2010 Numbers

We finally had a killing freeze a few days ago. I still have to go out to the garden to do the final clean-up, but I think I can safely add up the yields for the season now.

It wasn't the best year for several of my plants. The peas and beans and summer squash were all repeatedly chomped down as seedlings. I suspect pill bugs as they were the only bugs I ever saw real signs of on the plants, even when checking by flashlight at night. I finally got the zucchini go grow somewhere around July 4th, on the 3rd or 4th attempt. Most of my cucumbers suffered an early demise due to a little trellis accident. My neighbor removed his fence which was supporting my ladder trellis and I didn't have it secure enough before a strong windstorm came along a couple days later and ripped the plants right out of the ground. The few Tanja cucumbers I did get to eat were some of the best I think I've had. They are definitely on the repeat list.

Another for the repeat list is the Carmen Peppers. I'll also grow them in a pot again as the plant in the pot produced more ripe peppers which were larger and earlier than the ones in-ground. Both plantings were started indoors at the same time, so I think warmth of the black pot was a benefit for the peppers.

My big producer (again) was the Small Wonder Spaghetti Squash. I won't try planting them where they share space with any other squash though, the spaghetti took over and none of the others produced. I did get one little Small Sugar Pumpkin but I'm not sure at this point if it will ripen, it started so late.

Anyway, here are the numbers:

SALAD GREENS/LETTUCE 4.38#
RADISHES .31#
BUSH BEANS 14.25# (Pole beans did not fare well)
TOMATOES 5.69# (Mostly cherry tomatoes)
GARLIC .5#
CUCUMBERS 3.25#
POTATOES 24.88#
PEPPERS 1.94#
CARROTS .44# (I had terrible germination rates)
ZUCCHINI 10.69# (I was glad to have any, with the start they had)
PATTYPAN SQUASH 2.94#
SPAGHETTI SQUASH 53.00#

ROUNDED TOTAL: 122#

Things Are Looking Up!

July has brought us some rain followed by warm temperatures and it's really starting to show out in the garden now. My zucchini are still alive (yay!!) and are starting to get a little bigger. It'll still be quite a while before I get any but the farm stand opened last weekend (I'm so glad they're back!) and they have good zucchini. I've gotten a few zuccs, cucumbers and sweet onions from them this week. I'm going to try out the corn later this week.

The pattypan is still small but has some baby squash starting on it now. The plants were pretty small last year but I thought it was due to being in partial shade. This one is in the sun and is still small. I'm thinking they're just much littler plants than zucchini.

Once again, I think the spaghetti squash is going to be the star of the garden. This bed actually has spaghetti squash, butternut squash, small sugar pumpkin and sugar baby watermelon. Most of what you see in this photo is spaghetti squash. The pumpkin and butternut are starting to put on some size but the spaghetti squash is going crazy. I think there are days that squash grows 6". I have to check it daily to keep it on its trellis and in the bed.

The bush beans have taken off too. I'll give you one guess which section has started to produce this week...

Sprouts in my Squash

What happens when you keep spaghetti squash in the house for

8 months?

It starts to sprout!!

I ate it anyway!!

It was my last one...boy I hope they grow well again!!

Transplanting Tomatoes & Peppers

Today was a beautiful day! Earlier in the week, the forecast temperature for today was 93 degrees which I was somewhat dreading. My house does not have central air and it's early in the summer for that kind of heat, I'm just not used to it. Thankfully, the forecast changed. Today was in the mid-80s and a little cloudy most of the day with just a little wind. It was hot in the garden when the sun came out and I did end up with a bit of a sunburn, but I finally got some more planting done.

I transplanted the peppers into their designated area (I call this ring #3- though it's really more of a rectangle, it's named for the way it was built). I added the jugs of colored water and a couple dark rocks to absorb heat and there's plastic 3/4 of the way around the outside to add some warmth and cut the wind. I tied some row cover fabric over the top as well- sort of a pepper-incubator if you will. I add the extra heat steps because our nighttime temps dip pretty low all summer long- in part because of the altitude (we're at 7000'). I am just now planting them out because I think I put them out too early last year and the peppers were stunted until late in the season. I'm hoping I get some peppers before October this year. In this ring I have planted two Banana peppers, two Pimiento peppers and two Carmen peppers. I also have a third Carmen that I planted in a pot. I'm especially looking forward to the Carmen peppers, they sound like they'll be really good. The Carmens are the big plants in the foreground.

