One less woodchuck

I've managed to get the woodchuck.  He won't be menacing my garden anymore.

So far, I lost broccoli, peas, celery, zucchini, one branch of cuccuzi squash, brussels sprouts and all my peaches.  At least with the peaches they didn't eat the tree.

I made the fence higher, added a low electric fence. 

Yesterday I put chicken wire over the entrance they had dug under the shed.  That delayed the woodchuck enough that I could get 'em.

The witch is dead, the witch is dead!

I'm hoping there isn't another

Woodchucks deserve to die

I added to the fence but apparently it wasn't enough.  They must be climbing the gates which are not floppy.

Last night we had a broccoli sprig that had gone to yellow flower.  I debated cutting another one,but decided it could go 1 more day.

*sigh* Tonight, the broccoli was just green sticks.

Tonight, I ordered an electric fence.  18" fiberglass posts. I'll have 3 strands at 4", 5", 6" and that'll do the rabbits too.  It is designed to be used with an existing fence.  I should've done this 2 years sooner.

On a good note, last night my daughter and I put more seed in.  I reseeded where some of the lettuce, beets and carrots didn't germinate. And added another short row. Succession planting. I should do this every 2 weeks or so.

My daughter did flowers. I pointed her at a section of virgin plastic & showed her how to poke a hole in and put a few seeds in.  I have no idea what she put in but there's some of every flower.

Then I showed her the tomato rows.  In between the plants I like to put basil.  I showed her where the basil didn't germinate and had her put in seed.  She liked doing it herself.  Tonight I found the packet still out, but that's ok.

Next time we'll put in more beans.

I'll be getting some photos soon.  The garden has doubled in size.  Real gates.  Row cover on cukes & zukes.

Good news and bad news

I got a late start to the season and ended up planting on Memorial Day.  The last frost was 4 weeks earlier.

My Zucchini seeds never sprouted so I had to get transplants.  Gardeners can do that.  Farmers, not so much.  I'll have to do the same for cucumbers too.

On the good front, I ate a broccoli sprout and a pea pod - also planted late :-(

On the bad, woodchucks love celery.  My fence is a bit low in one spot (fixed in the rain tonight) and she came in and followed the fence through the peas.  Some were muched.  The broccoli was munched a bit.  Then past the swiss chard for a bite & then mowed the celery down.

So now I know what to bait the trap with....

Bottom Heater

To give credit where its due, I got the heater idea/plan from The Door Garden.  Thanks!

I built mine a year or 2 ago.  My seedling setup is on a wire rack.  Here's the build up.

 This is the bottom.  I used a piece of damaged blueboard (drywall) from the local hardware store.  It's cheaper that way.  The rope light was full retail.  They come with clips that screw into the  blueboard.  You can use tywraps with a screw holder.  The bits of wood for support are scraps from old stakes.

I recommend laying out the rope for even distribution.  If you use tywraps like I did, leave them loose so you can slide things around.

I didn't use insulation between my rows.  The bits of wood are to provide support.  I do have wood all around the edges.

I'm wondering if filling the inside with sand would provide some thermal mass and keep the temp more constant.






I got a roll of cheap, ugly vinyl linoleum and glued it to the top of the blueboard.  You want to keep water off it. 

I wonder if a really thick layer of paint might work.  But I drag trays of seedling across it so I'd be concerned with wear.  Obviously, I don't care about looks!

 A scrap of chip board from the hardware store's scrap pile for a few $$ instead of $20.  It was even painted.

I used screws to hold it to the scraps of wood at 4 corners.  I might want to remove it to replace the rope or take photos :-)

 You can see the heater on my rack in these pictures.  The heater is heavy (30-40 lbs?)

I notched the end of one heater to fit between the rack legs.  On the other one, the wood on the sides sticks out around the legs.  That might be easier.

 The lights are the cheapest 4' fluorescent shop lights from the store.  Standard 40 watt, not "plant" bulbs.  The tubes are also standard size so I can switch to plant bulbs later if I wish.

I felt I had spent enough on lighting for one year.

 Hanging from a cheap chain from the rack shelf above it.  The lights came with an S hook.  I can attach it to different links in the chain to adjust height.

Note the red bungie cord on the lights.  It's inside the chain, going from post to post.  By sliding it down on top of the lights, it prevents swaying.

 I used plastic 16 oz. cups for the seedlings and never fertilized.  I can stuff lots of them into these coca-cola crates.  The crates let me move a chunk of cups together instead of one by one.  This is important for moving the seedlings around.  You will want to be able to adjust things.

The lights are close to the cups.  I run them a few inches over the plants as they grow.  Moving the plants around can even up the growing.

The heaters are attached to Hydro Farm digital controllers.  They're inexpensive and have a temperature probe to put in the soil of one of your seedlings.  The digital lets you see it's set to a specific point.  They handle up to 1000 watts.  I think both the rope lights I have are under that so I probably could have used one.

I have a power strip tywrapped to the rack.  One end goes to a timer, all the lights go in the strip.  Lights will be on 12-16 hours per day.

The heater controllers go into another strip.

The whole rack is on wheels.  If I had it in the garage, I could wheel the whole thing outside for hardening off.  Unfortunately, my basement has two steps down.  If I want to put it outside, I have to take it apart :-(  It's good that I have those coca-cola crates.

Getting ready for spring

It's seed ordering time!

