Saturday, November 25, 2017
Last Minute Garlic
Short note: I planted some last minute garlic today, just for the hell of it. There are about 30 cloves of German Red along the northeastern border of my Intervale plot! It'll be interesting to see how they do down there with the added pest pressure. Good luck little cloves!
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Yard cleanup / garden mulching
A good chunk of my yard leaves (7 packed bags!) went to the intervale this year and have been covered in a couple of bales worth of straw to keep them in place for the winter. I spread them over the areas that will be tomatoes next year so that I've got time to spread them elsewhere once the early plants are in.
We had a rare extra strong windstorm recently where the wind blew east to west. Not only did this do a lot of damage to trees that aren't used to being blown in that direction, but it left us with less than one third as many yard leaves as normal! I didn't mind the reduced work but I suspect I'll regret not gathering some extra leaves for the garden. Oh well, something to worry about in the spring..
In other news, I've decided to give up my tilled plot. Being in that low corner is so wet that half of the plot has refused to grow anything for two straight years. Combine this with the recent spat with the site director and I think it best that I leave that frustration to someone else.
We had a rare extra strong windstorm recently where the wind blew east to west. Not only did this do a lot of damage to trees that aren't used to being blown in that direction, but it left us with less than one third as many yard leaves as normal! I didn't mind the reduced work but I suspect I'll regret not gathering some extra leaves for the garden. Oh well, something to worry about in the spring..
In other news, I've decided to give up my tilled plot. Being in that low corner is so wet that half of the plot has refused to grow anything for two straight years. Combine this with the recent spat with the site director and I think it best that I leave that frustration to someone else.
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Transitions
Since I've moved into prep-mode for the 2018 growing season, I've decided to start the 2018 blog. Welcome!
The 2017 in the Intervale ended on a bit of a bitter note. The community garden site director for Tommy Thompson took exception to the grass in my tomatoes and threatened to till my plot if I didn't clean it out. Consequently, the grain that had sprouted from the straw, the comfrey that I rescued from the compost pile, and much of the straw mulch that has protected the soil this year was removed. I suspect there'll be quack grass everywhere come spring.
There were admittedly some clumps of grass in the tomato rows, the Roadside Leeks experiment was as grassy looking as intended, the radishes that I left as a cover had bolted, and some volunteer flowers that had sprouted over the summer were huge. That said, the quack grass was under control, the pathways were all mulched, and the weeds that were left were very consciously selected. I would put my garden up against 95% of the plots down there as far as the condition it was in, including the site director's.
To add insult to .. well, more insult, while I was denuding my own plot, there was a tractor with a tiller trying to till and broadcast plant rye into a soil bed that was covered with flailed corn tops. Needless to say, I think the birds were well fed and the ground will be bare come spring.
*deep breaths*
Anyway, to close out the 2017 books, here's one of my favorite pics of my Intervale garden this year. These are the Roadside Leeks on August 17, before I let the crab grass grow to support their late summer growth. The rows to the left are onions with some peas and overgrown radishes on the far edge. These leeks were only as thick as a finger but tasted great!
In other news, I harvested a lot of daikons, oodles of leeks, accidentally learned that Cincinnati Red radishes make respectable cover crops, and got some good seed from the tomato side.
David from the plot next to mine gave me some Sicitalian Black Swamp beans today. After a little research I found out that my gardening friend Chris (Swamper) played an integral role in keeping these beans around. The best part of the coincidence is that I was standing next to some tomatoes that he bred that were planted in the Intervale! How cool is that?
The 2017 in the Intervale ended on a bit of a bitter note. The community garden site director for Tommy Thompson took exception to the grass in my tomatoes and threatened to till my plot if I didn't clean it out. Consequently, the grain that had sprouted from the straw, the comfrey that I rescued from the compost pile, and much of the straw mulch that has protected the soil this year was removed. I suspect there'll be quack grass everywhere come spring.
There were admittedly some clumps of grass in the tomato rows, the Roadside Leeks experiment was as grassy looking as intended, the radishes that I left as a cover had bolted, and some volunteer flowers that had sprouted over the summer were huge. That said, the quack grass was under control, the pathways were all mulched, and the weeds that were left were very consciously selected. I would put my garden up against 95% of the plots down there as far as the condition it was in, including the site director's.
To add insult to .. well, more insult, while I was denuding my own plot, there was a tractor with a tiller trying to till and broadcast plant rye into a soil bed that was covered with flailed corn tops. Needless to say, I think the birds were well fed and the ground will be bare come spring.
*deep breaths*
Anyway, to close out the 2017 books, here's one of my favorite pics of my Intervale garden this year. These are the Roadside Leeks on August 17, before I let the crab grass grow to support their late summer growth. The rows to the left are onions with some peas and overgrown radishes on the far edge. These leeks were only as thick as a finger but tasted great!
In other news, I harvested a lot of daikons, oodles of leeks, accidentally learned that Cincinnati Red radishes make respectable cover crops, and got some good seed from the tomato side.
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