I also planted the tomatoes. Some of the little guys are still so very small. Hopefully they'll grow now that they're outdoors. The photo shows about half of a 4x10' bed. In that half, I've got 12 tomato plants. I suspect some won't make it or will remain small this year. The big ones you might actually be able to see in the picture are Galinas Gold Cherry (2) and Thessaloniki (2). I've also got a Jubilee Yellow, a Kelloggs Breakfast, two Black Cherry, three Rutgers and one Roma. Since it doesn't look like hubby is likely to be around this summer either, I'm not terribly concerned about tomato production. I'm not a big tomato eater (though I do sort of like the flavor of the gold and black cherries). At this point, I'm starting to think of growing tomatoes as sort of a challenge. Except for the cherries, we have not had great success yet.

When watering yesterday, I noticed there were a lot of ants on my larger Catnip plant. When I flipped over the leaves I found masses of aphids. I hosed them off last night but as you can see, I didn't get them all.

The lettuce & salad greens are growing pretty well now. The cabbage worms have discovered the Savanna Mustard though. I'll have to remember to look carefully when I pick them - I'll pass on the extra protein if I can at all help it. It's not a major infestation at this point, hopefully hand-picking will keep them at bay.

The poor started-too-early spaghetti squash transplants are still looking pretty sickly though there's actually a female bloom starting on one of them!. I planted some seeds just in case and I noticed one direct-sown sprout today. I wish I could remember how many seeds I planted though, the pumpkins don't look like they're going to make it and I hope I tucked in a few seeds.

I lost all the zucchini transplants (I think the wind beat them up too much) but the pattypan squash transplants are looking quite healthy.

I also planted two more varieties of beans today, Top Notch (yellow bush) and Burpee's Tenderpod (green bush). The Tendergreen Improved (bush green) and Cherokee Wax (bush yellow) I planted earlier are starting to sprout now. I'm still waiting on the Zi 28-2 Long beans and the Rattlesnake beans to sprout. They should be popping up soon.

Now, we just need a little rain... (just a little with no hail please) :-)

Cooking Spaghetti Squash

I've been meaning to post this little how-to for quite some time. I realized I'd better get on it - the squash are almost gone! I have two left and they'll be eaten very soon. I cooked one about a week ago and discovered one of the seeds had actually sprouted INSIDE the squash. The squash was still in good shape, no rot or soft spots but it was a little reminder that they won't last forever.

I'm actually quite impressed with how well they've kept. I picked them in October and it's now May. I had one that was starting to go bad a couple months ago but it was still good enough that I cooked it & added it to the dogs' dinner. I stored them under the buffet in the dining room. It's not near a heat vent, shielded from the sun and close enough to the kitchen that I remember to eat them!

If you'd like to see how they grew, check this link: Spaghetti Squash posts

I grew the Small Wonder variety of spaghetti squash. This is actually one of the smaller ones. It's little enough that I can eat it myself. While I normally have no trouble eating leftovers, when I tried leftover spaghetti squash, I wasn't very happy with it. I'd recommend only cooking half the squash if it's too big to eat at once. Scoop the seeds from the second half, wrap it & pop it in the fridge for another day or so.

Rinse the squash if needed and carefully cut it in half. Be sure to keep track of all your fingers, sometimes the squash are not the easiest to cut.

Scoop out the seeds (which you can cook and eat like pumpkin seeds if you want to) and place in a microwave safe dish. Microwave on high until soft enough to dent when pressed. I'll recommend a knife handle for this task though I often use my fingertip for this (and soon regret it). This little guy took about 9 minutes to cook.

Once cooked, I let it cool a few minutes then holding the skin with a towel, I scrape the stands out with a fork. Then add a little butter, garlic, salt & pepper & Parmesan cheese.

Top it off with a sprinkling of mozzarella.

Then bake until the cheese starts to brown.

I'll admit, this may not actually be the prettiest I've ever cooked- I used the toaster oven and then left it in a touch too long (I was chatting with hubby on Skype). It was still pretty tasty though!

Mmmm...what's growing in my basement?

