snakey visitor

Rosey, the coachwhip racer snake

I’ve seen a reddish-pink snake the past few days on the way to the chicken coop. It appears to be about 4-4.5 feet long and is incredibly fast. I think I saw it last year in the same area and it was much smaller.  Today I got the camera and took this picture of it. It is a coachwhip or red racer. They can be agressive if cornered but fine if left alone. They like to eat mice. That must be why it’s close to the chickens-lots of mice with the grain there. I’m going to call it “Rosey”. I hope it’s a good mouser.

giant pumpkins ready to go

baby giant pumpkin leaves

Here is a picture of one of my baby giant pumpkins. The first leaves to come out on any plant are called cotyledons. These are the roundish ones in the picture growing on the left and right side of the plant. Notice how big they are! Most cotyledons are about the size of your fingernail. These are 3 inches across. The first true leaf is also out and is the biggest one in the picture as well as the beginning of the second one at the top of the picture. The vine will grow in the direction of the second leaf. This is good info to know as it will help you place the pumpkin in the direction you want it to grow (instead of into a fence). Notice the shape of them-they are the shape of all the rest of the leaves to come only smaller. When the leaves grow up they will be huge- 12-18 inches across! When the giant pumpkin have their first 2 true leaves, they are ready to go into the ground. Mine are ready but I’m not.

low tunnel 09

I have to partially rebuild my low tunnels that I will put the baby pumpkins in. A low tunnel is like a small hoop house only much shorter. They are meant as a temporary measure to protect the plants.  I will cut them in half as I don’t think I need them to be so big this year. As soon as that happens, those puppies are going in the ground.

Beautiful garden entryway-amaranth and flowers

This year I want a beautiful garden as well as a bountiful one. I planted tons of flowers in the entry way and along the entry fence. Inside the entry fence I planted Titan sunflowers again (I call these the ‘guardian angels’ of the garden) which will grow behind some scarlet runner beans (good hummingbird attractors) that will grow up the fence. Last year the Titan sunflowers got 10 feet tall and heads up to 18 inches across. Then in the entry arbor I planted rattlesnake beans (a green and purple streaked pole bean) that hopefully will grow all over the arbor giving me a very lush, green entryway (and tasty one too). Then after you walk through the arbor immediately on the left, I’m going to try amaranth-Loves-Lies-Bleeding and cockscomb-Flamingo Feather.  I saw these on the Seed of Change garden tour last fall here in NM and they looked fantastic, so I thought I’d try some. I also planted sunflowers-Goldie and Chianti, Queen Anne’s Lace, Zinnias and Cosmos flowers. All this with the asparagus that I had planted last year in the entryway. I figure I have a few years till the asparagus kicks in-so I’ll plant pretty stuff around it till it does. I am also putting a glass water basin for the birds in this section of the garden.  Last year it was a nice entry and I hope it will be even better this year with the arbor and the flowers.  Hope to have some good pictures later in the season. Ah, fantasies of how it might be..

Strawberries looking great!

strawberry flowers

Strawberries are looking great with lots of flowers and fruit (still in the green stage but coming) My friend Michelle who gave me a bunch of starts last spring, told me to pick off all the flowers last year to let the plants grow more and that I would get a better crop of strawberries this year-she was right! It killed me last year but glad I listened. So far the birds aren’t interested  in the strawberry patch but I’m gonna put up some little hoops over the strawberries and put some bird netting on them to keep those birds out. I just have to do it before those strawberries turn red!

winter squash and corn

Last year I tried some squash (winter) in with my corn and it didn’t do very well.  The squash was green enough but seem to grow slower in the shade of the corn and never produced one squash. So this year I’m going to plant them close-but in 2 separate beds positioned so the corn won’t shade it.

Last year's winter squash-Galeux de Eyesines

This year for winter squash, I’m going to plant Marina di Chioga (an Italian heirloom and Galeux de’ Eyesines (a french heirloom that gets bumps that look like warts-the more bumps, the higher the sugar content!) and let them sprawl. They can take over where the giant pumpkins were last year since I am moving the pumpkin patch to a new bigger area this year.

