Its been such a mild January so far, and dry. Makes me feel that spring is near. While inspecting the greenhouse this morning I discovered that the fuchsias overwintering there are starting to sprout new growth tips. How exciting is that. The majority of potted herbs are still alive though they don’t look so great, except for the Italian parsley. They look good. The plants are from last year’s sowing and I have had leaves to use all winter up to now. I do notice however that they are getting some pretty strong, upright shoots in the center. They will probably go to seed soon and that will be that for the parsley.
The grass is trying to take the garden back. I hope I can get out there soon to dig it out before it overtakes everything. The leeks from last spring are good size and still alive. Not sure if they are usable. They’ve been a bit limp since the big freeze. I’ll try to pull some today and see how they are.
- To save tomato seeds, crush tomatoes and let them ferment in a bucket three days. The seeds will sink to the bottom. Pour everything else off, rinse seeds and dry them.
- To harvest squash seeds, harvest squash when it is ripe and hard. Wait one month and then cut it open and scrape out the seeds. Rinse pulp away and dry seeds well.
- To save lettuce seeds, wait until lettuces go to seed, put a pillowcase over seed head and shake off seeds.
- To save bean seeds, harvest bean pods, dry them and pull seeds out.
- Store all very dry seeds in cool or cold, dry conditions. Freeze or refrigerate seeds with packets of silica gel or powdered milk to keep them dry. The cooler you keep seeds, the longer they will last—4 to 8 years. Heat destroys them.
The weather has taken such a turn. I was imagining what the native Americans might have called a weather change such as this and the above came to mind. Today’s balmy 54 degrees feels very much like spring after the temperatures in the teens we experienced just last week. I wonder if the trees and plants are coming back to life in a false start. I’m sure the cold weather will return again soon, but in the meanwhile all is mild. Hopefully the grass will grow a bit and help feed the cows and sheep again, that would be nice.
After a week of very cold weather we saw our first snow of the season last weekend. A typical transition from cold, dry weather back to the normal rain usually collides in snowflakes around here. Roads were a bit icy this morning but nothing to really worry about. Not that the forcast is promising much warmth. We may very well see more freezing conditions at night as the week progresses.
December 10 – 
Temperatures this morning fell to 16 degrees F. That’s the coldest its been all year at least as far as I can remember. It has gotten progressively colder over the past few days, each morning getting colder than the previous by a few degrees. The barn is completely frozen up and I’ve been hauling buckets of warm water from the house twice a day for the sheep and horses, exhausting!
The vegetable garden looks so sad. The Swiss Chard has wilted away as well as the young red leaf lettuce plants that were just coming up from the fall planting. Even the fall kale has colapsed. The leeks look bad and have wilted down too. It doesn’t looks like anything can withstand such extreme cold.
In the green house I have a few seedlings, still in trays. The lettuce starts have died but the arugula, endive, kale and turnips still look ok. I’ve been running a milkhouse heater at night to try to minimize the damage. Its not keeping it above freezing but it is raising the temperature about 15 to 20 degrees. The days have been beautiful and sunny raising the green house temperature into the low 70’s. My potted herbs still look good. I’ve been able to harvest Italian parsley, rosemary and cilantro but the fushias are dying back.
The first day of autumn, Sept. 22, has arrived. The weather has been gorgeous, unseasonably warm and dry. Its been dipping down into the 40’s at night and coming back up to nearly 80 in the daytime. We have planted several fall veggies, including broccoli raab, kohlrabi, kale, lettuce and swiss chard. They are all doing great so far. I can hardly believe how quickly the raab and chard came up to harvest size and they’ve been great.
I started more seed last weekend in the greenhouse. Not sure if there is still time but thought I’d give it a try.
I’ve been searching the internet for first frost dates. It would appear that we don’t need to worry too much until October. The likelihood of frost grows stronger as the month progresses. I’ve attached a link to some very interesting weather charts. Also, sounds like the best way to protect plants from frost is to cover them with either burlap or cotton sheets.
Seeding with Gandy Drop Spreader
The area was re-seeded on Sunday September 20. 2009. The forecast is for warm dry weather during the next couple of days, then cloudy and cool.
The ground was moist as rain had fallen during the night time of Friday September 18.
Process…
- Standing weed seeds were burned with propane torch, then mowed.
- Rototilled entire area.
- Rototilled again after a two week rest period.
- Rolled area eith 6 foot water filled roller from Scholton,s Equipment.
- Applied 50# (2 bags) of seed with Gandy spreader set at ~30 on the gage wheel. Used Kubota for lightest weight.
- Rolled area again to press seed into the ground.
Seed…
Horse Pasture from Skagit Farmers
- 28.49% Safe Tall Fescue
- 28.79% Amba Orchardgrass
- 19.97% Timothy
- 19.77% Tivoli Tetraploid Perennial Ryegrass
The corn harvest is nearly done. The wind stom this weekend nearly flattened everything. The first variety was harvested a few weeks ago. The 2nd, Bodacious never produced very much. The ears that were picked were not remarkable. We are harvesting the Golden Jubilee now and it certainly has been the best one. The ears are perfect, large and well formed, flavor is good and the yield is high. Some plants have three ears and most have two. Hopefully I will be able to freeze a few of them for winter use.
So here it is nearly the end of August and it occurs to me that there are still tomatoes I have not yet harvested. Seems peculair to me that they haven’t all had at least some fruit by now.
First on the list of non producers is Early Girl. The plant is huge, large strong stems trying to take over the world but so far just one tasteless tomato several weeks ago. Maybe she just doesn’t like the weather, although the weather has had plenty of hot days and cool days. You’d think there would have been something to please her either way.
Next is Fourth of July. It was a catchy name. I watched two large green fruits hanging there since the plant was purchased at the Master Gardener’s sale. The Rutgers have not done anything this year either, although I take the blame for that since I waited too long to plant them. Liked them too much and wanted a ‘special’ place.
My favorite eating tomato so far has been Italian Heritage. Huge fruits, very meaty (few seeds) and fabulous taste. Only problem with this one is to bring a pruner to cut the fruit from the plant. They are so strongly suspended that they are impossible to break off by hand.
Brandywine has produced a nice tomoto so far. It weighs in at 1lb 14 ozs and measures nearly six inches long. Its like six smaller tomatoes combined.
Sweet Million is still my favorite cherry tomato. I can’t believe the huge clusters of fruit these plants are consistently producing, and they are nice and sweet. They have the best taste of all the grape and cherry tomatoes I’ve tried. The slugs really love them too.
Big surprize has been La Roma. I’ve never grown a roma tomato before and this one has been an excellent producer. The fruit is tasty, plentiful, uniform and great for cooking.
