The Dawg Patch

[GoDawgs]

It's getting near planting time so the peppers went out on the porch to harden off. I have to remember to water those plants underneath... out of sight, out of mind!





I got some pots filled and watered down, ready for seeding tomorrow. I like to do that a day ahead of time so that the soil gets completely hydrated with no dry pockets.



In the pots will be the first set of squashes, one Straightneck and one Smooth Criminal. They'll be the first of three sets of squash, all started about three weeks apart. Then watermelons will be started; two Moon & Stars, one Orangeglo and a small Japanese variety with sweet white flesh called Silver Yamato. They'll all be ready to set out in about 15 days if the weather then is warm enough. These watermelon seeds are all from the recent MMMM so thank you to whoever sent them in!

We're supposed to have more rain later this afternoon. After lunch we'll at least be able to get started laying down cardboard so that the new tomato pallet rows can go on top. Another munch on the elephant.

[MarkAndre]

Beautiful, healthy looking transplants.

[GoDawgs]

Thank you, @MarkAndre I They're going into the ground probably early next week.

Yesterday afternoon we finally got a start on laying down the double row of pallets for the tomato buckets. What was one row up at the house and one row down in the garden last year will change to both being up at the house this year. Better lighting conditions. The row in the garden gets full all day sun on one end and a lot of moving shade on the other end. Not good.

This is about halfway done. Newspaper on the ground, cardboard on top and brick pavers under the pallet corners.



We got about 3/4 of the way done and then realized that the three remaining pallets were an odd size. We've been using 40x48" and the last ones were 4' square. Nope. We'll go get some good ones tomorrow to finish the job. For sure if we used the odd ones they'd jut out and I'd end up catching my leg on them and tripping. Best to finish it right... and take the tape measure when we go!

[MarkAndre]

Thank you, @MarkAndre I They're going into the ground probably early next week.

Yesterday afternoon we finally got a start on laying down the double row of pallets for the tomato buckets. What was one row up at the house and one row down in the garden last year will change to both being up at the house this year. Better lighting conditions. The row in the garden gets full all day sun on one end and a lot of moving shade on the other end. Not good.

This is about halfway done. Newspaper on the ground, cardboard on top and brick pavers under the pallet corners.



We got about 3/4 of the way done and then realized that the three remaining pallets were an odd size. We've been using 40x48" and the last ones were 4' square. Nope. We'll go get some good ones tomorrow to finish the job. For sure if we used the odd ones they'd jut out and I'd end up catching my leg on them and tripping. Best to finish it right... and take the tape measure when we go!

Good planning on the pallet size.
This gives me something to file away for the future. When I’ve grown on pallets in the past, I didn’t use the cardboard or newspaper…and of course got lots of grass and weeds. And I’m prone to catching my foot.

[GoDawgs]

@MarkAndre, if you decide to use cardboard just check with your local grocery store manager. Tell them what you're using it for. Unless they're in a recycling program, chances are they will load you up with the stuff when they get done putting away a shipment that came in. If they're like ours, managers like to help their customers. And even if they are recycling, that's what you'd be doing with it.

[GoDawgs]

I still haven't had time to go get those two last pallets but that should happen this afternoon so we can finish the two rows.

Yesterday afternoon I gathered all of the tomato buckets, moved them up to the pallets by the house and rinsed all the loose crud out of them. This morning I got a bucket of soapy water and a long handled brush and set up my washing station. Sit down, wash six, rinse six and put them on the pallets to dry. Rinse and repeat. Doing it this way is a lot easier on the back and faster too.



This afternoon the insides will get sprayed with a 10% beach solution and once they're dry they're ready to go. There are more buckets here than I need to use right now but hey, while you're washing you might as well do them all and then they won't need to be done later when they are needed!



Right now I need nineteen of the large 15 gallons for 17 full size tomatoes and 2 eggplants and six of the 7 gallon size (front left) for dwarf tomatoes. Then 5th Gear needs two of the 7's for one Mammoth dill and one zinnia. The #10's (behind the 7's) might come into play at some point.

Tomorrow we will make the 45 minute drive to get a yard of compost potting mix and then the pots will get loaded and spaced out. Or is that me? LOL! Cage sanitizing can wait until later when they're needed.

Today is April 18th....

