April kicks things into high gear here in the Ozarks. While many neighbors have already mowed their yards at least once already, the "Hillbilly" generally waits until later this month to mow the lawn for the first time. The gardening gets into full swing this month and the weather becomes a big factor in everything I do. This month I'll get the first raised bed I built going (bed #2) and get the second raised bed (bed #1) finished. It will probably be May before the first one gets planted because it is predominately warm weather crops. Follow our efforts at "bio-intensive" gardening and other efforts by clicking here. Friday, April 3, 2009 - Cleaned off the first raised bed and covered with clear plastic to dry out and warm up. Current soil temperature - 57°. Need to get up to at least 62 to 65 to start planting. Finished stripping sod off of second bed location and started loosening soil. Wednesday, April 8, 2009 - Outside, the weather was warm today after our cold spell, freezing temps and a little snow. As many weeds like dead nettle, henbit and dandelions growing wildly, it was good to do some weeding before they went to seed. The bloodroot has been blooming well for a few days now and the wild geraniums (cranesbill) is starting to bloom. It is a bit early for these to be blooming, but then this spring has been far from normal. The Solomon's seal also is starting to sprout early. Normally, it won't be sprouting for a couple more weeks. Tested the soil temperature in bed #1 @63° F. Would like to see it up to 65° F before I start planting anything so that I have a little buffer there in case of a cold snap. Tested the soil fertility and pH and found it a little surprising with the amount of compost that was added when it was built. The pH was 7.5, Nitrogen - low, Phosphorous - medium, Potash - high. The nitrogen wasn't that surprising, but the others were. I'll add sulfur to bring the pH down a little. In the light garden, I'm surprised that the scallop squash and acorns are refusing sprout. Normally these sprout readily. It's time to start feeding all of the seedlings. As expected, watering and having enough light appear to be the biggest considerations with the seed starting endeavor. I suspect that the older tubes have declined more than I thought. It's time to investigate an automatic watering system. Perhaps coupled with capillary matting, drip or a misting system. However, the celery is finally starting to sprout and the herbs and some of the flowers are sprouting nicely. With upcoming major surgery in a few weeks, it's difficult to get very motivated this spring. Monday, April 13, 2009 - Moved more plants out of their humidity covers. Found our first casualty to "Damping Off Disease" and removed the plant. Finally had one scallop squash and one acorn squash sprout. I was beginning to think that they were not going to sprout at all. Started feeding the seedlings with a mixture of water soluble fertilizer and fish emulsion. Each at 1/4 strength. The onions are growing well and ready to transplant as soon as the weather cooperates. The other seedlings don't look bad, but are not quite as vigorous as I would have liked. The feeding should help with this. Outside, the weather just is not cooperating at all. The past week has been rainy and cold, with highs only in the 40's. In fact, the past two weeks have been below normal for temperatures. Perhaps a cloche would have been a good idea this year, even though I was starting late. Thursday, April 16, 2009 -
It's now time to mow the lawn for the first time. Everyone around me has now mowed 2 or more times. While the lawn is not all that high, it will be nice to start cleaning things up from the winter. Went to town and bought plugs and air filters for the mower and other power equipment.
Picked up four new 8 foot plant stakes for garden trellising in each of the two raised beds. Thought I had enough 4 inch X 6 inch garden wire for the trellises, but I forgot I used it around the roses out front. It's a little small, but I'll used some 2 inch chicken wire I have instead. I plan on using three stakes for each trellis (I already have two good ones left. I will support vertically by using some PVC pipe in the middle and across the top, then attach the wire over this. The center pipe will have three holes bored through the pipe and then slid down over the stakes. This will be secured in place with wire or wire ties. The top pipe will have three holes bored through one side only and placed on top of the stakes like a cap and secured with wire or wire ties.
In the light garden, the seedlings are growing very nicely. However, several seeds that should have sprouted easily failed to sprout at all, but there is no further evidence of damping off disease. The seedlings are large enough to start watering by immersing the entire tray in a flat of water and let the plants be watered from the bottom up. The onions are growing well and need to be planted outdoors.
