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.

April 2021

April has gardening promise. I'm hoping to get more gardening started in this month. I must get the strawberries in the fridge planted. They will go into tire treads in bed number 1 at Terra Nova Gardens.

List for April

1. Clean up front yard - Thursday, April 1

2. Dandelion tool modification - Saturday, ‎April ‎3

3. Repair pedestal for flower pots - Monday, April 5

4. Buy plants

     Bought California Wonder pepper - Monday, April 5

5. Sprout and plant seeds - Thursday, April 15

6. Repair fence at Terra Nova Gardens

     04/08 - Removed fence panels from broken post

     04/09 - Dug out broken post.

     04/12 - Set post in Quikcrete

Plant strawberries at Terra Nova Gardens

Clean up patio garden

Clean up basement seed starting area

If I accomplish all this it will be a wonder. I will try my best to get it done before April's end. 

Plant diary

Plants            Sprout  Trans  Plant  bloss  fruit  harvest

Onions

Sweet peas        04/10                  04/15

Tomatoes                           04/14

Bell Peppers                      04/14

Zucchini

Cucumbers

Sweet corn

Squash

‎Saturday, ‎April ‎3

Today will be finishing the repair on the sidewalk pedestal. I have to take Bradley to see his girl friend at 11 a.m. There's many things to do just deciding which has the most priority will be daunting. They all are top priority.

Monday, April 5

I replaced the broken front piece and glued the pedestal together. The broken piece will be used in the back for one of the raised beds in an area that won't be noticed. I will glue it together and then to the cement blocks.

The next big thing is to get the back yard cleaned up and ready to plant. I need to make a dump run but that will be after I return the TV to Lydia's bedroom.

Wednesday, April 7

I need to really cleanup the seed starting area and actually start sprouting some seeds for late planting. I should buy some early tomato plants today. There's much to do even if I can't get out to the garden. It's supposed to rain all day today.

I started preparing the strawberry patch at Terra Nova Gardens. I have Three tire tread beds in process of preparedness. I completed one and have almost completed another but rain halted the progress.

Thursday, April 8

The fence panel has been knocked down either by the forces of nature or by kids. Maybe a little of both. I saw there was barrels with tops off, tools from the toolbox stuck in the picnic table, and other indicators that kids had been messing around. I'm not sure that I can save this panel. One post is broken off at ground level and will need to be dug out. There's two bags of Quickcrete holding the post in the ground that will need to be lifted out of the ground. It's time to crack out the log chain and fulcrum it out of the ground. I've done it before. It's not a fun thing to do and can be a difficult task but it will be easier with the soft moist ground. I will start on that tomorrow weather permitting.

I've decided to leave the beds as they are and build the cage around them. Two beds at a time will be the project. The first item to accomplish is to do a good clean up. The plan now is to set T-posts every five feet around the beds. Then wrap the bed with five foot steel welded fencing. Then build a steel welded fence top supported by PVC pipe. It's a cap that sets on top of the T-posts and fastens to the fence that wraps over the top onto the wrap around fence. I'm hoping for a much cheaper structure. 

Friday, April 9

Yeah, I didn't think I was going to make it out to Terra Nova Today as I had to find landscape timbers to replace the broken post. Menard's didn't have any so next stop was Lowes. I bought two because I needed to replace another one on the north side of the garden. I did make to Terra Nova Gardens and dug out the broken post as you can see here. I had in mind to just throw a log chain around the concrete base and leverage it out of the ground but there wasn't a big enough lip to grab the base.

The next option was to give it a few whacks with a sledgehammer and bust it into pieces. This worked better than I thought it would and soon the pieces were out of the ground. All the dirt was put back in the hole and packed down with number 12 boots. The dirt needs to be packed more and a wheelbarrow or two more to bring it up to ground level before digging another hole and setting another post.  The rain is supposed to set in for the night which will help settle the dirt in the hole. 

I finished taking the tarps and cover debris off the beds that will become the cage beds for the next year. I'm excited about building the new idea for cage beds. (See April 8th)

Saturday, April 10
I don't have any real garden plans for today so I'll just be putzing around Urban Ranch. I probably should start sprouting some seeds.

