The time share cat is not pestering the wild birds for a change
The first week of July has come and gone, and it did it stealthily.
The month began with holidays approaching. Does anyone ever get anything done when the 4th of July weekend is just around the corner?
July 3rd was a state/federal holiday, so like many holidays, nobody worked the day before, and started leaving early on the 1st. Then there were folks who didn’t work on the Monday after the 4th. I am still getting answering machines and unreturned calls on the Tuesday after the holiday. No wonder the month is flying by.
The garden is in full swing. We have been eating squash and zucchini and their blossoms for about 10 days now. We have enough plants to keep us in squash every other day without getting tired of them. We will have some to freeze for the winter as well.
Tomatoes and cucumbers are starting to go crazy. In the next week we will be eating serious salads. Combine them with lettuce and carrots that are plentiful, we will have our fill.
I received a catalog from Park Seed yesterday, and it reminded me that even though it is July, I have to start thinking about fall crops. Some of them will need to get in the ground in the next couple of weeks in order to beat the frost. A pretty amazing thought when the temperatures this week will hit the upper 80′s.
One of my teacher friends looked at her calendar this week and was amazed that she only has a few weeks before she is back in school. What?!
So as the summer moves along quickly, tend those summer crops, plan for the fall, enjoy it all before the frost surely comes.
—This article first appeared in The Garden Slug at Ray’s Weather Center
Another installment of The Garden Slug has been uploaded at Ray’s Weather Site.
Thoughts as summer begins in WNC
(This article was first posted at; The Garden Slug)
I grew up in a fairly traditional farming community. I spent several years working on traditional farms. Long, straight, single-rows made sense to me.
I scared folks the first time I laid out wide rows for vegetable growing. Some had never seen or heard of such a thing. When I tried out intensive methods and close planting concepts, I was told that it would never work. They were always amazed when they discovered that I did less weeding and how easy it was to harvest in the wide rows.
Then I tried out some SPIN Farming methods–beds that are two feet wide, 2-4 rows in a bed, intensive, short season succession plantings, mostly with high yield green crops like lettuce, kale, turnips, swiss chard, etc. That really freaked some old friends out.
This Spring/Summer I am trying out Square Foot Gardening in part of the garden, and even before planting the first square, I am sold. Here is why:
- This is the best soil I have ever worked. It is “Mel’s Mix, straight out of the book (All New Square Foot Gardening). One-third spanghum moss, one-third coarse vermiculite, and one-third compost. It is airy, it holds water well, but lets excess water through. While the rest of my garden is wet and not really workable, the SFG beds are light and ready to plant.
- I will save money with seeds. The old method of planting rows and thinning is gone. The SFG method may be a little more tedious, but I can see the wisdom in the process. I have been planting seedlings and transplants with this theory in mind and realize that in the past I was wasting much of a seed packet to get the same yield as one square of vegetables.
- Amazing flexibility. I noticed while I was planting one of my boxes this weekend how flexible the system is. Plant a square with four heads of lettuce next two a square with 16 carrots, next to one with nine beets. Follow those vegetables with something different. You automatically have crop rotation and diversity covered. I had one square with small seedlings in it, so i covered them in the heat of the day with a paper bag and the rest of the bed was in the sun. There is an ease to making change that I have never experienced before in a garden.
I will keep you posted on how things are going as the season progresses.
Today was a great day. The weather was spring like, 75 degrees, sunny and just a hint of wind. Though there is sure to be some winter yet in the mountains, today was a day to savor.
The soil in the garden was just about the right consistency to plow, so I pulled out the tiller which had not been started since around November. Though it took a few pulls, it was running in no time, and I turned the garden for the first time this “spring.”
I planted some cover crop seed this afternoon- a mixture of buckwheat and rye. I am not sure how effective it will be, but I have tried it in other climates a month before first frost and it did fine. Time (and weather) will tell.
I pulled out my planting charts this evening and located the seed I put away in the spring. There will be an order sent to Johnny’s Selected later this week, and I will start locating local seeds, plants and supplies that I will need. I bought fertilizer last fall when I could get a good price with shipping from our regional organic dealer.
The garlic and onions that were planted in the fall are showing serious growth and health after winter snows and rains. Some warmer weather should help them establish strong bulbs and I should have a good harvest about the time I am planting tomatoes.
The hoop house survived the winter. I placed a stabilizing spine at the top in the late fall, and it remained steady in winds that reached 40 miles per hour, solid in snows of up to 4 inches, and even kept some kale growing through a hard winter. Rose picked a batch this afternoon and we will probably have it for dinner tomorrow.
So the fun began this afternoon. Planning, plowing, and planting for months to come. Rose watched me from the kitchen window and called out, “You are in your element aren’t you?”
Yes, I am.
(Cross posted at Ray’s Weather- The Garden Slug)
