Garden May 2021

May is here and April is gone. I did get the fence mended but found that there are several more posts that need replacing. I have six wooden landscape posts ready to go and will hopefully have the fences mended by the end of May. There are so many thoughts racing through my mind that I can hardly keep up with them. Each one is awesome but will take great amount of time to fulfill. I am going have to start alternating between Urban Ranch and Terra Nova Gardens inter spaced between the mowing that's in full swing now.

List for May

1. Get peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, and zucchini planted

2. Get sweet corn planted

3. Get cage built

4. Work on water tower

5. Fix north fence

6. Replace weak posts

7. Plant potatoes

Plant strawberries at Terra Nova Gardens.

‎Saturday, ‎May 1

I'm not sure that the strawberries that are in the refrigerator that were destined to be planted at Terra Nova Gardens are viable any more. I will still continue to make the tire planters for strawberries and as the strawberries at the Urban Ranch produce babies, I'll fill the planters at Terra Nova Gardens. 

This next week will be alternated with work at Terra Nova Gardens and Urban Ranch. There is much work to be done at both places and May will be a heavy labor month.

Today I want to get the buckets planted which will mean soil mixing and filling the buckets with soil. The buckets this year will be a little different for some things. The traditional tomato gutter will be zucchini and eggplant this year. The bell peppers and cucumber will still be the same. The gutter automated watering did work last year but supplemental top watering was done in addition to the gutter watering. I need to find a way to stabilize the buckets so they don't fall over in the wind.

The back yard is way past time to mow. I must get started on that as well today. I'm hoping for a big accomplishment day today. Monday will be the mowing day for Lydia again. Mowing really tires me out and I can only do it in short sessions. Usually at the Urban Ranch it's front entirely and then the back takes two sessions. So the mowing schedule might become three days a week. My hip joints ache after mowing for a time. My pain concoction might become more used as time progresses. 

I stopped at Mulhall's again and found four more pots with two tomatoes in them. The peppers were all but gone. So I guess I'll only be having four bell peppers. That will be fine. I don't think I ate any of the ones that I grew last year. I still have quite a few stuffed peppers in the garage freezer to be eaten and about 12 servings of spaghetti casserole. That's at least a couple weeks of meals. I'm not starving. 

Two of the pots of tomatoes (4 plants) are grape tomatoes. Grape tomatoes are just a little bit bigger than the cherry tomatoes but not a regular size tomato. I will plant one in the pot where the sweet peas didn't grow.  What a bust that was. They were sprouted but just didn't take in the big pot. When I sprout them again I'll put the sprouts into a 1020 tray to start the plants before putting them outside in a big pot.

Sunday May 2

Talking with Leslie last night I discovered that grape tomatoes are smaller than cherry tomatoes. Hmmm, I would have expected them to be bigger. But then again grapes aren't all that big. I still have several tomatoes to plant.

It's time to sprout some corn and get it planted. I will plant some of the corn in tires but most will be in the ground in rows. I have to be diligent about building the cage or the electric fence will have to return.

A lot of things will have to be accomplished this next couple weeks. I did get the last fence up at the Urban Ranch (home). 

Monday, May 3

Today is a rain day. We had .6 inch over night. I'm hoping to mow the backyard. It's in bad need of mowing and then mowing Lydia's yard. I might just mow half the backyard and work on the bucket garden. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and eggplant need to be planted. The sweet corn at Terra Nova Gardens need to be planted as well.

Tuesday, May 4

I'm not sure that I'll get much gardening done today. Maybe some seeds started to sprout. Time is slipping by for gardening and I'm so far behind this year. Losing the entire month of March really has been a discouragement. I'm finding that my energy level is dwindling every year. I don't seem to be able to work much more than a couple hours before being completely out of energy. I don't want to push it too much and create an injury. That would be a disaster. So I have to pick something and work on that one thing to make it a priority. 

This month at the Urban Ranch will be to get the patio garden planted. At Terra Nova Gardens, it will be to continue to work on the cage to protect the corn. Planting the corn will be one of the priorities as well. Those two thing will be on the must do list for sure. I think the strawberry bed can wait because I suspect the plants in the refrigerator are past their life cycle.

