The Disappearing Act

Hello Friends!

I know you must think I have forgotten about you, but it is not so. Hubby did finally get back from Korea, but we were not able to stay in Colorado. There was no real garden for me this year, and I stayed away from my gardening haunts as it just made me sad to think about it.

We've moved to Washington (state). The Colorado house finally sold in August, and we're looking for a house here near Olympia. I really hope we find one soon, so I can start to plan my spring planting!! Finding what we are looking for is proving to take longer than usual, but the right one will come along in due time.

When I can really allow myself to think gardening for real, I will be back...
Amy

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#

Please Excuse...

Please excuse Amy from her blog-posting this summer...

I feel a bit like I need one of those excuse notes my mother used to write when I missed school...

I'm sorry for the disappearance this summer. It's been a little difficult for me to keep up with the blog. Some of you may remember that my husband has been in Korea since May 2009. We thought he would be able to come back to Colorado but unfortunately, that is not the case. Turns out, even federal firefighting jobs are hard to come by this year. He was offered and accepted a position in the Tacoma, WA area. He finally has come back to the states and after a short visit here in Colorado, he left this morning to head to Tacoma.

While I have still been tending my garden (mostly), I have had to focus more on finishing projects around my house, preparing it for sale. It's been hard for me to write about it, as I am sad to have to leave. I have started to write this post several times over the past few weeks but I just wasn't ready to deal with it yet. I will post my end-of-season results once the cold finishes the growing season and I'll try to keep up with my online friends again soon, but I guess until I get my house sold and my new living situation figured out, I may be a little quiet here.

I will be back though- even if I can only garden in containers, I'm not giving it up.

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...

Caterpillar Help?

I've got these caterpillars on one of my young trees in the back yard. Anybody know what they are? The biggest ones are about an inch and a half long.

Thanks for listening...

Sorry about the whining in my last post. Thanks for "listening" and I appreciate your sympathies. I was having a moment that day...

I know I garden in a challenging environment. Probably why the neighbors looked at me funny when I built the garden (though I'm really glad I did!!). I came across this edition of our little town paper the other day (sadly, it's been hanging around in a pile of stuff since May. It's taken it's proper place in the recycle bin now.) Somehow, this headline gives me a feeling of validation...

Things are looking better out there this week and I replanted beans and peas today. I should still have time for a good crop of bush beans though I hope I'm not too early on the peas. We'll soon see (it's OK if I am, I have more seed...).

Third time isn't always a charm...

Year three with my garden is turning out to be a frustrating one. Spring was long and cold. May and June were very very dry. July is bringing some rain and hot days but with that also comes the risk of hail. Here's our little hailstorm July 4th... It came with over an inch of rain and we didn't get the big bad hail that some others nearby got, so I guess I won't complain.

These milk jugs didn't really appreciate that hailstorm though they were likely brittle from the sun exposure though. They are on season 2 of use.

This bed probably bothers me the most. This should be full of zucchini, pattypan and pole beans by now. The indoor started zucchini didn't survive a strong windstorm early on. The direct sown seeds either didn't sprout or were immediately eaten by the bugs. The indoor sprouted zucchini seeds were eaten. I just planted out some indoor starts yesterday. They were still there today so I guess there's hope. At least 2 of the new ones already have their first true leaves so hopefully they're big enough to survive. I've planted the pole beans I think 3 times. These should be Rattlesnake and Zi 28 Long beans. Today when I looked, I do see a few new sprouts so maybe...

Same story with the other pole beans (I think Kentucky Blue and Blue Lake maybe?). I tried to presprout some in the house like I've done with peas but it didn't work so well. I've replanted AGAIN and fairly heavily. Hopefully something will survive and be able to produce before frost.

Even the bush beans are having some trouble. This year, instead of my normal spacing of about 9/sf, I thought I'd try out wider spacing. I planted them about 6" apart or 4/sf this year. Unless the surviving plants produce like crazy, I think I'll go back to my previous method. At least that way, when a couple didn't make it, there wasn't a huge gaping hole where a plant should be. I'm going to replant the empty spaces sometime this week.

The tomatoes were doing well until something came along and chewed the stems. I lost 2 this way last week. The others seem to be doing well though a few of them are very small still. The Galinas Gold Cherry and I think the Thessaloniki are growing well at this point.

This half bed should be full of broccoli and cauliflower. Sadly, right after I gave away my extra starts, I started losing plants. I'm not expecting to see any broccoli though I may get cauliflower.

Finally, my carrots did not do well at all. With the dry windy weather, I guess I just didn't keep them wet enough to sprout. I have about 3 carrots from 4 squares that sprouted. So sad. I sprouted some indoors (wet coffee filters) and put them out today. Perhaps they'll survive...

I guess, on the plus side, the onions are doing well this year, much better than the past 2. Of course, I mainly use onions when I cook zucchini...

Slime Mold

When I went to the garden today, I found a very unpleasant-looking surprise. It looked as though something vomited in my squash bed. Strange thing is, I found the same thing last year.

This disgusting stuff was almost completely covering one poor little watermelon seedling (look closely in the center of the above photo). When I poked the stuff with a stick, it was soft & gooey and mustard-yellow in the center. Just gross.

I took these pictures planning to post a "what the heck" question but I decided to see if I could figure it out myself. Amazingly when I Googled "garden Colorado yellow slimy" I actually got useful results! After clicking a result titled "Yellow Goo in your Garden" from CSU's Extension office, I had a name to search. Slime Mold.

The next article from CSU (The Slime Molds) describes the mold as resembling dog vomit. I knew I had the right answer then! Actually, after reading the article, I'm almost wishing I hadn't poked it apart as much as I did (before I hosed it down pretty well to free the poor melon). It really is sort of interesting. I did have to laugh at the end of the article where it says "Like nature's other organisms, slime molds should be looked at for their beauty and enjoyed as one enjoys a mass planting of dianthus or snapdragons". I'm not so sure I'd go that far...