Missed a Chance (timing is everything)

[digitS']

I was in the small veggie garden yesterday. As many of you know, I'm a commuting gardener - this garden is about 4 miles from home.

Except for the russets, the 200 square feet of the potato patch has been dug. The russets only take up about 40 square feet and I've got Asian greens sown in about 40 square feet. Some of them are really densely sown and need separating. They transplant well, except when daytime temperatures reach 90F as has been the case thru about 2 weeks.

It was cloudy and sprinkling rain when I was there. The weather report for today was a nice cool 75 for a high, I'd meant to bring transplanting tools . . . :/ So, there I was with about 120 square feet of ground, haphazardly refilled beds after the soil had been completely removed to harvest the spuds.

I found a scrap of metal which could have worked as a trowel, sorta. I just couldn't level the beds . . . :/ Driving 8 miles round trip to bring in the forgotten rake just didn't seem to make sense. Later that day, a quarter inch of rain fell. Perfect for transplants - but no transplants!

The rake is going in the back of the pickup this morning and, altho' I hadn't planned a trip over there (on to the more distant garden), I should be able to stop for some transplanting tasks. Instead of starting out with 24 hours of coolness and rain, the plants will have to face "Mostly Sunny" and high temperatures back near 90 by Sunday.

If they keel-over, I'll kick myself ! For the want of a rake . . .

Steve

 

[Carol Dee]

Thankfull our big garden is only 2 miles from home! We keep most of the tools in a shed there. So of course anytime I want to work in the patch behind the garage I need to make a run to the lot to find a tool. I hope your transplants do well.

 

[April Manier]

Awe, take it as a little lesson. There is a reason for everything. You won't make that mistake again!

 

[vfem]

Well that is more then I can say for me still... I'm sick again and haven't planted a single fall crop. I'm in tears on what I've missed out on doing this year.

I asked my husband for help, as this is a financial venture for the family, and he just tells me 'its not my thing'. So if I have to crawl out into the garden today on hands and knees doped up on sudifed I will. I am sure like you, I have volenteers popping up everywhere, and I need to transplant while its nice out with chances of rain this labor day weekend if they are to survive and produce. :tools

 

[digitS']

Scratched things out flat and . . .

from early this morning

Bok Choy near the camera. That's Guy Lan across the path, got a little of that moved around, too.

The tail-end (and I mean, the tail-end) of the russet potatoes is there in the upper left corner. I will be cutting off the foliage tomorrow. I am sure that they won't notice at this stage. Had hoped they'd run until frost but I will need to come up with a later variety than Gold Rush.

Steve

that they survive 89F on Sunday and 91 on Labor Day

 

[ninnymary]

Steve..what is that white stuff on the ground? It looks like frost or hail but I know it can't be that with your hight temps.

Mary

 

[Theo]

My garden is 30 miles from my house. Luckily my tenant is a good sport about watering it for me. I haven't dug my potatoes yet--we are about a month behind with our summer this year (Willamette Valley, OR.) and we are finally getting some August weather in September. I am going to let the potato patch ride until the weather turns.

I planted 12 Brussels sprouts in July--they are very healthy looking. Too bad nobody in my family likes sprouts except me. I think we will start getting sprouts by the end of Sept. I wasn't organized enough to plant cabbages to transplant out, so I am going to see if the garden center has some this month. I will also plant garlic and multiplier onions in October. That will be the extent of my over winter garden this year. Bigger than last year, though!

 

[digitS']

Steve..what is that white stuff on the ground? It looks like frost or hail but I know it can't be that with your hight temps.

Mary

It does look kind of odd doesn't it, Mary? It is just dry soil in the morning light. The darker soil below it is wet and what was stirred up with transplanting has dried. For some reason, it looked grey just after dawn that day.

. . . I planted 12 Brussels sprouts in July--they are very healthy looking. Too bad nobody in my family likes sprouts except me. I think we will start getting sprouts by the end of Sept. I wasn't organized enough to plant cabbages to transplant out, so I am going to see if the garden center has some this month. I will also plant garlic and multiplier onions in October. That will be the extent of my over winter garden this year. Bigger than last year, though!

I'm kind of with your family on the Brussels sprouts, Theo. And, Welcome to TEG !

It is great that you should be able to have all those things right thru the winter. I can't really make use of the 3 beds in my backyard for such things - 1 bed turns into a hoophouse in late winter and the other bed gets very little light during those months.

If I left plants in the distant gardens, I'm afraid the wildlife & neighborhood pets would chew on them all winter . . . Guess I don't quite have good conditions for a winter garden . . .

Steve :/

 

[digitS']

Again, not the best picture (used the cellphone) but you can see that the plants have survived . They have even done a bit of growing over the last week of very warm weather.

It has been so warm in fact, that if the Weather Service is accurate, the thermometer will top out at 96F this afternoon! That will be a new record high for the date and beat the old record of 93 set about 75 years ago!

I have just drowned the plants with some extra water and it looks like they are good for the long haul . . . I won't be back with the sprinkler until next Tuesday.

The potatoes did a little better than 1 pound per square foot (still digging the russets). I will try to get some idea of the total production of these beds by weighing the bok choy here in a few weeks. It seems to me that one could go both ways - potatoes first then greens or greens first and then potatoes. At 2 pounds a square foot, the average family garden of 1,000 square feet could produce literally a ton of food. Now that calculation is well off the mark if these bok choy plants bolt with all this heat but . . . I'm trying .

The lighter green veggies there beyond the Guy Lan are the mustard greens that replaced onions in that bed. The tall plants back against the fence are millet for our feathered friends. They should be ready to harvest in a week or 10 days.

Steve

 

[hoodat]

Brussels sprouts really need a light frost to develop a sweet taste.