May 20, 2011 - Video Update

May 15, 2011 - Tomato and Pepper Varieties

So here's the breakdown of what tomato and pepper varieties are in the garden this season:

TOMATOES

Green Zebra - "Bred by Thomas Wagner of Tater Mater Seeds and introduced in 1983. Olive yellow 1½ - 2½" fruits with deep green zebra stripes. Sweet zingy flavor." [source]

Golden the Best Yellow - No reference can be found!  WTF!?

Pink Brandywine - "A large beefsteak-type tomato with a superior flavor unrivaled from most other varieties. There are numerous Brandywine strains, with the classic Brandywine tomato itself having a pink-skinned color. The named 'Pink Brandywine' differs only slightly from its more famous namesake. Fruits generally weigh over a pound, and have a rich tomato taste." [source]

Golden Jubilee - "This is a large yellow-orange round beefsteak that has a high Vitamin C content and less acid than most other varieties. The tomato fruits are produced in a heavy yield from upright and uniform Indeterminate vines, which make this variety easy to manage. This tomato variety was originally introduced in 1943 by the Wm. Henry Maule Seed Company of Philadelphia."  [source]

'Be My Baby' Cherry - "This productive cherry is the ongoing result of a cross of three famous tomatoes, an heirloom potato-leaf beefsteak and two cherries, one orange and one red. The crossing and selection process began in 1997. Although it has been selected for a red cherry with regular tomato foliage, about 10% of the plants still showed potato-leaf foliage in 2006, and you can expect some in your patch. Rogue them out because their flavor is not as desirable as the rest." [source]

Roma - "A Roma tomato is a paste tomato. Paste tomatoes, like roma tomatoes, generally have a thicker fruit wall, fewer seeds and a denser but more grainy flesh. Roma tomatoes tend to be oblong in shape and heavy for their size. The also tend to be more firm than a non-roma or paste tomato." [source]

Amish Paste - "First listed in the 1987 SSE Yearbook by Thane Earl of Whitewater, Wisconsin. Commercialized by Tom Hauch of Heirloom Seeds, who acquired it from the Amish near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Bright red 8-12 ounce fruits vary in shape from oxheart to rounded plum. Delicious flesh is juicy and meaty, excellent for sauce or fresh eating." [source]

Pineapple - "This heirloom tomato is a stand-out in everyone's garden. Bicolored red and yellow fruit grows very large, up to 2 lbs., and is streaked with red both inside and out. The flavor is wonderful, rich, fruity and sweet." [source]

Granny Cantell  - "Regular leaf plant with a good yield of 12-18 oz pink beefsteak fruit with very good flavor, family heirloom of Lettie Cantrell of West Liberty, KY, Lettie passed away 12-21-05 at age 96." [source]

PEPPERS! 

Granada Seasoning -"Mild; Habanero Type; 1.75 to 2 inches long by 1 to 1.5 inches wide; medium thick flesh; matures from green to bright yellow; pendant pods; green leaves; 30 to 36 inches tall" (1 - 1,000 Scoville Units) [source]

Anaheim Chili -"Very mild, medium sized chile to 6-10", often used when green. The basic variety ripens to a dark green/reddish color, but other strains ripen to full red." (500-1,000 Scoville Units) [source]

Hot Banana - "Medium sized, waxy yellow pepper up to 6-8" long. Flavor is quite good when eaten in its ripe yellow state. The Hot Banana is mildly hot in taste." [source]

Corno di Toro - "Big, plump, twisted 8-inch red peppers are jammed with spicy-sweet tang." [source]

 

Golden Wonder x 2 - " Golden Wonder is a heavy-bearing, disease-resistant, vigorous pepper plant. Thick-walled and blocky, about 4" tall and wide, with a crisp, mild flavor and terrific sweetness. They mature from golden-yellow to red on the plant" [source]

Long Red Cayenne - "Very hot fruits 5 in. long and ½ in. thick. Use fresh or easily dried for winter use. Harvest starts about 75 days after plants are set out." [source]

Sweet Italian - Frying Pepper

Red Knight - "A large, early, green-to-red pepper. Big, blocky, thick-walled, and turns red early. Fruity and sweet." [source]

Early Red Pepper - "Another easy to grow pepper, very full of flavour leaving aweful glass grown hydroponic peppers in the shops way behind in the flavour stakes! These old traditional cultivars crop very heavily.This one is red when mature but can be eaten at the green stage, and is bell shaped." [source]

May 11, 2011 - All Set!

