Tag: gardening

Jam and Garden Update

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I managed to make Jam last Friday. I took it easy all week, so I could do it.

This is fifteen jars of strawberry rhubarb jam. I could not have done it without over six pounds of rhubarb my real estate gal brought over to me. I got up super early and hit the business version of Costco at 7am, and grabbed the strawberries. So far, in my area, Costco has better fruit than anywhere, and it’s cheaper in bulk.

I was up and jamming, done by 10:30am, and back to bed for the rest of the day! That’s definitely a success because I got it done. Baby steps!

As for the garden? See for yourself.

My garden is looking good. You’ll notice I am missing broccoli in the upper left bed. I harvested it, and then all it was doing was attracting cabbage moths like crazy. I decided to pulled it. It will compost it down for next years beds. My bush tomatoes are going crazy in the back. Even with careful pruning I am no match for them.

My cucumbers on the lower left are also doing amazing. I hope I have a lot to can as pickles!

This is my old broccoli bed. It was planted with beet seeds that I soaked overnight. I also laid out some of that Rainbird irrigation tubing so I can keep them watered with the rest of the garden.

I was using the dripper ends on the broccoli going to each plant, but honestly, I prefer the drip lines. They provide enough water, and may not go to each plant, but setting up individual drippers takes time, and is hard on me to hunch over and get it sorted out. This takes minutes and works just as well.

This right here? That is the first tomato of the season. Getting the 55 day tomato seeds from botanical interests really allowed me to hedge my bets. I got a version called Glacier from Botanical Interests which is a semi-determinate, whatever that really means is up in the air for me.

I have ordered seeds from a few different places, but I find Botanical Interests has way better packets, and has information on the plants inside the packets too. Plus, I feel I get a higher germination rate on their seeds. One of the guys who runs that business has a Youtube channel called Epic Gardening. He has good videos, and tutorials, and explanations on there, with a generous side of sales. That’s how I learned about Botanical Interests, so I guess it worked out.

I am in zone 8b, and am closer to the coast. I am in a weird little microclimate that is always breezy too. Like you could be blocked on either side, but our little valley is constantly just a little breezy to outright windy. In this heat, that is a bonus.

While I am not a fan of temperatures above 70F, my garden is loving it. I have been in the Pacific Northwest my entire life, and we hit record temps all July, and are looking to do it for August as well. I figure since this is happening, my beets may get a good bit of sun and warmth to grow up.

This is the first time I have ever had this much space, and a lot of the plants I am growing are first time plants. I am shocked and pleased at how well it’s all going.

Garden – Bugs and Broccoli

Wolsey2 Comments

My brassica’s have taken a beating from bugs this year. I am a new Gardner, so my first mistake was mistaking cabbage moths for cute white butterflies. Then the white powdery mildew showed up on the broccoli.

But I could not figure out what was eating them. I tried some neem oil for the broccoli to help with the powdery mildew, and BT spray for the cabbage. Still, I am fighting them.

I suspect, I planted too much of each, cabbage and broccoli, too close together. Next year I will change it up and intermix things so there isn’t one giant buffet for things to get out of hand. It will also help me separate and treat individual plants without the whole crop being effected.

However, some of my broccoli was ready to harvest.

Taste-wise and it’s very different from grocery store broccoli, which is lower on flavor and more woody in texture. Not all the plants were ready, but that’s fantastic because I can spread the broccoli harvest out and get more still as time goes on. So my leftover pizza dinner plans for tonight will be put on hold, and broccoli and chicken teriyaki will happen instead.

My last issue is with earwigs. I found them in my sunflowers first, and wasn’t sure if they were a good or bad bug. They eat plants so they are definitely bad. I mean, I am okay with them existing, as they are plant eaters, not ear eaters, and actually protect their young and not really worried about the ear wig public relations disaster they have going on. I’m not sure who decided they go into people’s ears, but it’s kind of funny disinformation campaign.

I learned I could set out olive oil or fat traps. I had some extra bacon fat from breakfast yesterday’s and mixed it with enough olive oil to maintain liquidity, and set them out. they are nocturnal, so I waited until this morning to check.

Earwigs are assholes because they eat your plants. I have been seeing them everywhere, and I think it may be the uncharacteristic heat this summer. I’m not an earwig expert. Maybe they are always everywhere every year. I won’t know until I have a few more years here.

I was pleased I caught some, though.

I’ll leave the traps out until it rains. With the new irrigation system, they won’t get in the way so they can happily sit out there for a bit. Maybe thin the population down.

