February 16, 2015 - More Seeds Started!

February 16, 2015 -

The Arugula is progressing quite well. It is growing in its little seed starter pot and has begun forming its first true leaves. Will need to cull soon and focus on the stronger ones.

The Broccoli is also progressing well and will need to be culled soon. Both seem to like the grow lights I have over them. Below is a picture of the first sprouts emerging.

I will try to post current pictures tomorrow.

I started three more plants tonight as well. Kale (Dwarf Blue Curled Vates), Spinach (Bloomsdale Longstanding) and Mustard Green (Florida Broadleaf). The Kale has a germination rate of 10-21 days. Hopefully by 2/26 I can post some pictures of the sprouts coming up. The spinach is 8-10 days and the mustard green is 5-13. Pictures will follow as soon as the are up.

Still no sign of the peas. We have had a bitter cold front come in that might inhibit their progress. Only time will tell.

February 5, 2015 - Started Some More

February 5, 2015 -

Continuing on with the garden for 2015, Isaac (my oldest) and I planted some seeds today. We started some Calabrese Broccoli and Arugula.

The Calabrese Broccoli is the most common broccoli grown in the US. It was mostly a vegetable grown in the Mediterranean. It was introduced in the US in the early 1900's by Italian immigrants. Isaac is very excited about his broccoli. The germination rate is 10-21 days. Hopefully, by 2/15 I can post pictures of little seedlings.

Arugula is a salad green that is in the cabbage family. It did not becoming popular until the 1980's in the US. Considered a trendy salad green, it is rumored to be an aphrodisiac. In mid-evil Europe it was discouraged to grow the "Rocket" because of this fact. The germination rate is 5-7 days. Hopefully, by 2/10 I can post pictures of little seedlings.

Until then, my tray of little seed pops will have to work.

January 31, 2015 - Garden 2015 Is Underway

January 31, 2015 -

The 2015 Garden has now started. While cleaning out is still needed desperately, we have begun the garden for 2015. The Delks are expecting to grow from a family of five to a family of six this year, no baseball trips will be interrupting the garden plans and this year will hopefully be better than ever.

Abby Delk and I planted some Sugar Snap Peas today along with some garlic. Isaac Delk and I got our little starter pots ready for some of the cool early spring vegetables of greens, lettuce and broccoli. We will be trying to extend the growing season with mixing and matching of in season crops.

With the new found hobby of woodworking and the never ending supply of wood from scrap at work, I will be incorporating several organic layers of sawdust (mulch) and wood ash (burning the scrap wood). We did this in our Sugar Snap Pea patch which we planted today.

The Sugar Snap Peas have a germination time of 7-10 days. Hopefully by February 9th I should start seeing some little sprouts. If I do, pictures will follow. I planted three rows in one of our 4' x 4' beds.

Hopefully tomorrow, we will plant our cool weather stuff indoors to begin it growing.

More to come.

Joe Delk

 

More Plants - More to Update

March 4, 2012 -

So last time I told you about the mishap ... or I should say the weather ... with the Cole Family seedlings (Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, etc.) and how I had to deal with them. They will make fine dirt for the future. So, now I will tell how I replaced them.

Thursday night, Isaac, Abby, Andy and I planted 18 new Broccoli plants. Because I got them from Bonnie Plants, there were only a few varieties. So we planted 9 Premium Crop Broccoli and Packman Broccoli. I am curious about the Premium Crop because the package said they could produce heads up to 12" across. That is mammoth. They had a lot of fun doing it. I think they had more fun watering them they than did the actual planting.

We also planted 42 red onion bulbs. These were Whethersfield Red Beauty onions. I lucked up getting these at China-mart, I mean Walmart, for $1.88 for 50. Hopefully, these will do well.

I must say though that after Friday night's fun weather, it has gotten cooler and I have some of the Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach poking their heads up. Hopefully, they will grow and not bolt. Just in case they do not grow, I bought some Bonnie Spinach today and planted them. I also bought some Bonnie's Romaine lettuce today, but I did not plant it because it was cold outside.