I put the sweet pea seeds in the sprouting bags. The package said there were 50 seeds in the package but I think there was more. I want to plant them when they sprout into a big container with a trellis to set on one of the pedestals by the driveway. The information that I saw for sweet peas was that from planting to flowering it would take three to four months. That would be July or August. They don't do well in hot weather so I don't know if they will amount to anything.

Well, the dandelion harvest was not as much as I thought it would be. I've plucked them out of the ground for about three years and ever year the harvest is smaller. I think last year it was twice this much. Today was the second round. I might have a few more but as I'm removing the dandelion plants I can see many more buds that would become flowers so the next round has been eliminated as well. It takes longer than a weed killer but I try to keep my yard as chemical free as I can so I can use the grass on the garden. I will spread some nitrogen on the yard but that's not going to hurt the garden. 

Sunday, April 11
I left my tomatoes and peppers that I bought outside last night and it got down to 34 degrees overnight. Brrrr, that's a bit cold for those plants. The weather man says that the temp will be in the 30s for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights. I want to transplant these plants today and give them a boost of fertilizer. I will use the double cup method for the transplants. That seems to be a great way to grow bigger plants. That way I can make trays to carry them that are studier than the flimsy 1020 trays.

Then there's the onions that need to be transplanted. I think there's at least a couple hundred. Those will go in the smaller cups and put in the stack boxes. Lots of work and things to accomplish.

I washed 18 double cups.

Monday, April 12

I am hopeful to get the plants that I bought transplanted. I will purchase a bag of Quikcrete and a bag of potting mix for the tomatoes and peppers.

The next two days will have low temps in the lower 30s. I'm bringing my plants in to give them protection.

The post is set with Quikcrete. I'll leave the supports on for a couple days. It looks like I will need to replace many of the posts. Neighbor Dave at Terra Nova Gardens came up with a great idea for the next round of posts. The bottoms of the posts should be coated with tar to keep the moisture off the wood.

Tuesday, April 13

No gardening today

Wednesday, April 14

The plants that I bought were finally transplanted into 16 ounce cups. I make my own potting mix with the following recipe:

1 bag of garden soil

1 bag of manure

1 bucket (3 gal) of used potting mix

1 large coffee can full of perlite

1 12 ounce glass of nitrogen 46% 

I mixed it all up in the compost tumbler. I think that will be the mix for the patio bucket garden as well. I still have to plant all the poor man's patio trellis. I will buy the plants soon. 

Things are starting to come together. This will be a good garden year. I hope.

Thursday, April 15

I put my plants inside the garage last night but forgot to close the door. They look ok. The temperature got down to 29. The nights are going to be frosty for another week.

The last frost date used to be May 15th but now I see that it is April 21st. I'm not sure that's going to be the case this year. I've always kind of used Mother's Day to plant the frost tender plants outside.

These are sweet pea sprouts five days old. It's supposed to take up to two weeks for these to germinate but sprouting the way I do they sprouted in five days. I like this way better for a couple reasons. First they sprout much faster. Second I only plant the sprouted seeds so there's no bare spots when I plant them.

This was a pot given to me from hauling the stuff to the dump for Teresa's friends. The trellis was from them as well. I am hoping to grow some awesome sweet peas. They are cool weather flowers and they take three months to flower. In three months we will be having hot weather so I'm not sure how they will fair in the Nebraska summer heat. It's a crap shoot but worth a try. If they don't turn out, well, that's the beauty of having containers. I'll just replace the failure with a different container that is flourishing.

I put a couple bricks on the bottom to hold down the trellis before putting the soil mix in the container. I gave the soil a good soak before putting the seeds on top of the soil. Half of the seeds sprouted quicker and I put those seeds on the soil and covered them up with more soil mix. The other batch needs a bit more time to sprout. I think I'll put those in the 1020 trays just to see which way will be the best way to grow them.

These plants look a bit down in the dregs. I transplanted them in the soil mix I made with manure and 16 ounce glass full of  46% nitrogen. They still look a bit out of sorts. I'll give them a couple more days and then if they don't perk up, I give them some juice (miracle grow). This has been a really different kind of garden year.

