OmahaJB's 2009 Garden Journal

[OmahaJB]

Last year I started a thread regarding problems I was having with starting from seed, and it turned into a garden journal, which I updated about once a week or so. I enjoyed coming here posting updates on my very small garden, and found myself going back once in awhile to remind myself when I did one thing or another, such as a planting date. Since I'm learning new things all the time about gardening outdoors, maybe this will help others as well. I had several PM's last year from folks letting me know that my thread helped them, which surprised me since I'm basically still a novice at gardening.

I'm starting this in the Starting from Seed forum since I've started everything from seed, and because a thread like this would get buried on page 2 or 3 of the General Discussion forum quickly making updating it more of a pain than necessary. Still on dial-up here so pages take awhile to load.

First, thanks to everyone who traded seeds with me this year - and in previous years. That's always enjoyable and growing my 'seed bank' is a good thing. If you don't see the seeds you sent to me listed in my growouts it's most likely because I'll have a small garden again this year, and probably did not have enough space for it in '09. I'm planning on winning the lottery this year and will buy property of my own with enough land to have a large garden in 2010. We'll see how that turns out. But this year, thanks to dear Mom, I'll be growing my garden in her backyard. It's only about a 15 minute drive so will work out well unless gas prices go back up to $4/gallon. Drill here. Drill now, baby!

The first seeds were sown very early, however they were not vegetables or fruit - they were daylilies. One day last November or December I became enamored with daylilies after watching a segment on 'Gardening by the Yard'. I was directed by a member here to a site that auctions off daylilly seed and plants. I bid on seeds and won a couple of auctions. If memory serves me correctly the site is Daylilly.org or Daylily.org. Anyway, I ended up with over 70 seedlings and have planted some outdoors, and will plant more today or tomorrow. I doubt I'll plant all 70. There are some that look fairly weak and others that are very strong. From what I've learned so far, I wont see flowers until at least late July of 2010, and possibly later. The wait will be worth it, I'm sure of it.

I told myself I wasn't going to buy seeds this year or do any trading, but what the heck, I did so anyways. Since I decided to grow eggplant, cucumbers, squash, and pumpkin for the first time, I needed to acquire seeds for those.

Most everything is planted already, but I did start more tomato seedlings about a month ago, so have to wait to see if they survive. If not I'll need to buy more. As it stands now I only have 3 tomato plants in the ground. Totally unacceptable.

What's planted so far:

Daylilies - a few transplanted as seedlings, with a few more to follow. The rest will be given away to my ladies at work.

Tomatoes - Only 3 so far. Pruden's Purple, Kellogg's Breakfast, and an indeterminate Wishful plant from the dwarf project. (Will write about the Wishful plant in the project forum.) Pruden's Purple is doing extremely well, as it was put out a couple weeks early with a Water Shield for protection. KB is my favorite tasting tomato that I've ever had, so I'm hopeful that survives. I have several small seedlings I'm trying to grow large enough to put out. I have trouble in this apartment with humidity and air circulation which is a killer for tomato seedlings especially.

Eggplant - First year for this. I have around 8 plants out so far. I have some smaller seedlings but haven't decided if I'll plant those in containers or give them away. I don't think I'll like eggplant, but have never tried it! But I do like the way it looks on the vine in pictures, and my mother likes it. I believe it can be frozen for later use, so I'm trying to grow plenty of that. Rossa Bianca, Diamond, one Ichiban F3, and one Black Beauty are the varieties I have growing.

Cucumbers - We grew them when I was a kid, but they were not a part of the garden in 2008. I have what sounds like excellent varieties in Poona Kheera and White Stallion. Delikatesse and Chinese Yellow are the other two, but I'm not sure if they are as good as the other two varieties going by descriptions.

Rhubarb - My mother asked for this last year, but I fell down on the job. I had old seeds that did not germinate. So I bought more Victoria seeds and started several plants. I put them out early with a water shield in case of frost. They are a cool weather crop so I probably didn't need the shield, but decided to protect the tender seedlings anyways. I have a few growing and plan on sacrificing a couple of them so we can have a rhubarb pie this year. I think leaving 3 alone to grow full strength until next year, will be plenty. We had it when I was a kid so it'll be nice to have again. Unfortunately, my sister tried to transplant the old variety we had and it died soon after. But from what I understand they normally last somewhere around 10-15 years. So it was overdue to die off.

Melons/Watermelons - Charentais, Orangeglo, Crean of Saskatchewan, were all planted directly into the ground.