Well, we have some yellow and white onions to plant this week and I have to build another 4x4 bed.

Keeping you updated.

Update on the Delk Garden

March 2, 2012 -

My blog dashboard tells me that it has been two weeks since I last update this. So...here is an update.

Tragedy Strikes The Seedlings! I think I use that word too much. Well we all know we have had a very unseasonable winter. I like it but the seeds for most spring vegetables don't. I had a couple of varieties of cabbage and broccoli going but they just never seemed to develop. I also had some cauliflower going as well but it also seemed to have trouble flourishing. I think the reason was two-fold: (1) Poor nutrition in the seed starting soil I had and (2) it was just too warm. From what I read last year, the Cole family likes to have weather around 55-65 degrees to germinate. We just have not had that in the house or outside and because of that my seedlings bolted. Well needless to say, I chunked them into the compost pile last night. I have bought two varieties of Broccoli from Bonnie Plants that I will do and one variety of cabbage. These are Premium Crop and Packman for the Broccoli and Flat Dutch for the cabbage.

Tulips are still working their way up. I think just about every bulb came up that we planted in the fall.

Garlic is doing well. Hopefully it will continue to grow and I will have some garlic for the fall.

Got 8 of the beds functioning and ready for plenty of plants. Still got two that I need to fill and get ready. I also have enough material for at least one more with my re-purposed lumber.

I plan on this weekend starting my tomato plants indoors with the help of my empty toilet paper rollers.

Keep growing.

Onions

February 15, 2012 -

I am going to try onions this year. Not sure if I will break down and do sets later but right now I am going to try growing from seeds. I have never done this. When I was younger, my Dad would buy sets and we would put them out in a row and watch them grow. However, we did not have much luck because of the clay ground we had.

I am going to try three varieties this year. I may try four but we will have to see. The three varieties are: Sweet Spanish Utah Jumbo (a yellow), Southport White Globe (a white) and Red Burgundy (a red). I have planted the Sweet Spanish Utah Jumbo and the Southport White Globe. I will probably plant the Red Burgundy this weekend if I have time. I started these indoors in egg cartons. When they get a little bigger, I will move them out to the garden as sets. I will probably plant these with the cabbage I am working on to keep down pests.

The Sweet Spanish Utah was the first to germinate. I have some small green shoots showing up. Germination time was supposed to be 10-12 days, but it looks like they are a little early. These seeds were planted last week on will hopefully yield some onions around the beginning of June. We will have to see, like I said this is the first time I have planted these. Since this is the first year I have tried them, I am just doing 12.

The Southport White Globe has not sprouted yet. I have also planted 12 of these. Waiting for the first shoots to pop up but nothing on them yet. These also should start yielding around June.

The Red Burgundy I will plant 12 of these also. I may do some more of the yellow and red since I am not a big fan of the white.

Anyway I will keep you posted.

Copenhagen Early Market - Cabbage

February 10, 2012 -

Had a bit of a scare last night. I had made the comment to one of my co-workers that need to move the seedlings from the seed start dirt (which is not really nutrious for the plants) to some good compost soil, then I came home last night to see the Copenhagen Early Market variety of cabbage practically wilted. I transferred the plants to cups full of dirt and soaked them in water, but one of them will not make it. So I replanted 1 cabbage last night.

I will do the same to the rest of them tonight and Saturday. All the others seem to be doing well.

Repurposed - Dunnage from Work

February 4, 2012 -

I work at Bull Moose Tube company in Trenton, GA as the plant engineer. I am shocked sometimes at what we throw away in an industrial setting that I know we can use for something else. Last year, I re-purposed some divider boards for OSB blocks we use in storage to make 2 beds that were 42" square. These are the beds that currently are home to our garlic and tulips. They have performed better than I had expected and have really impressed me.

With the garden pushing for more expansion this year, I happened upon another item that my boss allowed me to re-purpose for the expansion beds I am in the process of building. The dunnage that is returned from Husqvarna for us to reuse also includes dunnage from some of their other suppliers. We typically throw this away and keep ours. I noticed that there were several 2x4 boards that came back that we throw away. This bothered me and I decided to see what I could design to reuse these.

