Gardening Gardening

We’ll get there fellow northern gardeners. I heard we will be getting into the 70s by mid-week!

I saw some tiny garlic shoots emerging this morning.

I just pulled a winter’s worth of fish carcasses out of the shed where they were frozen in a 50 gallon tub. It is over 50 lbs worth of nutrient rich remains.

I am going to work all of it into last fall’s garden clean-up material, coffee grounds and filters from church and work, and a winter’s worth of kitchen scrap compost material. I layer everything, including the the fish remains with leaves (carbon) and some wood ash then cover the pile with a heavy canvas until the internal temperature gets up to >140f as measured by my compost thermometer. Then after about 6 to 8 turns over the 4-6 weeks it will be ready for working into beds to get them ready for planting.

For anyone interested, Rick Larson has a great series on this method:

 

At 12:50 of Mr Larson’s video…. “Oh it’s a woodchuck. I didn’t know I threw a woodchuck in there.”

Speaks to the power of a hot aerobic compost in breaking down relatively large organic materials.

Some of my pike carcasses are pushing 40”. In a few turns they are broken down to just scales and bones. And no odor if it is done correctly, other than during the first turn it may smell a bit like baked fish.

 

Another step in the right direction - got the dual-chamber compost tumbler put together. Just have to hope the bears will leave it alone (years ago I had one drag a deer feeder off into the woods that was about the same size as the tumbler). Also, not sure where the final staging area will be for this. I want it relatively close to the raised garden beds, but not right next to them. It's only 37 gallons, so we'll see how far the compost goes. If I can find a decent location, I will probably try to build a conventional ground compost site for additional composting (I accumulate way more leaves and grass clippings then this would hold, and you can never have too much compost.

 

First planting for 2023. Got the Raspberry starts back here from Massachusetts and the holes dug this morning.

Then some Easter dinner and watching the grandkids doing their easter egg hunt for midday and then back at it. Got all 30 planted so now we see what happens.



Next up is cleaning the garden beds out. What a mess!








And fix the grape arbor where the snow pushed it down over the winter.


This is cutting into my firewood time…


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I tried growing popcorn last year, probably my biggest garden failure to date. I direct sowed once it got warm enough, didn't see any come up for about 3 weeks and the whole season it just lagged along. Some only got about 2 feet high. Pretty sure it just needed more sun, I didn't put it in a very sunny spot of the garden. Whatever ears did form, the squirrels ended up having for themselves. oh well!

 

Last time I direct sowed too, that's why I’m trying it this way.

Got in a second till yesterday and cleaned up the perimeter. The near side was full of leaf compost and the far side got the grass clippings. The leaf side looks much better. Both got ashes from the stove all season.

 

Corn is definitely a full sun crop. My biggest issue growing it were the predators. As soon as a shoot came up, a crow would pull it right out. Half the time they didn't even eat it either. Jerks I found hanging some old shiny CDs or pie plates on a pole next to the plot would keep them away. Planting twice as much as I wanted was helpful. You can always thin the rows a few weeks later. Also water, water, water, especially in the beginning. Once established, I like to put straw down to help retain the moisture in the soil. Not everybody does, but soaking the kernels in a cup of water the night before you sow them helps speed up the germination process.

 

If you don’t mind where did you get the raspberry bushes?

 

A lady on Craigslist for western Massachusetts is selling them from a berry farm located in Washington, Massachusetts


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Ty

 

A little more progress that last couple of days. Got the three stock tanks that were perpendicular reoriented, and the two new tanks put in. That gives me seven 6' tanks and one 4' tank for my raised garden beds. Still have some tweaking and leveling to do, and the soil I need to fill the two new tanks is buried under a five-foot snow pile, but it's progress. Hopefully will be able to start planting by Memorial Day.

 

I planted these sets I bought yesterday, then last night we had 2.5 inches of rain plus very high winds. Poor little guys might not make it!

 

Do you check the pH?

 

Nope. I usually feed the ground ashes about every 3rd year. The leaves seemed to really enrich the soil and the grass clippings pretty much still stink.

I did get some planting in Friday evening. 4 rows of lettuce seeds, a 6 pack flat of brussel sprouts, 8 tomato plants and 2 sweet peppers. So far my corn seeds are about 1” tall and the watermelon sends are just starting to pop, still nothing in the peppers, that’s why I bought 2 plants. Didn’t want to get caught w/o.
Have to get some more pics. It got dark that night and didn’t get the chance.

 

I got my seeds ordered Friday.
But i got 4 more weeks till planting starts.

 

Things in the garden are covered in snow here again…except the hot compost pile.

I have planted kale, spinach, turnips, chard, and 100 onion sets so far. I would have planted carrots, beets, and lettuce yesterday, but the weather took a turn. The garlic is up about 3-4” and looks good. The chive and rhubarb are up as well and look nice.

 

Asparagus is coming up, and garlic is 12-14" here.
Ground is dry here!

 

Great news on the asparagus! I haven’t seen any of ours yet, but we are really looking forward to it.

 

It'll only be another week or so

 

My beds are quickly becoming a disaster area. I started pulling weeds from this one and what I thought was grass. All of a sudden I get a whiff of garlic. Ah crap. That’s not grass! I completely forgot when I had garlic in this bed last year, I purposely tossed a bunch of the scapes on the surface of the soil. Looks like most of them sprouted, along with some lettuce I let go to seed back in the fall.