Friday, April 17, 2009 -
Mowed lawn for the first time this year and cleaned off the mulch from one long perennial bed. This will allow the soil to warm. After removing the mulch, it was evident that the moles found it to be a cozy place to overwinter. I need to get some mole repellant for the beds, but in all likelihood, this will not happen again this year. I found that there were many plants that expired (all of them biennials), leaving several good locations to move plants from the starting bed, which needs cleaned out very badly. I still need to do some final cutting back of stalks that were left long and a little weeding of dandelions and Habeck Mint that is escaping, but overall, the bed looks pretty good to start the season.
I may have been a little late, but I got around to uncovering the container plants that I overwintered in a wire cage with leaves. Most look pretty good, but some appear not to have weathered as well as I had hoped. Some plants, like the Tarragon, should have been uncovered sooner. This is one drawback of using the tall wire like I used. It did not lend itself to checking for sprouting without tearing the bundle apart. Actually, it came time to get the containers under cover and I
really didn't think about needing to check them in early spring. I just grabbed the first wire that was handy that would keep the leaves I used from blowing away. The leaves worked pretty well, but straw would have been better. Sometimes, the least expensive resource is not the best to use (cheaper is not always better). I saved money by not having to buy straw, but I crated additional work and lost plants in doing so.
I cleaned off the patio with the blower and sprayed homemade weed killer (vinegar, salt and dish liquid) on the sprouts that were coming up in the bricks. This works very quickly and thoroughly. After a few days of spot-spraying the rest of the sprouts that I missed and a little warm weather, I will give the patio a good scrubbing with a natural bristle brush and a forceful spray with a hose to scour out much of the debris from the bricks. This will be allowed to dry thoroughly before I spray a sealer on the bricks and woodwork.
Saturday, April 18, 2009 -
Started digging the trench for the gravel and timber footing for the second raised bed. This footing is necessary because of the slight slope where the beds are and because of the water that drains down through the area where the beds are. This will raise the back side of the beds up to where they are not buried in the slope and to provide some additional drainage for the footing. As usual, there are many tree roots and some rocks to contend with.
I uncovered the first raised bed for inspection and found that it is warm enough, but the soil needs loosened to allow it dry a little more. It has been drawing up a lot of moisture from the abundant rains we have been having lately. I will do this on my next days off from work. The weather is supposed to be quite warm and sunny according to forecasts right now. While I had the bed uncovered, I started installing the first trellis. I inserted and leveled the stakes, but the 3/4 inch PVC pipe I was going to use for horizontal supports, I feel is a little to small and I'm afraid that when I drill through holes through it, will weaken it to much. So I will purchase some 1 inch PVC (20 feet for 2 trellises) instead. It's
starting to rain again, so I'll cover the bed back up for a couple of days until my next days off. But I'll leave one end open to ventilate the moisture.
It's going to put a little damper on the gardening this year, but I'm looking forward to the upcoming orthopedic surgeries. Perhaps I won't feel so tired all the time and everything I do won't hurt so much. I refuse to look at this as a disability, but rather as an opportunity to better learn how to cope and live with a disability. I believe this will open many doors of opportunity to learn to garden smarter - NOT HARDER! Tuesday, April 21, 2009 -
I uncovered the first bed (bed #2) and loosened the soil to start planting. The soil was quite warm, still pretty damp from drawing up the moisture from below by capillary action. The soil was turned and loosened. We worked on finishing the gravel footing for the first bed.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 -
Started planting the second bed today (finally). Planted:
- Mesclun Mix
- Two types of Romaine
- Kohlrabi
- Beets
- Radishes
Built a simple planting board/edge guide to use for laying out rows and plant spacing's. This stretches across the bed and doubles as a support to lean on if needed. The timbers for the second bed (bed #1) were laid today, anchored and the frame attached to them. We are finally ready to start prepping the lower soil and start filling. We be using a mix of soil, sand and compost for the bed.
I gave the seedlings another feeding by immersion today. Actually, they aren't looking to bad at all. It would be nice to have more intense light for them to better decrease legginess.
Thursday, April 23, 2009 -
Cleaned up and painted some of my old plant markers in order to recycle them. This saves money by not having to buy more and it is better in the long run over wooden markers because trees don't need to be sacrificed. Started putting down the first sand in the bottom of the first bed to be dug in for drainage.