Ok, maybe I shouldn't ask that question, I'm not having the best luck this past week or so... While working on my caulking/weather-sealing project last week, I discovered the exterior trim around my kitchen window was in bad shape. It was wet and rotten. When I pulled it off, it got worse. I won't know the full extent until it's time to take it all apart, but at least I've got someone to fix it for me. He'll have to pull the trim & siding and the kitchen window for sure. Hopefully it's not too much worse in there.

Anyway, this is what I have and WANT growing in my basement!! This is my indoor lettuce (Mesclun) box and very soon it will be salad time!

It looks like the cat has stopped tromping through the seedlings now. I don't think she did too much damage in the end.

This is what else is growing in my basement. It's my collection of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini & squash. The spaghetti squash is off to a good (though accidentally too early) start. They are the tallest seedlings under the lights. Soon I may have to put them in the window by the mesclun and see if that's enough light for them. Otherwise I'll need to find more ways to prop up the tomatoes & peppers! My Carmen peppers sprouted and soon will be moved downstairs (or squeezed in I should say). Maybe next year I need to get another light (or self control?? Nah, another light).

The Slacker is Back (and it's Seed Starting Time!!)

First of all, my apologies for the hiatus. I didn't do much outdoors this winter and found myself with very little to post about. It will probably take me a bit to get back into the swing of things but I'll try to be better!

I'll also admit, I am a bit slow with this post as well. I was thinking of you all and I did take pictures and I was thinking about my blog but alas, I was sidetracked. I also discovered I never re-installed my photo software when my hard drive crashed in December and I don't seem to be able to get it reload from the disk, grrr...

I finally downloaded Picasa so I'm at least semi-functional photo-wise (but I'm still annoyed about the other software).

Anyway... I'd like to show you my high-tech germinating set-up.

Spiffy eh?
The TV puts out enough heat to keep the seeds a little warmer than room temperature.

My lack of success with pepper germination last year led me to a better setup for those this year.

I have an old heating pad that my husband used so much over the years the "high" setting no longer works. Medium seems to do a good job keeping things at 75-80 degrees in the box though. The Rubbermaid box protects the pad from any moisture and a piece of plastic wrap keeps the humidity high in the box. One tray (those are Oreo trays just in case you wondered) has 3 types of onion seeds, thickly sown as they were older seeds and I was unsure of their viability. The other tray has pepper seeds. I planted 5 in each row. One row has Sweet Banana and the other two have Sweet Mixed Pimiento Dulce, also leftovers from last year. With the bottom heat I had germination in about 10 days or so. About 2/3 of the peppers have sprouted so far.

There are also some squash or cukes filling in the rest of the heated space. The tomatoes & the rest of the cucurbits were in the cooler box over the TV. Most ended up rotating into the warm box at some point but were doing well in the cooler box. My OOPS on this (also read "lack of planning or paying attention") is the fact that I STARTED the cucurbits. I will probably wish I had waited on those as they may be huge by the time they can go out. Oh well...

This feisty little Spaghetti Squash (Small Wonder), like some of it's companions, actually had a root coming out of the bottom of the peat pot about as soon as it sprouted. The cotyledons aren't even completely open yet.

I am anxiously awaiting fresh salad season. We haven't had a lot of warm days yet for planting outdoors (matter of fact, right now, my garden is completely covered by several inches of snow!). I decided to try an experiment. Using the "rooting box" that I retrieved from the front porch, I pretty thickly sowed Mesclun seeds (from 2008). It was fast and easy since it was already filled with seed starting medium. I gave the pots a little cleaning and added a little fresh medium and planted. I put the cover on the box (propped open slightly) and set it on the living room floor for about 4 days, until the seeds germinated.

Once I had sprouts, I moved it to the basement. It sits in a sunny, south facing window. The basement is heated somewhat but is very cool (it's unfinished space). When I check on the lettuce, I just look out the window into the cold snowy garden. It makes me think this might be a good idea! So far, they're doing quite well though the little cat keeps stepping on them. She's pretty sure the water in the pots is for her drinking pleasure.

Speaking of the little cat, here they are catching a little sunbeam in the morning sun last week. As they get older, they really seem to enjoy following the sunbeam through the house. I find the gray one laying in random spots around the house, like in the closet doorway, on the bedroom floor, on the stairs...

