, part one, with the cherry tomato plant I grew indoors circa Dec '11

Closeup of the cherry tomatoes, just about to red.

Tomatoes part 2. this has the bell pepper plant I stated with the cherry tomato plant

Carrots coming up next to the tomatoes

The Driveway Bed from the street. Is that a lion? ;)

The Main Bed from the 'bottom'. That steak is NOT a grave marker.

Watermelon just coming up

Evening Sunflowers coming up. No cucumbers yet.

Parsnips planted last year. I suppose I should harvest them. Put peanuts in their place.

Pole Beans coming up. That's what the gravestone pole was for.

Bell Peppers with Cayenne's in the top right

Eggplants coming up. Its that bluish-greenish blur.

Pumpkins, one of many plantings.

Ye Olde Pumpkin Patch, err.. Potato patch.

Horizontal of the Potato Patch

Water barrels on vacation. Had to be moved because of the Termite treatment. I'll put them back when I get some bricks laid in their original spot.

That's it for now. Fortunately the weather has gone back to wet and below normal temps for all of April, so that was a good thing. However, its supposed to be in the 80's again and wet for the next week. Lets see how that goes.

The winter that wasn't

2012-02-02T08:18:00.002-05:00

I am so glad that climate change is just a liberal conspiracy. Because with months of above average temps, 72 degrees yesterday, and the cherry blossoms blooming, I was getting worried. I guess Phill will say six more weeks of winter so that the liberal media can control us that much longer (and he did, I knew it!) Meanwhile, those socialist Europeans are getting what they deserve with people actually freezing to death.

*shakes head*

How can policy makers be blind to this? Do they not care, or understand, or are they just so thrilled that they can play hooky and hit the back 9 with their Big Oil buddies that they see this as a good thing? At what point will they actually just open their eyes and see what the rest of us who work with the land see? This isn't 'nice weather' it is climate out of whack.

I don't normally swing political here as a point, but I have to take note of it. Sarcasm included. This isn't Al Gore's personal grab for power so that he can install himself as Emperor of The Moon, this is reality. This is the world that we are helping to create.

Healthy Harvest Farm

2012-01-26T09:44:00.002-05:00

Sorry, have to do a shameless plug for my friends CSA located in beautiful Bellefonte, PA.

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Healthy-Harvest-Farm/215516528533269

Internet:
http://www.healthyharvestfarmcsa.com/index.php

They really know their stuff, and I would trust the lives of the entire Giant family to them, please check them out!

Thanks!
The Giant

Free at last aka Season 4 post-morterm

2012-01-11T09:15:00.004-05:00

Finally. Done. The Higher Mind of New England has released me. Forever. Yay. :)

The garden basically went to pot after Irene since I had no time and it was really badly damaged. 2 Weeks later TS Lee dumped 11 inches of rain on me in 1 day. It was all a loss. Nothing really produced in great numbers except the Jalapenos (always a staple), Sweet Peppers, and the Bell Peppers. I think I finally figured out the Bell's, soil temp is really important. If its not like 72 degrees the seeds just don't germinate. We got 1 eggplant, the peanuts did very well (although I didn't soak them in saltwater so they are really bland), the melons (or 'watermellions' as The Littlest Giant calls them) did well except for the exploding properties, parsnips are still in the ground, tomatoes did OK, but still suffered from overcrowding despite my frequent culling. The lettuce and spinach did great in the little pots in front of the house, shaded but warm.

Things that did not do well:
4 sisters (sunflowers, sweet corn, beans, pumpkins) although the sunflower seeds kept getting taken by squirrel squadron so it wasn't their fault, same with the pumpkins.
Potatoes, rotted in the ground, again. I think I am over watering them (aside from Lee).
Amaranth did exceptionally well, until Lee soaked everything and the seeds started molding. As a consequence I did not harvest them. The tomatoes crowded the carrots, so I left them in the ground with the parsnips, Ill see how they do in the spring. The apple trees had cedar apple rot, so I sprayed. I wasn't expecting much though. The 1 apple I got was taken by Squirrel Squadron or the Bambi Brigade. Bluberries, all eaten by birds before they ripened. I need to cover them.

