I'm a nearly brand new gardener, and I've jumped into both flower
and vegetable gardening with both feet this year.  I've been
meaning to keep a garden diary to help in my gardening education,
so what the hell, I'll keep it on Grex!

33 responses total.

Didn't have time to do much in the garden last evening but
water the container plants.  The flower and vegetable beds
got plenty of rain, thus not needing extra water, but some
of the not yet planted pots of flowers are placed where they
don't really get rained on.  The japanese iris I bought at the
farmer's market a few weeks ago and planted in one of my brand
new flower beds bloomed yesterday.  It's incredibly gorgeous,
with multiple tones of blue in a huge, open flower.  I will
take a photo later today...  Note for next year:  more japanese
irises! 

The tomatoes are looking very vigorous.  I'm using a new method
of staking them, on curlicue special tomato stakes.  No tying is
necessary, but I have to nip off all the suckers and train the
plants to a single stem.  Sometimes I miss a sucker and it gets
really big before I catch it, like today...  I didn't have my
pruning shears with me, and the sucker in question was too big
to snap off.  Alas, it even has flower buds on it!  But it
must go, so off with its head tomorrow.

My sugar snap peas are nearly ready for harvest.  I munched on
one while standing in the twilight.  Yummy, though the peas inside
could be a little bigger.  I'm so happy to have a pesticide-free
garden!  Munching right off the vine is a special treeat.
The peas yield is a bit lower than I thought it would be.  I
will plant twice as many next year.  Actually, I can plant another
batch as soon as I harvest these, though I'm not sure if that's
a good idea, since I'm supposed to be practicing crop rotation...
I planted these peas on May 17, so that's only 6 weeks between
planting and harvest.  Coolness!

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I also toil and play in arabella's garden, so I'll chirp in from time to
time.  My current puzzle is wondering why the new flowering sweet peas
are so wimpy.  Even the one which has finally grown to the bottom of its 
trellis seems to be too dumb to grab on and keep climbing.

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Well, the new sweet peas are growing next to the old sweetpeas,
which have vigorously bloomed and reseeded themselves for years
now, but the new ones are also a different variety, so we
didn't know what to expect from them.  Also, since the old
ones are self-seeding, they've been in the ground since last
fall, and have probably been establishing roots since February.
I seeded the new sweetpeas in late March.  Maybe that's too late
for them to grow well...  Dunno.

As for tomatoes, the main reason for pruning off suckers is to
direct the plants energy to blooming and ripening the tomatoes
on the main stem.  If you let all the suckers grow, you might
get more tomatoes in number, but they will likely be smaller
that you get with one stem.  In the case of the curly tomato
stakes I'm using, you need one stem to keep the tomatoes tidy
and growing up inside the spiral.  With a caging system it is
OK to let the suckers go if you want to try that method.

I recommend it. We grow our tomatoes in cages. They get very large. We 
never bother to do anything with side branches. They all get flowers and 
make tomatoes. We get lots of tomatoes, and they aren't too small.

I highly recommend cages for tomatoes.

 You can call me a bleeding-heart plant rights freak, but I refuse to 
grow anything in my garden that I have to prevent from escaping.  ;)

I have four tomato plants in cages -- dull old varieties like 
"early girl" and "beefsteak".  Of course, the tall plants ended up in the 
short cages and the short plants ended up in the tall cages.  
 
Yesterday we did most of the work on Flower Bed #5; this was an otherwise
unremarkable ripping up of sod and vines -- and, when I got to the stuff 
which caused a rash last week, I used gloves.  Worth mentioning only 
because, for the first time, we used our own compost instead of 
Recycle Ann Arbor compost.  This was mostly leaves and stuff from last 
fall, together with the odd vegetable food scraps and deceased potted 
plants.  We had dumped it into one of the composter cylinders which 
RAA sold last fall -- "The Earth Machine."  Through the fall and 
spring the pile of stuff had seemed quite inert, and then with summer 
heat the little organisms really got into gear.  

