A Plan

I think my biggest failure with my garden is a failure to plan. Which is odd as I like planning, making lists and knowing exactly what needs to be done.

My goal for 2017 is to plan week by week a planting / harvesting schedule.

So here goes

My plot is 11 3' x 16' beds, 4 5' x 5' squares and a 9 small beds thrown in for herbs and small crops.  Sorry for the horrible picture, I have lost my beautiful CAD map.  The site gets excellent sun, shaded in late afternoon only in the height of summer.

The attractive brown area is the orchard, its since been seeded with grass and irrigation added. my poor trees are doing much better since.

Winter crops - February and March 

Hardy salad greens, spinach, kale, broccoli, cabbages, leeks, peas, snow peas, beets, turnips, carrots, radishes  

Spring Crops -  April and May 

Onions, leeks, salad greens, spinach,  broccoli, cabbages, potatoes, radishes, celery 

Summer - June - September 

Peppers - King of the North, Alma Paprika, sweet potatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, zucchini, butternuts, acorn squash, pumpkins, tomatoes - roma, cherry and slicing, garlic, potatoes 

Fall -  Sept - November

Cabbages, broccoli, kale, lettuces, spinach, potatoes, radishes, peas 

for overwintering 

Baby leeks, spinach, hardy lettuces and baby kale, baby cabbages, potatoes

So its a sort of plan I guess lol 

I am going to enter it all into a calendar I think, and note a plan for each bed with a plant date.  One of my very favorite things about gardening is the prospect of next year, its always so full of hope and promise, even though I will probably plant 5 times as many things as we will actually eat. 

loves to all of you 

Linda 

It's been a while

Well I had a baby. End. ;) I did manage to have a fairly productive garden this year, although the onions and peppers were almost a total loss and the tomatoes didn't fair very well.

I am doing a seed trial though, we have had a very warm October, and so far November has been the same. Days in the mid 60's, low 70's and dry.

I direct sowed a bunch of seeds, mostly lettuces, kale, spinach, peas, broccoli, tuscan kale, raddicho, turnips and beets. A lot of these seeds were a few years old and I figured if they all die it's not much lost.  I mulched them heavily with leaves and grass clippings (all shredded by the lawn mower) and watered them in.

Next year I'm going to try this around the end of August / September, once I harvest all my onions and garlic they should be able to go in that bed. If it gets cold earlier I'll cover them with fleece (not plastic ) for those chilly nights, I think plastic gets too hot during the days, especially for lettuce.


Happy fall and looking forward to a nice rest this winter! until January lol ;)

Planting Fall Garlic

This is the perfect time of year to plant garlic! i planted a hardneck variety, elephant garlic and a few cloves from grocery store garlic (just to see how they do). 

Hardnecks are better for colder winters (I'd say zone 5 and less, they need at least 6-8 weeks of cold soil temps) while softnecks are better for warmer climates. English gardener Monty Don loves elephant garlic and says that it keeps much better than hard or soft neck garlics, I could only get three elephant cloves so hopefully I don't loose any. 

First things first, your garlic bed will need to have very loose soil. Garlic bulbs underground (as opposed to onions that bulb on the surface) and if the soil it too hard it stunts their growth.

I have this awesome hand tiller, a Hounddog, which I think was only $20. It's nice to till small areas in beds where you might have other plants that you don't want to disturb. It's also handy for loosening soil around perennials, allowing oxygen and water to the roots. 

Next lay your garlic cloves out in a grid, about 4" apart, the elephant garlic about 6-8". I like to lay them out and then plant as I can usually fit them closer together and I really think the yields are better  

They need to be planted at least three times as deep as they are tall, about 3-4" more if it's especially cold where you live. 

Then cover them over and give them a good mulch. I used a thick layer of straw that had been in the duck house, their sprouts are very strong and a thick layer of mulch wont hinder them when sprouting. 

Give them a good watering now and then again in the early spring, as soon as it starts to warm up. Keep them watered and come July they will be ready for harvest. 

Good luck with your fall planting!

Leaf Mould i.e. Free Potting Soil

Well it's that annoying time of year again. Leaves everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I found one down the collar of my jacket yesterday, casually floated in there whilst I bent down to pick up yet more leaves.

So make some leaf mould! It's the British thing to do with leaves. 

1. Rake leaves
2. Have your Bearded Man mow up said leaves (you don't have to mow or shred the leaves but they will decompose more quickly if you do)

It's so pretty, like a giant bag of leaf confetti

If you want to be very Redneck your Bearded Man can mow them off the driveway too. 

3. Bag. Then hose them down and poke holes in the bottom for extra water to drain out. Keep an eye on them and wet them down again if they are dry. 

Next fall (maybe 2 years if they are thick leaves like: oak, sycamore, pine needles) you'll have nice crumbly leaf mould, it can be used like compost, the RHS says it is especially good for potting soil, which I find very exciting!

Kind Regards,

Linda  

Fall.

Fall. 

It's gorgeous, don't you think? 

Even though part of me hates it, because it means an end to flowers and green growing things, and the onset of the cold, dark winter. In the end I always end up loving everything about it. 

A few weekends ago we went to Z's Orchards out in Palisade, CO, they have a you pick raspberry patch. What a charming little farm, I wish I lived there. 

Have a lovely week! 

Propagating Lavender Cuttings

Hi!

Today I have a tutorial for you on planting lavender cuttings. I've got 5 huge lavender plants along the front walkway and next spring I'm hoping to line them up along the east side of the house. 

So first things first, the most successful way to propagate lavender is to layer it, if you start this now in the spring you will be able to cut off the rooted stems.  It's much more successful and faster since the stem is still connected to the mother plant.

To layer a plant find a branch that has new growth on the end and that is close to the ground. Then take some soil, bark, moss or etc and cover the branch, keep it moist and in a few months there will be roots growing in that covered spot and you can clip it off the mother plant.  This little cutting will do much better than one with no roots.

It's kind of hard to see but I just pulled back my plant and cut below the little brown roots, closer to the crown. 

Once you clip the cuttings from the mother plant clip the green stems off the top, that new growth won't do well (too much moisture lost since the wood hasn't hardened yet) and it encourages a bushier plant. 

Then just plant them up and mulch them well, you can do this in pots if you want but I chose a sheltered spot in the yard (no afternoon sun) where they can sit until spring. The important thing is that they don't dry out or sit in water.  Some of the leaves will look wilted and dead but keep watering and as long as they don't get totally dry for too long they should be fine. If you live in a hot climate with strong sunlight I'd suggest planting them in a sheltered spot outside, but if it's cooler and the sun isn't very strong then pots will be fine but I find pots are harder to keep moist. 

Next year once these get a little bigger I'm planning on moving them to run up the side of my long asphalt drive way. I think they'll appreciate the heat and they will continue the current border and frame the house nicely. Well that is if they live. I may have prayed over them :)

Kind Regards,

Linda 

Cactus Zinnias

One of my more successful seed starting endeavors this year were these coral pink cactus flower zinnias from Baker Creek.

As a cut flower they are superb: Long stems, vibrant colors and long lasting. From the one packet of seeds I got at least 40-50 flowers, I planted them very late (mid July)and as of mid-October they are still flowering. 

They are even rocking the ombre trend! 

They also didn't need staking or supports, how easy is that? 

Thanks for stopping by

Kind Regards, 

Linda