Annie & Gabby

So, there's the beginning of my catch-up posting. I'll be back again soon!!

Then & Now- October Review

Time for the final monthly review of the season!

I was a little worried about the spaghetti squash when I picked them. They nearly all had some yellow but weren't looking very ripe at all. I left them on the vine as long as possible even though the vines were looking pretty dead.

I had read they would ripen as long as they had started changing color and YAY they did! They spent about 3 weeks just like this on my dining room table. Only one looks like it may not turn. It didn't have any yellow when it was picked. I ate one for dinner tonight!

The yellowing bell pepper ripened off-plant as well and was eaten about 10 days later (it came on my road trip with me- it's the ONLY yellow bell that grew and I wasn't going to miss out on eating it!!

I had to pick everything that was approaching ripeness at the beginning of the month because I was gone for a couple weeks. I went back to Vermont for my class reunion. We had a whole weekend bash and it was a great time! As a bit of a gee-whiz, I tried to cover the garden to see what might make it while I was away. Temps had been hitting lows in the 30's before I left so I figured if the weather held out for a couple weeks, it might make it.

It didn't.

About a week after I left, the weather took a drastic turn. The forecast showed a low of 19 one night, high in the 20's and then a low of 14. I knew it wouldn't make it through that kind of cold. All of the covers had open spots for ventilation for the warm days and they would have needed blankets and probably lights to survive those lows. Oh well. I think the biggest disappointment was the raspberries. There were so many berries on the plants that froze before ripening.

I was part-way through the garden clean-up the other day when I had to stop for some reason. I didn't get to work outside again the end of this week for sure! We had a nasty storm roll through. We didn't get the 2+ feet of snow that some areas around Denver saw, just 3-4". Those 3-4" coupled with some wicked winds sure can make some good drifts though! This was my garden yesterday. I wonder how the baby lettuce in bed #1 are doing under all that snow.

Too bad my driveway looks like this too. We get the worst snowdrift across the drive with nearly every storm. I guess shoveling snow is good exercise at least which is probably good since I bought Halloween candy this week...

October Harvest Totals:

ZUCCHINI 6 OZ
LETTUCE 4 OZ
BEANS 1 OZ
TOMATOES 9 OZ
CARROTS 13 OZ
CUKES 5 OZ
PEPPERS 1# 11 OZ
DAIKON RADISH 3 OZ
SPAGHETTI SQUASH 27# 14 OZ
PUMPKIN -2 VOLUNTEERS- 18# 7 OZ
POTATOES 7# 6 OZ

October Total: 927 oz = 57# 15 oz

September total: 878 oz = 54# 14 oz
August total: 338 oz = 21 lb 2 oz
July total: 157 oz = 9 lb 13 oz
June total: 69 oz =4 lb 5 oz
May total: 10 oz .

Total: 2379 oz = 148 lb 11 oz

Then & Now- September Review

Time again for the month in review (ok, so I'm actually a day late- oops!)

2/3rds of the beans are done & gone. I cut the plants and added round one of the fall additions. This bed was new this year and shrank to about 6" below the top of the boards. I added some partially composted weeds (bottom layer- I figure if there are seeds in there, most of them will be buried far enough down that they won't be a problem), mostly finished compost, coffee grounds & leaves. Topped it off with a piece of landscape fabric stapled to the top of the bed to keep it neat.

The last 1/3rd was still producing until a few days ago. There may be a little more to come but it won't be much. The yellows in the other bed have pretty well quit too. Most of the 2 beds in the center of the photo (the plastic overlaps to the other one) are no longer producing. The plastic is there for one reason - the peppers. I picked all the usable peppers today as we are expected to freeze tonight. All the extra real estate is covered for a couple reasons. I'm getting ready to take a trip before long. I want to try and give the peppers a chance to produce a little more (though I don't have high expectations) but I won't be home to monitor temperatures in the garden. The peppers are under a curtain and in the middle of this plastic tunnel. The ends of the tunnel are open for ventilation. We'll see how they look when I get back.

The sunflowers have been cut down. I hope to save the seeds for sunflower shoots this winter and for the birds.

Anybody know what these black things are on the back of the sunflower leaves? They're everywhere. They're not squishy like eggs but harder like spores on ferns. I haven't had a chance to look anything up quite yet...

