Day 30 - Weeds in the Corn

I mentioned in an earlier post that we had a cool spell, about 58F to 60F degrees there for a few days. Plus with the rains, I left things well enough alone in the gardens. So there were a lot of weeds that needed to be hoed/pulled.  Although it took almost an hour in just the corn patch, the sun was not too hot for the project. The super wet soil made it easy to get at the weeds. Plus, I pulled the grass/weeds around the bed, as well as beating back the blackberry vines. Now the temp is 80, so that's a good degree for corn growth. But, it will make the soil difficult to pull weeds in just a few days, so I hope I got the majority.

Some of the corn is close to 18 inches tall, while the younger ones are three to six inches tall. Perhaps that's good? It might give us some later season corn.  The distraction PVC set up across the south side of the garden is about 18 inches tall, so that gives you a good visual for the growth.

Corn patch angle from SW

Corn patch from West side

The one big factor is the inconsistent temps.  If it stayed in the mid 70s to 80s all the time, the corn would be taller and fuller. But, at least it is starting to fill out even with the cooler temps. Almost half of the past month has been in the 60s and low 70s. Below is the list of "highs" in the Portland area for the past month since planting. Fingers Crossed that July highs are consistently above 75F degrees but less than 90s because then I'm too hot!

81° 05/31/19 80° 06/01/19 80° 06/02/19 77° 06/03/19 79° 06/04/19 66° 06/05/19 63° 06/06/19 65° 06/07/19 76° 06/08/19 84° 06/09/19

92° 06/10/19 97° 06/11/19 98° 06/12/19 79° 06/13/19 77° 06/14/19 81° 06/15/19 81° 06/16/19 71° 06/17/19 69° 06/18/19 70° 06/19/19

69° 06/20/19 71° 06/21/19 73° 06/22/19 71° 06/23/19 74° 06/24/19 70° 06/25/19 69° 06/26/19 66° 06/27/19 78° 06/28/19 80° 06/29/19

So, I did a bit of looking back.  Actually, this June (2019) was 8 degrees warmer (on average) than last year. When, looking at the growth, the corn is about 8 inches taller than this time last year. Last year, I planted on May 28, two days earlier. The other thing I am noticing on just about every stalk of corn are these extra "branches" coming out of the base of the stalk. I have read that these are called tillers.  Unless the corn is damaged (which can cause tillers), it is an indication that the conditions/nutrients are excellent for growing corn, and that there is no need to cut them back. So I won't. I'll try to get some decent photos of these tillers. A couple of stalks have three, but most have two tillers. I have also noticed that about 20% of the stalks are quite thick already. 

End of June 2019 Garden Update

We had some good old fashioned thunderstorms the past couple of days that passed directly over us. I had left an empty cup outside on the table, not really intending to use it as a rain gauge, but that's what happened.  We accumulated over two inches of rain in the cup.  While I don't know how "accurate" that is, that amount is quite a bit more than the weather station's 0.3" measurement that is just up the road from us. Nonetheless, everything is well watered for the start of July and in anticipation of July 4th Fireworks.  The past few days, I could not really get any good photos of the gardens and plants. Today is a catchup for that with an addendum to the square garden post of a few days ago.

Starting with the square garden area.  The beans need a good dose of fertilizer.

A couple of the Bush Bean Plants

I attempted to take photos of the basil and thyme, but they are still just too small for a clear shot.  I can only find three basil in the garden!  There are about twenty of the thyme, so that will definitely be thinned out.  I planted three more basil in hopes that they come up. But it is a bit late in the season for planting basil outside. We will see.

Tiny Basil from Overhead

Tiny Basil from Side

Even Tinier Thyme

And with the forest of carrots, I'm still trying to get carrot sprouts pulled out from everything else.

Yep - Carrots scattered Every Where!

Carrots or Dill? Hard to Tell!

As you can tell that I'm still thinning out the over scatter of carrots between the rows, but a few more days and we should be on track.

Two Distinct Carrot Rows, finally.

A close up of the carrot rows shows the gaps that need to be filled back in with new seeds.

Sparse Carrot Rows

But, hey, the first of the radishes are really to be pulled and pickled.

Some Radishes are Ready

I was reading about Square Foot Gardening, and how they plant everything within a square foot section of the garden, depending on what the plant was. Like planting 16 radishes in one square foot space, and one tomato plant in a 1 square foot spot.... and then they used vermiculite in the soil to keep it more moist, and I thought what?  Why use vermiculite when so much of it has asbestos in it.  How are they going to guarantee that the vermiculite doesn't have asbestos in it when 75% of all vermiculite in the US has asbestos in it, naturally? Um... No Way!  Plus the raised beds were only about six inches deep so how would one grow the plants that need deep soil like onions and potatoes, or those plants that spread out all over like squash and cucumbers?  I think my bucket garden is akin to the Square Foot Garden, plus it is portable when necessary, fits easily into the green house when needed, etc. That's just me thinking out loud there. Sorry about that.

