The Yellow Farmhouse Garden

August 7, 2013

A rainy growing season

Filed under: Vegetables,Weather — bob @ 7:54 am

It sure looked like it was going to be a banner year for my potatoes. I planted three rows, sixty feet long, in the deepest darkest garden soil I have.

The cool temperatures and regular rain at the beginning of the season pushed them along — I never had such a beautiful looking potato patch. I was already worrying about what to do with my bumper crop.

I mounded up my potatoes early on so that the rows sat about six inches above the garden bed. This was going to give them plenty of space to produce lots of spuds.

Then the rains kept coming and the potato patch started getting pretty wet. The soil was so wet that I couldn’t walk in that area without rubber boots.

The roots rotted away because of too much water. The plants still attempted to produce potatoes by growing potato-like tubers on the stems.

The last straw came when a storm dumped over four inches of rain all at once. The potatoes were standing in water for days — the raised rows looked like islands in a pond.

Now, what once looked like a surplus of  potatoes, is now a crop failure. I’ve gardened in that spot for many years and never had a water problem like that in July.

You never know what a new garden season will bring. Next year it may be a plague of insects. Or, maybe it will be a bumper crop — that’s what keeps it interesting.

Bob

July 16, 2013

Cabbage root maggot

Filed under: Insects,Vegetables — bob @ 6:59 am

If you have never seen it before, it seems perplexing — one or two dying cabbage plants in among a row of healthy plants. This is the work of the cabbage root maggot.

These maggots are the larval stage of a fly that looks very similar to a housefly, only smaller. And like houseflies, they go though part of their life-cycle as a maggot. They attack all plants categorized in the cabbage family which includes cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and others.

During the time when the adults are active, they buzz around looking for suitable plants — such as your broccoli or cauliflower. The female fly lays its eggs right where the stem of the plant meets the soil. When the eggs hatch, the larvae begin feeding on the roots.

Infested plants lose so many roots to maggot feeding that they can’t sustain themselves so, the plant begins to wilt and eventually  dies.

Cabbage root maggots thrive in a cool, wet soil environment. Our rainy growing season has provided ideal living conditions for this pest which is why you may be more likely to see them in your garden this year. Warm dry weather reduces the maggot population.

By the way, if you’ve ever come across wormy radishes or turnips, you’ve seen cabbage root maggots — they’re the same insect.

May 15, 2013

Common mistake when sowing carrot seeds

Filed under: Seeds,Vegetables — bob @ 9:42 am

One common mistake beginning gardeners make when sowing carrot seeds is planting them too deep.

The seed packages say something like “place the seeds in a furrow, cover with soil and press the soil down firmly”. This makes it sound like you have to dig a small trench and heap garden soil over the top.

Actually, carrot seeds only need a shallow depression about one-quarter of an inch deep or so.

Cover them with a small amount of loose garden soil. Mixing some sand with the soil you use for covering will help keep it from crusting over. Crusted soil will hurt seed germination. Finally press the soil down firmly enough so the seed has good contact with the soil particles.

A shallow furrow for carrot seeds should be no deeper than 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep.

Carrot seeds take anywhere from one to two weeks to sprout.

Bob

January 11, 2013

Still harvesting kale from the garden

Filed under: Vegetables — bob @ 11:50 am

I’ve been harvesting kale from the garden since fall and there is still plenty left to pick. Even after the those cold nights in December, when the temperature dipped down to the single digits, my kale still is green and fresh with no signs of freeze damage. I knew they were very cold tolerant, but I’m still pleasantly surprised how well they’re holding up this winter.

There are 11 plants left. They are almost three feet tall with a deep green top of curly leaves. I don’t know what variety they are.

The lower leaves are gone from the plants. I picked those as they matured. It was obvious early on that we were not going to be able to eat all of that kale ourselves. So, a lot of  the crop went to feed the chickens. They love it —  especially now in the winter when no other leafy greens are growing.

Our chickens are hoping I toss them a few kale leaves as a winter treat.

Kale is more than just a garnish for the buffet table, it’s probably the most nutritionally dense vegetable we grow in the garden. I like to add it to vegetable soup. I don’t eat it uncooked very often but I know many people that do.

I look at kale as the easiest way to greatly extend the gardening season with the least amount of cash expense.

Bob

December 21, 2012

Picking radishes in December

Filed under: Vegetables — bob @ 3:22 pm

I picked the last of my radishes today — the first day of winter.

Even though we had some night time temperatures dip into the teens, we’ve had a mild fall season overall.  The radishes seemed to do quite well under those conditions. They grew slowly but did manage to reach harvest size.

The radishes are about one inch in diameter -- big enough to eat.

Earlier this fall I planted them as an afterthought and forgot all about them until now. The bed they were growing in is not covered or mulched and  is directly exposed to the weather.

Sometimes it pays to spend some extra time in the fall to sow  leftover, cool-season seeds. Most years, nothing finishes growing before it gets frozen.  But in years when you do get a crop, it really is a pleasant surprise.

Bob

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