 

With much anticipation the West Chester Growers Market opened this past weekend! I've been waiting for it ever since the first marathon snow shoveling day back back in January- and now it's finally here.  We didn't have much time to browse and explore since we were heading on a road trip to visit friends at the Crooked Farmhouse as soon as we finished, but it's looking to be a great market season complete with all the usual vendors and a few new ones.

 

Here's my Tomato Guy Paul, who is affectionately known as "Neil Young"

 

 The herbs this year were a bit expensive (4 for $10), but they were real nice and healthy looking. And a great variety!

What a helpful wife!

Here's the final list of what's going in this year... well there's still a few purchases this weekend (weather pending) that need to be made that are listed as 'coming soon'.

In the Garden:
Pink Brandywine
Grandma Cantrell's Tomato
Amish Paste
Golden Yellow
Be My Baby Cherry
King Aurthur Red Pepper x2
Eggplant x 2
Peas
Butternut Squash
Crystal Apple Cucumber
Cucumber
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Golden Midget Watermelon
Orangello Watermelon
Purple String Beans (coming soon, almost ready to transplant)
Green Beans (coming soon, almost ready to transplant)
Hot Peppers (coming soon)
Sweet Pepper (Frying Pepper maybe? coming soon)
Another (or two) Heirloom Tomato
Another Plum Tomato


In Containers:
Red Leaf Lettuce
Deer Tongue Lettuce
Spinach
French Breakfast Radishes
Dragon Carrots

Herbs:
Rosemary
Lemon Thyme
Majorum
Spicy Oregeno
Cilantro
Dill
Taragon
Sage
Purple Opal basil
Lemon Basil
Italian Basil x 2 (coming soon)
Flat Leaf Parsley (coming soon)


I finally admitted defeat and determined that my hose mending skills were not up to the challenge of so many busted and neglected hoses.  It seemed that every one I pulled up was cracked and the connections were bad.  So I finally broke down (after some encouragement from Stacey) and bought all new hoses).

The new system isn't too complicated, but I made a few improvements as to what was previously there.  Now  hose runs out out of the barn through a bit of PVC pipe.  I ran it slightly underground (about 4-6 inches) to the post I replaced.  From here it splits into a 4-way array.  One of the arrays flows slightly underground again along the north side of the plot to a second post.  From here I put a 2-way split on it.  One leads to a 50' hose with a spray nossel, the other to a timer connected to the irrigation system - which is now fully operational!

After some testing, I also admitted defeat with the electric fence.  The apparatus that sends the current to the fence itself seems to have stopped working.   The landlord now has it in his possession and will try to repair it, but to be honest I'm not expecting him to be successful.  For one thing it says "not for outdoor use" on the box and it has been an 'outdoor' fence for several years- which begged the question: who uses indoor electric fences?  So now I'm trying out Plan B: Liquid Deer Fence.  It smells like "the rotten asshole of a roadkill skunk" (sorry but it does, it was the only way for me to convey how foul it is) so it better work!  The spray bottle lives outside BTW.

On that note: Cheers!

April 6, 2011 - Green is the Colour

On the way home today I noticed the brush and the undergrowth along the road are all turning green so I started humming this tune (which I don't think has anything to do with Spring, but seeing green made me think of it and Gilmour is a genius so here it is).

I took a half day on Monday because it was 75 and the only dry day of the week to get some stuff done.  All I ended up doing was cleaning up a bit around the garden, mending the hoses, and plant the peas.  I started the (first round) peas around St Patty's day, but only seven of the plants grew. So I purchased two other varieties: one Sugar Snap and one Sugar Daddy (no joke) both of which are edible pod varieties.  I started them last week so they haven't sprouted yet - but they're now in the ground.

