Barnyard Plot Peppers

Tonight I decided that it was time to get the peppers into the barnyard plot.  I had a variety of them left along with over half of my ornamental medusa ones.  The original plan was to have lots of peppers and then maybe some broccoli or kale in there as well.  Due to the conditions at the field being hot, poor and dry soil I decided to only plant a few pepper at the field and put the rest at the plot.  I ended up planting 41 plants in the 18’x10’ plot. The plot also has a 2’ path down the center and 2 of the corners have peas growing on them.  The soil is much richer and lighter, hopefully leading to some great peppers.  They will have reduced sunlight but I'm hoping that isn’t too much of an issue.

More Asparagus Seeds

So there were around 15 seeds leftover from last year of the Viking asparagus (why I didn’t plant them I have no idea) and then a bunch of seeds that I saved from my own Mary Washington plants.  A family friend was looking for some asparagus plants and I am thinking I might like to turn the top bed all into asparagus.  So I ended up planting roughly 70 seeds across 13 pots.  Hopefully they all germinate and if I do have extras that I don’t have anywhere to put I can always plant them at the field.

Bean Trellis

The bean trellis has finally been set up.  In February, I cut number of small 2” diameter poplar trees out of my uncle’s bush.  They ranged in length from about 6’-8’ with most being pretty straight.  I have used them to make an A-Frame for the beans to climb up.  It is only held together with some thin cord I picked up at the dollar store and gravity.  I think it will provide exactly what I need so grow a couple varieties.  I may also put a couple teepees at the bush and some at my barnyard garden, so that I can save the seeds 100% free from cross pollination.

Herbs Planted

This morning I planted my herb box.  The last few years I have just had basil, parsley, thyme and mint in containers.  I have read that mint can take over a garden and basil if it reseeds its self will be everywhere, so used pots.  This year I have a box from work that I have segmented into 7 sections to grow my herbs. I planted spearmint, peppermint, thyme, parsley, coriander, lime basil and sweet basil.  I had initially planned an herb box for last year, but that quickly became the carrot/potato box.  So this year I wanted to make sure I put the box in place.  The containers look a little junky and just working on tidying everything up.

I also planted some sunflowers in the bottom flowerbed against the blacksmith shop.  I planted Russian giants and I think it was something like autumn fire.  Just hoping to give a little more color down there and perhaps have some flowers for the table.

Peppers/Field Planting

This morning I planted the peppers in my bottom bed. I was originally going to do 6 plants of each variety but because the Cal wonder did surprisingly well and the Hungarian not as much I made a small adjustment. I ended up planting 2 Calwonder, 4 Hungarian banana and 6 each of purple, chocolate, jimmy, king of the north and Alma paprika. They are all sturdy plants and have started to branch out, a side effect of pinching off the blossoms I think. There are a few plants that look a little yellow but I think some natural light and the ability to spread their roots should help.

After the peppers were planted at home, I headed over to the field to finally plant it. Last night with the help of my uncle and cousin we spread a few yards of sandy soil and compost on top of the one end of the garden. This is where the potatoes were going to be planted.

The garden is laid out with 6’ sections and then a 2’ path between each one. The potatoes are spaced 3 feet apart.

I started by planting the beans in 2 rows 1’ apart at the south end of the field. In the outside row I put my remaining green beans around 15 seeds, and then in the rest of the row I planted 50 seeds of Vermont cranberry bush beans. In the second row I planted my remaining yellow beans also 15 seeds and then the rest of the row was planted with tongue of fire beans around 60 seeds.

The next large 2 sections each have 6 large hills of watermelon. I planted 3 hills each of sugar baby, small shining light, golden midget and Siberian. At the next point in the garden I shortened up my sections lengthwise so that I could put a section the other way to plant corn. The corn runs along the North West side of the garden closes to the bush so that it doesn’t shade out other plants.

The next section is planted with a hill of cantaloupe, and 4 hills of straight eight cucumbers. Nothing has been planted in the middle section yet, but it will be getting some peppers as well as lettuce and other greens. The next section and a half has 7 hills of various pumpkins, and gourds. Following that I have another section and a half of tomatoes. I used all of my leftover tomato plants from home as well as some my aunt had.

This is where the potatoes start. In total there are 6 rows. The first 2 rows have a mixture, then there is a row of red Pontiac, Yukon gold, red chieftain with a few Russian blacks on the end, and the outside row is all banana fingerling. At the end of these rows I have large hills, one is planted with Atlantic giant pumpkins seeds and the other has sweet Siberian watermelon. The corn that was planted at the back was planted in 4 short rows to create a block to help ensure pollination. I have Bloody butcher around 24 seeds and then Seneca Blue Bear Dance roughly 40 seeds planted.

There is room for some pole beans I just need to finish cutting some suitable poles and then set them up. Looking to do this in the next couple weeks and at the same time the lettuce, peppers and anything else will be planted.

The garlic and asparagus are doing very well. The asparagus is all up and starting to increase in size. It could really use some rain, and should get some in the next couple days. The garlic is tall but I am not sure what the bulbs are going to be like. I tried to dig one up and the soil was very hard. I think I may end up with some huge plants and tiny bulbs. If the potatoes are successful where they have been planted this year, I will put garlic there this fall.

