Not much happened this summer

This years garden was not as joyful as last years.  I feel as though I put much more thought and preparation into this years layout, selection of vegetables, placement of flowers to decrease pests and I got very little productivity.  My green beans were wonderful, I had 1 successful head of cabbage, 1 acorn squash, a boat load of tomatoes (next year only 1 plant), a few peppers that never got spicy, and 2 full onions....

Oh, and my lone sunflower, after seeding and reseeding two different types of sunflowers only one ever made it up.  Again, I have large stalks of brussle sprouts and no sprouts to show for it.  I've not given up on them....but my goodness how much taller will they get without giving me anything to eat?

I was very successful in growing a very nice selection of weeds this year.  Those and my tomatoes were the only thing that seemed to work out....I didn't even get one zucchini!  And I planted 2 plants.

I would like to put in all raised beds for next year, but I think that cost will have to be moved to another year until we can get some money socked away again.

I'll have another year of weeding and hunkered over working with my rocky soil before I can have the luxury of a full garden with raised beds.

I hope your crops were more successful than mine this year!

Tiffany's Garden-The Watermelon Capital of Oregon

Well we  are finally going to post on Tiffany's garden.  We transplanted the garden in her stock trough in May.  She started to harvest Swiss Chard soon afterwards. 

In July we were up for Justin's birthday party.  The garden is beginning to produce.   

Fall Gardening

It is hard for me to plan too far ahead but July and August is time to start planing and begin sowing fall & winter gardens.  Once the cooler weather of fall arrives growth slows down.   Last winter I harvested spinach from 24 plants and a few dozen leeks all winter and continued to harvest those plants until June when they finally bolted.  This winter I will be growing more spinach, kale, carrots, leeks.   On this side of the mountains having a lite frost frost blanket and poly cover removes much of the stress that out in the open growing puts on the plants.  The wind and cold rains seem to be hard on plants.  I have lots to learn about fall and winter gardening but during the winter I have time to enjoy my garden in my high tunnel.

Fall leeks

Last weekend I transplanted 4 rows of fall leeks.  I still have later sowing to transplant for late fall and early winter and late winter harvest.  I had mom;s neighbor cut two old culverts into 18, 24, & 30 inch sections.  I transplanted yellow squash and winter squash into them Sunday.  I do have a few kale beginning to get large enough to harvest a few leaves.  Next weekend I will transplant my summer tomatoes to the large cold house.  I am going to put them in large 17 gallon landscape pots.  With the warmer weather this week things should begin to grow. 

Keep warm & dry

Bob

Happy 4th of July!!

I spent the morning weeding out my garden (much, much over due).  It's an amazingly sunny day here in Portland.  The weeding was pretty easy to do, even though there was so much of it.

After replanting my lettuce, some flowers beans and my acorn squash I feel much better about my garden.  Everything is peaking out at me now.  Everything but the sunflowers.  And I don't expect them until later in the summer.  We need some warm days before I expect to see them.










I hate admitting it, but Derrick was completely right.  I'm going to do raised beds next year.  This bending over and weeding my whole garden is really becoming a much bigger chore than I anticipated.  I think this fall we'll put the raised beds in.  I think we'll have a total of 10 beds, including the 3 we already have.

 A lot of rows not growing...might replant.  No leeks so far, no Cauliflower so far, no carrots....and not one single flower has come up to bring the good insects to eat all those aphids.  May just run to the store and buy some that have already been started....we'll see how that works out.

 The pile of weeds before I carried them away.  

Fall & winter garden

Well seed catalogs are out for fall & winter gardens.  Territorial Seed & Johnny's Seed are my primary sources of seeds and information.  www.territorialseed.com  ,  www.johnnyseeds.com
Ellie, I am learning how to do more on Blogger  :)

  Time to order garlic cloves, I am going to plant 50% hard neck and 50% soft neck this year again.  The hard neck has the scipes that are fun to harvest and enjoy this time of the year.  The hard neck garlic do not keep well so they are also the first to be used in fall cooking.  I save the soft neck for late winter- summer cooking as they store better.  I have 3 or 4 cloves left from last season's harvest.  I planted two 4 X 7 beds of garlic last fall, so I will have lots to cook with this summer and next winter.  I am looking forward to sowing spinach, kale, cabbage, winter beets, winter carrots in August in the unheated greenhouse.  I will be taking out the old spinach from last season next week in my free time.
It is interesting, I checked my soil temperature Thursday, it is only 55 degrees now.  One reason things grow so slow here. Check your soil temperature and let me know how you compare.  I have to remember that just a few weeks ago it was snowing and we had 20 degree nights.

