Way back in september of 2009 i either got a camera or borrowed a friends to take photos, i think i borrowed my friends. Those photos i forgot to post on this website. So far today i have updated the page titled Plot #19 i included the photos of my plot from september 2009. I have left out a lot of tagging it would take far to long and the photos were re-downloaded from facebook making them tiny. I may next weekend look on my computer for them and re-upload them in the superior quality that makes the picture giant then i will list of plant names.
Tomorrow i am going to finish updating my garden plot page and then try to get some work done on the one of random photos of cottonwood community gardens.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Early season garden management.
If you are new to garden you should know that if you pay attention to whats going on in your garden you will learn a lot. You will in a couple years very likely learn which species you do not want in your garden and how they look in different stages of growth. At this time of year anything problematically invasive will likely be starting to come up. Examples would be Gout weed, butter cup, grape hyacinth, garlic, evening primrose, oregano, dandelion, herb robert, chives and so on. It is a good time to begin looking out for them and either removing them or transplanting them.
My garlic is naturalized in my plot, and has been spreading to other unassigned areas. I enjoy garlic and eat a lot of it. Therefore i have learned a technique for growing more in less space. Bulb depth. At this time of year I remove a lot of the garlic and space it vertically and horizontally from each other in its allotted area. I only grow a couple garlic plants to seed the rest of them i cut off and eat the garlic scapes later in the season. I recommend trying them in soup. Garlic can be grown fairly deep so plants with really shallow roots can be planted on the ground around them, also tap roots can be grown in between them. Garlic does not need to be grown in full sun.
Rhubarb is another that is growing at this time of year. If you have not divided it in a long time it is safe to do so at this time of season as the soil is moist enough that a decent if not poor dividing job will survive. Rhubarb is one of those hearty plants that if you grow in more shade the longer it grows before it goes to flower, if it even does, depends on how deep in the shade you plant it. Rhubarb is harmful to ingest once gone to flower.
I believe carrots are starting to come up. Im not really sure as 2 years ago was my first year growing them and i let the two that made it passed seed stage grow for 2 years so that they go to see. I then allowed the seeds to mature and left bent the plant over so that the seeds would fall off in the area i wanted them to sprout this year. so i think they are sprouting, not sure yet. Carrots are a good plant to grow in containers in succession planting.
Strawberries native to B.C. which are in full sun are starting to flower. If you didnt a week or two ago i would check your strawberry patch and the area around it for any tiny strawberry plant runners that are still attached to the little umbilical or that have fallen off of them and may be sitting on the soil. You ought to make sure that the strawberry plant roots are in the ground as passed this month it wont be so wet as to keep it wet enough if not in the ground. Sometimes over the winter soil compaction will happen this can also lead to some of the strawberry plant roots showing on the surface.
I have calendula and love in the mist both naturalized in my plot at this time of year they are sprouting. A lot of the calendula seeds will be on the surface i push them in the depth of my first knuckle from the tip of my finger.
There are succulents in my garden which some of previous years have died and the new ones are migrated out of the patch. I pull them out of the pathway and put them back in the bed.
There is a lot of morning glory coming up right now.it is a good time to get it out before there are plants with spatulated thin roots that will break growing amongst the morning glory roots. Gently fallow the fleshy white root if it brakes off that new end is where a new plant will grow likewise if you break a piece off even if its an inch long the two ends will both grow tops.
When removing gout weed under normal conditions it is only 6 or so inches down. Dig your digging fork under the surface and find the average place the roots stop, go a bit deeper. If you get the digging fork underneath the roots you can then shake it while its under ground and shake the dirt out liftin the roots to be easily pulled out. If its a thick grown in mat and you dont mind getting in it then i recommend: digging in with the fork getting down with your hands and shaking the while lfting the mass of dirt and roots, then once the dirt is ou or partially out roll the mass over top of itsself away from you. This way you can peel off the top layer with out leaving lots of broken ends. DO NOT put mulching down. I did three areas last year, the only area that is not coming back with a vengeance is the are that i allowed to become sun scorched, its not ideal but it works and its only for one season i even planted some stuff in. The areas that i mulched are coing back much much worse, every little root was provide tons of warmth throughout the winter, moisture and nutrients. I think would chips are even acidic which the believe the gout weed prefers. DO NOT put down news paper, a tarp and then wood chips. About three years ago a couple took on the plot next to mine. Instead of weeding it the threw down newspaper, tarp and in the pathways wood chips, they then built boxes and filled them with two feet of dirt. The plot which they are no longer in has so much gout weed and buttercups in it. They are coming up very strong healthy deeply rooted plants in the beds. While weeding my assigned area which is connected to this plot i learned that the gout weed roots had grown all through out the newspaper which was compacted, and had grown through the layers of the tarp also all throughout the tarp. I estimate that in a year or two from now they will have a situation about 5 to 10 times worse then they had in the first place. As i said earlier two of the areas i worked on last year we news papered and wood chipped, it only made it much worse and its only the first month of growth in the fallowing year.
