Soapbox v1.1 - In the Weeds

Alien landscape?

To start this post off, we're going to play a game. The game is this: can you identify what's in the picture to the right? Okay, this might be a bit too easy, but play along anyway. I'll even give you some hints. 

• It's a plant. A plant that I can say with about 99% certainty you have seen before, and that you know its name. 

Hmm... if it wasn't obvious before that hint, it should be pretty obvious now. I'm going to forge ahead regardless.

• The plant was once known for its beauty. It is the subject of many poems and works of art, and entire horticultural societies formed around it to enjoy its beauty and develop new varieties. 

Wait, did it just get a little less obvious? How about these:

• It is one of the most nutritious plants you can grow in your garden. More vitamin A than spinach, more vitamin C than tomatoes, and a great source of iron, calcium and potassium. The entire plant is edible, and it has been known for thousands of years as a healing plant. It was likely brought to North America on the Mayflower specifically for those medicinal benefits.
• The dried, ground root is sold as a coffee substitute at higher prices per pound than prime rib, lobster and swordfish. 
• Speaking of that root, it can reach a depth of 15 feet (4.6 meters) and in pulling nutrients up from that depths aids nearby plants by making the nutrients available. The roots loosen and aerate the soil.

Still confident in your guess? I mean, this wonder plant must be grown everywhere, right? Well, as a matter of fact, it is, though not in the way you might think.

Garden Report v3.1 - Coming Back...

Chive flowers. Does this remind you of a Mario level?

If you look at the time stamps on my posts, you'll notice I haven't been here in a while. But now into my third year of gardening, I have definitely learned for myself the wisdom Ron shared as a comment on my last post. There are no failures in my kind of gardening, only learning experiences. If something doesn't quite grow up the way I want it to, I can always come back and try again next year. Or maybe I can try something completely different.

This bit of gardening wisdom, worked hard for and earned, can hopefully be extended to my blog project as well. Sure, I might post here sporadically, and it's been almost an entire year since my last post, but here I am again, giving it another try. This year, no silly promises of how often I will post. In the end, it's definitely more important for me to be in the garden (weeding, most likely) than it is for me to be sitting here posting. More on my lack of failure after the jump. :)

Garden Report v2.7 - May Rains

So it's been far too long since I actually wrote a blog post for the garden.  May was pretty discouraging, and not much happened, so it was hard to get motivated to write something. Once I got out of the habit, things were blown for a while. Not a great excuse, but it's the truth.

The May garden was very depressing. The seed potatoes I sent away for were cut, cured and planted. They promptly rotted in the ground due to the massive amounts of rain we had. I had planted 12 this year, and whereas last year at least a few survived, this year ever time I dug down to check, they were completely rotted. The garden itself isn't raised at all, and was pretty swampy through the entire month. About the only thing that was successful in May was the garlic, which went happily along as if it weren't mired in the muck.

Day lily

Fortunately, at the end of May, my father-in-law Ron came up and helped us with some non-vegetable landscaping around the front and side of the house where the new driveway created some new beds. Pictures and descriptions of what we put in after the fold.

Garden Report v2.6 - Spring!

Forsythia

The forsythia is blooming!  Which, as near as I can tell according to the folklore, means either that spring is here, or we have three more snows yet.  In western New York, that's probably the same thing.  From what I understand, the essence of those beliefs comes from the fact that the forsythia start blooming due to a general increase in the overall soil temperature.  That's a good sign for me, since the seeds I planted a couple weeks ago don't seem to be doing much.  Only the mesclun mix has really come up.  Hopefully the increase in soil temperature will allow the other seeds to get going.  Read across the fold for the garden update, inside and out, and more pictures.

Garden Report v2.5 - Fall Wrap Up

So, the fall snows have started, and things in the garden are just about...

What?  Follow over the jump to see what I'm talking about.

Garden Report v2.4 - Getting Muddy

So, it only took me 4 weeks to break my promise of a post a week.  In my defense, last weekend I didn't do anything with the gardening.  To make up for it, I'll have two posts this week.  This first one is all of the outside things I finally got to do this week with the nice weather.  Tomorrow or the next day I'll post a short (I think...) update on what's going on with the inside gardening and seed-starting.

Follow past the jump for pictures and the outside update.

Garden Report v2.3 - Peeking Out

[Originally posted 2 April 2011 on a different platform.  Now I'm caught up.]


Not to much to report visually this week, so no photos. Mostly just planted some more seeds. Each type of seed, understandably, has different instructions to follow if you hope for good results. For example, some like to be planted directly outside after the last frost or if the soil temp is high enough, some can be started inside. For the inside varieties, you can't just plant everything at once, and let it all grow together. Since they all grow at different rates, the seeds have to be staggered so that they are of just the right size when the danger of frost has past, and they can be transplanted outdoors. Too small and they won't have enough time in the season to produce; too big and the transplant shock might prevent a decent harvest anyway. And it's likely they don't have enough room in the little pots you started them in.

The way I deal with it, and probably many other people do as well, is to write in my probable last frost date on a calendar. Then I count back and label each week with the number of how many weeks it is to last frost date. Seed packets, and garden books and guides usually tell you how many weeks before frost specific seeds should be started. Mid-winter I establish what I want to plant for the year, and then map out on graph paper where everything will go, paying attention to how much space I need between plants. Once I have a list of plants, it's pretty easy to fill in on the calendar what needs to happen each week. So, each week, I look at the calendar and plant what it tells me to plant.
More detail, and a bonus pic after the jump.