Garden 2012: What I would like to try to grow

I just ordered my 2012 Burpee seed catalog last Sunday and I have been anxiously awaiting its arrival all week even though it will probably come closer to the end of the month.  Even though their catalog is available to view on their website, it just isn't the same as getting to hold a paper catalog that you have to physically turn the pages with your hands rather than click on an arrow icon to make a digital picture change.  Plus, I like to put stars next the the items that I am interested in!

That brings me to this posting's topic: what I am planning to try to grow for 2012.  I have never been a huge fan of following the advice that I should only stick to plants that are bred to grow in my climate.  To me, that is just plain boring and unadventurous.  I already know that I can successfully grow large heirloom tomatoes in cool Western Washington, so why not try something else that "they" say I can't grow? 



Chili peppers!  Don't they look exciting!

 So, in 2012, I am going to try to grow chili peppers!  And yes, I know, they need heat to produce hot chilies, but I am prepared to try my best.  And even if I am only able to produce one pepper that is still green by the end of summer, I will still consider that a success!  I am thinking of trying a mixed seed packet that is offered by Thompson and Morgan that contains chilies that are red, yellow, and orange, as I like variety and different colors.  Rather than grow them directly in the garden, I am planning on keeping them in containers and having them grow on my back deck where they will receive lots of sunlight and a lot of heat that radiates off the back of the house.  I will also place black plastic around the containers and will figure out some other methods along the way. 

I also plan on trying potatoes.  I grew potatoes long ago in Kenmore, WA and had a dissapointing experience as all of my potatoes ended up getting infested with some sort of grub that bored holes and made the tubers inedible.  I am hoping the garden soil here at my rental in Elma, WA does not harbor these pests.  I will find out one way or another.

I have also been toying with the idea of growing some sort of winter squash as well.  The issue with this is that I really don't know what to do with the squash after I harvest it!  I guess I will just need to do some extensive research on recipes that use squash that I will find appetizing enough not to waste what I have grown and produced.  I am aware of all of the soups, pies, and other caserole-type dishes that most people prepare during the fall and winter months that call for winter squash, it's just that I've eaten that stuff all my life and would like to use it differently or...maybe with chilies mixed in?!  Anyway, I've got time to decide on what to do.

As far as other vegetables, I will continue to grow tomatoes, carrots, lettuces, and retry bell peppers and corn.  I may also grow cucumbers and some sort of bean.  Very exciting stuff!

Next post:  Pre-spring preparations.

Winners and Losers of the 2011 garden



Yellow pear tomatoes, one of the winners of 2011.

 So sorry for the long absence from writing to this blog.  Those who know me personally will know and understand exactly what I am talking about.  I was also highly engrossed in writing for Helium, which was having this awesome summer long writing contest, so my time devoted to this blog was taken up by other activities not to mention working outside in the garden during the daylight hours after getting home from work.

Now that December is here, it is a great time to reflect back on what I did during the growing season of 2011 and what worked and did not work for me.  We will start with the winners.

Winner: Tomatoes
I started all of my tomatoes as seed indoors under my grow light and they all did wonderfully.  When it was time to plant them outdoors, I used black plastic to absorb more heat to help the plants grow, flower, and fruit.  I also made an upside-down tomato planter out of a bucket and stuck a seedling in it.  All of my hard work paid off and I was able to enjoy a very nice bounty of heirloom tomatoes! 

Winner: Lettuce planted in container
I filled a large terra cotta pot with potting soil and sprinkled the surface with seed.  After only a week, the seed sprouted and I was able to harvest baby lettuces in 3-4 weeks after that.  I allowed a few to continue to grow into larger heads which were also delicious.  My only issues was trying to manage the watering schedule as the terra cotta pot did dry out near the surface much more quickly than a plastic pot would.  The plants were much more protected from slugs, although I did find a few lurking under the plants during the afternoons when it would warm up during July.

Winner:  Rainbow carrots
I had planted the seed for these carrots back in April.  Because it was a very cool spring, it did take them a while to really get growing.  I did have a few issues with slugs eating the leaves off the crowns of the carrots but they were always able to sprout back up in time.  Harvested some very nice roots in September that were around 7 inches long, a victory after struggling with the rock removal!

And now, the losers of the 2011 garden.

