Day 11 2019 - Corn Journal

The corn has been doing fairly well, with the exception of a few of the starts have started dying. I have used all of the remaining starts from the greenhouse, but still.... I am guessing that the cold spell that we had, set them back? Not sure.  I am going to germinate ten more seeds.  I have waffled back and forth about doing this. but, even though they will be two weeks behind the rest, perhaps it won't be too late a start. So, for now, we have a fairly good start, but not as good as last year. 

I do think that the row cover did a great job on the ones that had already sprouted early.  There are about six that are struggling.  The next few days will be really hot. So, that will either kill off the weak ones, or pull them out of their lull.

Of the six seeds I had starting in the greenhouse, only four of them sprouted. Two mildewed in the ground.  I will just germinate the ten new seeds in my garden window in the house where there is less humidity and temp fluctuation. 

I will put a dose of blood meal around the well established ones later this week. 

Sweet Corn Starts 11 days since planting

Day 6 2019 - Corn Sprouts

Corn Status Update - More and more of the corn sprouts have been peeking up since the weekend. I now have 38 of the 40 seeds spouted which, even if the other two do not pop up, I have spare starts in the green house. 

We should be good with a thick crop of 5 x 8 corn stalks in my 4 x 8 corn bed. North to South, the seeds were planted 8 inches apart while East to West, the seeds were planted 10.5 inches apart. 

I found one tiny stalk/seed pulled out and laying on top of the soil.  I was able to replant it with one of the six starts I have in the green house which just started to pop up this morning. 

Weather prediction is that temps are going to drop from the highs of 70s-80sF to the low 60s for the next few days.  I have everything in place to cover the crop for those days with a floating row cover in my attempt to keep the soil warmer.  I will cover it tonight before the cold night temps set in. 

Day 6 of Corn Bed

First Weekend of June Planting

I know, I'm about two weeks late on many of the summer plants, but I did get the seeds in the ground today. 

Planted today:

• Lettuce 3 types, 5 per pot
• Cucumbers 4 plants, 3 pots (I trellis them between pots)
• Radishes 1 row
• Carrots 2 rows (intended to plant 4 short rows but changed layout of garden, see below)
• Thyme 1 row
• Basil 1 row
• Dill 1 row
• Bush Beans 1 row

There will be a lot of thinning over the next few weeks.  I way over planted everything.

This particular garden bed was a mess of roots and blackberry vines that came up through the bottom of the garden. The snakes were not in this garden under the "weed killing tarp" tilling it up for me. Plus I had to take a spade to get deep into the soil to dig out the stupid wild blackberry vines, and get the weed roots dug/broke up. I "hand tilled" with a shove, pulled out weeds/roots, threw on a thin layer of manure before raking/leveling and planting. I am hopeful that I got the majority of the roots and that they won't "re-root."  

This past month, I had a hard time keeping the tarp in place on this bed because this bed is more exposed to the winds, and the storms kept blowing the tarp back, exposing the edges of the soil to the rain and stuff. It took me the better part of Saturday to get the soil ready to plant. I have a "cage" around this garden bed because, with the bed being out away from the house, the crazy dogs, cats, coyotes and deer like to romp in it. I included a photo (more for my memory of what's where) of the rows of herbs and vegetables that are in this bed.

Remember that before I threw the tarp on that garden bed, I had pulled out a bunch of wintered over onions? Some are struggling to grow. Two, however, have started to flower.  They grew some really thick stalks with one big flower bud at the top of that stalk. I have read that if I allow it to continue until it is dead/dried, that I can shake the seeds from the flower into an envelope and plant them early next spring in the greenhouse. It will drain all the nutrients from the onion in the process. Worth the try, I guess. 

Day Three - Corn

In the other raised "corn" bed, half of the corn have come up. That's a pretty fast start - I planted mostly germinated seeds just three days ago! I counted 20 little sprouts today.  I have my PVC in place in case I need to cover to protect the plants.  The weather temps are supposed to turn cold (low 60s as the highs) later this week. I have the floating row cover all ready to toss over the corn bed for those days to protect the tender growth and keep the ground warmer.

With that, my Micro Garden is on its way.  Finger Crossed!!!! 

I took some more photos today.

Bigger Garden Bed
Corn Sprouts on 6/2/19	Some Sprouts Circled - PVC in place.
Cut Oregano Drying	Potato Barrels
Berries Starting to Ripen

End of May is Planting Time in PacNW

I don't have a lot planted this year because of weather, compared to last year.

