Peas are Planted

My daughter and I planted Cascadia peas a few days ago.  I moved them to a new location, so hopefully they'll do as well as before.  The bed is one that hasn't been successful in the past, but I dug in a bag of steer manure, a bag of yard waste compost, a bunch of peat, some bonemeal, and a few handfuls of pelleted fertilizer.  How could the peas not be happy with all that?

We planted three packets of peas, first dampened and tossed with inoculant.  They should be up any day now!  Cascadia grow the best for me.  We eat them as pods and as shell peas.  They grow abut 3' high, and are pretty self-supporting, but I do provide trellises for them.  It makes it easier for me.  I only plant peas from Territorial Seed.  I have planted other brands, but they aren't as productive.  

54rt

"Frosty" the Frost Peach

I know, not very original calling a Frost Peach "Frosty."  Not nearly as clever as calling the apple tree "Dale," but he's dead and chipped for compost by now, so we move on to, if not bigger, better (as in healthier) things.  Enter "Frosty."

I researched peaches and found either a Frost or an Oregon Curl Free would be the healthiest, and I need all the help I can get keeping fruit trees healthy.  I have kept my eyes open for Frost since the bare root selections showed up a few weeks ago.  One nursery had a potted one for some outrageous price like $50, another source wouldn't have them until March 20 (too late for bare root), but low and behold Flowerland in Central Point had them!  I drove right over in the rain and got one!  $22, not a bad price.  My son and I got it right into the ground, or raised bed in this case.  The nurseryman said a raised bed was a good idea for a peach anyway, since they like good drainage.   Nice to know, since I don't have good drainage without raised beds!  He showed me where to prune it if I wanted to keep it lower and branched out too. 

Frost Peach - March 3, 2014 - Edward the Goldendoodle sauntering by...

top I pruned off per nurseryman's instructions 3-5-14

"Frosty" the Frost Peach 3-5-14 (the green grass is misleading... under it is swampy soil!)

How Many Should I Plant? a basic guide for vegetable planting

I had way too many tomatoes last summer.  Too many to eat fresh.  Too many to can.  Too many to give away.  I love tomatoes, but I just planted way too many!  But, green beans... I could have used double the harvest.  Part of that was due to a nearly complete crop failure in one of my garden boxes.

If you ever wondered, "How many should I plant?" I put together this list of common home garden vegetables that I like to help both of us!  Remember, if you love, love, love a variety, plant more of it!  These figures are based on the gardener wanting a harvest a few times per week for fresh eating, not canning. 

Beans (green) - 8 plants per person.  I grew mostly pole beans last year, but am planting only bush beans this year.  I find they are more reliable in my yard. They can also be tucked into most any empty space in the garden. I like to grow them in the holes in my cinder block beds!  Just make sure to water them more frequently than if they were in a bed. I will be devoting an entire 4x8 raised bed to bush beans, for eating, and freezing. 

Jade bush bean growing in cinder block hole -  July 2013

Carrots - 30 plants per person.  Sounds like a lot, but plant them in succession, every 3 weeks is good, so you don't have 90 carrots ready to harvest all at once for a family of three!  Remember you can eat the small carrots you pull when you thin them.  I found a terrific new recipe the other day for teeny carrots, which includes the tops!
Celery - 5 plants per person.  Harvest an average of 6 stalks per plant.  I have never tried growing celery, but plan to give it a go in a container.
Chard -5 plants should be sufficient for a family of 4.  Harvest the outer leaves and let the others keep growing, you'll have chard all season.
Corn - 15-20 plants per person.  You can replant every 10 days for a continuous harvest.  I love corn! But, corn is not cost affective for me to grow.  When I can buy it 10/$1.00 at the peak of the season, why bother to grow my own?  Did you know that you only get 1 ear per corn plant?  ONE!  Not worth my time or garden space, but suit yourself!
Cucumbers - 4-6 plants per person.  I grow lemon cucumbers on a trellis.  I plant 6 for the two family members who like them, and always have plenty.

lemon cucumbers - -August -2013

Eggplant - 1-2 plants per person.  Unless you plan on cooking many eggplant dishes over the summer, you won't need a lot of plants.  My one plant would ripen 3 fruits at a time, with 4 harvests over the summer.

Dusky eggplant - July 2013

Lettuce - This is a hard one!  Do you like a lot of salads, or just want a leaf or two for sandwiches?  I suggest you plant 4 plants per person, and plant 4 more in succession every 2 weeks. I love the mixed lettuces, and pull up the baby plants to make a colorful salad.

mixed lettuce - April 2013

Melons - 1 or 2 plants per person. Most melons produce 2 or 3 fruits per plant.  I won't be growing melons this year. 
Peas - The more the merrier in my family!  Plant lots, 30 per person isn't excessive.  I plant only Cascadia snap peas.  We eat the small pods, as well as letting some mature for shell peas.  I will be planting my peas later today, in a 4x4 raised bed. 

