I Need To Post More Often...

As I intend to use this blog as a "progress record" to improve on production for next year I certainly need to post more often.

This is a photo of yesterday's morning harvest.

It includes Pak Choi, Tom Thumb lettuce, spinach, Tokyo Cross turnips, French Breakfast radishes and Champion Radishes which are absolutely huge.

The Tom Thumb lettuce is perfect for our household. I pick the heads whole and rinse them and keep them in a large bag in the refrigerator. Crisp, no hard white ridges and we simply pull off leaves as we need them for sandwiches, salads, etc..

My Red Rover radishes were a total failure. I pulled the two short rows and will not be planting them again.







This is Bed No. 3 of the open bed area. In the foreground are the Tokyo Cross turnips. You can then see the Pak Choi and Spinach with the leeks at the end. Also planted in this bed are carrots, green onions and a Heat Wave salad mix.

The Pak Choi in this bed will be all harvested by July 5th as will the turnip and spinich. I will then place in a row of parsnips, two more rows of green onions and a row of Tom Thumb.

We are already sending greens to the neighbors and I have been amazed at how much even one bed can produce.

One of our neighbors, who is a very seasoned gardener said he had never seen this much produce so early out of a garden in this area. Whilst I am sure that is not accurate we did take it as a compliment.


These are our two bean poles. Planted with Fortex and Kentucky Wonder. I spent soooo much time fretting this spring about how slow the Fortex was to germinate and show and they have now well overtaken the Kentucky Wonder in progress. This photograph was taken just a few days ago and the Fortex is now over half way up its bands. The Kentucky Wonder must have felt shamed as it is catching bands and beginning to reach up.

We interplanted in the small open area of this space Leeks and Onion which are doing fine. Not brilliant, but coming along as expected.


The Snow Pea pot is in full bloom and already forming pods. They have absolutely thrived this year and I don't think that I will ever grow them in a garden bed again.




I spent much of today transplanting Broccoli and Cabbage.

One of the lessons I learned this year was that my brassicas do better in the fence beds. The soil in the open beds is too loose and they simply require firmer stuff. They have done well and are of good size but the lack of firmness in the soil means that they have the potential of weakness at the stem.

Also, other than the peas which are well and firmly trellised, tall plants such as the Broccoli capture too much wind in the open beds. Part of this wind tunnel effect may be due to the fact that we removed the scrub pines at the other end of the garden and as the fruit trees placed there mature it may be partially resolved but for the next few years if its tall into the Pot Farm or Fence Beds it goes.

Finally, a photo of Richard's fountain with the new Weeping Cherry tree just put in. The Cherry will gain quite a bit more volume and will become taller and is a perfect replacement for the messy pine that was there before.

Are You Kidding??? Frost Warning!?

 I'm used to Denver "springs" and a late frost or two but July 14?? We received word today that a frost warning has been issued for our area.

The Pot Farm is now dressed in black as are the raised beds.

I truly don't think this is going to be much of a problem but better to be safe than sorry....and I have several tender seedlings in the fence bed area that I will still worry about.

Fingers crossed.

Big Change on the Garden End.

 The far opposite from the Veg area in the garden proper we have a lovely patio with a fire pit. It has been a problem area since our purchase.

First, the firepit needs to be modified and built up so that it is not just a hole in the ground.

Most importantly the five trees lining this area are what I refer to as "scrub" pines. The look mangy and dry.

Another negative is that they drop their long needles constantly. Trying to keep a garden area underneath looking tidy and pleasant is simply a chore.

They were planted by the previous owners who wished for a quick growing barrier between the neighbors line of sight into this part of the garden but I'd rather live with some exposure for a few years than continue with this status.


Sooooo......

This is how the area looks now. The five offending pine trees have been removed and we will be making landscaping choices over the next few days. There are some lovely large stones in the area and I'm sure we will have no problem developing a scheme that is productive, welcoming and makes one wish to spend time here during the wonderful days of summer and autumn.

Harvesting, Small but Nice

We returned from a five day visit to the Denver area to find things progressing nicely.

 A LOT more green evident in the planters. My peas are still not growing as tall as I would expect though they appear to be as healthy as can be. Luckily if not a success this time there is still time for replanting but this has me puzzled.

