And the garden year begins
May. 5th, 2012 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clarentineIt is raining. This is a good thing - I spent the better part of the day planting things, and a soft, steady rain is exactly what I would have ordered if I'd had that opportunity. But - you had to know there was a but - tonight the moon is full and not only full but also at perigee, the closest it will get all year and consequently observably larger than usual, and I can't see it because of the rain clouds. Frustrating, that.
Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be clearer. Maybe tomorrow night, if there aren't a lot of clouds, I'll get to see something approximating what I'd have seen tonight.
***
What did we plant? First, eight willow stem cuttings, four each of Salix 'Hill's Black' and Salix schwerinii, which I intend to be the source of raw material for decorative woven fence panels (hurdles, if you want the correct parlance) which I plan to sell once the project gets going. It will make a nice off-season generator of income and, if things do work out, I can plant more. It only takes one growing season for a plant to mature enough to be cut for the rods to be usefully sized - these varieties would grow into small trees if not coppiced.
Then, in the vegetable garden, we planted out the started tomatoes and peppers and some herbs and flowers I bought at last weekend's Maymont Herbs Galore! show. I've been developing a clientele for fresh farm produce amongst my dayjob colleagues, and I plan to can a bunch of the tomatoes since that is one thing we reliably use all year, so I bought and planted a lot: six paste tomatoes (four Jersey Devils and two San Marzanos), eight slicers (four Cherokee Purples, three German Johnsons, and a Tangerine on the recommendation of the organic farm market proprietor who grew them), and three Sungold cherries. I'll be augmenting those few cherries with my own Rose grape tomatoes, which I'd saved seed for two years ago. The Rose seedlings got started rather late, so they're still up by the house, getting babied along.
(Next year, I will start more of my own, even if it means parking outside so I can use the garage, and its electric supply, to set up propagation tables and lights. That will be a heck of a lot cheaper.)
For peppers, this year we planted sweet varieties intended primarily for fresh use (with the remainder to be put in the freezer or perhaps dried; I do have a food dehydrator and should probably experiment some with it): two each of Corno di Toro (a family favorite), Italian Roaster, and Pimento, as well as one each of bell-types Red Beauty and Orange Sun.
Tomorrow, the deer countermeasures go in place, along with cages for the tomatoes and peppers. The rain kept me from dealing with these necessary steps today, but I can't afford to delay. Deer, as I learned last year and much to my surprise, enjoy tomato vines. I'm using sight deterrents ( spinning, flashing CDs tethered to the cages), taste deterrents (a product called Hinder, which is good for both deer and rabbits), and stink deterrents (Lifebuoy soap, suspended inside a rain bell and tethered to the cages like the CDs). I'm also interplanting strongly scented plants which are natural deer deterrents: marigolds, tithonia, onions. I suppose they count as stink deterrents as well, at least from a deer's perspective.
The corn I planted last weekend is beginning to come up! I'm so very excited. Tomorrow, I'll get the winter squash and melons planted in between the blocks of corn, so they can get started deterring things that might like to climb corn.
Yet to be seeded out: cosmos! (If I have a favorite annual flower, it's cosmos, though marigolds come in a close second.) Nicotiana, too, and sweet potatoes, and sunflowers, and pole beans. The flat of marigolds I started at the same time as the Rose tomatoes are doing pretty well, though they're not quite large enough to settle in place in the garden. Another week or two, perhaps. Oh, and zucchini and yellow summer squash and cucumbers.
Then it'll be sit back, and weed and spread straw to deter future weeds and help hold in moisture, and wait for Midsummer's seasonal clues to kick the plants into overdrive. >:-)
***
One of the things I was surprised by this year was that, despite the obvious signs of climate change, the last frost date did not move. I suppose that reflects that frost date is more closely tied to the earth's rotation, rather than surface weather patterns. Food for thought, hmm?
Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be clearer. Maybe tomorrow night, if there aren't a lot of clouds, I'll get to see something approximating what I'd have seen tonight.
***
What did we plant? First, eight willow stem cuttings, four each of Salix 'Hill's Black' and Salix schwerinii, which I intend to be the source of raw material for decorative woven fence panels (hurdles, if you want the correct parlance) which I plan to sell once the project gets going. It will make a nice off-season generator of income and, if things do work out, I can plant more. It only takes one growing season for a plant to mature enough to be cut for the rods to be usefully sized - these varieties would grow into small trees if not coppiced.
Then, in the vegetable garden, we planted out the started tomatoes and peppers and some herbs and flowers I bought at last weekend's Maymont Herbs Galore! show. I've been developing a clientele for fresh farm produce amongst my dayjob colleagues, and I plan to can a bunch of the tomatoes since that is one thing we reliably use all year, so I bought and planted a lot: six paste tomatoes (four Jersey Devils and two San Marzanos), eight slicers (four Cherokee Purples, three German Johnsons, and a Tangerine on the recommendation of the organic farm market proprietor who grew them), and three Sungold cherries. I'll be augmenting those few cherries with my own Rose grape tomatoes, which I'd saved seed for two years ago. The Rose seedlings got started rather late, so they're still up by the house, getting babied along.
(Next year, I will start more of my own, even if it means parking outside so I can use the garage, and its electric supply, to set up propagation tables and lights. That will be a heck of a lot cheaper.)
For peppers, this year we planted sweet varieties intended primarily for fresh use (with the remainder to be put in the freezer or perhaps dried; I do have a food dehydrator and should probably experiment some with it): two each of Corno di Toro (a family favorite), Italian Roaster, and Pimento, as well as one each of bell-types Red Beauty and Orange Sun.
Tomorrow, the deer countermeasures go in place, along with cages for the tomatoes and peppers. The rain kept me from dealing with these necessary steps today, but I can't afford to delay. Deer, as I learned last year and much to my surprise, enjoy tomato vines. I'm using sight deterrents ( spinning, flashing CDs tethered to the cages), taste deterrents (a product called Hinder, which is good for both deer and rabbits), and stink deterrents (Lifebuoy soap, suspended inside a rain bell and tethered to the cages like the CDs). I'm also interplanting strongly scented plants which are natural deer deterrents: marigolds, tithonia, onions. I suppose they count as stink deterrents as well, at least from a deer's perspective.
The corn I planted last weekend is beginning to come up! I'm so very excited. Tomorrow, I'll get the winter squash and melons planted in between the blocks of corn, so they can get started deterring things that might like to climb corn.
Yet to be seeded out: cosmos! (If I have a favorite annual flower, it's cosmos, though marigolds come in a close second.) Nicotiana, too, and sweet potatoes, and sunflowers, and pole beans. The flat of marigolds I started at the same time as the Rose tomatoes are doing pretty well, though they're not quite large enough to settle in place in the garden. Another week or two, perhaps. Oh, and zucchini and yellow summer squash and cucumbers.
Then it'll be sit back, and weed and spread straw to deter future weeds and help hold in moisture, and wait for Midsummer's seasonal clues to kick the plants into overdrive. >:-)
***
One of the things I was surprised by this year was that, despite the obvious signs of climate change, the last frost date did not move. I suppose that reflects that frost date is more closely tied to the earth's rotation, rather than surface weather patterns. Food for thought, hmm?
no subject
Date: 2012-05-10 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-10 09:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-11 02:00 am (UTC)We have to wait until after Memorial Day at least to put them in the ground...