Friday, April 16

I need to get ready to plant the next round of sweet peas in the 1020 tray under the grow lights. If the sprouted seeds that I planted yesterday can't survive the cold weather, I'll have a backup to replant the container. I'm hoping for a good display for the neighborhood. I'm becoming somewhat of a grower of flowers. Almost more so than vegetables. Who would have thought. I'm still very limited in my knowledge of flowers.

I harvested another bucket full of dandelions. There will most likely be one more round of digging up dandelions.

Saturday, April 17

I would like to get the second post set today but it unlikely that I'll really want to do that when I get back from Lincoln. The Quikcrete has been rained on so it probably is hard and can't be used for the post. I do want to use neighbor Dave's suggestion of tarring up the bottom of the post before setting it in concrete.

Sunday, April 18

It's supposed to be a beautiful day today. Temps in the mid 60s, hardly any wind, bright sunshine. What more could a gardener ask for. 

I collected some supplies to repair the fence at Terra Nova Gardens. I have six landscaping timbers to replace weak or broken fence posts. There are several and eventually over the next couple years they will all most likely need to be replaced. The next round of posts will last longer. I am a little more knowledgeable about fence posts now. The current posts have rotted off at ground level right above the concrete. The next posts will be set on top of rocks in the bottom of the hole and have a Quik Tube to bring the Quikcrete up above the hole. This will keep the moisture off the post and cause it to rot at ground level. The post itself will have the bottom painted with asphalt post paint. It seals the treated wood against water invasion. The whole idea is to keep the moisture from touching the wood at or below ground level.

Monday, April 19

There will be no outside garden activity today. The weather is brutal. Cold, rainy, and possible snow mix is on the schedule for today. I brought all my plants into the garage. It's been a rugged start for this spring.

My tomato plants that I bought look really sickly. I'm not sure what the issue is. I have them a shot of miracle grow and will see if I have to replace them. If they don't snap out of it within a day or two. I will just buy more. It's been a strange year all around. I don't know what happened but they are totally destroyed. I'll have to buy more today.

Tuesday, April 20

Even though it's cold the sun is shinning and the temperature will climb to 48 degrees. I really need to get the fence repaired at Terra Nova Gardens and the Urban Ranch patio garden cleaned up. The days of April have been cold, damp with misty rain and snow, and sometimes wind. It's been to ugly to be out working.

The tomatoes that I bought have all but died. I'm not sure what exactly happened to them but even a shot of Miracle Grow didn't help them. It seem to accelerate their death. I need to buy more and go with a different soil. Things are very strange with the garden this year.

After three working days of fence repair, I finally have the fence back together. The next couple posts down the line are very weak and I suspect that the only thing holding the fence upright is being connected to the rest of the fence panels down the line. But for now I have higher priority things to work on.

After some research, I found a product at Tractor Supply called Asphalt Fence Paint. It's a goopy thick mix of tar looking stuff that will seal posts from moisture and keep them from rotting. It's just what I need for garden posts. It takes two coats and after four hours to dry, it's ready to use. It's a great find and it's not too expensive either.

Here's six posts almost ready to use. One more coat of Asphalt Post Paint and these posts will be ready to last much longer than the ones used. Even without using the moisture sealant, the posts lasted 10 years. I'm hoping with this sealant and concrete up above ground level, I'll never have to replace them again. I'm slowly putting this garden back to production.

I've decided to cap the already wrapped section of the garden. Since there's wire around beds 7 & 8, I thought it might be faster and cheaper to just work on those beds that already have wire wrapped around the beds. That way all that has to be done is build the cap. It came to me as I sat resting while working on the fence. I wouldn't have to deal with the electric fence this year if I get it built before the corn starts to produce the sweet corn smell. 

Wednesday, April 21
It's kind of a rest day today. I just not able to work as hard as I used to be able to do. I will still pursue working around the yard and garden at home (Urban Ranch). I'm still puzzled about the plants that died. It might be over fertilized. I'll have to mix up another batch of soil without too many amendments. It might just be too hot for tender plants. I'm hopeful to find some more tomato and pepper plants to at least have some for myself this year. I think that Lowe's will have some as there vegetable plants are inside a sheltered area. Menard's are not. I'll check it out today. Ace hardware's plants are not sheltered either. This has been a cold frosty April. Supposedly the last frost date has been changed to April 21st for my area but I'm not seeing it this year.

