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The Old Guy's Garden Record
Clicking through one of our banner ads or some of our text links and making a purchase will produce a small commission for us from the sale. Saturday, April 1, 2023 - Storm
We had some really rough weather last night. A tornado hit the southern end of Sullivan (Indiana) killing three people and taking out several buildings. We were blessed that it missed us. We didn't have any serious damage, but our cold frame flew quite a ways and will need some serious repair before it goes back into service. With the wind still howling outside (30-50 MPH) and a frost likely tonight, the plants that were under the cold frame are now on our dining room table. Our cats will have their noses out of joint, as they love laying on the table in the sun in front of our bay windows in the morning. Getting Started Our last frost date here isn't until April 14, but there are some frost hardy things we can soon move into our raised garden beds. We already have our fall planted garlic up and doing well, and our early peas are now up and looking good. I don't want to get in a hurry, as we'll almost certainly have a frost/freeze in the next two weeks. There's one predicted for tonight. But I can transplant our onions into our main raised bed and also direct seed some carrots and beets. A bit later, the onions, carrots, and beets will be joined by lettuce transplants. Shortly after the onions go in, I'll begin transplanting cauliflower and broccoli. After writing the posting above this morning, the full horror of what happened last night has become apparent. Besides the tragic loss of three lives, around 200 homes in Sullivan county have been destroyed.
Adding to this disaster, I fear that our local food bank that we've supported the last few years with our bounty of produce is no more. I saw a photo of the liquor store that was beside the food bank totally destroyed. Annie and I will have to find other ways to support those impacted by the storm. Too Much Sadness I didn't write here about the recent Nashville school shooting, only because it impacted me so severely. I was returning from a shopping trip in town and turned on the news on TV. As I heard the report of the shooting, I lost control and screamed "No!" and dissolved into tears and prayer. I'm a gun owner, but also a father, grandfather, and a retired educator. While we can't control the weather, we could prevent some of these all too frequent school shootings. We need legislators with a spine who will vote for universal background checks on gun purchases. Assault style weapon sales should be banned. And our government needs to start a buy back program for such weapons. Such moves won't end the atrocities, but they could lessen them. But our local legislators, Senators Todd Young and Mike Braun, congressman Larry Bucshon, and state representative Bruce Borders continue to vote against all such measures. You probably have similar representatives. Vote them all out of Congress!
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Armed with some PVC primer and cement and a full roll of duct tape, I started the repairs. Besides using the tape to reinforce the freshly glued joints of the frame, it also was helpful in pulling together parts that didn't want to mesh. While the label on the cement suggests a drying time of two hours, I decided to leave the cold frame in place and let the glue dry overnight before covering it with fresh 6 mil clear plastic. Also, it was still a bit too windy today to mess with trying to cover the frame with plastic. For that matter, I also backed off on applying another spray to our apple trees because of the wind.
I put our cold frame back in service today. Before covering it again with clear plastic, I duct taped all of the joints of the frame, as that's were the breaks have occurred.
Two trays of mostly sage went onto the back porch instead of under the cold frame. That made room for a couple of trays of lettuce, vinca, and marigolds. As buds were swollen with a few opening, I gave our apple trees another round of Fruit Tree Spray with a little extra Fung-onil mixed in.
Taking advantage of the warm weather and the low UV in the morning , I got out in just a T-shirt to do some weeding and scuffle hoeing. I actually sprayed one flowerbed with weed killer where the weeds had totally taken over. I got our narrow bed where our Earlirouge tomatoes and Abundant Bloomsdale spinach will go completely cleared of winter weeds. And when scuffling our front flowerbeds, I saw that some of our tulips were trying to bloom. Back inside, I transplanted our Celebrity petunias from their egg carton into fourpack inserts. The petunias went under our plant lights in the basement. While there, I also thinned our Earlirouge tomato and Earliest Red Sweet pepper plants.
