black gold - at least the start of it

what you see here, is the makings of the best stuff on earth - or i should say from earth.

well, i decided i have to completely re-rig my compost system.

if you recall a post back in may 2009: http://eldoradogardening.blogspot.com/2009/05/omg-has-been-month-already.html

it turns out this 2 bin system, just didnt have the capacity for the yard waste i was able to generate in a year. this came apparent late in 2009, when i was cleaning out my garden beds. so, that fall - i ripped out the bins (which are real cool and made from recycled plastic - i bought it about 10 years ago at my last house).

so i did the pile thing and didnt shred the garden waste last year; i just kinda chopped it up and let nature takes its course.

i dont have the time to manage the compost pile, so it never warmed up too much. i added dr earth compost builder - and it didnt do much, but relieve my wallet of $10. as fall kicked it and temps cooled, i will be building a new series of bins.

i have been noodling on it awhile and after referencing an online guide:

http://www.mastercomposter.com/

and farmer freds blog and radio show, http://www.farmerfred.com/

it looks like i will have a 4 or 5 bin system. at this point, i am planning each bin being 4x4 in size, possibly 5x5 depending upon a few factors i am still working on. that would mean a series of bins 20-25 feet long. a monstrosity, for sure, but with some careful landscape planning and i believe i will be able to mask the bins.

this may be overkill, but with a low compost management time, i would bet 4- 5 years should be sufficient to generate compost the slow way. so the way it will work, will be thus - bin 1 will receive all green and brown for 2010. that pile will move to bin 2, in 2011. bin 1, will then take 2011 stuff. each year, the piles will move up 1 bin, and by the time a pile finishes up in bin 5, it should be black gold.

good compost, like fine wine, cant be rushed, and given more and more trees getting larger and generating more leaves, every year- size will matter for my composting. so to make room for the new bins, i had to haul out all of last years compost pile and while i was at it, i figured it would shoot it thru the shreader this year. and the pile you see here is only the pile from last years goodies. shreding of this years garden commences this week.

espaliers

my first attempts at espalier action of fruit trees. a few broken branches - but hey they will grow back. i filled up the last holes in the regular orchard this spring and am now turning to the fence line - and espalier - for apples and pears.

only certain varieties of trees are suitable for espalier - those with long lived spurs or other fruit bearing wood which isnt renewed every year. like i said - apple and pears, good. cherries, yeah probably. nectarines and peaches - not so much.

so in went my first two asian pears. hosui (totally awesome - juicy, Bartlett type flavor and crunchy). and shinko (never tried one, but the description sounded great and i needed a pollinator).

even though its totally against my normal rules, i let one of them set fruit this year (usually wait at least 2 years for bare roots) and will see how it goes. i will also be grafting other varieties of pears to these trees.

espaliered apples will start next spring with about 4 varieties, that i will get from trees of antiquity - and the bar is thus for a tree to be accepted:

1. an uncommon variety that you cant find, possibly even at farmers markets

2. must be on old variety - early 1800's is the newest acceptable; preferably older - much older.

3. has a characteristic which makes it stand out. i.e. colored flesh, scent, others?

4. most likely not red skinned, i just have a thing against red skinned apples - probably from the hundreds of red delicious apples i threw out as a kid because they were pithy or other such reason.

as these espaliered trees mature and grow in number - i will begin to graft additional varieties to them to further increase my diversity. california rare fruit growers offers a scion exchange - usually in mid-january, where for a small fee you can buy cuttings suitable for grafting. grafting - i have done before - trained by my grandpa and had success, so i am looking forward to doing it again. the scion exchange is not well advertised, so listen to farmer freds show as he is usually the only way i hear about it also (sundays - 1530 am 830-10, 650 am 10-12). he's a hoot - you wont regret listening to our local radio gardener.

caller #5!

no applause necessary - really folks - its all in a days work. but yesterday, 7/18 - i was caller #5 on the get growing with framer fred show. his garden grappler was to name a determinate tomato.

easy question, as i usually have a tomato catalog handy - hard part was i was at home depot when he asked the question. apparently, it took folks some time to come up with the answer and dial into the show, as i was able to complete my shopping trip, go home find a catalog and still call in.

the prize was an awesome master gardener catalog, which i really wanted, but some time ago, the fred made a deal, the next time i got caller #5 he would offer me a vintage krak 1140 marketing glossy with all the dj's on it. it seems when i was a kid, fred was the late night dj - while i knew joey, rick, jim and hal when krak was the 50,000 watt country music powerhouse in nor cal (alabama? conway twitty?, mel mcdaniel? anyone, bueller?, bueller?) - fred's work day was a bit after my parent imposed bedtime and i didnt ever hear him on the air.

so true to his word, the 1981 vintage marketing glossy is on its way courtesy of usps. thanks fred, this prize is the best one yet.