Thursday, May 6

The best I could do for yesterday was to mow the backyard. I just didn't have the energy to do more. Today will be mow 35th street. That might me all that I can do today.

I am hopeful to start putting the bucket garden together today. It's way past time for it to be up and running. The plants are in stress and need to be planted.

The start of the patio bucket garden. Four tomatoes planted with several more tomatoes and bell peppers. I mixed up a batch of soil and I hope it does well. This year just seems to be a bit different in the garden. 

The strawberries are looking good now that the fence is up. I wish I had put the fence up right away. I didn't know that those bunnies would nibble of the leaves. I just thought they would be after the strawberries. So it will not be a good year for them but next year they should be doing their thing with making babies for Terra Nova Gardens.

Friday, May 7 VDD=227.5

This month is slipping away. It's already a week into it. I am hopeful to get more bucket garden planting done. I still have tomatoes and bell peppers to plant. I will try to get as many as I can planted today. I may plant some on the cucumber trellis to get them all planted. I need to figure out a way to support the buckets in the bucket garden. Last year they kept falling over in the wind when the there was a lot of foliage. I have the gutters secured to keep from falling over now I need to secure the buckets to keep from falling off the gutters.

It looks like the only thing that will be planted at Terra Nova Gardens this year will be sweet corn and potatoes.

Yes, the potatoes finely arrived. It's a bit late but still doable. I will find a tray to use for the cut potatoes. I need to bring them inside if it's predicted to rain. Wet cut potatoes are not a good thing. I was beginning to think that I wasn't going to receive the potatoes. I will have to cut the sidewalls out of some tires to house the potatoes that I've ordered. They are indeterminate which means they will continue to produce and grow potatoes as long as there's a medium to sprout into. I want to stack the tires into a tower as they grow to produce potatoes in the stack. I've also discovered that the best time to grow potatoes in after a corn crop. I have a bed ready to plant from last year's sweet corn. So from now on, potatoes will follow corn. Then I think beans would be a good crop after that to build up the soil with the bean nitrogen nodules. 

Monday, May 10 VDD=227.5

I'm not sure how much gardening will get done today. I spent the day Saturday during a very cold windy day shoring up the strawberry patch with window screen. The steel welded fencing was not keeping the rabbit population out of the raised strawberry beds. Even the bigger rabbits were able to squeeze through the 2x4 inch squares in the fences as if there weren't even there. I don't know how they can do that. The one rabbit that was inside the fence flew out of the fence when he/she saw me without even slowing down. It's another of God's amazing mysteries and amazing protection for His created life. I don't think they will be able to get inside now with 18 inches of window screen wrapped around the steel welded fence. I do need to trim the fence down a bit to the level of the screen to be able to weed, water, and fertilize better. The ultimate protection would be to build a screened in frame about a foot tall to cover the sides and top over the strawberries. However, then the pollinators wouldn't be able to get in to pollinate the flowers. 

I did spot a tiny little tomato on one of the plants a couple days ago. I will be watching the plant to see how the tomato grows. This year the tomatoes in the buckets will not be held up with cages. I have a plan for the buckets that will hopefully keep them from falling over like last year. I still have a lot of planting to do. I'm hoping to get more done today. People want to talk for long phone calls and meet for long coffee visits. I try to accommodate them as much as I can but I am having trouble with re entry into the social life. I liked the isolation of Covid. It's not that I'm antisocial but I like alone, quiet, and peaceful. Most have issues and problems that dominate the conversations and not many want to talk about gardening which is my passion in life. They want me to watch videos they that I should or read books that they have a passion for that are important to them but not really for me. 

I have to wonder what would they do if I asked them to read this really neat and cool book about Mycorrhizal Fungi that enhances the distance that nutrients can be receive for the plants. It's a symbiotic relationship. The fungi reaches out 20 feet or more to bring nutrients to the plant and the plant feeds the fungi with sugar as a thank you. It's really very interesting and you should really read it so we can talk about it. 😊 Yeah, I don't think anyone would be passionate about reading the book or even a magazine article. 

Everyone has different passions and mine just don't line up with many of the friends that I have but I try my best to keep up with their passions so we can talk about what juices them up.