Well time to go.

enjoy

Bob

Sunday June 10th

Bobbe's ready for summer

 Sunday was a great day and our geraniums are out and I pray no frost.  We will see if I jumped the gun.  Mom was out for Sunday dinner and spent most of the day on the patio.  :)

Bob

More faith that spring is near

Early June Snowshoe Inn

 Things grow so slow at this elevation.  I harvested the last of the leeks I sowed last summer today.   We had one of the small leek in our salad tonight, Bobbe plans another meal with remaining leeks.  I am so happy with the leeks from last year.  I have multiple varieties in the greenhouse nearly ready for out planting for next  fall and  winter harvest.

The spinach we have been grazing on all winter has gone crazy and beginning to bolt.  I will pull the remaining spinach and put in compost pile in a week or so.  I have new seedlings in the raise beds and and greenhouse nearly ready for transplanting to garden soon.  Another success for Snowshoe Inn garden.
The garlic I planted last fall are looking great (compared to last year).  The low tunnel is a great success on this plant.  The garlic in the low tunnels are nearly twice the size of the ones from the open garden.  I plan to compare total production between low tunnel and non low tunnel garlic when I harvest them in July or August.  I am still cooking with the garlic harvested last summer.  The hard neck garlic do not keep as long as the soft neck garlic.  This year I will cook with the hard neck varieties first and keep the soft neck varieties for later in the season.

The asparagus is a disappointment so far.  I have had problems getting it established.  I have a few roots that are well established but not enough to provide a real meal at one time. The roots I planted last year are just starting to come up now.  Still quite small.  I am fertilizing them with compost and keeping them weed free as best as I can.  The roots I planted this spring still have not come up.  It seems to take forever for first year roots to come up.  Last season some of the roots did not come up until very late in the season.   We love asparagus but if they do not do better soon I will pull them out and put something in that produces better.

The herbs this year are coming on.  The Cilantro   Is a real challenge,  I need to get in the groove and sow new plants ever two to three weeks.  The plants it herb garden are beginning to bolt already.   The parcly is fine, Oh, the chives are great for the early season.  Everything else is just slow to produce this early in the season.   I transplanted my french Tarragon today to a large pot.   I am  thinking about planting two  her gardens, on in pots near the back door, and a second in the fenced garden.   It just depends on if I can find the free time.

After nearly 40 years of marriage I learned that Bobbe loves black berries.  Very hard to grow here.  I had had a couple of plants here for two seasons and no berries yet.  I moved the one surviving plant to the blue berry house today.  We will see how it does.  I am thinking about going up near Sutton Lake a digging a bunch of the native wild black berries from there to my garden.   They are great flavor but very low production.  Better to have a few great berries than none.  I am thinking about the same thing for the native huckleberries.  I may make a trip the the east side of Mt. Hood and take cuttings to be rooted and transplanted to my garden.

Well I have stuck my neck out and hung my fuchsia baskets and put out many of the other tender perennials out today.   It has been quite mild and no frost for the past few days.   I check the weather forecast via the NWS for this area nightly.  If frost is in the forecast I will put the plants in the house.

Like I have said in the past it gardening here was easy it would not be as much fun.

Bob

Spring Bulbs

Well it is not even the first of June and I received two spring bulb catalogs today  www.vanengelen.com.& www.johnscheepers.com

At Snowshoe Inn, Crocus are done for the season, daffodils at just beginning to pass there peak.   Grape hyacinths are just starting to come up and are still several weeks from reaching there peak.  Spring bulbs up here help with the late winter blues.

Bob

Still alive!

Sorry I've been so quiet lately.  I put my garden in and then it started raining like crazy and then work got busy and I have not been as attentive as I would like to this year.

My blueberries and huckleberries are planted along with my German butterball potatoes and my sweet potatoes.  I'm very excited for those this year.  I am doing the vertical potting for one set of the potatoes and doing a second set old fashion in the ground way!  We'll see how they each do.  I have high hopes for the vertical planting because I'm finding my garden space this year is not quite as large as my dreams for it!  Running out of room fast.

Although, last year everything started peaking out at me right away, this year...it's going much slower.  Everything is growing....but not nearly as quickly.

