Gone To Ground

I got about a quarter of the tilling done over the weekend, and actually got a few things in the ground. In addition to transplanting some ever bearing strawberries that I planted last year, I put in the Brandywne, Mortgage Lifter and Sprite tomatoes, Butternut squash, one variety of bush beans, and some eggplants I got from Pezza Farm to substitute for those of mine that never germinated. I also put in the sweet potatoes. I went with the Beauregard variety as that was all I could find. Hopefully by the end of the three-day weekend, I will be able to get at least tho thirds of the way done with planting.

Timber!

We took down a large maple on Saturday that was in the middle of the garden area. It had multi-forked at about ten feet, and had several large trunks (its the tree in the forefront on the right). Two of the very highest ones had already died, with one of them coming down in a storm last year, but overall it still looked to be in pretty good shape.

The reason that I took it down is that it was creating too much afternoon shade on the northern plot. After it came down, I found that it had been infested by carpenter ants. They had gotten in from the bottom, somehow, and done a lot of damage. The scary part was that there really weren't a lot ants left in the tree.

As she was coming down, the main trunk where the first fork had formed, split in half from the insect damage. I can't believe that it was still alive, let alone looked to be healthy. A peek into the base of the trunk was scary.

When all was said and done, I easily got half a cord of wood out of the puppy!

On Sunday I also seeded some corn, lettuce and onions in flats.

• Bloody Butcher Corn
• Hopi Blue Corn
• Golden Bantam Corn
• Stowell's Evergreen Corn
• Paris White Romain Lettuce
• Iceburg Lettuce
• Sweet Spanish Yellow Onions

I also reseeded basil, cilantro and sage because I had terrible germination rates. Only a couple of basil and cilantro seeds germinated, and no sage seeds at all. Looks like I'll have to buy some seedlings from a local farm for early season use.

So Far, So Good.

We went away to Italy for ten days (I have some interesting agricultural observations, but that's another post), and got back on April 27th. I've done a lot but have been so busy, that I have not been able to take the time to post anything. So, its time to catch up.

On April 30th, I seeded all of the winter and summer squash, cucumbers, beans and Long Island Brussels sprouts. Nothing special about these Brussels sprouts, its just that I had enough room left in one of the flats for them.

Winter Squash

• Carving Pumpkin
• Sugar Pumpkin
• Waltham Butternut
• Burgess Buttercup
• Spaghetti
• Bush Buttercup
• Cornell Delicata
• Long of Naples
• Kabocha
• Buttercup

Summer Squash

• Zucchini
• Yellow Squash

 Cucumber

• Bush Cucumber
• Cucumber

Beans

• Black Turtle Beans
• Cherokee Trail of Tears
• Dragon Tongue
• Red Kidney (Pole)
• Flat White Bush (Bush)
• Round White (Bush)

No links for these last three, they are just beans that I've been planting for years. The bush varieties I use for string beans, while the pole variety I use primarily to create dried beans.

The day after I got back, I took some pictures of the things I seeded in early April.The trays on the left are the eggplant mixed hot peppers and herbs, plus some flowers I ordered online. The trays on the right are the tomatoes, sweet and (additional) hot peppers, and flowers I started from seed.

On May 1st, I seeded the remaining brassica, melons and watermelons.

Brassica

• Early Jesi Cauliflower
• Snowball Cauliflower
• Purple Cape Cauliflower
• Long Island Improved Brussel Sprouts
• Rubine Brussel Sprouts
• Green Goliath Broccoli
• Calabrese Broccoli
• Coppenhagen Cabbage
• Savoy Cabbage

Melon

• Hale's Best Jumbo Melon
• Hearts of Gold Cantaloupe
• Early Silver Line

Watermelon

• Congo
• Charleston Gray
• Crimson Sweet
• Sugar Baby

Six days later, on the 7th, I took these shots. Its just a left to right progression, with the newest items in the second and third photos. You can see the increased growth is pretty amazing. You can also see in the middle flats that the beans, cucumbers and squash are just starting to poke out.

Fast forward to photos from the ninth, and the results are pretty amazing.

Taken today, two days later, you can see in these photos that the squash and cucumbers are now as big, if not bigger than the slower growing tomatoes, eggplant and peppers that I started over five weeks ago.

  

One interesting note, is that in the lower-left corner of the third flat from the left on the bottom (first photo), things look sparse. There are six slots in which I seeded the Bush Delicata winter squash. This is the only squash for which I used my own, saved seed. I had saved two different squash fruits, from two different plants, both of which I hand pollinated. I got a 67% germination rated from the second one, but nothing from the first one, I can only assume that somehow, a bee managed to pollinate that one before or after I did with pollen from a different squash, causing it to create sterile seed. I put in three more seeds from number one, just to see what would happen, and ten more from number two to actually get more plants.

I also sowed parsnips, carrots and radishes in raised beds. On May first, I put in French breakfast radishes and Touchon carrots. The radishes actually poked through after just three or four days. On May 7th, I did James Scarlet carrots, Crimson Giant radishes, Sparkler White Tip radishes, Harris parsnips, and I believe Hollow Crown parsnips. I believe they are Hollow Crowns because I both parsnip seed from Burpee two years ago, and took seed from them last season, in their second year. Since Burpee only lists this variety, I'm assuming that is what they are. Next up this weekend: lettuce, onions and corn.