Take away from this season:
1) Different plants have different water needs
2) temp is important in starting out,
3) prune severely

For next season
1) Trying flint corn instead of sweet to see if they will hold up in the rain better.
2) Starting 'delectable seeds' (aka sunflower and pumpkin) in my newly acquired mini-greenhouse (generously provided by The Wife) early to avoid them being taken. Also starting the Bells and other warm soil plants here.
3) Making a scarecrow similar to the illustration in the Marvel Comics adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. Hopefully this keeps the Squirrel Squadron away (and will look cool). I have a solar panel (also provided by The Wife) to which I may attach a servo and a motion sensor to make the scarecrow move. We will see how much time I have.
4) Not a fan of the Southern Exposure seeds I purchased. I think I will try Johnny's Selected Seeds this season.
5) Seed potatoes from Whole Foods. Yes they worked the best and the cheapest.
6) Experimenting with Pumpkins in different pots in different places at different times this year. A neighbor planted his whole front law with pumpkins around May. Not one fruit as far as I saw. I'm thinking if I plant them in front of the Butterfly Garden, maybe they will get some extra pollinator attention.

OK more later, with pictures.

goodnight Irene

2011-09-01T09:16:00.001-04:00

Well, not that this was a banner year for my garden anyway, but Hurricane Irene pretty much ended the season on me. Everything that I grew that was more than 4 feet tall got blown down. Corn, amaranth, sunflowers. The lower lying plants such as peppers and tomatoes are still doing well, and I have lots of pumpkin plants growing, just not fruits as of yet. Beans aplenty from the 3 sisters, but there are no pods yet. I suppose it could have been worse, and this isn't the post-mortem yet, but its just the beginning of the slow harvest wind-down. I'm still hoping to get some good pumpkins by halloween, and maybe a dry autumn will allow me to get some watermelons that don't explode. :)

Walt Disney eat your heart out

2011-07-26T19:55:00.001-04:00

Might be hard to see here, but that's a yellow Monarch on the Evening Sunflower in the garden. All the better since it's 8pm. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Hopeful disapointment

2011-07-15T12:20:00.005-04:00

I pulled one of the potato plants yesterday that looked ready (droopy and wilted leaves). Its mid-july and those spuds have been in since March. What did I get? Spuds barely bigger than the seed potatoes I put in. Grrrr. Also, I have come to the conclusion that the 3 sisters does NOT work with sweet corn. The stems are so weak that the beans just pull the stalks over where they snap and get ravaged by the local wildlife. I have pulled the beans that were growing in the other batch, maybe I can get some corn by September. I will have to further segregate the crop next season, maybe putting a chicken-wire fence between the corn rows and letting the beans/squash grow on that. Could also be too much nitrogen and the plants are growing so the roots aren't as deep (called logging). Also considering growing things in pots in front of the house (by the street) since that spot get the most sun. Also may let me focus more, I need to concentrate my efforts I think. Too many plants with different needs and not enough experience on my part.

There is another watermelon growing so its not just the 'lone melon' which is good. The evening sun's have flowers on them now and are tracking the sun quite well. Tomatoes just about ripe. Amaranth is at least 10 feet high. :)

That reminds me, do NOT plant Amaranth on the east side of the Main Bed, they shade everything. The peppers are having a hard time competing. Ah, but I think the potatoes have been too hot since they really sit in the sun from 10am till 3. So grow the potatoes on the west side of the Amaranth so they will get shaded.

Pictures this weekend.

Yeah, I know I try not to swing political, but this is about helping people eat. Great idea, and she is a better gardener than me.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/14/cnnheroes.hirshberg.seeds/index.html?hpt=hp_t2#

Knee high by the 4th of July

2011-07-08T08:49:00.003-04:00

Yep, I don't know where that expression started but it always seems to be wrong for me. As of the 4th my maize was as tall as me (the tallest stalk anyway) and it already has many developing ears. I didn't get a chance to take photos as the Higher Mind of New England has me in its clutches again, really hard this time. I will try to take some this weekend. Here is some info though:

Potatoes: Seem to be ready. A stalk broke on one of the plants the other day and I suppose it died. A few days later I pulled the spud but it was literally crawling with bugs. Even for someone as non squeamish as me, it was pretty gross.

Eggplant: Well, there are plants, but nothing else. This is the 2nd season in a different spot and still nothing. I'm suspecting something is missing.

Peanuts: Got the plants, they look good. I haven't reached under to see if there are actually peanuts yet.

4 sisters doing well, well at least 3 of the 4, I just planted the pumpkins on the 4th so they haven't sprouted yet. But the beans, maize, and sunflowers (evening sun better than the Mammoths since they were late) are all doing well, only the maize has fruited yet. That reminds me to switch to bloodmeal for fertilizer since there is no need for more nitrogen at this point.

