Steepmeadow Status Report, June 15, 2021

 

This seems to be the time of year when things really take off in the garden. There's definitely a large amount of work going on. I though it would be appropriate to take an illustrated walk around the raised beds. 

I've nearly finished with the fencing job. The walls are consistently chicken-wire and I've used a low cost (vs. lumber) 16 gauge wire strung between the posts to string it up. If the fences are penetrated from above, we'll supplement with bird netting.

To start that walk around the garden. Above is the salad bed. The spinach and kale that are standing have both gone to seed, as did the arugula (rocket) - all planted in April - which I removed. The flame lettuce that I planted a few weeks ago as a succession crop did not come up (probably because the seeds were a year old.) I also planted a row of Seed Savers salad mix and a row of kale. Both have germinated, but it is going to be a little bit of a wait until we're eating them. Should have succession planted sooner. 

Next, we have the pepper/garlic bed. The garlic still has a little way to go. We've snacked on the bits where it was trying to go to seed in order to focus the plants' energy on the bulb. We expect to harvest them next month. The peppers are creeping along. The two large banana pepper plants in the middle are doing pretty well, and the other red peppers seem to have finally ignited. They spent a lot of time just sitting there, tiny, and looking like they weren't going to make it.

The raspberry canes seem to be well established, along with their nasturtium companions, and it looks like we're going to get some this year.

Tomato bed #1 in the upper garden is thriving. It's covered with bird netting, which I've had to raise, so as to not impede the growth of the cherry tomatoes, which are showing blossoms. The marigolds up here are doing equally well.

The broccoli and beets in the experimental prototype uber-bed are doing exceptionally well. In fact, we may have made a slight miscalculation in that the cover over this bed is too low, and the broccoli is smashing into it now. I don't want to remove it, because the whole reason I created it was to protect the beets, which were totally ravaged in just one night last year. I've also had to move three pepper plants that were being dug at by rodents under the fencing in order to protect them. This isn't a permanent solution, but at least it gets them away from Rodent Central up by the cucumber/spaghetti squash bed. Another success here is the succession crop of beets which is starting to come in just as the first batch is beginning to approach harvest time.

Back down below, the strawberry bed does not look good. It was the first bed that I tried to fence with the wire using some techniques that I quickly realized were not a good idea. The cover was hastily improvised from the old frame that I created last year to mark out where to build the raised beds. And yet it works. The strawberry plants haven't been disturbed since I covered them. The everbearing plants are well behind the June bearing, and fewer of them actually took, so there are some blank spots we'll have to try to fill in next year. That said, I'm optimistic that we'll get some berries next summer. The oregano I planted along lines between the berries in the first three rows was a total failure. It did not germinate. The dill that I planted between the rest of the plants is having mixed success. I'd say less than half of it germinated, but we'll get some.

The peas are thriving. We had a vegetable stir-fry for dinner last night, and peas were the main ingredient. They are coming out a little bit of a yellowish color, which may be due to the excessive heat. Because I had to replant them after the rodents destroyed the row on the north side of the trellis, those are following the other peas and might give us a bit of a graduated harvest. I've been mulling over what happens next in this bed, because peas don't, I think, last the whole summer. The cosmos I'd originally planted were devastated by rodents pre-fence. I added nasturtium seeds and those are starting to come in now. I also planted some broccoli under the trellis which has germinated. We'll see how it does.

The pumpkin/squash bed is thriving. The one of the early planted pumpkins is trying to escape the fence. I push it back in every morning. I didn't realize when I put in the fencing what a great tool it would be for keeping the plants inside the beds. There are about 11 viable summer squash and pumpkin plants in here. One lesson from this year to take away for next year is that starting these indoors only makes them weak and leggy. Seeds direct sown quickly surpass the ones I started early. The pumpkin seeds we collected and dried from our pumpkins last year have been especially reliable at germinating. 

After we protected the cucumbers from the digging rodents, they're doing exceptionally well up by the garage. There are also two pumpkins (which I planted when the spaghetti squash looked like they might not come up) and two spaghetti squash plants in this bed. All seem to be healthy. We also have a volunteer tomato plant. I need to find it a new home.

Most of the giant sunflowers I planted in front of the deck are doing great. Just a couple of exceptions. These are super fun, and I can't wait until they get up over the deck level and start flowering. 

The morning glories and hollyhocks by the shed are showing some promise, too.

And that is about where we stand with Steepmeadow so far.

So far, so good.