2012 Has Begun!

Hope everyone’s getting ready for the great 2012 Garden Off competition.  I know you guys will have a better showing in 2012, but I doubt you’ll have any chance of beating me.

But that’s why we compete!

What are everyone’s first garden steps of 2012?

 

2011 Garden Off Season Kick Off

Well, May is under way.

I am assuming most of you have started laying the groundwork for your gardens, and you’re hoping you’ll be able to beat me this year. Good luck. I hope so too. It’s been a while since I’ve been challenged. I have decided this year to do a little lasagna gardening.

Lasagna Gardening

I’m halting the use of my old square foot gardens so they can be reclaimed by the lawn. I’m going back to using the old garden that came with the house which is on the west side of our lawn. Yesterday, I made a video of my lawn to show Damien what the color green was. He was getting his browns and his greens confused. He even had some yellows thrown in for some reason. I haven’t seen a yellow in a while, so I hardly know what that color even looks like.

Anyway – here is the video..

Good luck folks!

 

Cucumbers

I don’t have pictures, but I’d just like to let everyone know that I ate my first cucumber this morning….. ooooooh, tasted good!

 

Virginia Garden Updates

Well, here in Virginia, it’s definitely summer…temps in the 90′s and high humidity.  Ugh.  Fortunately, the garden seems to like it, for the most part, especially the tomatoes:

Tomatoes, in the homemade cages I built a couple weeks ago.

As the caption says, I built these cages myself a couple weeks ago–I was tired of the flimsy ones they have in the stores, which invariably fall over when the plants get bigger.  Njord4, since you get points for sharing plants, do I get points for this?

One of the plants (Hartman’s Yellow Gooseberry) already has a couple tomatoes on it:

See 'em in there?

Most of the other tomatoes at least have blossoms:

Potatoes are doing all right, but I will admit that there seems to be some disease going on in that arena.  A little bit of what seems to be blight, and on others what appears to be some leaf curl.  No pictures of the leaf curl, but here are the others:

However, the melons, cukes, and squash are really going to town!

Acorn Squash

Cucumber

Muskmelon

Watermelon

Onions are also looking good (I’ve even harvested spring onions to thin these out!) and the carrots are coming along, although they didn’t come in as thick as I had hoped.  Another sowing, perhaps?

Onions

Carrots

Green beans are also slowly but surely coming in–they got off to a rough start, but seem to be bouncing back:

Green Beans

And last but certainly not least, we can’t forget about the herbs!  Cilantro and basil were sown directly from seed in the garden and are doing well:

Cilantro

Basil

And finally, I got a little creative.  There was a bare spot in one of my flower boxes on the deck and I had an extra basil plant…what else was I supposed to do?

Basil is in there--can you find it?

So all in all, I’m pretty happy with how things are coming along.  A couple setbacks with disease, bugs, and slow starts, but really, when isn’t there an unexpected event or two when it comes to gardening?

 

First tomato

My first tomato is here! Mark the day!

Trying a tomato plant in a pot. I’m not sure this has ever been done before.

And last but not least, I may have found a loophole in the Garden Off Points System (GOPS). I’m checking with legal to make sure it’s valid. But if I’m not mistaken, I get massive amounts of points for plants I give away to competitors that I started from seed. So, I am planning on giving some melon plants to the NewPowerSoulMan. Of course, I’ll keep a few for myself as well!

Here they are:

 

First plants are up…

It’s shaping up to be a good garden year!  Just in the last week my onions sprouted and are doing really well.  See for yourself!:

Since our frost date is about 3 weeks away, it’s time to plant the carrots, so I did that after work today.  I chose Rainbow Hybrid, because they look fun–see for yourself!

Stock photo from Jung's--I hope mine look this good when they grow!

As I was out planting the carrots, a little greenish purple foliage caught my eye–and I realized my first potato plant is peeking out of the ground!  This looks to be one of the Purple Vikings:

Yes, that is a large horse turd in the upper right corner.

Last week, my tomato transplants came from Seed Savers Exchange.  It’s still too early to plant them in the ground, so they just have to hang out in their little pots on the porch right now.  They arrived looking super healthy and I can’t wait to get them in the garden!

Some good looking tomato transplants!

