distractions

I know, it's been quite a while between posts, which I really dislike and promised myself (ha) that I wouldn't do.  I've had an awful distraction this week though.  So awful, that it's even kept me out of the garden most of the week.  It's this.

I'm pretty sure that it's evil, and has taken control of my brain as I've been able to focus on nothing else since I've downloaded it.

It makes this happen....

pretty, but a little too neon pink for my taste

vintage feel = much better

too sunny this day, the colors end up looking kind of blah

this helps

this one is my favorite I've worked on so far

This all, and I haven't even really learned how to use all the tools in the program.  I pretty much want to re-edit every picture I have ever taken.  Any Aperture experts out there want to share any secrets with me?

P.S.  - The garlic has all cured, and I used the first head tonight.  I'm pretty sure I can never go back to supermarket garlic ever again.

glamour shots

I heading north tomorrow to take pictures at several gardens through the Garden Conservancy's Open Days program.  In getting myself organized I found myself looking through a lot of old photos taken by me at scattered locations throughout the northeast.  Just thought I'd share...

today's project

Garlic harvest!

things are heating up in the garden

I got an email from a friend the other day with questions about squash blossoms, is it okay to pick them off and eat them? How do I know if my plant only has "male" blossoms (a common problem)?

So here is the story with squashes, the plants have both male and female flowers.  Both are needed to well - reproduce.

This is what the male flower looks like;

large and showing off (leave it to the males)

 And this is what the female looks like

small and hiding out towards the base of the plant

These are patty pan squash, so the resulting fruit from the liaison between these two flowers will be relatively small.  What's difficult to see is at the base of the female is a teeny tiny squash - just waiting to be fertilized.  Both sets of flowers only open once, so as long as you've got pollinators, nature should well...take it's course. It often happens that the male flowers start blooming before the females, but with some patience, it generally works itself out.  It is possible to hand pollinate with a Q tip, but that takes a ridiculous amount of patience, you think waiting for a pot of water to boil takes forever?  You should see how long you will wait to see one of these flowers bloom.

In terms of picking the blossoms, it's smartest to wait until the day after they bloom, you'll be able to tell the difference I promise.  If you pick them before they do their job, then you definitely will not get any fruit.

Cucumbers behave in the same way

male flowers, with pollinator (note pollinators are not just bees!)

Super magnified female flower, small cucumber already slightly visible

These cucumbers are destined to become pickles, one of my favorite things in life.  Speaking of pickles (and completely off topic, but on my mind) have you ever tried these?

If you like pickles, do yourself a favor and don't buy them.

Hi there

If you are new to my blog, than hi.

I'm notoriously bad at the whole "blogging" protocol thing (no, I don't have a facebook page for my blog, I have enough trouble keeping up with just this) but I'm trying.

So, thank you Jenna for organizing this. I've looked at so many beautiful blogs because of your list, and I'm feeling really inspired.

So welcome new friends,  I hope you come back to visit often.

P.S. I have so much dirt under my fingernails that I've got no business being on the computer right now.  Yikes!

thinning

Never heard of it?  One of the most overlooked, and to me most annoying second to weeding, garden tasks.

Vegetables all need room to grow, right?  Certain vegetables, particularly beets and swiss chard (two of my favorites) often sprout more than one plant out of a seed. Even if you seed to the correct measurements on the pack, i.e. 4 inches apart, etc.  you often have this situation.

Bull's blood beets - 5 seedlings within 3 inches = not going to work

Merlin F1 Hybrid Beets - the weaker/smaller one has to go

The beets then will grow their greens (also delicious) but will form a stunted skinny bulb because it doesn't have enough room under ground.  Same problem with carrots.  The trick with thinning though, is getting just the seedlings you want out.  Sounds easy right?  The problem is the seedlings are so close that it is very difficult to pull one, without dislodging or damaging the one next to it.  Their are two options; 1, be very very careful, and pull slowly requiring a lot of patience 2, use manicure scissors to cut out the seedlings you don't want.  Either way it's a ridiculously tedious job

Do as I say, not as I do...

Have I ever told you about the importance of soil testing?  I don't think I have.  It's one of the first things I learned in Hort school - test your soil, it's a must.  Ask any serious gardeners if they've ever done it, and most haven't.

When I put in my raised beds at our new house last fall, I got the soil mix from a really reliable source (and all around nice guy who was my soil science professor in hort school).  He advised me that I should add nitrogen in the spring, as most of it would leach out over the winter.  Easy enough right?  I followed his directions and in the early spring I added nitrogen, and waited for the soil to warm up enough for planting.  I did not once ever consider soil testing.

Fast forward over the next few weeks and an unusually wet and cold spring.  My vegetables were kind of  limping along.  Peas, and lettuces were doing okay, but the other early crops were having problems.  Carrots, swiss chard and beets were germinating, but not growing.  They weren't growing, but they weren't dying either.  It was my first year with this garden, so I was contemplating, are the drip lines providing enough water?  Or too much?

Then it was time to put in the rest of my transplants, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, and peppers.  Except for a few very hot days, the weather was still very up and down, and wet.  Stuff just wasn't growing.  My tomato plants still looked perfect, but they were the exact same size that they were when I put them in the ground.  Be patient I said to myself, tomatoes like really hot weather, and again I contemplated the drip lines.  Then my 4 inch tall cucumber plants (whose vines can easily grow 4 feet) set flowers.  This all of the sudden seemed to to look like a nutrient issue, right?  But how could it be? I talked the problem through with a couple of friends, and we all had the same conclusion.  I ran to Agway to get a soil testing kit.  In general I think these "home testing" kits are wildly inaccurate, and like to send samples off to the lab at UCONN for testing, but time was of the essence.  Completing the test would at least hopefully give me a general idea of what was going on.

And this is what I saw.....

pH is perfect

Phosphorus is a little low and Potassium is okay, but uh-oh.

No nitrogen at all!!!

Lessons learned; 1-Take your own advice and soil test, 2- trust your gut when it seems like something is going wrong, instead of blaming external forces, 3-I must have the most well drained soil on the planet to lose that much nitrogen.  The fortunate thing in all this is that plants are pretty forgiving and after a heavy dose of blood meal (gross I know, but organic) things are starting to bounce back very nicely.