Tuesday, May 11 VDD=227.5

Today is a big day. I really want to work toward getting the bucket garden planted. I have to plant four bell peppers and all the other plants. That includes cucumbers, a zucchini, a chard, and an eggplant. Onions will be next. I watched a video yesterday about planting onions as borders to the raised beds. I might try that as well as planting in the buckets around the zucchini. It's not to harvest the onions but just to keep the dreaded vine borer butterfly from laying eggs on the stem of the zucchini. They don't seem to bother eggplants but I'll do the same for them as well.

Yea, I have all but the Chard planted only because I don't have any seeds. I'm hoping I can find some on the way home from taking Bradley home. I'm not sure about the cucumbers because they were 9 year old seeds.

Wednesday, May 12

Yes, I accomplished a lot of planting yesterday. I mixed two batches of soil and filled all the buckets needed for planting. I have everything planted except for the Chard that I want next to the cucumbers. I hugely over seeded the cucumbers, eggplants, and zucchini. I don't know how good the seeds are as they are old seeds. Some of the cucumber seeds are nine years old. I might be that they are now good. I can always transplant some and just eliminate others.

I looks like the strawberries are protected from the rabbits for now. They don't seem to care about the lettuce that's between the tomatoes in the raised bed. I really want to build window screen cages for the strawberries. I think if the sides are window screen but the top is steel welded fence, it will allow the pollinators to get into the patch but keep out the pesky wildlife.

Plants are struggling this year because the heat degree days are just not coming this spring. I was 39 degrees again this morning and the high temperature will be 65. That does generate any heat degree days. We are only 14 VDD behind last year at this time. I would have thought it would be more but it's just one good day behind last year. 

The plants were bought this year and have a strange look to them. The first round of plants just died for what ever reason. I had a thought about famines that might be caused by the messing with DNA of plants that can cross pollinate into even the heirloom plants and end up not growing food for us. If that happens even seed saving would not work. The whole world of growing plants is in jeopardy. I'm not sure how to deal with this on my level of gardening.

I have ordered the 1 1/2 PVC fittings and pipe for the beginning of the cage. I don't know how much it will eventually cost but I'm keeping track on the Menard's project list. I will return the 1 1/4 fitting when I pickup the 1 1/2 material.

I still haven't finished up the water tower that was the project for last year. I have one side finished but the other side needs to be done as well. So there's a lot of structure building to be accomplished at Terra Nova Gardens this year.

Thursday, May 13 VDD=230

The potatoes finally arrived just when I had given up hope that they would. These are Burbank indeterminate potatoes. I have learned that just like tomatoes their are indeterminate and determinate types of potatoes. The determinate only produce potatoes on the bottom of the plant but the indeterminate ones will produce potatoes all along the stem of the plant if dirt covers up the stem. This is my first try to grow the potato tower. Mine will be a mini tower just to see if what I've learned is really true.

This will be the potato bed for this year. I discovered that potatoes following corn is a good thing. This was the sweet corn bed last year. It was rejuvenated with buried grass clippings the year before so the soil is nice and rich. The corn crop was great and I still have a few ears in the freezer. This bed is part of the cage not that I really need it for the potatoes. The bed next to it will be the corn for this year which is the reason to cage this two beds.  As you can see this bed needs a bit of cleanup before planting.

This is the planted potatoes. I've decided to use a new method for the potato planting for this year. The potatoes are planted in the soil under the tire rings made by cutting out the sidewalls. Some say that using tires is not a good thing for growing vegetables but my research says that as long as the tire isn't ground up it's ok. These tires were mined from the surrounding properties many years ago when neighbor Tim thought it would be a good idea to use them for growing potatoes. He didn't cut the sidewalls out and didn't plant the potatoes in the ground under the tires. I'm hoping that my method will work better. Because I have planted Burbank indeterminate potatoes I can stack more tire rings on top of these tires to hopefully produce more potatoes. I planted five chunks of potatoes in each ring. It's all an experimental thing. So I'll see how it turns out. 