I've ordered my potatoes and seeds from Fedco Seeds and the seeds have arrived.  We're not doing a CSA share this year, so I have some more variety.  Much more carrots, beets and lettuces.  Fewer tomatoes... maybe.  More beans then last year.

I've got an idea to put the plastic & cloth down faster.  I'm going to use 5' of strapping with a hole through it for a 1' spike (rebar) to hold it down.   It should be faster & hold better then landscape staples.

For some winter relief, here's some pics of the garden bunny that samples my veggies.  I was able to get within a few feet.

The bunnies run through the holes in the fence w/o stopping.  Luckily, they don't eat much.

2010 Summary

Tomatoes

• Matt's Wild Cherry - tiny, early, sweet.  They get overripe, are hard not to pull the skin off when you pick so it's hard to save for a day.  Give it lots of space because it overgrew a plant 18" away.  I got tired of it, but the kids love it
• Sungold Cherry - a standard.  Grow it again
• Yellow Bell cherry - tasty, but plant withered away.
• Black Cherry - tastes like bigger cherries. Hard to tell when ripe.  Planting again
• Garden Peach - a novelty for looking/feeling like a peach.  tastes ok.  Grows well
• Rose de Berne - large, ugly with good taste
• Tiffen Mennonite - large, ugly good taste.  Grew well
• Beefsteak - large, ugly, not many
• Brandywine - Not too many, overwhemed
• Speckled Roman plum - good eating, prolific, tasty.  Grow more
• San Marzano - the standard plum.  Not as many as Speckled roman.  Tiny, determinite

• Little Leaf Cuke - succumed to cucumber beetles.
• Waltham Butternut - Always good.  Need to add buttercup
• Trombocini - summer sqauash in summer that's better then zuccini.  Winter squash at the end of the season.  Slightly stringy.  Sprawls.  Worth growing.
• Need to grow zuccini 
• French Breakfast Radishes - did nothing to ward off squash bugs.  Grows fast!  Good stir fried w/ garlic & onion.  Have lots of seed.

Beans

• Canelinni - got enough to plant next year.  Really need to trellis.
• Romano type - need to plant & trellis.  Missed them this year
• Dragon beans - enough to plant, but need to trellis
• Bush beans - didn't pick, but the rabbit liked them.

• We love Peas.  I planted 4 types & can't remember which types but can remember which ones I liked best :-(  We didn't shell any so a sugar snap or snow type is best
• Carrots did ok.  I need to plant many more

• Beets - chiogga does well & I like both bulbs and leaves
• Beets - Detroit red did well
• Brussel sprouts disappointed.  Defintely a 2nd season
• Broccoli disappointed.  Nothing until fall.  Bolts faster then we can pick
• Cauliflower disappointed - also fall
• Fairytale eggplant - did well.  we didn't pick too well.
• Rocket Arugula - easy, and excellent
• Mustard Green Wave - easy, but too sharp
• Fennel - Awesome.  Need to plant again
• Lettuce - need to figure out how to do.  Something near the house & away from woodchucks.
• Need to do a cabbage
• Celery - not so good on growing from seed, but transplants do well.
• Peppers - used transplants, did well
• Watermelon was great!
• Muskmelon did ok.  We can do melons!
• Basil - started easily from seed.  Need to do a non-peppery type.
• Dill did well & I saved lots of seed.  No cukes for pickles though
• Sweet corn - very tasty.  Lots of borer worms.
• Broadbeans/Fava did great.   Good soil conditioner.  No a large yield, but early season.  It'd be good for 1st season, then plan beets or carrots or cauliflower.

Potato

• I didn't get a good yield this year, probably due to lack of watering.  And fingerlings.
• Will do a large All Blue with water next year.  In-laws love the ones I did for them & they had a better yield.

Flowers

• Zinnias did well. Want to do more
• I wasn't able to get Marigold seeds going
• I need to do more flowers.  Rows.
• Never got going with sunflowers.  The tiny muliticluster ones I did do we just a seedhead.

Frost is coming and fall is running out

With the plastic mulch, drip irrigation and covering walkways there's not any weeding or watering to do.  At the beginning & end of the season, there's always lots to do.

One of the in-law plots had cukes, potato and tomato.  The tomatoes were not yielding that much.  So I pulled it all up, coiled the drip irrigation up and rototilled any remaining weeds up.  I wasn't able to put plastic down so there were lots of weeds!  I'm hoping some weed seeds will germinate and I can rototill again before they go to seed.

In my own garden I've dug up the potato plot & I rototilled it.  I'm planning on planting garlic there, but I'm worried about having enough sun.

I pulled up all the squash, cuke, watermelon, radish, corn and beans.  Tomatoes are still up except some vines that had died.  I've left the irrigation out to try to germinate some weed seeds.  After the frost I'll pull tomatoes and till everything in. All the walkway covering is off and much of the plastic.

I haven't touched the new area to the right.  I've decided it's too close to the current plot.  I'm thinking of a new plot to the left with a nice wide walkway between the two.

There's still more to do.  I didn't get enough dry beans to eat, but certainly enough to plant.  If I want a good amount of beans, I need to plant much more with a real trellis.  Rabbits get after it if it's low, but once it's high enough, pods can form higher.

I've gotten lots of dill seed for next year.  I started squishing some tomatoes for the seed.  Speckled Roman, San Marazano, Sun Gold, Black Cherry, Yellow Bell and a nice sized small red tomato that I can't id.  I was very happy with the Speckled Roman.