"gretel, snowcrown, packman, and butterstick" No, It's Not 4 of the 7 Dwarves

More planting in the garden after work today. Seedlings included 2 Eggplant 'gretel' (white), 6 Broccoli 'packman', 6 Cauliflower 'snowcrown' were planted.

Another 15 feet of row was planted with Summer Squash 'butterstick hybrid' seeds.  These seeds were from a 2002 seedlot.  Storage was OK, but far from ideal, so it'll be interesting to see what becomes of them.  The seeds definitely looked old, but also looked like they were maybe still viable.  I love to experiment.  They'll be ample opportunity to replant the section with a nice winter crop if these fizzle.

Zoo Doo Gold

It all started a couple of weeks ago with an article on NOLA.com about Zoo Doo Gold from the Audubon Zoo.  "Created to be a mulch for top dressing existing garden beds or as a planting medium for new beds, ZooDoo Gold is made of tree chippings, plant trimmings, shredded cardboard boxes, Starbucks coffee grinds (with the appropriate acidic base), shredded Audubon office paper, grass clippings, and "contributions" from Audubon's ostrich, zebra and elephants." it read.   Well, just from the cool factor alone, I had to have some.  A friend was traveling that way to get some for himself and offered to grab me a couple of bags as well.  Even better, he was a member of the society and got a discount, which he passed along to me, too.

So, today I found my cabbage seedlings over at Chastant Bros.   I got a six pack of Dutch Flat, and another six pack of Rio Verde.  Down they went this evening, with a nice top and side dressing of Zoo Doo Gold.  I wonder if they'll taste different, like an elephant that's been drinking coffee, lol.  

One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four,,,

The potatoes went in the ground today (Sunday.)  I had 60 potatoes left from the spring crop, all Irish Potatoes except for 3 or 4 of the Yukon Purple Potatoes.  With even a modest 5 to 1 return, this should easily tide us over the winter, and provide another 60 potatoes to plant in the spring.  This has got to be one of the best (funnest, as my niece might say) crops.  Super easy to grow, fun to harvest, and a cinch to store.

When All Else Succeeds, Fertilize Anyway, But Organically Of Course

The seedlings are mostly looking great, but I know as they continue to put on growth, they will need more and more food.  Best to start early and gently.  I spread some Espoma Tomato Food, but wasn't particular.  I used the same food on the Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Melons, and even on the unsprouted Celery.  Gee, I wonder if my Celery will taste like Tomatoes.   That wouldn't be too bad.

Look at Those Melons

Sun Jewel Melon, Mexican Melon, and Canteloupe seeds have now all sprouted except one pod of Canteloupe, which I am sure will pop up any day, too. We just might have a mellony fall indeed.

And it was so cool to see those seedlings coming up, that I went back in the house, pulled out the seeds, and pulled out the planting guide, just so I could go plant something else. It is still a little early for the winter items, but I did find "Tall Utah Celery" seeds that the guide said could go in now.  I've never tried to grow Celery before, so I only planted about 6 feet of row.
 
Its a shame I didn't get those rows raked up this weekend, because it is time to put in the Irish potatoes.  I saved enough potatoes from last years crop to plant a row or two of those.  Since it rained last night, I'll have to wait a few days before raking rows.  And I'll have to till again as well, to kill the weeds that have popped up.   One way or the other, going in the ground later this week or weekend will be the Irish Potatoes cause they're easy to grow, fun to harvest, and I have a young niece that I think is going to have a ball doing just that.

News Flash - Its the Sun, No, Not That Sun

Just went out in the garden to check my new plantings.  Seems that the Sun Jewel Melon seeds have sprouted in all 3 planting holes.  Wow, that was fast.   And I'll have to do some thinning, too.  There are multiple seeds sprouting in each hole. 

Still waiting on the Mexican Melon, and the Cantaelope.  I have a feeling they are close behind. 

All the Fun I Can Stand, on a Mid-90 August Day

Well, a couple or 3 hours on the end of a weed trimmer was just about all I could handle this morning.  Big thunder heads are all around, so come on rain, fall and remove my temptation to go out to do more. Wait, let me go prune the roses, then it can rain.

Back inside, pruned the 7 roses in the garden.  Hauled the Mimosa and Cumquat trimming up the burn pile in the front.   After that's burned, I'll spread those ashes out in the garden.   The rose prunings will just be mowed up and allowed to decompose back into the soils.  

I try to waste nothing here.  Its that sustainability thing, you know.   Well, we're not all the way there, but I'd say we're in the 90% range of reduce, reuse, recycle.  By this time next year, God willing, I think we might be around the range of producing 50% of our food.  We are getting to the exciting point.

Attack, and Counter Attack

Here is the vegetable garden, less than 2 weeks after tilling, and just a few days after a rain or two.  Note the voracity of the Coco Grass attempting a total reclaimation.

And this was a thorough tilling too.  Just scattered around the nuts.  Coco Grass is also know as Nut Grass, or Nutsedge.  Here is a closeup.   Don't worry, though, I'll get it.  Have tiller, will till, and re-till, and till again, till the energy of the nuts are expended.

