AngelsGarden's Blog
AngelsGarden's posts about: grass
Feb 4, 2008 | 3:11 PM PST
Tags: raking , weeds , grass , fertilizer , Swiss Chard , cabbage , garden snails , thyme , golden beet , kohlrabi , peas , radish , romaine
Every year when we have our first big day of outdoor work, I always come away feeling satisfied and of course sore. LOL Thats just part of it. A pair of good sore hands and knowing that you did a good job on the projects you worked on. Todays weather was especially beautiful. Temps got up to 78F with a nice breeze that was sometimes a little gusty. Just a very beautiful day. So outside I went, and outside I stayed, until my stomach insisted that it MUST be fed. I got quite a bit done....so here it is.
I loosed and raked the soil in the second raised bed, removing any weeds and grass along the way. There weren't many weed though. I mixed in fertilizer as well. I planted peas, parsley, kohlrabi, radish, parsnip and romaine lettuce. It may sound like alot, but the way I planted it should work out great.
I transplanted two small Swiss Chard plants that overwintered. They are the Neon Lights variety...so pretty! I put them into the first bed that I had planted peas in last week. I also transplanted a small thyme plant into the same bed, next to another one. Maybe they will make a nice clump of thyme this summer. In that first bed I also finished out the remaining space with some golden beet seed. I would like to try some of those fresh, and roasted. Yummy! Some of the greens that I planted last week are up and I think that the peas are going to be quick to follow.
Baby arugula
Swiss Chard, Neon Lights
The remaining cabbages were picked and cleaned of their holy outer leaves. There were alot of garden snails hangin' around that area. I will have to remember that for this fall.
The flower bed that is near the chickens was in desperate need of attention. I raked(which is what caused the sore hands), pulled out and transplanted, added new plants and bulbs, planted seed, and so on and so on. I think the changes will be great.
This is a clump of baby Shasta Daisies that my girls planted last summer.
Narcissus/Paperwhite buds are coming up.
This oregano has overwintered and stayed green. Its spreading and going up and over the edges of the pot.
These are the Angel Trumpet stumps that were left after I trimmed them back. Now they are starting to sprout from the base. It looks like it will be alot fuller this year.
Sep 11, 2007 | 9:34 AM PST
Tags: Romaine Lettuce , Bloomsdale Spinach , Bibb Lettuce , Neon Lights Swiss Chard , Fall Veggies , Grass , Fire Ants , Early Girl Tomato , Cabbage , Pacman Broccoli , Crispy Frills Lettuce , Collard Greens
I must write this down before I forget what exactly I planted. Yesterday I finished cleaning up the 2nd and 3rd beds in the garden. The one that had the sweet potatoes in it this summer was an easy one. I just evened out the soil and took out a few small weeds. Fertilizer was then sprinkled over the whole bed and mixed into the top few inches. I watered the bed lightly and waited a few hrs before planting. Then I made shallow furrows across the bed. I planted the whole bed with greens. A couple of rows of each, Parris Island Romaine Lettuce, Bloomsdale Long-standing Spinach, Bibb Lettuce and Neon Lights Swiss Chard. I did leave some of the small sweet potato vines that were around the edge of the bed. I don't think they will have time to get large enough to bother the greens and the vines are pretty but still small.
The next bed took a little more work. It still had a little of that nasty grass that spreads by runners, that had to be removed. I dug a small furrow around the entire bed and put that soil up into it. The whole bed is raised about 6in. There were fire ants at one end of the bed so I had to be careful. I did end the day with plenty of mosquito and ant bites, hazards of the hobby I guess. After the bed was ready I fertilized, watered and waited just like the other one. In this bed I planted the Early Girl Tomato, Cabbage, Pacman Broccoli and Crispy Frills Lettuce (which is one of my very favorite lettuce types). I also planted a little bit of Collard Greens seed around the end of the bed where the tomato is, the greens will last longer into the winter than the tomato plant. It might seem silly to be planting a tomato plant this time of year....but, its a quick ripening tomato and I am hoping to get a few red and plenty of green. It will be a good excuse to try RKaynes recipe for fried green tomatoes.