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

Paul Revere’s Ride
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - 1807-1882
https://poets.org/poem/paul-reveres-ride

[GoDawgs]

The planting push began today. Soil temp is about 67 and the weather folks were talking about a 70% chance of rain tomorrow so what's not to like? Now the chance is 30% which means we probably won't get any at all and I'll water in the seeds.

This morning I started with the two bush bean beds. One whole bed got two rows of Provider. The other had half Blue Lake and half Jumbo snaps. I had to pull what was left of the leaf mulch to the middle to plant but after the beans get up about 4" I'll pull it back out and add more. That volunteer clump of daffodils has been there about five years now. It's welcomed to stay.



Got the National Pickling cukes planted, all nine hills. What was I thinking with nine hills? There will be vines coming out both ends of the bed. I think I'll just pull the seedlings out of the hill on each end.



Back in late November I buried about a half gallon of kitchen veggie scraps in each cuke hole, trying "composting in place". Today when I turned each hole before planting, there was no sign of anything but a couple of old tea bags. Yay! Now that's got me thinking about doing that to the dead tomato buckets at the end of the season. Something to think about.

The Bodacious corn has now been planted in circles in another raised bed. It's the first time I'm trying that variety. This time I put a netting tunnel over the bed because last year the squirrels started a new trick of pulling out corn seedlings. That's NEVER happened before.

This evening Pickles and I will get the peppers and tomatoes planted out.

And finally, some morning sun on fresh pea flowers. One of the little rewards of gardening.

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[PlainJane]

I’m going to rig some kind of dig and drop in the raised beds also. You got a lot done today!

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday afternoon Pickles got the peppers planted. Hmmm, 9 holes and 8 plants.... I think back in the fall when I was doing spring planning I was going to start 2 Gypsy peppers and only started one. So I get to start a different one to replace it! In the pepper bed down the right side is a half row of turnips and half row of Heshiko scallion I'm letting go to seed for collection. On the left are some Texas Early Grano onions that got hit hard in the freeze and probably won't amount to much even though a few are starting to bulb up.



Then last evening we planted the regular tomatoes and eggplants in their buckets. Seventeen tomatoes and two eggplants.



When I can get more planting mix Monday the six dwarf tomatoes can go into those smaller 7 gallon buckets. Until then they're out on the porch table with one late broccoli.



The sweet potato slips box went to the porch too. I'm planning to pull and plant the slips on May 5.



Today I am going to do nothing in the garden and maybe tomorrow too. Time for a Time Out!

[pepperhead212]

Today I am going to do nothing in the garden and maybe tomorrow too. Time for a Time Out!

We all know how that goes, at this time of year!

[GoDawgs]

Today I am going to do nothing in the garden and maybe tomorrow too. Time for a Time Out!

We all know how that goes, at this time of year!

Well, I did exactly as planned yesterday. Nothing! Got in a two hour nap, watched part of the Vegas-Jets hockey game, switched over to catch the late race Big Ones at Talledega and then went back to the hockey game to see Vegas win in the 2nd overtime. A nice calm, easy, relaxed day.

Tomorrow I begin starting flowers. Those empty light shelves back there want something on them! And I need to start another pepper of some kind, probably one of those I got in the recent MMMM.

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday it was back at it again. I was out the door at 7:30 for the 45 minute drive to to pick up the second load of compost. The eight 7 gallon buckets are now filled. Then there was a LOT of compost left over so Pickles put two pallets together down by the garden and laid a BIG old tarp over them. I shoveled as much of the rest of the compost as I could on top of the tarp and the last of it into five more 15 gallon buckets. Then we wrapped the compost up like a big Christmas present and used bungee cords to tie it all up. We've done this before and it keeps the ants out of it.



Yesterday afternoon I got the flowers started, lots of different stuff: 3 kinds of zinnias, milkweed, Indian Summer Rudbeckia, Jewels of Opar, Blue Victory(?) salvia and two toys, one is sesame and the other is something called Lightning Rod (some wild looking thing from Africa, I think). Also four more micro tomatoes.



Then last evening I planted out the six dwarf tomatoes. Left to right: (front) Elise's Fancy, Mano cherry, Velvet Night. (back) Loxton Lad, Wild Fred and Premis. That Elise's Fancy is supposed to have variegated foliage and it's starting to show that it's true.



This morning I got out the Mantis and tilled under one of the big trellises and marked out four corn rows for tilling this afternoon. That will take a while with that small tiller. The Silver Queen won't get planted there until next Tuesday but we're supposed to have some rain come in for the next three days. I wanted to get at least the first tilling pass done ahead of that.



