Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Garden Happenings

(Written yesterday....)

Last year's first pea, doesn't it look good!?!

Today I sowed the early Polbig tomatoes under the proper fruit time according to the Biodynamic calendar.  These will go out extra early under greenhouse-like conditions.  We also sowed some tomato seeds following Wintersown.org instructions, the milk jugs are set out in the garden along with the spinach and kale that went into the coldframe today.   I wonder, how quickly will the seeds germinate in those milk cartons?

A last minute trip to Home Depot last night for Dormant Oil Spray and a tractor cart resulted in a Yellow Delicious Apple tree, 2 yellow raspberries, 2 bags of strawberries, and some extra Victoria rhubarb coming home with us as well.  YIKES!  The tree is labeled as "dwarf", but without knowing which rootstock it is on this could end up being one big tree.  I am thinking of calling the nursary to pin down answere on that one......dang impulse buying!  My other two apples are not due until Fall, and what I really needed was a Crabapple to act as a long season pollinator.  I just hope it is labeled correctly, and is indeed a dwarf Yellow Delicious.

On that note, the new apple tree got quite a pruning and they all were treated with Dormant Oil spray.  I had wooly aphids in the Fall, so this was a necessary spray to help the trees get off to a good start when those buds set.  I also ordered some limb spreaders to increase the crotch angle of the limbs and encourage horizontal branching.  This apple tree stuff is complicated, I hope I do well by them!

My upcoming Biodynamic sowings for the month of March are as follows:

  • 15th-16th- indoor sowing for lettuce & basil
  • 18th & 19th- indoor sowing of tomatoes and peppers
  • 20th- Florence onions
  • 26th (after 10am)- 1:00 pm 27th- indoor sowing of tomatoes and peppers
I have my peas soaking, and then it occured to me that their designated bed (future home of peas &  tomatoes) has not yet been built.  Hmm...I was going to germintae them indoors, but where will they go after that?  This could be interesting.  Looks like I better find a large container, and fast!

3 comments:

Erin said...

I can't wait to see how the wintersown stuff goes! I have 2 of those colonnade apple trees and can't wait to see some fruit on them this year!

Thomas said...

Your Home Depot has apple trees??!! I will have to check out mine again!

Kelly said...

Yes Thomas, they do. I called the nursery in CT they are grown at. The man who left the message never did say which rootstock was used, but he said mature hight will be 10-15 feet tall, 8-10 feet wide. I consider that semi-dwarf, not dwarf. It is mine now since I pruned it back hard. We will keep tipping it back to keep the canopy a reasonable size....there isn't any space for a 10-15 foot canopy in my yard!