Cascadia pea - May 2013

Peppers - 2 plants per person.  I like California Wonder.  I don't use a lot of peppers, so I will be planting 2 for my family. 
Pumpkins -  1 or 2 plants per person should be fine.  Ask yourself what you will be using the pumpkins for when you choose a variety.  Cinderella is wonderful for eating/freezing, but not so suitable for carving into Jack-o-lanterns.  Cinderella seeds cost more, but the walls are thick so there is more food value to them.

Cinderella pumpkins - September 2012 (grown in manure bags)

Spinach - 10 plants per person, plant every week for a continuous harvest. I do not have success with spinach! 
Squash (summer or winter) -  1 -2 plants per person.  Plant more winter squash if you plan to store it for winter use.  My family does not like summer squash, so I do not grow it. I grow winter squash only to use in pumpkin recipes.  Last year my squash were all volunteers in the compost heap!  I have high hopes for the same this year. 

acorn squash - August 2013

Tomatoes - for fresh, slicing use plant 1 plant per person.  Of course, if you can plant many more of a suitable canning variety.  I will be planting a Sungold cherry, an Ace, and a Yellow Brandywine (keeping my fingers crossed I can find one).  Those three are the ones I have found to be the most productive, and most importantly, the most flavorful. 

Sungold cherry tomato - July 2013

Planting the right number of plants is rather like The Three Bears.  "Too much!"  "Too little!"  Hopefully this year I have figured out just how many plants will be "Just right!" 

Signs of Spring

Yes, there are signs of Spring!

blueberry

boysenberry

daffodils

 raspberry

flowering quince

forsythia

Winter Doldrums

I guess it's the winter doldrums literally, if we take it to mean a lack of wind. But, I just mean inactivity in general, particularly in the garden areas. 

It's cold. It's foggy.  It's wet.  It's no fun to be out in the garden, and there's nothing much to do even if I do go out.  So, there's little going on.

I did manage to cut out the bamboo choking the forsythia (which is getting buds!).  Never... never... never plant bamboo in the ground. Keep that stuff contained!  I didn't plant it, it came with the house. 

Fortunately the heavy freezes last month seems to have killed back some of it. 

My son and I (mostly my son, although I was instrumental in steadying the ladder) cut a lot of dead or ugly branches off the leaning tree.  It looks better, so I don't think it needs to come down completely.  If the neighbor's want the two dead ones on their side off, they are welcome to do it!
Tomorrow the trash will finally take away the last of the branches.  Then I can start removing the junipers from the front yard. Oh, the transplanting of the iris to that area may have to wait.  I probably need to have new windows installed (water is forming between the windows and the storm windows, and apparently going right down into the wood, causing the paint to peel all the way down to bare boards) and I don't want the workers to trample them.  I've never owned a house before.  It sure is one thing after another, isn't it?  

At least I can plan the spring garden.  Seed catalogs have already started to appear in the mail.  I also need to buy another blueberry bush, as well as transplant the ones I have into larger containers. Then, the family put to a vote what kind of fruit tree to plant to replace poor Dale.  Peach won.  That means a Frost peach or an Oregon Curl Free peach, as I have childhood memories of peach leaf curl on my father's trees.  Frost and Oregon Curl Free are curl resistant, if not proof.  I'd still like an apple some day. 

While I long for a sunny day, we really need some rainy ones.  My back-back yard is usually underwater this time of year, but is only damp from foggy mornings.  Nice for now, bad for summer drought possibilities. 

The Death of Dale and Recovering from the Snow

Dale ("It's a Braeburn") had to be cut down.  The flat-headed borers got the best of him.  Best to quit while they were ahead and contact the Master Gardeners to see what they suggest.

* Can I replant in the same raised bed?
* Can I prevent the same thing from happening (since it's hard to get rid of them once they dig in)?
* Are plum trees any healthier? 

My neighbor has plums and she doesn't do anything to them, but gets piles of plums.  I get an apple tree, prune it, spray it, baby it, cover it's tiny apples in individual nylon socks, etc. and I get no apples (coddling moth larvae) and borers.

I sniffled a little.  Poor Dale.  He was my first fruit tree.

Dale in better days - spring 2013

His former bed - Boo and his ever loving tennis ball

 The stupid snow (I took to kicking it and calling it "stupid snow") is gone!  Oh, a teeny bit lingering here and there, but not enough to bother with!  Thanks to last night's rain!  After it melted I expected to find more dead plants than I did.   Most everything survived just fine.  The tender mints are coming back already.

spearmint

lemon balm

The aster looked completely dead, but the cold seems to have triggered a growth spurt.

aster

I am worried about the two azaleas against the house.  In hindsight (the kind of sight that is 20/20) I should have moved it under the carport or somewhere sheltered.  I don't care for the color of the leaves or their appearance.

I'll really miss them if they don't make it.  They were left here by the former owner of the house, and bloom so pretty in the spring. 

SNOW!

We got snow yesterday!  Lots and lots of snow!  (Well, maybe not "lots" to you, but "lots" to Southern Oregon!)

Enough to make a real snowman... you can't tell by the photo, but he is about 4' tall.  He has the traditional carrot nose; the other embellishments are wood chips.  And my scarf.  And I think my Santa hat.

I didn't know enough about them to realize you really do roll the balls around the yard to make them bigger!  It really works that way!

the herb garden

raised bed