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.

October 2020

10/9/2020 - We are deep into the month of October. Still no rain with is putting us into the extreme drought category. It might continue into the winter months with little snow as well. Most folks would love that but it's a bit concerning to me that the ground is almost powder for several inches. When building the Urban Ranch garden bed the dirt wouldn't even pack down it was so powdery. This has been an interesting year for gardening. The plants did survive but much watering had to be done. My Urban Ranch water tank ran dry the end of July and was supplemented with city water.  It has never done that before.

10/9/2020 - Bed 1 at the Urban Ranch was finished this month. I've decided to put brick facing on the bed. Here is the finished bed on one side and the path between the two rebuilt beds. I decided to just go with wood chips and not be to fancy with a brick path as well. It's much easier and cheaper as well. The path was 24 inches wide but I widened it to 32 inches. It gives me a little more room to move around with this old rotund body of mine. The bed itself is four by eight feet but the growing size of the bed is a little smaller at a little over 9 feet long and 32 inches wide. My reach isn't what it used to be. It is really turning out good. I have two more to rebuild. 

10/9/2020 - The basement garden will become more of a focus now that the outside gardens are coming to an end. Lettuce and radishes are still growing and have been growing all summer. This picture is sorrel with is supposed to be a sour green. I'm going to expand the basement garden with sorrel, spinach, and maybe carrots. I will use a 2-liter bottle with the top cut off for growing carrots. It would be awesome if that works.

10/9/2020 - The water tower at Terra Nova Gardens is getting closer to being finished on one side. The X-bracing is really making it sturdy. This has been a summer project and has taken much time away from the actual growing of garden plants there. I'm hoping to use this side of the water tower for watering and giving more attention to the actual gardening there next year. Both the Urban Ranch and Terra Nova Gardens had extensive garden projects happening. As I look back on the summer activities, it's been a productive year for gardens. 

10/22/2020 - This is the end result of a summer of working on a new water tower. The entire tower is not finished just yet but the side of the tower is usable. I will start filling it up on March 1st. I might flush it out again but it's pretty clean now. The tank had some kind of soap in it so I don't think it's toxic.  I was going to paint the structure but as I look at this tangled brace mess, I think a better solution is to just hide the whole thing behind some lattice work. This has been many hours of work to get this far and I'm quite satisfied with the progress. Next year I won't be putting so much time into the tower and concentrating more on the beds of the garden. They are in terrible shape. This month is almost gone and I still have work to do cleaning up. 

This is the last harvest from bed two of Urban Ranch. The bed is cleaned up and ready for winter. I have decided to cover the outside edge of the raised beds with a fake brick facing to give a little better look.  Next year I'll rebuild another bed and maybe two which will be the end of the rebuilding of the beds. It all depends on how much time I'll have to spend helping family and friends.

This is the resulting processed tomatoes of the last harvest at the Urban Ranch. I still have some from last year so this will be plenty for a reserve in the storage room. I try to plan a two year supply in case a bad year happens. My canning technique is a little different but better for water bath canning. I use the pressure cooker but don't tighten the lid so there's not pressure in the cooker. The water bath canner doesn't have quite the depth to cover up quart jars with water during the processing. With the cooker, the water level can be two inches above the jars as recommended. The process begins by filling the jars with hot water from the tap and putting them into the pressure cooker. Then using another jar or in my case a spray attachment from the kitchen sink, fill the cooker to two inches above the tops of the jars. Set the cooker lid loosely on top of the cooker. Put the lids and rings in a pan of hot water on the stove and bring it to a boil. When the water in the cooker begins to boil, set the timer to 10 minutes. After the 10 minute sterilization time, take the jar remover and carefully remove one jar and pour out the boiling water. Using the canner jar funnel begin to fill the jar with the tomato mixture that has been brought up to a boiling temperature as well. When the jar is filled, wipe the top of the jar to make sure it's clean and without any tomato debris on the rim. Secure the lid and ring. Replace the jar in the boiling water and repeat for up to seven jars in the cooker. When the water once again comes to a boil, set the timer for 10 minutes. Once the time has expired, remove the jars and set on a towel on the counter. Within five minutes all the jars have popped their lids indicating that they have sealed. It's a much faster way to water can high acid vegetables.

Bell peppers are a little different. They are blanched and frozen. The peppers are cut up in chunks of what ever size that is desired. They are put in a large pan and brought to a boil. After 10 minutes, the hot water is drained off and they are put in cold water. Some folks use ice in the water but I just use cold water. After a period of cooling down, the peppers are bagged and put in the freezer.  It's a very simple process.  I use them in soups. My mother in law uses them in scrambled eggs.

