Ignorance is Bliss . . .

Sunday morning.  House is quiet.  After my first cup of coffee I decide to spend a little time chronicling my new deck garden and other garden areas.

New deck garden started July 14th

A few days ago I was running errands in Colchester and decided to check at Mackey's to see if they had any seeds for broccoli or chinese cabbage, or carried any fall veggies.  The answer was no but when I mentioned that I would only buy seeds from non-Monsanto-related companies and non-patented seeds the lovely woman who was helping me told me they had several heirloom tomato varieties and I was welcome to them for free.  She helped me choose two plants, Oxheart and a white tomato (the name of the variety itself was missing so it will be a surprise).

Yesterday I filled my new inexpensive pots with my magic organic goat-house compost and planted the two tomatos and a bell pepper plant I had purchased.  The fourth pot is currently empty.  Oh, I planted some jalapeno pepper seeds in the larger black pot for my kids who love them.  I am guessing there is not enough of the growing season left to actually get any peppers from those plants but I can always bring these pots into the house on cold nights.

Cattle panels now fence in front garden

Heading out the front door I was anxious to photograph my baby pumpkins.  But first I must thank my 19yo son Daniel for deciding to fence in my front garden with cattle panels I had from when I raised organic dairy goats.  He worked very hard to put this fence up with only one metal stake.  He used salvaged springs from an old crib to attach the panels to one another.  Genius if you ask me.  See dog on the far right sniffing around perimeter of the fence.  Maya has turned out to be quite destructive, so we have been working on fencing in all of the garden beds that she seems to favor.

Baby pumpkin

My first baby pumpkin.  I missed the blossom stage which was yesterday.  I think I am most excited about my sugar pumpkin patch. 

Now I take some pics of raspberries, my milkweed and horseweed patch (that is an entirely different blog post for the near future), blueberries. I even discovered a blueberry bush that I had completely missed that is covered in ripening blueberries that I must cover in netting today.

Damage by deer

And so with the thrill of anticipation I head toward my biggest cucumber and can't wait to take a few shots to share its amazing growth with all. I head around the trellis to set up the shot and my heart drops. It is gone. My precious cucumber is gone. Some creature came in the night and ate it, half of my cucumber vines and a good one-third off the tops of nearly all of my tomato plants.

I have lived here 12 years and never once have deer touched my garden.  So what does any photographer do? I take a lot of pictures.  I try to make myself feel better.  I comfort myself with the knowledge that I will be able to share my pain and be comforted by friends.  What else can I do? Oh, and I start plotting . . . no, not revenge.  I start thinking about using my last cattle panels to fence in this backyard garden.

Now this new fence project is at the top of my to-do list.  It must get done today.

Finished with capturing the devastation, I even forget to head around to the garage area to check on my container garden there.  I just want another cup of coffee, to cool down (because it is downright hot outside at 8:30 am).  Okay, I am emotionally conflicted and not happy.

I get into the house, connect my camera to my pc and start downloading (I don't have a card reader on my desktop pc).  Grabbing a fresh cup of coffee, I sit down while the downloading continues.  I like watching the photos pop up as each is downloaded, like a slideshow.

All done.  I look in the folder with today's downloads and there are five pictures I did not take.  Hmmm.  One of the boys took five pictures of something.

Yep, that is a doe sniffing around my backyard.  Yep, one of the boys took this picture and then forgot to tell me that there was a deer in my backyard.  I am just a little peeved about this lack of concern but understand.  We have never had deer in our yard before.  We have never had to worry about deer eating any of our landscape or vegetable plants.  We enter a new era.  Now like most other gardeners in Connecticut we face the daunting task of trying to grow veggies and having them survive the local wildlife long enough to be eaten by the gardener and her family.  Just another challenge! I can do this!!!

I will leave you on a happy note.  This is another baby cucumber that I will be watching and waiting, anticipating the delight when I finally get to enjoy my own homegrown Suyo cucumbers.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

It has been over 6 years since I did any vegetable gardening.  I had just begun to learn gardening for the New England region when I became too ill to continue.  So now I feel like I am relearning everything (not sure how much I knew and lost, either).  

