2011 Garden Journal

Here are some of the notes from our maiden gardening voyage.  We learned a lot this year and are poised for a great gardening year in 2012.

This is an ad but one I click on to buy seeds.

The Notes:

October 10
SNAP PEAS - oh yeah!  Per Jason's recommendation, we planted peas as a good fall crop and they are booming.  We plucked some off the vine on Saturday and tossed in with the fish and broccoli we were grilling.  I admit that it is VERY COOL to walk 10 feet from our "outdoor relax zone" and pick fresh vegetables to eat.  Ordering Kale seeds today to get them planted this upcoming wekend.

September 28
We have a bunch of green tomatoes so Lisa decided to pluck one and try setting it on the windowsill to ripen and it worked!  I also dug up some decent size potatoes and a couple carrots that were hanging around.  The beans and peas we planted for fall are growing quite well too.  All in all, we raked in our biggest yield on Saturday but not an amount that would last our family of four very long.  But it's a start and as a Cubs fan I'm comfortable saying, "there's always next year!"

We rounded up a few plants that were growing nicely but not going to make it before cold weather comes and we were going to experiment with keeping alive indoors.  Anybody have any luck with that?  Grape tomatoes, peppers, and another tomato plant.

August 17
Garden overall hasn't performed well in that the yield has been low.  But we did meet our goals of:

• Getting started
• Clearing ground and start soil remediation
• Learning the basics

Project's not over (and won't be as it's a lifestyle change we are sticking with) but I've written off a lot of what's been planted earlier this year.  We'll still manage them but our yield expectations are low.  But we're not stopping there.  We did plant some fall crops already (peas and beans) and I'm going to put in some spinach and well as experiment with growing some indoors.  Additionally, I'm going to plant at least one Russian kale plant and see how it goes over winter.  This was anticipated as being a big learning year and it has been.

August 4
My plants seem to be lagging and the dry spell we've been in isn't helping.  I've been watering a little bit here and there to keep plants on life support and a couple days ago I broke down and composted all of them.  I also thinned it considerable now that I got a grasp of how big some of these plants get.  Here's a distant photo that's comparable to the one below to show the difference.  Not a great shot of garden but you can see the sunflowers towering.

July 18
Picked more green beans for dinner last night and the zucchini are fruiting as well as the grape tomatoes. 

July 11
Pole Beans!  Harvested, steamed, and ate for dinner.  Delicious.

July 8
It's funny how when I try to grow grass it is stubborn and when I don't want it around it flourishes.  That is the story of our garden.  I dig up grass, grass sprouts back up.  Yesterday, I ended up hoeing out a section that included some lettuce and radishes but was so full of grass I didn't see it flourishing.  I replanted spinach and lettuce in that spot.  I also thinned the zucchini's and am thinking I need to thin the cantaloupe some too.  I've been fairly hands off for a while and that is reflected in some of the poor growth performance in tomatoes and peppers.  Probably too late to save any but I'm going to let them go and see what happens while I study of for the next go around.

June 21
There is supposed to be a 10-1 ratio of carbon items (browns) to nitrogen items (green) in the compost but we actually produce way more nitrogen items with our kitchen scraps than we have browns. Plus, I've been trying to figure out how to phase the composting process to separate stuff that's ready from the new waste we are constantly putting in. A solution I discovered is vermicomposting kitchen waste (using worms). Supposedly it is odor free (No Impact Man had in their kitchen - I'm thinking garage) and the worms break down the food waste quicker. Doesn't seem to take much to get going so I was thinking of making one and giving it a shot. http://www.redwormcomposting.com/getting-started/
 

June 20
The honey bees love this tree and have been all over it for well over a week now.  It is also full of lightning bugs and smells terrific.  Based on my web search, I think it appears to be a Blackhaw Viburnum but I'm not a 100% so if anybody recognizes it, please leave a comment below.  (click for bigger picture).

Otherwise, garden is uh.., well, I'm really not sure. Stuff is growing but it sure isn't as big as a lot of other folks gardens.  I'm not using fertilizers and we were aware that this is the beginning of remediating the soil.  That may be the cause or maybe we planted some stuff too late.  It still looks like were going to have a lot of good beans and zucchini.