Here's a shot of the first row, the only one I raked into a hill so far.  You can barely see the Tomato, Bell Pepper, and Cucumber seedling mentioned in the earlier post.  And the string laid out to rake up the second row, which I hope to get through this weekend.   Note the abundance of Oyster and other shells.  Guess this was an old parking spot or somthing decades ago.  Never know what you'll run across out here in the country.   Can't wait for the fall garden to come in, but I think I'll enjoy the winter garden even more.

Seeds are Great, Seedlings are Easier, But,,,,

Can't seem to find cabbage seedlings anywhere.  They are always a no lose proposition.  My dog could grow a cabbage seedling.  Actually, he has, pee'd on the poor thing nearly everyday.  Grew up to be a fine cabbage, too.  Of course we could not quite bring out selves to eat it, but the chickens enjoyed it just fine.

So, anyway, I do have some Cabbage seeds somewhere.  Guess I run them down and get them planted.  Hoping to harvest a few by Thanksgiving so I can continue Pa Joe's tradition of giving them away to his less fortunate neighbors. 

Fall Planting Is Underway

I am running a little late, but am still gonna try to sneak in a fall garden, before swinging into the winter crops.   For the fall, I just put in 2 Florida 91 Tomatoes, 2 Heatwave Tomatoes, 2 Phoenix Tomatoes , 4 Bell Peppers, 3 Burpless Cucumbers, all as seedlings.   In the seed area I also planted 3 Cantelopes, 3 Mexican Melons, and 3 Sun Jewel Melons.  Its gonna be close, but I should make enough fruit to make it worth the effort. 

I found this neat little calculator to use to calculate days to harvest.  Just look at the seed pack to see days to harvest for whatever you are planting, then go to this site (http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html) , put it in, and shazam.

Using that site, at 75 days, my Sun Jewel Melons should be producing by October 25th.  Most years that would give me around a full month of production, and a little longer, if I chose to provide some minimal frost protection.   Considering that my cost for the seeds was zero, having been saved from a organically grown melon I ate, I can hardly lose.

Here is another handy site for Gulf Coast Vegetable Gardeners as well.  This is LSU's planting guide for Louisiana, but should be good anywhere in Zone 9a/8b.  http://www.lsuagcenter.com/NR/rdonlyres/BA17B15B-099A-41BE-AB42-0D8861446228/56100/Pub1980VegetablePlantingGuide2009HIGHRES.pdf

The Great Escape

Last minute, long weekend, Ft. Walton Beach, no oil on beach.  Throw in an old hotel with a tropical garden.  Oh yeah, I am there.

But wait, I just bought seedlings, and they won't survive even a few days without care in this heat without constant attention.  No problem, seedlings are going to the beach, too.

Now, let's see that tropical garden.  Wow, yep, that is a tropical as it gets on the northern Gulf Coast.

And how about a 3 to 4 story tall rock grotto in the middle of the pool, with a swim in bar, and full grown palms on top.  Yep, this place speaks to my heart.

Made a friend at the beach too, and he's got a little Captain in him.

OK, last shot.  The bar at the beach.  Yeah, I told this was a great place.  Unfortunately, what should have been a miserable crowd was hardly anyone.  First, was the economy in general, and then the bad publicity of the BP Oil Spill.  Yes, these folks were hurting.  It was our pleasure to visit and contribute some money to the local economy.  They'll recover, but the pain will be remembered.

Well, back to the real world, and to the garden, yehaw!

Oh, funny story.  I found a little cubby hole in those beautiful tropical gardens and set my box of seedlings out to get a little sun.   A few hours later, when I checked on them, my box of seedlings was gone, kidnapped.   Some time later, I ran across one of the grounds keepers and explained my situation.   He quickly told me they were over in "the shop" and pointed me in the right direction.   Before I made my way that way, another of the groundskeeper showed up at my door with seedlings.  He explained they were all avid gardeners, and had assumed that a friend had dropped them off for them.  All ended happily, and the seedlings made it back to Louisiana soil.

What the Rains Bring, the Sun Taketh Away

The rains shut off like a faucet, then the heat and sun kicked in.  Temps cames close to the 3 digit mark.   I was just getting around to planting the fall garden, when a far better idea hit, long weekend on the Floriday panhandle.  There was no way my new flat of seedlings would make even a few days without being watered, so I through them in the truck too.  This was the first time I ever took seedlings on vacation.  They enjoyed the beach, and were no trouble at all.   Well, not much trouble.  There was this slight kidnapping by the grounds crew who snatched them up from the little spot in the gardens where I put them to get some sun.

The Rain Not in Spain

Almost forgot to mention the rains.   Great for most plant growth, but making the fall garden prep just as problematic as they did for the spring garden.   I am enlarging considerably from the spring garden, so that means bringing in a small tractor to break the new ground.   Soils are awefully wet, but with a little sun and heat they will dry out fast.  We got no rain today, so I am hoping for Sunday or early next week.   This good part is that this did give me some time to add some soil amendments and compost, that will be tilled in well on original bed creation.

