WR's 2015 Spring Garden

[ErnieCopp]

Sam,
I should keep plantiing and harvesting records, but I got sick of paper work many years ago. I may just be confused with all the unusual hot and cold spells we have had the last year or so. According to the maturity days shown on one of the melon seed packets, Melons should be ripe almost a month earlier this year than last.

Ernie

 

[whistech]

Mr. Ranch, looks like your onions are twice as big as mine.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Finished the tilling the last Sunday. Today I finished forming the rows & got all the stakes installed, so tomorrow I can finally get started on the planting. I also cut all the strips of plastic garden tape that I will need to tie the plants up as I go along.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Planted the cucumbers, spaghetti squash, green beans seeds, then the poblano & jalapeno peppers.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Planted both varieties of corn & 25% (10/40) of the tomatoes.

 

[Rahab222]

WOWZEEEEEEEE!

 

[w_r_ranch]

Planted the last 30 tomatoes & watered everything.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Made the rows & planted all the melons (watermelons, honeydews & ogens).

Replanted the sweet corn that didn't germinate & replanted 1 of the tomatoes that died from shock.

Planted the all the marigolds (garden & flowerbeds).

Applied granular 13-13-13 to the garden as I'm sure all the rain has leached everything out of the root zones...

 

[w_r_ranch]

A bad storm hit us about 1530 hrs... No telling how much rain fell as it was coming down sideways. Also had quarter-sized hail, driven by 60 MPH winds. From the back porch I can see a 3' diameter oak tree uprooted & the potatoes, onions & garlic in the garden are flatten/shredded. I'm not sure about the rest of it... I'm too PO'd to go down to the garden right now... GRRRR.

 

[wolffman]

A bad storm hit us about 1530 hrs... No telling how much rain fell as it was coming down sideways. Also had quarter-sized hail, driven by 60 MPH winds. From the back porch I can see a 3' diameter oak tree uprooted & the potatoes, onions & garlic in the garden are flatten/shredded. I'm not sure about the rest of it... I'm too PO'd to go down to the garden right now... GRRRR.

Nooo! Hate to hear it Ranch. Don't give up hope, those garlic and onions are pretty tough. The potatoes are still young and you should be able to trim the broken stuff and then pull dirt up on them.

 

[Rahab222]

It's 12:30 a.m., Friday, and we've been getting nailed since around 7 p.m. in Houston. We're under tornado warnings and there's been lots of damage in the area from hail. The wind here laid my first planted box of potatoes completed over on their side. That's why I hilled them last weekend and put up the third board on all my potato beds and staked the tallest ones. It rained most of Thursday in Houston and we're in for thunderstorms today, which I guess is what's coming through how. Prayerfully, we'll both weather this storm.

 

[whistech]

Mr. Ranch, I'm sure sorry to hear about the hail storm at your place. We have been having heavy rain , lighting and thunder since about 1 am, but so far no hail. I hope your garden can survive the hail.

 

[Rahab222]

W.R., Okay, the lake on the side of my house that leads to the garden gate receded enough for me to go back and check the garden on Sunday, which was a beautiful, sun-filled day. The whole time I was back there, I could hear the thunder boomers coming in for Sunday night. The third box of Yukon potatoes I planted were all laying on their sides, also. I had enough stakes to stake all of these, and had already staked some in the first box a week ago for the same reason. I need to get some more stakes to do my second box and more in the first. My potato plants are five feet tall from all the rain we've been having and the manure. I need to get some more manure and bedding mix to rehill all of these - again. Some are starting to have flowers. I already have three boards/box depth, but I think I'm going to have to add a fourth board for support and to protect the potatoes from the wind. Everything else seemed to come out fine, as the hail all over the Houston area missed us. I have SO much work to do this weekend. I think Houston is going to have two days of sun and then the rain returns. With all this rain, the snails, slugs, pill bugs and ants are EVERYWHERE and they are spraying for mosquitoes. I'm going to purchase some Amdro this weekend while I'm out and put it out on the grass in the backyard. Nothing is staying dry long enough to use the diatamaceous earth. I also need to replace the coffee grounds around my plants, as I am finding slugs 4' - 6' long. I also uncovered my strawberries I treated with liquid Sevin two weeks ago. Some berries were fine, but several had rotted from not being picked for two weeks and I still had snails sucking on some and tons of pill bugs. I retreated these with Sevin and put the frost cloth back on to keep the pollinators out of it. I have never seen so many nasty bugs and slugs in my yard - front and the garden area - as I have this year. I am crushing every one I see. They are all enjoying the dampness from all the rain and I would call it an infestation at this point. It sounds like you may have had a tornado come through your area. Lots of friends in Houston have posted on Facebook all the hail they got in their areas of Houston - some as big as baseballs. I thank God we didn't get this. I don't know if I could start completely over again with my garden. I've still got lots to plant and I'm trying to figure out where to put it. I wish I have of made my boxes 8' x 4' instead of 4' x 4' since I have to leave three feet between boxes to get my wheelbarrow, etc. through. Live an learn, I guess. Everybody hang in there!