Moving to the Potato Barrels - they have sprouted up for the last time and now that the blossoms have fallen off, the foliage will start to die back in prep of getting our much anticipated potato crop. With the cooler weather, on and off again, it has actually been helpful for extending the season to allow the potatoes to get a bit larger.  I am hopeful that we get a lot of nice-sized potatoes this year.

The last Spurt of Growth.

Blossoms are all gone.

Now the Corn Patch which has more foliage, but not much more height as we head into July. The PVC is strateglically placed to ward off the animals that like to barge through the stalks.  Once they are tall enough, I won't need the PVC distractions. 

Corn Patch with Animal Deterrent.

As for the bucket garden, the bell peppers are picking back up after that hail storm of early July. 

Sweet Bell Pepper

The three types of lettuce are progressing: Grand Rapids, Butter Crunch, and Red Sails (left to right, in that order, I think).  I did not plant spinach this spring.  I will plant it later in the summer. I should probably try to plant a few more Red Sails and Grand Rapids seeds to fill in the empty areas.  

Grand Rapids & Butter Crunch

Butter Crunch & Red Sails

The earlier planted cucumbers are truly growing quicker than I anticipated. The recent "replants" of the cukes are still pretty small but do seem to be working on survival, as long as the animals stay away.  I have the baby cukes closer to the house.

Baby Cuke Plants

English Cucumber

Better Photo of the Onion Flowering

Oregano getting ready for 2nd harvest.

Here's an angle shot of the tomatoes, more bell peppers, cucumbers, the start of the green house addition and the square garden in the back, protected with fencing from the blasted deer, dogs/coyotes, and bunnies. 

Angle Shot of plants, green house, addition and garden.

First Wall of Green house Extension. 

And that, for the most part, sums up our crazy micro garden journal thus far in 2019.

Square Garden June 30 - update photos.  

Now that I have it all weeded AND all the scattered carrots pulled, we can actually see some of the plants :)  So the first two are facing south, with the bush beans at the top and the carrots at the bottom of the photo (top photo is listed and circled).  The last photo is facing north with the radishes at the top, then the two rows of sparse carrots.  Either direction, it is difficult to see the still very tiny thyme, but there are lot of them which will be thinned out in a few weeks. 

Most of the crop - facing south Listed/ and/orCircled

 Same - beans, dill, basil, thyme, carrots

North - radishes, carrotsx2, thyme, basil

Last Week of June (post Solstice) Gardening Update 2019

Photos after the rains we received a day earlier than predicted. Luckily, I thought to harvest the garlic today before the rain and didn't wait one more day!  The roots on the garlic were nice and deep this year.  I think I had the best crop of garlic ever, this year.  Let's see, when I planted, I loaded the soil with bone meal, potash and biolive fertilizer about two inches under the soil that I planted the cloves in last fall.  Then, when the stalks came up, I put a layer of steer manure in the top layer of soil.  Then, after the frosts (April), I put on another layer of steer manure.  I probably should have done a final blast of blood meal in May, but I forget. 

After the garlic dries, I will brush off the dirt, cut the roots off and braid the leaves to let them hang and cure.  Then I will fill a box, that I can cover with a lid, with straw and lay the garlic in there, out in the garage, for a cool dark summer storage.  I wish I had a well insulated room in the corner of my garage, but, alas, that's not an option.  I have to find other ways of storing my summer harvests. 

Fresh Harvest Garlic Plants

The Cucumbers are, for all intents and unintended purposes, in two different stages.  Will see how this works out.

Newly Germinated Cuke Plants

Older Cuke Plants

This is a blurry photo of one of the two Walla Walla Sweet Onions that I salvaged from the square garden in the spring.  The two plants went to seed and are blooming now. After they die, we can shake the seeds into an envelope for planting early next spring.  

Walla Walla Sweet Onion Flowering

These are the two green leave lettuce that I planted a few weeks ago. The Red leaf is struggling, but I might get some from it, as well. 

One Type of Leaf Lettuce

Another Type of Leaf Lettuce

Day 27 - Corn Slows

So, this past week, the temps cooled to "BELOW" normal and although we have had a lot of sun, the heat has not been strong enough to do much.  As you can see in the circled corn sprout (lower left hand of photo), it has not grown much since popping up. I did fertilize with blood meal last week, so there has been some growth, but not a lot.  You can see the PVC distractions I put in/next to the corn patch to keep the critters from knocking over any more stalks.  It is working. Yes, that's rain drops dripping from the PVC.  It was raining as I took the photo.  In the background, you can probably see the beans in the square garden inside the wire surround to keep most other critters out of it.  