September 2020

9/16/2020 - September is over half gone. A week of much needed rain took a working slice out of the month. It was a glorious week of rain in just the right way. It would rain and stop for a soak in period, then rain and soak all throughout the week. Supposedly at my house I only got a couple inches but I can see the difference in the lawn and plants. I'm hoping to get some major work done on the garden projects before winter sets in. Right now the weather is perfect for outside hard labor work. I have to pace myself and not bring on injury or the rush to finish projects won't get done. Yesterday was a major accomplishment day.

Three more ground supports were put in place. Two more are needed and this side of the water tower will be completed. Then major bracing will be needed to keep the structure stable. I am hoping to get this side complete this year so that I can start using it next spring.  Getting both sides done would be a great accomplishment but I'm concentrating on this side and would be very happy if that's all that was done this year.

I have been toying with the idea to put a roof over the water tanks and catch the rain water. I have calculated that over the growing season upward of 1,000 gallons of water could be harvested for use in the garden growing season. Well, maybe less due to moisture from snow that would not be caught. That would have to be next year.

Work continues on Bed 1 at the Urban Ranch. I'm also hoping that this bed will be completed before winter sets in. This has been a year of major garden construction. The virus pandemic gave me a lot of time to work on such things. My schedule went from full to clear almost over night. I've been taking advantage of that and using the time to make garden improvements. Overall, it's been a great garden year. 

In spite of the dry summer the gardens have produced an abundance of harvest. More than I could really use or give away. I'm hoping with the water tower in production that next year will be even better. It's nearing time for garden cleanup to begin.

Bed 1 at Urban Ranch is coming along. This side needs one more block and then the back side can be started. I really want this bed complete by the beginning of winter so I can use it next spring. It's a lot of work but the end result will last forever. There will not be a rebuild in the future for as long as I live when I'm done. I am working toward that day when I can't wrestle those heavy blocks around and the garden beds will be easier to use. That might not be for a couple more years. I'm hoping that things will settle down by then. 

This is the hard labor part of bed 1 completed. Now comes the brick facing. I'm using concrete brick patio blocks up on edge partially buried in the dirt and construction adhesive to help keep them tight against the concrete blocks. I've decided to use woodchips for the paths between the beds. I am hoping to get that done soon.

August

August is here and harvesting has begun. The onions are drying on the rack; the sweet corn is being processed; the cucumbers are becoming refrigerator pickles; and the tomatoes and bell peppers are on the verge of turning red. This is the month that all gardeners covet. All their diligent work and sweat is finally paying off. Preserving and storing the harvest is foremost in the minds of those that garden. This is what it's all about. Canning, freezing, drying are all procedures that allow the tasty summer goodness to be enjoyed in the cold freezing winter months. 

August is project month. The neighbor across the street from Terra Nova Gardens gifted me with a pile of treated 4X4s some 12 foot long. I decided to use them for a new water tower stand which will hold two IBC tanks. These are 250 gallon tanks. This is the basic frame to hold these tanks. I will be putting many more legs under the tanks to make sure that the platform will not buckle under that much weight. I may have as many as seven more legs under the tanks.

Here's the frame up on the ground supports with only the corner legs. There's a bit of tweaking the level for the platform. It has to be extremely level when water is involved. Water will seek it's own level so if the platform isn't perfectly level and very stable, it just won't be very effective. I'm hoping that all will work out and by next year I'll be using the platform for the next level of garden watering. I am working toward automation of the watering from the tanks. Filling of the tanks will begin March 1st. It will take the entire month of fill the tanks. I will have to take the tanks to a car wash and spray them out. The tanks had truck wash in them which is basically soap. I want stair steps up to the platform for maintenance on the tanks and the water pipes. The tanks will be filled from the top. There will be a solid floor platform between the tanks where the work area is. 

Here is one of the pilons for the leg support for the platform. Two cement blocks are buried in the ground with a concrete deck support on top for the leg to set on. I will have a total of 18 of these to put under the tanks. I have figured out that each leg will support 250 pounds which I think is extremely over engineered. I want this structure to last forever. 

Friends have been hearing about the basement salad garden that I've been cultivating over the last six months. It's a simple method and works really well. I'm hoping to expand the plants from just lettuce and radishes to many more varieties. One lettuce plant can be harvested many times. It takes 25 days to grow a lettuce plant to harvest and probably three or four salads can be harvested from the plant over the next three to four weeks. This picture is a 16 ounce plastic cup that I've burned drain holes into the bottom with a small project soldering iron. This will also be the cup that's filled with potting mix soil. Regular garden soil is too compactable to use for this type of growing. 