I was sad to see this plant go. It was one of the prettiest plants in the garden this year. It was quite seriously hit with powdery mildew though I don't think that was it's only problem. I initially ignored it figuring it was just time for the plant to go. When I realized I was seeing powdery mildew I did try spraying it but it was too late.

The squash all have some yellow so I'm crossing my fingers they will finish ripening. I harvested 16 from the plants today as well as several Giant Marconi peppers, the ONE yellow bell on the plant, and a few pimiento & banana peppers. I also dug about 5 lbs of potatoes.

I'm afraid I will miss these ripening, so sad... I'll tell the neighbor to come pick them. I think she'll be happy to.

September harvest totals:

ZUCCHINI 11# 6 OZ

LETTUCE 7 OZ

GREEN BEANS 4# 8

YELLOW BEANS 1# 15

ROMA TOMATOES 1# 12

RED TOMATOES 2#

BLACK CHERRY TOMATOES 2# 3

YELLOW CHERRY TOMATOES 1# 10

CARROTS 9 OZ

CUKES 1# 4

PEPPERS 12 OZ

RADISHES 4 OZ

PATTYPAN SQUASH 1# 8

PUMPKIN -SMALL SUGAR- 3# 14

CORN 4# 7

POTATOES 16# 7

September total: 878 oz = 54# 14 oz

August total: 338 oz = 21 lb 2 oz

July total: 157 oz = 9 lb 13 oz
June total: 69 oz =4 lb 5 oz
May total: 10 oz .

Total: 1452 oz = 90 lb 12 oz

Then & Now- August Review

Time again for some comparison photos!

The green beans started the season looking less-than-great in June, mustered a good recovery in July and are now winding down production.

This bed has Landreth Stringless, Contender and French Filet bush beans. I would plant the Contender and French Filet again. They produce nice long, straight pods and seemed more productive than the Landreth. The raw flavor was also better. They were all mixed together for cooking so I didn't notice any flavor difference at dinnertime.

The sunflowers are going a little nuts now! The bees love the sunflowers as well as the bolted broccoli flowers. They have both sprawled out of the beds enough that I avoid those pathways to not anger any bees. Most of the time, I can see about 10 bees in the broccoli.

The spaghetti squash look like they're maturing now. They are starting to turn yellow though there is still a lot of green on the fruits. My understanding is they are ready to pick once they have fully turned color. The foliage is looking pretty shabby and appears to have some powdery mildew starting as well.

It took seemingly forever, but some of my peppers I started from seed are producing! I really thought they were never going to grow (my watermelon didn't...). Next year, I will not subject the peppers to such cool spring temps. They'll have to be babied a little more.

My pumpkin is nearly ready! I think there is also a second one just starting to grow. I'm not positive how many surviving plants I have on that ladder but it's at least 2, so the production is really low. On the other hand, I bought the seeds on clearance last fall for about a quarter so I'm not going to complain too much.

I also have what I believe may be a larger pumpkin that sprouted from some compost under my transplanted lilacs in the back yard. I must not have looked at it closely for a while because when I checked it earlier I had several male blooms and no females. I checked it yesterday and there's a fruit that's probably 10" long! There's another small one as well. I'm pretty impressed as this didn't receive any care at all. I think I watered the lilac once this summer as it looked a little wilted (probably because this large squash plant was sucking away all it's water). Maybe I watered twice.

-AUGUST HARVEST TOTALS-

Zucchini 74 oz (4 lb 10 oz) 15 fruits

Beans (all varieties) 150 oz (9 lb 6 oz)

Pattypan Squash 14 oz 2 fruits

Carrots 11 oz

Peppers 3 oz (2 fruits)

Potatoes 34 oz (2 lb 2 oz)

Cucumbers 33 oz (2 lb 1 oz) 6 fruits

Tomatoes 19 oz (1 lb 3 oz)

Total: 338 oz = 21 lb 2 oz

July total: 157 oz = 9 lb 13 oz
June total: 69 oz =4 lb 5 oz
May total: 10 oz .

Total: 574 oz = 35 lb 14 oz

If you'd like to re-visit my July review, click this link:
http://transplantedgardener.blogspot.com/2009/07/then-now-july-review.html