The Grapes of No Wrath

It is grape harvest time again.  My grapes were given to me as seedlings from a friend who now looks down upon them from heaven.  He told me they were "Champanele" grapes.   I didn't realize at the time what a unique grape Champanele was.  One thing for sure, its resistance to Pierce's disease make it one of the very few grapes we can grow reliably this close to the coast in our humid subtropical climate.

Here is one definition of the origin of the Champanele grape vine: "Champanel (from a cross of Vitis champini X Worden, a Concord seedling) is a rampant grower and widely adapted. It is reported to be long-lived in Mississippi and resistant to black rot and downy mildew. It was one of three dependable varieties in San Antonio tests. The others were Lukfata and Valhallah."

Other sites refer to this grape as Champanel grape (Vitis labrusca). 

Hybrid of a hybrid of a hybrid.  One thing for sure is, it's a mut.

Burning the Dead and Dying

Before heading out of town, I spent the evenings earlier this week removing the dead and dying, and delivering them to the burn pile.   It began with two Mimosas, a Plum Tree, and an Apricot tree.   All succumbed not to the unusually cold winter, but the also extremely wet winter.

Next was the Silk Floss Tree, and two large Triple Trunk Phoenix Robellini palms.   These did succumb tot he extremely cold winter, our coldest in nearly 20 years.   The palms saddened me the most, but onward we shall go.  Gardens are never static.  They continually evolve with the patterns of the weather, the large and the small, the strong and weak, and the cycle of life and death.  And so do gardeners, for that matter.

The vegetable garden is cleaned out and leveled from the spring/summer crops.   It is ready for tilling so that the fall/winter garden may commence.   Of course I'll put in some late summer plants, too, maybe a few more peppers, some cucumbers, and a few fall tomatoes.   But mostly I am looking forward to the greens that grow so well here all winter long.

Bamboo Explosion

As I was pulling out of the driveway this morning, I notice a literal explosion of growth in the Alphonse Karr Bamboo fence row.  I'll snap a picture tomorrow morning, since that is when the best light happens.   I cannot express how delighted I am with the bamboo's performance in providing a quick and attractive visual border.  One hundred feet of fence of 8 feet high wooden would have cost between 1200 and 1500 dollars, would have been busted up in hurricanes, and lasted 15 to 20 years.  This cost me less than $400 dollars, any minimal damage in hurricanes will recover on it's own, and it will last for many decades.  Only drawback is that you have to wait 2 to 3 years for it to grow in, but that is a small inconvience compared to the benefit noted above.

Rains Have Returned

The rains have returned, and pretty much right on target.  Things were just starting to get dry and a little dusty.  Of course, it all had been perfect, I would have preferred them to return later in the week, just after I got the vegetable garden tilled up.  Now that will have to wait a week, but we are still in good shaped.   If I get it done in the next couple of weeks, we'll still be on schedule for the fall planting.

I am still harvesting field peas, although I don't mind saying this is one of my least enjoyable crops.   Constant harvesting of small amounts does not bode well for efficiency.  Next year, I either need to not plant them, or plant a whole lot more of them.   I can see now, that this is one crop that is only efficient in large quantities.

I mowed the expanded portions of the garden down to Golf Green height, then I spread out the roughly 100 gallons of compost.   It didn't go far, but over the next 3 weeks I will prep this area extensively with bio active ingredients.  

The 3 beds adjacent to the tower, making up the cross bed will be tilled and used for a winter crop, afterward, in the spring I will till a final time, and expand the grape vine planting in those areas.   This will give me roughly a 3x increase in the feet of Grapevine plantings leading to some wine making in 2 to 3 years.

Back Roads are Often the Best Roads

These best roads are also not only the fastest, but also the most beautiful.   The are no mountains of hill tops vistas in Louisiana.   Really, the greatest places are best seen from the water, but that not available, a back road that follows a natural waterway is the next best thing.

Here a few shots of Acadiana's back roads, of which this is one of so many.

Figs Ready Now

The figs are just starting to ripen.  My in-laws Celeste figs began to ripen last week.  I have a cutting from it, but it is still too young to make fruit, although it is trying.   Our Texas Everbearing is just starting to have harvestable fruit now.   The LSU purple is still a couple of weeks off.   The combination of varieties should provide fruit here over a 4 to 6 week period.   Nothing is better than a fresh fig off the tree.  I have to say, that of the ones I have or have access to, the LSU Purple is by and far the taste winner.   I have an LSU Gold, but regretfully have never tasted its fruit.  Bad site, hurricanes, you name it.   It will be transplanted to a better location in the fall.  Then we will see.

New Dawn Gains the WolfBerry

Got a new addition to the gardens.  Who can't love a fruit called a Wolfberry.  Next full moon, I'll have to do my howling next to it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfberry

Wolfberry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org

Wolfberry, commercially called goji berry, is the common name for the fruit of two very closely related species: Lycium barbarum (Chinese: 寧夏枸杞; pinyin: Níngxià gǒuqǐ) and L. chinense (Chinese: 枸杞; pinyin: gǒuqǐ), two species of boxthorn in the family Solanaceae (which also includes the potato, toma...