I didn't take pictures of the beds yet. I think I will wait until the greens sprout, then take pics of both beds and add the pics to this entry.
Jul 9, 2007 | 7:55 AM PST
Tags: rain , temperatures , grass , mowing , Brandywine tomatoes , Sweet 100 cherry tomato , Burpee Beefsteak tomato , Rutger tomato , birds , Watermelon , Celeste Fig Tree , Fertilizer stakes , Eggplant , Black Beauty Eggplant , Compost pile , RidX , Asparagus , Jersey Knight , Purple Passion
There has been alot going on, even though it has rained a majority of the last two weeks. If it didn't rain in the morning it would later in the day. The temps have been great though, not over 85 and even had one afternoon that was down to 72 because of the storm passing through. Of course I couldn't take advantage of these nice temps too much because of the rain and soggy ground. The grass had gotten so tall it was kind of rediculous. Everytime I though I was going to be able to take out the mower.....I would go and check the radar on the comp. and there was a big green and yellow spot comin' right at me. So I just waited. Tall grass for awhile doesn't hurt anything. Just isn't that comfy to walk in, especially when wet. I haven't had to water the garden....obviously, very nice.
Some of the tomatoes have been doing great. The cherrys and the Brandywine especially. We have been harvesting beautiful tomatoes everyday off of the cherry and every couple of days off of the Brandywine. The Burpee Beefsteak has succumbed to some kind of wilt....it was supposed to be resistant! Oh well, just won't grow that kind again. I also plan to cover that area of soil with plastic so it can cook over the rest of the hot summer. Hopefully that will help keep it from spreading if it had the notion. The Rutgers would be doing great if it wasn't for the beefsteak next to them. Some of the leaves on the Rutger that is closest to where the beefsteak was have started to show signs of the wilt as well. They are so far along though I don't think it will have a drastic effect on the harvest though. I just harvested the first tomato off of the Rutger. ALL LARGE TOMATOES MUST BE HARVESTED BEFORE FULLY RIPE. The birds have decided that they are going to snack on them at breakfast if I let them ripen completely on the plants. Almost penny size holes!!! So I am just beating them to the tomatoes.
In the center area where I had the Giant Pumpkin.....The watermelon has completely taken over. There aren't even hardly any weeds popping up because the vines are so thick. I have some of the baby watermelons getting some good size on them. They seem to just jump in size overnight. I am encouraged that the melons themselves are getting bigger. Being that they were seeds saved from an unknown cultivar I had no idea what they would do. Here is a picture of one of the bigger watermelons.
The fig tree has about 40 little figs on it and has started to sprout some new growth as well. It also has some tiny red dots on some of the leaves. I need to put some more fertilizer stakes around it. I am hoping to train it as a bush and keep it about 6ft. tall. If I have to trim it after that I want to try to sprout the pieces I trim to grow more.
The eggplant have continued to do good. There are a good amount of baby eggplants on most of the plants, and I have harvested a few more. I don't know what is a GREAT crop for an eggplant but I am happy with what is there. Three of the kinds that I started from seed stay on the smaller size, like a large orange. The ones that I tasted have been delicious. Now there are some of the Black Beauty ones swelling in size, here is a picture of them. Very shiny and dark purple.
The way my compost pile is set up, is just not working. Its not cooking very fast. I don't have it covered, its in the shade and I don't stir it. LOL, It will get there maybe by this fall. We cleaned out the chicken house yesterday and added all of the waste and old hay to it. I also sprinkled over the rest of a bag of "compost maker" that I had left. It doesn't seem like that stuff works very fast though. Maybe I haven't added enough of it. Yesterday at church I was talking to a farmer that said someone told him that RidX works great on a compost pile. I have no idea whats in that...don't know if it would be considered organic or not. I am going to make sure it is all piled up really good and then cover it with a black tarp that I have, maybe that will help it along as well. I don't think letting the rain just wash through it the last couple of weeks has helped either. I am hoping that by this fall it will be broken down enough to use on the perennial beds. Don't want to use it on the veggie garden because I add grass clippings from the back yard, which is where the doggies have their outhouse. ;)
The asparagus is doing better than I expected. It is still sending up shoots, very surprised about that. It also has put on seed pods on a few ferns. They are still green though. I accidently broke the tip off of a new shoot awhile back....so I had to taste it, it was very yummy. Now I can't wait until next spring. The only thing bad that has happed has been puppy damage. Before I sold 3 of them they got into one of the beds and were running around. They broke off a few of the ferns. Aggravating!!! Only one puppy left to sell!!! Thank God she is calmer now that the others are gone. I think that I need to make some kind of support frame to go around the ferns though. They are really leaning in some places. That can be a project for early winter. Next spring the ferns should be thicker too which should help as well. Here are a couple of pics. #1 is ferns on the Jersey variety and #2 is new shoot coming up on the Purple Passion variety.