Your Annual Nag about UV Exposure
Beyond getting appropriate medical care, protecting oneself from UV radiation while still being able to do the outdoor things we gardeners love is a major concern. The CDC notes that the hours between 10 A.M. and 4 P.M. (Daylight Saving Time) are the most hazardous for UV exposure outdoors, with UV rays being greatest during the late spring and early summer in North America. Heavy clouds do filter out some UV, but not as much as you'd think. The trick for we senior gardeners prone to actinic keratoses and/or skin cancers is to find ways to garden without exposing ourselves to too much UV radiation. Keeping in mind the CDC recommendations and checking UV scales often posted on weather sites can guide one on when it is safest to work outside. But not all jobs can be done in the early or late hours of the day. For me, mowing is one of those jobs where I have to be out in the sun at peak UV hours.
When I get into serious gardening in warm weather, I generally wear a T-shirt with a sun protective shirt over it along with a hat. And since I've had cancers in and on my hands, I wear gloves almost all the time when working outside. At one time, Coolibar Here are some related links about UV radiation and protective clothing:
First Asparagus Possibly looking for an excuse to get outside again in today's beautiful weather, I walked back to check our asparagus patches. I found and picked, a little prematurely, seven asparagus shoots from our raised bed of asparagus. Our second asparagus area, Bonnie's Asparagus Patch, has still to awake from its winter slumber.
We didn't get our first asparagus last year until April 14.
Our extended weather forecast suggests that spring may have finally arrived. The image below sort of stunned me. We just might be able to rototill all our garden plots and get things direct seeded and transplanted soon.
I wanted to finish out the double row with our Red Zeppelin onions, but they are way too puny to transplant just yet. Likewise, the rest of the onions I started from seed in January aren't doing well either. I'm really not sure what is going on with them. I haven't experienced this problem in the past. I also wanted to mow our grass today. But when going around the yard picking up fallen limbs (too big for the mower to chop), I realized it was just too wet out to mow. I haven't as yet hung a hummingbird feeder from our back porch. We typically see our first hummingbirds in the latter part of April.
Sunday, April 9, 2023 - Easter
Yesterday was supposed to be a mowing day. But my lovely wife, Annie, fell and hurt her wrist. From her level of pain and swelling, we decided to head to the clinic for X-rays. Fortunately, the wrist is just a severe sprain. While there were no other patients in the waiting room when we arrived, we sat for almost an hour in a treatment room while the staff chatted and had lunch. When they realized they'd goofed, the x-ray tech was off to lunch, so we waited another half hour for her. Then the x-rays went to the hospital to be read. Annie and I went to lunch to wait it out. Terre Haute Ambucare Clinic has some serious patient/customer service issues. I mowed and swept our lawn today. I think I got enough grass clippings to finish mulching the onions transplanted today plus the carrots and other stuff that will go into the intensive planting. I'll mow the field, barn, and pond area next to our property tomorrow. It's the area where our East Garden lies. We keep the area mowed, as we get to use it as ours, even though we don't own it.
I moved our geraniums from our sunroom to under our cold frame. The geraniums should be ready to transplant in a few days, as conditions other than wind and UV there now run from daily highs in the 80s to overnight lows in the 40s. I also moved some of our hanging basket petunias outside to the edge of our back porch. In the next few days, the soil in our raised beds should be dry enough to permit tilling. Then I'll begin moving transplants into the beds. Asparagus
Gloxinia Seed We had a lousy year saving gloxinia seed last year. But one of our plants that has refused to go dormant produced seed yesterday. It has several other bloom heads that might also bear seed. While most of our gloxinias are dormant or just emerging from dormancy, I still have four plants from last summer that refuse to go dormant. Politics Monday Update I received a heads up email yesterday afternoon from WFYI's Greg Petrowich informing me that the Politics Monday feature of the PBS Newshour would be returning to the air that night. Greg had followed up a letter I'd sent him about the unjustified pause of the feature by contacting the head of Newshour. Apparently, lots of other PBS followers had expressed their dismay at PBS's decision. I'd written about this subject here last month and in February (1, 2). It's good to know at least someone at PBS Newshour was listening to their audience. Also note, Greg emailed me last week after the tornadoes in Sullivan, Indiana, to see if we were okay. It was a nice touch.