Hopefully, I can win the battle and hold all the pests off long enough to get my harvest in from the cabbage and broccoli.

Irrigation Systems and the Physical Limitations of my Body

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I bought some Rain Bird drip irrigation kits on Amazon. I was super excited, and ready to make watering my garden easier. I have bad days where I limp and it’s hard to just stand there and water things physically. I was hoping by setting up an irrigation system that it would be easier on me.

My first set back was when my neighbor knocked on my door to let me know that a silver van was following the Amazon truck and stole my boxes. I was in the garden at the time, and only 20 minutes past the delivery point. Reporting this to Amazon was near impossible and the cops in my jurisdiction won’t even take a report for petty theft. I went to get what I could locally, and reordered what I could not.

Not counting the stolen items, I am in for roughly $200.

Everything started off well, and it turns out splicing a hose is pretty damn easy. I also have quick connectors I attached, and then started laying out the actual irrigation tubing and dripper ends.

Dripper end on my tomatoes.
Dripper end on my broccoli, and an extra bit that I forgot to pick up.
Drip hose in my onions.
Drip hose in my herb garden.

This is where I hit my second set back. While it is relatively easy to set up, if you have a physical limitation of any sort, this may be difficult. I had a garden seat to sit on, but being hunched over each plant in each bed? Ouch!

Then my final set back? I ran out of supplies. It took significantly more than the kits. I added a dripper to each of my larger plants, such as tomatoes, broccoli, and cabbage, and dripper tubes to the rest. It took significantly more time than I was expecting.

It was probably for the best I ran out of supplies because I was really hurting by this point. I’d been out there for a couple hours, and my wife was worried.

I also realized my original plan would need redone. My original plan was to use quick connects to attach hose sprayers for general yard work, but under pressure these do connect and unconnected with they will soak you. Not the best idea when I am usually in my PJs before bed when I am watering the garden.

Original quick connection set up.

I have ordered some more stuff to revise this to be easier, and here’s hoping it doesn’t get stolen off the porch again!

New plan:

  1. Get more supplies and a four hose manifold? I think they are called manifolds or splitters when you have a one in, and four out situation?
  2. Redo the hose connections with dedicated hose sprayer areas so I don’t get sprayed with the quick connects.
  3. Add dripper lines to the last 2.5 beds in the big garden area that still need it.
  4. Add dripper lines and tubing to the two beds on the other side for my mint and rhubarb.
  5. Plan enough time, and down time afterwards to I don’t have to rush, and I can recover more easily.

Bonus picture of my first tomato this season!

First tomato!

It’s Official! I Have a Garden!

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The closest I have ever come to having a garden, was once when we lived in a trailer park, I planted tomatoes in a raised concrete bed. It worked out well, but the internet was not as good as it is now for hobby information, so I had a few flyers, and my grandmothers garden wisdom. Spoilers: My grandmother was not exactly a successful gardener.

I think that beauty bark was the best, most economical idea. I don’t have any issues walking on it, and it’s protecting the landscaping fabric.

I really like the layout here, but I think I am going to buy some garden bags, and plant potatoes in them and put them down the center next year. I got some potato seeds, like honest to god seeds for potatoes from Botanical Interests, and I am going to try those, as well as normal potato slips.

So far the chicken wire cage has kept all manner of critters out of things. We have feral cats, possums, squirrels, and whatever else. I am pleased with how well this has worked. I was worried I’d overdone it, but so far so good.

Above I have 4 sunflowers growing on the left side, then dill, parsley, and basil. I am kind of hoping the birds don’t demolish the sunflowers, but they can get into the chicken wire pretty easily. Just a tiny sliver of the herbs are visible.

Above, the green onions that are biggest are actually grocery store green onions I planted after I used up all the green parts. I have this fodmap thing with garlic and onions, and green onions don’t seem to mess with my stomach, so I use them a lot. The Tokyo Whites in the squares closest to the straw are just not doing as well. I didn’t get as much germination as I was hoping. I will replant some of the areas that missed tomorrow.

The broccoli has really taken off. I had to replant one square, but the rest are huge. I don’t really know when you harvest broccoli? I guess I am hoping I see it and get it before it flowers.

These are 55 day tomatoes. I think I planted them a wee bit early, as the weather has been on and off. I have the tomato cage set up, and I will train them up on twine. I need to rewatch a Gardner Scott Youtube video on how to remove the suckers on them. That one time I grew tomatoes I planted half a billion seeds and just let it go wild.