June 16
Cool site on Composting - http://www.canicompost.com

June 15
It's been a lot of watching and waiting.  Didn't appear to have any problems with pests until today.. came home to find a big gaggle of geese in the yard and the corn patch picked dry.

*Note to self: protect corn from geese.

June 3
Built Mason Bee houses to attract these prolific prolific pollinators.  Here's a How-to guide (as well as other ways to attract pollinators to your garden).

May 21
Did quite a bit of planting:

• Pepper patch (green, red, yellow)
• Corn patch
• Grape tomatoes (transferred starter to container)
• Raspberry bush
• 3 Strawberry starters (ever-bearing) 

Haven't updated the detailed notes yet... will mention when I do.

May 19

Yesterday I listened to Jason's podcast on composting and realized that I don't have enough carbon materials (browns) in the bin for a good ratio.  I added some cardboard to bump it up some.  Otherwise it is coming along okay - the girls drop a ton of fruit in there which I think is contributing to the balance issue.  It's been wet and cool too so I'm interested to see how the process goes during the summer heat. 

May 14
Planted a row of cantaloupe, a row of zucchini, and one row of yellow squash.  Dug out another section of garden and planted the remaining green beans I had and filled rest with lettuce.  Still digging up turf and planting directly in ground... we'll see how that works.  I'm seeing sprouts and will be curiously observing.

Had a nice evening rain after I got everything in the ground.

Updated the attached spreadsheet of notes for this journal.

May 12
Planted more Nasturtiums around the garden.

May 11
Planted a row of green beans in the garden and about 8-10 sun flowers on west side of house.  Potatoes, radishes,  lettuce, and red/white onions are sprouting out of the ground.  Still have more garden space to plant and need to transfer the tomatoes, cucumbers, and watermelon from indoors to out.  Also plan to plant a patch of clover on the north side of house for ground cover and "green manure" harvesting.

I also realized that I'm not keeping good enough records on how much I'm planting and when to harvest so I started a spreadsheet that I've attached to this online journal.  I'm still tracking down info to backfill the data.

May 5
FROST!  I should've known as soon as I planted the Nasturtiums and Marigolds (which both specify to plant after the last frost) that the temp would drop.  I'm sure it happens to the best of midwest gardeners.  If they don't sprout, I'm not out too much time, effort, or money so we'll try again soon.

May 3
We have been getting drenched.  Had a break in the rain this afternoon and planted some Marigolds and Nasturtiums east perimeter of garden.  Lisa's lilies, hostas, and other landscape plants are popping up big.

 

April 30
The girls and I spent the day at an event held by the Hancock Harvest Council where they had guest speakers sharing information on gardening, growing berries, canning and preserving, raising poultry, and other topics.  I also got kiss by an Alpaca - that was nice.  The garden speaker was a graduate of the Master Gardener's program and though the methods discussed were "organic" they didn't fall in line with the permaculture and sustainable garden practices we are experimenting with and learning from Jason Akers.

April 26
We've gotten a LOT of rain here in Indiana that has delayed our phase 2 planting but I saw some lettuce starting to sprout outside.  We have a little window this week and will attempt to get the seeds in the ground.
 

April 22
Cucumbers on left, Tomatoes in the center - Reaching for the glass!

 

April 17
Lisa drew up her garden map - mostly actual mixed with some plans and a little "down-the-road" stuff.

April 16
Planted radishes, lettuce, potatoes, green onions, and beets outdoors. Used straw to mulch over planted areas.

I also added a secondary compost pile because I had the clipping available and nowhere to put them.  I used left-over garden fence and wired into a cylinder and cabletied to post.

I'm thinking this year's garden is really going to prep the soil for a better garden next year.  I should have got going on the compost much sooner.

April 9
Started seeds indoors for tomatoes, cucumbers, and watermelon.

March 26
Dug up section of yard on south side of property that gets a lot of good sun. Built fence around because, even though we are in a subdivision, there are a lot of rabbits.

March 19
Purchased compost bin; filled it with yard clippings and using it to dispose of compost-friendly household waste.

 

March 12
Installed first rain barrel

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