The soil in our raised beds was just barely dry enough for rototilling this morning. I tilled our large (16'x24') main raised bed and a narrow (4'x16') raised bed. After raking the beds smooth, I was tuckered out, so any plantings will have to wait until tomorrow or later. But it's a start.
Somehow, I misplaced our jug of Not Tonight, Deer! It's our version of an excellent, but discontinued animal repellent. So I seriously scrambled a dozen eggs yesterday and set them out in a half gallon jug to begin rotting. I'll add some white pepper and habanera sauce when they come in. The nasty smelling mix should be ready to use in a couple of weeks. This morning's first job was to grind the shells produced yesterday and over the last month or so. I use an old coffee grinder to powder the egg shells. When we transplant tomatoes and peppers, we use egg shell instead of lime to supply calcium to the soil to help prevent blossom end rot. Planting (at last) I got outside around ten in the morning and did a final raking of the area I wanted to plant. I strung my rows for some carrots and beets and used an old one inch board to make furrows down the double row. Before seeding, I watered the row. Like soaking seed before planting, watering the row makes subsequent daily waterings necessary. Once seed is thoroughly wet, it may die if you let it dry out.
I seeded Mokum carrots and Detroit Dark Red and Cylindra beets. In a change from past years, I'd ordered pelletized carrot seed to make spacing the seeds easier. My carrot double row was only three to four feet long, in contrast to years past when I've seeded a fifteen foot double row. Beyond the carrots were two or three feet of beets seeded. I've often had to pitch extra spring carrots when our fall carrots come in, thus the reduction in planting.
The open areas at the ends of the rows will get celery and lettuce transplants, probably tomorrow. For more information on these crops, please see:
Another pretty spring day today. I got out fairly early and transplanted celery, lettuce, and a few flowers into the intensive planting at the end of our main raised bed. I'd previously transplanted onions and direct seeded carrots and beets into the area.
The pepper cage at the right of the image sports a number of Predator Eyes and Nite Guard predator control lights. They're somewhat effective in deterring deer and rabbits. I also sprinkled a good bit of Repels All around the lettuce. But even with those safeguards, we may loose some or all of the lettuce to critters!
I repurposed the tray of failed spinach plus another full flat to a planting of Eclipse supersweet peas. The pea variety is a bit difficult to get to germinate, but the peas are incredibly sweet.
I transplanted broccoli and cauliflower into our main garden bed this morning. It was a glorious morning to be working outside with warm temperatures and a nice breeze. The first row I put in was of four clusters of four Goliath broccoli. The clustering is to help the plants cross pollinate, as I hope to save seed for the excellent variety again. Our last really good seed crop of the variety was in 2020. And even though I hope to save seed from the plants, we'll take some delicious sideshoots from them.
More for the table and freezer, I put in another row of three Premium Crop and two Castle Dome broccoli. I filled out that row with two Bishop and one Violet of Sicily cauliflower. The next row got one Violet of Sicily at the end of the row and eight aptly named Amazing cauliflower. That's a lot of brassicas, but we haven't had very good crops lately, mostly due to critter damage. To hold off the deer and rabbits and also prevent white cabbage moths from laying eggs on the plants, I gave all the brassicas a good spray of the biological, Thuricide. I also sprinkled a good bit of Repels All around the plants, and even cut part of a bar of Irish Spring soap around the plants. Our how-to, Growing Great Broccoli and Cauliflower, tells all about how we grow our brassicas. Amazingly for this time of year, our main raised garden bed in now half planted.
The open area will get a row of caged Earliest Red Sweet peppers and possibly a couple of rows of Eclipse supersweet peas.
One exception was taking photos of our apple trees. The volunteer tree just off our property has burst into full bloom. It grew from cull apples we dumped in an overgrown area. Sadly, there's not much to cross pollinate it or for it to pollinate. Our third year Stayman Winesap has just one very windblown bloom on it. But it's still early. The carrots I started last month in toilet paper rolls are up. I brought them outside, but had to find an area protected from the wind for them. I didn't get off our back porch for the shot, but still got a pretty image of our now half planted main raised garden bed.