In the water garden, we finally had a water lily blossom survive to 
open.

Actually "Early Girl" is an excellent variety. We grow those along with
"Better Boy". The latter are tastier, but the former are available a lot
sooner. These are both widely grown but only by people, not by farms, as
neither ships well. That's why our garden tomatoes are better than anything
you can buy in stores.  (One reason, anyway).

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I went out an harvested a bunch of veggies from the square foot
beds last evening.  The heat and humidity were brutal, even at
8:30 PM.  I got about 3/4 pound of Royal Burgundy snap beans from
my two square foot planting.  The beans are a rich purple, but 
I am assured that they turn green when cooked.  They taste nice
raw, though.  I also harvested a handful of Kwintus variety pole
beans.  The vines have gone over the top of the 8 foot poles, and
are seeking more places to climb on the nearby corn plants.  No
problem, the Native Americans used to do it that way.  These
beans are green, but somewhat flattened.  I'm told pole beans
(unlike the Royal Burgundy bush beans) will keep producing for
the rest of the season if we keep picking them regularly.

I also harvested several stalks of celery, a big bunch of 
swiss chard, the few remaining snow peas and sugar snap peas,
3 pickling cukes (one of which was hiding under leaves and had
gotten rather large), and 3 small ball-shaped carrots (I forget
the variety name, but they look like thumbelina carrots).
I also harvested the first two onions of the year.  I was so
excited to see them bulbing up, that I didn't want to wait 
until they were large, and picked them small.  But I have lots of
others that I'll let grow larger.  One of the onions was an
italian bottle-shaped variety.  I tasted some while preparing
guacamole with them, and the italian variety was *very*
sweet, with hardly any bite to it.  (I can't bring the variety
name to mind, but I *did* grow the italian onions from seed.
I'm so proud of myself. ;)

The tomato vines are heavy with green fruit.  We will probably 
become sick of tomatoes in about a month, when everything 
ripens too quickly for us to eat it.  Between us, Ken and
I are nurturing 17 tomato plants.  Yikes!  A few of the
currant tomatoes were ripe, so we ate them standing out in
the yard.  Extremely yummy, though tiny.

Two of the corn stalks have started to show tassels at the
top.  Ken and I have decided that we love the look of corn
growing, even if we don't get much of a harvest.  It's a very
handsome, architectural plant.

One of the pepper plants (French Cadice) has two small green
peppers on it, and the other four plants have lots of flowers.
The melon vines have lots of flowers, and I spotte a tiny
sugar baby watermelon just forming.  I'm concerned, though, 
about the striped cucumber beetle I found a couple of days
ago, since they spread bacterial wilt, and I found some
wilted leaves on one of the melon vines.  I cut them off
the plant, and I also squished the beetle.  I hope I don't
have to resort to a pyrethrum spray for the beetles...

(Just thought I'd let you know how much I'm enjoying reading
 this diary.)

Shortly before we left for our July vacation I top-dressed the four 
tomato pots with some of our home-made compost.  Coincidentally (?), 
the bottom few leaves on three of the tomato plants got a bit yellow.
The currant tomato plant, however, got *alarmingly* yellow, though it 
still seems to be producing flowers and fruit.
 
Between our vacation and the heat wave, Flower Bed #5 is still waiting
to be spade-forked.  

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That's exactly right, they are the size of currants, and absolutely
delicious.  Sort of light tomato raisins.  I grew these currant
tomato plants from seed I saved from my neighbor's last years crop.
It was very exciting to seed the whole seed cycle through from
beginning to end.

-----

Last night a daggone raccoon knocked over three of our corn plants.
They don't even have corn on them, and are just beginning to show
tassels!  I know the critter did it just for fun, which is annoying
as all getout.  One was broken, but the two that were bent I tied
to an 8-ft. pole.  I hope they continue growing.  I discovered
masses of aphids in all the newly forming tassels, and ants herding
the aphids.  Yuck!  I hope my late afternoon application of
insecticidal soap will take care of that problem.