Back to the corn, it is easy to see which corn came up during the heat wave, and which ones are behind.  I can only hope that we get enough warm weather to actually get a decent number of ears this year. 

Corn Crop on Day 27

Day 22 - Update on Square Garden

Between the thunderstorm shortly after I planted, plus the mix of hot then cool temps, my square garden is quite the mish mash of development.  No photos today, but I'll try tomorrow.  In pulling weeds today, I attempted to define the carrot rows because, the seeds are sprouting all over the garden. I'm guessing between the winds and the heavy downpour early after planting, the teeny tiny seeds were redistributed throughout the garden. 

From the South row to the North:

• Row 1 - Bush Beans - plants are about three inches tall.  (Sprouted about 10 days.)
• Row 2 - Dill - still waiting to try to distinguish carrots from the dill plants.  (Sprouted ?)
• Row 3 - Basil - I see about four that have popped up. Sprouts are about 1/4 inch tall. (Sprouted about 12 - 20 days.)
• Row 4 - Thyme - I finally see some tiny little dark green sprouts that look a little like the basil but darker.  Sprouts are about 1/8 inch tall. (Sprouted about 21 days.)
• Row 5 & 6 - Carrots - Thin because they scattered everywhere.  I will reseed this weekend to fill in the voids in the rows. Sprouts are about one inch tall. (Sprouted about 12 days.)
• Row 7 - Radishes - There are about six that are about two inches tall. The ones I planted about two weeks ago are about 1/2 inch tall. I will plant again this weekend. (Sprouted 5 days.)

As an aside, with the cool temps, the corn patch growth slowed considerably, despite the sunshine. Sunshine, without the heat, does very little for corn. Perhaps next week the temps will come back up and get the corn back on track. The two reseeds are only one to two inches tall which is an indication that the temps are not helping. BUT, they are surviving.  No more broken leaves or any more plants knocked over. I think my makeshift distractions are helping. 

Oh, also the replant of the four germinated cucumber seeds have sprouted three plants.  Keeping them really moist and in the shade so that they don't dry out too quickly, until they kick into gear.  Then I can put them over in the sun with the others. Strawberries are slowing down now. No new blossoms.

Update on Square Garden - None June 25 - rain delay.

Mid June Garden Updates 2019

This top photo is of one lonely basil sprout.  I am hoping it survives and that others pop up soon. I tried to get a photo of the dill, but those are so tiny, and my lens is not strong enough to show them yet. I don't know if the thyme are sprouting. I don't know their sprouts from weeds, yet.  Carrots are also sprouting, but, like the dill, are too small to photograph. 

Tiny Basil Sprout 6-14-19

This is the one lettuce pot, of the three, with the most seeds that germinated.  I have since thinned it out to two sprouts per location (5), so that they don't crowd each other. Each pot has a different type of leaf lettuce. 

Leaf Lettuce in Pot 6-14-19

 This is a group of potato blossoms.  This barrel has the most blossoms and most foliage. 

White Potato Blossoms  6-14-19

Radish.  While I did not plant a lot of these seeds, only half have popped up.  I will replant this weekend to fill in the empty space.  

One of a few Radishes  6-14-19

Now that we have the ants under control, I get to pick five to seven fresh strawberries every morning. YUM!

Strawberries Galore  6-14-19

My beans are looking good.  Like  the Basil and Radishes, the beans are also in my square garden bed.  The past few years, I have planted the beans on the East side of the garden, but last year's crop was slim.  I only ended up with two bean plants that survived.  This year, I planted them on the south side of the garden.  Eight popped up this week. Two were mowed down by slugs. I have put slug bait around the outside of the garden and  then, over the weekend, two more beans popped up.  I have thinned it down to five solid starts.  

Bush Bean sprouts  6-14-19

These are some of the largest of the strawberries that are almost ready for picking.  You can see that I layered the soil with leaves to keep the berries out of the wet dirt.  I like to use leaves because they don't contain any weed seeds, like straw/grass contains, and there are no splinters like bark shavings have. 

Large Strawberries  6-17-19

I think I mentioned that I had four cucumbers starts.  Then suddenly poof, over the weekend, one vanished into thin air.  No roots, no stem, no nothing! I have never had that happen before. I have replanted in an attempt to get one or two more seeds to pop back up. In the meantime, these three are getting larger and seem very happy. 

Three Cukes  6-17-19

I added blood meal to the tomatoes again.  This will be the last time for adding blood meal, and from here on out I will use a "fruit" fertilizer every other week to help with the actual tomatoes which should be starting soon.  I have lots of blossoms on the SunGold cherry tomato plant, and we may actually have some cherry tomatoes to eat by July. (Fingers Crossed.) 

The Four Tomato Plants  6-17-19

The potatoes are continuing to look healthy.  No more fertilizer.  Just a good watering once or twice a week and pull them under the shade of the maple tree on the really hot days to protect them from burning. 

