Vegetable Gardening

We are still moving from California to Portland area. I been here for the past week and its been balmy 50F and nights been dropping into 30-something I think. Tomatoes can tolerate 40F but not 30-something.

Soil is spongy wet and its raining again today. Forecast is rain for next 10 days. ughhhh!!! I want to till over the grass and plant.

Going to plant some blueberry bushes to create wind break. it will also act as a natural fence to keep our geriatric dogs from falling over a 5 foot drop on our property.

We are going to take a chance with some of our favorite tomato varieties but to be safe, I think I will plant some Russian and German varieties. Early to mature.

Definitely planting spinach, swiss chard, broccoli, turnip, parsnips. Cold weather plants.

On a side note, one of our chicken made a jail break. She dug a tunnel just big enough to escape out of her "chicken run" The other two were too big to wiggle through the hole. My partner found her pecking around our two dogs in the yard. Oui!!!

Walls of Water are wonderful for getting a longer season with your tomato plants. The will allow you to plant earlier and protect your tomatoes from 30 degree weather at night.

These folks are my heroes... but a farm like that would probably be a full-time job in and of itself.
http://urbanhomestead.org/urban-homestead

As it is, we've only got a balcony, so I grow household herbs (mint and catnip) and a few select veggies.

Last weekend I planted cabbage, bok choy, 3 kinds of onions, red oakleaf lettuce, red kale, spinach, French breakfast radish, buttercrunch lettuce, carrots, Swiss chard, and kohlrabi.

Today I ordered the seeds I can't get at my local Agway. My personal favorites:
pickling cucumbers, Indigo radicchio, Fukagawa Japanese bunching onions, and these lettuces:
Merveille des Quatre Saisons, Divina Butterhead, Flashy Troutback, Outredgeous Romaine, and Jericho Romaine.

Cucumbers, tomatoes, and string beans will be planted later when it's warmer. :p

This year I've opted to not grow turnips, beets, and leeks- that gives me more room for onions and cabbage which I will use more.

HERE was a photo I took last Fall of the beautiful things I brought in one afternoon from the garden:
Romaine and butterhead lettuce, purple kohlrabi, and the Japanese bunching onions. I still remember that perfect salad, it was so sweet and crunchy and lovely!

Yesterday I got to eat from the garden for the first time this spring-- just some spinach that needed to be thinned out. It didn't even make it inside; I was popping it in my mouth as I went. Yum!

Between our incessant rain and being allergic to the pollen my maple tree is spreading everywhere, it's tough right now to get much done in the garden. But the spinach and mustard greens are doing great.

I'm in Seattle this week and was going over my back yard to assess what needs to be done to get it back in shape, as it got very overgrown in our absence.

I planted 5 asparagus crowns about 6 years ago and only one survived. The spears were only ever just a few mm thick so we always just let it fern out. But this week I found some nice thick spears coming up! Woohoo!

My new place is in a town called Troutdale just outside of Portland. The town has a reputation for being extremely windy.

To protect my veggie garden, we are planting lots of berry plants in hedgerows to form windbreaks. Blueberries, raspberries, Marion berries, Logan berries. Hopefully, two years from now, we will be up to our eye balls with fresh berries. I also purchased about 50 strawberry plants to help with erosion control. Two varieties are Mt. Hood and Rainier strawberries. Neither are good for commercial because they just don't hold up as well as commercially viable ones like Seascape, Quinult (sp), Gaviota... And my partner loves Rhubarb so we also purchased a rhubarb plant. I picked one which has multiple buds and one which can be divided later this season.

It will be an interesting year starting out from scratch. Have to tear out the useless lawn first. I plan on using poly tunnel to jump start my veggies and toward the end of growing season, plan on using taller poly tunnel with solar heater to extend my growing season. We are going to experiment with year round growing in Portland.

Nby- did you eat the little asparagus spear(s)? How cute!

Smilingcat- my big veg garden got started in the summer too, 2 years ago. At first I felt cheated when things got delayed and that I couldn't get things planted that Spring, but then I realized that I could sow an entire Fall garden of veggies from seed that would do great if sown in mid to late summer. That first Fall I got carrots, turnips, lots of lettuces, scallions, all kinds of stuff.
Here was a photo of the brand new garden that I planted from seed in mid July 2009, even before the garden fence was put up and completed:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9fPBEJTqGz...0/posts-up.jpg
Same garden, by mid Sept:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9fPBEJTqGz...h/garden_1.jpg
Mid December, I was still harvesting turnips and carrots:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_9fPBEJTqGz...ts-turnips.jpg

So, a whole lot can be done with a veg garden started in mid summer :)
That whole garden space had been useless backyard lawn since 1941.

Sounds like you will have lots of berries on your property! You might want to look into putting up some native/solitary bee nesting blocks in your yard- they will pollinate your berries like gangbusters, with only a little effort in return. You might actually get double the number of berries if you attract lots of pollinating mason and leafcutter bees to nest there. Very sweet to have them buzzing around too, they don't sting unless you accidentally squeeze them.

