Thursday, June 9, 2011

2011 Garden Journal- Spring





This year we started seeds indoors much earlier and enjoyed having a winter harvest of greens indoors. On December 8th I planted butter crisp, long leaf lettuce and spinach. By the end of December we had enough greens to eat small salads through the rest of the winter. These were grown under our shop lights with the timer on for 14-16 hours a day. What a great treat through the winter! We also started basil, parsley, oregano, savory, margarum and cilantro. These didn't grown large enough to harvest much through the winter but they were nice large plants to transplant in the spring. All transplanted well except for the cilantro.



April 16- Planted carrots, parsnips, potatoes, onions and garlic. On the very north end of our raised garden box we tried a new onion variety- White Ebenezer along with our traditional Yellow onions.

April 19- Planted tomatoes. May 1- tomatoes died from the hard freeze or getting too hot the following morning. Very challenging to water by hand this early in the season before our secondary water is turned on. Replanted tomatoes.

May 5- Tomatoes died again from too much heat and not enough water!!! Replanted and they are now all happy!

Now that everything is planted and happy, here is the run down of what we planted this year:

(12) Tomatoes: Mortgage lifters- indeterminate (our favorite)
(4) Tomatoes: John Flamme- indeterminate (new variety for us to try that are supposed to be excellent for roasting
(6) Tomatoes: Beefstake- indeterminate
(8) Tomatoes: Moscow
(3) Tomatillo
(3) Jalapeno
(3) Ancho peppers
(6) Anaheim peppers
(6) Bell peppers
(6) Celery
(12) Potato starts
(3) Watermelon
(3) Cantalope
(100) White Ebenezer onions
(100) Yellow Onions
(25) Garlic
(4) Swiss Chard
(6) Cauliflower
Carrots
Parsnips
Peas



Grape vines are growing well, Heritage raspberries are staying contained, Canby raspberries are trying to creep too close to the peach tree.

Strawberries are producing excellent amounts of berries- thinning them last fall really helped. First ripened berry this year was June 8th- a pretty late year due to the cold weather.

1 comment:

  1. Hi there!! Its been awhile since I have seen you on here!! You may not remember me but I live in Ok and we moved to a house with3/4 an acre at the beginning of last year. This year I am super excited to be planting my VERY FIRST garden!! I was wondering if you had the instructions (or maybe I missed the post) on how to build your raised boxes (dimension and construction) are they lined? what do you fill with for best results? how do you till the next year..et... and also how do you make (or buy) the awesome water system in your pics (what a time saver!!! Thank You so much Bonnie

    ReplyDelete