That dark streak of soil isn't what the garden soil looks like. I wish! It's a depressed stretch where I grew some test sorghum last spring and filled it a few weeks ago with excess bucket soil from last year.

[PlainJane]

Another productive day for you both!

[MarkAndre]

Sure looks good from here! Great work!

[GoDawgs]

It took time to get four rows tilled with the Mantis last evening. I'd till right down the middle of a row and then another width down each side of that. It was slow going since it hadn't been tilled for several years, making that little tiller bounce a bit before it chewed up the first several inches and I could wallow it down about 8" deep. Slow going over 18' for each row, a bite at a time but it's done.



It looks like I erred on the side of hopeful when I planned to put the sweet potato trellis down the middle of the leek bed because "the leeks should be gone by the time the sweet potatoes need to be planted." Oops.....



Oh, I could put up the trellis down the middle but with little soil to pull to the middle, there wouldn't be enough to plant sweet potatoes. All the other beds are allocated to something else. Emergency research on preserving leeks! It looks like freezing with some dehydrated will be the easiest ways to go.

At least the peas are looking good, loaded with flowers. Uh oh, I shouldn't have said that. When the garden gods hear something like that they rub their hands in glee, giggling and saying, "Oh yeah? Well, we can fix THAT in a hurry!" and off they go to the tricks closet to get out the bag of powdery mildew and a jar of aphids. Y'all just judge for yourselves....



I think this evening I'll put up a couple of trellises on the ends of several beds for some pole beans. And start pulling leeks.

Note to self.... only plant one row of leeks next year.

[PlainJane]

The newly tilled soil looks sandy @GoDawgs, or is that just the light?

[GoDawgs]

That's the light and that it dried out a bit overnight. Untilled it takes forever to dry out once it's gotten a lot of rain. Some of that is from being at the bottom of a slightly slanted garden but not all.

We have a front coming through so there's a bit of off and on drizzle and a little fog out there. They said that over the next few days some places will get up to 4" of rain. I sure hope not here! I'm glad I got that corn area tilled up in case it goes underwater again. We're hoping we will get "slotted" again, with the worst rain going north and south of us and leaving us in the middle with just a little. The heaviest storms seem to follow major highways north and south of us. Funny how that happens.

[PlainJane]

We see the same thing here - storms wiggle around because of the Saint Johns river and often glance off us, like last evening.

[GoDawgs]

I'm glad I did till the corn rows as we got 1.5" of rain. But it's ok as it all got sopped up.

Now a new project is in the horizon and that will be moving the row of tomato bucket pallets now that all of the tomatoes are up at the house now. Pickes suggested doing this for two reasons. One, where the pallets are now will be completely weed free due to the underlying cardboard and she can easily plant her sunflowers there. Smart girl! Two, the new area where the pallets will sit this year will be weed free and can be made into another raised bed next year. I hear the Garden Stretcher at work again.

This is where the pallets are now:



Th pallets are still in pretty good shape which surprised me so they'll all be moved back to just beyond that patch of dark potting soil in the photo. The new pallet row will be used for various little experiments with potted veg plants.

[GoDawgs]

We had another 1.5" of rain last evening and it looks like we're going to get more today with 18 mph winds. Once that moves through we'll have dry weather for a week.

Despite the potato problem there are good things coming along in the garden. The Packman broccoli plants are setting side shoots.



The beans are starting to take off with this rain. The front half of this bed has Blue Lake and the back half has Jumbo. Having never grown Jumbo before, I'm starting to see the difference in plants as they grow. I got the Jumbo seeds in the MMMM before the most recent swap and I grew some plants in buckets away from other beans last year to make more seed. The other bed (not shown) has all Providers.



The Bodacious corn is coming up. Looks like 100% germination in this circle. Time to thin.



And we're not far from pea picking time! I'm really excited about this year's peas. Last year was a disaster and we didn't get much.



And finally, I got the sweet potato trellis up yesterday and the bed ready for planting next week.



As I worked on it an idea floated in. What about planting something else down each side? The sweet potatoes won't be dug until September. I need to find something relatively small, preferably a vegetable and something I already have seed for. Maybe some Strike beans as those plants don't get real big. I'll have to think about that. Meanwhile I went ahead and shovel turned the soil down both sides "just in case".