Planted and doing well:

• Tomatoes - 2 cherry tomato varieties and 2 heirloom standard varieties
• Sweet Peppers - 3 varieties; 1 red, 1 yellow and 1 green
• Potatoes - 2 barrels of Red Pontiac and 1 barrel of White California (no blooms yet like last year at this time)
• Onions - 24 walla walla sweet, 8 yellow and 8 white.  
• Garlic - 10ish purples from starts last fall. 
• Greek Oregano - (first harvest today)
• Strawberries - 4 sets with berries on 2

Just Planted or prepping to Plant this week

• Sweet Corn - 40 planted today
• Cucumbers - 4 in pots tomorrow 
• Carrots - 4 rows
• Radishes - 1 row
• Basil - 6
• Bush Beans - 4
• Dill - 8
• Lettuce - 8

Cherokee Purple heirloom	Chocolate Cherry heirloom
Sun Gold cherry	German heirloom
Green Bell Pepper with Oregano in background	Red Bell Pepper
Yellow Bell Pepper
Red Pontiac Potato (not yet blooming)	Red Pontiac Potato (starting to bloom)
White California Potato
Onions blown over from storm	Corn Bed Planted day 1
Garlic almost done
Strawberries (almost)	More Berries

Day 1 2019 - Corn Seeds in the Ground before June!

I have my fingers crossed that the weather predictions will finally kick in and be as predicted... What a mess.  The Sunday (Memorial Weekend) temps were supposed to be in the mid 70Fs but, no... In fact the whole week was supposed to be nice and warm both during the day and no lower than the mid 50s at night. But, the predictions were wrong.  The cold air kept blasting in from the mountain, making it cool and overcast most of the week, with occasional thunder storms. So my seeds were in a watery limbo, starting to sprout and no where to go.  Yesterday, finally, a good day and the ground today was perfect and warm. Now the hope is that the seeds all come up.  I planted 40 seeds this year in the ground, with six backups in sprout starting pots in the green house. 

This year, to prep the soil, I purchased a new dark tarp (no holes) and covered the raised garden beds the last weekish of April. Last week, I pulled back the tarp, chased away the family of snakes living in there, pulled out the dead plants/roots, etc and tried to stomp down tunnels/burrows. I watered the ground heavily and have been going back each day to "stomp" down the new mounds that keep popping up.  That's the nature because the tarps tend to bring the "vermin" in to eat slugs, bugs and bug eggs.  On the positive side is that, essentially, the soil is tilled, and the weeds are dead naturally, without any chemicals.  Plus, a lot of the bugs are gobbled up by the snakes and rodents. It is a win, win, but then, I have to work a bit harder to keep them out of there until the garden takes off.  Then the daily watering keeps them out for the rest of the summer. It's a process of persistence. 

This is the beginning of the corn journal for this year. 46 seeds started in all with the hopes of having 40 plants, five rows, with eight per row in my six feet by eight garden spot. Last year, I planted a lot of "double seeds" here and there, but chose not to do that this year since they had already sprouted before planting.  Plus, I feel like the double stalks became more hassle than it was worth.  

May Showers... Wha?

We have no May Showers.  In fact, next week our temps are supposed to be in the high 80s and possibly the low 90s! 

First off, the processed chickens weighed about 6.5 pounds with the exception of one small one being about 5 pounds.  So that's done and we have our summer supply of free-range Cornish Cross meat. 

We had a frost the last week of April, and it impacted the potatoes, even in their barrels! I didn't think it would. Now we are in the extreme opposite. The temps the first few days of May were in the mid 60s, and have gradually been getting warmer and warmer each day. 

Last weekend I pulled most of the weeds out of the corn bed and the other raised bed. I have them covered with tarps and the final process may be done quicker with the extreme spring heat anticipated next week! Normally it would be raining and cool, taking the "burn out" weed process all month. 

Mostly weeded and ready for....

The TARP!

I found about 10 sweet walla walla onions left over and growing from last year in the one bed, so I pulled them in an attempt to save them in some buckets.  They are not looking too well.  But, it has been too hot since I replanted them.  Moved them into the shade today in hopes that will help. 

RePlanted Volunteer Onions

Strawberry plants are looking good. Oregano and garlic, too.  Picked up small tomato starts today and potted them early since we are getting this hot weather, it should help them get a good start before the rains return. 

The Strawberries I "volunteered" last fall

Field is all mowed and now we just wait to see what the rest of spring is going to bring us. 

Final Mowing for Spring

In the Process Earlier - Potato Sprouts

We took the current flock of Cornish Cross in to the "processor" a week earlier than normal. They grew fast.  It might be due to having more roos this time and they grow faster than the pullets. We had six roos and three pulls... we lost one pull last week.  Not sure why, but she was dead in the morning last weekend when we went to let them out into the run. I may have mentioned it when I talked about the yotes... Anyways, eight to the processor and to be picked up tomorrow by noon.  Quick turn around. Then in the spare fridge for 48 hour cure, then a quick chop chop and ready for the freezer.

It's been a few weeks since planting but the potatoes are starting to sprout out of the dirt! Our temps have been wonky... briskly cool more days than usual... I have the onions planted too. I way over planted the onions in hopes that we get more throughout the summer. Fertilized the fall garlics last week.  We are off to the races on the "under ground" plants.