Pumpkin - Dill's Atlantic Giant and Neck Pumpkin. Understand, I've way overplanted both the melons and pumpkins figuring not all will grow. My space is only about 30' by 6' or 7', so there will not be enough for everything. Once I see what sprouts I'll decide what to leave in the ground. I planted half on the edge of one side of the space, and the other half on the other side. I'll train them to grow towards each other.

Squash - Musquee de Provence. Planted in the same space as the melons and pumkins. If everything sprouts there will definitely not be enough space. Hah...it'll be fun to watch them all fight it out, although I will have to take some things out if too much sprouts. But heck, I like to experiment to see how much I can grow in small spaces.

Radish - I planted both Minowase Daikon & German Giant in between and in front of my tomato plants. I've eaten store-bought Daikon before but not German Giant that I'm aware of.

Sunflower - Direct planted a few sunflower seeds, variety Belezza D Autuno. These are more for my great niece and nephew to watch grow. They like to help plant seeds.

Still have much work to do in planting the rest of the cucumbers and trying to find open-pollinated tomato seedlings at a greenhouse. Will have to put any additional tomato plants in containers.

As much as I enjoyed growing potatoes last year, I did not start them this time around. They were tiny last year, and were a major pain to find in the container soil. If I grow them again in the future it'll be an early variety to help ensure they grow larger.

Almost forgot - Garlic. I started them last fall and have around 35 growing. They should be ready to harvest in July.

Last year I updated this thread about once a week. Hope to do so again this year.

Jeff

[Tormato]

Jeff,

Watermelons like very warm soil for good germination (about 80 degrees).

Do you know enough about harvesting garlic?

Gary

[OmahaJB]

Gary,

This is my second year for garlic so I'm ok on that front. Just have to remember to take the scapes off when they start to curl this year. I waited way too long last year. Although I do have garlic seed because of it, which I'll try growing eventually. Somewhere I read it's better to wait about a year before growing garlic seed because they have a protective coating that wears off over time, so now would probably work.

Forgot to mention, I also managed to get an Alpine Strawberry plant transplanted. Thanks for that.

Jeff

[newatthiskat]

I look forward to reading your journal! I always learn so much from people.
Kat

[neoguy]

Jeff,

Are you talking about bulbils or garlic cloves when referring to garlic seed? Cloves should always be planted the Autumn after Summer harvest.

Bubils, I can't help you with as this is the first year I'm growing some and thus far I'm disappointed. I have one that looks great, looks like it will become a little round, the other thirty look puny, almost like chives. I don't think I'll use my limited garden space on bulbils in the future.

Good Luck with the garden and keep us updated.

Originally Posted by OmahaJB

Gary,

Somewhere I read it's better to wait about a year before growing garlic seed because they have a protective coating that wears off over time, so now would probably work.

Jeff

[OmahaJB]

Thanks Kat. I hope to keep up with it as well this year as I did last. If the garden does well that is.

[OmahaJB]

Hi neoguy,

I'm talking about actual garlic seed. I planted cloves last fall for this year. The seed was from last summer after I left the scapes on. At the time I didn't realize letting the scapes grow saps some of the energy from bulb growth. I'll know better this year! However, I'm glad I have some seed to work with just to see how it does. From what I understand it takes at least two growing seasons to get bulbs that have much size to them when starting from seed. I've been keeping the seed in the fridge since I harvested it last summer. Kind of put it on the backburner since I've had so many other things to start from seed.

Even though I rarely use it garlic is fun to grow. Plant it in the fall and watch it growing in the spring and into summer. That is the cloves the squirrels don't dig up! They dug a few up both times I've planted garlic. Not cool.

[OmahaJB]

Not a whole lot to update today, but I did plant 8 or 9 more cucumber seedlings. One or two of the four I originally planted didn't survive for some reason. Also, the one rhubarb seedling I planted in the same area as the cucumbers is not taking off and may not survive.

The garlic has very thick stalks this year. Thicker than last year's. Should have plenty to use this year as well as plant next fall.

The rest of the rhubarb (planted between the garlic and tomato plants, is growing little by little each week. It's not fast growth but I do see improvement every time I go over to work in the garden or mow the lawn.

Tomato plants are growing slowly now. The Pruden's Purple has a thick stem and should be a strong plant once it gets going. Eggplant is growing slowly as well.

It's only been a week but no sunflowers, melons or pumpkin seedlings yet. They were all direct-seeded. I may start a couple indoors just in case.