One of the sizes that comes back is 24" 2x4 boards. With a little bit of sketching, I came up with a 4'x4' bed that I could use to build out my garden. When the operators sort these, they hold out the 24" lumber for me. I take it home and expand my garden with a little bit of nailing. So far, I have created 3 of these to expand in. They seem sturdy and when they finally do rot away. I can just build another one as long as we continue to sell product to Husqvarna.

Broccoli - Green Goliath

February 4, 2012 -

I threw out 2 of the rolls of Green Goliath from 2011. They did not germinate. I think I might have planted them too deep. You are only supposed to go 1/4" deep and I think these guys ended up being about an inch deep. The 2011 Lot of the Green Goliath seeds were the last to germinate because I think they were too deep. All of the 2007 Lot of the Green Goliath germinated and are doing well. Although all of them are behind the cabbage. This kinda of surprises me.

But there are 4 of the 2011 Lot and 4 of the 2007 Lot going strong. I still have to plant some of the De Cicco Broccoli. If I get the opportunity tomorrow I will plant 6 of these as well.

Copenhagen Early Market Cabbage

February 4, 2012 -

Throw out one of my "rolls" of this variety of cabbage. It did not germinate. This was one that I had knocked over when Abby was trying to see the baby cabbage. I filled it back in, but I think the damage was done. Well, still have 5 of these going.

Tulips-a-Plenty

February 4, 2012 -

Last fall, before cooler temperatures arrived, I got two types of tulip bulbs on sale. Jocelyn's favorite flower is the tulip. So we purchased some red and white tulips and allowed them to take over one of the beds. This might have been poor planning on my part but it will be worth it when they sprout up here soon.

When I noticed our garlic bulbs poking their heads up a couple of weeks ago, I also noticed that the bulbs I had planted in the fall had also awakened. With the unseasonably warm weather we have had all winter, it is no wonder that they have poked their little green thumbs out the ground. When I counted all of the bulbs that Abby and I planted last year were up and out.

They are just small compact shoots now, but hopefully they will harken in spring when it gets with a burst of color. They also will hopefully mark a spot for honey bees to come back to several times this summer.

Cauliflower

February 4, 2012 -

Along with some of my other spring vegetables, I have also started some cauliflower. Early Snowball is the name and it is from a packet of seeds I had from last year. I planted 6 "rolls" of these and they have all sprouted up. I planted the week of January 22nd. All appear to be healthy. Looking forward to the next few leaf sprouts to poke out soon.

I plan on putting these out the same time as the cabbage and broccoli. With luck we will have a some early spring harvest of vegetables.

Check back for more updates.

Cabbage

January 28, 2012 -

I started my spring vegetables already and have included two types of cabbage. I am planting Copenhagen Early Market and Ferry's Round Dutch. I do not have much of a history on these yet, but when I get it I will include it here.

I started these guys about 12 weeks before my average last frost utilizing some re-purposed toilet paper rolls. So far, these have worked great. All the seeds have sprouted except one of the Ferry's Round Dutch (I accidentally knocked this one over and had to replant). The kids are really liking this one and hopefully it will give us some good cabbage heads to prepare. I have 6 of each type going. Because I can space it out, I will probably do a second planting of these for the spring as well. Hopefully I will have some pictures to attach tomorrow.

Broccoli - Green Goliath

January 28, 2012 -

Earlier this month, I started my spring vegetables. Among these were Green Goliath Broccoli. Last year, Abby really enjoyed the Packman Broccoli we planted from Bonnie Plants. This year I plan on expanding. I had some seeds of this variety from 2007 and some from 2011 that I did not plant. I started both of these lots this year using my re-purposed toilet paper rolls. (More pictures on that to follow.)

I planted these a little over a week ago. To my amazement, I have sprouts from the all the 2007 seeds. Only 1 so far of the 2011 lot has sprouted. The average last frost in my area is the first week of April. I started these guys indoors 12 weeks before this date. The kids are very excited about the little seedlings popping up. With luck I can put these guys out the first week of March and enjoy some tasty broccoli.

