Hades Returns to Claim Persephone from my Garden

Persephone must return to her husband, Hades, deity of the underworld. Her poor mother, Demeter, begins her slow decline into a dark depression. And so the garden begins its slide down the same path. But, not before the cornucopia is full.

It was a good summer for tomatoes, in my garden. Specifically the production of Mortgage Lifter and Tami G varieties. The above bowl of fruit was harvested on October 8. What you see amounts to 7.75lbs/3.5kg of ripe tomatoes, bell pepper, cucumbers and Nacho chiles. Of that total Mortgage Lifter contributed 3.36lbs/1527g and Burpee Burpless cucumber 2.9lbs/1327g of weight. After culling out the unripe fruit, the Tami G grape tomato weighed in at 0.5lbs/259g.

Mortgage Lifter, Rutgers, Tami G, Red Bell Pepper and Burplee Burpless

Mortgage Lifter was by far an away the largest producer of any plant. The total weight of Mortgage Lifter tomatoes harvested, from one 11'/3.35m vine starting July 6 and running through Oct 8, was an amazing 35.53lbs/16.114kg. Let me say that again. Thirty-five pounds of delicious heirloom delights. As for the next runner up, the Tami G grape tomatoes total weight was 11.6lbs/5.67kg from one 9'/2.7m vine.

Mortgage Lifter and Tami G

The third must prolific producer was one the the two varieties of cucumber planted, Burpee Burpless and Tender Green. Burpless was the winner for both production and taste. The total weight of Burpless harvest 30 July through 8 October was 9.58lbs/4.68kg from two 6'/1.8m vines.

Burpless

Overall, it was a good year of gardening in two 16 sq ft/1.48 sq m raised bed square foot garden beds. A grand total of 91.5/43.47kg of produce was harvested. I am a happy gardener in 2013.

During the dark hours that cover my garden until Hades allows Persephone to return to Demeter, I will plan the garden for 2014.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Behind In My Gardening

The weather has me behind schedule in my garden. Well, if I had a schedule, I would be behind.

There is a folk truism in this part of the world that says you plant onions and peas on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th. I didn't even have my garden ready for planting on St. Patrick's Day. I still don't have it ready and it is almost April.

This year I want to actually raise my square foot garden. I want to get some real drip irrigation with metered emitters, not the weeping hose I have been using. Plus I want to put down 1 mil plastic mulch over the drip system to try and eliminate weeding, increase soil temperature and retain moisture.

Ten days after the pea planting target date, I ordered online a 30'/ 9.1m roll of 1 mil red plastic mulch that is 4'/ 1.2m wide. I plan on making two 4' x 4' (1.2m x 1.2m) raised beds. So I should have enough mulch to cover both beds, almost completely, four times.

To get the order minimum up to $40 in order to use a discount coupon I received in the mail, I ordered some packets of Zinnias from W. Atlee Burpee. Burpee was a Philadelphia company that I remember visiting thirty-five years ago on Clarissa St. just NW of W. Hunting Park Ave. They are now in Bucks County, PA in Warminster, PA where you can still visit their store.


I love the ease of growing Zinnias. Beside their beauty, zinnias attract bees, butterflies and goldfinch love the mature seeds. All three creatures are a pleasant plus to the garden experience.

I hope my order ships really soon. In the mean time, I need to get some 2" x 12"/ 5cm x 30cm boards and a 2"x 4"/ 5cm x 20cm board or two for the corners of the bed frames and some exterior screws with which to fasten them.

Then there is the peat moss, vermiculite and perlite for the soilless growing medium.

The vegetable seeds to buy. 

The potato towers to erect.

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I love the growing season!

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved - Photographs from Burpee.com

US Spring Vegetable Garden Planting Calendar

It is time to start planning and purchasing seeds for your spring and summer vegetable garden. There are some terrific garden tools online. Let me recommend two. Using those two you will be able to create you very own spring vegetable garden planning calendar. Planning season is here. Planting season is near.

