2014 garden

[whistech]

Looking good! There isn't much better than fresh asparagus.

 

[majorcatfish]

omg have they grown in 9 days
on 4/6 they received their first day of true sunlight, in and out over a couple days.
for the last 5 days there have been full time tenants out there, today 4/15 the weather has changed will be in the low 30's at night for the next couple night, the wife brought them in this afternoon.

can you find waldo..??
by this time the last couple years everybody was already in the ground....

 

[majorcatfish]

being a overcast chilly morning decided to transplant the stevia, orange thyme and basil, had to do a little root tickling to separate them.

 

[majorcatfish]

drove into town this morning had some breakfast while eating decided go just get all new cages, hits lowes picked up 19 of them.
once home set the lines to mark the rows, evenly spaced the stakes dug the holes set the cages. early afternoon had the tomatoes in the ground, late afternoon had the peppers and eggplant done as well.


did take a quick break to hydrate a bit between planting the peppers.

by late afternoon i was whipped was going to leave putting up the fence till tomorrow, but since the rabbits are out in force. would hate to wake up to nubs decided to just do it.

being whipped will do more tomorrow..
the herbs and pepperoncini peppers are still a week away from planting...

 

[majorcatfish]

today was a easy day hoed around all the plants and installed the soaker hoses, i swore that this years soakers would be simple no loops around the cages or crossing the walkways just easy straight runs.
did make a couple short hoses for the tomato soakers, they are long enough so you can hook up the garden hose outside the fence.


since the tomatoes are still young and a bit leggy tried them up loosely to bamboo stakes, will remove them after they grow a foot or so.

started to rain so it called for the day,

 

[majorcatfish]

not much to report today watered everyone reseeded some beets, planted 4 different types of radishes and some black summer bok choy.
sometime in the next couple days going to start 3 different types of cucumbers.

 

[majorcatfish]

today down at the farmers market is the herb festival so we drove down there just to see what's happening < think everybody else had the same idea> to see if anyone had a early crop of crowder peas... nope. we walked every stall not much going on some greens,spring onions, baby sweet potatoes, greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes. there was 2 vendors selling strawberries 18.00 a basket we passed. ended up buying some green tomatoes for tonights dinner grilled ham steaks and fried green tomatoes...

we walked over to the plant pavilion building wondered the stalls ended up purchasing a lemon thyme and a rosemary..

after getting home and being the last 2 days of vacation decided to plant the last of the children...
orange thyme and rosemary, going to move the thyme and build a small bed for the rosemary in that corner..

stevia....it's a experiment this year.

basil... the wife makes a great nut free pesto that she freezes into portions..

lemon thyme and the over flow of basil. the organo sure has taken off since last year, might have to move the english thyme next year....

the spinach has been happy growing with the garlic...have to get more spinach going soon.

harvested the seasons first asparagus..more in the next couple days. catching up with you @ErnieCopp

 

[majorcatfish]

yesterday evening noticed the the soakers were not dripping like their suppose to do which is my own fault for not pressure washing them at the end of last season. ended up pulling up everyone one of them and cleaning them, boy that sure made a difference in the flow throughout the hoses, all my hoses are at least 12+ years old.
before......
after....

use to use sprinklers but finally realized why water more than you needed too< why water everything when all you need is to water the plants root system and not all the weeds. hate pulling them> being on a well not complaining our well is on a aquifer and can pump 200 gpm all day long.

washed and put the hoses back, have about 6 more hoses to do but thats another weekend project.
being the last day of my vacation planted some..
yellow carrots
white carrots
purple carrots
lisbon & purple bunching onions
green & red bibb lettuce
spinach
and thinned and transplanted some bok choy. if you never tried growing it before your missing something really good.........

and our bintje potatoes are finally breaking ground.

this afternoon harvested another hand full of asparagus, the north carolina crop is going into high gear

of course heres were i sat during the relaxing periods during the vacation, day one

day nine...

dang going to miss sitting in that chair in the morning having coffee and afternoon beers.....

 

[Mike]

Looking good and those hoses look brand new after being cleaned.