I am also planning on trying some De Cicco Broccoli also this year. I will start those seeds next week.

Keep posting.

January 28, 2012 - Garlic Update

January 28, 2012 -

This morning I noticed that the garlic that we planted early this month is sprouting up. If these do well, we will have 18 garlic bulbs by fall. I am shocked that these came up so fast, but there they were this morning with little green shoots poking through the ground.

It appeared that most of the 12 gloves we planted were all popping up but I will have to check tomorrow. I plan on putting pictures up of the garlic we I check them tomorrow.

It is kind of amazing though to see the price of garlic in the stores. It was $3 a bulb last I checked. I caught some bulbs on sale for $0.99 and planted them, now I will have approximately $54 worth of garlic.

2012 is here! Time to start planning

Just a small update. There will be more garlic for the Delks this coming year. I planted 12 more garlic cloves on Sunday (1/8/2012). This was in addition to the 6 that are still happily growing despite the winter weather. These add ons are supposed to pop up in the spring, so we will see what happens. It is neat though that this grew from store bought garlic.

I will be doing another post soon on my spring early vegetables I plan on putting out. Stay posted. 2012 looks like a bigger year.

Joe

A New Pest in the Tomatoes

Hello everyone out there. I have been very negligent in posting on this blog. The garden is still doing OK. A little bit dry right now because of the lack of rain, but still going somewhat strong.

I wanted to post about a garden pest I though I had luckily avoided, but however, I was wrong. I noticed that some of my Better Boy Tomatoes have been feeling the heat the past few days. I have kept a close eye on them and tried to water them when I could (i.e. if the kids would let me). Last night as I was doing my inspection, I noticed that one of the plants had lost several leaves. This was not too uncommon, with the dry conditions, but this was different. The leaves were missing, not wilted. I knew something was attacking my tomatoes.

Enter the Tomato Hornworm, Manduca Quinquemaculata.

 I noticed this guy when I was looking over my plants. Because I am trying to grow all my plants without any chemical aids, the best way to control these guys is to remove them and squish them. That is where Abby came in. She loved it when she got to squish the "green snake." She ran back inside and think scared Jocelyn because she was loudly proclaiming that she killed a green snake.

Either way, if you notice several leaves gone in one day, quickly inspect your tomatoes and pluck these guys. They are voracious eaters and can destroy a plant in a day.

Joe

Garden Update - July 27, 2011

Well hello out there to everyone interested in the garden. Here is a quick update on where we are in regards to it. (I promise, I took the pictures the other night and I will update this with pictures tonight.)

Better Boy Tomatoes are still producing. However, with the heat some of the tomatoes are rather small. They still taste good though. I think I will be getting tomatoes from them until the first frost. (Wow, it is a long time between now and October). I have purchased canning supplies so we will be able to save some of these, even if it is just one pint at a time.

Rutger Tomatoes are still growing. They have produced several flowers and I am expecting any day to see small green tomatoes on them. I am actually glad these guys continue to grow, although slowly. I have supplemented the soil around them with compost and fresh grass clippings to aid in their growth.

Cherry Tomato - The Ferry Morse Large Fruited Cherry tomato plant is doing well and has 4 small green tomatoes on it. These tomatoes are supposed to grow to about 1"-2" in diameter. Perfect for a snack or in a salad. I am looking forward to these guys. The Bonnie Plant Hearty Cherry is also growing well and has put out its first "string" of tomatoes. I am looking forward to those as well.

Bradley Tomato - These are the three in the back. One of the three is putting flowers out. Abby helped me water them some last night and it was really cute. I hope these do really well because these will be the first ones that I am going to save the seeds for next year. I am really anxious for these to produce. I am thinking about halfway through August I will start to have these.

Mystery Tomato (?) - The small tomato plant I bought at Walmart for $0.50. Is doing well and has several small flower buds on it. I am interested to see what type of tomato this is. The plant card only said tomato and that it was grown at a nursery for Walmart in Alabama. Needless to say, this will just add more to the tomato pile.