Loser: Bell peppers
It wasn't exactly my fault that the summer was cooler than usual.  The problem was that the cool temperatures were just perfect for a huge army of slugs to grow and destroy things!  In most years, the summer temperatures are high enough that the slugs will not attempt to come out of their hiding places in broad daylight.  This became a problem for me and I quickly ran out of Corry's slug and snail death as a consequence of frequent slug baiting.  When it did get warmer, the slugs waited until exactly twilight to emerge in a huge group that slowly crept toward my garden.  Just like little vampires, they narrowed in on my pepper plants and striped the leaves of one plant at a time.  The next morning, I would find only one plant completely void of all leaves but the others untouched.  The next night, they would target a different plant, and so on until all of my pepper plants were stripped of leaves.  The plants themselves were not dead and did try to put on new growth.  The problem was, by then, it was too late in the season to get any kind of harvest of bell peppers.  Very disappointing indeed.



Here is the corn at the beginning of July.  It started nicely but soon began to struggle.

 Loser:  Red sweet corn
This year, I wanted to try something that was quite foreign to me.  I had never grown corn before and knew there would be challenges.  I planted the corn directly into the ground at the beginning of June and had germination in a week and a half, which is good for Western Washington.  I then realized that the challenge was to try to get the roots of the corn to grow in soil that is chock full of rocks!  I had only removed a few at the time of planting and thought nothing of the consequences of leaving the next layer of rocks under the ground.  Corn needs a lot of soft loamy soil to grow into and this was definitely the least ideal growing condition for it.  As a result, the corn struggled to grow and only reached a height of 18 inches tall at the most.  At the end of August, to my great surprise, all of the plants produced pollen followed by miniature corn ears!  Some of the earns were pollinated and began to swell but then cooler weather set in and the miniature ears were eaten up by the slugs.  I pulled up my tiny corn stalks and examined their tiny root systems.  The proof was in front of my eyes: rocky soils can dwarf certain plants.

Now, based on my results, I have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't work in this garden.  I have decided to try the same crops again for next year but will adjust my methods to see what might work better.  In the words of Dr. Loverine Taylor, my plant genetics professor at WSU, a negative result is still a result.



Next post:  What I will do differently for the plants in 2012 and the new things I will try to grow!

Growing Blueberries

Immature blueberries.

Blueberries are all the rage for home gardens.  They are a great fruit to try as the plants are just small shrubs and there is a huge selection of varieties that will grow  in just about any climate or growing zone.

My row of blueberry plants.

I have four different varieties growing in my garden.  Planting multiple varieties not only helps with pollination but will also give you a staggered harvest rather than getting a lump all at once.  All blueberry plants like well draining soil that is on the acidic side but there are quite a few varieties out there that have been bred to adapt better to alkaline soils.  Below are some photos of some of my blueberry plants. 

This is a a very compact variety of blueberry known as 'Top Hat'.  As you can see, it is loaded with flowers!

This is 'Blue Jay', a standard variety.

'Pink Lemonade', the blueberry that produces pink berries.

'Pink Lemonade' is a variety of blueberry that was bred to produce pink berries.  My small plant did not produce any flowers this year so I will not get to have any of these curiousities in my yogurt.  However, I have had the opportunity to taste them.  Everyone I have talked to says something different but, in my opinion, they taste no different than a regular blue blueberry. 

Bird netting attached to the deck with push pins and held up with sticks!

I have just recently put up some bird netting over the row of blueberry plants in an effort to keep the birds from eating my entire crop (which is what happened last year, 2010).  This is a good idea if you live at a location where there are a lot of birds that frequent your garden for insects and other tasty morsels. 

For more information on 'Pink Lemonade', visit my company's website:  Briggs Plant Propagators
Here are a couple of links of where to purchase 'Pink Lemonade':  Burpee and Unique Plant Shop

For more information on how to keep birds from eating your blueberries:
How to protect blueberries from birds.

Next post:  Growing Strawberries

Planting Corn

Ruby Queen Sweet Corn by Burpee

A moment of honesty:  I have never grown corn before.  This is the first time that I will try to grow corn from seed and hopefully get something from it.  If I do not get any ears, at least I will have decorative dried cornstalks to use as decoration in the fall!  Staying true to my love for unusually colored vegetables, I will be attempting to grow Ruby Queen sweet corn which is a Burpee introduction.  It is supposed to be harvestable after 75 days which means it is a short season variety.  I have always wanted to try to grow this type of sweet corn, mainly because I was highly attracted to the color.  Burpee introduced this variety in their catalog a few years ago and I was happy to see that Walmart carried it in their seed selection.  If I succeed, this corn will definitely put me in a place of high esteem among the gardening community.  Even when I bought the seed at the Walmart checkstand the woman helping me asked if I had ever grown this corn before.  I told her "No, this will be the first time."  She then told me to come back and tell her how it grows if I have success.  That little conversation was enough of a boost to drive me to take on the challenge!

