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Not what I Thought

4/25/2015

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  As I wrote earlier, I got a early start on my garden just as a lot of you did. That first week of April when I planted just about everything held so much promise...warm weather, occasional rain, a veritable Garden of Eden forecast. Obviously someone is playing a long running April fools joke on us. Of the crops I planted, the cucumbers are still not up nor are any of the four varieties of squash. Even the second crop of beans planted 10 days ago are just now sprouting. On the bright side, the potatoes are up and looking good as are the tomato, pepper, and eggplant transplants. The cool weather combined with the excessive rain has really slowed things down in the garden.
  So what to do. Warmer and dryer weather is coming. To help myself out, today I started several flats of cucumbers and squash seeds. It won't take but a couple days to sprout these seeds in the basement and then they'll go in the garden. So if your seeds didn't sprout in the garden go ahead and start a few seeds indoors and then set them out once they are up and approaching the second leaf stage. These young seedlings won't have much of a root system in a week but they will transplant easily. If we do this we'll be back on schedule.
  In bed 142, I put in sweet potatoes for the slips. The sweet potatoes will sprout and be ready to transplant in about 3 weeks and I blog that then. If you want to start your own sweet potatoes, simply plant a whole sweet potato in your garden or in a pot. Bury the tuber about 4" deep. Once it sprouts and the sprouts get 4"-6" tall, dig up the original tuber, break off the individual sprouts and replant those. You'll get 2-3 lbs of sweet potatoes (or more) from each slip.
  Hang with me, even here on the farm it is too wet to do much in the garden. But believe me, things will get better.
 
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Water Saturation

4/18/2015

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  Mother Nature is surely making it hard to garden this week but the forecast is looking better as we go into the next week. With the 5" of rain we've had lately our gardens are saturated and the plants are struggling with all the water. Not to mention, the paths are saturated also, add mulch to a depth of 6".
  Once it dries this week, give your onions and garlic some nitrogen. This will probably be our last feeding for onions and garlic and the bulbs are starting to swell.
  With all  the rain, don't water until the soil dries out well into the root zone. I dropped off straw at the garden this week and walked around checking things out. Your first indication of water saturation is a yellowing on the leaves of your plants. Nothing we can do, we'll just hope for warm, sunny weather to dry the soil and the plants will take off. One thing really growing is the weeds, stay ahead of the weeds before they take over your garden.
  I planted my second crop of beans Thursday morning before the rain moved back in. If we get good warm temps and some sun this week the cucumbers and squash should be up soon. The next crop to be started is sweet potatoes, once the soil dries where I can work it I'll plant sweet potatoes for the slips. I'll put some in the community garden for everyone to use so stay tuned. If you want to start your own sweet potatoes, get one at the grocery, stick it in the ground and it will sprout in a few weeks depending on the temperatures. Then you'll dig up the sweet potato you planted, break off the sprouts(slips) and plant the slips about 10" apart. Easy crop to grow and very productive.
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Warm Season Plantings

4/9/2015

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Warm weather is definitely here and it's time to plant our warm season crops. I know a lot of you are ahead of me in the game but I tend to be a bit more careful. If you lose 10 tomato plants, that's bad. if I lose 400 tomato plants, that's really bad. But the 10 day weather forecast looks good so let's get planting. Over the past weekend I planted potatoes, beans and lettuce. Then yesterday, with the temperatures in the mid 80's, I planted cucumbers and squash. Truth be told I also planted tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. this is about 10 days earlier than normal for me and I'll be ready to cover theses transplants if the temperatures tumble.
  Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants (nightshades) need to be planted 18" apart. Plant to stake the tomatoes, they will get taller and heavier than those flimsy cages can support. But those cages are good for the peppers and eggplants whose stems are brittle and will need support as the produce especially later in the year. Once the plants are growing, we will eventually spread several layers of newsprint around the base of our nightshades. Then we will cover the newsprint with wheat straw. The paper and straw will help with soil moisture, weed control, and prevent soil pathogens from splashing onto the lower leaves of the tomatoes. I'll have straw at the garden next week for everyone to use.
  A sure sign of spring is the fresh asparagus we're enjoying with dinner almost nightly!!
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    Author

    Larry Dove, of Two Doves Farm,.

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