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.