I harvested my Red Janice Garlic yesterday.

Last week something happened to my Garlic. I thought an animal had gotten into it and knocked it down to the ground. Really what happened is it was ripe, and when soft neck garlic is ripe it falls over. So  I picked about 80 nice heads. The variety is Red Janice Garlic.  

Chioggia Beets, and Swiss Chard

I planted these out from my hotbed about a month ago. I am by far having my best Beet experience with these transplants, and really think it's the way to go. Its been sunny, warm around 80 degrees and dry, and I think they really like a little shade. The only plants I have direct sown this year are Pole Beans, and Corn.

Seed Saving Bloomsdales Spinach.

I have two or three male plants, and two or three female plants, that I am using to produce seed. The male plants have the flowers, and produce tons of pollen. If you shake the plants a big cloud of pollen dust is produced. The female plants which are the keepers, don't have the flower spikes. Next year I wont be so hasty to pull my plants, because the leaves are still quite edible and good quality, even at this stage, and have no objectionable flavor.

Seed Saving from Purple Top Turnip

I saved a few plants from last falls Turnips to go to seed. They look like they would go on all summer. When I have a good bunch of pods to dry I'm going to pull it out. Seeds can be so expensive, I decided to try to start producing some of my own seed.

This years peppers- Tri Color Mini Belle, Chimayo, Carmen, and Melrose.

I sowed my pepper seeds in my hotbed about march 1st. It was when we had daytime temps in the 30's and 40's. I thought at the time maybe none would sprout. But they did great, and last week I transplanted about 45 plants into their bed. Next year I think I will separate them and transplant them once in the hotbed, prior to planting out. I took a knife and ran it down between the plants a few days before setting them out, but they suffered a little that way. I have transplanted hundreds of plants from the hotbed, and literally have had maybe ten that didn't survive. After the annual  summer rain and wind storm comes, and blows the peppers over sideways I've always thought that the next year I need to stake the plants. But I've never done it until now. I used finger jointed wooden lathe. we'll see what happens. You can also so my homemade shade tunnel with some burlap I had laying around. In time I plan on purchasing a large quantity of 40% shade cloth, as I'm convinced virtually no plant likes temps greater than 80 degrees and don't need to bake in the summer sun.

I also am showing my double digging and burying manure under the beds. The cooking manure raised the bed temps abut 20 degrees which the plants are loving, however it isn't safe to do so, because of the wonderful new herbicide Clopyralid, which apparently is omnipresent in hay, straw, manure, grass clippings, and finished compost. The good news is it is only potent at  3 parts per billion or greater and that it breaks down in 265 days. Please call somebody to get it banned. 

My Tomato Irrigation System

I dug a trench down the middle of the tomato raised bed, down to the beginning of the subsoil level. Then I laid a three inch vinyl tile with holes in it in the trench, and then covered it back up.I figured out how many gallons of water I need to give it 1.5 inches of water per week. Then I filled a five gallon bucket with water and timed how long it took to fill it. So I figured I need to run my hose about ten minutes a week into the tile.I've never watered tomatoes before, ever, so I'm curious to see if they will produce more or larger tomatoes than usual.

Giant Prague Celeriac

I am really intrigued by this vegetable. I tried growing it last year, by direct seeding it. I think I got maybe 3 plants and one ended up big enough to at least taste. I also was gone three months straight. So I've tried to do it properly this year. I sowed it in my hotbed about March 1st, and thinned ad transplanted it about a month ago, then last week I set out about 35 plants. My tomato beds are about 4 feet wide. So I have some spare space down the side to grow them in. It is a very sunny spot, and has a buried drainage pipe under the full length of the bed. I can put the water hose in the pipe and give the bed the equivalent of two inches of water in about 12 minutes. So as I water my tomatoes I'll water the Celeriac. At this stage it is indistinguishable from celery.

Celery Verde Pascal

I got this seed from Bavicci. I started it in my hotbed about March 1st. I transplanted it in the hotbed about a month ago, and then set it out last week. I grew celery once about 30 years ago, and didn't really have any problems with it. I'm not really sure why it has such a reputation for being difficult to grow. If you don't blanch it it is pretty strongly flavored. I will post some more pictures as summer goes. Hopefully animals will leave it alone. I had an early attack of groundhogs where they ate about 50 plants in three days, and something is rooting and rolling around in my garlic at night.

Colombian Potatoes. Papas Sabanera, and Papas Criollas. Solanum Tuberosum SSP. Andigena

I am experimenting with two varieties of potato that are quite common in Colombia. The Papa Criolla (Creole Potato), and the Papa Sabanera. The apparently are a different sub-species that our common potato here in the U.S. I suspect that they are an indeterminate variety, and don't expect them to set fruit and be ready for harvest untill about November 1st. You can see I built a corral to try to contain them somewhat. I am also growing Dakota Pearl.

Mammoth Pot leeks

This is my first attempt at Pot Leeks. I've never seen one or ate one, So I don't really know what i'm doing with them. More to come later, you can see my homemade shades out of bed linens. I bought the seed in Great Britain. Maybe I'll find out why nobody grows them in the U.S. I planted them about a week ago.

Trellis I am using for Pole Beans, Watermelon, Cucumbers, and Cantaloupe.

I am going vertical with my climbing plants this year. I have made trellis out of electrical conduit, 8 foot tall concrete reinforcing wire tubes, and I made a pvc tube arbor for Thunbergia ( Black eyed Susan vine). I used bird/deer netting on the trellis, that I bought at Lowe's .

Head lettuce and hoop tunnel with shade cloth.

Here is my head lettuce plants that I planted about the 20th of April, and now one month later. I am watering them daily, and have discovered that they really can't take much sun. I put some burlap over the top for extra shade, I think the shade cloth is only 20% blockage. When I buy more I think I'll get 40 %.

Picloram, Clopyralid, or Aminopyralid damage in Tomatoes, and peppers.

There is a new generation of herbicides being used in the U.S., they are called Clopyralid, Aminopyralid, and Picloram. These chemicals are threatening the entire organic gardening and farming movement. They can be introduced to your soils, through finished compost, manures, lawn waste, leaves, and straw mulches. As little as 3 parts per billion will wreak havoc with tomatoes, potatoes, spinach, lettuce and beans. It takes as much as a year in the soil to break down. If these herbicides show up on certified organic operations, they are automatically de-certified for three years. Even composting will not affect the herbicide.  The American food chain is incredibly contaminated, and now almost impossible to avoid .this contamination. These are my own  plants with pictures taken today. Please call your governmental representatives and get this stuff banned quickly. They make Round-up look like kids candy.