Fall Harvest, November Snowstorm and a Long Winter's Nap.

 

The garden did fairly well for the length of time that I actually had spent gardening. 

                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                 

I had a few harvests of squash and tomatoes in late September and early October.  The peppers and tomatillos I had planted did not produce anything.  I think it was because I did not get them planted until it was too late in the season. 

Pictured below:  (Clockwise, from top left) Yellow Crookneck summer squash, Buttercup winter squash, Cherokee Purple tomato, Early Girl tomato.                                                                                                                                                                     

   

            

Frosty nights were predicted, and as I hadn't picked all the produce, I took precautions by covering the tomato and squash plants every night with some old quilts.  With a quilt covering, the frost nipped the plants but did not kill them.  Warm days returned, I suspended the nightly quilt covering, and I continued to harvest a few more squash and tomatoes.  

The harvest finally ended when we had a snowstorm in mid November.  Nine inches of snow fell and that killed the garden.  I was really regretting that I hadn't simply cleaned up the garden in October! 

Luckily, the weather warmed, the snow melted away, and I was able to do the garden cleanup.  I pulled out all the dead tomato and squash plants and put them in the compost pile.   Then I dug up the soil and raked it all smooth so that it would be ready for planting in the Spring.

More snow arrived on Christmas to blanket the garden, and now it is truly tucked in for the winter!

    

Caging Tomatoes Gone Wild!

All this time I had been removing grass and digging up the soil as quickly as I could.  The movers had arrived to deliver my household goods and I had more things to do.  Since I had gotten such a late start on a garden, I never really knew if my vegetable seedlings would grow very much.   I told myself that even if they did not grow this year, all the work I was doing now would be garden work that I would not have to do next year.  However, by July 30th I realized that the little tomato plants were really growing!  I realized that if I did not support these growing tomato plants, they would soon be sprawled all over the garden area with their fruits developing exposed and resting on the surface of the soil!  Tomatoes Gone Wild!

As I had done in the past, I purchased a roll of concrete reinforcing wire and using a pair of bolt cutters and some zip-ties, I constructed sturdy cages for the tomato and tomatillo plants.  

The method that I used for making the cages can be read in a previous issue of this blog.  I cannot figure out how to make this a link to click on to the past blog post but the date and title is:

Tuesday, July 17, 2012; Tomato Cages, Trellises and Dry, Dry Weather. 
The URL address is  http://thisgirlgardens.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html

I think if you highlight the above URL and then right click on it you can select the option that will take you to this page.  You might have to scroll down to the correct date.  


In this picture, taken July 30, 2014 you can see the cages surrounding the tomato and tomatillo plants.  You can also see that I have also planted one squash plant.  It looks a bit sickly.  That poor squash plant had been subjected to existing in a peat pot for over a month.  I hope it lives!  

I Couldn't Wait to Get Started

Since the movers hadn't arrived with my household goods, I had the opportunity to do things like get the interior walls of the house painted, have the carpet cleaned and.... start a garden! I located the sunniest spot in the yard.  It gets full sun all day.  And that is where I decided to start.  I went to the local home improvement store to buy a few garden seedlings, and a couple of bags of compost and a bag of peat moss.  The selection of vegetable varieties was pretty good.  I selected a Big Boy hybrid tomato, Super Sweet 100 cherry tomato, Cherokee Purple heirloom tomato, Indigo Rose tomato, a tomatillo, Brights Lights swiss chard, Ancho peppers, Crookneck squash, Zucchini squash and Butternut squash.

It seemed pretty straightforward.  Based on previous experience, I would start by removing the grass in a 4' X 4' area and then loosen the soil by digging and turning it over.

It turns out that this was easier said than done.  It was really difficult to get the grass out!  I hit a rock and what appeared to be clay soil.  I rethought my plan and decided maybe a 2' X 2' area would be a good start.  It took me an hour and a half to do that little bit.  I called it a day!

Fresh from a good night's rest, I went out the next day and thought I would dig up the soil.  However, the previous day's experience was repeated.  It seemed that every time I tried to sink the shovel down into the soil, I hit more rocks.  There were lots of rocks.  Some of what I first thought were rocks, were actually gobs of dry hardened clay.  I could tell the difference only because when the shovel hit a rock it made a definite "clink" or grating sound.  Clods of clay, on the other hand, seemed as hard as a rock, but with effort could be crushed against the shovel blade.  I wet a handful of the soil and squeezed it.  When I opened my hand it retained the exact shape of how my hand had molded it!  It did not fall apart... not even a little bit.  The soil  definitely had lots of clay in it!