The good news is that my grey matter seems capable of learning all over again and I am going for it.

Backyard beds June 14, 2012

My tomatoes are thriving and blooming.  So excited at the promise of fresh, organically-grown tomatoes.  The basil plants attract slugs and are growing but are very holey.  

In the far bed my carrots are finally growing after a second sowing.  I will not bother growing carrots in the future most likely.  They are inexpensive to purchase and take up a lot of space that I think would be better used for more garlic now that I know how well it does in that particular spot.  

My sugar snap peas (on left trellis in rear) are finally blooming.  I am pretty sure we will never get these in the house but will be a favorite "snack from the vine" kind of treat for all.  

Suyo long cucumber

 I have been disappointed in the cucumbers that I planted: Suyo long cucumbers.  They only seem to germinate at 50% and then are not doing well in our cool New England spring weather.  This is when I really wish I had a greenhouse.  Really and truly.  I planted an oriental cuke because I buy the hothouse cucumbers vs. the more common cucumbers when I shop.  This experiment might not be a success.  I will sow some more seeds and wait for warmer weather.  They might just take off when we get another week of higher temps.

Over 100 slugs

Yesterday, I went out in the rain and collected over 100 slugs from my gardens.  Next time I will wear rubber gloves, though.  Slugs can carry a parasite that causes deadly meningitis.  I sure did a lot of hand-washing yesterday.

These slimy guys do a lot of damage; they seem to prefer basil and lettuce to most everything else.  But I don't want to share my lettuce.  So the slugs must go.  

I had a thought this morning while doing my rounds: is there some type of substance I can put on the ground around my garden beds to keep the slugs from climbing the wood frames?  After a quick search I found that lava rocks, copper strips, and diatomaceous earth can all be used as a slug barrier.  Hmmm, I have a huge 50 lb. bag of DE in my basement.  That will be my afternoon gardening task.  I'll let you know how well it works.

Sugar pumpkin

Finally the pumpkins are growing.  Finally! We had an early spring, then a heat wave, then 4 weeks of fairly cool, wet weather.  Temps have been mostly in the 60's to low 70's during the day and in the 50's at night.

Now we need to see some warmer weather so my heat loving plants can start really growing.  

I have had no luck with the pepper plants.  The one plant that I had in the driveway grouping attracted slugs which ate it to a single, leafless stem.  It finally succumbed.  The seeds I planted in my front garden haven't even come up.  I think I might try to plant some inside and see if I can get them to germinate and give them a little head start before transplanting.  I knew peppers would be a challenge in New England but I was hoping I could grow some because we eat a LOT of red, yellow and orange bell peppers around here.  The boys love them raw, sauteed, in their eggs, well, in pretty much anything.

Sugar snap pea

Oh, the beauty of a pea blossom.  Took 10 tries but I actually got a decent closeup.  A camera that can take closeups and macros is on my wish list (when that million dollar check comes in the mail -- I can dream, can't I?).  

Considering this is my first season gardening in a very long time, I feel fairly successful.  Gardening is all about experimenting: failure and success both teach.  

Thank you for sharing my garden with me today.  How does your garden grow?

Slug Slime and Aphid Attacks

It is approaching the end of May and the first week of hot weather this year.  In the last few days my garden has come to life:  My tomatoes, beans and sugar snap peas grow inches each day, little seedlings  are popping up enthusiastic to greet the sun, and so begins the battle between mankind and pest.

One thing I learned early on in my gardening years is that healthy, organically-grown veggie plants attract more pests.  Another little tidbit I acquired along the way is that vegetable gardening is not for the faint of heart.  But don't let a few bugs deter you from growing your own veggies.

While I love the daily interaction I have with my garden, even enjoy pulling weeds, I really don't like bugs.  And take my word for it that slug slime doesn't wash off with soap and water.  