I've had good success with peas, they came up right away.  And the garlic I put in last fall is growing beautifully.  My vertical potatoes are growing and I've even got corn peaking up at me.

I put my lettuce in the ground this year instead of the raised beds and I see a few peaking up but not very much and I tried shallots, leeks and sweet onions this year, I'm crossing my fingers that they grow.  The ones I planted last year in the raised beds, never really did grow correctly.  They grew up but they looked like green onions (never got a bulb).  They were all in the raised bed and since we brought that dirt in from another place it seems more "clay" like dirt.  I'm trying a few things IN the beds and out of them to see if there is a difference in the dirt.

My rhubarb is growing nicely too!  Thanks for that!!  I look forward to strawberry rhubarb pie this summer.

And finally, the much anticipated asparagus.  I didn't think anything was growing out there because of the weeds...I might have pulled up half of my crops since they're mostly "new" items for me to grow and I'm not sure what they should look like, but I DID finally find some asparagus!  So happy to see them.  One of my all time favorite vegetables.  I'm so happy to have some in my garden finally.

Not a lot of major growth, and I planted three different squash this year, yes only 3!  Only 2 are coming up so far, 1 pumpkin, 1 acorn squash and 1 zucchini, so far, no zucchini.  If I don't see growth in the next two weeks I'll plant another one to be safe.  I do love sauteed zucchini in the summer.

More from "Snowshoe Inn"

1. Well, I will not say weather has been "normal" here at Snowshoe Inn but it has been interesting.  Last week we received an inch of rain mostly during one 24 hour period.  Before that we had several nights with low temperatures in the low 20's.  I have used nearly 10 gallons of Kerosene in to keep my large greenhouse from freezing. I had taken several large geraniums out of the heated greenhouse to make room for sowing my spring garden

.  This week my asparagus has begin to show up.  the older plants first and the roots planted last season are beginning to follow.  It has been a challenge to get the asparagus established here for some reason.  I will give them a few more years but I will not be planting any more.  If they do not take out they go and something else will be in there slot.  My blueberries are recovering somewhat now.  It will take them several years to replace the growth lost this last winter.  I am becoming more of a believer in organic fertilizer practices.  I used chemical fertilizers on them last summer to try to get some growth in the plants but as fall approached the plants just would not go dormant.  The winter cold weather killed much of the new soft growth.  I have several flats of seedlings in the heated greenhouse going.  I will out plant some of the older seedlings soon if weather starts to warm up next week.  I have squash just beginning to germinate in soil blocks this week.  I am looking foreword to a "few" remember Ellie a few zucchini this summer.

enjoy

Bob

Sunday May 20th

An overcast day, great time to work in garden.  I pulled about half of the pine needles from the blueberry greenhouse.  It should have been done much earlier in the season but so many other things to do at "Snowshoe Inn".  I found that the soil was about 2 to 4 degrees cooler under the pine needles than in open garden.  It is obvious, but good to verify what I expected.  I will return the pine needles to the greenhouse when soil temperature reaches 70 degrees this summer to keep the soil cooler.  I am going to wait a while before pruning the damaged stems this season. I am hoping that much of what I think are dead are not so.  Garlic is still looking great.  The spinach in the cool greenhouse and greens in the grow room are growing faster than we can eat them.  I am going to have to just feed the compost pile soon to keep things going.  The spinach is beginning to show signs of bolting.  I did transplant some more spinach to the open garden so the harvest will be somewhat continuous.  I made up two trays of soil blocks and sowed about one and half last night. I want a potting shed, the greenhouse is too small and too hot this time of the year to work.

Well we had a T'Storm last night but not much moisture.  Oh, it sounded like a freight trail coming down the canyon.  Forecast for this week is much cooler and wet.  They current forecast has Snow later in the week.  Well see if it happens.

Bob

Early Spring

Well it is hard to believe it was 16 degrees a few days ago.  Today it was 80 degrees.  We had mom out for her Sunday at "Snowshoe Inn".  She spent the whole day on the patio with out TV!  I transplanted Walla Walla White and red storing onion plants, also transplanted asparagus root. I wish I know why my asparagus plants were not taking.  If they do not take soon, I am going to dig them up and replace them with something else.   My blueberry's took an other hit this winter.  The plants did not go dormant early enough last winter and tops froze back this winter.   Like I have said if it was easy it would not bee so much fun??   Warm weather is forecast to last a week or so.   We will see what happens.   I need to sow snow peas in soil blocks in greenhouse soon, also squash for transplanting in the middle of June. I noticed that my tomato plants have begin to germinate today.  In six weeks I will have tomato plants to out plant. I hope in 8 weeks to have pepper plants to out plant.  In August I start seedling for my winter garden. 