Still have seedlings inside that are growing very slowly. Several tomato seedlings, a few Elephant's Ear pepper seedlings, and even some cucumber and eggplant still. Hoping my lone Buckeye State tomato seedling survives to transplant. I also have Caspian, Aunt Ruby's, Czech's Bush, & Stump x Guido. The Stump x Guido is an interesting cross I'm hoping to grow out.
Most of these will have to be planted in grow bags. Unfortunately, finances come into play and that will determine how much container soil I'll have at my disposal.

I've grown Czech's Bush indoors before and it was productive compared to the other varieties I grew at the time. Not my favorite in taste but still decent.

Sunday I'll be picking up mulch to put around the plants. My knees are in bad enough shape that I have a hard time weeding. Maybe the mulch will help in that department.

The radishes I planted between and in front of the tomato plants are growing amongst the weeds. I did plant them in straight lines so should have an easy time weeding w/o pulling up the radishes in the process. Plus, it's easy to tell the difference. Only problem is the weeds are about the same height as the radishes.

Besides the plants I need to transplant into containers, I still have plenty of daylilies to transplant into their special place in the garden. The few I've already planted seem to be doing good for the most part. Haven't grown much yet, but they will.

Always forget the Alpine Strawberries. I have another about ready to go into the ground. Maybe in the A.M..

For some reason I did not start Black Cherry or any cherry type this year. I did like BC last year but they had a tendency to split and the taste varied wildly depending on how much water the plant received. I guess because of limited space I decided to use that space for something else this year. Czech's Bush is one I'm interested in watching this year to see how it does. A couple of years ago on Gardenweb, someone posted to a thread I started about CB, and he raved about the productivity of it in the heat in southern Texas. He was really impressed. So I'm curious to see how productive it'll be for me outdoors. Caspian and Aunt Ruby's are two others I'm growing for the first time so hope to get good results with them. I also have a few other seedlings that I believe are Kellogg's Breakfast but the label fell of somewhere. KB is my favorite so far in taste.

Only problem is these seedlings are all still pretty small and are being affected by mold spores. I'll probably end up planting them way too soon considering their size, and hoping a few grow out. I also have Heidi and Opalka but mold really got to their leaves. What I might do is put a few of them in a 5 or 10 gallon grow bag hoping I get SOMETHING from them. I doubt many will survive whether I keep them inside for awhile or transplant out now. Life is full of decisions, I'll tell you what.

If anyone wants to update us on how your garden's progressing, feel free to share here. It gets a little boring I'm sure reading about my little garden. Hearing how others are doing would make this thread much more interesting for everyone.

Jeff

[OmahaJB]

Gave in and purchased a Boston Pickler cucumber plant and a Red bell pepper plant yesterday. My cucumber plants started from seed are doing virtually nothing so far. And a few have died off. And the pepper plants I started from seed are taking forever to grow large enough to plant outside.

After work yesterday and after buying the plants and two bags of mulch, I went over and turned the soil and weeded, then planted my remaining daylilies I had started from seed. If they all do well it'll make for an impressive display mid-summer 2010 or later.

Pretty much have everything planted now. Just need to sow a few sunflower, giant pumpkin & melon seeds inside, because the ones I sowed directly probably aren't going to germinate. Too cool I guess. They may come up later but I can't count on it.

One thing I learned yesterday is to not buy the cheapo mulch. Very large splinters of wood and even a little plastic and a stone or two in it. I bought 2 bags for $2/each and threw one full bag away and about half of the other away. The good stuff was almost twice as expensive but I should have purchased that instead. Will have to go back later I guess and get a bag of the good stuff.

Besides that, everything is still growing slow. The one exception is the garlic. Nice big 'stalks' seem to get larger everytime I visit. And I still have some small seedlings here. Think I mentioned this in my last update, but I'm considering taking one 10-gallon grow bag and planting several of my very small seedlings in it. I realize if they grow they'll be overcrowded but I also hate the idea of buying alot of container soil for wimpy seedlings. The alternative would be to throw them away. Not happening.

This year's theme seems to be to overcrowd some plants due to limited space, to get everything in. They aren't extremely overcrowded but a little too close to each other, especially the cucumbers.

Enjoy the 3-day weekend all. And please keep in mind the sacrifices made by others for us this Memorial Day. I will as well!

Jeff

[OmahaJB]

Not much to update on my garden, as it's 'slow growing' at this point. Nothing has really taken off yet. I did see a couple of flowers on Pruden's Purple and a couple on one of the eggplants. Should pull the flowers off so the plant can put it's energy into plant growth, but haven't done so yet. I'm very careful about not over-fertilizing, to a fault. So next time I visit the garden I'll give the plants some 'food'. I didn't add compost this year but obviously should have. Will do so during the fall.

