Tag: peppers

Free breakfast and blue tunnels

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This weekend was the first community garden workday of the 2024 season. Things are officially kicking off!

Community garden work

We got some massive yardage of compost delivered to the garden and worked delivering it to each plot via wheelbarrow. This is typical every year, and is included in the garden fees. It’s a great trigger to start working in the dirt and get going in plot cleanup and prep for the summer.

We also have some water storage tanks that we can use until the water gets turned on for the season, and our local fire station graciously drove their truck over and emptied out their water tank to help us refill them.

This year I’ve learned that many of my plot neighbors are new to the garden! They all seem really nice, and I’m excited to see what they grow!

We’re also sponsored my one of my favorite restaurants this season, and they catered our first work day with burritos and spuds and pancakes (oh my!).

My plot

I’m in the same plot this year, planning to lay it out similarly, with a few modifications.

New low tunnel

I upgraded my low tunnel to be a little more substantial, and taller so I can work inside it easier. I’ve also moved my path so I can get into the tunnel from both sides. I built it from pex and pvc, with some hardware and round clips to hold the cover. So far my design is going ok, but I had major sway when 3 pvc pipes are placed on top (when the curtains are ope ), so I’ve improvised som internal bracing “cables”. We’ll see how it holds up. I’m trying to test it before I get plants in there.

New favorite tool pvc cutter
Foundation
Frame
Frame
Leaninggggggg
Tie back
Tie backs on both ends to keep things in line

Layout plan

Old layout (north)
Old layout (east)
New layout (north)
New layout (east)

Basically the plan this year is three N-S running rows/sections, and still have tall trellises along the north edge. I rearranged the paths and leveled things out. Feeling fairly organized for now.

What survived the winter?

  • Echinacea! I put two of these plants in from seed last year. They grew but never bloomed. I hoped but didn’t not expect them to come back- and they made it!
  • Tulips and crocuses- I tried out bulbs last fall, watered them once or twice, tucked them in with a blanket of mulch / leaves, and I was delighted then decided to pop up this spring. Tulips appeared to be delicious to bunnies, but they were resilient enough to persist.
  • Garlic- my friend had 6 extra garlic cloves in the fall. I stuck them in when I did the tulips and crocuses, tucked them in, and every last one of them made it. I have 6 hard-neck garlic plants thriving in the corner of my plot. I’ll get to try garlic scales for the first time hopefully.
  • Aspara”Gus” – small but loyal bunch of asparagus.
  • Rhu”Barbara” – RIP Barb. My rhubarb that suffered last season didn’t even pop up this year.
  • Miscellaneous seedlings. I have an army of baby dill plants reporting for duty, and several bachelor buttons and larkspur that re-seeded from my neighbors.
Echinacea
Munched tulips
Tulips!
Tulips!
Crocuses!
Garlic!
AsparaGus

Season prep so far

Seed starting is underway! So far I’ve started:

  • Tomatoes (currant, cherry, pink ping pong, sun gold, San marzano Roma)
  • Peppers (poblano, biquinho, some others)
  • Flowers (calendula, white marigolds, zinnias)
  • Eggplant (got free seeds, giving it a try)
  • Herbs (basil, parsley)
  • Luffa (one seed germinated, everyone pray for the baby plant)
  • Sweet potato slips
  • Leeks
  • Green onions
  • Shallots

That’s it for now. I’m going to be unable to do much for a few weeks so I’m pausing my operations. Up next is starting some squash, and getting root veg and snap peas in the ground.

Happy gardening! Hope your season is off to a good start too!

September garden update

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Things are winding down even more this month, but a few things are still going. I’m mostly waiting on winter squash, leeks, remaining beets and carrots, Lima beans, and parsnips! The parsnips are getting big but I’ve read that they get better after the first frost, so I’m not touching them.

Carrots

Carrot haul from the last few weeks of september
Lots of greens
Buggy mess at the tops of some carrots!
Hairy carrot

I’ve pulled up some carrots in the last month. These are a rainbow mix I direct sowed May 1. By coincidence mostly yellow ones are ready to be picked. So far they’re been mostly big and straight. I noticed a lot of ants around them, and a lot of little gray bugs around the tops that look like some kind of aphids. Regardless of the bug population they seem healthy root to leaf.

Tomatoes

Tomato haul
My tiny currant tomatoes still going strong
Tomato surplus
Drying tomatoes

Tomatoes are still going strong! Slowing down a bit because temps are getting cooler at night, but I still get a few every time I visit the garden. Still having trouble with fruit splitting, but less since it has rained less and I’ve gone to water less often.