Amaranth: Taller than me seed heads beginning to form. The Wife keeps asking me "what do I do with these?" Having eaten Amaranth before I know you cook the seeds like oatmeal, but I still have yet to actually shake them out. That's basically all I know. :)

Watermelon: Have my first baby melon, and its getting bigger by the day. The Littlest Giant loves to "check out the melon". No honeydews yet, but there is such a tangle in the melon patch that I might just not be seeing it yet. The parsnips are in the patch and I think they might be getting smothered. Hopefully they will make it to the winter.

Tomatoes: Have a few babies right now and the plants are healthy so far *crosses fingers* The carrots under them are similarly shaded like the parsnips, so we will see if they make it to winter.

Blueberries: Yeah, birds took 'em all. Even though they were not mature yet. Gonna need a net (and I don't mean Funicello) next season.

Apple trees: There is a baby apple on the Fuji tree. "when it grows up, I eat it!" says The Littlest Giant. I had to spray both trees with neem oil as they were getting Cedar-Apple Rust. They seem to be improving, or at least not getting worse.

That's it for now, found this great article on cnn about gardening. I don't normally post this stuff, but I thought it was a good piece.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/07/08/why.gardening.good/index.html

Garden update with pics

2011-06-16T15:44:00.003-04:00

So much has changed and I have been very remiss. I will try to update as much as I can before the higher mind of New England gets me back in it's clutches. :)

It was a very wet and cold spring, to be followed suddenly by a very hot...spring. Ah, Virginia. Because of finals and such I was a month late getting the crops in the ground. May 15 this time , although I did plant the potatoes in the last week of march. Also, I added a Fuji apple tree as well as a red delicious apple tree to replace the one I had to cut down. Not to be left out, 2 blueberry varieties were also planted to replace the azalea's that died.

The driveway bed has been extended an additional 32 square feet. Baring any major changes to the property (a tree coming down) this should be the furthest extent of the garden.

On with the pictures, I will provide rolling commentary as usual.

This is the fuji apple tree leaves up close. Sadly they are suffering from cedar apple rust, even though there are no cedar trees around, but there are apple trees. Apparently Fuji apples are susceptible. The red delicious is not however, and it looks fine. Meem oil is on the way to spray on the leaves.

These are the blueberry bushes. Look at those blueberries, look at those holes in the leaves. Guess what they are? Yep, Slug Sappers. Meem works there too, they also "sluggo" works as well. Guess what I already have? They want a war, they got it.

This is the whole grander from the foot of the driveway up. Potatoes up front. They are doing very well up there, I have never seen them this healthy looking. I did pay for the seed potatoes though, but these are impressive. Let's hope the tubers are as good.

A more close up picture of the potatoes. Yes, that is cow poo they are growing in, which The Littlest Giant loves to play with. "cow poo, crush." :)

Eggplant with parsnips on the side. Still waiting on the eggplant to do....something. I am not very successful with that crop so far.

Evening sun sunflowers and peanuts. They peanuts that didn't get eaten seem to be doing well. They have really cute little yellow flowers on them too. Besides the apples and the blueberries, these are the first plants to flower this season.

This is the second of 2 beds dedicated to the 3 Sisters this season. This was planted at the beginning of June. No hills this year, they just washed away last time and I don't want a repeat. I might just do a full fledged milpa next year depending on how this goes. Well, minus the 8 year fallow period.

The first of the two 3 Sisters plots, this one now has beans that were planted when the second plot was planted. The beans are still growing faster than the maize even though I waited a month. I think next year I need to get the maize in in April and then wait till June for the beans, I have already had to untangle some as they were choking the stalks.

Amaranth and sunflowers. I used to think, "no way can the amaranth grow to 3 meters." It's almost 2 now. I think it can. The sunflowers are a second planting as the robins took all the seeds from the first one.

Peppers. Back to front: jalapeño, banana, yes those are tiny bells which I had to replant when it was good and hot out, like 100 degrees, and I have completely forgotten the last variety. I will edit that later. I am so glad the bells came up. I basically have to wait until its really hot, or start them inside next year.

Watermelon to the left, muskmelon (honeydew) to the right. Growing quite nicely and flowering.

Some intensives here. From left to right: tomatoes, carrots, 2 huge onions from last season, tomatoes, carrots, tomatoes, evening sun sunflowers. Carrots and tomatoes are apparently companion crops like the 3 Sisters.

What is not shown is Ye Olde Pumpkin Patch, which currently has nothing but did have spinach and lettuce. Both grew well, but because they were so far in the backyard, I was lazy and didn't harvest all the time. The spinach was great, not enough lettuce grew to get a sample. Dunno why. They went in the same time the potatoes did, but I will do them earlier next year, or even plant them in the fall. The pumpkins get planted here (and in the 3 Sisters beds) Independence Day weekend. That's it for now.