Wednesday evening I finally felt well enough (been fighting a 
sinus infection) to plant the front half of flower bed #4.  I put
in some cheddar pinks, some sea pinks, and one other kind of
pinks.  Also a couple of hollyhocks (which will probably grow too
tall for where I've put them, so I'll have to move them next year),  
a few coleus, and three charming snapdragons.  This is a learning
year for me, so if some of my flower combinations turn out to
be infelicitous, I'm prepared to move all the perennials around
next year.  I also hope to grow a bunch more annuals from seed
next spring.  I'm interested in lots of unusual annuals that Franks
isn't likely to carry.

I got a big box of bearded iris roots in the mail last week, and they
really need to be planted soon.  I'm running out of dirt to put
things in, so there might be some more digging and bed preparation
in our future...  It's all so much nicer than when it was just grass
though.

We ate two of our pickling cukes today, and they were *wonderful*!
Much more flavorful than the store-bought cuke we were trying
to finish up.  And there's a slicing cuke out there just about
ready to be picked.  I love cucumbers, hurrah! 

(Update on our vegetable garden, which pales by comparison with
arabella's: Harvested our first cherry tomato of the season
today, a tiny red sphere about 0.5" in diameter. Mary and I each
consumed half. T'was delicious, albeit not particularly
filling.)

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Valerie: I did discover the perennials at the Farmers Market this year,
and found some really lovely plants there.  I will definitely go vist
Nielsen's greenhouse soon, as I wasn't aware of it before.  But I
must say that growing nearly all my vegetables from seed this year
was really exciting and fun,, and I hope I have enough time this
February and March to start my own onions, tomatoes, and peppers
from seed again.  I just love watching those little seedlings
do their thing!

I feel sad that I didn't keep up with my diary here at the end
of the summer.  I went back to school for the first time in fivew
years on Aug. 25, and my whole schedule, indeed my whole life, 
changed enormously.  I have had very little time to mess around
in the garden this fall, and that makes me sad.  I suppose I
shouldn't really plan on doing anything but final harvests of
late veggies next fall.  I was interested in doing some cool-season 
vegetables in a cold frame this year, but just didn't have time
and energy to set it up.

This seems like a good time to revive my garden diary.  I've been 
very short of gardening time for the last two weeks, because I've
been preparing and performing in an opera ("The Bartered Bride")
up at MSU, but I had a chance to do a few things on Sunday
afternoon.  The tomato plants that looked so small ten days ago
were pushed into tremendous growth by the heat, and were sprawling
on the ground since I hadn't staked them yet, so I got out the
wonderful spiral stakes I used with great success last year,
and carefully wrestled the plants into upright positions.
These stakes require pruning the tomatoes to one vine apiece,
so I also removed all the burgeoning suckers from my 12
plants.

I also thinned my pole beans and corn.  I had some germination
problems last year, so I planted two seeds per hole this year,
and had to cut off the extras.  I decided to plant four varieties
of pole bean this year, and no bush beans, since the pole beans
tasted better, and they're much more fun to look at too.  Now
I have to put the eight foot bamboo poles in the center of each
circle of bean plants, or they'll start grabbing anything they can
find, including the cucumbers right next to them.

The pea vines are almost done, still loaded with slightly overgrown
snow and snap peas, since we haven't had time to pick them in
awhile.  They still taste wonderfully sweet, even though they
get a bit tougher when they grow too big.  Certainly still worth
eating right off the vine, while you're standing in the yard
contemplating all the luscious plant life.

I feel a little disappointed in my flower border this year.  It
seems to have way more green than flowers, and I need to rethink
some of my plantings.  I'm also annoyed that several huge plants
fooled me into thinking they were valuable perennials, when they were
actually weeds (this is their survival strategy, I suppose).  They
are now on the compost pile.  One of my rose bushes is blooming
tremendously with yellow/pink/apricot flowers that smell nice if
you stick your nose right in them (watch out for bees!), but I
have another rose whose leaves are all yellow, and which hasn't 
bloomed at all this year.  Since I don't have time or desire to
spray roses for fungus etc., I think this particular rose will
be coming out shortly, to be replaced by something more disease
resistant.

