Early Retirement Extreme Forums

The potted potatoes from February are doing well, so I opened up the smallest pot to see what bounty I could rob them of. 2 seed potatoes produced 14 new potatoes. It's still a little early, apparently, as the new potatoes were no bigger than golfballs. Didn't stop me from taking all of them and boiling them for lunch today.

Fortunately we're still eating Yukon golds from the boxes in the garage, though the sprouts are beginning to take over.

Added a basil plant today. Was picking up weedeater line and they were on sale.

I had to water twice today because it hit 90 here today. Last weekend it was so cold I had to cover the plants at night. Going to be one of those years I guess.

We have strawberries.




@halfmoon--Yes, I love that I can mow right over the stones. You can see from the pic below how much grass we have to mow. (ok, it's not *that* much --GTOO and ffj have me beat by a mile -- but it seems like a lot in the heat of the summer) I also like that it doesn't look new.

The amount of grass we mow is completely embarrassing, especially in this forum. Not going there. Looking not-new is great, but the extra cool factor is how it flows without a straight, sharply defined border. You obviously aren't German.

I really like this, especially seeing the wider view. Not going to happen here, so I'll appreciate it vicariously.

We have tomatoes already. They're itty bitty, but it's still a record for us. I'm not sure if it's because it's getting warmer earlier or we're getting better at gardening. Probably both. These were from seed. (some from cmonkey's site, but to be honest we lost track when we were planting and I'm not sure if these particular tomatoes are from his seeds)

If anyone wants an automated, no hassle way to receive wood chips, here you go.

I just signed up and I'll let everyone know how it goes.

They sure don't have much information on that page. We get free wood chips in Dallas, a 9 mile drive, in my Toyota pickup.
But if that outfit delivers that might be a good deal.

Spent two hours tending garden this morning, mainly mounding up the rows of potatoes. Disappointed in the spinach... it didn't grow well after it emerged and now is bolting; I probably need to plant it a little later and in more batches. Sugar Ann peas are blooming, other varieties still growing with no blossoms yet. I ate the largest radishes 2 days ago.

Despite having a week of no measureable rain, there were 3 days that were wet, misty. A couple sunny days never got above 60F, but we're finally transitioning to the dry season, with temperatures going up. Soil will dry out soon, so today I'll water.

The other pea varieties are blossoming now, so not much difference in timing. Still, if you want the earliest snap peas, then Sugar Ann gets a nod.

Big surprise was finding 4 volunteer seedlings in the greenhouse on Friday morning. Couldn't decide if they were watermelon or cucumber until noticing the seed husk clinging to one was from a watermelon. Hmm, I guess I forgot to mention that the greenhouse is back in production? Filled the allotted bell pepper spaces & all but one of the tomato spaces... the plants are improving from a bit of transplant shock, the tomatoes were hit hardest.

Spending a couple hours per day catching up on weeding. It's mostly light work, though going through the strawberry beds is a chore. Otherwise, I'm occupied with cutting & splitting firewood, getting it stacked in the sunshine. It's this time of year when I'm really happy to be living on the coast instead of in Portland... our daily highs are a very comfortable 68-75F while Portland is touching 90F. Makes it so much easier to labor as hard as I want.

I need to start making hay. The grass is just ridiculous. Too bad I have no use for hay.

Been nibbling peapods since Jun 1. Dumped second pot of potatoes and generated 4 servings of new potatoes slightly larger than eggs, so it looks like June is as early as I can get fresh potatoes from container-grown.

George the original one wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 04, 2017 2:00 pm

Been nibbling peapods since Jun 1.

So unfair. I was just out in the garden yesterday, looking at the ankle-high pea plants and longing for the summer days when I can graze in the garden. I actually thought of you and swore...to plant peas much earlier next year.

We have volunteer potatoes all over the place. I think they might be an invasive species. Maybe this will stop the gophers from finding and eating them all.

enigmaT120 wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 05, 2017 1:06 pm

We have volunteer potatoes all over the place.

I'm gradually learning to remove them unless they come up early and are particularly vigorous. Usually they're started by the tiniest of tubers, the ones you either thought too small to bother with or missed entirely.

One small stretch of my volunteers is keeling over today. Possibly insect victims, possibly lack of water... I'll have to investigate right after I yank them out to regain the garden space!

Tomato plants getting bigger in the greenhouse, radishes have bolted, and strawberries are coloring. Weather has been perfect for me & wife: 70-72F highs with light breeze.

Something bloomed yesterday afternoon, however, that apparently everyone is allergic to and it was not present where I was fishing on the Kilchis River. Came home @6p and dear wife was snuffling madly... cleaned fish, fed guts & head to the crawdads in our river, and came back into the house with my nose suddenly clogging.

Enjoying lots of strawberries. The first cherry tomatoes are almost ready to be picked. We covered the blueberries this year so we get to eat more than the birds.

We have zucchini and tomatoes already. This is the earliest we've ever had them by a couple of weeks.

We also have a groundhog who's about to meet his maker. I'm pretty tolerant about sharing the garden bounty with the other residents of our yard, but this one won't quit. He's eating the cucumbers, beans, and squash non-stop. He's ruining it for everyone. Anyone have any ideas short of shooting it with an air rifle to scare it off?

Saturday was our hottest day so far this year... 90F. Doesn't sound all that hot to most of you, but considering we seldom go above 75F, like today, it was pretty ugly for me. Started the day by taking pictures and then heavily watering the plants in the greenhouse and taking the side panels off the greenhouse for extra ventilation.

So a quick tour. First up is my wife's flower bed, featuring day lilies and irises with a smattering of annual flowers for color accents (which are mostly what you see blooming).



This next one is the temporary bed we started in 2012 as a holding place for plants until we could find a place for them. Little did we know it would stay put all these years. You can see some of the potatoes in the background. The bed really is slated for a move, though. Any day now. Maybe.



A view of the potatoes with the temporary bed in the background. Sweet corn & brushpiles occupied this space last year.



The california strawberries that are trying to take over. They've spread out from the two rows I salvaged & transplanted just last year! All that lush growth means I've had difficulty getting to the weeds <ahem>


Peas and onions. Was occupied by late-planted potatoes last year and "lawn" in prior years. The dirt strip to the right was a grass path last year, but I found that didn't work well, with the grass and weeds trying to go under the greenhouse and also back into the potatoes. That's a 3'-4' tall lump of weeds I've pulled this spring getting this bed and the potatoes planted.


Not pictured are the espalier apple trees (planted last year), filbert trees (planted last year), raspberry vines (new this year), space for this year's sweet corn, blueberries (original 4 established bushes plus 7 bushes we brought in 2012), a shade garden next to the house, and the shady border in the backyard to enhance viewing interest from the patio and upstairs windows.

jennypenny wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 24, 2017 6:04 pm

We also have a groundhog who's about to meet his maker. I'm pretty tolerant about sharing the garden bounty with the other residents of our yard, but this one won't quit. He's eating the cucumbers, beans, and squash non-stop. He's ruining it for everyone. Anyone have any ideas short of shooting it with an air rifle to scare it off?

In my experience rabbits and groundhogs are notoriously difficult to catch in a live trap because they have so much food available already. I would recommend baiting with a very fragrant fruit such as a peach or nectarine. Also block off all exits to his den and then make a funnel to the trap on the last remaining exit. That's the only way I have caught our woodchucks. I still haven't caught any rabbits in my trap. I give em 3 or 4 days to go quietly....

This is a lot of work and so I have ultimately resorted to just shooting them, because it only worked half of the time.

I suppose you can't fence out groundhogs because they dig? How come the dogs aren't doing their part?