Just Be There Blog

Garden update

Garden update

Tuesday 10-8-24
I have almost finished cleaning up the garden. I've set up three grow lights in the laundry room and am in the process of transferring potted garden plants into the grow light space. Peppermint, Lemon Balm, and Hot Thai Peppers are under the lights. I still need to transfer the Thai Basil and Lavender. I also have some small strawberry plants from this year's runners that could benefit with the basement grow lights.
The corn, cucumber, bean bed is torn down and needs to be deep watered and mulched for the winter.

I got an impressive amount of green beans from that 18"x37" plot. 6 of the 10 corn seeds planted grew into decent stalks supporting 5 cucumber plants and 8 pole bean plants. The corn produced only a few ears, and the cucumbers were late producing but what we got were delicious. The problem, of course was over crowding the corn and the cucs but the beans went absolutely bonkers. Every other day for nearly a month we had fresh beans for dinner. I even froze a couple meals, because a body can stand to eat only so many meals of green beans in a row. It wasn't long before the new wore off on fresh from the garden green beans. All in all, we got a few carrots, butternut squash, acorn squash, big leafy chard (way too much for us northern folk), strawberries, red beets n greens, chives, yellow onions, basil, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and maybe three big beef steak tomatoes (if they don't freeze before they can pink up) will be the garden bounty this year. Not bad for two 4'x8' raised beds and two 3'x3' raised beds.

Next year, the third 4'x8' bed will be ready to grow. The gardening was haphazard at best this year as I was still working full time nights when I started seedlings indoors during March and working the outdoor beds through August. The weather was cold through the end of June so the Tomatoes, peppers and squash I planted were stunted by the last couple frosty mornings in June. There were other issues that delayed planting, as well as thriving issues for the cooler weather tolerant plants. The soil I am working with is very rocky and more clay than sand or organic material. The first 3'x3' raised bed I didn't do much soil amending and planted the radishes, spinach, peas, and beets in April. I had brussel sprout seedlings ready to go in at the time too. The seeds took a long time to sprout because of the cold nights through May, and the Brussel sprouts struggled to the point there wasn't much of a crop after the pests invaded. No thriving in the first bed due to weather, poor soil structure and poor nutrition, and haphazard watering. The other three beds I sifted rocks and amended the soil with compost and fertilizer. These beds did a lot better once the weather and watering routines stabilized.

The green house vinyl is off the frame...my winter project will be to repair it and beef it up. In the meantime, I need to devise a cover over the frame shelves where gardening supplies and such will be stored over the next several months. The cover needs to be wind and snow/rain/freeze proof. I'm thinking of a combination of cardboard protected by a tarp tied and secured.

I deployed the pvc pipe in the garden beds to frame in a frost tunnel or temporary solar capture/cloche/cold frame or critter netting or whatever may be handy for next growing season. I also have loads of the fiber glass flex rods with connectors to use for possibly double layering said cloche, cold frame, solar tunnel set up if the next spring turns out as cold and unforgiving as this year's start.

I have racks with shelves still in boxes, as well as trellis panels, netting, and frames that need to be stored but accessible if I decide I need them for a project this winter.

Sunday, (10-6-24) I planted 9 asparagus crowns and 6-strawberry plants in the area between the shed and the canoe. [About a 3'x3' prepared area]. I have in mind to use some of the saved milk jugs to cloche the strawberries in the long bed as well as those just transplanted in the new asparagus bed. If the winter gets super cold, the milk jugs will actually moderate the conditions a bit. If the winter is mild the jugs will still be effective at protecting the new plants and possibly give them an established rooting boost for an early spring sprouting and such. I have mulched the new bed with straw to retain moisture.