The next planting will be the sweet corn. Then the task will be to get the cage completed by the time the rascal raccoons decide it's theirs to enjoy. I have purchased the beginning PVC parts to start the caging process. I want to cage in the two beds that are already wrapped in steel welded wire fencing. So basically, all I have to do is build a top two to three feet higher.

Garden excitement grows as this is the year that I have more time to spend in the garden. I don't have a dog to walk twice a day; I don't have a neighbor to drive around two to three times a week; and I don't have mother in law responsibilities. The days are left to spend time and enjoy the things I like. 

Friday, May 14 
There's not much going on with gardening today. I'm glad that I watered the plants yesterday as the rain that was predicted didn't happen. There was just a trace of moisture that really didn't water anything. I've learned not to put much faith in those weather forecasts.

Here's three tires with the sidewalls cut out to be used for sweet corn at Terra Nova Gardens. The drill and jigsaw worked wonderfully well. The next time I go out to Terra Nova Gardens it will be corn planting time. It's a little late but it's still doable. So sweet corn time this year will be late August or early September. I haven't figured out a use for the sidewalls just yet other than weights to hold down carpet and cardboard on unused beds. I think I'll plant seven seeds in the tire ring and narrow it down to five good plants. I have plenty of tires to plant the entire bed with and double ring the potatoes. 

Saturday, May 15 VDD= 252.5

No gardening today.

Sunday, May 16

No gardening today.

Monday, May 17 VDD= 261.5

Today will begin another round of mowing grass. All the yards need to be mowed. It looks like most of the mowing this week will be somewhat wet. Rain is forecasted almost every day to some degree. The percentages are low 

I need to buy some organic fertilizer today and feed all the plants. They are looking a little down. I need to stay on top of the fertilizing the container plants more. 

Tuesday, May 17 VDD= 272

Rainy drizzly day. No gardening today.

Thursday, May 20 VDD= 303

Another rainy drizzly day. No gardening today.

Friday, May 21 VDD= 323

I'm not sure how this day will turn out. The weather report is that I will reach 80 degrees today with afternoon sunshine but right now it looks like rain. I'm hoping to get some yard work and maybe a bit of gardening done. I do need to cut down the steel welded fencing around the raised bed plants so I can get better access to the plants. Weeds are starting to pop up that need to be plucked out when small and not let them mature to large plants.

The planting of a sidewalk flower pot would be great. It will require me to mix up a batch of soil for the pot. I don't think I'll need to fill the entire pot full of soil. I do have some Styrofoam that I can break up and put in the bottom of the pot to keep the amount of soil in the pot at a minimum. I haven't tried this before so it's strictly experimental. 

Saturday, May 22 

Life is good for a while. Strawberries are growing and setting fruit; tomatoes are growing little green buds of tomato; and time is upon me to plant beans and corn. I hope that I can start planting again at Terra Nova Gardens. I suspect the weeds are trying to overrun the garden again.

I'm finding that my greatest fear is upon me. I was always concerned with life gave the time to garden that my body wouldn't be able to do it. That is coming to pass. When I garden and do the things in the garden that need to be done, I need many hours of recovery afterward. 

At the end of the season for planting bedding plants, the price drops down to below half price. The plants are a little scroungy but they are still good plants that will recover and put on a great display. This is a pot that's been planted with seed germaniums and marigold of just such plants. It looks great and will look even better as the season goes on. 

Sunday, May 23

No gardening today.

Monday, May 24

I'm going to try to get some work done at the Urban Ranch today but the day looks like it will be off and on misty rain. I want to cut down the fence around the strawberries to a lower level so I can reach the soil better to weed and pick the berries. I think that the 18 inches of fence that is covered with window screen will be sufficient to keep the rabbits out. I will cut the support structure for bed four down to the fence level and use the 2x2s to support the buckets in the bucket garden. It's the plan anyway all depending on the weather.

We are one week away from the end of May and I've not accomplished nearly what I wanted to get done. 

There's a misty drippy rain goin on today. This is the multi planted bed. It has Sorrel in the front from the basement. It has grown all winter . I just planted it out in the ground just to see what it would do. It had a slow start but now that the weather has warmed up it is flourishing. It's the same with the lettuce. It was a shock from being in the basement for a couple months to stuck in the ground which was 25 degrees colder. It too has really taken off and I really need to start harvesting both the Sorrel and the Lettuce. The tomatoes are coming along well here and I think the shot of fish emulsion really helped with growth.

