Harvest Monday

This is my first ever Harvest Monday post, it is a fun one since we came across many more untouched carrots while 'digging for worms' yesterday.  My daughter kept yelling "potatoes" joyfully every time she came a cross a lump.  I guess a carrot with it's top missing buried underneath straw and dirt seems like a potato when you are 2.  Lol, and better yet, my son stated that he loved gardening with me.  Hmph.  Maybe he will actually help and learn this year, which would be lots of fun.

That says 1.83 pounds.  Very, very cool (the scale and the harvest, the scale is a recent purchase).  These are mostly Mokum or Bolero, I never remember which.  All I need now is that jar of peanut butter.

The Last Dig

I FINALLY made it out to the garden today to do my final dig for the year.  All the recent rain made pulling dahlia and gladiola tubers an easy task.  Well, aside from the dahlia that was intertwined with a rat's nest of asparagus roots, that one took a beating as I tugged and ripped the tubers off the main stem one by one....I am hoping rot does not set in in all the newly exposed flesh.

I also pulled most of the remaining carrots.  One of the later sowings had not put on much growth, so I left them...here is the bunch I pulled, disappointing!

I have so many carrot varieties growing in three different beds, too many for me to keep straight....not sure which 2 varieties these are, but I can at least narrow it down:  the carrots in the spinner basket are either Mokum or Bolero.  The bunch to the left of the basket are either Petite 'n Sweet or Short 'n Sweet.  They smelled so good as they were tugged from the earth, it will be interesting to see if the cold weather sweetened them up or not.  The Napoli I sowed never took off (my bad, they went in quite late).  I am going to cover them with straw and hope they winter over for an early Spring carrot.

Lastly, some Rouge D' Hiver romaine will be on the menu tonight, nothing like being spoiled by crisp greens from the garden in mid- December!

(P.S.- we have a Christmas tree on the premises, though it has not made it IN the house.  Baby steps.  :)  )

A Little Garden Housekeeping

Today has been a great day out in the garden. After the many inches of rain we received yesterday courtesy of Danny, it was a perfect time to rip out the weeds and the less than stellar performers. But most importantly I was a SVB serial killer, and proud of it! I squished at least twelve of these suckers. They had finally taken up residence in my zucchini. The plants are now destroyed, but I was happy to sacrifice a few developing squash for the pleasure of hunting those borers down. YUCK!


Today's sowings:

1. Sugar Ann Peas - 55 days; I sowed these in the cucurbit bed where I had ripped out cukes and marigolds, mostly for their nitrogen fixing services. If I get peas out of it even better!
2. Bright Lights Swiss Chard - Chard can be harvested at 'baby' size about 5 weeks after germination and is somewhat cold tolerant.
3. Napoli Carrot - 58 days; A cold tolerant, early carrot variety. These will hopefully overwinter under a thick layer of hay and plastic or row cover.
4. Red Russian Kale - Overwinters easily, hardy to 14 degrees F; These should have ideally been sown in early August but I just didn't have the room. I will cover the seedlings with row cover before any frost is predicted, and keep them that way through the winter. May be harvested as early as 60 days after sowing; frosts improve flavor.
5. Rouge D'Hiver Lettuce - 28-58 days; Cold tolerant red romaine type lettuce, should germinate in soil temps as low as 40 degrees F.
6. Renegade Spinach - I have had no luck with direct sowing spinach all season, but since spinach seeds should used the same year they were purchased I figured I would give it another go!

(edit: Almost forgot, I took seeds from the nasturtiums and marigolds for next year. It was a rediculously easy thing to do (and free), so I hope they will germinate!)

Second Sowing

This weekend the peas were ripped out and some root vegetables were sown. The peas were still producing rather well but I have some succession sowings that are ready to be harvested so that made the decision easier. I picked up two new carrot varieties, Burpee's Short n' Sweet and Petite n' Sweet; both are recommended for growing in small spaces and heavy soils. I also sowed some Golden Beets. I went through all of my Chioggia seeds with out getting one beet, hopefully I will have better luck this time around.

I pulled another carrot today out of curiosity and was very happy to see that it was perfectly straight (I thought to take a picture after I had eaten a few bites).

We also built the grape trellis, but more on that later. This gorgeous creature was hanging around while I was ripping out the peas.

The Carrot Files; Foliar Feed Day

The Carrot Files

There are mysteries that cannot be solved...

Date: 07/16/2009
Location: An undisclosed garden in Southeastern Massachusetts.

An extremely malformed carrot was pulled from what seemed to be loose, rubble free earth.

This case remains unsolved.

***

Did a foliar feed today with a fish & seaweed emulsion and Azomite. It has been a couple of months since the last one. I also did a compost tea shot for my nightshades that seem to be struggling a bit yesterday, and today I will do the asparagus bed. I have been using a non-aerated compost tea, just a days soak in the sunshine and into the soil it goes.

I ordered the Azomite powder through the NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) Bulk Order. It is something I had never heard of or seen locally, but I thought my new soil could benefit from some amending.

Azomite, powder (0-0-2.5, 5% Ca) Named for its A-to-Z of Minerals
including Trace Elements; contains over 67 minerals beneficial to plants and
animals. CR has grown better tomatoes since he started using Azomite and likes
it for corn and melons too. Now a standard supplement in garlic beds. Broadcast
at 300-600# an acre, approximately 1-2#/100 sq ft. Use in potting soil and
compost. Also recommended as a foliar feed; allow the heavier portion to settle
before adding to the sprayer. As a liquid fertilizer add 1 tsp/gal. Mined in
Utah, put through a 200 mesh screen. OMRI

Hitting 'The Carrot Lottery'

After searching for some carrot growing tips to ease my personal carrot struggle I came upon this joyous little piece titled "Lottery winner plans to grow better carrots". (Enjoy!) http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090616/od_nm/us_lottery

Now back to my carrot troubles. Figure 4 is not my problem, nor will it ever be if I can't get the dang things to grow. You see, I went to the trouble of making a special mix for my carrots. They have a nice deep bed made with fine sand and loam. We removed the obvious rocks by hand with every wheelbarrow load that went in. There is not too much nitrogen or organic matter to cause 'forking' and the soil is well drained thanks to all that sand. I have a special planting method that I covered back in May, and I am sure to keep the stinkers moist for the first few weeks.


This lone carrot ranger is all that has survived out of the latest 16 seeds sowed. Pitiful.




I do have others growing in a separate section. Keep in mind I began sowing carrot seeds on April 18th, and have had many, many failures along the way.

Only 4 or 5 carrots survived out of the first hundred or so seeds. Luckily the batch behind them actually seems to be doing OK (me, knocking on wood), so I guess I just need to be patient.

The reason behind the disapearing carrot is a still a mystery to me. Rabbits? Slugs? Bad JuJu? I know others have had there own carrot struggles and if there is anything you have learned along the way, please share it here.......this girl has yet to hit the lottery.

How to sow carrots in a SFG

STEP 1: Fold a roughly 12"x12" section of newspaper into 16 squares. Place a dot of school glue in the center of each square and drop a seed(s) into it. Allow to dry.

STEP 2: Remove up to a 1/2 inch of soil in plot where carrots will be going. Lay down newspaper, glue side down and cover with removed soil. Water in.

I go one step further and cover my carrots with burlap. This helps keep them moist between watering (usually twice a day) until they sprout and begin to grow up through the burlap at which time it is removed.