 

[majorcatfish]

did forget to post that <usually> every fall will soak the hoses in a kiddie pool in a solution of charlies laundry soap overnight then pressure wash them, it really breaks lose anything built up inside as well....

 

[majorcatfish]

first harvest of the year..........
bok choy and deep purple bunching onions< which over wintered needed my hand trowel to dig them up>.

will be taking this down in the morning to my friends at the electrical parts house as a small token of thanks for all their help over the years.

 

[majorcatfish]

heres todays harvest of spinach and 5 days of asparagus...both will be into the next 2 dinners...

 

[majorcatfish]

here's a update from the garden.....
beets, carrots, lettuce


bok choy, lettuce, radishes, last year green onions


speaking of onions...
yellow,red, leeks lower right
bunching onions breaking ground, shallots and basil in the background.



spinach mixed in with elephant garlic
the garlic is starting to put out scapes... oh i can not wait they are like asparagus a once a year treat...yum


and yukon gold potatoes will be hilling tomorrow.

 

[majorcatfish]

update # 2
over all view of the beds...


bintje potatoes


in the main garden..
tomatoes still need to anchor the cages with rebar.

pepper plants

first pepper..catching up with you @45 ACP

flea beetles had lunch on the eggplant..key word had..

and finally todays harvest of asparagus. a little weak but still.... yum

if this weekend's weather cooperates will be planting cucumbers and beans.......

 

[whistech]

Your garden is really looking good.

 

[Ibtsoom]

Wow is all I got.. Love all of the pics. Awesome.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Outstanding Catfish!!!

 

[majorcatfish]

thank you everyone...
somehow i missed the storm that rolled though last night, there was lots of rain and wind according to the wife. lots of leafs everywhere,
at least i do not have to water today..

while the sun was low trimmed the lower leafs and pinched off all the suckers on the tomato plants, figured it was a good time to start spraying the tomatoes and potatoes with mancozeb for blight and anthracnose. by the time i finished up it was time to come in and take another shower. will be going out later to pull some weeds and figure out where to put the cucumber trellises.

 

[45 ACP]

Very nice majorcatfish!!!

 

[Mike]

I really like the soaker hose idea. I may need to steal this and make work with my rain barrel, probably have to use a pump though.

 

[majorcatfish]

Soaker hoses are the way to go...
as for using them with rain barrels and a pump i could not answer that...

 

[45 ACP]

I didnt care for the soaker hoses when I tried them. Maybe I got a couple bad ones, but mine seemed to release way more water at the beginning of the hose and not much water toward the end of the hose? The first plants in line got too much water while the ones at the end got not enough. I dont know. Luckily my garden is small enough it no trouble just to water by hand.

 

[majorcatfish]

I didnt care for the soaker hoses when I tried them. Maybe I got a couple bad ones, but mine seemed to release way more water at the beginning of the hose and not much water toward the end of the hose? The first plants in line got too much water while the ones at the end got not enough. I dont know. Luckily my garden is small enough it no trouble just to water by hand.

@45 ACP i will admit i noticed the same thing this year with mine, but they are 10-12 years old this fall going to give them a really good internal flushing < will post that this fall>in the hopes to get a couple more years out of them.

 

[majorcatfish]

up date #3 5/17/14
this morning we had a low of 45* and maybe hit 75* last week the highs were in the upper low 90* have not had a asparagus in a week they have all gone to flower a inch out of the ground,was able to pick a small handful this morning hopefully with this cold front we will be able to harvest a couple more before we let them go to fern..
since will be leaving for a week figure it was a good time for a few photos.....
eggplants are starting to flower...

peppers and tomatoes..

pinched all the suckers and leafs off 8" above the ground, once back going to do a redneck florida weave..

the beets are now big enough so took off the bird netting.

of course once the summer heat comes this will be corn and beans with others mixed between them.

all the potatoes have been hilled and even have flowers on the yukons....



and todays harvest from the raised beds radishes and garlic scapes...

 

[majorcatfish]

up date 5/24/14
woo hoo i am home, for 1 1/2 days and then back down for 2 days.
amazing what a week in the garden..
tomatoes... and with tomatoes to boot....

peppers,.....banana and sweet cayenne will have to check the others tomorrow