RKayne's Blog

Emergency Cow Poop.
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

I really wanted to put in Walla Wallas today but the soil is still 'dirt' so I went to the local Home Depot and 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, I am 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, I planted! I planted the Walla Walla's that I was going to anyways, but 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 I 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 a 'garlic rectangle' and 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....I should have solid green in about a month! wOOt!

Next week? Cold Frames based out of the containers that our greens come in.
I shall plant the tomatoes, I have Brandywine and my cross breed black prince/brandywines from last year, and some cherry sweets :D

Honestly....pics...
soon. I took some but the batteries need to charge up a bit, had to charge them a tad to take pics. Damn I need a new camera, haha.

Fall goodies
Sep 11, 2007 | 11:28 AM PST
Tags: brussel sprouts , Walla Walla , Sweet Onions , tomato , compost , manure , cold frame , broccoli , Bloomsdale Spinach , kohlrabi , sugar snap pea seeds , early radish seeds , forced bolting

I got excited about doing some cold weather planting, now I just have to figure out what else to put in when the tomato's are done! I know I will be planting some Walla Walla onions in between the maters as they need to be there now, and then get some of the best sweet onions in the world come spring. But for the other spot, there are the sugar snap peas that are done, and I need to go pick the seed off of them and the early radishes I forced to bolt for next spring and clear it out. So, I will clear it, take down the trellis and stir in some compost and manure. I got some broccoli and brussel sprout seed, and there was something else! And I can't remember! OH! YES! PURPLE KOHLRABI! I love this, love tasty stuff that has odd appearances, these will suffice, hehe. As the tomatoes are finishing (I have time) I will probably throw spinach in..fresh spinach, yum! I am on the lookout for some material to make a cold frame as that is move able, I may lease on for the next year but if not I want to be able to move it! That would be great, having fresh lettuce all winter!