After a good rain (and a lot of wind...again), I'll need to spray our brassicas and lettuce once more with Thuricide to discourage deer and rabbits from dining on them. Thuricide (BT) is a biological that gives worms from cabbage moths fatal stomach cramps. I haven't seen any of the moths yet this spring, but I'm guessing BT also tastes bad to the critters.
Our extended weather forecast has some troubling numbers in it. Both the Weather Underground and WTWO-TV predict three mornings with low temperatures of 34°F. Such temperatures could produce a frost. While I can't really do much to protect the plants we already have in the ground, I brought in all the hanging basket plants that had been unprotected on our back porch.
I was most concerned with our hanging baskets of vinca. One site noted, "Temperatures below 64˚F can stunt plant growth and cause leaves to turn yellow." The vinca I put in at the ends of some rows planted in our main bed will just have to deal with the cold. I do have replacement plants available under our cold frame and in the basement under plant lights. It's not all that unusual for us to have to bring plants back inside to protect them from late frosts. But that stuff often happens towards the end of March or early April. I'm not terribly concerned about the crops already out in our garden plots. Garlic, onions, brassicas, and even lettuce are somewhat frost hardy. Our recent colder temperatures may slow germination of our direct seeded carrots, beets, and spinach.
We're still five or six days away from being able to put tender plants into our flowerbeds and garden. But with our two trays of Eclipse peas germinating nicely over soil heating mats in the basement, I went ahead and direct seeded a row of the supersweet pea variety into our main raised garden bed. The seed used for the direct seeding was saved in 2019, right at the limit of how long pea seed can stay good in storage. I knew the seed was still in good shape, as I'd used some of it at the corners of cells of the planting under lights and saw it had germinated.
The idea of the planting is that the row planted, spaced just eighteen inches from the row where the transplants will go, can cross pollinate with the transplants for seed saving. I'm hoping to get some delicious, incredibly sweet peas for the freezer as well as seed for saving and sharing.
Totally enjoying a wonderful spring day, I moved on to installing a double trellis around our early peas. Since the wind had picked up a good bit, I only got the T-posts to hold the trellis netting in place. I did stretch out the clothesline wire that will hold the netting. It needs to sit in the sun a bit, as it tends to stretch when warmed. When we get some less windy weather, I'll install the trellis netting that allows our tall peas and later, cucumbers, to climb the netting without getting blown over. See Another Garden Delicacy: Homegrown Peas for how we grow our peas. While I was pretty well worn out from using our heavy fence post driver to install the T-posts, I pounded in one more T-post, a short one, at the end of the planted row of Eclipse peas. I put our rather old rain gauge on it.
Thursday, April 20, 2023 - Starting More Tomatoes and Paprika Peppers
I'd gotten out early and watered the stuff under the cold frame and our rows of direct seeded carrots, beets, and spinach. Since I'd watered the furrow yesterday for our Eclipse peas, I skipped watering that row. The inch or so of rain predicted for tonight and tomorrow should take care of that chore. I also sprayed some weeds with weedkiller before the wind got too bad. Then it was time to move indoors. One of our two seed flats of Eclipse peas was ready this morning to come off its soil heating mat. That opened up space for a flat of tomatoes and paprika peppers that will eventually go into our East Garden plot. For the tomatoes and peppers, I use deep sixpack inserts filled with sterile potting mix. I started open pollinated Moira, Quinte, Crimson Sprinter, Bradley, and Red Pearl. Our hybrids will be Bella Rosa, Mountain Fresh Plus, Mountain Merit, and Honey Bunch. The paprika peppers were Hungarian, Boldog Hungarian Spice, and a paprika pepper mix. The tray covered with a clear humidity dome went under our plant lights and over a soil heating mat set to 75°F. First Hummingbird
That gave me time to fill the feeder with fresh 4:1 ratio water to sugar "nectar" and also take some window cleaner to the pane. The hummingbird returned when I was at the kitchen table with my camera turned on and the lens cap off. This may be the earliest by a few days we've seen a hummingbird here. As the days pass, a few more hummingbirds will appear and begin to compete for space at the feeder. When the tiny birds first clutch of birds leave the nest, things get busy as I add a second and eventually a third feeder under our back porch. When the second clutch of babies leave the nest, action at the feeders gets really crazy. It's fun to watch.
