PEACHTREE CITY COMMUNITY GARDEN
  • Home
    • About
  • Registration
  • Ask Larry
  • Photo Gallery
  • Veggie Files
  • Contact

Cold

3/31/2015

4 Comments

 
  When I got up Sunday morning I was surprised to see the outside temperature at 25 degrees, much colder than I had expected after listening to two different weathermen on Saturday night. I had expected at worse about 28 degrees so nothing in my garden was covered, but those 3 extra cold degrees did a number on the garden. It took two days to fully assess the damage but here's what I've found. Right now the cabbage plants look horrible, the leaves that froze are brown and will eventually fall off. Fortunately, the inner core of the plants appear to be intact and so the plants should grow out of this condition. It will probably delay harvest but we should still make a crop. If your cabbage, broccoli, and kale have brown leaves but green centers leave them and they should grow. Same goes for those of you with potatoes, if the leaves froze don't worry, the plants will sprout anew.
  Those of you that planted tomatoes, peppers, etc. by now you can see if the plants froze completely. They will not recover. Plan to replant those crops in about 2 weeks after we are really clear of frost and freeze.
  Looking around the farm, the blueberries took a hit especially the earlier varieties. Looks like we lost about 1/3 of that crop. Freeze damage also on the fig plants, persimmons, and kiwi. But they all should rebud and hopefully make a crop.
  So now what to do going forward. This Saturday I'll be planting potatoes, beans, cucumbers, and squash. Not that we might not get another frost but we'll cover as necessary once those crops sprout. The 10 day weather forecast looks good for warm weather and Saturday is a good day to plant by the moon.
  In order for potatoes to sprout the seed potato must have an eye which is where the sprout comes out of the potato. You can plant an entire potato or if the seed potato is large enough you can cut it into pieces and plant each piece, just make sure the potato piece has an eye sprout. Dig a trench 6" deep, lay the seed potatoes 10" apart and refill the soil into the trench. As they grow we'll do more work later to the growing potato plants.
4 Comments

Beets, Carrots, & Potatoes

3/21/2015

1 Comment

 
  Looking at the 10 day weather forecast it looks to be pleasant so I'll be planting beets, carrots and potatoes soon.
  Beets are a great crop to grow, when they mature you actually get a twofer, the roots are the main crop and additionally the leaves are wonderful steamed. Don't plant the beet seeds too closely, the roots need room to expand as they mature. The beets will actually mature at the soil line so when the reach the size you want simply pull them out of the ground. I've never had good luck with the golden beets but they are beautiful when they do grow.
  Carrots require deeper soil so if your bed is the standard depth build a small mesa of soil to give the carrot roots room to grow deep. Plant the seeds as directed on the pack and keep the soil moist to aid germination. You can cover the carrot seedbed with newsprint to hold moisture, check frequently and when you seed the first sprouts remove the newsprint. As you watch the carrot tops grow, you'll see the shoulders of the carrots right at or just below the soil line. Use a finger to scratch the soil around the stem to look for the top of the carrot.
  Potatoes are generally easy to grow and you can find the seed potatoes in the garden centers now. Dig a trench about 6" deep, space your seed 10-12" apart and cover the seed potatoes about 8" deep. Once the potatoes are about 1' tall you'll mound soil around the plant halfway up the stem covering the lower leaves. As the new potatoes swell underground this additional soil will prevent the new potatoes from swelling out of the ground and getting sunburned. New potatoes are ready in about 60 days, full maturity in 90 days.
1 Comment