Jun 22, 2007 | 7:52 AM PST
Tags: grass , compost , zucchini , leaf footed bugs , squash borers , mowing
Wed. evening I was able to get out into the garden and get 4 buckets of the bane of my garden removed...GRASS. I had to use the pitch fork to loosen the soil so I could get the runners from under the soil. When we tilled it early this spring to add the rabbit manure we didn't remove all of this grass first. Now it is all coming back from all of the little pieces that were chopped up and are now under the soil. I am lucky in the fact that my 5 yr old is a gardener to the bone like me, she loves and begs to help when I am doing things like that. I would show here were to put the pitch fork and she would get on and rock side to side to get it down in the soil. She doesn't weigh much but she is determined. Then we would pull it back to loosen the area where we wanted to work. Its nice to have someone around that enjoys gardening like I do, even the weeding. Its still satisfying to get it removed, even if it is just pulling grass. I got a good area cleared out and hope to get the rest done by the end of the weekend.
After all of the grass is removed I will be planting where needed. I will remove all Zucc. plants as they have been too damaged by the leaf footed bugs and squash borers. I need to get a list together of all that I will be planting. I just picked up some more seeds last week that are clearanced because its summer now.
Last night I mowed the back yard. It had gotten kind of tall because of all the rain we have had lately. Its been good for the garden though, I haven't had to water the garden in quit awhile. I used the bagger on the mower and put some of the clippings in the compost, its getting pretty damp though. I spread the rest of them around in different places along fences and such where it will help to keep down weeds and or grass. I am doing much better this year with keeping the yard mowed. At least I don't have scruffy, leather faced guys coming to the door asking to mow the yard yet this year. LOL
Jun 14, 2007 | 3:55 PM PST
Tags: grass , weeding , herbicide , pole beans , zucchini , weather
We are going into the hotter part of the summer. It has been over 90 and up to 100 for the last couple of weeks. At this point in my garden most of the work that needs done is just weeding. Over the last few days I have been trying to eradicate, at least to some degree, the grass that is taking over. Even where I put down newspapers and mulch there is this nightmare type of grass that is growing by leaps and bounds. It spreads under and above ground by runners. When I try to pull it I have to be very careful or it will break inbetween the nodes where it has put down roots. I have tried just spraying vinegar on it. The grass just laughs, "I will conquer!", it says. The only solution seems to be the Chair and Pitch Fork method. I loosen the soil and meticulously remove as many root and runner pieces as possible. We have had frequent afternoon showers lately so the soil is cooperative with this method. I will continue to work on this problem, I think that if I make sure that I clean really good this fall also and don't let it get out of hand this winter that will make a big difference for the next summer growing season. Something for everyone to remember....IF YOU HAVE WEED OR GRASS THAT SPREADS BY RUNNERS OR CURRENTLY HAS SEEDS, USING A TILLER IN THAT AREA WILL ONLY MULTIPLY YOUR PROBLEMS LATER. Planing ahead would have saved me at least some of this headache. I could have sprayed with an herbicide that is stronger, right now I wouldn't because of all of the veggies growing. At least now the side affects from my heart medication have leveled off and I have more energy to get out there and tackle this problem.
The green and purple pole beans are doing great. Especially the purple, this morning I harvested a gallon size zip-lock bag full. I also got my first zucchini!
