Garden Blog: Garden Notes 2014

2014 Garden

Amended last years tomato soil with dried leaves, organic 3-3-4 Garden Tone, Bone Meal and rabbit manure.

Made new garden soil with equal parts peat moss & compost and half part of perlite. Used this mix in the new raised bed and mixed with last years tomato soil for this years tomatoes.

**LAST FROST 3/12

Fertilized Satsuma and Apple 2/15

TOMATOES

-SWEET 100's - 3 planted 2/15 - plant in orange pail had root ball dipped in rabbit tea - first fruit 4/15 - first harvest 5/18 - MG slow release 10-10-10 in first 2 plants on 6/7

-ROMA - 2 planted 2/15 - plant in black container had root ball dipped in rabbit tea - crushed egg shells in both - first harvest 5/29

-HUSKY CHERRY RED - 4 planted 2/22 - Plants in orange containers had root ball dipped in rabbit tea - first fruit turning orange 5/5 - MG slow release 10-10-10 in first 2 plants on 6/7 - Osmocote 14-14-14 added 6/7

-CELEBRITY - 3 planted 3/1 - plant in orange container had root ball dipped in rabbit tea -first fruit 4/18 - First harvest 5/31

-GRAPE/TAMI G - 3 planted 3/1 - plant in orange container had root ball dipped in rabbit tea - plant in largest container used egg shells around root ball - first fruits 4/17 - first harvest 5/29 - MG slow release 10-10-10 in first 2 plants on 6/7

-BILTMORE - 2 planted 3/7 - Plant in orange container has worm castings mixed in with soil

-SUN SUGAR - 5 planted 3/11 - plants in white buckets have worm castings mixed in with soil - first harvest 5/12 - MG slow release 10-10-10 in first 2 plants on 6/7 - Osmocote 14-14-14 added other 3 plants 6/7

-CHEROKEE PURPLE - 3 planted 3/14 Worm casting used in biggest pot - egg shells used in all 3 - Osmocote 14-14-14 added 6/7

-BLACK KRIM - 2 planted 3/14 - Osmocote 14-14-14 added 6/7

-HEATMASTER, SOLAR FIRE & PHOENIX - planted 5/17 - Osmocote 14-14-14 added 6/7

****Didn't see any benefits from the worm castings. Plants stopped producing around mid July. Next year place plants on east side of the house. Cut the bottom out of a bucket and plant it in the raised bed. Mulch with dried leaves. Use Osmocote slow release fertilizer from the very beginning and side dress with Jobe's or Tomato Tone Organic.

VEGETABLES

-YUKON GOLD POTATOES - Planted half new raised bed 2/15 and other half 2/24 - containers planted 3/1 - planted seed potatoes deep and added soil mix as the plants grew - yield was about 10 - 12 lbs. Raised bed produced lots of small, cracked and rotten tomatoes because of all the rain. Soil was too wet for too long. Containers did much better. Harvested when plants were thinning out and starting to turn yellow. Next year, wait until the plant completely dies off for bigger potatoes.

-PEAS - Planted 2/15 and replanted 3/1 - Plants in the bed on the left did much better. Pulled the pea plants in the bed on the right on 5/17, added one bag of mushroom compost and small amount of rabbit manure and planted cucumber starter plants on west side and seeds on the east side. Final pick 6/7

-BEETS - Planted seeds 2/15 and replanted seeds 3/1 - rectangular container planted 3/18

-ONIONS - Planted bulbs small raised bed 1/20 and raised bed 2/22

-RADISHES - Planted seeds 2/20
first harvest 3/31 - Chinese Rose were very good

-CARROTS - Planted 4/4

-SWEET POTATO (beauregard) - planted 8 slips on 5/17 - Osmocote 14-14-14 added 6/7 - Harvested aprox 15lbs mid/late August.

-CUCUMBER - Burpless hybrid planted 5/17 - National Pickle seeds planted 5/18 - Planted Boston Pickling cucumbers in the north bed 6/13 - first burpless picked 7/2

-SPINELESS OKRA - planted 5/25

-SWEET CORN - Planted two rows of Peaches & Cream 6/13, another planted 6/28 - plants produced ears that were no bigger than 8". Possibly held back by the tree roots in the raised bed.

****Pulled corn stalks on 9/6 and found the bed was FULL of tree roots. Dug and sifted all roots out and amended soil with 4 bags of mushroom compost. Used landscape fabric on the bottom of the bed to try to keep the roots out.

****WINTER GARDEN

-SNOW PEAS - planted in new bed 9/3 - Didn't do well at all. No harvest.

-ARUGULA, BEETS, BRUSSEL SPROUTS, CARROTS, CAULIFLOWER and RADISHES - planted in north bed 9/7/14 - Brussel Sprouts did well but were full of bugs - use Sevin or something similar next year.