The red kernels.

 As you can see from the photo above, the kernels are a  beautiful red.  According to the seed packet, the corn starts out as a blush red and then matures to a darker red.  I will want to harvest my corn for eating when it appears blush red and will let a few ears mature to dark for decoration and to save as seed for next year's crop, that is, if I like the corn and want to try it again.

Corn planted in 12 spots in three rows.

Using the remaining open area of my vegetable garden bed, I dug up 12 holes and loosened the soil up.  After removing more large rocks and ensuring that the weeds were also removed from the holes, I planted 3 kernels per hole.  The seed packet suggested to make rows rather than holes but I don't have that much space and this is also more of an experiment than anything else.  I chose to plant 3 kernels per hole just in the hopes that something will emerge and the more I plant, the higher the chance of success becomes.  Corn kernels are very dehydrated so I will be watering the kernels once a day while this sudden dry weather is upon us here in Western Washington. 

Recap:  Planted Ruby Queen Sweet Corn on June 15, 2011.  Ears are harvestable in 75 days.
Next post:  Growing Blueberries.

Bell Pepper Update

Potting up individual pepper plants into thier own pots.

 On June 14, 2011, I went ahead and potted up the individual pepper plants that had been growing together in three pots for a month.  Two of the pots had five plants and one had four making my total count come to 14 pepper plants. 


Larger plants went with the basil plants to begin acclimating outside during the day.

 After transplanting, I separated the larger plants form the small ones.  The larger plants will begin the acclimatization process along with the basil plants.  I will plant the peppers in the ground at the end of June.

Smaller plants.

The smaller pepper plants will be kept inside under the grow light in an attempt to grow them up before acclimatization and then planting outside.






Next post:  Planting Corn

How to make an upside down tomato container

All you really need is a bucket with a hole punched out, a paper towel, a tomato plant, and some potting soil.

 If you don't want to shell out money for a Topsy Turvey, it is actually quite easy to make an upside down tomato container of your own with a few things that you may already have around the house.

Carefully thread the tomato plant through the paper towel and hole through the bucket. 

 The first step is to take the paper towel and rip a hole in it.  Carefully thread the tomato plant through the paper towel and then through the hole in the bucket.  The paper towel will help prevent soil from pouring out of the hole and will also help keep the tomato plant in place.

Use chairs or some other way to hold the bucket up if you do not have a helper to hold it up.  The last thing you want is a damaged tomato plant.

 Add the potting soil while the bucket is right side up.  Use a helper or chairs to hold up the bucket so that the tomato plant does not get damaged while the soil is added.

Bucket in place!

 The last step is to water the plant.  You can do this while the bucket is still on the ground or after it is hung up.  Make sure to water it well.  At this point, the excess water will run out through the hole.  This is how it will be and will not affect the tomato plant.  The paper towel will help keep the soil from running out with the water until the tomato plant's stem grows larger and eventually fills the hole.

Use 5 gallon plastic pots as tomato containers.

 Another method is to take black plastic pots that are of 3 or 5 gallon size and make them into hanging containers.  All that needs to be done is to make hanging attachments and punch out a hole for the plants to be threaded through.

Strings attached to hang container.



Tomato plant threaded through container.




Containers being hung up.




Potting soil added to each container.




Watering.




Finished!

 Any type of tomato plant will work in an upside down container.  The important thing to remember is to water the plants more often than upright grown tomato plants in containers.  Because the water is running out next to the stem and the roots are at the top of the container, the roots will dry out much faster.  Another tip is to hang the tomato container in a location where it will receive at least 8 hours of sunlight and to give it an application of water soluable fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro once a week. 

For more information, check out:  How to make an upside down tomato planter

Next post:  Bell Pepper Update.

Tomatoes Planted

Although a few days later than what I originally planned, I was able to plant my tomatoes today!

 I cut into the black tarp with scissors to make a cross which I then pulled apart to dig out the soil.

 Before planting, I removed the lower leaves from the stem.  Tomatoes have the ability to sprout roots from the stem and removing the leaves will help encourage this growth.  I will cover the stem with soil all the way up to where my fingers are holding the plant. The more roots a tomato plant has, the better the plant will grow.

The first tomato plant planted in soil.

All the rest planted and watered. 

If the weather continues to improve, the plants should take off nicely.  I noticed that a few already had flower buds emerging.  This doesn't necessarily mean that they will form fruit, but is a sign that the plants are reaching maturity.

Next post:  Making your own upside down tomato pot.

At long last Sun has arrived!

A sunflower from last year's garden (2010).

 After a very dissapointing week and a half, the sun has finally come out again!  I had been planning on planting my sunflower seeds on May 31, 2011, but that did not happen on account of it being 55 degrees and raining.  Fortunately, the sun came out today and I accomplished some planting.

The seeds I'm planting this year (2011).  Mammoth Grey Stripe and Red Sun, both Ed Hume Seeds.

 I chose to plant two varieties: Mammoth Grey Stripe, which is the classic 10 foot tall sunflower with the huge yellow head, and Red Sun, which is a smaller variety that comes in shades of orange to dark red. 

Note the difference in seed size.  The larger seed are the Mammoth Grey Stripe while the smaller are the Red Sun variety.

 I dug up the soil along the back of my vegetable garden bed next to the rail road ties and removed any weeds that had sprouted since the last weeding.

I planted the seed in the row with one Grey Stripe seed to every five Red Sun seed since there were less of the Grey Stripe seeds and they will grow larger and taller anyway.  I lightly covered the seed with a quarter inch of soil, watered the row with my watering can, and then applied a layer of Corry's Slug and Snail Death to keep the sunflower seedlings protected when they begin to emerge.  Sunflowers seedlings are slug magnets and I have lost many seedlings to slugs over the years because I didn't protect them soon enough.  Slugs will even take down a four inch sunflower plant if given the chance.  So, if the weather prediction is correct, I should see germination in the next week! 

Next post:  Planting the tomato plants in the garden.

For more information on growing sunflowers go to:  Growing Sunflowers

Growing Basil

Genovese basil in the garden 2010.

Basil is one of my favorite herbs.  Thanks to enthusiasts who are most likely chefs as well as gardeners, there is a basil out there for just about every taste you could imagine.  Being an annual, basil grows well as a indoor plant as well as a summer grown garden herb.  Last year, I only grew Genovese basil and thanks to the huge amount of ravenous slugs and cold weather, my little plant did not grow to much larger that what is shown above.


From left to right:  Genovese basil, Spicy Globe (Greek) basil, Siam Queen Thai basil

This year (2011), I am trying three varieties that are pictured above.  Genovese basil is a staple in Italian cuisine and is also the most commonly found variety.  It produces large leaves that have the classic basil flavor.  Spicy Globe, aka Greek basil, is a smaller leaved variety that I have never tried before.  It grows much more compact and the leaves are much more pungent in flavor.  Thai basil is one of my favorites for Asian cooking.  It is very strong tasting and does wonders in dishes with curry and chiles.  The plant itself is also very ornamental with its dark purple stems and darker green leaves.


Planted basil seeds with plastic sandwich bags over the tops.

Using the technique for planting the bell pepper seed, I filled three containers with potting soil and then moistened the soil before planting the seed.  Basil seed is smaller than pepper seed, so I surfaced sowed the seed and very gently pushed the seeds barely into the soil.  I planted 6-7 seeds per container.  My goal is to keep the basil plants in containers rather than eventually planting them in the garden.  As the plants grow, I will pot them up into larger sizes to keep the plants healthy and productive. 

Recap:  Basil seed of three different varieties planted on May 23, 2011.  Estimated time to germination: 5-10 days. 

For more information, read this article:  How to successfully grow basil

Next post:  Growing sunflowers

Growing Lettuce in Containers

Leaf lettuces grown last year (2010).

Today, on May 17, 2011, I decided it was time to get my self going and get my lettuce seed planted.  I love both mixed leaf type varieties and romaine the best and I still had plenty of seed from last year, so it just made sense to grow what I like and save money by using what I already had.


Little Gem from Burpee and Bon Vivant Lettuce blend from Ed Hume Seeds

Both of these lettuces preformed wonderfully for me last year.  I grew them both in the ground so planting and growing them in a container will be something new that I am trying this year.

Terra cotta pot filled with potting soil

My container that I am using is a large terra cotta pot that stands about 18 inches tall and has a 12 inches wide at the top.  I filled it with potting soil and then watered the soil to moisten it.


Planted with seed!

