Garden Pictures

Here are some pictures about what I have written about in the past few weeks along with some new pictures of the flower and vegetable gardens on Fairy Chasm Road.

As I previously wrote in the beginning of May, I have two old variety rhubarb plants that want to flower and go to seed really fast. I decided to let them grow their flowers so you could see what they look like. They are actually very pretty and have great texture.  Kind of a cool addition to the vegetable garden.  Maybe I will let one keep going to see what happens.

Notice the rhubarb variety to the left isn't flowering

One more view

My potatoes that I planted in my Smart Pots have sprouted.  They are pushing up about an inch or just cracking the soil.  Either way, they seem happy and off to a good start.

It is Memorial Day so I'm feeling pretty good about planting my tomatoes.  I will write more about these soon since I am trying some heirloom varieties but thought I would give you a quick shot. They look so small now.  Hopefully, some rain, sun and heat will make them grow much taller then the peonies behind them.

I really haven't written much about my flower gardens yet.  They have really taken a bit to get going this year but right now they are really lush and green.  I love how organized and neatly separated the perennials are at this time of year.  As the summer moves along they all seem to start encroaching on each other.  Here are some pictures as of Memorial Day.

Soaker Hose Pins

I finished installing my soaker hose in my flower garden.  My soaker hose is connected to a rain barrel that sits right in the back of my flower garden.  This works out well since after every rain the water collected in the rain barrel is slowly distributed throughout the garden.

My soaker hose winds back in forth in a strategic pattern to make sure each of the flowers is close to the hose.  The hose never wants to cooperate and lay down nicely against the soil.

How do you make sure your soaker hose stays in close contact with the soil?  Of course, you use metal pins to hold the hose down.  Now, you could go out and buy some metal pins but I have a great solution.  Grab some metal hangers and cut off the end of the hangers.  There you, go two pins to hold your hose in place from just one hanger.

Before and After 

Frustrating Spring, Patience and Shifting Views

My vegetable garden just doesn't look the way it should for Memorial Day weekend.  And it really bothers me.  I have lived in Wisconsin long enough to know it shouldn't bother me but it really does.  I only have lettuce, spinach, peas, potatoes and onions planted.  I thought for sure by now I would have my brussels sprout and kohlrabi seedlings planted. I thought for sure by know I would have my cucumber, zucchini, carrots and bean seeds planted.  I thought for sure by now I would have my tomato and pepper seedlings planted.  Frustrating but so classic Wisconsin.  The last couple of years we have had amazing springs. Flowers and vegetables seemed to grow with ease and the weather always cooperated.

This spring started out with such promise.  I was able to work the soil and prepare some of my seed beds.  I had lettuce and spinach survive the winter and got multiple cuttings from it.  I got my pea seeds and onion sets in on what ended up to be perfect weather timing because ever since then the weather has been cold and rainy.  These kind of conditions make it so hard to work your soil. I know I need to be patient and shift my view because working soil when it is wet is just a recipe for disaster.  Working your soil when it is wet means your soil will turn into hard clumps that are like rocks.  This is not a condition you want for your garden because it takes a year or longer for the soil to break down. I know I need to be patient but it is so hard as you watch the days and then weeks tick away.  It's not like we live in San Diego and can have a garden year round.  In Wisconsin I feel like every day is precious for growing your garden.

Having said all this I guess it is a year in which I need to shift my focus back a couple of weeks.  I know that the weather along Lake Michigan in the fall can be the most amazing weather for growing vegetables.

Shifting views and patience is what vegetable gardening is all about.

Potatoes

I planted my potatoes this past week.  I tried potatoes my years ago but they really didn't grow that well.  While the soil in my garden is good, it isn't up to the standard you need to grow really good potatoes.  In general, potatoes require light and airy soil.  These conditions allows the potatoes to grow much easier.  If you have heavier clay like soil, the potatoes just have a hard time growing in those conditions. It is so much easier to grow when your surroundings are nice and soft.  To get around this condition, this year, I purchased four Smart Pot containers. Smart Pots are a porous fabric aeration container that releases heat and promotes fibrous root growth.  This should provide the ultimate solution for growing my potatoes.  This also saves a lot of space in my garden. You can put the Smart Pots on your patio or in a empty space of one of your other gardens.  The Smart Pots come in many different sizes but mine is a 15 gallon bag that measures 18 inches in diameter and 13.5 inches tall.

Bags ready to be filled

I filled my bags with a mixture of compost to about 6 to 8 inches from the top of the bag. I intend to continue to fill the bags as the potato plants grow.  Hopefully, this will encourage additional potatoes to grow.