Who are you people who have been gardening already! :D

The snow finally just left my house here in MA - up to a week and a half ago my gardens weren't even exposed. Only today I've just turned the raised beds and other plots over by hand. I would be planting peas, beets, lettuce, and chard this weekend except I've decided to take the plunge and I'm getting some trees cut next week and thought I'd wait a weekend until I know the heavy machinery has enough room. Five trees in all. I don't like to cut trees but I live on a woodlot. Three are quite big, about 3 feet dbh. It'll be a costly endeavor overall, but divide it up per tree and my quote is pretty cheap compared to some areas. These tree guys are hard up for work so it's a bit competitive. I've got a company with good insurance. Four of the five trees are very close to the house, some not in the best condition and if they were to split and break off they'd easily crush the house and whoever might be in it. Also, four trees will open up the garden to a lot more sun and I'm very excited about that part. Strategically done. After the tree guys are done, I'll plant the peas, beets, lettuce, and chard seed. Radish too. I have brocolli, napa cabbage, and savoy cabbage seedlings under my grow lights ready to be put out as well. Cloches are ready. My other seedlings for the warmer weather such as the tomatoes, eggplant, parsley, winter cabbage, leeks, winter squash, and basil are doing well under the lights and will be ready to go out at the end of May. At that time I'll be planting the rest of the warm weather veg seeds such as cucumber, potatoes, summer squashes, and more lettuce. Carrots a little before hand.

In the meantime, I still have potatoes and onions going strong in the root cellar but this week the temps have gone up in the mid-40's in the root cellar and will go higher. The root cellar is reaching perfect temperatures for storing my homemade cheddar cheese.

Also, I finally finished off my top bar beehive that I built over the winter and I'm ready for my bees, which are expected to arrive next weekend April 23.

After all that, I will be building my chicken coop to house 3 hens. After that, I'm taking a break from projects.

Wow, nice looking top bar hive- very nicely built!
Good luck hiving your bees. :)
I too have another nuc coming in about 10 more days, added to the hive I've had since last year. Fun!

Wish I could keep a few hens, but they are noisy and against my zoning laws so ...alas....
Bees are easier to keep under wraps in back of the garden fence! ;D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BleeckerSt_Girl

Nby- did you eat the little asparagus spear(s)? How cute!

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Not yet -- this morning I count 5 spears making their way up -- I'm going to wait until they're a little bigger to harvest them.

Since we just bought a house we'll be planting a garden next year. (In process of moving, this week painted the rooms that needed painted.) We did plant my two blueberry bushes, which had been in large pots for about 4 years. We knew we wouldn't be staying in that home, just didn't know we'd be moving across the state. But we plan on staying here for a long time. So they are planted and bought two strawberry bushes today (half price at Lowe's) that will get planted either tomorrow or next weekend. Couldn't pass them up at half price, esp since I've wanted strawberry bushes for a long time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BleeckerSt_Girl

Smilingcat- my big veg garden got started in the summer too, 2 years ago. At first I felt cheated when things got delayed and that I couldn't get things planted that Spring, but then I realized that I could sow an entire Fall garden of veggies from seed that would do great if sown in mid to late summer. That first Fall I got carrots, turnips, lots of lettuces, scallions, all kinds of stuff.
Here was a photo of the brand new garden that I planted from seed in mid July 2009, even before the garden fence was put up and completed:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9fPBEJTqGz...0/posts-up.jpg
Same garden, by mid Sept:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9fPBEJTqGz...h/garden_1.jpg
Mid December, I was still harvesting turnips and carrots:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_9fPBEJTqGz...ts-turnips.jpg

So, a whole lot can be done with a veg garden started in mid summer :)
That whole garden space had been useless backyard lawn since 1941.

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That's good to hear that even with a late start you can still have a pretty good garden--that's the situation I will likely have this year as I am moving around the beginning of June and if I get the apartment I hope to get, the building has a spot in the yard where it sounds like I could put in a garden (I asked the landlord when he was showing me the place, since the spot in question is where a swimming pool was filled in and isn't all that attractive as it is now, and he said he's all for anything that improves the property!).

Got the garden started this past weekend, still at work sprouting some seeds and fine-tuning the setup, but our balcony necessitated some 'creative' use of space. We have a vertical plot with kale, a couple types of lettuces, spinach and a couple types of peas, and an upside-down cherry tomato.

Along the rail, we've got the beans and carrots, now with the lavender and rosemary in between bean containers. The catnip has its own box, and another box will house our pak choi and fennel.

Here are some early pics from last week... more as the garden develops...
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5144/...b8cf4e4bbc.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5228/...b8072d679f.jpg

Kit that is very cool. :)
looking forward to more updates and pix!