Tomato plants after an application of insecticidal soap

Discovering aphids on my tomato plants yesterday I sprayed them all with homemade insecticidal soap this morning (never spray anything on plants if the sun is shining -- it is cloudy today so it is perfect).  They are all kind of flopped over but after a few minutes I righted them and they look great (and yes, they definitely need to be staked).  I inspected them after spraying and found a handful of healthy-looking aphids so I just squished them and rubbed any eggs I found to destroy them.

Lettuce and spinach recovered after taking a beating

Last Saturday we had a crazy thunderstorm blow in: lightning, thunder, and torrential rains battered my baby lettuces, especially the red leaf lettuce plants.  As you can see in the photo above they have recovered and are doing well.  Still waiting for the bunching onion seeds I sowed in the spaces to germinate.  Seeds take so long to germinate up here in the northeast as compared to the south.

Beans, parsley, oregano and tomato

My container garden continues to thrive.  Beans, parsley, oregano, pepper and tomato plants all share a small space located on my driveway beside the garage.  Lots of sunshine and heat, it seems to do better than my garden beds.  I pick off at least one slug every morning before taking my son to work.  So far no aphids have found this little garden. 

Newest garden space in former goat yard

Finally, this is my newly formed 8x10 garden space.  Sod was removed and transplanted and my son turned the soil down approximately 10-12 inches.  I then formed three raised beds and a row in the back for climbing plants that will eventually grow on a cattle panel I have yet to install.  I am thinking about actually planting 2-3 pumpkin plants to grow up on the cattle panel trellis as an experiment.  It doesn't look like much yet but the seedlings are just coming up.  I sowed Dino Kale, peppers and something else I can't remember (why, oh why didn't I make a diagram and record what I planted where???) in the farthest bed.  The other beds are planted with zucchini and yellow squash and pumpkins.  There are a handful of bean plants growing on the back single row. 

Sugar snap peas are getting ready to bloom

Picking off slugs and squishing aphids . . . not my favorite past-time.  You do what you have to do!

Downcast? Look around you!

Over the weekend I finally planted my handful of seedlings and sowed the remaining heirloom seeds. Oh how I have missed gardening. I can take a small patch of ground, some dirt, and transform it into something beautiful and sustaining. It is pure magic.

Because it was also my first Sunday Family Dinner, a new weekly gathering of family and close friends, I was exhausted from cooking, cleaning (mostly managing the cleaning process while the kids do the physical work), and organizing.

Planting the garden the same weekend was probably insanity but the weather finally turned warm and you don't miss a single day up here where we have such a short growing season.

I had to depend on the boys to water the garden over the weekend. I was just too tired and sore to do it myself.

This morning I decided it was time to start my morning gardening routine -- check the plants, pull weeds, and water if necessary. The top 1/8th of the garden soil was moist but everything below that was bone, dusty dry.

Oops. We have had nothing but sprinkles for weeks so the soil was very dry. I hadn't taken the time to explain the watering process and the science behind it to my boys. They watered until it looked like the water was not being absorbed and thought all was well.

They didn't know that dry soil is very difficult to water. When it is completely dry water tends to run off. There is deep philosophical meaning in this part of the story, but that isn't what I am writing about today.

So this morning I started the real watering process. First, I had to create bowls around the seedlings I had planted to encourage water down towards the roots of those plants. Then I had to water, let it soak in, water, rest, water, scratch around a little in the soil, water some more. It took me about an hour to get water 2-3 inches below the surface.

As I finished up I saw a small patch of violets among some weeds near one of the garden beds. Somehow I had been so focused on the task of watering that I failed to see the beauty of these tiny purple flowers. I snapped a pic with my phone and went on.

A few minutes later I turned around and what do I see? A huge patch of violets right in front of both of my garden beds. How had I missed all of that beauty? I had been looking down, at the ground. I hadn't been looking beyond the task that consumed me. I hadn't looked up. I learned that I need to zoom out more often. A LOT more often.