Close Up on Potatoe Blossoms

That's my garden update for the middle of June. 

Day 19 - Corn Damage Diary

I'm posting this the day after I took the photo. I did not get the fertilizer on the corn over the weekend, like I had hoped.  I did, however, get it sprinkled around the corn on Day 20 (June 18) so I'm not falling too far behind. Today is probably a better day for fertilizing, anyway, because it was a much cooler morning, and won't be too hot today. 

While sprinkling the blood meal around the stalks, I noted that several branches were broken (not from wind) and one tall stalk was laying on the ground.  Although I did not see any prints (man or animal) in the dirt, I am assuming that an animal took a shortcut through and damaged several plants. I set the one back up and am hoping that the roots were not damaged since the soil was still pretty moist and they did not look broken off. In the mean time, I put the PVC cross back up over the area damaged, and placed a side barrier of PVC on the south side of the garden as a (hopeful) deterrent. I guess we will see if that works, or if I need to get my bird netting out for the next month. Big Sigh.  The photo below is "yesterday" when there was no damage yet. 

The large stalks are growing quickly. The smaller ones are working on it.  The two replants from last week are about one inch tall. 

Day 19 6-17-19

Day 16 - Corn Journal

So I did replant some of germinated corn (2) that had not yet popped up, then suddenly, one did pop up in a location that I had already replanted a week ago. CRAZY! The earliest corn is about four inches in height while the younger ones are about two inches. So they are not too far behind.  The germinated replants have already sprouted and barely peeking out of the ground. All Good, regardless.  I plan to add blood meal around the larger ones this weekend. 

6-14 corn likes hot temps

The Does Visit

This morning, three of the four cucumber seeds popped up.  No photos of them but they look like healthy starts.  

This evening, at twilight, two large does (female deer - white tails) visited for a nice graze.  I wish I had a telephoto lens, but even with that, the low light would still make it hard to get a decent photo. 

A few of the corn are still struggling. We did hit 81F today, so I will check on them again tomorrow. 

Does Grazing at Twilight

Gardening Update June 9 2019

I took a lot of photos, so let's start with the newest sprouts. The radishes are sprouting and so is the lettuce.  The radishes have full sun in my square garden bed. The lettuce is planted in small two gallon pots in the shade of my trees to minimize burning from the sun.
Tiny radish sprouts even cool weather	The lettuce sprouted too this week
This past week (Wed. - Saturday) we had very cool weather and rain, which normally would have little impact on bell pepper plants, except we had a heavy hail during one thunder storm on Friday... And, yes, the poor bell peppers got hit hard.
Holes in the Pepper plant leaves	Pepper plant leaves sliced and diced
A different type of damage to my berries.  I pulled the berries into the greenhouse (along with the tomatoes) before the cold temps set in. So they were protected.  On Saturday, I even ate my first sweet taste of strawberries of the season. But, I'm not the only one who loves sweet strawberries.  The ants came in for the meal last night.  I have since sprayed WD40 around the buckets to keep new ones away. This does a nice job of keeping them out of the berries (since they can't fly) and I am not inclined to spray anything ON the plants. But, yah, those little buggers make quick work on some very nice ripe strawberries!
Looks GREAT from the back side. Ha!	Half the berry eaten by tiny ants!
Newer Berry Plant from Last Year	Biggest Producer this Year
Okay, so now let's look at the Garlic and Onions.  Hey the fall planted Garlic is still looking great.  Fingers crossed that we actually get nice, solid garlic from this crop. This is the last month and they should start sending up some spiraly scapes soon. Cut those off for cooking since leaving them will hinder the size of the garlic. I never seem to have very good luck with onions. But I keep trying.  So, this year's got pummeled in one of our thunder/wind storms back in May, and I just don't think they are going to revive. In two 5 gal buckets are the ones I salvaged from the garden bed before I prepped it for this year's garden. Some are surviving, two have gone to seed, and three are struggling.  So it is anyone's guess.  I have photos of the "buds" on the two "seed" onions, below.
Garlic near the end	Beat Up Onions
Salvaged Onions	Onion Blooming for Seeds
At least I was smart enough to pull in the tomatoes before this week's storm hit. They are doing well; growing fairly fast.
German Blooming	Purple Cherokee Blooms
SunGold Tomatoes -n- Blossoms	SunGold Different Angle
The hail storm did NOT phase the potatoes.  The potatoes are developing a lot of blossoms which is a sign that the potatoes are on the vines under ground and are growing.  We will need to pull these barrels under the trees for the cooling shade (like we have for the lettuce), or the hot sun will stunt the growth of the potatoes. Once the blooms die back, the leaves will also start to dry, and then we can dig up the potatoes for storage in a cool dark box in the garage for the rest of this summer. Red Potato Blossoms
And that sums up the first week of June's crazy weather!