Keep warm and dry

Bob

Is it Spring Yet?

Well May 4th it snowed off and on all day at Snowshoe Inn.  I do have garlic in low tunnel that is up to 14 inches tall. The garlic in the adjoining raised bed is only partially germinated.  The power of the low tunnel is so evident in my location.  I did out plant some seedlings last weekend, lettuce, cabbage, etc.  good cool weather crops.  They seem to survived the last few nights with temperatures down to low 20's.  This weekend we visited Tiffany in Hermiston and celebrated Ryan's birthday.  Great time to see the kids, they grow up so fast.  I brought up some seedlings for her garden and planted her stock trough again.  3 tomato plants, some lemon cucumbers, green & yellow zucchini, Etc.  Now it is up to her to take care of them.  Upon returning tonight I found my order of onion plants from Johnny's seed in mail box.  With the warmer weather in the forecast I will have to plant 150 onion plants Monday or Tuesday.  I never run out of things to do.  The greenhouse and low tunnels are filling with seedlings and I hope to have most of the summer garden planted by the middle of June.  Soon after that I will begin to sow my true love, the winter garden.  I am really looking forward to expanding that endeavor.  Winter is when I have the time to garden and enjoy the bounty. 

     
                       The first Bickleton blooms, April 15, 2012

 This last weekend was amazing!  One of the many reasons I love living where I do.  Those blissfully perfect days, where the temperature is perfect, the birds and squirrels are tormenting each other in the trees around us, and the smell of cut grass is all around me.

I decided it was time.  I took my starts out and started planting in the raised beds.  I found that my labeling did not "last" the way I had hoped, so I have a few mystery plants that I hope I gave enough room in the bed.  I did direct sow some of the cabbages and cauliflower, just in case...

 

I followed the plan I had built online, and it worked out very nicely.  I did give myself a little too much room on a few of the rows and I had a gap in the middle of my garden, so I planted two rows of corn that were not on the plan.  Derrick didn't want me to plant corn again, but it was one of my most favorite things harvesting last year, so I'm going for it again!

I also wanted to share that having the leaves on the garden made pulling up the few weeds a SNAP!  I only had weeds where the leaves had blown off and they were very minimal.  I'm definitely doing that again next year!

I also see the way with raised beds.  My back and knees are a touch sore today bending over and working in that dirt.  Maybe once a year I'll add a bed to the garden, that keeps the cost down and hopefully as I keep doing this I'll get to know how I like my garden laid out so I don't place a bed somewhere I regret!

Anyway, I hope everyone else has had a chance to get out there and work in there garden!  Tis the season!

Seed Tips

I found this interesting way to plant the seeds for my garden.  I am going to try this when it's finally time to get out there!

-e

Winter letting up some

I was out in the garden today and found my first garlic breaking the ground. It is a variety called Siberian. It is the earliest this season. This is in a bed with a plastic cover to keep snow off bed and warm the soil. The other garlic bed still has 5 inches of snow cover. I also checked out the cabbage bed. I found one small red cabbage that was still firm. I harvested it and we will enjoy it tonight for dinner. :) When the snow melts some more I will look for a savoy cabbage and see if any of them survived the winter. I also have quite a few leeks from last year in another covered bed. Sunday I will go out and sow a few more seedlings in the greenhouse in 68 cell flats. I have a few leeks up now in flats. I will move them out to the hot bed in 3 weeks or so. The cost of heating the hot bed is high so I will keep them in the heated greenhouse as long as possible. By the time the snow is melted off I expect to have many seedlings going ready for transplanting to the garden after the last killing frost.