Above is my red cabbage and my strawberries. I bought the strawberries from Scenic Hills Farms on Etsy. I am very pleased. I ordered 10, and they gave me 12, and they all survived beautifully so far.

Above here is my cucumbers. I have four sunflower on the far right, but the rest are cucumbers. I chose a version called Homemade Pickles. It’s a 55 day version. I wanted as short a growing cycle as possible.

Above is my rhubarb. I know normally you split a plant and do it that way, but I know nobody in my city. I just bought seeds off of Amazon, and planted them. The seed package was less than helpful. I planted four sets of seeds in the 2 foot circle planter. One set did not take. I will replant that. I can always thin them back. Rhubarb always grew like a weed in the rental houses from my teens so I have no idea how one optimizes the environment. I have googled, and it seems like most articles spend time on how long the plant lives not on planting from scratch.

This is the mint planter that the feral cat got into, before I had a chance to wrap them in chicken wire. There is the teeny tiniest bit of mint starting. I am not too worried about the mint, because as the tag says, it’s garden herpes. I have this planter on the far side, away from anything else, and near a gravel driveway, in a raised bed. Containment is hopeful secure.

I did switch from some pretty copper name plates to white plastic ones. I found after a month, the copper ones corroded and were illegible. I didn’t want to use plastic, but pragmatic needs such as readability trump pretty.

I am very much looking forward to cooking with my own vegetables. I am able to harvest the grocery green onions, but the rest are still growing.

Lawn Terrorism & Other plant and food updates

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-Originally posted on Tumblr

My lawn was destroyed this winter. Part fo the reason is they used garbage fill dirt to level the yard, front and back. This means the dirt is filled with roofing shingles, plastic, metal nails, bear bottles, and ripped up beer cans.

Add to this, that we had a couple feral cats decide the front lawn was thier litter box, and I swear they dug up half the front lawn before I figured out what was up.

I love cats, so I just go out every time I see them in the lawns and since they are feral and the neighbors across the street are taking care of them, they have stuck to that side of the street lately.

To fix this, my wife and I bought 5 pounds of white clover seeds. I don’t like grass. It’s ecologically crappy, grows fast, and requires a lot of mowing. I hate mowing. Clover is also good for the soil, and returns nitrogen to it.

Planting clover is like ecological terrorism because I am sure my neighbors with nice manicured lawns are not going to be happy if it takes hold and spreads.

I am a shit neighbor, because I just planted it out. I have hated grass, to a weird spectrum-y level for as long as I remember. It’s creepy. It’s ecologically a poor idea. I am going to be shit neighbor and grow clover.

My raspberry jam worked out except for one 4 oz jar. We will just eat that first. I am on to strawberry jam today. I have to make some berry pancake syrup but I will plan that out and do that next time. Also, QFC did not have corn syrup which my recipe called for and I am not searching all over town for it.

I swear, I feel like I live in a 3rd world country. I can’t get tater tots or hash brown patties. Tahini is gone, and now corn syrup. I never know what product is going to be unavailable week to week. Hell, I have only seen oyster mushrooms in grocery stores once since the whole pandemic began.

Once my garden is established I should figure out mushrooms.

This is my broccoli. I planted it way too late in the season, but we will see how it goes!

My red cabbage is peaking out too. It was also planted way too late in the season, so I am watching it as well.

I bought some strawberry shoots off Etsy. I literally know nobody in my area, so I could not bum a shoot or two off of anyone. I bought 10, and they gave me 12, and they are already starting to perk up after 24 hours. Here’s hoping next year I have a good strawberry crop. I am glad I got the Etsy ones.

My green onions are not coming up yet, so I planted my grocery store green onions. I saw a video where someone did that and it worked out really well, so I am just going to do that with the last bunch I have in the fridge when I cut them down, and we will see how it goes.

Still no sign of life from my tomatoes. I am worried about them. If nothing happens in a week or so, I will buy some tomato starts from a nursery.

In all, this is going really really well. Buying a home has opened a whole world for me that I could not image being a part of. I am still angry that not everyone gets this chance.

Being able to garden, and having kitchen big enough to can? I think some folks don’t understand the incredible privilege it is to have that kind of space. I could not have done this in my last 564 square foot apartment. I couldn’t even afford to store canning materials I was only going to use once a year do to space constraints.

I am so grateful I can do this. I don’t think I will ever take this for granted.