Another cup of the same size will be needed for watering. When watering, this cup will be used to hold a small amount of water. I usually put about 1/2 inch of water in the cup. Then the cup with the soil and plant will be slipped into the watering cup. The water in this cup will wick up through the soil and keep the plant watered. Watering must be done every day or the soil will dry out and the plant will wilt. The good news is if this happens as long as there's still life in the plant a good dose of water will bring the plant back to a healthy state. These plants are durable and will snap back if given a chance. In my experience, the lettuce plants take about 25 days from planting the seed to the first salad harvest.

This is the soil cup planted with one lettuce seed and the water cup with the small amount of water in it. The lettuce seeds are extremely small but I've found that one seed can be planted with a little patience. All that's needed is a very little soil over the top of the seed and just enough spray bottle water to moisten the top of the soil. The seed package says there's 250 seeds in the pack but I think there's way more than that. Even if that's true, 250 seeds times about four or five harvests would be over 1000 salads in this package. When I start harvesting the lettuce leaves of one planting, I plant the next group of cups. That way I have a continuous supply of lettuce.

The planted soil cup is set inside the water cup and now all that's needed is a few days of keeping the top soil moist and waiting for the lettuce seed to sprout up through the soil. Once that happens it's time for close proximity grow lights. One thing I've learned is that it works better to start with fresh soil each time and to clean the cups.

I suppose that should be a given but I have a tendency to learn the hard way. Short cuts hardly ever work out.

This is about four or five days after planting. This was the very first planting and as you can see there's more than one seed in each cup. I only plant one seed now and if it doesn't sprout like the upper left cup. I just plant another in the cup. Even if that plant is a little later is ok as once the lettuce gets to harvest stage, it's good to have a couple slower growth plants. These plants I transplanted into their own cups and they were just fine. There's really no room for more than one plant per cup.

This is about 14 days from planting the lettuce seeds and these plants are well on the way to harvest. They could be harvested at this point but I usually wait a few more days for a bigger harvest.

It's day 25. Time to start harvesting and planting the next wave. The leaves on the plant can be harvested down to just a couple small leaves. The plant will recover and look like this again in about 8 to 10 days. Each harvest will be the same only with a longer main plant stalk. When the stalk gets so long that it falls over, the next wave is ready to harvest so I just pull the plant; dump the soil to go to the garden bed; clean the cups; and start over again.

Radishes can be grown as well and could be grown the same as lettuce but I've found that radishes can be grown in a little less space. These radishes can be grown in 1 1/2 inch PVC pipes that are about 4 inches long. Watering in this case is accomplished by putting about 1/2 inch of water in the tray and letting it wick up through the soil. Watering for radishes really only needs to be done on a demand basis. That is when the tray is dry for about one day then put another 1/2 inch of water in the tray. It only takes about 20 days to grow an edible radish. 

Twenty days after planting, a radish is ready for harvest. The top foliage can also be eaten. It tastes just like a radish. I suppose if icicle white radishes were your taste they could be grown in a deeper section of PVC pipe.  Many possibilities are available with this system. 

Of course grow lights are a must to get good plants. When the seeds are planted a grow light isn't necessary. The soil needs to stay moist on the top for a few days so a spray bottle is used to spray just enough water on the soil to keep it moist. Once the seed sprouts and starts growing, spraying the soil can be discontinued. When the seedlings are young, they need to be close to the grow lights to make sturdy plants. One to two inches away from the soil is a good place to start. As the plants grow (and they grow quickly) the space between the very top of the plant and the grow light needs to be kept as close to 2 inches as possible. Instead of constantly raising and lowering the grow lights, I raise and lower the tray of plants with spacers under the tray. The ambient temperature for this system is consistently 75 to 80 degrees.

July 2020

July 6

Not much gardening will happen today. It's all about mowing grass. When the day is over I'll be whupped. I'm hoping to get the front yard mowed as well. That will be three yards today. Granted Bradley will be mowing two of them but still it seems to drain my energy just emptying the bag for the lawn mower. 

 I did get all the backyard garden plants watered last night. I really should spend more evenings working on the Urban Ranch outside maintenance. I need to do some weed cleanup. 

 The corn looks good but there is a family of raccoons in the neighborhood that people seem to not just tolerate but love. They do love sweet corn and I expect that they will think it was grown just for them. I have harvested three zucchinis with more on the way without the vine borer making an appearance. Maybe planting it near the onions has made a difference. 

The cucumbers are looking good with tiny little cukes on the vines. I haven't been to Terra Nova Gardens for about a week so I don't know how the cucumbers are doing there. I have the squash seeds that need to be planted and will try to do that before Sherry gets here.

Round two for bell peppers and tomatoes have been planted in bed two at the Urban Ranch. I do need to mulch them in to keep the moisture level in the soil at a even level. 

