Showing posts with label corn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corn. Show all posts

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Garden Update: Everything In Full Swing

Just an update on all the growth going on.  It is happening so fast at this point.

Roma Tomato:  Over 30 tomatoes on it
Nectarines growing great.
Blackberry's from flower to fruit.
Some Betsy Tomatoes starting to turn red
Succession garden growing great
Collard greens and a radish for a salad.  Look at the size of that radish!  And look how beautiful those greens look.
Cucumbers all over the place.
Three sisters garden is like a jungle.  How compact I planted the corn may have stunted some of the stalks.
Squash are emerging every where now.
Grape flowers have turned to fruit.
So lots of changes in very little time.  This week we canned 9 pints of meat sauce, though I didn't take any pictures.  Lazy!  We also made chicken stock and canned 4 quarts.  Again, Lazy and didn't take any pictures.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Been a while Garden Update

Sorry it's been a while.....life happens.
 
Big update on progress.  It's all cool though!

 
Here's an overview picture of the garden.  You can see the three sisters garden, grape vine, succession garden, grow bags, and the window sill planter
 
 
Here's a shot of some of the first beefsteak tomato's.


 
Here's the three sisters garden with a close up shot so you can see the squash and beans.  Not yet worried about overcrowding but I really pushed the envelope on this design.  If I need to thin it I will and learn for next year.



 
Always nice to see the grapes starting out.  After pruning so heavy this year I wasn't hopeful about a decent crop but it looks as if it's not going to be bad, and I'll get the shape of the vine I want.  BTW, no leaves yet on the 42 potted cuttings but it can take some time.
 
 
 Here's a nice shot of some of the Roma tomato's.
 
 
 
 
The secession garden is doing really well. The cucumbers were thinned and are vining out well. The peas are growing well in the back right. Some Cherokee beans in the back left. Lettuce, collards, and beets succession nicely as well as the radishes in the bottom left.
 
 
 
Here are the parsnips and the carrots. The parsnips in the closer half of the picture.
 

Didn't expect any blueberries this year so this is great.  I have 4 blueberry bushes. 

 
This garden has everything!  Strawberries, garlic, onion, sage, blackberry, oregano, thyme, dill, mint, and onion.
 

 
The fruit tree has a ton of nectarines starting to grow.


 And lastly, the hummingbirds.  They make my day.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Three Sisters Garden (TSG): Corn update......Squash planted

Please comment or share, any dialogue is appreciated.

Just a quick update.  The corn is doing very well.  We'll see how it turns out.  The corn is on average about 2 inches tall.  I direct sowed 9 squash and 3 zucchini.  3 of the squash was butternut, 6 are crookneck, and the 3 zucchini are black beauty.

By the look of things, the pole beans will probably be direct sown next Saturday and that will complete my first three sisters garden.

The plan, as this huge amount of corn is ripe, is too obviously eat some with dinner but for the rest, I'm going to let it dry on the stalk and then store it whole.  The best stalk of corn I will save for seed next year.




I may have gotten a little overzealous with the two grow bags!


Part of the plan with this garden is to also minimize having to buy seeds year-after-year.  I also believe that genetically, the plants will adapt to the environment and be stronger in successive years.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Garden Update....So far so good.

It's been a little while but I've been a bit busy lately!  The garden is doing well and I have a lot to update.

Some new developments:  I have two blueberry bushes to go in near a fence and some strawberry's to replenish my strawberry patch.

EDIT:  Just to note about the corn, I have two stalks coming up already.  Normal germination is 4-12 days.  I soaked the seeds for a day and a 1/2 and planted 7 days ago.

First, all the corn was planted on Feb 24.  Should be in good shape, no frost or overly good weather in the future.  Do have an 80+ predicted for tomorrow though.  The corn all went into the three sisters 5x5 garden.  Had some seeds left over and didn't want to waste them so I planted about 25 in each of the grow bags behind the bed.

To the right of the corn, you can see the Topsy turvey I mentioned in an earlier post.  I ended up planting 10 jalapeno seedlings into it.  Again, it shouldn't be too cold for them.

The potato's are growing well.  It is interesting that some are growing so much better than the others and the red potato's are growing the best.  I did have a little cold weather damage but the plants have pushed through and created new leaves.


The tomato's are doing pretty well.  I have lost a few, but those were the hot weather variety that I probably should have waited to put in.  The okra, on the bottom right, could have probably waited as well.  It's pretty sickly looking compared the the okra directly to the left that I just transplanted today.

The buds on all the cuttings look like they are going to produce leaves so I'm excited about the 42 that I planted in the quart containers.  There are buds on the vine that look about ready to say hi as well.  It was about this time last year the first growth appeared.


On the bottom left of the picture I planted four horseradish roots.  They were pretty well developed so they should do well.

So, on to the 4x4 garden.  As they say, a plan is not a plan until you run out of time for changes!  The asparagus roots just didn't seem to make it through the winter.  Might have been too wet as the roots were decomposing.  Had to change the plan.  So now there's celery, peas, lettuce, greens, beets, and radishes.  I am succession planting here.


In the grow bag is the cucumber and below that two other tomato plants.  

Succession planting can be very powerful.  I can't count how many times we had garden food rot because everything matured at the same time.  Decided to get smart this year.

l-------l--------l---------l---------l
  4 Cel   4 Cel    16 Pea
l-------l--------l---------l---------l
  5 Let   5 Let  5 Let   5 Let
l-------l--------l---------l---------l
  5 Grn 5 Grn  5 Grn   5 Grn
l-------l--------l---------l---------l
      32 Radish     16 Beets
l-------l--------l---------l---------l

The back left half will be 8 celery, planted 2 at a time every 10 days.  

The right half of the back is 16 pea's which all went in at once.  

The next row 3 lettuce planted today, then alternating 2/3 every 10 days.

The next row of greens done identical to the lettuce.

The radish is planted 4 at a time every 10 days.

The beets planted 8 a time with 20 days between.

Thanks for visiting.  If you have any tips or advice or questions don't hesitate to post them.