Garlic is looking fantastic! Have a feeling there'll be some whoppers when I harvest in July. I can't thank Alex P. enough for sending the garlic for fall planting in 2007. He's been very generous with his trades.

Melon, squash and pumpkins were a no-show. Meant to start some indoors a week or two ago, but was just so busy, or maybe I was just so lazy? Very late to start now, but what the heck? Think I will today since I'm bored out of my gourd anyways this fine Sunday afternoon.

Store bought cucumbers (seedlings) are doing good, and I finally saw some decent growth from some of the ones I started from seed. Glad I overplanted cucumbers because a few did not survive after transplanting. Really glad to see White Stallion doing good because I had lost a couple and my trading partner told me it's a great variety, and after eating it I'll only want to grow that one.

Wanted to plant Peonies for my mother as she was disappointed hers did not grow (planted too deep she thinks), but after doing research I see they should be planted in fall. After telling her that she mentioned she likes gladiolas as well. I researched it and found they can be planted as late as June, so I'll probably start some of those for her. Eventually she should have a nice flower garden consisting of daylilies, peonies & gladiolas.

Disappointed I only have 3 tomato plants this year. May buy a couple more and plant on the side of her house or in containers. I'm not a fan of hybrids though so those will be strictly for her. She wants to can tomatoes this year and I doubt 3 plants will provide enough to work with. Especially if we have BER problems as bad as we did last year. Lost at least 50% of the tomatoes on a couple of plants.

Very happy one of the 3 plants to survive to transplant stage was Kellogg's Breakfast, my favorite tasting tomato so far.

Other than that, I dislike weeds very much. And that statement ladies and gentlemen, is the understatement of the decade for me!

Have a great Sunday and week everyone....Jeff

[Tormato]

Jeff,

Have you cut the scapes on the garlic, yet?

Gary

[OmahaJB]

Not yet Gary. For some reason I couldn't do it last time I visited the garden. I liked harvesting the seed last year, so may do so again this year. I know the scapes can be used for cooking, but don't think I would use them for that purpose. Considering how thick the stems are I doubt I'll hurt bulb growth much by leaving them on.

Want to publicly thank Patty for giving me quite a few good sized seedlings today. She lives about 10 minutes or less from where I work, and after reading my journal offered me some of her spare seedlings. Lots of interesting varieties, including several I had never heard of before. I'll provide a list here later probably in a day or two.

At least a few will go into the ground and the rest will have to go in 5-gallon growbags. If I do my job correctly I'll have plenty of tomatoes for fresh eating, canning, tomato juice , salsa, and some to take to work to make the ladies jealous. That'll pay 'em back for last year when they brought in stuff from their gardens to make me jealous. I'm almost sure that was their intention.

Thanks again to Patty. My garden significantly improved today!

Jeff

[Tormato]

Jeff,

You might want to try cutting the scape off of one, and leaving it on another, of two that have stalks of similar diameter.

As for me, I've seen thick stalks that didn't produce large bulbs. Want to guess if I cut the scape off or not?

Gary

[OmahaJB]

Gary, is that a trick question? Ok, ok, I'll guess you left the scape on the one that did not have a large bulb. Correct???

I think I will do as you suggested and compare this year. I was probably going to leave a scape or two on anyways this year to get seeds. Another 4-6 weeks and I'll know the results.

[OmahaJB]

Finally posting the varieties Patty gave to me 2 days ago. BTW, very nice lady. And she and her family live in a real nice, peaceful area. Some of these varieties I'll have to research for descriptions as I'm not familiar with them. They all have good size for transplanting. There are 24 varieties. 22 have 2 seedlings each, one has 3, and one has 1. For a grand total of 48 seedlings. Will plant as many as I can, and find homes for the ones I can't. Originally planned on planting them the day I picked them up, but had to wait until at least the next day. Then it rained yesterday, and again today. So Friday and Saturday I'll be a busy man.

Varieties:

Amish Yellow
Burstyn
Camp Joy
Cheerio
Dad's Mug
Ding Wall Scotty
Emma Pink
Hanigan's Large Yellow
Ida Gold
Japan Tomato Tree
Kardinal
Kosovo
Lyuda
Mazarini
Nicky Crain
Provenzano
Russian Apple Tree
Slankard's
Sprite
Sulia's Heart (Will check the name)
Teton de Venus
Ukranian Heart
Wolford Wonder
Yellow Ruffled

I'll be researching these, but if anyone has any comments about favorites they see on the list, I'd be interested in hearing your descriptions. Thanks