Last Week February 2012

Well weather remains unsettled. Friday night and Saturday morning we received about 10 to 12 inches of snow at Snowshoe Inn. I had to dig the truck plow out of the snow and put back on truck to clear the roads in the neighborhood and mom's driveway. She got a couple of inches in town. Today Sunday it was clear at 5 am when I feed Pepper, It remains partly cloudy with more sun than clouds. It is in the 70's in the greenhouse today. I picked spinach for tonight's dinner from the greenhouse and will pick some chives tonight for the baked potatoes just before dinner. Also before dinner I will pick some more micro greens from the grow room. I am getting better at growing them. I have learned to sow half a flat each Sunday or Monday, that is about how many we use each week. With two flats going, four half flats, fresh seeded, one week old seedlings, two week old seedlings and harvesting 3 week old seedlings. It is a long time up here at Snowshoe inn before the last frost day passes. One of the hardest things to learn is to be patient and spring will come. Seedlings sown too early in the greenhouse and held too long before transplanting tend not to grow too well when transplanted. I think that was the problem with my cole crops last season.

Keep warm & dry

Bob

Winter Gardening 1st week February 2012

Well the first week of February and winter is still here at Snowshoe Inn. We have about 10 inches of snow pack at the moment. This is much less than "Normal" I have been spending my time with online and hard copy seed catelogs. The internet has really changed things over the past few years.

I did sow some winter crops in the cold greenhouse last fall, but the soil was too dry at the time and germination was poor. I have been grazing off the few spinach plants that germinated for the past month. I am finally getting Bobbe trained to ask me for "fresh spinach" each night for our dinner salad. I also have a few leeks in the cold greenhouse to harvest off an on. I have lots to learn about growing them but they do add to the winter meals.

I did not start the grow room in the basement until late in the season. This year I am harvesting Micro greens. These are red and green mustard seedlings that are harvested at 3 to 4 weeks at the four leaf stage of growth. They add a little spice to our dinner salads and to my sandwiches. I also have some more spinach, arugula, leaf lettuce growing. I should be able to start harvesting the leaf lettuce next week. The grow room is a hydroponic system with a ebb & flow system I have built. It works well if I keep on top of the water system and manage the fertilizers.

The out door garden will not start growing until may for the early crops and 2nd week of June for the warm weather crops. It seems as if I need to plant my summer crops at the same time as I plant my late fall and winter crops. I think over time I will be more of a winter gardener than a traditional summer gardener.

Everyone keep warm & dry

B

January 2012 Storm

Winter has taken it's tole on the lilacs behind the house.  Notice the front 1/2 is laying over from the ice..

Starting Early

I'm so excited for my garden next year I ordered my seeds today online.  I used Territorial Seed company to get most everything I wanted.  I got a few things I didn't even know I wanted too.  Of course I am SURE I will over do it again, I have a feeling that will be habitual, but I'm very happy with my selection this year and variety I plan on planting vs last years masses of squash, kohlrabi and peas.  :)  More variety, smaller quantities!  I have learned something from my first round.  I've also ordered myself some flowers that I read are good for bringing in "good insects" so I hope to not create the aphid smorgasbord that was last years garden.  (Also, Territorial has a nice little garden "planner" that I'm just playing around with.  I think this might be a lot of fun to lay everything out and review before planting.  I really like the idea.)

Sunflowers, Morning Gold, Huckleberries, Blueberries, two types of potatoes, cabbages, green beans, lettuce, spinach and many more!  I've also built a spreadsheet with the dates to start my seeds and when to plant them in the ground and what to plant next to them  .I hope to be efficient with the space I have but there are so many factors to keep in mind.  I get caught up in total overall space but sometimes forget about watering preferences of each plant.  Not to mention the sun/shade needs of each one.  Thankfully most of my garden is full sun,  I have a few spots of shade, and one area under the neighbors pine tree that will be my asparagus home but other than that I'm hoping everything wants the sun!

On a side note, the Jalapeno plant that I re-potted seems to be surviving.  I brought it inside when it started getting cold and it sat unattended for almost a month down in our basement (I forgot about it!) then it was moved upstairs into a room with some sun.  It lost a lot of leaves, but checking on it today it seems to be perking back up.  I think I'm going to actually pot it in a nice pot and keep it year round in the house.  I know it's silly but I really have grown attached to that plant!  I loved the peppers it gave me this year.  I'm seeing it more as a reminder or collectible from my first garden at this point.  I hope I can keep it for a while.

Anyway, I hope your winter gardens are going well.  I find I'm never home before the sun goes down much and I'm a wimp in the cold so I really only have brussel sprouts going now.  Not much else.  I could be doing stuff, the weather has been mild enough but I think I'm a fair weather gardener at this point.

Happy 2012!  I hope we all have a fruitful year in our respective gardens.