July 16, 2012 - Moving Hiatus

This is the end of the West Chester Garden blog for some time. 

We are moving out of the barn in a few short weeks to the next town over. The good news is that there is a large back yard that has no landscaping - a blank canvas full of opportunity.  I plan to pick up the blog again in the Spring (maybe sooner) in the new home, however it may not immediately focus on growing things as much as constructing things....  We will own this home so I plan on spending a lot more time, money, and effort making the garden both functional and nice.  I have some big plans regarding constructing raised beds and a patio.  We'll see how that turns out. 

Until then,
Cheers.

June 16, 2012 - First Fruit and Great Weather

There has been some beautiful weather the last few weeks. It's looking like summer will hit full force later this week with triple digit heat indexes forecasted.  Last year that type of weather lead to the death of some of the herbs and all the spring plants.  The peas are more or less finished and the broccoli/cauliflower was a dud thanks to the cabbage worms.  I have a place in the shade under the barn bridge ready for the herbs should they need to be moved. I'm ready for the heat.

Porch Plants:

 Herb corner is doing great.  Fresh herbs are now going into most meals. Some of the biggest basil leaves I've ever seen on the one plant..

 The two eggplants I have on the deck have officially outlasted those grown in the garden last few years.  It's curious that the one on the left is so much larger then the one on the right. They seem to be two different varieties as the one has small spines on the leaves and the other doesn't. 

 Porch tomatoes are getting larger.  Lots of green tomatoes on them that I'm hoping will ripen soon.  Can't wait for that first tomato of the summer.

 Container peppers are looking pretty good.  I feel that they are starting to crowd a bit.  I wish I had only planned three in this size planter box.

The cucumber experiment is going real well.  They are also a bit crowded, but they are climbing the twine just fine now.  I ran three lengths of garden twine down to the planter which is elevated on a cinder block wall about 8 feet off the ground.  I can access them easily from the staircase, but I am concerned that once they get large they line will break in a strong wind. I hope this works.

 Potato bags look good.  I attempted to harvest a potato out of them last week and couldn't find one.  I was told that after the flowers show up there should be some to harvest but the only one I could find was the original seed potato.  I'll try again soon.

Down in the garden:

 Cucumbers are climbing well. 

 The peppers are doing great this year.  They never grow well here and some of them are half the size of the others, but I try every year.  They all are starting to produce so I'm optimistic that this will be the best effort yet.

All the tomatoes are looking great too.  I had ignored them for nearly a week and went down to find that some were growing outside the cages. 

 Amish Paste tomatoes

 Cucumbers

 Zucchinis are on the way

 One of the larger heirlooms

Some peppers will be ready for picking soon. The cayenne and banana peppers are nearly there. 

 First bell pepper.

May 28, 2012 - Broccoli Pest

My hands off approach to pest control this season has lead to some pretty catastrophic damage to the broccoli and cauliflower plants.  Some of the plants are completely defoliated and others are noticeably stunted.  I've finally identified the culprit as the Small Cabbage Butterfly. 

And here's a caterpillar feasting away on the underside of the leaf.  There are also dozens of small eggs on nearly every leaf and the small white adult butterflies are fairly common around the field and garden.

 

It may be too late to do much for these plants, but I'm going to try and scrape off any eggs I see and squash the caterpillars.  The three cauliflower plants I have in containers on the deck have no signs of damage.

May 24, 2012 - A Fist Full of Peas

I picked my first handful of peas this afternoon. Awesome!

Here's a quick couple of shots of the containers up on the deck. 

 

May 12, 2012 - Plants are In

This year I'm approaching the garden in a little more loose way.  I'm not sticking to a specific plan nor am I placing all my plants in the plot.  I'm experimenting with growing some of the vegetables and herbs in containers on the porch to what difference some good dirt and more controlled conditions have on the same plants.  I've also had some mixed success with peppers and want to see how they do in a variety of containers.

The garden really got started a few months ago but I haven't been able to post about it.  I started some cauliflower, broccoli, and peas from seeds and all are up and established.  The first flowers on the peas bloomed this morning.

In addition to the plants I got at the market last week I picked up a number of tomatoes and peppers from the family owned garden center around the corner.  They were selling a four pack plants for under $2.  I ended up with 16 plants all together! All that is left is for some more herbs (especially basil0 and some summer squash.
 
Here's the garden plot:

 Peas and some peppers

 Broccoli

 

 Peppers are looking good

 Here's one up close

 The tomatoes

 

The tomatoes and peppers

 

 Here's what I have on the porch:

My three tomatoes in pots - Yellow Pear, Viva Italia, and Amish Paste

 Rainbow Chard.  I think they are a little crowded in this pot but I'm growing them more for decoration than for eating. There are two pots like this on the porch.

 Spinach.  This is the second set.

 Potatoes - I got two of these potato bags and thought I'd give it a try.  They are made of the material that a tarp is made from and they have velcro flaps on the sides to harvest the potatoes without ripping out the whole plant.  Kinda of an experiment.

 Scallions - These were from the grocery store.  Cut them with enough of the white part and stick them in dirt.  They began to grow in just a few days.

Peas and carrots are in the planter. And a pepper plant that was attached by birds in the round pot.  I'm hopeful it'll rebound but right now it's pretty sad looking.

 Four pepper plants in a window box

 Strawberries - there is a second identical pot not pictured.  6 plants altogether one of which is a few years mature.

 Broccoli/Cauliflower

My herbs are doing well.  The larger rosemary on the right and the tarragon plant in the long planter were from last year.  I was rather surprised the tarragon came back.

 The cucumber sprouts.