My garlic is naturalized in my plot, and has been spreading to other unassigned areas. I enjoy garlic and eat a lot of it. Therefore i have learned a technique for growing more in less space. Bulb depth. At this time of year I remove a lot of the garlic and space it vertically and horizontally from each other in its allotted area. I only grow a couple garlic plants to seed the rest of them i cut off and eat the garlic scapes later in the season. I recommend trying them in soup. Garlic can be grown fairly deep so plants with really shallow roots can be planted on the ground around them, also tap roots can be grown in between them. Garlic does not need to be grown in full sun.
Rhubarb is another that is growing at this time of year. If you have not divided it in a long time it is safe to do so at this time of season as the soil is moist enough that a decent if not poor dividing job will survive. Rhubarb is one of those hearty plants that if you grow in more shade the longer it grows before it goes to flower, if it even does, depends on how deep in the shade you plant it. Rhubarb is harmful to ingest once gone to flower.
I believe carrots are starting to come up. Im not really sure as 2 years ago was my first year growing them and i let the two that made it passed seed stage grow for 2 years so that they go to see. I then allowed the seeds to mature and left bent the plant over so that the seeds would fall off in the area i wanted them to sprout this year. so i think they are sprouting, not sure yet. Carrots are a good plant to grow in containers in succession planting.
Strawberries native to B.C. which are in full sun are starting to flower. If you didnt a week or two ago i would check your strawberry patch and the area around it for any tiny strawberry plant runners that are still attached to the little umbilical or that have fallen off of them and may be sitting on the soil. You ought to make sure that the strawberry plant roots are in the ground as passed this month it wont be so wet as to keep it wet enough if not in the ground. Sometimes over the winter soil compaction will happen this can also lead to some of the strawberry plant roots showing on the surface.
I have calendula and love in the mist both naturalized in my plot at this time of year they are sprouting. A lot of the calendula seeds will be on the surface i push them in the depth of my first knuckle from the tip of my finger.
There are succulents in my garden which some of previous years have died and the new ones are migrated out of the patch. I pull them out of the pathway and put them back in the bed.
There is a lot of morning glory coming up right now.it is a good time to get it out before there are plants with spatulated thin roots that will break growing amongst the morning glory roots. Gently fallow the fleshy white root if it brakes off that new end is where a new plant will grow likewise if you break a piece off even if its an inch long the two ends will both grow tops.
When removing gout weed under normal conditions it is only 6 or so inches down. Dig your digging fork under the surface and find the average place the roots stop, go a bit deeper. If you get the digging fork underneath the roots you can then shake it while its under ground and shake the dirt out liftin the roots to be easily pulled out. If its a thick grown in mat and you dont mind getting in it then i recommend: digging in with the fork getting down with your hands and shaking the while lfting the mass of dirt and roots, then once the dirt is ou or partially out roll the mass over top of itsself away from you. This way you can peel off the top layer with out leaving lots of broken ends. DO NOT put mulching down. I did three areas last year, the only area that is not coming back with a vengeance is the are that i allowed to become sun scorched, its not ideal but it works and its only for one season i even planted some stuff in. The areas that i mulched are coing back much much worse, every little root was provide tons of warmth throughout the winter, moisture and nutrients. I think would chips are even acidic which the believe the gout weed prefers. DO NOT put down news paper, a tarp and then wood chips. About three years ago a couple took on the plot next to mine. Instead of weeding it the threw down newspaper, tarp and in the pathways wood chips, they then built boxes and filled them with two feet of dirt. The plot which they are no longer in has so much gout weed and buttercups in it. They are coming up very strong healthy deeply rooted plants in the beds. While weeding my assigned area which is connected to this plot i learned that the gout weed roots had grown all through out the newspaper which was compacted, and had grown through the layers of the tarp also all throughout the tarp. I estimate that in a year or two from now they will have a situation about 5 to 10 times worse then they had in the first place. As i said earlier two of the areas i worked on last year we news papered and wood chipped, it only made it much worse and its only the first month of growth in the fallowing year.
Human power landscaping.
Last year I put a lot of effort into removing gout weed from three areas in cotton woods community gardens. The first area I weeded very well accept the one place i could not get under the large rock. Somewhere inbetween a week and two ago i decided to weed under the rock. Of course i couldnt move the rock so i had to come up with a way that i could move it on my own.
Next week at the work party i will try to get photos of how to roll logs using ropes and leverage logs. Heres a hint wrap the rope once around over the log to pull it towards you and once around under to pull it away from you. I know sounds weird, pull something away as opposed to push, but thats what it is.
Many more photos to come. Of end of march and beginning of April.
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