number 1

todays farmer fred garden grappler had me dialing into his show. luck would have it, i was caller number 1.

the question - 'name a piece of drip irrigation - and be specific.'

the answer - 'anti-siphon valve.'

was really hoping for caller #5, but i was a little too quick on the trigger finger. keep up the good work fred. and now you can be fred's facebook friend:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Get-Growing-with-Farmer-Fred/101135776596504?ref=ts

kiester boards

just over a year ago - i advised you of my test installation of top boards on a raised bed.

the project came up again this year as i was re-engineering the drip irrigation of my beds and realized that to take the drip to the next level, i would have to have the kiester boards installed prior to dropping in the drip.

farmer fred recommends one uses 2x6's, but my original plan was to use 2x4 redwood lumber - primarily because it was cheaper and i am - well, cheap. and i figured 2x4 would be ok. as i found out 2x4 was barely adequate - but i would make it work. there was barley enough room for a cheek, but cost is sometimes the over ruling factor.

luck would have it, but one year later - by a pure fluke of economics and maybe some sort of other-world vortex in the lumber industry; right now, 2x6's are cheaper than 2x4's.

go figure.

so i bought the required lumber and spent 2 days installing my new kiester boards. 2x6 is definitely more butt friendly than 2x4 and it was cheaper - itsa win-win. my wallet approves, the cheeks approve - and the 2x6 is actually quite comfy and the beds are now 100% complete.

the 12 beds are in and done. now to move on to new drip.

online garden rebate

kellogg's garden products is offering an on-line $1 rebate per bag (up to 10 bags) if you buy thier products. i just happened to run across this and in case you havent heard about it. here you grow - er- go.....

http://www.mykellogggarden.com/rebates/consumer/rebateForm.jsp

our local radio gardener farmer fred is sponsored by these guys - so help yourself and help fred by buying these products and put a little green back into your pocket.

and they are hiring too....

http://www.kellogggarden.com/?q=hiring

hail damage

april 28 - official tomato planting day and farmer freds birthday was capped off by an incredible hail storm with hail pellets nearing the size of double ought buck pellets.

if i had planted starts or seeds, i would be looking for replacements.

the trees in the orchard, however, were in the line of fire. this is one of my pear trees which shows some moderate damage from the 12 minute ice deluge.

up here in the foothills, its usually mothers day when we plant. this year, we might be rethinking that one.

tomato update

these babies are definitely in the class that farmer fred and bill bird have produced. they arent leggy, they are lush, rich green - not induced by excessive nitrogen - but deep green indicative of a strong well built plant. scroll down a few posts and compare their size today versus when i first transplanted them into the 1 gallon pots.

keith - the seed guy - is still working on wave two of the tomatoes, but these babies have just skyrocketed since i transplanted them into 1 gallon containers.

some topsoil and dr. earth is all i have added to these pots. 2010 is going to be a good year.

dont let the nice weather fool you

mother nature is a tease. thats right, she does pretty much what she wants, when she wants and those who think they can predict her actions - soon realize its at best, a 50-50 shot at getting it right.

it snowed yesterday. march 31, a week or two after the start of spring and we get almost 2 inches of snow at 1900 foot elevation. and boy am i lucky to live below the snowline (yeah, right)thank goodness i didnt fall for mother natures tease of the last 2 weeks and put anything in the garden. this type of weather is even risky for hardening off tomatoes in the garage.

the weather folks at channel 3, who i hold in pretty high regard even though its a crap shoot, missed this last one by - oh about 15 miles (and that would be pollock pines, where they thought the snowline would be.) they predicted snow down to around 3000 foot elevation, like i said, we got it at 1900 foot elevation.

farmer fred, who lives down in the flatlands doesnt put any tomatoes out until national tomato planting day (april 28) and with good reason. so heres to another 4 weeks or so of no planting.

happy april fools day. btw - the above is all true and not an april fools joke.

this one is for chris j.....

its been awhile since i have posted, primarily because not a whole lot has happened in the garden. at nearly 1900 foot elevation, even planting on farmer freds bday (april 28) is a chancy option - but my tomatoes are percolating along and i have some pictures for an update.

my seed guy - keith - has done a good job this year, although we lost our first batch of seedlings; keith bought seed warming mats and that solved our problem. in the off season, keith worked on soil mixes (he rolls like that) and believes he has a good soil that allows good growth - organically. looking at those seedlings, i would say he is right. i will get them in a couple weeks and start hardening them off and hopefully they will be in the ground the first part of may.

some garden activities that have occurred - i have been pulling out burr clover that has popped up in the beds and i did land a bunch of blue berries and some more fruit trees. i will check the digicam to see if i have pics of those tasks to put up here too.