National Climatic Data Center - first and last frost/freeze dates by zip code. 
Skippy's Vegetable Garden Planning Calendar - Plan your gardening year by last frost date.

To start you will need the last frost/freezing date for your area.

Source:NOAA

Go to the National Climatic Data Center and choose your state from the pull down menu.

Source:NOAA

There you will see a chart. Above is the top of the chart for Pennsylvania. Find the closest reporting station to your town. As an example, take a look at Bradford Regional Airport. The first column to the right of the name of the reporting station contains three temperatures in Fahrenheit(F), 36, 32 & 28. Beside each of those temperatures is a row of dates. Spring frost date is our concern. The third column from 32ºF is, for all intents and purposes, the last frost date. That column designates the date on which there is a 10% chance that the temperature will descend below 32ºF. Which for Bradford is June19.

If you open another browser window and navigate to Skippy's Vegetable Garden Planner you will see Skippy asks for the latest frost date for your area. Residents of Bradford would enter the date, 06/19/2013, into the field.

You will place your last frost date into the field, then click the "Generate spring planting calendar" button to create your customized calendar.

Source:http://bioarray.us/Skippy's%20planting%20calendar.html

Above is my planning calendar. As you can see I have just about a week to purchase onion seeds before they need to go into the ground. Don't delay, get your calendar today.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Kronos and My Spring Garden

I get great satisfaction from growing plants, whether ornamental flowers, vegetables or fruit.  The satisfaction is like that of a proud parent, bringing an infant into the world and nurturing it to fruition.  Then someone who loves them, devours them, Kronos-like.  I think of Kronos every time I hear someone say, "That baby is so cute, I could just eat it up."


I began planning my 2012 square foot garden the minute my Johnny's Select Seed catalog appeared in my mailbox.  To get the most out of a 4' x 4' garden plot, I planned three plantings for the year.  As the first planting is harvested, the second planting will go into the square in its place.  The same for the third planting.  The crops will be rotated reducing the possibility of passing along disease and viruses.  Additional soil amendments will be dug in with each new planting.



My first planting will look like the graphic below.

The rough schedule for planting is as follows:
• Late winter -  approximately 17 March, St. Patrick's Day
• Late spring - Mid May to Mid June, after the last frost
• Late Summer - Mid August to Early September, several months   
                           before the first hard frost

Brandywine Pink
Source:BonniePlants

Cherokee Purple
Source:BonniePlants

Sweet and Thai Basil in my garden 2011

Thai Pepper
Source:BonniePlants

Bitter Melon
Source:Bonnie Plants

Over the last few decades, if I wanted good tasting produce, I had to start my own seeds.  The plants I wanted were not offered in garden centers.  Garden centers offered the same plants the commercial growers planted.  I found places like Johnny's Select Seeds, Seeds of Change, Seed Savers Exchange, Totally Tomatoes where heirloom seeds could be purchased.  Heirloom tomatoes taste like the tomatoes I remember from my yout' ("Excuse me, did you say yout'?").  Starting seeds is a difficult chore and a big commitment but until recently it was the only way to get good tasting tomatoes.  


While shopping in Lowe's garden center over the last few years, I noticed they sold Bonnie Plants, individual plants in 3"- 4" peat pots.  Amongst the usual garden center plants, Bonnie offered some heirlooms and unusual plants like Brandywine Tomato, Cherokee Purple Tomato, Thai Peppers, Thai Basil, Stevia and Bitter Melon.  Curious to see if Bonnie would be adding new varieties to their line this year, I went to the Bonnie Plant website.  There I saw a few new plants that I am eager to purchase, such as Black Krim and Black Cherry tomatoes and Epazote.