Shishito and Padron peppers

shishito peppers

Today I got some more holes ready for the Shishito peppers and a new variety for me called Padron peppers. Most are not hot but an occasional one might have a little heat. I don’t grow the famous green or red chili pepper famous in New Mexico in my garden as I’d have to plant my whole garden with chili peppers so I buy them from the Hatch chili farmers since I buy them by the bushel! The Shishito pepper is from Japan and is green and about 2-3 inches long and kind of skinny. I found it at the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market 2 years ago where it was $10/lb and thought I’d better grow my own at that price. The Padron pepper is from Spain and is also green and a little blockier in shape and used in Tapas. I like to sautee them in a good olive oil and sprinkle rock salt over them and serve them as an horderves.

summer squash and cucumber seeds in

When I think of all the things I still need to do in the garden, I’m overwhelmed.  So I break all the things I need to do into bite size projects and surrender that it will get done when it gets done. Yesterday I was  down in the main garden preparing some holes and adding amendments with composted horse manure, fertilizer, rock phosphate and mycorrhizal in it. Today I planted the summer squash and cucumber seeds in them. Thirteen of my 35 tomatoes look pitiful. Luckily I have some more to replace them which I will do by the end of the weekend. They either froze or thrashed by the wind-tough winter and spring. Tomorrow I need to focus on a glassblowing workshop we are doing so looks like I wouldn’t get back to it till Saturday.

Giant Pumpkins ready for garden!

Here are the pumpkins and one giant marrow (kinda like a giant zucchini-they grow them in Europe). I’m planting them by tues or wed. I’m hardening them off with a little sun gradually the next few days) now that the nights have warmed up into the mid-40’s.  I gave them a drink of Superthrive and seaweed fertilizer to help them with stress through the transition after I brought them in today. Now they are back in the house. Getting a late start this year-want to see if it makes any difference as it was so cold in May (many 27 degree nights, 50’s in day) and I thought they would just sit in the cold soil there anyways. Hope they catch up!

5 giant pumpkins and one giant marrow

From left- front row: 352 Cabossel 09, 949.5 N.Harp 09, 817.9 Schieder 09,  form left-Back row: 1166 Mohr 09, 895 Grande 08, 73.6 Wursten 09 (giant marrow)

All Star giant tomato lineup ready to plant!

Well here are my all star giant tomatoes that are going out as soon as I harden them off in the next few days now that the nights are finally in the high 40’s. They were out for about 45 minutes today in the sun and breeze today and that was enough for them. I brought them in and watered them with some organic seaweed and superthrive while they are going through the transition to help reduce stress. Maybe I should drink the stuff to reduce my stress (just joking)!

giant tomatoe plants ready to plant!

I have in my lineup for giant tomatoes (6) Big Zacs (seeds from Totally Tomatoes), (1) N. Harp (that came from a 4lb+ tomato), (2) N. Harps (that came from a 5lb+ tomato), and (3) N. Harps (that came from 7lb+ tomato)!  Nick Harp is a phenomenal giant tomato and giant pumpkin grower in the midwest that was kind enough to supply me a few of his seeds. Thanks Nick! I can’t wait to see what these will do this year!

lettuce bowl ready to eat!

Here is the inside lettuce bowl I started on April 4th-now 32 days later.

Lettuce bowl 32 days later on May 16

The outside lettuce patch is looking real good too. Peas aren’t flowering yet and cauliflower is still little but arugula and lettuces are ready for a real salad! Chickens won’t get these anymore. Looks like  I won’t have to buy greens for awhile. Gonna make me a salad tonight!

lettuce patch May 16

warm season veggies-here we come!

May 15th is fast approaching and is the average last frost date for Santa Fe and the time for putting your warm season vegetables in the ground. I sneaked some of mine in earlier but that is still a gamble in case we get one of those late frosts (we did) that plus the spring winds have been horrible this year. Never the less, I do grow some late season tomatoes that take 80-90 days to get fruit so I take the gamble on them and stick those transplants in early with the help of wall of waters and row cover. And of course my giant pumpkins take 5-6 months to grow so they need all the time they can get in the ground before that first fall frost hits even though I start them inside!  So that takes care of the ones I sneak in early but what about the main vegetables crops?