We haven't been keeping this up, have we?  We have not been 
keeping up with the garden much either.  A second perennial bed
was dug in July and finally mixed with compost & peat last 
week, and today a whole mess of perennials, mostly from the 
farmers' market, were stuck into it.
 
I felt sad over some of the plants, mostly annuals, which had
been bought in early bursts of enthusiasm.  So I took some 
summer bulb pots and made little container gardens with them.
By now they look pretty straggly, having spent all summer in 
their plastic nursery containers with intermittent
watering, but perhaps we'll get a bloom or two before the frost
hits.  There are also a couple of perennials in the pots, mostly 
thyme, and some distressed roses.   

... and Mr. Squirrel came along and dug out the ornamental onion bulb.
 
I finally gave in and trimmed back much of the tomato foliage and 
flowers on "my" tomato plants, the beefsteaks in pots.  Supposedly this
tells the plant to get on with the business of ripening the existing 
fruit.  We still have maybe a dozen beefsteak tomatos and two dozen
plum tomatos working towards ripeness, and the weather forecast looks 
like we could be grazing the freezing point on Thursday or Friday 
morning.  

We are still getting tomatoes, unusual for late September, something to do
with warm nights.  Are you also getting ripe tomatoes?

Yes, we are still getting tomatoes, but they are probably ripening more
slowly.    I collected another few pounds of tomatoes before the near 
freeze; it looks like we didn't actually freeze.   I'll probably throw 
in the towel on the next cold snap and pull in all the green ones.

Time to revive the garden diary for 1999.  I got started early with my
cool weather vegetables this year.  I started preparing one of my 
8X4 raised square-foot beds several weeks ago, adding last year's
potting soil to raise the level (soil level sinks each year over
the winter).  The soil came from Ken's tomato pots, but we won't be
planting any tomatoes in that bed, so I'm not worried about disease.
This was my neighbor's suggestion.  I had wanted to get compost from
the city, but it  was too early for that.  Anyway, the soil looks just
great.  Ken marked off the squares with twine for me (he's the knot
expert, since he used to be a boy scout).  

Last Sunday I started planting.  Five different types of peas (we
love snow and snap peas, and I also planted a garden pea for drying
and making into soup).  Let's see if I can remember the varieties:
Norli snow pea, Carouby de Mausanne snow pea (we loved this last
year, and it has beautiful purple flowers), Super Sugar Snap snap
pea, and Blauschockers garden pea for drying (this has blue flowers
and blue pods.  I can hardly wait!).  Oops, that's only four
kinds...  Well, one more row of peas than I planted last year,
at any rate.  We will compare the two snow peas to see which tastes
better.

I also seeded one square of Chioggia beets (red and white striped
rings inside).  I don't usually eat beets, but I'm told they taste
very different fresh from the garden, so I'll give them a try.

The last square I seeded on Sunday was Red-Meat radish, which is
supposed to be bright pink inside, but green on the outside.  Should
be ready to eat in only a month.

Today I seeded some more crops.  One square of seed-grown shallots,
one of seed-grown leeks, two of carrots, two of lettuce, one with
yellow potato onions, one of mizuna (leaf-mustard asian vegetable,
but very mild), and one of minutina (a cold-hardy salad green.  Don't
know much about it, but wanted to give it a try).  Oh, and I direct
seeded one square with Munchkin broccoli.  I fear it is a little 
late for direct seeding it, and I never started the seeds indoors
this year, but what the hell.  I'm still waiting for onion plants
I ordered, which will fill at least two of the remaining four
squares, and I will probably do a square of Bright Lights swiss
chard (which comes in many colors).

