Sprouts!

We had a bit of a warm streak toward the end of January, so I got the itch to start planting stuff.

And it has mostly paid off!

carrots

radishes

kohlrabi

beets

sugar snap peas

I went with various veggies that are cold weather tolerant. The risky part was whether the soil was warm enough to facilitate germination. When it's cold and wet the seeds can rot in the soil before they have a chance to sprout. So after several consecutive days in the upper 70's I took a chance.

It wasn't a complete success.

I planted lettuce where I had to rip out dead broccoli plants after the great aphid battle. It was old seed. It didn't work.

The cats also had some input on what grows were, mostly where they preferred to turn the garden into a litter box. Most of the snow peas survived, and when I thin plants next week I'll try transplanting to fill in the holes.

Aphid battles

I've had aphids in the garden before, but nothing like this year. I lost four broccoli and two Brussels sprouts plants over the holidays to these little beasts.

The tell-tale sign is that chlorotic look to the lower leaves, but as the aphids take over the whole plant will soon look like that. To the uneducated eye it may look like the plant needs fertilizer, especially when the plants are small. But turning over the leaves shows the true culprit.

Aphids literally suck the life out of the plant. As the lower leaves die they move up the plant to the next one.

One of the challenges in controlling aphids is that there really aren't any chemicals that are effective against them. Even if there was, it needs to get sprayed up under the leaves, so dusting isn't effective either.

Soapy water is one available control tool. As soft-bodied insects aphids don't have much protection from the elements. Soapy water basically smothers them. Unfortunately, soapy water can also harm the plant. The strategy is to spray with soapy water, wait a few hours, and then spray the plant with the garden hose. Sure, I could just spray with the garden hose too, but all that does is knock the aphids off the plant and into the soil where they could crawl back onto the plant again.

A squirt of liquid dish soap and some water go into the pump sprayer. I don't have a specific ratio, other than the concoction needs to be able to go through the sprayer easily but the stuff coming out feels soapy. (I keep a bottle of Ivory in the barn, fairly gentle for cleaning sensitive areas on the horses but tough enough for scrubbing bird feeders.)

As I start spraying the plants I want to make sure I hit both sides of the leaves. The goal is to smother the aphids.

If you see some suds, that's OK. In fact, that's a sign that you have a good ratio of soap and water. I'm going to rinse off the plant in a little while anyway.

 After a few hours the aphids are still on the underside of the leaves, but they don't look happy. A lot of them have already shriveled up. Next step is to break out the spray nozzle on the garden hose to blast away the soap residue and aphids.

After blasting each leaf I'll come back and give the whole plant a good spray with the nozzle. I want to make sure I get the stems too, in case there are any aphid hiding there.

I'm not quite out of the woods yet. I may have to repeat this a few more times this week. These are the worst of the lot. We'll see...

Starting over

Bad cold snap last week. Like, really bad. and it started with rain and a potential of freezing rain.

The garden didn't fare well. Eighteen lettuce plants almost ready to harvest, and all of them goners. So are the beets and peas.

Of course the weeds survive.

But the broccoli and Brussels sprouts look like they may pull through.

Lettuce in front, broccoli and Brussels sprouts in back

 And the carrots look great! At least something survived to be picked another day.

Almost time to start planting things for an early spring garden, so I guess I'll spend the weekend cleaning up the carnage.

Uninvited house guests

Cold snaps mean the bromeliads and other sensitive potted plants come inside. Most years I clear out the spare bedroom but it wasn't an option this time. The pineapples can take up an entire room all on their own.

The pineapples that were on the front porch, moved to the living room for Thanksgiving break.

The ficus can take up a corner all by itself.

Ignore the pile of laundry on the loveseat.

And the ornamental bromeliads go in the back hallway.

These plants spend 9+ months of the year outside, so it's only natural that they have their own symbiotic relationships with other fauna. Unless of course the fauna comes in.

Meet Kermit. Tree frogs usually hang out in the bromeliads all summer, this is the first time one came along for winter. He disappeared before I could relocate him on a warm-ish day. I hope I don't find his dehydrated body somewhere. That's usually what happens to the anoles that come in.

And then there was this:

Good thing I'm friends with an entomologist who specializes in Integrated Pest Management. He identified them as acrobat ants. The pots went back outside. The ants got swept up and tossed outside. Then the pots got several rounds of treatment with some granules, soaked it in with the water hose, and waited.



So far so good.

Gardening on vacation

While my own garden is failing in the drought (no measurable rain since late August) my friend's garden is growing a healthy crop of weeds.

She rents a plot in a community garden program. Very aptly named.

heh heh heh

Where she lives the native soil is rather poor and unsuitable for gardening. The local municipality has several of these community gardens around town. I hear there is a waiting list to get a plot so the garden association will send out threatening notices if you don't maintain your plot.

One of the items on our to-do list while I was visiting was to whip it back into shape and plant some cool-season veggies. It's too cold to do anything from seed but the garden center still had transplants.

before

after

Going in today (front to back ) are red lettuce, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. Plenty of room for them to grow, and enough activity to keep the garden association reps at bay.

I wouldn't mind gardening in a place like this.

This doesn't look good

There's not much to blog about when you spend all of your time watering.

October 4, 2016

October 11, 2016

October 18, 2016

October 25, 2016

I can't remember the last measurable rain at my house. By that token I also think the maps are a little off. There were some scattered showers in September a few miles away but I had nothing at my house. A little frustrating when you compare rain gauge reports with a coworker who lives on the other side of town.

Diggin' the sweet potatoes

I've been putting it off as long as I possibly can. Every day that the sweet potatoes stay in the ground is another day they can add to the size of their tubers. But I've reached the point where I have to put in my cool crop transplants (broccoli, Brussels sprouts) and the only place left is where the sweet potatoes are.

I've been trimming back the vines the last couple weeks, helping to redirect the photosynthesis efforts into pumping carbohydrates into the tubers rather than letting the vines take over the whole back yard. First step in the process will be trimming those remaining vines back to the ground so it I can find the soaker hoses before I dig.

And I have to dig deep! Some of those tubers are a good ten inches down. I'm trying to systematically go through the bed without accidentally stabbing one of those tasty orange tubers.

Occasionally you find some weird stuff. These were at the base of a main plant. They would have been the first roots set by the slip when it was stuck in the growing media. Some of them I can't tease apart, I'm just going to have to wait until it is time to cook.

Once everything is dug you have to let them "cure." Sweet potatoes have rather delicate skin when they are first dug. Too much handling and you can leave marks. But because I watered a couple days before hand the ground was still moist and there was too much soil still clinging to the tubers.

This time I'm leaving them laying out on the adjacent tank for a day or two. Anything longer and they might start turning green on me.