For all summer squash, winter squash, cucumbers, beans, corn, I plant seeds directly in the ground (following directions on the package) as they will germinate quickly in the warm soil and will grow very quickly barring the birds from eating the seedlings. To prevent that, I put some LIGHTWEIGHT row cover (you can get it at the nurseries) over them until they are over the seedling stage and the birds aren’t interested anymore. It comes in big sheets but you can cut it up for smaller areas or it can cover the whole raised bed. Tack it down with some rocks so the wind doesn’t carry it away! Lightweight row cover is from -.01 to .03 in thickness. The handy thing is you can water right through it and it keeps bugs out.

For the majority of my tomatoes and all peppers and eggplants, I will transplant my plants that I started earlier inside or buy plants from the nurseries. When I plant them put them in a hole where I add some compost and maybe Yum-yum mix to get them going and create a well around them so the water is collected instead of running off.

So let’s talk tomatoes for a minute. Why? Well what is a vegetable garden without those homegrown, sweet tomatoes? Let’s face it, it is the main reason most of us have a vegetable garden. You want to put in tomatoes that are decent size plants. The reason being that they take a long time to grow to produce fruit and our season  here is Santa Fe is so short that we need all the help we can get. Plus they take a long time to get them to a decent size which is very important to get that head start. So I started some in March and I also buy some. So as a rule of thumb, if I’m growing say an Oregon Spring tomato that takes 65 days to produce fruit, I might buy them in 4 inch pots but if I’m growing a Brandywine tomato that takes 80 days I will definitely spend the money and buy the gallon size. When deciding which tomatoes you want to grow, look at the amount of days it will take to get some fruit. When the tag or description says 80 days, that means it will take 80 days to become a mature plant that produces blossoms, and then it takes another 70 -80 days to produce mature fruit depending on pollination date. So let’s say a Brandywine plant is planted on May 15th outside, blossoms sometime in June-July, you should get some tomatoes 70-80 days later which puts us sometime in September!  Why try to grow a tomato that takes that long? Flavor. The longer it takes, the better the flavor! They have more time to develop those sugars needed for great flavor. If I had a normal size garden (which I don’t but most of you do), I might try one or two of those longer varieties and I would try a few 65 day varieties and would have the bulk of my tomato varieties in the 70-80 day range. That way I hopefully will get some tomatoes early, mid and late season. That’s the thinking anyways!

So now you have everything up and growing what else can you do to help yourself get the best veggies? For one, I became a believer of drip systems a few years back after being a hand waterer for years. I put a simple drip system in and saw my yield at least double and it saves on water because it puts the water in the root zone. Another good reason for doing drip is that if you water from overhead, you could be encouraging some diseases from splashing the soil on them (there are soil borne diseases) or powdery mildew later in the season.

Next I would put  a couple of inches thick of mulch in my wells (not in May when the soil is colder and your plants are trying to get warm) but by late June when it really heats up around here. Just put it over your drip system. This will help keep your water from evaporating. I like straw (not hay-it produces too many seeds) as it is lightweight and if you turn your soil over in the fall after harvest, it will break down for the next season. When you first put straw down, I do water it  from the top so it won’t blow away and then let the drip work underneath it (so make sure it works before you cover it with straw).

So let’s talk fertilizer. I stay away from chemical fertilizers as they can hurt or kill your beneficial microbes that keep your soil healthy and help your plants grow and stay healthy. So stay away from Miracle Gro and the likes of that. I use more natural fertilizers-both organic fish emulsion and organic seaweed fertilizer together. The reason I use both is the fish emulsion is a general all purpose fertilizer but the seaweed has very little fertilizer but trace elements our veggies need to grow big and healthy. I put them together in a 5 gallon container and use it as a drench in my wells around the plants. Sometimes I also just spray the seaweed on the leaves for a foliar feeding. I fertilize once or twice a season except for giant pumpkins which get fed once a week. Believe it or not, as a giant pumpkin grower, they are the only fertilizers I use.