Bags filled and ready for potatoes

I purchased two different varieties of potato this year.  I made my purchases from White Flower Farm.  My first variety is Austrian Crescent.  This is a larger and curvy fingerling with thin golden skin and light, yellow flesh.  This is a mid to late season variety that matures in about 90 days.  The second variety is a French Fingerling.  This variety is very old in that it was introduced to this country in the 1800's.  This variety of fingerling has smooth, cranberry colored skin and creamy yellow flesh.  It should have a somewhat nutty flavor and the skin is suppose to be so tender that there is no peeling required.  This variety takes more then 90 days to mature so I won't have a ton of potatoes all at once.

I will keep you posted as to how these grow and what kind of watering is required with these bags. I will say I am a bit worried about the bags drying out if we are out of town for the weekend.

Finally, I planted some more spinach and lettuce this week.  You really can't get enough this time of year.

Rhubarb Harvest Time

I love rhubarb.  Can something be so simple to grow and taste so good?  Not sure there is anything that can beat it.  It grows, you harvest it, you water it during the rest of the summer and then it starts all over again next spring.  You really don't even think about it.  The only problem for me is that the season is so short for rhubarb.  You really need to take advantage of it when it is ready.

I have four rhubarbs growing in my garden and they just keep growing and getting bigger every year.

Oldest in front and newest towards the back

I planted my first rhubarb plant about 15 years ago.  After 10 years I divided it and planted the new chunks right next to the original plant.  I then added two more rhubarb plants about 2 years ago to complete my rhubarb run at the end of the garden.  The last planting is an interesting variety that a friend gave to me when they were thinning out their rhubarb plants.  They had no idea the variety name but it is a very old variety and not your classic looking rhubarb.  It is interesting and frustrating because it wants to set a flower almost right away. In fact I have already had to cut the flower stalk out of one of the plants and it is only May 11th. The stalks on the older variety are very thick and mostly green.  Definitely not your typical red rhubarb.  This older variety provides a an excellent contrast to the newer variety that I have in taste and color.

Do you know how to harvest rhubarb?  I always thought you just cut it off at the base because that was how my Mom harvested her rhubarb.  I should have know better since my Mom was really not a gardener.  The best way to harvest and encourage more growth is to grab a stalk near the base and give it a gentle tug.  The stalk should pop right out.  With this method you leave a nice clean base for the plant to grow another stalk.

Notice the peas in the background

Probably the most important element of a successful gardener is to have someone that can turn what you grow into something really great to eat.  For me that someone is my wife.  I'm so lucky. Plus, she is an amazing baker.  She has great patience for me when I bring all the rhubarb into the kitchen and ask for a pie or crisp to be baked right away.  Here is a picture of what she did with my first harvest of rhubarb.  Looks really good.  Mmmmm, time for piece of pie.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

My Planting Board

It was a cold, cloudy and rainy week so no real action in the garden.  Amazingly my onions survived and the peas I planted two weeks ago started to pop up three days ago.  It is hard to believe that seeds can germinate in weather like this.  I did harvest a little more lettuce but it is time to remove the old lettuce and plant some fresh seeds.  I will do that this week under my cold frame but will probably remove the cold frame as the weather is suppose to get up into the 70's by the end of the week.  Maybe the weather will turn this week for good.

Since it was so quiet in the garden this week, I thought I would tell you about one of my most favorite tools that I use all the time and have had for 32 years.  This tool is my planting board.

Planting Board

The planting board is such a simple tool but it has so many functions and is really easy to build.  I got the idea from Jim Crockett and his book Crockett's Victory Garden.  This is an amazing book. Some day I will have to share my thoughts on Jim Crockett and his books.  It provides inspiration for me every time I read it.  I love looking at the pictures and reading his ideas on how to grow really great vegetables.

I don't think I have ever seen a planting board for sale in a store or catalog.  My planting board is four feet long with triangle notches every six inches.  The larger notches are spaced a foot apart.  I just lay the planting board down on the ground and use it for setting the space between seedlings and setting the distance between rows.   The other side of the planting board is cut into a v shape. With this side of the board I am able to make groves in the soil for planting seed in.  The harder you press and slide the deeper the groves.  

The planting board can be made out of any 1 x 6 you might have.  My board has special meaning in that the wood I used was old cedar siding from a cottage our family owned in Door County. When my Dad was removing the old siding I grabbed a piece and created this planting board.  I had no idea that I would still be using it 32 years later.  What a great investment and memory saver!