September 28th, 2017
Garlic first and 2nd planting.
- August 27th
- September 22nd
- Oats in one of the raised beds on the hill, they're not even a week old yet, covering in cardboard the first three days really helps.
- The other raised bed still has a few Cherokee purple plants that seem to be doing pretty good, the tomatoes are actually coming off less cracked, split and bug infested. Maybe due to a lot less rain?
- Ghost Chili's and Tabascos are doing great, the entire pond area is doing great, I'll have to cut back the irises this year.
- Front pond, the Poblanos, Corno Di Tori Giallo and Ruby Red peppers are still producing. The plants are definitely deficient in something here, but this is a balancing act between the nutrient, plants and fish. The plants are mainly there to clean the water, the veggies that are harvested are a bonus.
- Asparagus
- Side Hugelkultur bed.
- Zucchini test, direct sowed August 21st, next year if I have issues with the SVB and the Btk does not work, I'll try planting zucchini late July. I have sprayed this twice with Btk and will continue for another week, but I don't think that the Squash Vine Borer is active this time of year.
- Side hugelkultur bed, year 2.
- Backyard hugelkultur bed, left side year 2 (section with patio), right half year 1, (section with mulch). Got some romaine in the 2 year Hugelkultur bed. Have some struggling broccoli in the 1st year Hugelkultur bed.
- Eggplants in the first year Hugelkultur bed (mulch section). I wouldn't bet on these getting any bigger than a baseball, but we shall see. The eggplant plant on the hill is getting flowers but no fruit. The plant in the side Hugelkultur bed have quite few flowers and may have a few eggplants forming.
October 1st, 2017
- Zucchini has some flowers, I'll start hand pollinating this week.
- Got some pond work done I decided to cut the iris back completely so I had to go in, it was getting out of hand, it should come back next season. Since I went swimming I decided to work on the Koi pond as well, I just stirred up the bottom, picked out some pavers that had fallen in and replaced the filter sponges with a coarser sponge. The filters were clogging up almost every third day.
- Transplanted a bunch of Phlox.
- Planted the rest of my Oats and some of my Crimson Clover. I really need to find a supplier for oats and get 10 pound bags.
- I'm still rooting for these guys
- My romaine is finally perking up, somewhat.
- I might as well give up on broccoli, this is my best plant.
- Clover is growing nicely.
- Playing with my peppers.
- The Tabascos are going on year two, started these summer of 2016, these are resting on charred oak and I will try some fall of 2018 to see if it is ready for processing.
- Made some bio-char burning a lot of the marigolds, some cardboard, tomato plants, sunflowers, some old tree trimmings, woody plant stems, weeds, dog poo, and some pallets. I got about 2.5 five gallon buckets, I'll be adding some urea to the 5 gallon buckets and then topping the one raised bed on the hill or dumping in the compost heap. This stuff is great for amending clay soil but I don't think it does much good in my Hugelkultur beds due to the healthy soil, none the less I add some here and there and also will add ash.
- Pulled my Corno Di Toro Giallo pepper plant to make room for the garlic. This thing was so heavy with peppers that it completely toppled over when I removed the support.
- I'll try stuffing these this week and see how they are.
- Planting the garlic
- The eggplant plants in the Hugelkultur beds are doing well but the eggplants are growing slowly, I am not holding my breath for a late harvest, but I'm curious how far these guys will get.
- The side Hugelkultur bed is doing real well and noticed a few eggplants on this plant as well.
- This Jalapeno Pepper plant in the Vertical Garden is simply amazing, this will be my 4th harvest this year, I need to make sure and keep picking the peppers next year to promote new peppers. The first two harvests were about 18 each, the third was a dozen, looks like I'll have another 18 coming off in a bit.
- Time to shut down the veggie filter. The cover to the veggie filter was looking a little weathered, so I sanded and stained it.
- The pepper plants in the Koi ponds veggie filter are DEFINITELY finished.
- Impatients are still looking good so I need to bypass the overflow. The soil is recycled into the compost bin with the plants The pots, saucers and fabric are stored away.
- Bypassing the lower veggie filter to drain directly into the pond. Oh crap, just noticed in this picture that Laura stuck a fall decoration in the upper veggie filter, I hope she didn't tear the liner.
- Pond work always requires a beer
- Had to catch a frog that insisted on staying in the veggie filter, I called Amanda out to get him, she loves that kinda stuff. The weather is still fairly warm so technically I could have removed the stuff from the filter, placed on the cover and kept it running. There... all finished, now Laura can decorate this area with her festive fall stuff.
- Planted a few Sunchokes on the upper hill. Planted two varieties of spinach and will let them go through the winter, I'm curious if they'll make it.
- Played with the Swallowtails for a bit, easily two dozen on this one plant.
