A goal every year for me is to have peas by the Fourth of July. That usually happens, but barely. This year I've been eating peas for two weeks already. It may be due to the fact that I planted bush shell peas rather than trellis shell peas. I did this to see if this would be a good choice for our school garden. It is. And these were delicious.
It's been a while since I've posted. Finishing up school and getting the gardens rolling takes up a lot of time! Leaving no time for blogging. But here I am on a glorious day doing this instead of being outdoors where I belong. As the title says this will just be some rambling thoughts. That's how I'm feeling...like a rambling gardener. Balancing so many different garden tasks. Should I mulch and stake those tomoatoes or should I make pesto with the garlic scapes? Well we all know I need to do both. During the spring planting season it's easier to stay focused on planting. But once the harvesting starts the dance gets a little trickier because the garden still needs tending but now it's also time to can/freeze/dry produce that's coming in. I picked about 16 quarts of strawberries at a U-Pick place and spent an afternoon canning strawberry jam. My strawberry bed bit the dust. Year five and it is just so loaded with weeds. It's a mess. (Note later in the day...I went out to pick any strawberries that I could find and I picked over 4 quarts of delicious red strawberries. Was I surprised. I learned not to give up on a strawberry bed too soon and I learned it's not fun picking strawberries in a weed infested bed!) So I'm still going to cover it with black plastic and kill it off and replant it with something different next spring. I did start a new strawberry bed this year. Wish I started it last year. So this year I picked all the flowers off to encourage strong root growth and better berries for next year. I think from now on I'll expect 3 years from a strawberry bed. Year 1 pick off flowers, year 2 enjoy!, year three start another bed and enjoy this bed for the last season.
Before I ramble on even more, because this really is just a silly post of ramblings, I want to share a website/podcast/blog that I LOVE. The Alternative Kitchen Garden: http://emmacooper.org/podcast I've been listening to Emma's podcast for years and I absolutely love her and her podcasts! She also has a blog and a new book! I will definitely add her book, The Alternative Kitchen Garden, to my garden books wish list, along with Elliot Coleman's A The Winter Harvest Handbook. Here's info from his website:
http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/books/index.html#handbook
Back to Emma's podcast...she has a post on Peat. I'm sooo glad someone is finally discussing the environmental costs of peat. Peat comes from bogs. Bogs are really special places, as you know if you've ever been lucky enough to visit one. Dredging bogs for peat for gardening just doesn't seem like the right thing to do. And now a brave gardener discusses the impacts of this. Yeah Emma! Here's a website that discusses and explains the beauty and importance of peat bogs; http://www.backyardgardener.com/article/green/896.htm
Another gardener writes about peat, bogs, and organic peat alternatives for your garden - http://www.backyardgardener.com/article/green/896.htm
On Emma's blog/website there is a search tool, just like I have here! If you search "fertilizer" you will be brought to a page listing all her WONDERFUL blog posts/podcasts on the many organic fertilizer choices. http://emmacooper.org/?q=fertilizer My favorite all around organic fertilizer post of hers is here: http://emmacooper.org/blog/the-eco-garden-organic-fertilizers
Another posting on organic fertilizers came from The Smiling Gardener, Phil. He researched organic products available at Amazon. Interesting. Here's a link to his information: http://www.smilinggardener.com/lists/organic-fertilizer?awt_l=OWdLk&awt_m=3kyBApiM1v2DE1m He said his #1 fertilizer is this product: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TM97NA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=fresservhealv-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000TM97NA Interesting.
Back to ramblings....another goal is for corn to be knee high. Yeah right! My corn isn't even close to knee high. Maybe knee high for a gnome. My son works for a family that grows and sells wonderful perennial plants wholesale. I must say the perennials that do best in my garden come from them!! Zone 4 Perennials. If you are ever at a garden center in Maine and notice Zone 4 on the tag you know you're getting a good plant. Request them next time you are at a garden center! Anyway, they also have a kitchen garden and they start their corn indoors! I have never heard of that until this year. At first when I heard that I thought it sounded kind of nuts. But now I'm totally rethinking that idea. I bet his corn is knee high. Well I guess we are seeing who has the last laugh here, and it ain't me!
Lettuce is doing very well. This shade set up works pretty good. The only problem I have with my lettuce, and it's been one I've dealt with for a few years now, is slugs. They love lettuce. So every time I harvest lettuce I have to wash them off. Gross. I guess I could try beer bait where you put out shallow saucers of beer and the slugs will go in and drown. I guess slugs like beer.
Well enough rambling for now. It's past time to go outside and mulch, mulch, and mulch some more. Make compost and worm casting tea, stake tomatoes, foliar feel flowering plants (broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes) with liquid seaweed, squish potato bug eggs yuck!, pull out spent radishes and spinach and replant with lettuce and more radishes, and pick herbs to make herb butter and cilantro pesto.
Have a great Fourth of July! And be sure to grill some veggies while you are grilling.
Mary
"Gardens make the world clean and fresh" AHS
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