 

[Rahab222]

WR; Why do you sidedress you tomatoes with Ironite? How much?

 

[w_r_ranch]

To provide iron, which is essential for photosynthesis... especially after all the rain we've had. I use a handful.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Tied up the tomatoes & peppers again. Looks like more bad weather coming...

Severe thunderstorms will be capable of producing strong wind, large hail, heavy rain, and the possibility of tornadoes into the evening.

Harvested the rest of the onions (before they rot) & laid them out on the picnic tables in the party barn. No 'lunkers' this year.

 

[ErnieCopp]

No blank space to post on "What... so will post here. We are getting some rain here today, but nothing like you folk get. If it continues all day we may wind up with 1/4 inch. Just barely enough to keep me from spraying the tomatoes that need some phosphorous.

Ernie

 

[Rahab222]

WR; So I just buy straight Ironite? You just put it down as a side dressing or you stir it into the dirt? I do need to fertilize my tomatoes this weekend and put more coffee grounds around each plant after all the rain. Tomorrow's supposed to bring thunderstorms and hail, so I'm praying the hail and high winds away. It's hard to fertilize anything when the gully washers keep washing it all away. I'm assuming the onions you're pulling now were planted last fall?

 

[w_r_ranch]

WR; So I just buy straight Ironite? You just put it down as a side dressing or you stir it into the dirt?

Yes & yes.

 

[w_r_ranch]

The garden has been in for a month now & like most folks here in Texas, we have started slowly due to the cooler/wetter/windy weather during the month of April... We also had the worst hail storm come through in mid-April, which damaged about 50% of the garden (luckily all the melons had yet to germinate). We trimmed off all the damage, applied additional fertilizer to the plants & are patiently waiting for nature to 'do her thing'. We still need to do some weeding & then mulch, although little by little we are getting caught up...

Here are some pictures thus far....

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The asparagus bed is continuing to fill in & we have high hopes for ever increasing yields for years to come.

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The onions suffered the worst from the storms as the wind broke them all over. Couple that with the ground being extremely wet, I decided it was best to pull them early rather than risk losing them to rot. They are now 'curing' on the picnic tables in the party barn.

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The potatoes are recovering & should be ready to harvest around Memorial Day.

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The tomatoes have recovered nicely... I'm really glad that I tied them up as I planted them!!!

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Amazingly the 'Lorz' garlic weathered the storms much better than I expected (unlike the onions)!!! I pulled a couple to check the bulb size & to see if the wet conditions where causing any fungus issues, but they look good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!!

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Both varieties of corn are still small due to the weather, although they are starting to kick in this past week...

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Both varieties of green beans are doing well & have started running.

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To Be Continued...

 

[w_r_ranch]

Both varieties of peppers are slowly growing, which is to be expected at this point since they are hot weather lovers.

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The 3 varieties of melons are really just starting, as the where planted 2 weeks ago... They too are heat lovers so it's just a matter of time.

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There are other things growing, but I'll cover them in the next installment.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Your garden looks much better than i expected from all the bad weather you have had. Your watermelons are about the same size as my direct planted ones, my cantaloupe type melons, also direct planted, are similar or smaller, but i was surprised to see a couple of blossoms on one of themm this morning. You seem to be in a good position to have another wonderful garden this year.

I hope Wolff's and others recover, too.

Ernie

 

[whistech]

Mr. Ranch, I have been wondering how your asparagus is doing and from your picture it looks great. Your whole garden looks wonderful!!

 

[Rahab222]

WR; Your garden looks like a dream... The rain is supposed to come back to Houston all this week, but we've had the weekend to dry out. The hardest thing to believe is that everything needs rain/watering again; at least it appears that way on the surface. I've got tomatoes on my plants and peppers about the size of your jalapenos in the photo. My potatoes need to be restaked again, as they are leaning over again from all the wind and rain. Couldn't work in the garden this weekend, but my cousin sponsored another fish fry on Saturday in conjunction with the running of the Kentucky Derby. We had a blast!

 

[wolffman]

Ranch, looks like you made a fine recovery there. I wish my potatoes looked like yours. I won't be posting pics of mine lol. The good news is that I can see potatoes breaking soil all over the place now. Looks like we should get a pretty good harvest, but the plants look like heck.