I ordered a surprise mix, and I’ve never grown any of these varieties, except for one.  Varieties are, in no particular order: Hartman’s Yellow Gooseberry, Amish Paste, Cherokee Purple, German Pink, Velvet Red, Gold Medal (this is the one I’ve grown before), and Hungarian Heart.  I have a feeling I’ll be overrun with tomatoes this year, but that’s OK!  Oh, and those white cups have basil seedlings in them.  I love basil and I am so impatient so I decided to start it from seed this year and will transplant to the garden itself once the frost date has passed.

How does your garden grow?

 

April Showers

As I sit here on this wonderful Saturday evening, working… yes, you wonder how can it be wonderful if I’m working… well –> it’s not that kind of wonderful. I am not happy about the working part, but if you were to take that out of the picture and put me in a bed, it would be a wonderful evening. My wife is upstairs watching SNL, I think, although I can’t hear any sound… My dogs are lying on their cushion to my left. My cats are lying on the green chair next to the dogs. I’m drinking a Three Floyd’s Alpha King. And I’m thinking about fishing. I wish I could go tomorrow but I don’t think I’ll be able to, and this rain doesn’t help the situation. But then again, this rain is giving me points… Points in the Great Garden Off!

My chives are a foot tall… my tulips have sprouted and are ready to let fly their wondrous colours (sic)… and all the trees are blooming quite well. My garden is still waiting for some compost. I will feed it soon. The growing season is fast approaching.

Let me check my last frost date. May 15. Three weeks from today.

I can’t wait.

 

Let the Games Begin!

Since njord4 has been trash talking and arbitrarily awarding himself points for doing nothing, I thought I should point out a couple things about the Garden-Off, Virginia Division.

1. Even without care from me through the winter (heck, I don’t even LIVE there anymore!) the townhouse garden is alive and kicking.  Rosemary, thyme, parsley, cilantro (yes cilantro!) and catnip all came back.  The catnip was even in a pot and I didn’t expect it to come back.  Cilantro is not a perennial herb here, and so the fact that my soil was so good it reseeded itself is to be commended.  Plans are to transplant the other herbs into the new garden this spring.

2. The garden at the new house will be tilled this weekend.  Since we have very clay-ey soil, I’m hoping I can score some composted manure from the horse farm across the street.  The fact that not only do I have to create a whole new garden plot this year deserves some extra points! Plus, using a tractor to till it up is pretty damn cool and should make you all jealous.

3.  One the garden is tilled, I have seed potatoes ready to go and will probably put in some onion sets as well.  Potato varieties include Purple Viking, Kennebec, Early Rose, and Red Pontiac Lasoda.  The company also threw in a free Nicola, so I’m exited to see how that turns out!  Pictures can be seen on the company’s website.

Suffice it to say, it seems as though the Garden-Off 2010 is now begun.  Bring it on, boys.  Don’t be too sad when a girl beats you this year.  Remember, I learned from Paul Haas.  That alone is a force to be reckoned with.

 

First Frost

Well, I’m sure I’m behind the rest of you, but here in Virginia, we had our first frost last night.  I was getting tomatoes as late as last week, but even that’s over now.  Just the herbs from here on out!

May we garden well next year…and with moving to the new place (read: bigger yard), I will hopefully have much more to contribute to the competition!

 

Here Comes the Sun(flower)

My sunflowers are exceeding expectations… inspiring awe and gaining national attention.  All in a day’s work, they say.  A picture of my metaphorical little sunflower, Teresa, and my literal sunflower, Big John, is featured in the Sunflower Gallery on gardening guru Melinda Myers’ website.  I met Melinda earlier this year and we talked sunflowers and the importance of getting kids involved in gardening.  You can see Teresa and Big John by clicking this link http://melindameyers.com/Sunflowers.html.  Also check out the rest rest of Melinda’s site.  It’s a great source for tips, ideas and inspiration.

Checking out the Sunflower Gallery's latest star!

Speaking of sunflowers, some of my plants are getting ready to bloom.  Pretty amazing already.  A sight to behold and it can be beheld below.

So far it hasn't said "Feed me!"

Alright.  That’s about it for now.  Stay tuned for more postings!  Keep those green thumbs green!