 

More peas

The last 2 rows of mammoth melting snow peas are just starting to sprout.  It has been pretty dry lately, so I am watering them every few days.  With a little rain they should start to take off and I am wondering if they will catch the others even though they were planted 2 weeks earlier.

Tomatoes Planted

This afternoon I finally planted my tomatoes outside.  I ended up planting 31 plants: 5 black cherry, isis cherry, black Ethiopian, black prince, polish linguisa, 4 northern lights and one each of alpine and Kansas depression.

Of the 3 large rows I have one row has been surrounded by a trellis.  The trellis is 3’ wide at the base and 2’ wise at the top. It is 6’ high and approximately 11’ long.  It is pretty much an A frame but a little bigger and not quite that A shape.  The plan is that the tomatoes will grow up and then as they start to tip over, they will have the sides of the trellis to support them.

The other 2 rows have a 3’ stake driven into the ground beside every plant. As they grow that will betide off to the stakes and when they outgrow the stakes I am just going to let them tip.  There will be mulch around then so hopefully any tomatoes on the ground do not become too dirty.

Transplanting

Today the first of my transplants went in.  They were some red Russian kale and broccoli that I started inside before I left on vacation.  Consequently they are very leggy and I am not very hopeful about their survival but I figured I might as well plant them anyways.

The asparagus is still doing great, it is now producing about a lb a week, and I am still waiting for a couple plants to come up.  The asparagus beetles are out though and seem to be enjoying my plants.

I also finished building my trellis for the tomatoes.  The holes were all drilled and the sided all ripped down to size.  It is going to be 6 feet tall, 3 feet wide at the bottom and 2 feet wide at the top, for a little extra support.  The sides are ¾” square pcs that I ripped out wider boards from a skid.  It is going to be 11’ long with a support on both ends and the middle.  It is only going to work for 1 row and on the other 2 rows I am going to use 3’ wooded stakes as well as a few tomato cages that I have.

Planting Preparation

Today I used the ridging hoe to dig up the entire bottom bed.  This was to break up the soil and mix in the manure I spread there on Tuesday.  After drying out a bit, it is better composted that it initially appeared.  Tomorrow I am going to be working on the trellis for the tomatoes as well as cutting a number of stakes.  I decided not to build 3 different trellises and instead am just going to build the one and then use stakes for the other 2 rows.

The remaining mammoth melting snow peas were also planted.   I ended up using all the seeds I had with 200 seeds, seeding 27’ of doubles rows.  The peas that were planted almost a month ago are doing great and are about 6” tall.

I started to harden off the tomato plants last weekend and on Monday started to harden off the peppers as well.  My plan is to have the tomatoes in the ground next week around the 24^th and the peppers any time after the 26^th.  So far I haven't had any problems hardening them off they are tall sturdy plants.  Well the tomatoes are a little bendy just because I couldn’t get the light any higher than it was.

Manure

Yesterday our neighbor from down the road was over and he mentioned that if I needed any manure he had tons.  Well earlier today I was just trying to decide how to best use the remaining stuff I got from the field, I decided why not save this for my boxes and take him up on his offer.  I headed down to his place, where he even loaded up the truck for me with the tractor.  I figure I ended up with about 1000lbs from 2 ½ bucket loads.  Having him load it was amazing and sure saved me a ton of work.  It isn’t as decomposed as the stuff I have been picking up from the field and not quite as fine.  I like that it is a little bulkier because I added it all to the bottom bed where the tomatoes and peppers are going.  It does also seem to be a little richer, less topsoil mixed in with it so it will go perfectly after I mix it in. 

That was pretty much the extent of today’s activity.  I did also fill up the herb box with regular topsoil and set some aside in buckets for the last pepper box before I put the huge pile of manure on the garden.  I'm actually getting to the point where I don’t have any good topsoil left or have access to some, but I do have access to pretty much as much horse manure as I need.

Barnyard Field

today was the planting in the field for the potatoe for the  co-op.

the blue capijiner peas are up. it looks like they may have been up around wednesday.

also planted 200 onion bulds and a row of carots and row of parsnips

will expand on this later

First asparagus

Today is the first day back from vacation.  It was awesome and if I thought I could get limes to grow here I would try.  Obviously the first thing I did when getting home was check out my garden.  When I left there were a few asparagus spears starting to poke through the soil and today 2 of them were ready to cut.  Both on the smaller side but they are 4^th year crowns and had a difficult first 2 years.

I also checked my mammoth melting snow peas.  They all sprouted while I was gone but were just through, so it doesn’t look like they have been up long.  As well it appears if all of them germinated.

Another thing that sprouted was some broccoli, kale, bok choy that I planted on April 14^th but never documented.  I wanted to see if they would come up so just sprinkled a few seeds where they will be going this year.  It appears that they all have started to come up and the experiment was a success. 

As some things were sprouting others were put into the ground.  All 5 boxes were planted with carrots and parsnips.  There will be 8 kinds of carrots and then the hollow crown parsnip that I grew last year.  The carrots were planted on 6” rows and the parsnips on 8” rows.  It is tight spacing but the soil is richer than normal and has no compaction.   The carrots worked well with this spacing last year so thought I would try it out again.  I will also be watering them to make sure that the boxes don’t dry out.