The strawberry beds are doing much better now that the rabbits can't eat the leaves down to the dirt. They have all survived except for three or four. They are even putting on berries which the experts say to pick them off the first year but I'm not doing that. I cut down the fence around them for easier access to pick out the weeds. It's better to pull them out when they are small and not let them grow a big root system. I'm hoping to take the babies from these plants and build a strawberry bed or two at Terra Nova Gardens.

This is the bucket garden with almost fully planted buckets. I used 9 year old seeds for the cucumbers and will have to re-seed them. All the tomato and pepper plants are looking good after a dose of fish emulsion. I will feed the plants every couple weeks unless they start looking a little stressed. I want to build an automated watering system the waters from the top this year. I will let the gutters catch the run through that drains out the bottom and let the roots grow out into the gutter. It just doesn't seem to work too well with bottom watering only.

These are either zucchini or Eggplant. I dumped an entire package in the bucket for each one. I didn't know what the germination would be as they were old seeds. The other bucket looks the same so I guess the germination was really good. I don't need more than a couple of each but hey I get to choose the best now. These were planted May 12th so that was 12 days ago. I didn't think they were going to germinate and I would either go without or have to replant. Now I have so many I can't use them all. I will let them get bigger and then take out the ones that I want to save and let the best ones grow to maturity.

I've discovered that keeping seeds from previous years hardly ever get planted to I'm going to, in the future, just plant the entire package and keep the best.

Bradley always wanted a tree house but I didn't have a tree available that would be good to build a tree house. I built this structure one summer when he was gone to stay with his Dad. That was 2011. Now he's outgrown the elevated play house and the roof is caved in as well as the floor. It's stood looming over the yard for the last four years with no nope of little boy activity. It's time to be repurposed into something else. I've thought about how to take this structure down and I've come up with an idea. I'll piece meal the supports off until the top is loose on the PVC stand. Then I lash a good stout rope around the bottom just above the floor. I have a wench to attach to the swing set and slowly pull the structure off the PVC. Once I get it on the ground I'll take it apart. Now the PVC is another story. It's anchored into concrete in the ground and the PVC itself is filled with concrete.

This is the beginning of a permanent support system for the tomatoes. It will allow six tomato plants. I will put braces on the outside ends and 10 foot 2x4s along the top. Then each bucket will get a 2x4 to snug up against alternating sides from end to end.

Tuesday, May 25

Not much gardening today but a lot of grass mowing.

Yesterday was a productive day with the start of dismantling the tree house that I built 10 years ago. I remember that summer well. I was sweltering hot with 100 degree day almost every day. I would work on the tree house for thirty or forty five minutes at a time and come inside to cool down. Now the roof is gone and the floor is gone. So it's time to recycle the lumber into the next project. Here is the tomato trellis that will be used permanently from now on in the patio garden. I may put a couple braces for longitudinal stability. Things are starting to come together with the gardening this year.

I did a visual check at Terra Nova Gardens and the potatoes are starting to come up. They are a little spotty but there are a few coming along. I'm hoping that they will continue to show their face soon as I have a plan to hill them up with dirt from the pathway. The pathway that's had dirt removed will be filled with mulch. I noticed that Dave across the street has found a way to get some mulch for me to use and had it delivered some time when I didn't notice it. 

I noticed while watering today that the plants look much better since I have them a drink of fish emulsion. I plan on giving them a dose of fish emulsion every two weeks. All the flowers will get a fertilization as well.

Thursday, May 27
I really want to spend time at Terra Nova Gardens today and start working on the cage. The time of planting sweet corn is fast passing. It is a 90 day window for sweet corn and that would push the envelope to the end of August.

Weeds could be dealt with as well. There's plenty of them to take care of. 

Yes, I said there would be lots of weeds to deal with. As you can see the carpet and the mulch only worked for about one year. The upside to this is that pulling the weeds is very easy and takes less effort. I've learned that pulling the weeds is much more productive than weed whacking them. If the trimmer is used the weeds just grow back. If they are pulled, then a scraggly few come back and by the third round they are mostly all gone for the season. 