We had a cool, very wet day today. We received three quarters of an inch of rain overnight. I'd guess that helped pop up our row of Abundant Bloomsdale spinach.
Feeling like I'd gone ten rounds with our fence post driver on Wednesday, I've been taking it easy the last two days. I've also been using lots of Bengay and aspirin. Things that came easy a few years ago aren't so easy at 74 years of age. Wanting to get something done in the garden today, I mulched the rest of our garlic and our clusters of Goliath broccoli this afternoon. The grass clippings had sat for several days, so I could mulch right up to the plants. Fresh mulch often heats up when first left in a pile, making it too hot to go near tender, young plants. I needed to use the mulch I had on hand as I'm due to soon mow and rake again. Eventually, our entire main raised bed will be mulched for moisture retention and weed control. See Mulching with Grass Clippings for how we avoid a lot of weeding by using grass clipping mulch.
A bit dismayed at all the negativity on Facebook, I started sharing a pretty, mostly garden picture each day on the social media site in January. An old one that caught a lot of attention was of some petunias and cosmos. I haven't grown cosmos in years, but the response moved me to pick up a seed packet of it at Walmart and start the seed. Cosmos is an easy one. I dropped the seed on a pot of sterilized potting soil and covered it with some vermiculite. It went under our plant lights and over a soil heating mat set to around 70. The Food Bank
I grabbed a shot of the demolition. It's sad to see such a lovely old structure devoted to helping people in need come down. But the folks that run the food bank are already planning to rebuild. The Sullivan community has really come together to support those impacted by the tornado. We've supported the food bank by sharing our garden excess over recent years with them. One year when dropping off around eighty butternut squash just before a food distribution began, I counted over sixty cars in the parking lot waiting for the distribution to begin. I thought, "OMG, the need!"
Our Father's Arms in 2020
Our Father's Arms Today We're just one of many communities that have recently faced devastation due to weather. Add to that horrific mass killings, stupid court decisions, and so much more, it's hard to stay positive. Fortunately, the tornado went over us, other than blowing our cold frame straight up in the air! We continue to live in a wonderful, hundred year old plus farmhouse out in the country. I'm fully retired, but Annie still works a good job, although at 65, she's about ready to hang it up. We're not rich, but are currently somewhat financially secure, so I'm writing a check to our food bank when I get this posting uploaded. If you'd like to help, their mailing address is: Our Father’s Arms Asparagus
So today, I bundled what we've picked over the last few days. My lovely wife Annie will take them to work with her tomorrow for her co-workers at Old National Bank. Our bounty of asparagus should last a while. Generally, we can pick good asparagus through at least the first two weeks of May. If you're thinking about starting an asparagus patch, our how-to, Growing Asparagus, may prove helpful. Do note that establishing an asparagus patch usually takes two to three years. But take my word for it, it's worth the wait. Have a great Sunday! Monday, April 24, 2023 - Frost We had what probably will be our last frost/freeze of this spring this morning. The nearby Lake Doogaroo Weather Underground reporting station recorded a morning low of 31.2°F. If we have frost damage to our existing crops, it may not show up until tomorrow. One of the geraniums I'd put in early looked pretty bad this morning, but its stem had partially broken in the strong winds we'd had. Trellis Netting Up
My cue for when to get the netting up is when the pea plants begin putting on tendrils. They attach to other plants and hopefully to the trellis netting. Our early peas are a landrace mix of the Champion of England and Maxigolt varieties. Both are tall, climbing varieties with some reaching over five feet in height at maturity. For years, I was frustrated when our pea vines would bend off their single trellis in the wind, rendering them unable to mature peas. I began to experiment with a trellis on either side of the wide row, Spacing the trellises eighteen inches apart turned out to be about ideal for our wide row of peas. We still have a few vines bend and break, but also get a bountiful harvest of spring peas each year. A how-to and a feature story tell about how we grow our peas and about my efforts to preserve a once patented pea variety: • Another Garden Delicacy: Homegrown Peas
Tuesday, April 25, 2023 - Frost Damage
Today's gardening was mostly limited to moving plants outside that had been on our dining room table to protect them from frost. I also moved our newly germinated Eclipse pea transplants from under our plant lights to under our cold frame. While I direct seeded a row of Eclipse last Wednesday, the supersweet variety is somewhat infamous for its poor germination in cool soils. So, I had started transplants inside over a soil heating mat. Of the 64 cells seeded, 60 now have pea starts in them. Of course, I cheated and put more than one seed in a few of the cells. Our cold frame is now full of transplants, and our back porch is lined with mostly hanging basket plants and a few transplants. Even our back steps have trays of extra lettuce plants. I think every lettuce seed I started germinated. Normally, our extra transplants end up on the porch of Our Father's Arms where they get picked up fairly quickly.