The bucket tomatoes look like last year with the curling leaves which MiGardener says its not a bad thing. It just looks to me like an unhealthy thing. It's from hot weather. The plant tries to conserve water in the leaves by curling. The tomatoes and blossoms do still look good but I'm just not used to have a plant that looks to be stressed out.

July 24

This is the corn harvest for the day and the accumulative harvest of zucchini. I think the zucchini is finally done with setting fruits. I've never had a harvest like this before the vine borers take it down. They weren't a problem this year so I've really gotten a haul. I give the glory to the onions that were planted near by and were over taken by the zucchini plants. I'm hoping that I have discovered a natural way to circumvent the dreaded vine borer of Nebraska. It would be an amazing discovery. 

This is just two zucchini plants that have overgrown the front of the bed and over shadowed half of the onion bed behind them. Actually there's four plants there. When I planted them I put two seeds in each spot and all four grew into plants. It doesn't seem to bother the plants to be crowded together. In fact it seems that they kind of like it. I'm going to try it again next year to see if it was just a fluke or if I actually have discovered some thing..

Here you can see how the zucchini bullied the onions but they still survived. Onions are a hardy plant. I will say the onions under the shadow of the zucchini are smaller but still of usable size. It's a fair trade off to keep the vine borers at bay. 

The onions and zucchini seem to coexist well together. It's difficult to believe that onions have actually matured. It's the first time I have actually grown onions from seed to maturity. 

The onion harvest is in. Not bad by any means. I can still remember that frosty day last February when the tiny little seeds were carefully put in the trays to begin there journey to maturity. I can remember the day when the first little sprouts popped up out of the dirt and started to grow. Then the grooming of the little plants by snipping a tiny bit off the top to keep the onion stalk strong and straight was a weekly task. Finally in May the day came when the tiny little sprouts were set out in the world and left to fend for themselves in the warm days, cold nights, and rain storms. They grew straight and strong until the longest day of the year came (June 21st). Then it was time to put all their strength into fattening up the bulb. As the days passed the bulbs grew and grew into nice plump onions. Having done their very best at maturing the once strong and straight stalks began to bend and break which is a sure sign that they're done growing and it's harvest time. A lot has happened in the world from the time the tiny little onion seed became the mature onion plant. It's nice to know that in the middle of a chaotic world that nature is still doing what it's supposed to do. The rabbits are still trying to eat my plants, the raccoons are still attempting to steal my sweet corn, and weeds have launched another assault to take over the garden.

The joy of growing a garden is being able to give away some of the produce to neighbors, friends, and family. The neighbor just came over and took home a zucchini, YEA, some corn and onions. It trills me to see that happen. The onions are now drying out on the picnic table in the back yard. I'm hoping not to have any rain for a few days. One thing I learned this year is that onions don't start growing their bulb until after the longest day of the year. The time before that is when the plant is growing and getting the strength to form the bulb

July 25

Here's the harvest for today. It's 20 ears of sweet corn from Terra Nova Gardens. I've already eaten about 1/2 a dozen and given away about 8 or 10 ears to Neighbor Tim. I will process these by blanching and freezing the ears in Ziploc bags. I think there's about that many left to harvest by the time the second wave is done. Maybe it was a good thing that I didn't have another full bed of sweet corn. The corn has not been molested by the raccoons again this year. The electric fence does a good job. Now that I have a solar panel the battery was super charged up when I tested it today. I still have about another month of corn protection until all the corn is harvested. 

Corn in the kettle boiling hot

Five minutes cooking and then it's not.

Icy cold is what it's got

Destined for frozen is it's lot.

Yes, I am terrible at poetry. It was not even remotely some thing I liked in school but I've drawn to dabble with terrible rhymes for many years. So anyway there's 20 ears with more on the way. I have enough to nibble on in the back yard and still I have maybe another 20 at least at Terra Nova Gardens. That's 20 meals of corn with two ears each meal. 

July 30

Another summer harvest. I'm thinking the zucchini is done and the plants need to come out. It will free up the bed for perhaps a fall crop of some thing that's quick to grow. If I don't doddle too long I could plant some green beans. There's always salad greens but I have those in the basement area. It's some thing that I've not done. Fall gardening is different than Spring gardening. 

Cucumbers are producing their meager harvest so my thought is to make some refrigerator pickles. I've not done that before but they look easy enough. It gives a pickle that has more crunch which I like. The canned pickles just don't have the crunch that store pickles have. I like the crunch.

This batch of corn was just bagged and frozen. My research says that the unblenched corn will be just fine for short storage. The long term storage is where the unblenched corn enzymes start causing the taste and texture to change.

This is the drying rack in the basement for the onions. It's just window screen stretched over the frame of the seed starting station. I run a fan on them for a time to help with the drying process. It worked really good and soon I will braid the onions and hang them up for storage. I hope to continue this process again next year.