The prediction is for rain tomorrow and tomorrow night.  

Thursday, April 22

I would like to get the new plants potted up. I found pots with two plants in them instead of one so I got the plants for half price.  I really need to get the other two tomatoes into the buckets.

I repotted the tomatoes and peppers that I bought yesterday. I now have four pepper and four tomatoes in addition to the two giant tomatoes that need to go into the buckets. That's probably enough for me and some to give away.

I should start some seeds or I can take the arm pit starts and plant them to take out to Terra Nova Gardens. I put the tomatoes and pepper in the garage for the night even though the temperature will only be 43 overnight. I want to keep the tender plants as warm as they can be. I maybe should have brought them in the house.

Friday, April 23

Another week as passed but some things have been accomplished. The temperature this morning is 48 degrees which is encouraging. The ground temperature is 48 degrees as well. The night time temperatures are starting to remain in the 40s instead of the 20s. That's a good sign that we are approaching the time for outside gardening to start. I need to step up my work outside.

I spent two and a half hours at Terra Nova Gardens working on the cage. The wrap and the T-posts for the door are done. I can start working on the top now. I have forgotten what fits over the T-post. I think it's 1 1/4 inch PVC. 

Saturday, April 24

Today I'll be working around the Urban Ranch. I have to start getting the bucket garden ready. I have a tomato plant that needs to be in a bucket. The temps are good to go at night for the plants to be outside.

The bucket garden patio has needed a good clean up for a couple years. It was past time to bag up all the debris. It took a couple hours to move all the pots and buckets, move the picnic table out of the way; and bag up all the leaves. There was three and a half bags of leaves. 

There! All done! yea! Now I can start setting up the watering for the gutters. I want all three to be automatically watered this year. I am thinking about top watering as well. I have an idea about that but I'm still mulling it over in my mind. It was a good day's job done. This is the bucket garden where the zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and eggplant will be grown this year. These are gutters that are gravity fed from my water tank and are kept level full with a float valve. The buckets have net pots that sit down through a hole in the bottom of the bucket that's filled with soil and will wick water up to the plants as needed. Eventually the roots reach down into the gutters and soak up water as they need it. It's an automated system that works well. So life is good and gardening has started for the year 2021.  

Monday, April 26

There wasn't much garden work done today. It was just yard work. 

Tuesday, April 27

Today I am hopeful to get some tomatoes planted in buckets and to have two planted in UR bed four. It's time to start seeds for cucumber and Zucchini plants. I need to do something with the onions that I've grown from seed. I will plant onions around the zucchini plants again this year to see if it keeps the vine borer away. I had many zucchini fruits last year and finally just pulled up the plants. 

I think I'll plant my lettuce plants outside this year and shut down the basement garden over the summer. I'll bring it back in the fall. I'm thinking that I'll try to succession plant the lettuce and radish outside again this year.

I really looks like something has been nibbling on my strawberry plants. I think it's those twitter padded pesky rabbits I see chasing each other around in the yard. They go nutso this time of the year creating new life.

Wednesday, April 28

I ordered 1 1/4 inch PVC parts for the cage at Terra Nova Gardens. It won't quite fit over the steel post. So my plan is to put 2 inch PVC pipe over the steel posts and then slide the 1 1/4 inch into the 2 inch pipe. Three screws will hold the 2 inch pipe to the steel post and three screws will hold the 1 1/4 inch pipe centered and straight in the 2 inch pipe. I'm using schedule 40 as it's pipe walls are thicker and stronger.

I also thought about future posts. Why couldn't I use 3 inch PVC pipe filled with Quikcrete that's been set into the ground with Quikcrete. It's something to think about.

It was a bust for planting today and for mowing. It rained in the morning and in the afternoon.

Thursday, April 29

This has to be the day to plant before any other yard or garden work. I will plant the tomatoes in UR bed four. I have decided that the buckets will be used to grow zucchini and eggplant this year. I want to see if I can smother out the dreaded vine borer with a layer of vermiculite. Another thought is to make an onion spray and spray the base of the vine with the solution. It just came to me now. Wow, what a thought. Last year onions were planted around the zucchini plants and there was not vine borer destruction.

