Monday, April 18, 2016

Spring/summer planting 2016

April 18: Planted onions (80) in the main garden; lettuce plants and tatsoi in the annex.

Rhubarb looks better then ever before, and garlic is spectacular (and numerous). Need to plant sugarsnap peas tomorrow.

May 13: seeded yellow squash, swiss chard, green beans, dill, nasturtiums

May 14: planted 6 grape tomatoes, 6 banana peppers, 12 New Ace peppers
Waiting until Memorial Day weekend to plant winter squash so it doesn't explode before the garlic and onions are close to ready for harvest.

May 29: seeded Connecticut field pumpkin (the whole packet, since it's 12 years old; not sure any will germinate, and only growing them because I didn't realize I was out of butternut seeds), about 20 kabocha (Sunshine) squash (in case the pumpkins don't germinate), and additional green beans and swiss chard to compensate for the poor germination during the recent mini-drought. Hoping for rain tonight/tomorrow. Asparagus season is over. Also pulled about 6 Russian garlic rounds that got in the way of weeding, since last year's garlic harvest is completely consumed.

June 10: Not surprisingly, the pumpkins didn't germinate. Only 7 kabocha (not 12 years old, but probably 4 or more) sprouted. Swiss chard continues to germinate poorly, again because the seeds are older than I realized originally. I think I may have two chard plants, max, from the second seeding, so last night I started about 36 seeds indoors to see if consistent moisture helps the germination rate. Scored a six-pack (with about 10 seedlings) of butternut squash today. Woohoo! I'd given up on butternuts and was a little anxious about only having 7 kabocha, since they don't produce as well as butternut generally. Second sowing of green beans is doing nicely.

Costs 2016

It's probably going to be a light gardening year, in both expenses and harvest.

Planted onions today (April 18), and an eight-pack of assorted lettuces (over in the annex). Used up the left-over manure from last year to line the onion planting trenches.
  • $6:   80 onions (half red, half "Candy" yellow)
  • $3:   8 lettuce plants
  • $13: Sage plant, 6 Sugary grape tomatoes, 6 banana peppers and 12 New Ace peppers
  • $28: 10 butternut plants (yay! I'd almost given up on finding them) and 4 huge bags of composted manure
TOTAL: $50

ETA: It's fortunate I didn't spend much, because I doubt I got $50 worth of produce out of the garden, thanks to the drought. Might have broken even, but only if I assign some of the manure's cost to next year's garlic crop.