Clemson Okra - I have now gotten three okra off the plants I have. They are blossoming and producing more little okra everyday. Soon we will have lots of okra and I will have to pickle some. Probably looking at next weekend on this or maybe the weekend after.

Marketmore Cucumbers - These little guys are starting to grow. I have several flowers and several small cucumbers but none that are growing yet. May be a few more days until I see some of these guys. I did make the mistake on these guys by not staking them. Need to make sure I don't do that in the future.

Isaac's Pumpkin - The pumpkin is growing slowly. I think tonight I am going to mulch it with some compost to get it some more nutrients. I did however, notice that it has two flowers on it. Hopefully, it will grow a little more and start setting some female flowers.

Overall, I would say that the garden has been a success this year and has produced much more than my little plot did last year. I am learning quite a bit and remembering even more from when I was younger. I plan on in the coming weeks beginning the prepping of plots for next year's garden which will be even larger than this year's. It is rather neat to see what God's creation can do with the proper nurturing.

Garden Update

Well since it has been awhile since I have updated this. I am assuming at least some of the four people that follow this blog would be interested in knowing how the garden is doing. Well, I guess first off we should highlight some subtractions.

The Fordhook Zucchini's have ran their course and were decimated by the vine borers and aphids. Of the five plants I started with, I am only down to the one small one that never did anything. It is starting to grow and has shot up several flower buds. Maybe here in the near future I will have some more zucchini from this one.

In the meantime, the Grey Zucchini are really starting to grow and do well. I hope to start getting some zucchini off them in the near future. I have three of those.

The Better Boy Tomatoes are doing great! I have to invest in some jars this week so we can start canning them. I have already lost 1 tomato because we had more than I could eat. Don't want to lose anymore. They look like they are going to be producing pretty steady for the rest of the year. I have about 10 pounds of tomatoes right now in process (they are still green and growing) and there are more added everyday. The plants themselves are about 5 feet tall and I am having to tie up new branches about every other day off them. We ought to be doing pretty well on tomatoes.

Speaking of tomatoes, I do have 3 other types that are also doing well. I should start getting Cherry tomatoes here soon. I have 1 tomato right now that is on the vine with several flower buds going on them. I have been pruning them in recent weeks to encourage some more height growth before they start putting out tomatoes. I will have to stake these before too long and then there will be more tomatoes I have to can.

The Rutgers that Isaac picked out are also about three weeks away from setting tomatoes. They too, have been blooming but I have been pruning them as well to encourage growth. I will be staking them before too long and then there will be even more tomatoes.

The Bradley tomatoes, the ones I jokingly refer to as the Back 40 Tomatoes, are also doing well. Two of the three are doing better than the small one. I have also had to prune these guys to promote growth. Hopefully by late August, early September, these will be doing well.

We are about to start in on Okra. All of the okra plants are putting our flowers and small pods. I will probably harvest my first okra tonight. But I am assuming here in about week I will be pickling okra as well.

Surprisingly I have 2 garlic plants going. I noticed this the other day when I was looking at the Grey Zucchinis. The stalks are about 6 inches tall I don't think these guys will do very well since I planted them at the wrong time but it is neat to know that you can buy garlic from the store, use what you need, than plant the rest. Who knows, next year I may never have to buy garlic again.

Anyway, garden is doing well and I am planning a large expansion for next year.

Joe

Grey Zucchini Update

July 11, 2011 -

I planted the three seedlings this weekend in one of the small 40" x 40" beds. I refined the soil with plenty of composted material and then worked in to a loose consistency. The fourth seedling never popped up. So I have a 75% germination rate on those.

They have been in their bed since Friday and are doing well. We had some rain here recently that really helped them out.

Hopefully we will start getting some zucchini off these guys in a few weeks, because my largest producer of the Fordhook Zucchini will be pulled today or tomorrow. The worms got it. I know it is sad but I still have some more to go before the all get pulled and it will also make room for my herbs that are going to need some space.

joe