I noticed that Menard's has tomato and pepper plants on sale due to the frost. They are alive but look a little sad. I think I'll buy some and just throw them in the ground at Terra Nova Gardens and see what happens with them. It might take a while for them to recover but late tomatoes are good. I'm ok with that. When the spring tomatoes are winding down the fall tomatoes are ramping up. 

Once again the year won't be much about gardening but will be about Terra Nova Gardens structure and Urban Ranch raised bed completion. I have high hopes for great accomplishments this year. 

Still much finish the water tower and have decided to make the ground level center under the tower structure a storage area for things to be locked up. Hoses and such that it seems the kids like to mess with. So lots to do and the years of being able to do it are counting down.

So the garden year begins with a slow start but with a little be of incentive it will end strong.

Job well done. My hips were aching when I finished mowing this lot. It took a couple hours. I was amazed that it had grown much faster than I thought. I've toyed with the idea to give it a shot of nitrogen fertilizer to boost production of grass for Terra Nova Gardens mulch. I'm not sure if I'm up to that just yet. Anyway I got seven and a half bags for the first mowing. I still have to mow my backyard which is borderline out of control. 

This is bed four of four raised backyard beds. Bed three will be given a refurbished and the landscaping timbers you see here will be replaced by cement blocks that a friend gave me. Most of my gardening supplies have been given to me from disgruntled gardeners that thought it was a good idea but didn't know that a garden had to be tended almost every day or it would become an eyesore. If things go according to my plan which it hardly ever does, I should be in a position to just garden and not have a lot of rebuilding to do in a couple years. This bed will be refurbished next year with concrete blocks. Beds one and two are already done and I planted strawberries in them. I will use these strawberries to produce babies to plant at Terra Nova Gardens in north Omaha. It's a work in progress. 

This is the bed cleaned up. I have planted the tomatoes in this bed. This is the kitchen garden that can be harvested right out the sliding door of the kitchen. Early Girl, Delicious, and Big Boy tomatoes are on the menu for this year. It's also time to plant cucumbers, onions, peppers, zucchini, and eggplant. I tried to get a picture of the planted tomatoes but the light was fading and it didn't show them very well. Tomorrow I'll be working on mowing the backyard and getting the mulch to put around the tomatoes. 

The tomatoes are planted. The fading light didn't take a picture very well. There's six tomatoes in this bed. I bought four of them from Mulhall's nursery but selected pots that had two plants in the pot instead of just one. So they were accentually half price. I found peppers with the same two plants per pot. I'm hoping tomorrow to plant the peppers for sure and maybe some other stuff as well. I should look into watering tape that Hoss tools use in their gardens. It's already made with holes for watering every foot. They bury their tapes but they sometimes leave them on top of the soil. I have used drip supply tube with adjustable drip waterers.   

Friday, April 30

Today's plans are to work on planting the bell peppers and start seeds sprouting for cucumbers, eggplant, and zucchini. I would like to find a cherry tomato plant for the big pot by the driveway that would eventually be put down my the sidewalk for passer's by to nick a cherry fruit or two as they walk by. I must purchase the planting flowers for the arch and wall for the front patio. April and May are big garden expense months.

March 2021

March has been a bust for gardening. This month was dedicated to clearing out Dot's apartment and every day was spent working on that. So there has been no seeds started.

I will have to buy plants this year and start seeds in April for the backup and second round of tomatoes and bell peppers. I did get some strawberries planted and they are looking good. I want to use them as breeder beds to plant strawberry beds at Terra Nova Gardens. The offspring from this years plants will go toward planting mini beds in tires with the sidewalls cut out.

At the Urban ranch, there's much to do. I want to build another raised bed with concrete blocks. Some say that it's bad to use concrete blocks for growing food as there is fly ash that is mixed with the concrete which has toxic chemicals in it. There are many different conflicting sources of information about the use of cinder blocks in the garden. The more I read the more I think it's a non issue.

January 2021

January is preparation month for seed starting in February. Onions will be planted first. I like to start planting the onions around Valentine's day. I've learned to attach the planting to holidays. It start way back with potatoes planted on Good Friday. March 1st will be Bell Peppers and Eggplant. Then Tomatoes March 15th and April first and maybe April 15th. 