I managed to get the soil turned over and rocks removed in the 2' X 2' area in two hours.  Whew!  I called it another day!  Here are the rocks that I removed from that 2' X 2' area.

The next day I spread half a bag of compost and a few shovelfuls of peat moss evenly over the area and then dug it into the soil.  Peat moss is great for lightening heavy clay soils and compost adds organic matter and helps lighten and add fertility.  

Then I planted the 8" tall Big Boy hybrid tomato plant.  Then I watered it.  

The next day, I started all over again.  I removed the grass from another 2' X 2" area.  Then the following day I dug out the rocks, then turned the soil, then added compost and peat moss, then planted another seedling.  I continued to do this almost every day, and by the 15th of July I had four tomato plants, one tomatillo and two pepper plants in the ground.  The first tomato plant, the Big Boy, had started to really show growth.  

A Big Move - 

Circumstances change and Life happens!  Living in New England was a beautiful experience.  I treasure the remarkable friendships I made and the many memories that I have.  There is definitely something to be said for the places one considers "home".  The people, the beauty of the landscape, the weather, the way the air feels and smells in the morning as the sun is coming up.  These are characteristics and sensations that imprint upon me.

Perhaps it was the long cold winter.  Having spent winters in Grand Coulee Washington and Southwest Idaho, I thought I "knew" Winter.  However, if comparing winter hardships... coldest temperatures, depth of freeze, deepest snow, quantity of snow, continual snow, length of snowfall, latest snow, etc.... by March of this year I conceded that New England had won the match!  As I gazed out on the snowbanks that marked the edges of my driveway, I knew that my time in New England was over and the West was calling.

I booked a flight to Idaho to look for a house.  I suppose if I hadn't found one I liked, I might still be in New England!  Nevertheless, I found a house I liked and when my offer was accepted, I began to plan a move in earnest. I packed, I hired movers, I hired a realtor and I said goodbye to my little house in Vermont.  I will miss the beautiful sunsets on Lake Champlain, which I enjoyed every evening.  I will miss the beautiful Spring and Summer days, many of which I spent in my yard and garden.  I will miss the gorgeous autumn leaves, the crisp autumn air and the sightings of moose that I was treated to in the Northeast Kingdom.  I will miss my walks along the lake, listening to the lapping of the waves.  I will miss my neighbors and friends and I will even miss the incredible snowfalls. 

I loaded up my houseplants, my gecko and tarantula, and drove my sixteen-year-old Nissan Pathfinder 2,700 miles across the country to my new home in Idaho.  What a trip it was!  I left Vermont white-knuckled, driving in a torrential rain storm, managed the rush hour traffic on the south side of Chicago (all the while thinking about Leroy Brown!), and dodged tornados in Iowa!  I saw some incredible scenery: The Allegheny Mountains, the Monongahela River, The Mississippi River, the fields and prairies of Iowa and Nebraska, the open range of Wyoming, and the gorgeous mountains of Utah and Idaho.  However, the real highlights of my trip included stopping along the way to visit Cousin Bob and Mary Ellen, Kim and Jodi, and friends Linette, Roger and April. 

Once I got to my new home, I began to think about my yard and garden.  The house is in suburbia.  The yard is fairly plain.  Both the front and back yard have automatic sprinklers.  The front yard has the obligatory grass and shrub landscaping.  The back yard is all grass with a small well-built garden shed that sits in the shade on the north side of a lone maple tree.  Between the maple tree and the shed is an area that looks like it might have been a garden at one time.  However, the maple tree has grown very large and now shades that area most of the day.  A small lilac bush is growing on the other side of the maple tree next to the back fence.  The side yard areas are not watered and consist of clay and packed gravel. It is hot and dry there.  One of the side yards is large enough for parking a vehicle or an RV.  The other side yard is much smaller.  A few weeds have managed to sprout up in those areas, but nothing else.   So this is what I have to work with.  The following pictures were taken about June 20.

In this picture:  Fence and grass.  The side yard, where only a few weeds sprout up is visible to the left in this picture.  