Today at the Garden

3/14/2015

1 Comment

 
  We had a great workday at the garden today as a wonderful group of volunteers spread the minerals and fertilizer required by the soil test. A heartfelt and hardy thanks to that group of volunteers. The next time you're at the garden you'll smell the feather meal, that's the brown powder you'll see in your bed. It's our nitrogen fertilizer. After McDonalds makes their nuggets, the chicken feathers are processed into an organic fertilizer.
  The garden is still a little wet but we got a few beds tilled. It is hard on the soil structure in the garden to till when the soil is too wet but looking at the weather forecast things will dry out the next few days. Of course the next few days I won't be around to till but there is good news on that front. If you'll check the bulletin board at the front of the garden beside the main entrance there is a notice from a local gentleman who is willing and able to till your beds. He is charging $10 but we will reimburse you for that expense. You'll need to remove the big weeds and hardscape to save him time and make it easier. And please remove any old string left over from previous gardeners. String will foul the tines of a tiller real fast and cuts down on productivity.
  It is exciting to see the first green shoots of spring. As I was spreading potassium this morning I got a good look at all the beds and spied the first peas of the season as well as the first beets. By all means go ahead and  get peas in the ground but I'll wait a few weeks before I plant beets and carrots. If you are planting peas give them something to climb on, depending on the variety they will get 5-6' tall at maturity. I plant a non trailing variety but even they do better with a little support. I was surprise to see the first green beans in the garden, that gardener is a real gambler, a frost will wipe out that planting and it's hard to believe we won't have another frost.
  Someone asked where to get seeds. All the local garden centers have good selections and you'll even find organic seeds available. The seeds packets have the planting instructions to get you started.
  It was a pleasure meeting many of our new gardeners. Feel free to ask questions, gardeners are a friendly bunch that like to swap gardening lessons.

1 Comment

Spring Garden Prep

3/11/2015

0 Comments

 
  Weather permitting, I'll be at the garden Saturday morning to get some work done...come join me. I'll bring the minerals we need per the soil test and if I have 6 volunteers this task will go faster. I need folks that take pride in precision work to spread fertilizer and trace elements. Why precision you ask? Each 20' bed will get precisely 40 grams of sulfur, 15 oz of K2SO4, 33 grams of boron, 40 grams of Mn, 16 grams of copper and 2 lbs of Nitrogen. As an example the copper will be about a tablespoon and has to be evenly distributed over the entire 160 square feet of the bed. If you enjoy a challenge come join me!
  Weather permitting I'll also bring my tillers. Come join me and I'll teach you to till your garden.
  After checking the weather forecast and consulting the farmers almanac I got busy this afternoon, fertilized and tilled part of my garden and planted cabbage. The 10 day forecast is nonthreatening to the cabbage transplants so I finished that project. Cabbage can withstand a frost so no worries there. The next good days to plant according to the almanac are the 19th, 27th, 28th, and 29th. Still too early for tender crops that won't take a frost but certainly good for lettuce, spinach, arugula, broccoli, and cabbage. Onion sets too.

0 Comments

Nightshades

3/1/2015

7 Comments

 
  We turned the calendar to traditionally the first month of spring. But, after checking the 10 day weather forecast, spring may be late this year. Regardless, we have to prepare for the coming growing season and now is the time to start transplants of those warm season, heat loving nightshades. Aren't nightshades poisonous you ask? Yes they are if you eat the leaves, but who doesn't like a tomato slice smothered in mayo between two slices of bread? The nightshade crops we grow are tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and potatoes.
  So today I started my seeds for transplants of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants with the plan to have the transplants ready to go in the garden in six weeks or so. I planted 7 varieties of tomatoes including "Matt's Wild" cherry tomato, "Celebrity" and "Goliath" slicing tomatoes, 3 other varieties I'm testing for blight resistance and then a large fruited variety to enter into the tomato contest at the PTC Farmers Market. I can already envision the grand champion ribbon I'll win for that big tomato. Gardeners are pretty passionate about their produce!! One advantage seed starter have is the ability to hunt down those grand champion seeds and start their own varieties that few other gardeners will have. So I encourage you to read through the seeds catalogs and try something new this year.
  Back to seedling nightshades, these crops like heat so it is especially important to give these seeds plenty of heat to germinate. I actually put 2 heat mats under the racks and drape plastic over the racks to create a warm moist microclimate for the seeds to get started. Once the seeds sprout they do not require supplemental heat but plenty of light to prevent the plants from getting long and lanky. 
  I plant "Olympus" peppers and "Orient Charm" eggplants. Two varieties that produce well.
  If you aren't starting your own transplants, don't be impatient. Although those transplants will start showing up in the local garden centers soon, any cool weather will stunt their growth and a frost will kill them.
7 Comments

    Author

    Larry Dove, of Two Doves Farm,.

    Archives

    December 2019
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly