WHATS ON THE 2012 GARDEN MENU....

STRAWBERRIES

HIGH BUSH BLUEBERRIES

GOOSEBERRIES

RED LAKE CURRANTS

RED POTATOES

GARLIC

ZUCCHINI

SWISS CHARD

 EARLY FROST PEAS

BOSTON CRUNCH LETTUCE

RHUBARB

PLUS MORE... TO COME

CURRANT EVENTS

Red lake Currants (Ribes rubrum)
Red Lake Currants are considered to be the best red cultivar.   The later ripening, large bright red fruist are borne in long stemmed clusters, which make for easy harvesting.   Plants are vigorous, stron and usuaully more productive than other cultivars.

Fertilizing

Stable manure is the best fertilizer for currants

Young plantings do not need much manure.  After the plants start bearing fruits, apply ½ bushel of manure per bush annually.

If stable manure is not available, use green manure or mulch to maintain humus supply.  Commericial fetilizers can be substituted for manure to supply nutrients.  Apply approx  100 to 150 grams  of 10-10-10, or 12-12-12 per bush annually.  Apply late in fall or early in spring before growth starts.

Pruning

Prune when the plants are dormant in the late winter or very early in the spring before growth begins. The plants are bush-like, varying in height from 2-5 feet. They bear some fruit near the base of 1-year-old wood and produce the most and best fruit on spurs of 2- and 3-year-old canes.  At the end of the first season, remove all but 6 or 8 of the most vigorous shoots. At the end of the second season, leave 4 or 5 1-year shoots and 3 or 4 2-year canes. At the end of the third year, keep 3 or 4 canes each of 1-, 2-, and 3-year old wood. This will make a total of 9-12 canes on each plant.

Canes 4 years and older produce very little fruit. Pruning mature plants, therefore, should consist of thinning out the old “fruited-out” canes and he weakest of the young canes.  Cut them off at ground level. Remove canes over 3 years old, and by thinning, select the proper kind and number of younger canes to maintain a productive bush. If properly pruned, a dormant bush will have 6-10 bearing canes plus 3 or 4 new ones coming along to replace the oldest each year.

Seaweed

Seaweed is a wonderful vegetable garden fertilizer, a great soil builder and an excellent compost activator. Seaweed contains complex carbohydrates and these really get the soil humming with life. This has two really important functions for the garden, firstly it stimulates the microbial fungi in the soil and these assist plants in their uptake of nutrients, they also assist in defending plants from soil born diseases. So adding a seaweed fertilizer helps crop protection, and plant nutrition.

It can be either applied to the soil as a mulch (although it will tend to break down very quickly) or can be added to the compost heap, where it is an excellent activator.^[2] In terms of soil structure it does not add a great deal of bulk, but its jelly like alginate content helps to bind soil crumbs together, and it contains all soil nutrients (0.3% N, 0.1% P, 1.0% K, plus a full range of trace elements) and amino acids.

THE DIRT ABOUT THE DIRT

Specific Plant Nutritional Requirements

Rhubarb - soil ph range 6 to 6.8
                  high nitrogen requirement
                  5-10-10 fertilizer in the spring

 

Grapes - soil ph  range 5. to 6.
              Well Drained Soil
             10-10-10 fertilizer in spring

High Bush Blueberries - soil ph  range 4.2 to 5
                                        Well drained soil..  lots of organic matter
                                        nitrogen, Potassium and phosphorus

 

October 21- Garlic should be planted

Everyone got their garlic in the ground...???

love the clean fall light

Best Time of the Year

Happy Day

Up on the roof

Bailey....

PUTTING THE GARLIC TO BED

I am a hobbit--

Nothing better then fresh turned earth...   Garlic planting time

Jungle

swatch of color

and yet more

SO many....

Hosts of Hosta 2

Hosts of Hosta

Tigridia ....sweeeet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigridia

Finally...  they start to bloom

and another...

Hummingbird Moth 2

FINALLY CAPTURE Macroglossum stellatarum ON FILM

Hummingbird Moth

Boom Grapes

The Grapes seem to have found their spot

Garden Royalty

Monarda-  Bee Balm

VISITORS- ACTIAS LUNA

Lunar Moth stopover

new color

My Cistern by the Sea

Finally my roof has been put to use..   too much need for just my well

soil reclamation project

logs  filled with garden cuttings.  layered with seaweed and covered with mulch from previous years..  with potatoes on top

And of contentment

My garden has taught me that the only constant in the world is change.  But in every moment of change,  we gain a perspective of our nature in choas

and of perspective

it is always there

and of nature

....  chaos in chaos is just chaos.  Order is always only temporty,, dynamics when the two meet are FABULOUS

and of chaos....

LIke many, when I was a pup,  a glorious summer day consisted of placing some natural floatable item in a flow of water,  following infinity in the possibility of it movements .  In nature everything exists in a state of flux,, a seemingly random spontaneous chaos cycling through life, growth, death and decay   and when we are given the chance to allow order to temporarily exist within the chaos....

Poppies,, and Chives

and water features

Had some spare pond liner lying around so built two gurggling ponds to add to the scene

Hundreds of lilies

Summer color

Orange Day lilies and yellow Irises

Summer has Arrived

Although the Spring has been cold and wet,, the garden is happy as a clam
At this point the garden is a blast of bright yellow from an old variety of early blooming day lilies that smell something like Lilacs,  Lupins add the purple  with Yellow/purple tongued beared irises.   A lone allium  and  those pink things--   which sadly , I have to admit I have no idea what they are called...

new arrivals 3

first arrivals

April 10- cold spring- first arrivals