Henbogle

So, I still had some sunflower seedlings, and we ran out of mulch hay, so….  This afternoon, Dan, who must be as crazy as I am (and I love him for it!!), helped me plant just a few more things.  The aforementioned sunflower seedlings, and some winter squash seeds, my two favorites, Confection and Butternut.  It’s kind of late, and I’m not going to add row cover, so my chances are slim, but why not?  At least if they survive, they’ll surpress the weeds!

Since I was out there, I gave the leeks, garlic, and peppers a drink of fish and seaweed emulsion.  while fertilizing, I noticed two of the Carmen peppers have peppers!!  Whoo hoo!  I counted 4 peppers all together.

The rest of the pepper plants are looking wan, especially the San Luis Ancho chile peppers, seen on the left.  Both plants have lost some leaves and are looking yellow and frail.  I hope the fertilizer gives them a boost.

We puttered a bit more, beefing up the groundhog prevention strategies, then said our good-byes to the garden.  I’m going to miss it, but I know I will have a fantastic summer.

Tuesday afternoon, Dan and I weeded and mulched the garden with the remnants of straw from the hendome.  I haven’t managed to plant any winter squash, but given my record with the striped cucumber beetle and the cool weather we’ve been experiencing, I probably would have had limited success.  We also spread a lot of mulch hay in the former hen run to keep down the weeds while we are away.  By the end of the summer this should be a fertile scratching ground for new hens, full of bugs and interesting tidbits.

I need to pull the remaining plants in the hoophouse, give it a thorough weeding and lay down more mulch in there, and the garden is as ready as I can get it.  The tomatoes and peppers don’t look particularly happy, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed for a good crop.  At least there are blossoms on the plants.

While the tomatoes and peppers sulk, the newly seeded areas of lawn are thriving in the cool wet weather.  The knotweed zone grass is coming in nice and green, punctuated by the dark reddish spears of emerging knotweed.  Dan has mowed the area twice, and we feel pretty confident that with regular mowing this summer it will stay under control.

Over by the old compost bins, which we removed earlier this summer, the grass is also coming along nicely.  We need to prune this lilac a bit in the fall and I hope spur some new younger growth.  Eventually we hope to build a more permanent lawn tractor storage area for summer use, and build a fence to screen it.

The new blueberry bed, currently planted with annual flowers, is coming along.  Here’s hoping by August this bed will be loaded with flowers!  Actually, I hope it is loaded with flowers even earlier, so Dan’s mom, who will be looking after Henbogle while we are away, can enjoy them.

I did a lot of packing and organizing yesterday, and we did a dry run of packing the car.  It looks like everything will fit and we’ll still be able to see out the rear window.  Preparing to not work is a lot of work.

Although the tomatoes and peppers are sulking, and probably ripe for a love affair with Late Blight, the flower gardens and newly planted grass are looking happier.

The shade garden planted in 2009 under the flowering crab is looking great.  I need to move some things around, but in general it is coming along fabulously, looking lush, cool and shady, a nice respite from the sun on hot days.

We are still expanding that bed to the far side of the flowering crab.  We worked on it a bit last summer, which unfortunately I did not blog about thus have no records of when/what I planted, but it is coming along.

Two weekends ago we laid more cardboard down to deter some of the more persistent weeds, and covered the cardboard with shredded leaves from last fall.  We’ll let things grow this summer, and next year we’ll need to move things around a bit.  Some plants are being crowded, like the Japanese Painted Fern in the above photo, others are not happy with the additional sunshine they receive with the major limb removed after Hurricane Irene damaged it.

On the whole  the shade garden is looking good, I am really pleased with how it turned out.  The soil in that area is lovely, a tribute to the value of compost, worms, cardboard and shredded leaves.

Between Saturday and Monday morning, Henbogle got 6 3/4 inches of rain, with more on Monday and Tuesday.  Yuk.  At one point, there was a duck pond in the large enclosed chicken run, and the paths around the garden were Class II paddling.   We’ve had rain every day since Saturday, but it finally appears to be clearing up.  This serves as a good reminder that in my location, raised beds are a necessity.

The peppers and tomatoes may not be thriving, but they are hanging in there. The leeks appear to be enjoying the cool wet weather.  The looked a little rough when I planted them, but they are looking good now and putting on some growth.  I need to get them mulched before departure day (next week!  EEK!!)

The garlic (behind the leeks) looks wonderful, I’m sad I won’t be here to enjoy some green garlic and fresh garlic.  I will fertilize with some seaweed fertilizer one more time, this weekend I hope.  The shallots have grown well, but are looking a bit flattened by the rain.  I hope they perk up a bit and grow some more; I’ll hit them with seaweed fertilizer too.  Last year I harvested the shallots in the first week of July.

The rest of the garden is so very wet I don’t think we’ll be doing much else to it except pulling a few weeds and mulching.  If the top layer dries out I’ll add compost and fertilize, otherwise, nothing.  I hope to get a few squash planted, and mulched.  I’ll throw a row cover over it and hope for the best.  It is mostly something to provide ground cover anyway.

The rain has been good for the newly seeded patches of lawn.  I’ll report on that soon.

With heavy rain in the forecast, I managed to plant my peppers and tomatoes early (5:30!) this morning.  I planted 3 each of Speckled Roman and Cherokee Purple; 3 Martha Washington, after the mysterious loss of one plant; 1 Pineapple, because they are delicious; and 2 Sungold Cherries, because I could.  MIA are the Rose tomatoes I thought I started.

I also planted my peppers, 3 Baby Bells; 2 Early Jalapeno, 2 Tiburon Anchos; 2 San Luis Anchos; 3 Joe E. Parker Numex; and 3 Carmen.  I need to put tomato cages over the peppers and I’d like to get floating row cover over them for the next couple of weeks, but it isn’t looking likely.

I think I’ll be extraordinarily lucky if Late Blight doesn’t get the tomatoes after the mild winter.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!