In the picture below:  More fence and grass.  You can see the neighbors trees.  A Casuarina and a large weeping curly willow.  

In the picture below: More fence and grass, and the neighbor's weeping curly willow.

In the picture below: More grass and fence and the small lilac bush against the fence.

In the picture below:  More fence and grass.  There is the large maple tree.  The only tree in the yard.  you can see a corner of the well-built shed.  Between the shed and the maple tree is an area that looks like it might have been a garden spot at one time.  Now that the maple tree is so large, that area is in the shade most of the day.

A good picture of the garden shed!

In the picture below you can see more fence and grass, a tiny bit of the garden shed at the left, and a bit of the side of the house on the right.  The concrete in the foreground is a patio area. There is my brand new garden hose that I bought.

Stay tuned.  This is going to be fun!

Strawberry Hunting

As I mentioned previously, we have had a lot of rain.  My informal rain gauge is a 5 gallon bucket from Lowes Home Improvement Center.  I just leave the bucket sitting out in an open area of the yard.  Open area means, no tree branches overhead.  Every day, when I go outside, I check to see how much rain has fallen since I looked the day before.  Nearly every day, for the last month and a half, I have emptied 1/2" to 1" of water out of the bucket!  That is quite a bit of rain!

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Also, I mentioned previously that the rain has really made the garden grow.  This has done a great job for the vegetables.  It has also contributed to the lush green growth of the weeds!  As you can see from the next picture, the weeds have taken over!  One can hardly tell the difference between the radishes, lettuce and the weeds in this bed!

As I was gazing at this mess, I noticed something red in amongst the weeds of one of the raised beds.  

Oh. My. Gosh.  

Could it be true?  Might it be a strawberry at last?  Yes!  Hidden down in the weeds I found a large strawberry with two others developing next to it!  

Last year, with high hopes and big plans, I set out 50 strawberry plants in two 8' x 4' raised beds.  They really did not do very well.  Alot of them just died.  I had grown strawberries successfully in Texas, Washington, Idaho and Nevada.  I wondered if maybe there was some secret to growing them in Vermont!!  

Over the winter even more of them died.  I speculated that I should have mulched them to protect them from the severe cold.  

This Spring I found that the ones that survived were the new starts that had sprouted from runners which the mother plants had sent out into the bark-mulched garden paths.  

I transplanted all of those wanderers (about twenty plants) back into one 8' x 4' bed.  They seemed to do well, and quite clearly the rain has done wonders for those strawberry plants. 

Further hunting rewarded me with one dozen of the beauties!  Oh Yum!  What a treat.... one dozen organically grown, freshly picked, super sweet strawberries!

Have a nice day!

Sauteed Radish Greens and Roots

As promised, here is the recipe

for Sauteed Radish Greens and Roots

Wash the radishes really well removing all the soil from the roots and leaves.

Cut off and discard the root ends and the part of the plant where the stems attach to the roots.  Slice the roots and the leaves.

Slice one clove of garlic and sautee the garlic in olive oil until it is barely golden brown.

Add the sliced radish roots and stir fry briefly until you see the slices begin to become transparent. It only takes about 30 seconds or so.  Add the leaves and stir fry just until the greens are slightly wilted.  

Serve immediately.  Salt to taste and/or add Bragg's Liquid Aminos for seasoning.  

Enjoy... It is delicious!

Have a great day!

Radishes and Rain

If I could characterize the last half of May and the month of June... I would use two words... Radishes and Rain!  

We have had a lot of rain!  It seems as if we have had only five or six days of sunshine for a month and a half!  The rainfall has really helped the garden to grow.  I have not had to use any supplemental water from the household water supply to keep everything going.  

The Cherry Belle radishes are doing great!  

I have had enough radishes to eat them out of hand, sliced in salads, sliced in vinegar and even tried them stir fried after reading of such a thing from another gardener, Mark Ridsdill Smith, who blogs about growing vegetables on his small balcony while residing in London, England.  He also has a facebook page which I encourage you to check out.  It is called "Vertical Veg".  Mark recommended using the early thinnings of radishes by lightly sauteeing them for greens!

I stir fried the greens and the sliced roots with garlic and they were delicious!  For those who are interested, I will post pictures of this recipe in the very next blog.

Have a great day!