Yea, all done for this path. It took about three wheel barrow loads of weed debris to clear this out. All the debris was piled up in the woods by the Lonergan potato patch.  His potatoes are looking good this year. I've discovered that potatoes are good to follow corn. Tim has planted corn for several years and I'm surprised that it did so well. It a testimony to how great the soil actually is. Corn is a heavy feeder and wears out the soil quickly if plant in the same spot for many years.

This is the other side of the two beds that will become the first cage. The 

1-1/2 inch PVC pipe will work wonderfully well to slip over the 

T-posts. It fits real snug but I will still put screws to hold the pipe in place. I want the structure totally varmint proof when I'm done. 

I used the three tires I brought to the garden to plant corn. I planted seven in each tire. When the plants come up I'll put dirt around the roots of the plants and when they get a little bigger more dirt around the roots. At that time grass mulch will be spread around the plants. All around the outside of the corn tires, I planted green beans. On the other side of the path I decided to plant giant sunflowers around the potato plants. Many of the potatoes are up and look good. I planted five chunks in each tire but the most any one has is three plants showing and one still has yet to display one.

It was a great day in the garden. Now if I can just keep up the progress, it will be a good garden year.

Friday, May 28

It was a magnificent day yesterday with five hours of garden time at Terra Nova Gardens. Some people would think that pulling five wheel barrow loads of weeds would not be a great way to spend the day but for me it was awesome. To make a difference in the garden is totally worth the effort. It been my passion to grow plants all my life but up to now it was not enjoyable. It was always hurry up and get it done because there were other things to do. Family members never really felt the same passion as I did. I would say that all of my friends like to hear about my passion for a short time but none really want to help. I don't have a planned out schedule so even if it would be possible to find some people to help I would not be able to direct them in helping. Many times I just go to the garden and sit for awhile to get inspired to work on something. It's a time of enjoyment not to find a better way to do it or to hurry up and get done.

Today I want to Florida weave the tomatoes and perhaps cage the peppers.

Saturday, May 29

Today I'm hopeful to get out Terra Nova Gardens and work on some structure and weeding. I did accomplished a great weed cleanup around and inside the beginning of the first cage. I think this will really work good and hope to have the first cage completed by the end of June. I have three months now to get a lot done at Terra Nova Gardens.

Sunday, May 30

Just plant watering at the Urban Ranch today.

I haven't used the water tower just yet but it's on the list to be completed this summer. It's doable but will require an effort to get it done. I have a source of 2x4 braces that will come from the tearing down of the elevated play house in the backyard. There should be enough to completely finish the tower. In the mean time my plan to fill the usable tank and test it's metal and stability will be on the schedule. Even if I have to haul water, it will be a success to have it completed and maybe by next year automated. This is going to be awesome when it's done.

Today my focus will be on weed the road front area with the trimmer and the two beds that will be the second cage. I think that I'll dump the grass that I have piled up on those two beds and cover them up until this fall when I'll bury all the grass in preparation for spring planting. I'll be covering them up with carpet to keep weed suppression in place.

In my spare time, yeah right, I'll be working on the fence. It's a wreck and needs much repair. The vines are taking over the North fence and I would like to take that fence out and extend it out to the property's edge but that will have to another year or two. I'm leaning toward a small fruit garden out there but I don't know if that will happen. I'm running out of years of hard garden labor. Ten years of Terra Nova Gardening has slipped away and I'm not sure how much more I'll have. 

Monday, May 31

No gardening today other than pulling weeds at the Urban Ranch. Tomorrow will be a Terra Nova Gardens day. It will be more weed clearing and cage building.

This is the beginning of the cage for the sweet corn this year. On the right is potatoes and on the left is sweet corn and green beans. This cage is about 6 1/2 feet tall. It will be built in five foot sections with steel welded fencing that wraps over the top. There will only be one door into the structure. It really looks good for now. So big day today with work and fun. Let's get started.

Here's another six tires with sidewalls cut out ready to be used for sweet corn with green beans planted around the outside. They will get used tomorrow at Terra Nova Gardens.