I recently cleaned the weeds and sticks and debris out of the 
newest perennial bed, and the crocuses are blooming nicely in
there (at least, when the squirrels don't munch them too much).
My neighbor speculates that the squirrels are eating the crocuses
because they need the water, so I'm going to fill up my 
above-ground pond for them.  I started fall cleanup on my
long border (I never do fall cleanup in the fall :), but there's
quite a lot to go yet, and the grass has  been invasive over
the winter.  Sigh.  But spring is definitely springing.

when is the frost free date so thies can go outside?

We planted lettuce yesterday.  You could also plant cold-thriving plants
right now like kale and broccoli I would guess.  Only god knows when the
last frost date is going to be ;-)

Last frost date in our zone is coming up  soon.  I used to think
it was in May, but I read something about AApril 15 recently.  I
dunno.  I  won't put out tomatoes before May 15.

could i have a defintion of 'cold thriving plants'?

Broccoli, carrots, onions, peas, cabbage, radishes, beets, garlic,
shallots, oriental greens, lettuce...  These all can be planted while
it's still fairly cold out.  I planted all these sorts of things 
several weeks ago.  

Lots going on in the garden.  Spent about two hours weeding today.
The ivy in the front of the house is especially annoying.  Also,
the most invasive weed in the perennial border is plain old grass,
which leaps over the plastic barrier with glee during the fall 
and winter when I'm not paying attention.  Ripped out bunches of
the stuff today, along with many large, healthy dandilions.

The snow, snap, and garden peas in my raised vegetable bed (planted
in the square foot method) are doing great.  Ken and I built
new trellises for them last Wednesday, made out of ten-foot
electrical conduits bent and joined in the middle, and then strung
with nylon trellis-netting (sort of looks like giant fishnet,
but the holes are seven inches in each direction, for easier
harvest).  The carrots are finally starting to show carrotty
foliage, so now I can go in and thin them a bit.  

Daffodils aplenty in my newest flower bed (planted last
September).  I cut a bunch of them to bring into the house.  One
variety with multiple flowers per stem is sweetly fragrant.  It's
either called "Cheerfulness" or "Erlicheer."  Can't recall which,
alas, but most of the multiflowering daffs are fragrant.

Leslie seems to have gotten too busy gardening to update this item.  So here's
what I've got going this year:

The usual attempt at sweet bell peppers, some in pots so I can hopefully
extend the fall season a bit.  I've (rather late) started some hot pepper
seeds, although I've still got a ton of dried cayenne from 3 years ago.  This
again I'm doing some beets and peas, and trying to do some pie pumpkins.  New
is cucumbers (somehow I started liking pickles this year), tomatoes (gotta
make salsa with the peppers), and corn.  

Last year I planted a couple rows of corn, but squirrel(s) dug up all the
seeds the first day, and I didn't bother trying again.  This year, I did
something experimental and sprinkled all the corn and pumpkin sowings with
cayenne seeds from the monster batch 3 years ago (I've still got plenty left!)
in hopes of dissuading the little varmints this year.

Haven't seen a single groundhog since seeing the one in the neighbor's yard
a week after groundhog day.  Hmmm... I wonder if somebody else has been
trapping?

My neighbor two houses down, just yesterday, informed me that the way to keep
away groundhogs was to sprinkle green pepper (she meant red pepper) and
ammonia.  Says it worked for her.  

Did it freeze any place in Ann Arbor last night?  Supposedly 29F at the
airport at 5:00 am.  We have a large crop of unripe pawpaws that won't ripen
if it freezes too early.  The pole beans died of drought in August so we are
not tarping beans this year, just the red peppers.  Short ladder in the middle
with election sign hoops at the edges to keep the tarp off the plants.  Our
thermometer on the porch always reads too high at night (38 right now) due
to cement floor retaining heat.  The govt issued an ALL CAPS widespread freeze
warning to protect sensitive crops, but large urban areas might not freeze.
Patchy frost (34) tonight then warmer for a week.

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