 I've planted a short row of Autumn Torch. A chinese cabbage hybrid that has more than exceeded my expectations. A few of these will be cooked for tomorrow's dinner.

I am learning it pays to be adventurous with my seed exploring. Many other cultures have wonderful finds that whilst not "stand bys" here in the States are delicious and productive.

 This is a photo of my Tokyo Cross turnips. They are doing very well and I'm cautiously optimistic that I may have found a replacement for the seeds I used in the U.K.. These will be picked when they are a little larger than two inches across. I use the greens stir fried with a bit of onion, lean ham, a touch of vinegar and olive oil.

 The most mature row of Pak Choi is doing well. They are harvested "baby" sized and I have several rows in production throughout the garden beds. This easy to grow veg (when harvesting baby sized) is wonderful in soups, salads, stir fries and grilled.

 Our lettuce rows are starting to produce. These are Tom Thumbs and will be harvested throughout the summer, fall and early winter. The space left in this row after harvesting is simply filled with more seeds so there is always more growing.

These are nice when used for salads, sandwiches, etc., and also are very pretty picked and prepped whole and then served with toppings and dressing as an individual salad.

The weather here has produced a few days of very good heat and we now are experiencing a few cooler days with some nice rainfalls. So far I'm pretty excited about what gardening here in Idaho Falls.

Weeding of beds started today but I was rained out! Time to finish tomorrow but raised beds and pots make it sooooooooooo much easier.

Bees are busy!

A few photos of some of the flowers blooming in the main garden at the moment. The bees are loving this.

Our First REALLY Warm Weekend.

Wow, we asked for warm and we certainly have received it.

The garden is loving the extra heat and some seeds that were taking forever are finally peeking through....even my "Early Wonder" Beets which I had re-named "Wonder if they will ever come up".

The photo on the right shows two new Currant bushes that Richard brought home yesterday. One is White, the other Red so that will give us one of each color for the moment.

Richard has been spending the weekend battling with removing some truly obnoxious ornamental grasses. By now I think he feels towards them what he feels towards the Russians.

Still left to show are my yellow tomatoes, second pot of snow peas, more pak choi, spinich, brussel sprouts and parsnips, Richard's marigolds and nasturtiums. Patience is a virtue..

We will be traveling to Denver for part of this week. Will be interesting to see what changes occur whilst we are gone.

Back to the garden.

Cloudy and relaxing....

Today was a day to weed, plant a few short rows of extra spinich and turnips, and just wait for things to start appearing.

To the left is the rhubarb that we planted last year. Its doing very well and should turn into a very produce stand for years to come.

Richard laughed at me as I would stroll around the veg area from time to time today looking for seedlings. I was rewarded with turnips in one of the "wall" planters and a few nasturtiums peeking through where I planted them between my raspberries.

It is supposed to be getting warmer over the next few days which would be wonderful as this cool weather does little to excite growth in most of the young plants.

This is the row of built in planters that were here when we purchased the home.

They are wonderful as a "its already here" bonus but you will notice that there is no space alloted for walking back and being able to work the planters. Just a solid row of raised beds. Planting here has to be planned for access and placing those plants that you will not have to work for awhile or will harvest late into the most difficult areas to get to.

Eventually these will have to be altered into a more gardener friendly scheme.

This is one of the beds in the regular garden that Richard and I have moved on to. It is completed with selected plantings and new mulch. Every day we try to get at least a few more feet done in this area now that the veg garden is set and progress is being made.

At the opposite end of our garden from the veg area is this. A lovely patio with firepit. Unfortunately it is surrounded by scrubby pines that are simply messy. We are having them removed and where the garden "V"s behind them will be landscaped and brought back into the scheme for the rest of the garden. The Fire Pit will be built up with a small wall so its not just a hole in the ground.

Little D likes relaxing behind these pines during the day in the warmer weather so we will incorporate a Dog House for her in the landscaping plan. Work starts on this end as soon as possible.

If we continue to make a bit of progress each day by the end of the season we hope to have a relatively low maintenance bit of Heaven in Idaho Falls.