Video Update - February 2, 2014

Garden Video Update January 2014

FIRST GARDEN BLOG OF THE NEW YEAR!

Mixing Compost, Garden Soil, Peat Moss and Vermeculite

 Happy New Year to all!  It was a quiet Fall Season for The Ambitious Gardener.   I believe I needed a break as my Spring and Summer crops kept me hopping.  I loved every minute of it of course.  A very prolific growing season, especially for Beans, Japanese Eggplant, Peppers and Tomatoes.  I learned hard lessons on insect control, blight, root rot and the list goes on and on!

Frame for Frost Protection cover

First, a quick summary on my Fall planting:  The Carrot seeds planted months ago are coming along very slowly but they are looking good.  Green Onion and lettuce are coming up also.  There is also a square with radishes that don't seem to be maturing so they may have to come out.  The Romaine lettuce sprouted but never matured either.

The Broccoli produced a few nice heads, maybe harvested twice from 6 plants.  Cauliflower was a disappointment, however, heads did appear but an early hard frost proved too much for them and they stopped growing and basically rotted.  I don't

 think I will try growing Cauliflower again.

My most prolific plants were the peppers.  They just wouldn't stop putting out!  Cowhorns, Red Cherry and Habaneros, had so many of them that I actually did my first canning ever and made hot sauce with the Habenaros. 

Anyway, I am SO ready to prepare the garden for spring planting and spending time outside.  I have started mixing soil, cleaning out beds and making plans for what seeds I will attempt to grow this year.  Since I am SO Ambitious and impatient, I decided to put up frost protection covering four

Frost Protection

 feet in each bed, sixteen squares each.  It may be a bit early for some seeds but I figure if I provide some protection from the elements, I may get lucky.  Putting it together was very easy and inexpensive.  For each 4 x 4 area, I used 2 - 10' 1/2 " PVC pipe and tied them in the center with cable ties.  Super Simple folks!  I used a 10 x 10 sheet of plastic or 6 mil clear tarp and secured it with 4 spring clamps.  Pretty ambitious right?  :)

Tarp is on and clamped

 I am going to try a few new vegetables this year, Potatoes in pots, Kale and possibly artichokes.
My first year, I was very successful with different types of lettuce so I figure Kale should be a breeze and is so good for you!  I've been reading a lot about potatoes and this may be a challenge as I may be starting a bit to early.  Other root crops I'm planting this month are Shallots, Red Onions, yellow onions and garlic.

Spring Clamp to Hold Tarp

 I haven't decided if Melons will be on the list this year or not.  They really take up a lot of room, which I don't have.  Corn is also off the list also, live and learn.  Last year I planted so many tomato plants and had numerous problems with them that I've decided to take it easy this year.  Four plants is the max, in pots not in the beds.

Green Onion growing in Deck pots

Confederate Jasime

Petunia in hanging pot

Carrots

More Carrots

Sweet Peas on Trellis

Sweet Peas

Frost Damage to Begonia

COLD SNAP TAKES PEPPERS, BASIL, EGGPLANT AND BEANS

We had our first night of upper 30 degree weather and I decided to take my chances and not cover anything.  Unfortunately, the pole beans and peppers were taken out by just a few hours of not even freezing temperatures.  I wasn't surprised as both vegetables are mainly summer crops and I felt extremely lucky to have had plentiful harvests from both.

The two eggplant plants also did not fair well.  It's too bad because they both had fruit on them.  I haven't pulled them up yet as my motto goes, "never give up", so I will wait it out and see if the fruit will continue to grow.

There were plenty of habenaeros and green beans to harvest before removing the plants but I left some green habeneros on one plant just to see if they will ripen. 

Video Update - November 16, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwJ99aTf52I

FALL GARDEN VIDEO UPDATE - YOUTUBE LINK 11/3/13

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIyw1HMR4rs

Having issues uploading my video updates on Blogger.com so check out the link above to see latest video.

thanks for watching

FALL GARDEN UPDATE 11/3/13

 It's been over a month since my last update and there's much happening in the garden.

The spaghetti squash plant has only produced one squash and the plant started showing signs of powdery mildew so I had to cut it back.  Also, it was taking over the whole bed, shading out the cauliflower.  No signs of cauliflower yet but I am hopeful.

The green beans in this bed are slow to produce but are starting to flower.  I've had to spray numerous times to control the bean beetle which helps but the grasshoppers are not bothered by

 anything I've tried so far...  I think they do more damage then the beetle!  As long as the fruit is not affected, I can deal with chewed up plants.

The rabbit is back this year, although I haven't seen him with my own eyes, the damage is evident.  Luckily, the chicken wire fence around the raised beds seems to be working to keep him at bay but my potted plants have been providing him much nourishment!  :)

 You can see how the rabbit helped himself to this cauliflower plant, what a feast this must have been for him.
I pulled up a few radishes and left them out where I believe his entrance is to his home hoping he will feast on them and leave the potted plants alone.

The broccoli plants are looking good and I see sprouts starting to show on most of them.  Controlling the worms has been a challenge and I'm baffled by why I have such a problem this time around.  My first broccoli crop earlier this year had no bug problems at all, so why they are here now?  Would love an answer to this if anyone knows......
I pulled up the purple basil plant and am letting the basil go to flower.  The radishes are gone also, fun and easy to grow, I just don't eat them so my new rule is "don't grow anything I don't eat"!

 Romaine lettuce is coming up along with a few carrots here and there throughout the beds.  I've planted spinach seeds a few times but nothing.  I'm thinking it may have been too warm for the seeds to germinate.

Peppers are abundant and I believe will keep producing until our first frost which will probably be later this month, according to the Farmer's Almanac... :)
I've harvested quite a few habaneros and made some killer hot sauce.  The cowhorns are the hottest I've ever grown, almost too hot for me to eat.  Red Cherry peppers are slow to ripen but I

plan to harvest and preserve with some vinegar and spice.

I planted pansies in the hanging baskets around the deck, they are such a deep purple color, just love them.  They are frost hardy, so they will bloom all winter.

Happy Gardening!!

Mary