RKayne's Blog
RKayne's posts about: garlic
Feb 10, 2008 | 4:24 PM PST
Tags: Brandywine , Cherry Tomato , compost , butterleaf lettuce , green leaf lettuce , Walla Walla Sweet Onions , Smooth Leafed Olympic Spinach , Radishes , Garlic , Black Prince , Cold Frame
So, I talked to G today about how we really couldn't do much until we treated the dirt at the end to make it soil. He totally got it but was a bit put out as we really wanted to put the Walla Walla sweet onions in today...so, I came inside and got Carry to take me to the local Home Depot and we got some 'emergency cow poop', came home and I dumped about a bag and a half between the two spaces.
At this very moment I am reading a book called 'Cubed Foot Gardening' by Christopher O. Bird. Well, I really like what he has to say. So, we are doing an intensive seasonal rotation garden. Going through it I decided to ignore the packets suggestions (I know! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING???) Either way, I looked through our last frost, possible first frost...and found that for some reason (Ring of fire? Could it be the volcanoes? Hmmm...maybe ;) ) that our growing season is actually LONGER then where I grew up in NC! Maybe a month or so longer! Wow.
So, we planted! We planted the Walla Walla's that we were going to anyways, but they also planted the smooth leafed Olympic spinach according to the 'cubed ft design. Spinach is kinda tall so it gets the north side of the garden all over! Then we put the onions in front of the spinach to fill the area on the north side. On the south side I planted all the lettuces and some onions. I put the butterleaf and greenleaf through my newly opened area and then in his 'garlic rectangle' G put early radishes. So, assuming things work the way I have been reading, both online and in the book, and from what I saw last year....we should have solid green in about a month! wOOt!
Next week? Cold Frames based out of the containers that our greens come in.
We shall plant the tomatoes, we have Brandywine and my cross breed black prince/brandywines from last year, and some cherry sweets for G cuz that boy can GO through some maters!!! our deal, on his side he can eat all of them he wants, on ours, ASK! LOL!
Honestly....pics...
soon. I took some but the batteries need to charge up a bit, had to chare them a tad to take pics. Damn we need a new camera, haha.
Jan 17, 2008 | 10:56 AM PST
Tags: triple curled parsley , compost , companion planting , tomatoes , kohlrabi , Walla Walla Onions , cold frame , garlic
We are in zone 7B here. Almost time to gear up! I have a couple of the large boxes that salad comes in so am going to introduce our youngest to cold framing. He is going to grow Kohlrabi this year so it looks like, the best bet, would be to go ahead and cold frame the starts at the end of this month, beginning of next as our last frost SHOULD be about March 24th.
The other item he is going to grow is Walla Walla sweet onions. He got the area ready and composted in Fall so they will have he perfect setting and I plan to place them randomly as they also lend to being a pest deterrant.
I need to get a new pic of my Parsley, you can't see it between the last of the tomatoes there but it has gone plumb crazy with the nice cold weather, beautiful tufts of green-ness, like giant green snowballs (the pastry...if you can call them that, haha). I had put it in for two reasons, one, I love fresh parsley, but more so for the fact that parsley and tomatoes are companion plants. I had the added benefit of having something nice and green through these winter months on my side.
Interestingly enough, the garlic (this hedges his space, sides and back, random side and back on my side) decided to come up with our warm snap. Nature came to her sense and was all over the being winter again these past few days and the garlic does not seem to care so maybe it will just keep going. G there is excited as this is the first results he is seeing for all his hard work, he went out the other day 'just to look at the garlic'. Hard to teach an 8 year old patience but he has been pretty good at it (or he just kinda forgot for a bit, hehe).
Nov 8, 2007 | 10:57 AM PST
Tags: Cuban Oregano , Walla Walla Onions , brussel sprouts , Purple Kohlrabi , Tomatoes , Garlic
It is getting cold and much cleanup must be done. Our youngest is getting his side ready, all by himself. I need to get him some mulch to help the fact that we have a neighbor cat pooping in his bed! Once we get some mulch he is going to plant Garlic and Walla Walla sweet onions. We sat and created his plan last night, of course he is *almost* 8 so he is a bit disappointed that he will not really see anything till spring but I already picked him up some Brussels Sprouts and Purple Kohlrabi seed for spring too so that will be fun! I also promised this little tomato eating machine his own tomato plants so maybe the rest of us will get some, LOL! See how much nicer his side is? I really need to get out there! I did *not* tell him I dumped half a bag of cow poop in with the soil he was working in!