I cleaned out and scrubbed the algae out of the bird bath. This is something that will need to be on-going all year now each time the bird bath is filled.
Saturday, April 25, 2009 -
The Radishes are sprouting already. Great to see new life beginning in the garden late or not. I would have been harvesting new radishes already if I would have planted earlier. Mesclun is starting to sprout also. The frame for the second (bed #1) was finished today. We'll start filling it tomorrow. Went out to the City-Wide Garage Sale today. Didn't find much for the garden, but I did pick up some pots. One is a 3 gallon nursery pot that I can paint and use for some herbs as well as a couple of hanging pots. While I was out I picked up 8 Early Flat Dutch cabbages since the seed for the ones I wanted arrived so late. I'll still start the seed for a later crop of cabbage.
Sunday, April 26, 2009 -
The cabbages and onions were planted today. The onions were planted very thickly with the intention that I'll pull every other one for fresh green onions until the proper spacing is attained. The cabbages were planted on one foot spacing to be picked at 6 to 8 inches, which will about the right size for us. I finished the trellis for the first bed today. This was built with 3, eight foot plastic coated plant stakes for the uprights. The cross pieces (one middle and one top cross piece) were made from 1 inch PVC pipe, which was later painted green for aesthetic reasons. I covered this with 5 foot wide by 2 inch opening chicken wire. I would have liked to have had something a little heavier I think, but this was given to me, so I used what I already had. The cost for this trellis is about $16.00 by not having to buy wire. I'll repeat this trellis at the North end of the new bed (bed #1) when it is finished. The irises I planted last summer are starting to bloom. I really love Irises and want to plant some more later. I was afraid that the St. John's Wort had died during the winter, but it appears that it is sprouting late. This is also true of the Tarragon I had overwintered under leaves this winter. But I see it is starting to sprout quite nicely. Bed #1 was mostly filled today with a mix of equal parts of compost and top soil with generous amount of sandy added. A top layer of soil needs to be added yet, but rain is coming and I'll let it settle for a while first before I top it off and do the final addition. One thing that was done on this bed that was not done on the first (bed #2), My son added a thick layer of grass clippings near the bottom and has been mixing them in as he filled the bed. Normally, I would not recommend adding fresh clippings, but if not added to thickly and mixed well, it should do fine.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 -
I see today that at least one of the Jack-In-Pulpit's planted in a pot has survived and is sprouting. I didn't know if it would survive in a pot or not, but I needed to try to save what I had from moles and who knows what else where it was planted in the front bed. I thought about planting it in a mole basket, but as often as I dig things around here and as much trouble as I have remembering where they are, they are kind of a pain to deal with. Taking a look at the seedlings in the light garden, I have enough of most plants, but I need to prick out several and pot them up in individual pots. I find it somewhat odd, but the scallop squash just refuses to sprout and grow like the other squash. I'll probably just plant some directly in the garden. In bed #2, everything is sprouting very well and looking quite good, except the peas, which have not started sprouting yet. The weather during the weekend was beautiful and warm, with temps in the low 80's but it started raining Sunday night and is still rainy and it has turned off cool with temps only in the low 60's. The forecast is for rain an cool temps all week. This will put a damper on many outdoor activities, but it is after all April and to be expected. It's just somewhat frustrating when you're fired up to work outside.
Thursday, April 30, 2009 - I fertilized the seedlings again today. This time I used a 50% mix of water soluble fertilizer and fish emulsion. The tomato's, squash and cucumbers are getting rather large and ready to plant outdoors. Up-potted the tomato's squash and cucumbers into 4 inch pots today. This will give them room to grow and they won't dry out as fast. While I was at it, I thinned the seedlings. I probably should have done this sooner, but they'll be fine. Some were growing through the paper pots. The paper pots are breaking down faster than I had originally thought. Overall, I'm pleased with the paper pots. I think I'll prepare a spot to start hardening off the plants while I'm off today and tomorrow. The rainy and cloudy weather will help with this and make sunshine not so much of an issue. It's been rainy for the last week and is still raining. The forecast is calling for high chances of rain for the next five days, but its not to cool and rather pleasant with highs in the upper sixties and lower seventies. |