Inside my local Lowe's, last week, was a display of Burpee seeds.  I think I picked up each and every packet of seeds on the display.  I read each label.  I read when to plant, the expected height and spread of the plant and the number of days to harvest.  I spent a long time reading packets.  Lowe's employees frequently asked if I needed any help.  I think they thought I couldn't get up or fell asleep, or worse.  Having finished a preliminary plan for the garden plot, I knew which seeds I needed.  I purchased over $15.00 of seeds packets including a packet of inoculant for the peas and beans.  Later, if I change my mind about the seeds I purchased, I can always return the seeds.  Something I don't think I can do if I purchase via a website.  Nonetheless, I will probably purchase some seeds on the web to fulfill my plan.  Even though the cost of shipping seems to be quite high for the weight being shipped.  But you know what Kronos always said, "You gotta do, what you gotta do to get a good tasting kid."


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Garden Planning 2012

I am in the midst of planning my garden plot for 2012.  The plot covers only 16 sq ft of area.  For that reason I need to plan carefully to get the most production.  

Last year I dug and planted a 4' square foot garden plot.  I removed a great deal of rocks and large stones from the soil.  I added sand, vermiculite, perlite, blood meal, super phosphate, calcium and composted manure.  When I was finished extracting rocks and stones, digging, turning and racking, the garden soil was level with the existing lawn.
My ground is mostly rock with just an inch or so of topsoil.  Back in the late 60's when my house was built, the builder scraped all of the top soil from the land before building the homes.  Just one inch or so of top soil was returned to cover the sub-soil after building the house.  I dug down two feet into the lawn for the garden plot.  I removed all of the rock and screened the soil through 1/2" hardware cloth.  Added the above soil amendments before I began to plant.

2011 Garden Plot Plan

Magnetic orientation of plot

I divided the plot into 16 - 1' squares, four wide by four deep.  I used 1/2" rebar and other supports on which I strung twine to vertically support the tomato vines.  I sunk one plant in each square except the corn which I seeded with 4 plants per square.

I didn't have enough money to purchase more soil amendments nor did I have the physical energy to increase the amount of soil to mound it above the lawn level.   This proved to be a big mistake.


In May there were two long spells of rainfall.  With each rainfall the plot flooded because of the rock and dense clay structure of the surrounding soil.  The garden soil looked like quicksand.  Many of the plants drowned and had to be replaced.  The growth of the plants that survived, was retarded.  I should have cut a drain into the lawn or built up the soil at least 8" above the lawn level, but I didn't.


In the fall, in an effort to remedy the soil problems, I used a leaf blower to pile all the fallen tree leaves on my front lawn.  I then reversed the blower and sucked the fallen leaves into a trash can.   The blower shredded the leaves and reduced their volume by 80%-90%.  I then surrounded the square plot with 4' high wire fencing and dumped the shredded leaves onto the plot.  The pile was 3' high and 4' square, 1.33 cubic feet of dry, shredded leaves.  I expected the leaves to naturally compost over the next several months.  Sometime in late February or early March, I will turn those leaves into the first 1' of garden plot soil.  That action will add nutrients, retain water and raise the soil above the lawn level.  Hopefully, raising the plot will eliminate the water drainage problem.


All of that in due time.  Now I need to plan carefully and judiciously.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

My Golden Grail

I had a goal to be rich before I was sixteen years old and famous soon after.  Another of my goals was to be a great photographer.  If all else failed I set a goal to win the lottery.  Crap, I wasn't setting goals!  I wasn't planning!  I was wishing!

In the mean time I have been living.  My life has been revealed to me as a poem; each stanza a surprise.  It has been an adventure.  You might call me Odysseus or Percival or Skywalker but I don't think I would answer you, if you did.

Odysseus

Percival

Skywalker about to start his adventure

As things turned out, I wasn't rich when I turned sixteen.  Nor was I famous soon after.  I stopped playing the lottery.  I still have a goal of becoming a great photographer.  I'm not sure how that will fit into my life before the last line is written.  

Nikon

As for now, I am off to London for 10 days to visit my eldest princess and her new prince.  A grand adventure.  I've planned to bring my camera.  I wish I could stay longer to look for the golden grail.   My goal is to slay my dragon "Thou-shalt" with the spirit of my lion "I will."


I wonder if I am more the Don Quixote type?

Don Quijote de la Mancha Joaquin Garcia Donaire  in Philadelphia

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved