The Dawg Patch

[PlainJane]

@GoDawgs I finally received 3 seed catalogs in a day - Richters, Territorial and Johnny’s.
Highlighter at the ready tonight!

[GoDawgs]

OK, I finally finished the initial cut at the garden plan. Of course, things change but this is what I hope will happen. The map is to scale, each square being 1 square foot. Beds are color coded as to family (brassicas in pink,legumes in gold, etc), which helps me when I'm trying to get everything rotated. Below each bed there are notes as to what was in that bed for the past several years; another rotation help. Giant jigsaw puzzle. There's no room for anything else! Oh yeah... where have I heard that before?

There's a set of two pallets where I'm going to try okra in four #15 buckets as the nematodes in the garden itself keep killing them. They're ultra sensitive to 'todes. Then I added a new row of four pallets for any "overflow". Looks like the garden stretcher is at work again. LOL!

It looks like you'll have to click on each half to be able to see a larger version for easier reading.

25.01.03 Initial Garden Plan pg1.png

25.01.03 Plan, Initial Garden pg2.png

[PlainJane]

Where will the watermelon go?

[GoDawgs]

Where will the watermelon go?

Ah! The watermelon. There's a 12'x40' area dug out about 1' deep about 20' below the bottom end of the garden. There used to be an old mobile home there when I bought the place and that area is what was left when the owner moved the home out. Over time I've tossed extra soil and a ton of leaves in the half we use for watermelon and potatoes. The other half got filled with gravel. I was going to put up a greenhouse over the gravel part but it never happened. We now call it the Virtual Greenhouse.

This is a pic of that area. About 20' to the right is the bottom of the garden where the corn is on the map. Last spring I planted three Hansen's Bush Cherries across the near end of the bed. I staked tomato cages around the small whips to keep the deer from nibbling on them.

24.02.27 Hansen cherries planted, potato bed.JPG

[JayneR13]

Ah, garden planning season! Planning is very important, isn't it? Keeping notes over time helps us get to know our space; where the deer munch, the 'todes live, and light patterns among other things. If we can't have our hands in dirt, we'll dream of dirt on paper! Your plans are so incredibly detailed too. Wow!

[GoDawgs]

Well, it keeps me outta the road. LOL! I'm a hopeless spreadsheet junkie.

Here's the beginning of the grow list for spring. Anything that will be started in January is highlighted in pink. When that's done, I'll clear that and make pink everything I need to start in February. It keeps me from getting lost in the fog of battle. It also reminds me of which beds I need to get ready for those upcoming plantings for direct sowing or transplants. No pink on the pic below as there's nothing for January there. The orange color is stuff for fall. Unseen outside the right edge is one more column for notes.

You'll have to click on the image to be able to read it.

25.01.04 Grow List, Spring 2025.png

Hmmm, I just remembered... I ordered my seeds New Years Eve and there are a few items I will have to add to the above list. They also might or might not have to be shoehorned into the map. Keeping in mind that the best battle plan is only good until the first engagement...

[GoDawgs]

I usually grow a few "toys" every year but just one this year. It is the Chinese Shawo Fruit Radish from Baker Creek:
https://www.rareseeds.com/radish-chinese-shawo-fruit

One other toy from S. Exp. is Sherwood Red okra, supposedly a quick 53 DTM and "low mucosity". I wonder if it really does have a lower slime factor. LOL!

There are a few things in the "try and compare" category:

I'm trying a few short rows of Top Hat Corn from Southern Exposure because it's supposed to have good cold soil emergence. We'll see. I used to use Spring Treat for the early planting but it's not readily available any more. Am doing a total of five 18' rows of corn so the first 5' or so of each row will be this Top Hat planted a bit early and Silver Queen planted in the rest of each row about 2-3 weeks later.

Castle Dome and Rasmus broccolis will be new to me. I believe it was @AZGardener who mentioned that Castle Dome F1 is the grower's updated version of my long time performer Packman F1 so I'll try it and see since Packman is getting hard to find. The Rasmus description says it is supposedly one of the best OPs out there. Never heard of it until this year. We'll see. I've yet to find an OP broc that grows worth a toot here. I want to be able to save seed. On that note, there will be another trial of the F2 Packman seed I collected in '23. The ones I grew last spring got mangled by the hurricane so it wasn't a fair trial. They get a do-over and I'll collect F3 seed from them.

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday I started some scallion seed indoors. That's the first thing started for this year's garden so off we go. I was going to sow some daikon radish seed in the garden on Saturday but I think the soil is going to be way too cold. If so that will get delayed a bit. In a few weeks I'll start the brassica sets.

The last of four seed orders arrived on Monday as well as a Seed Treasures catalog. I saw a few new-to-me things to try. There's always something, isn't there? The order was sent in yesterday. I swear it's the LAST order for spring. Here's what I'm getting:

Cauliflower, White Flag Self-Blanching - I've never heard of this one. It's supposed to be very self-wrapping and prefers fall's cooler weather. So fall it will be. 75-80 days

Kohlrabi, Azure Star - Another purple. I'm already growing Kolibri and Blauerspeck (both purple and they grow great) but I've never heard of this one either, sooooo.....

Pepper, Sonora Mild - mild heat

Pepper, Striped Sugar Rush Peach - I've already bought seeds of regular Sugar Rush for this year but this is supposed to be a bit different, 3' tall instead of 2' tall. No narrative about any difference in taste. We'll see.

Tomato, Goat Bag - Supposedly a very large past tomato, meaty, few seeds. Always willing to try another paste, especially one with a name like Goat Bag!

[pepperhead212]

I had good luck with Azure Star kohlrabi - not quite as fast or large as kolibri, but almost. I got it from one of those European companies, and got a huge amount of seeds, but eventually, in 6 or 7 years, they stopped germinating, and I stopped ordering from the source, because of shipping costs. I never grew it next to Blauerspeck, which I got a few years later - I will be interested in seeing how you find them growing next to each other. And I found that this year it seems the kolibri is being dropped, and only available on ebay, or something similar, selling old seeds for more, price gouging, as the market will allow. Hopefully, someone else will start breeding the hybrid again, like happened with Ichiban and Neon eggplants, when they dropped from the market.

[PlainJane]

I’ve seen goat bag around in some forum comments, I think. Might have been the old site. Supposed to be really big and kind of lumpy. Everything sounds interesting!

[GoDawgs]

The cold wave is about here. Maybe just 2" of snow this afternoon/evening. I don't care about snow. No big deal. It's ice that does the damage and I'm glad there's none of that in the forecast! Still, tomorrow and Thursday with highs in the 30's and lows around 17.

Last winter I figured that the garlic would be OK in 17 but they got really burned. This year lesson learned so I covered them this morning. Nothing elaborate; leaves piled over the plants (up about 6-8" and young), topped with old bed sheets folded lengthwise to 4 thicknesses with bricks along the edge to hold them in place. If it snows that will be more insulation.

Indoors the micro tomatoes are setting fruit. This is Red Robin:

25.01.21 Red Robin micro.JPG

A new one for me is Krasny Milo; it has one about ready to try.

25.01.21 Krasny Milo micro.JPG

The one growing the fastest is also new to me, Golden Hour. It's taller but holding at 18" and not as compact as the other two. The fruit has a bit of striping. A pot of basil I started and my cheap little Christmas poinsettia keep it company.

25.01.21 Golden Hour micro and basil.JPG

25.01.21 Golden Hour micro.JPG

There's a pot of chili on the stove. Just right for the weather and ready to eat. Gotta go get some NOW!

[JayneR13]

I'm worried about my garlic too due to the very subzero temperatures. I do have both patches covered in leaves but there's no snow pack to really insulate them! All I can do is hope.

Your tomatoes are lovely! I so wish I could do that better here, but even my hydroponics tomatoes grow very slowly. When it's -33 outside it's cold Everywhere!

[GoDawgs]

So here's the garlic, a row on each side of the bed, a leaf/pinestraw mix over each row, covered with folded old bedsheets and held down with bricks.

25.01.22 Garlic bed covered on each side.JPG

This morning I checked on the garlic, pulling a sheet back a little and pulling the leaves aside to take a peek. The garlic looked happy!

25.01.22 Garlic protection pulled back.JPG

After covering it back up, on the way back to the house I spied the wild daffs poking up through the snow. They come up this time every year.

25.01.22 Wild daffs up through the snow.JPG

This afternoon I started the first round of broccoli and cabbage, a four-pack of each so I guess the 2025 gardening effort is officially under way. In two weeks I'll do the same again. Also started the first two 6-packs of mustard with a lot more later. I'm going to plug in mustard plants down the middle of the pea, bean and cuke rows later to see if they'll help knock back the nematodes. I was supposed to sow some daikon radish out in the garden but the soil is too cold even for radishes. Maybe next week.

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday morning the local feed & seed had their potato sets in so I got just 12 Yukon Golds. As I've mentioned before potatoes don't hold long term here and there are still plenty of canned potatoes from last year so just one row will be planted this year. I like to get small sets and plant the whole thing. These cost me $1.28; I think she said .60/lb.

25.01.30 Yukon Gold potato sets.JPG

In the afternoon Pickles and I removed the cardboard that had been put over the potato/watermelon patch last spring to keep weeds down. Of course, some always find their way up through any small spaces between pieces. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the cardboard had just composted under the leaves that had been layered over the cardboard.

That area was rather spongey to walk on and I thought that maybe the cardboard was preventing it from drying out. I didn't want to till it yet so just scratched up the surface with the iron rake to let the air get at the soil. Potatoes will get planted at the end of February.

Meanwhile the first round of broccoli, cabbage and mustard is up and running. Kohlrabi was started yesterday.

25.01.28 Broc, cab and mustard up and running.JPG

[GoDawgs]

It got up to 72 yesterday afternoon. Late afternoon we got about a half inch of rain Good! We need it. Still, the garden sits in naked winter mode, but not for long.

25.01.31 Bare, naked winter garden.JPG

Also yesterday I planted leeks on one side of a bed that already has half a row of garlic on the other side. I planted them in a trench so that over time I can pull soil to them and get some nice white leeks. 15 sets of King Sieg and 22 of Carentan. The dumpy ones at Walmart have maybe 2" of usable white area and they want way too much for just three lousy, skimpy leeks. A waste of money. I'll grow my own, thank you!

25.01.31 Carentan, King Sieg eeks planted today.JPG

The garlic that was covered when the very recent lows were in the low 20's is doing just fine. They'll enjoy low 70's for at least another week.

25.01.31 Garlic doing well.JPG

I also started a 6-pack of arugula. Should be enjoying some in salads now but I completely forgot to start any in the fall.
Better late than never, I guess.

[JayneR13]

How deep are those trenches, and do I see correctly that you're planting seedlings, not seed? Are you hilling them as one does potatoes?

[GoDawgs]

The leek trench is about 5" deep. And yes, I will be pulling soil to them as they grow. I do the same thing with scallions only the trench is about 2-3". Makes nice scallions!

[GoDawgs]

Other than two small cabbages, these are the last plants left from the fall garden. Collards on top and kale below. I'm not sure the kale will grow back. It got pretty frozen in that last cold spell but what's in the pic is what was left after I removed all the frostburned and funky leaves.

25.01.31 Surviving collards, kale.JPG

The side of the garden where there used to be a nice bench, hose holder and work table is still a mess from the hurricane. I salvaged the pieces of the table and set it back up in a different spot. The bench used to be where that big tree root ball is on the left. It is sitting in a different spot just to get it out of the way for now. We might put it in front of the big multistem crape myrtle you can see behind the jugs on the table.The hose holder is a 4x4 post with a cross bar attached to the top so I can loop the hose over it. That got pushed over so now I have to reset it.

25.01.31 Still a mess that needs straightening up.JPG

The 12' wide root ball is now 10' wide. I've been hacking away at the left side now and then and cutting off big roots as they become exposed. The soil is really hard clay and I've found that my warren hoe (triangular shaped) is the best tool for the job. I'm starting to fill the deep hole with garden debris and the soil I'm chipping off. This is an elephant that is going to take awhile to chase off!

25.01.31 Working on left side of rootball.JPG

[CtGrower]

@GoDawgs Your garden is amazing! I've enjoyed reading about it on our cold sub-freezing day! We can only dream of planting right now. I saw that you had tried growing summer squash vertically at one point. Do you do this anymore? I tried vertical growing last year and it was a bit of a pain, but kept the squash off of the ground.

[MissS]

@CtGrower I grew the Patty Pan squash vertically last year and it was a huge success for me. I will never let them sprawl on the ground again. I haven't tried it with any others yet. I did see that Burpee has a yellow summer squash that they bred specifically to grow upright. You might want to take a look at that.