 After moistening the soil, I got the seed of the romaine out and poured a little bit of it in my hand.  I sprinkled the outside rim with the seed and tried my best not to spread it too thick.  With the lettuce blend, I sprinkled the inside portion with that variety.  After planting both varieties, I carefully pushed down the seed into the surface of the soil.  I then watered the seed using the fine mist option on my multi-use watering wand.  Now, it is time to just sit back and wait.  Lettuce seed will germinate in 5-10 days and are much more reliable in cool weather than some other crops that require warmer temperatures. 

For more information, check out this article:  Container gardening: Growing Lettuce

Next post:  Growing basil

Two Month Old Tomato Plants

The seeds that I used, Yellow Pear and Rainbow Heirloom Mix.  Both by Ed Hume Seeds.

On May 9, 2011, I began bringing the tomato plants outdoors during the day to begin their acclimatization to living outside.  The day time temperatures have been in the mid 50s to mid 60s.  The night time temperatures are still below normal for this time of year so I have been bringing them back inside during the night.

Here is how they looked in a photo that I took yesterday on May 14, 2011.  They have grown significantly and are acclimating well.  I am planning on giving them one more week of staying outside during the day and coming inside at night and then leaving them outside both day and night for the rest of the month.  June 1, 2011, is when I plan to plant them outside in the area prepared for them.  Let's hope the weather will improve and I will have continued success!

Next post:  Growing lettuce in containers

Germination Success!

After waiting patiently for what seemed like forever, my carrot seed and bell pepper seed have finally germinated. The long wait was most likely caused by the unseasonably cool temperatures that those of us in Western Washington have been experiencing. Normally, the May temperatures are in the the low to mid 60s with a nighttime low of 45 to 50 degrees. This year, the highs have been in the mid 50s with lows in the high 30s. There have been a few nice days here and there, but nothing consistant.

I discovered these tiny seedlings on May 9th or the 10th earlier this week. The next day, I noticed some slug slime and even caught a small slug in the act of eating one of the seedlings. I have applied a layer of Corey's Slug and Snail Death, which is visible in this photo, to protect the newly emerging seedlings. Slugs are always a huge problem in Western Washington. The ones that like to eat vegetables are non-native species introduced from other countries. Western Washington does have a native slug, called the bananna slug, but it is usually out competed by the non-natives and is usually only found in the temperate rainforests of the Washington Peninsula.

Here are the newly emerged bell pepper seedlings and a very close up shot at the top of this post. I believe their slow germination was also caused by the cooler temperatures. Even though they were started indoors, I did not keep them directly under the grow light until just recently. On May 9th, I began to move the tomato plants outside during the day and was able to place the peppers directly under the lights which provided a sudden increase in temperature. As stated before, peppers need warmth not only to grow but to germinate as well. I found emerging seedlings on May 11th and did not remove the plastic bags until May 13th. This is a neccessary precaution as you don't want the seedlings to suddenly dry out after being in a very humid and warm environment. I usually remove the bags after I see the leaves popping out of the soil.

In review:

Carrot seed planted on April 23, 2011. Carrot seed germinated on May 9, 2011. Approximately 15 days from planting to germination.

Pepper seed planted on April 24, 2011. Pepper seed germinated on May 11, 2011. Approximately 18 days from planting to germination.

Next post: Tomato update

Rhododendron hedge row

Last summer (July 2010), I was given four rhododendrons from a neighbor who no longer wanted them. Wanting to get rid of them as quickly and easily as possible, he simply tied ropes around the trunks of each shrub and pulled them out by tying the rope to the hitch of his truck and yanking them out of the ground with one quick step on the gas.

Fortunately, the plants were large and the ground was dry which enabled my neighbor to pull the plants out of the ground fairly easily with out damaging the root balls or the trunks of each rhododendron.

I planted each one inbetween five existing arborvitaes. This worked out well as I was tired of having to mow inbetween them. To remove the grass easily, I watered the lawn for about 3-4 hours to soften the soil and sod. Digging up sod when the ground is dry is very tiring work which is why I always make sure that the ground is at least moist for the first 2-3 inches that my shovel enters the ground.

Here is what the finished project looked like with all four rhododendrons planted and watered.

Today(May 3, 2011), all four rhododendrons are thriving and one has even begun to bloom! I found out that all four plants are the same variety, called 'Unique'. In the picture at the top, you can see that they are a very pale pink and yellow combination, truly unique!

For more information on how to grow rhododendrons or to make a hedge, visit:

How to plant a rhododendron hedge

How to care for rhododendrons

Next post: Vegetable garden update