Wet weekends are productive

I rode Thursday and Friday nights because I knew this weekend was going to be wet.  Great rides Thursday and Friday, Thursday's shall not be named but I left from a friend's house and rode for 3 hours...Friday was Tour de Mills with Kris and Ben-Bridge>Spencer>Spencer>Lower Fletcher>Reservoir>Lower Spencer>Middle Fork>Fletcher>lower spencer>Reservoir.   Both great rides.

This weekend, I gardened a lot.  I got several starts going...all older seeds, so we'll see what happens with this $4 project (bag of starting medium).   In the trays pictured below are(L>R)  1) lavender, rudbeckia, nasturtium, and sunflowers.  2) Straight 8 Cucumbers, White Wonder Cucumbers, Hearts of Gold cantaloupe, and Black Beauty Zucchini. 3) Brandywine Tomatoes and Yellow Crookneck Summer Squash.
Each tray holds...72 seeds, so even if I only get 33% germination, I'll have plenty.

The yellow flower is a Carolina Jasmine.  I'm going to plant it on the teepee trellis in the front yard with a red honeysuckle. I hope this will be a permanent arrangement. 

Ok...garden.  This bed was double dug and planted in Pontiac Red Potatoes.  I did not take a picture of the awesome compost  that I added.  Maybe a composting arrangment will be one of my next posts.  Anyway...

On the other side of the fence is another bed of potatoes.  To the green pole...

Onions from the green pole to the different straw/ plants...

Which are broccoli and napa cabbage.  They will have to be covered at night for the next week.

Garlic next to broccoli/napa is looking awesome.

Here's the lettuce inside of the cold frame.  Soda can is for perspective.

In the four-way bed, here's lettuce babies...

There are spinach and arugula babies in this photo.

The first pea sprout is glared out next to the soaker hose.

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Garden shot.  Peas are under my folky-trellis.  Scrap rules!  There are two beds on each side of the cold frame with crimson clover on them.

On to the front garden...I weeded this a lot over the weekend.  The daffodils still look nice!

Weeded and mulched these day lilies.  Shovels are for perspective.

Irises are coming in nice.  The shorter ones if the foreground were saved from the crazy neighbors.

Finally, here's some really cute pictures of Macy and Phoebe.  Great weekend!

Old Skool

I've used diagrams like this for years.  It works well for me and it's something I will always do.  Really helps with crop rotations.  The main things I look at with crop rotation are families and feeding.  Families mean don't follow brassicas (broccoli, chard, kale, cabbage etc) with brassicas or nightshades (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, etc) with nightshades.  Feeding means light takers (lettuce, leafy greens, onions, etc) should be rotated with heavy takers (pretty much everything big) and givers (peas/beans/legume cover crops).  I use clover as a cover crop and rotate the beds that get it in the winter.  This really helps with adding a "giver" to the rotation.  So, looking at the 2013 diagram, the beds labelled potatoes, onions, broccoli/napa, and the big 4 way bed labelled peas, lettuce, arugula, and chard did not have clover on it this winter; obviously, the cold frame did not either (where it says cukes on the lower left).  I'll rotate the locations of those beds next year and cover those beds with clover for the winter.  I also use buckwheat to cover beds empty late in the summer. It's a light taker, but makes up for it by breaking up the rotation of feeding, adding organic matter either when you dig it in or (what I usually do) add it to the compost pile, keeps weeds down by out-competing them, improves soil structure by breaking up via roots....I could go on and on.  I'm a BIG fan of both keeping garden diagrams and cover crops.

Garden photos taken last Saturday:

View of vegetable garden from carport.

Big patch of lamb's ear- it will need thinning and spreading end of this year.

Pretty daffodills around mailbox.  Random rock pile is a developing thing.

Nice shot of irises and day lilies popping out.

Bigger patch of day lilies

Size perspective

This is the cat, tonight.

Let's get this year started!

Really going to try to do this...

Here's three pictures to start with:

Just planted this bed today.  Peas on trellis.  In front of peas Swiss chard. Quadrant next to trellis, lettuce.
Quadrant katty korner from trellis, spinach/arugula mix.

Lettuce..

Inside of the newish cold frame...

The cat!!