Stacey and I took a walk around the field this afternoon before the rain moved in and found this old chair in the middle of the field.  Made for a cool picture, that's the barn in the back.

 

Across the street her spring flowers are all in bloom, ours are on the north side of the barn and have just now started to bloom.  The rest down by the garden were devoured by the deer - even with the fence on.  Not a good sign of things to come!

 

 Did I mention it snowed on April Fools day. Not a joke. It sucked.

And finally, this has nothing to do with the garden but I wanted to share: Historic Cope's Bridge on Rt 162 across the scenic Brandywine Creek is now open!  My morning commute has now been cut in half - I can now get to West Chester in five minutes (although it takes me ten minutes to get to the east side of town in the mornings, go figure). The bridge was out for a full 16 months and the project only ran four months behind schedule... It took forever, but it does looks good.

March 18, 2011 Some Garden Prepwork

I've been away this week for training at work so I've been unable to get the update posted from all the work done last week:

Ah... the first signs of spring. After looking it up it's actually an invasive from Europe called a  "Birdseye Speedwell"  but every year in the field it's the first bit of color that shows itself in Spring.

I've installed the electric fence for the season.  Not too soon either as there have been some of the bulb flowers (not sure what is what anymore down there) had come up and then disappeared with deer evidence around the missing flowers.

The posts have been pounded installed and the chicken wire has been strung for the trellis.  All I need are the peas to start coming up - only 7 of the 40 are ready to go in. Not sure why.

I'll wait for the pictures until it is finished, but I also have a post set for the hose array.  I've purchased a handful of hose mending products hoping to not spend a fortune running new hoses. Work and crappy weather (it snowed twice this week in the morning, WTF) have kept me from finishing up.

 

The debris pile on the left got even bigger after the watermelon patch had been cleared.  I hope my landlord doesn't wish to use this area this year. It was vacant last year so I was hoping to use it for my Orangello and Golden Midget watermelons (he's welcome to all he can eat as I think there will be hundreds of pounds to go around).

 

 

 I took a walk around the orchard to see what was doing.  The trees look a mess and have what looks like some kind of black fungus or knots on all the branches.  Fortunately it's not my problem.  During the walk I noticed that the electric fence needed some work after all the snow over the winter.  The fence has two strips of conductive cloth strung between the posts - the bottom one was completely covered by flattened grass.  It took some work to get it all cleaned up, the posts straightened, and the fence material restrung.

Before

After

February 27, 2011 - Pre-Spring Cleaning

Today was abnormally warm and sunny.  It was nice be able to get down to the garden and see what the winter has done to it.  Turns out it looked a mess - worse than these pictures do justice.

 

Before:

After:

I was able to clean up a lot of the brush and weeds around the grapes, berries, and the annex.  It's looking a lot better, but I feel that here are several hours worth of clean up work left. I also have to figure out to do with two large piles of debris...

In addition to the clean up I took a look at the soil and it doesn't look good.  I need to get rid of these rocks. 

I'm thinking about building a little sieve out of some 2x4s and chicken wire to sift them out, but we'll see how that goes.  I have some more pressing issues.  If needed I may just try and run the tiller over it and see what happens.  The stones are soft and flaky consisting mostly of mica schist, and I suppose they will grind down or maybe improve drainage if not (trying to be positive).
 

The hose situation is pretty dire too.  The post on which the hose array was mounted had rotted through, and two of the three hoses no longer function with all the holes in them (I have no idea where the operational hose goes.  All I know it doesn't go anywhere near where I need it to).  All of this means if I want to utilize the soaker-hoses, I need to get this fixed before the season gets underway.  I don't even want to mention the state of the electric fence- I'll save that for another day. I'm hopeful it won't be too big of a deal.

I started some flower seeds for Stacey, 75 peat pots plus another 20 lavender plants should about fill the deck!  I'm also trying out some basil from seed this year to see how that goes.  I have 25 peat pots going with the hope I can have an enormous basil crop for an endless pesto supply this summer for sandwiches and pasta.  I'm not sure if I'll be planting them in the ground or have a large part of the deck covered in sweet basil - it'll probably be half and half to see which does best.