I've taken advantage of some favorable daytime weather the last two days to get our mowing done. While I used the lawn sweeper to rake our yard yesterday for grass clipping mulch, I left raking the field next to us for tomorrow. I got my windrows of grass clippings a little too deep and am hoping the sun will dry them a bit and the wind may spread them some.
Friday, April 28, 2023 - Not Yet!
Asparagus
One fairly easy task yesterday was finishing a first weeding of our raised bed of asparagus. I'd given it a good layer of compost that hadn't heated up enough to kill the weed seeds in it. So I had lots of seedling weeds to pull. When picking asparagus today, I saw that there are still lots more little weeds to be pulled. A half inch of rain last night popped up lots more seedling weeds. The rain was needed, as I noticed how dry the soil was in the bed while weeding. One can also see from the image above that the pressure treated landscape timbers used for the bed are rotting out. I think I found part of the problem, surprisingly in our much newer raised herb bed. A couple of the cedar timbers had loosened where they were anchored with rebar. I think adding a little caulk over the tops of the holes the rebar goes into might help extend the life of landscape timbers used for raised beds. The herb bed timbers can be reanchored, but I'm at a loss of what to do with the rotting timbers around our asparagus. Hope I'd begun to worry about the row of Eclipse peas I'd direct seeded ten days ago. Just one sprout had emerged. Three more sprouts from the planting of seed saved in 2019 emerged yesterday and today.
If the planting comes up a bit sparse, I can always go back and poke in some Eclipse seed saved last season. For cross pollination, such a seeding wouldn't be much help, but it could still produce some delicious supersweet peas. Save 20% on an Exclusive Collection of Mother's Day Fruit, Dipped Berries, & More!
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, and to a lesser extent, 
was the only show in town for sun protective garments. With more emphasis on skin cancer in recent years, other entities such as 
have entered the market. Hopefully, such competition will eventually reduce the prices on sun protective gear, which until recently has been quite expensive.
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The sage plants had just about taken over a large part of our herb bed, so them coming out may turn out to be a good thing. I have parsley, rosemary, and thyme that all need spots in our garden.
Sunday, April 30, 2023 - April Wrap-up
For the most part, our garden has come along nicely this month. We now have onions, celery, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, garlic, and spinach growing. Both of our asparagus patches are providing us a delicious treat for dinner many evenings. We have supersweet pea, tomato, and bell pepper transplants finishing hardening off under our cold frame along with several flower and herb varieties. And our back porch is now filled with hanging baskets of petunias, vinca, ivy leaf geraniums, and trailing impatiens.
Our carrots and beets are slow in coming up. I may need to replant them. After a wait, our direct seeded Eclipse peas are beginning to come up.
With my cleanup and repair of our herb bed yesterday, we're ready to begin planting herbs there. I still have a problem with oregano trying to take over one side of the bed. But there's still plenty of room for parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, although I just got the rosemary and thyme out under the cold frame to harden off yesterday.
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