So, to counteract his disappointment I showed him something last night. He had forgotten that I had taken a couple cuttings off of my *very* irritated Cuban Oregano to see how fast it would root in water. Lo and behold it is rooting rather quickly so I showed him one and he goes 'Roots!' and then I reminded him that he would get on for his room. Little guy walked around for a half hour sniffing one of those wonderful, soft leaves so I told him we would make sure he gets one for his room too. Then he goes 'Can we have ten? Twenty? a HUNDRED???'. I could only laugh, thinking I am creating a monster (and he does know where the pots are, hard to miss them!).
Oct 3, 2007 | 11:11 AM PST
Tags: Tomato , Brussels Sprouts , Radish , schefflera , spinach , lettuce , Purple Kolhrabi , Walla Walla , garlic , Sugar Snap Peas , Jade , Black Prince Tomato , Brandywine tomatoes , jalapeño , Cold Stratify , Rain
So, we have a new cam, so pics will be forthcoming. We have been getting rather a bit of rain (about time) but it is finally the end of the 'real' gardening season. If I can figure out a way to do it with minimal dirt (I know I should use at least a 5 gallon container but am willing to take a risk) I may cold stratify some of the tomato seeds I saved and start them up here in the office. That would be kind of cool, having some fresh tomatoes here. I kept some Black Prince and Brandywine seeds, although who knows what they will end up being as there were a few different varieties of tomatoes out there and I did not bag them so they are no doubt cross pollinated. I really don't mind, as long as they are fresh! I am planning on starting up some of the Jalapeno seeds I saved, I know it will do fine in a relatively smaller pot. I have all this sunshine here at my desk so I might as well take advantage of it, right?
On another note, my wife just started her new job (she actually is going to get paid to learn, and sign language at that, I am stoked as I have always wanted to learn to sign so she is going to have to teach me...and several other people in my office LOL) and she does have her own office so I have another project. Nice pots and some plants for it. She wants to take the Jade and I am all for it, but we will have to get a full spectrum bulb and lamp as she doesn't have any windows and that bugger needs some light! I have some cuttings I have taken from my office building and her old one of this corn looking plant that I still don't know what it is, but do know that bugger will grow in the dark, haha and some Schefflera cuttings I took from her old building that have all rooted up nicely.
My favorite story about Schefflera's...A pal of mine owned a hotel on the NC coast and the hurricane wall they had put in was coming down after a particularly nasty storm so the hotel had to come down. The people who were hired to take all the furniture and whatnot out and put it in storage really were not all that smart as they put all the plants in the storage unit as well. Three months later we opened up the unit, having already assumed the plants were living in the movers homes (nothing to quibble about, this all had to be done fast so the owner just figured a home is a home) and there they were. No water, no sun, three months...they were fine. They were Schefflera.
Time to get going on some winter gardening. I got seed for Walla Walla sweet onins, Garlic cloves, Purple Kohlrabi, Brussels Sprouts and Spinach so far. I have cleared the sugar snap pea bed so now all I need to do is take down the trellis (I used screws so it is basically collapsible) and recondition the little plot o'dirt and wait for the maters to finish up, collect the radish seeds from the early radish's that I let bolt and do that soil as well and I figure that I will let our youngest help (he will love to) since I already told him the one side is all his! He gets to plant the garlic, onions, (he wants them now but I had to explain that they will be in spring!) Brussels Sprouts and Kohlrabi. I thought that he would get a kick out of being able to not only garden while it is cold, but they are very neat looking plants. He and I are the only ones in the house who will eat Brussels Sprouts so we will be having plenty of them, haha.
I will plant the spinach and plan on several lettuce varieties for this fall and come early spring in my tomato and radish bed, yum!
Pictures will be soon, I promise!
ps~ this blog post has been Cut and Pasted!
Jun 7, 2007 | 2:31 PM PST
Tags: Sugar Snap Peas , Radish , Garlic , Sweet Onion , trellis , Epsom Salts
My baby Radishes...they are an early variety, harvest in 22 DAYS! So I will plant a second round when it is time for these...my Honey and I both love snacking radishes :D
Then there is the garlic, I went to get some free pots (I love free pots, I use SO many) and she gave me some garlic...and some of what she thought might be volunteer garlic but when I dumped them out of the pot I very carefully separated them and planted them...sweet white onions :D
So there were a few days here that SERIOUSLY baked and I got worried about the sugar snap peas I had sowed so I few them epsom salts and watered it in really good and KABAM! Let there be sugar snap peas! I have the material I need and a helping hand (my Honey) so I will be building a nice platform/Japanese style trellis for them this weekend. I was working on the fishtank cover but HAVE to get the trellis done...will try to get them both done as I really want to get that tank going, it is 55 gallon.