So what are you waiting for? Get busy and happy gardening!

new garden arbor

new arbor entry into vegetable garden

I just finished building my new arbor entry into the vegetable garden. It is built with coyote fence posts attached to t-posts and 2″ x 4″ wire fencing. Coyote fence posts are made out of cedar and so are resistant to bugs. Settlers used to fence their livestock with this fencing material to keep out coyotes here in the Southwest. I will grow pole green beans called ‘Rattlesnake beans’ that can reach 13′ high. They are green with purple streaks and are said to taste very good. I imagine walking through  the arbor with green vines and beautiful beans all around me. In the background are my tomatoes in wall of waters and the strawberry patch.

Wall of Waters for tomatoes

tomatoes in wall of waters-2010

Here are the 35 tomatoes in wall of waters. You can buy them at your local nursery or order them through the internet. They are an invaluable tool for Spring as they act like little greenhouses or cloches to help protect your tender plants from cold nights and the wind.Be sure you fill them up in the morning so they have all day to heat up. Then they will give off the heat at night and keep the plant warm.

To set them up, put a 5 gallon bucket over the tomato (the tomato must fit inside the bucket) then slide the wall of water over the bucket and take a hose and fill up each cell in the wall of waters. When done slide the bucket out and the wall of waters support themselves. If your plant is taller than the wall of water, you can still use it but will need a friend to hold the wall of water as you fill up each cell. Sometimes the wall of water (WOW) can partially collapse under heavy wind. In that case put some bamboo posts inside the edges of WOW to help support it. In a few years, you might get some leaky cells. I take one of my leaky WOW and cut off a good cell and insert it into the leaky cell and fill it up and it works. I only use wall of waters in early spring when it is still cold at night. Be sure to take them off when the plant starts to get crowded inside of the wall of waters, usually in late May or early June.

giant tomato megablossoms

Single blossom on left and double megablossom on right

GIANT TOMATOES-I got my first 2 megablossoms off my Big Zac tomato plants and they are not even in the ground yet. All giant tomato growers are looking for megablossoms. Some varieties tend to produce more than others. Since megablossoms usually come earlier on a plant I will leave these on as I don’t know if I will get more off each plant. A megablossom is at least 2 or more blossoms that fuse together to make one big tomato.  That is why giant tomatoes are so knarley and bumpy. It is kind of like twins, triplets or quadruplets that are all conjoined together. Recognizing these megablossoms is the key to growing giant tomatoes. It doesn’t happen all the time so it is exciting when we get some megablossoms and the potential for a BIG TOMATO.  Since they are made up of many blossoms, oftentimes they abort if they don’t pollinate well.  Most tomatoes are self-pollinating so you don’t have to worry about pollinating them unless you get a megablossom. That is when we should hand pollinate them although I didn’t on these. Using a small soft paintbrush, you can take some pollen off of the stamen part of one blossom and paint it onto the megablossom pistils. Kind of sounds like Luther Burbank doesn’t it?

The top picture has two blossoms-the one on the left is a normal single tomato blossom and the one on the right is a megablossom made up of two flowers. Notice how big it is.

megablossom with three blossoms fused

This second picture  has even more blossoms fusing together. Looks like maybe three blossoms. Starting to look knarley! I’ll see if it aborts or starts to grow into a giant tomato on it’s own as I didn’t hand pollinate them. I will pick off all the normal blossom off of each plant. I might grow 2-4 tomatoes from megablossoms off of one plant. You don’t let all of the normal tomatoes grow so all the energy goes into these potential giant tomatoes. Obviously I am growing these for size and I have other varieties where I let every blossom become a tomato to grow for food.

planted 35 tomatoes today

Yep-went ahead and planted tomatoes with the help of Beto, Mernie, Lava and her friend Mo. Together we planted 35 tomatoes, added amendments, put up wall of waters for every tomato we planted, placed the drip system around each tomato and gave them a drink of seaweed/thrive mix. Hope they make it as it was sooo blasted windy (no pun intended) here today and it is suppose to get cold but not freezing tonight. Many were wind thrashed but we did the best we could. I guess the hardy will survive. Many thanks to all of you good friends! Then I went into the house and planted up to the gallon size all my giant tomatoes that will go in the ground in a couple of weeks. I also planted up the rest of my 4 inch pots into gallon sizes that I will give to friends. Phew, what a power out day…I’m fried.