Here is the tray ready for onions. The next step is to fill the pods with seed starting soil. It usually takes about five days to sprout onion seeds. And then we are on the way to harvest onions at the end of July. These are my babies until they go into the ground. They are pampered with care as they are fragile and tender little plants. More pictures to come. I learned a couple years ago to snip off the stems as they grow which will make the plants stronger and tough later when planted outside. Last year I had some sizeable onions but hopefully this year they will be bigger and better. I've learned that they are thirsty and hungry plants. I need to water them more and feed them way more. 

November 2020

November has been an interesting month for sure. The weather has been great for year end garden clean up and preparation for spring planting. I have been able to get a surprising amount of work completed that I didn't think I was going to get done. Several times I've said goodbye to Terra Nova Gardens thinking that I wouldn't be back until March but each time I was given a weather reprieve and was able to get more work done. Life is good in the garden. Two days ago a temperature of 73 which tied the record high allowed me to work in the garden in a T-shirt and soak up some sunshine..

This is Terra Nova Gardens bed 3. It was idle this year but will become the tomato bed next year. It's had the trench compost method of preparing for spring planting. Grass clippings from the summer lawnmowing has been buried under the dirt to decompose over the winter and through out next summer which will feed the tomatoes lone term.

Another surprise that I didn't think was going to happen this year was the completing of the path between bed 1 and bed 3 at Terra Nova Gardens. I put down weed suppressant covered the path with about 5 inches of wood chips. The rock bed 3 liner had to have another two layers of rocks added. I still have the remains of three rock piles to use for future garden projects.

Meanwhile back at the ranch (Urban Ranch), the basement garden is producing salads. Lettuce, Sorrel, and maybe Radishes will be in the winter salads. It's actually been in production all summer as well as half of last winter. Soon it will be time to start the spring seedlings. I'll be growing mostly the same things as last year. This year I'll be adding potatoes back in the list.

Christmas decorating doesn't really have anything to do with gardening but it's nice to look at. I just leave the lights on all the time so I can enjoy them any time I pass by. It's been a couple years since I've put up the tree and string up some lights. It's not much but I like it and it brightens up the room especially at night. 

This is the next round of lettuce. I will be ready for harvest in about another 20 days. It takes about 25 days for lettuce to mature enough to harvest. Another several harvest can be taken before it needs to be replaced. These little seedlings are almost ready to be transplanted into individual cups where they will remain for the rest of their life.

This is Sorrel. I have harvested one round of Sorrel. It has a distinct sour taste with the texture of spinach. It a different kind of green salad leaf but it fits well with salad greens. I read about it and had to try it to see just how true the sour taste is. Surprisingly it's quite sour but not over powering sour. 

This is radishes. I planted them in a tray instead of in individual planting tubes to see if this is a better way to plant and grow them. The last batch was spindly and didn't amount to any thing. These too are a bit spindly but I'm hoping they will snap out of it and produce radishes. My first attempt at growing radishes was amazing but I haven't been able to duplicate it since.

Here's Terra Nova Gardens bed 3 all tucked in for the winter. After the trench composting was completed, a hefty layer of leaf mulch was spread over the top of the bed. To keep the leaves from blowing all over the neighborhood, cardboard was laid out across the bed and rocks were placed on top of the cardboard to hold it down. Next spring the cardboard will be removed and the top dressing of leaves will be well on the way to become compost for the growing season. More grass clipping mulch will be added and this bed will have tomatoes planted in it.

This bed will be the sweet corn bed next year. It's bed 7 and will be covered with carpet and tarps until it's time to plant next spring. It will be divided up into three sections and planted about two weeks apart. In 2022 if my plans get completed, I will plant two beds of sweet corn. One for me and one to share.

This bucket is full of rocks mined out of the ground while digging bed 7. It seems that end of the garden has lots of rocks about 6 to 8 inches under the ground. When digging post holes, I found that when I punch through the four inch rock layer it 's soft clay underneath. 

This hot mess as my Arkansas video blogger would say is where the next two beds will be. The bones of the beds are still under this mess but with a little work they can be brought back to life. Ok, with a lot of work they can be brought back to life. This section will be the first caged section. I have a plan to cage two beds at a time. It will be a two or three year plan. Each cage will most likely cost as least $300. It's why I can't do more that one a year. I try to live meager so I can improve the garden.