I tried drying tomatoes. It took at least 24 hours in the oven and they ended up bitter. Maybe I need to cut out the stem / core before I dry them. We’ll try again. At least the house smelled like roasted tomatoes for a few days.

Squash and cucumbers

Zuchini took a big nose dive and didn’t really recover from high heat and powdery mildew. Recently got some weird shaped romanesco squash. Gonna go ahead and say zuchini season is probably over.

Winter squash (butternut and honeynut) are still doing ok I don’t expect a large yield this year. I have hopes of getting one of each. Next year I need to start them earlier.

Etc

A few Lima beans
Brussels sprouts
Greens
Greens
Beets
Beets
Peppers
Pepper

Other stuff

Mid-season garden update 2023

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I waited too long and this turned into a pretty long update. Weekly updates are much more manageable! This covers July and the beginning of August. I was gone for the first two weeks of July and a lot happened! I was so lucky to have watering help at the community garden, and rigged up a water timer for my yard garden.

Plant updates:

Tomatoes

They got a slow start but they’re doing great right now. The pink ping pong (ppp) variety I tried this year is really vigorous and productive so far, and the tomates really are slightly pink and ping pong ball sized! The San marzano romas are another new addition this year and they look pretty good. The ones in my yard are doing much better than the ones in the plot. Just one issue with bacterial spot, new to me. Haven’t done much to tackle it.

First Pink ping pong (ppp) tomato of the season
Ppps live up to their name!
From left: cherry, ppp, and ppp tomatoes growing up the trellis
Ppp growing up the trellis
San marzano and ppp tomatoes in yard garden
First San marzano Roma tomato of the season!
SM romas in the yard garden
Two of my tomato plants got bacterial spot, one worse than the other. I was going to pull it out but I got lazy and now I’m letting it play out.

Zucchini- black beauty and costata romanesco

I came back from Ireland to find a zucchini monster in the form of the costata romanesco (cr) squash plant. It has grown massively and produces a ton of squash. I even got a double squash!! The smaller black beauty zucchini plant isn’t producing much fruit. I grew it up inside a tomato cage as an experiment to help it grow vertically rather than rambling on the ground. I think as a result the flowers are too close together and packed in with the leaves making it harder for pollinator to do their jobs? I’ve seen a lot of female blossoms that haven’t matured to fruit. Good to know. Also have powdery mildew again. I treated with Biofungicide. Should have pre-treated sooner.

Squash haul
Double squash!!
Cr squash monster
Cr squash monster inside
Busy bees
Powdery mildew has returned
Black beauty zuke growing in tomato hoop
Bb zuke congested inside?

Winter squash/ gourds

I started these too early last year. I started them too late this year. I may get one or two fully developed squash this year. three of the four at least seem fairly healthy. The luffa is a weird dwarf plant for some reason and will definitely not produce useful gourds before season’s end.

Happy baby butternut!

Silver slicer cucumbers

Started out strong. Now getting weird pear shaped pale cucumbers and leaves are yellowing. Not a great cucumber year.

Peppers

I have lots of poblanos on deck. Not sure when they’re going to be ready, they’re still pretty wrinkly, but at the same time I have one turning red. First year growing these, we’ll see how it goes.

Yard poblanos
Plot poblanos
Plot poblanos
Plot biquinhos (look very closely…)

Shallots, leeks

First year growing both. Pulled about half of the shallots, various sizes. They’re drying and curing. Leeks are just going slow and steady. Wondering if I should pile up soil around them as they continue to grow since when transplanting burying them deep was important for development.

First Zebruni shallots
Leeks in progress

Lettuce, chard, arugula, spinach

Not a great success for me. Chard is the only survivor at this point and seems to be happy in the low tunnel.

Spinach eaters
Low tunnel explosion after being out of town for two weeks!
Current low tunnel residents

Carrots, parsnips, and beets

So far so good. Mixed beet sizes, all delicious. First time growing parsnip, looks ok so far? Will have to investigate when to harvest soon.

Beet watcher
Biggest beet!
Beets become eats
First carrots
Carrots
Parsnips

Brussels sprouts and cabbage

First year for both of these, and they both really thrived. In fact Brussels plant would be about 3 ft in diameter if left unchecked. Still waiting on the little sprouts to keep growing. Harvested my one perfect head of cabbage and made a big batch of charred cabbage soup!

Brussels sprouts leaves
Bebe Brussels sprouts

Plot:

Facing East
Facing north

Yard:

Fence garden and sophisticated auto watering system
Japanese beetles have settled in my marigolds of all places