Stacey planted some flower bulbs last year and they're starting to break though the soil.  I can't wait to see some color down here!!

February 17, 2011 - Fake Spring Day

 

Today is about 70 degrees and sunny, the driveway is snow-free for the first time in months, and the seeds have been ordered from Seed Savers Exchange.   If it were not for a possibility of snow Sunday night I would have thought Spring had arrived.

So after taking inventory of my seeds leftover from last year I really didn't need to order a whole lot for the vegetable garden.  The only two that I ended up ordering are two wild looking watermelon varieties.  They sound good!  I'm planning on planting them outside of the garden in a plot the landowner had used for watermelon two years ago - if it goes unused again that is.

Other than that I ordered some sunflower seeds and a few other flowers for Stacey.  I'm officially ready to play in the dirt!!

Golden Midget Watermelon

Orangello Watermelon

 

January 26, 2011 - I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

Above is the preliminary plan for the 2011 season.  It's similar to last year with the exception of the location of the plants.  I figured it was time to rotate some of the locations.  

I have received my 2011 Seed Saver's Exchange catalog and have gone through it a couple of times.  I'm not quite sure what I'm going to be ordering yet, but it looks like I'll be getting some funky watermelon, pea, sunflower, herbs, and perhaps a few more that catch my eye.  There are some real tempting varieties of tomatoes, but I'm still not ready to start tomato or peppers from seed. And as long as the West Chester Grower's Market keeps bringing in some fun varieties then I'm OK paying a little markup.

In addition to the garden plot I plan to do more container gardening this year.  The last two seasons I've grown a variety of herbs in pots and they have been very successful. In addition to the herbs I'm going to try some lettuce, spinach, and maybe a few other plants in pots.  In years past they've grown well initially but the cooler weather of the Spring doesn't seem to last long enough and they bolt in the heat.  My hope is that Keeping them mobile I can move them to a cooler shadier spot when the days start getting too warm to extend their life.

I may also try and really clear the annex from 2009 and try my luck with some watermelons again.  The plan is still in it's early stages and will surely be refined a couple of times before March!

January 26, 2011 - A Winter Update

 

It's snowing....again.  So I'm starting up the blog again in anticipation of warmer and brighter days.

It's been some time since I've last checked this site. The last blog post was nearly seven months ago at the end of June so I kind of feel the need to explain what happened at the end of the season.

Last year there were two major catastrophes that led to the death of the garden: deer and flooding.  The garden had become so bad and I became so discouraged that I gave up on trying to document it. I even stopped going down there except to try and salvage a few tomatoes and cucumbers here and there.

Not too long after the last blog post (the beginning of July) I started to notice that many of my plants were being eaten.  At first it was a missing leaf here and there, but a few times I went down to find every leaf and flower missing from my cucumbers, or a tomato plant was half gone.  There was no doubt that deer were to blame due to the foot prints brazenly left in dirt, but what I couldn't figure out was how they were getting past the electric fence.  Why was it all of a sudden completely ineffective?

About three weeks went by.  I tried moving the fence farther away, I tried moving it higher, doubling the wires, baiting the fence - all sorts of things.  Nothing would stop the deer.  That is until I tried something very simple: I grabbed the fence myself. I felt nothing.  It turns out that someone came to mow the grass near the main fence and completely disconnected the inverter from the fence.  So each time I plugged in the fence no actual juice was making it to the wires. As soon as I connected the inverter to the fence by attaching a little wire I had no more deer problems.  Dumb.

The second issue I had was equally dumb, and worse it was completely my fault.  I had turned the soaker hose on one morning with the intent of turning it off when I got back from work.  However I had forgot I had a doctor's appointment that afternoon.  Without going into the details, the doctor told me I was suppose to stay off my foot for a day or so and I never went down to turn off the hose... for three days.  By the time I remembered and hobbled down to the garden it was WAY too late.  The squash were drown and  the rest of the garden was in real bad shape.  While somethings did eventually rebound, the garden wasn't the same.

So that's where we ended the year.  On a positive note, we were able to harvest enough cucumbers and hot peppers to pickle. I opened up the last jar two days ago.  While a bit salty they were very flavorful and kept their crunch!