Summerization July 1, 2011 Garden Photos

We went on vacation the first week of July so prior to leaving we had to summerize our garden. (This is a good idea to do even if we did not go on vacation as it is always a good idea to reduce water and weeding needs). We purchased 6 bales of hay to mulch all of our garden rows to prevent the ground from drying out too fast and to reduce weed growth. Here are some photos of where we are with the garden as of July 1, 2011. A lot of our plants are really small as we had an exceptionally cool and wet spring.

View of the west half of our garden.

View of the east half of our garden.

View of the middle row and hoop house.

Our asparagus producing well for several months.

Asparagus and Okra.

Okra about to start blooming.

Bush beans don't produce as well as pole beans but don't require support.

Pole beans starting to bloom. The turnips below are flowering.

Pole beans starting to climb the hoop house.

Our cool season stuff inside the hoop house is starting to die out although the carrots, Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce, carrots and Oakleaf Lettuce are doing well.

Cabbage and Deer Tongue Lettuce.

Kale and Chard produce all summer long.

Cucumbers starting to flower.

Our grapes are looking good for early July. We are having big problems with Japanese Beetles.

We have grape vines above our berry bushes and strawberries all around our garden.

Good looking grapes! We have Concord, Norton and other varieties.

A volunteer Gourd growing amongst newly planted Blueberry bushes. The strawberries below are hard to see withthe new straw mulch.

Peppers, Asparagus and Cucumbers.

Asparagus, Cucumbers and Okra.

Garden view.

Tomatoes and Okra.

Peppers. They are small because they were all grown from seed and I got a late start with our cold wet spring.

Tomatoes and Peppers.

Tomatoes and Peppers. Our strawberries (behind) produced about 25 pounds of berries this spring.

Tomatoes starting to flower.

Tomatoes freshly mulched to lessen watering.

Potato preparation and planting

Growing potatoes is a fun and easy activity and especially great to get kids involved with. It is so cool to see the eyes developing and cut up a single potato into 10 new chunks that will each become a potato plant that will grow several new potatoes.

These potatoes are a little over developed but with careful handling (not to damage the growth that has already occurred) they will make great new starts. Make sure that each chunk has at least one eye for roots and stems to sprout from.

We cut the potatoes into chunks, anywhere between 5-12 pieces per potato, and then spread them out on pans to dry a little.

The potato chunks need to harden off for two days in a cool dry place before planting.

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Throughout Spring I have been turning the soil over with a shovel to kill weeds and to mix the dirt with last years hay creating a good bed for the potatoes to grow.

Potatoes ready to plant after drying indoors for 2 days.

To plant the potato starts we just spread them out about 8" apart and covered them with just about 1/2" of dirt (enough to ensure good soil contact) and then covered them with 3-4" of hay. If you don't cover them with hay you would want to bury them about 2-3" deep.

The potatoes are in the middle wide row covered with fresh hay.

After we planted the potatoes we covered the bed with 3-4" of hay. This will keep the weeds down, keep animals from finding the potatoes and keep the moisture high while they are growing and lessen watering needs all year. Last year with 4" of hay I did not have to water our potatoes at all, and we had a great crop.

Our harvest from Fall 2009. It is so fun for the kids to see the fruits of their labor!

It is important to move your potatoes around from year to year so that you minimize the chance of disease. Also, you are not supposed to plant potatoes in a bed that had tomatoes the previous year as they both are affected by similar diseases.

Good Luck!

Early Spring Planting (and mulching).

We have started our bed preparation and planted just about all of our cool season plants (mid to late March). We have planted onions (both seed and bulbs), garlic, cauliflower, broccoli, many types of lettuce, kale, chard, Brussel Sprouts, arugula, spinach, potatoes, beets, carrots, snap peas, turnips, etc. The soil was still cold below the surface so I did not place any mulch/straw over the surface so the sun could continue to heat the dark soil.

Half of our hoop house is planted!

Both sides of the hoop house are planted!

My daughter helping spread straw!

Some may think that we have this backward, but we are putting down straw in all of our aisles, not on the beds. We still need the sun to heat up our planting beds so we are putting down straw in all the places we walk to give us a better/dryer surface to work from, keep the rain from washing our soil away and keep the weeds away. When things start to dry out and all our cool season plants have sprouted, I will spread straw or grass clippings around them as well to keep the soil moisture in and prevent weed growth.

What a good helper!

Look at all that area I do not have to weed this spring!

Now we just sit back and wait for rain and seed germination.

A little bit of straw over the top of my strawberries in the Spring (late March).

I did spread a little bit of straw over the top of my strawberry beds so that the new shoots can grow over the straw. This will hopefully mean more of the fruit develop sitting on top of straw instead of having direct contact with soil that rots the outside of the berries.

Make your own Tomato Baskets

My daughter picking tomatoes. Summer 08.

Tomato baskets are an important tool for any garden. We use tomato baskets for lots of vegetables, including cucumbers, beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos or even just young seedlings in our orchard that need to be protected until they are a little larger. These are made from 4' tall, 2" x 4"pattern, fence fabric that is cut into 3-4' sections that are then rolled into cylinders. You can buy the 14 gauge, galvanized, welded wire fence fabric in 50' or 100' sections. If you buy a 50' section, you can make about 14 tomato baskets. I expect my tomato baskets to last about 10 years each. If you go with a thicker steel (heavier gauge wire) they will last longer, but they are much harder to cut and bend into baskets, and the fence fabric costs a lot more. With 14 gauge wire you can easily cut them with a simple wire cutter or pliers that have a cutting area above the handle.

The stubs where the fence fabric is cut (to make 3-4' sections) are bent over to attach the two ends to make a cylinder.

The bottom is then cut off so that there are 4" prongs that will stick into the ground to stabilize the basket anchored into the ground.

These prongs stick into the soil to hold the basket in place.

Young beans and okra growing up with the support of tomato baskets to pretect them from critters as well as support them as they get taller. They also provide the structure for vining peas, beans and cucumbers to climb.

A young Pecan tree with a tomato basket protecting it from deer rubbing in the winter.

I also place these around young Blueberry and other berry bushes until they are large enough not to be trampled by kids or dogs. Tomato baskets are a very important part of gardening at our house.

In the off season these stack well for storage.