the 2010 growing season has begun

the word on the street is my tomato seeds have been planted. today, officially, is the start of the 2010 growing season. next stop, the official planting day - farmer fred's bday - april 28th. this year we will use some walls of water and hopefully pull in the growing season. at nearly 1900 foot elevation, i face some challenges that the flatlanders dont. i will be cutting back on the numbers this year to 24 plants - 2009 had 41 plants and it was way too much. as a reminder, here is the first string for 2010.






gregoris altai
early girl
matina
big beef
cabernet
big raspberry
champion 2
costolto fiorentino
nyagous
sioux
super fantastic
black zebra
crnkovic
black from tula
chreokee purple
sun gold
sweet gold
mr. stripey
better boy
bella rosa

2010 tomatoes

just placed the order at tomato growers supply - so here is the tomato first string for 2010:

gregoris altai
early girl
matina
big beef
cabernet
big raspberry
champion 2
costolto fiorentino
nyagous
sioux
super fantastic
black zebra
crnkovic
black from tula
chreokee purple
sun gold
sweet gold
mr. stripey
better boy
bella rosa

we will land 24 tomato plants in the garden, so a few varieties, will have multiple plants planted. there is a good mix of hybrid and heirloom.

i will be utilizing walls of water in 2010 (probably 6 plants), so hopefully i will see earlier tomatoes than in the past.

returning veterans this year are:

cherokee purple, super fantastic, early girl, champion, sun gold and a surprise performer from 2009 - black zebra.

it looks like 24 is going to be the magic number for tomato plants in the garden. there are a few varieties that i will always want in the garden - leaving quite a few slots for experimentation. i foresee, sometime in the future, that i will have 24 different varieties that i really like and that could put a crimp in my experiments on new tomatoes - but until then, i will try to balance production needs (dont want to be short of tomatoes) and trying new varieties.

rookies in 2010:

gregoris altai - an early variety, always looking for a good performing early variety.
matina - another early variety, i am testing out.
cabernet - described as a good mid size tomato - new in 2009 to TGS.
big raspberry - another new one from TGS.
costuloto fiorentino - an un-ribbed version of costoluto genovese, thought i would give it a shot.
nyagous - a purple variety keith wanted to try.
sioux - hierloom from 1944, described as very good flavored mid size.
crnkovic - another purple variety.
black from tula - another dark variety
sweet gold - farmer fred had good success with this one, sun sugar failed for me, so i am still looking for another cherry variety as good as sungold.
mr. stripey - a red zebra variety
bella rosa - heat tolerant new variety from TGS

this time next year, i will do an ' after action review' and let you all know what worked in 2010 and what did not.

organic on the lawn too....

i have a real anal-retentive need for a lush, green, well-manicured front lawn.

dont know if its my nostalgia for typical 1950's era, wholesome american-ness but, its what i do. to achieve that goal i was pretty loose with the sulfate of ammonia fertilizer at the old house and when i rolled lawn at the new house, i still fertilized (once a month, on odd numbered months) - although with a better balanced turf fertilizer than sulfate of ammonia.

i used BEST brand Turf Supreme - it had relatively low n-p-k (16-6-8) numbers, as well as iron and resulted in a properly green lawn. one downside to the synthetic i was using, i couldnt use it during the hot months, otherwise i would risk burning my lawn. so by july, the lawn would be less green until late september when it was cool enough to fertilize - with no risk of burn.

i found that dr. earth had a lawn fertilizer in pellet form, which i could use. cost is roughly 50% higher than the BEST product i was using, but if it would get the lawn green - keep it green and also be better for the dirt (it even states it better controls thatch) i figured its worth a shot. the n-p-k numbers of dr. earth (9-3-8) - was roughly 1/2 of the synthetic, and with fertilizing each month regardless of summer heat, my lawn would get roughly the same amount of nutrients, on a more consistent basis. AND if its better for the lawn, its win-win again.

i started applying dr. earth on my lawn in february - and spread it after every mowing - way more than suggested - but its natural and i wanted to get the lawn/soil a boost with the natural fertilizer and mycorrhizae, in hopes we can roll through the summer - and build a base of natural fertilization, which would get me to a once a month application.

its now mid april and the lawn appears as green as the old fertilizer made it and if the roots of the lawn respond to dr. earth - like my tomatoes did last year, i might even see a decrease in watering needs - which is not bad at all (really) summer watering for me is usually 2 times per week, 15 minutes each time - with the 15 minutes busted into 3 each, 5 minute patterns on the water days - to allow zero run-off.

will keep you posted on the progress of this too.

doing the organic thing

-disclaimer- i havent been too hip on the organic bandwagon, but when presented with personal evidence to support something i usually do.

historically, i have been a user of miracle-gro fertilizer on my vegetables. why?, because it worked - and my grandpa used it so i had no qualms. who can argue with success? listening to farmer fred on the radio the past few years, he has been an advocate of dr. earth products and with the info i have gleaned i am leaning to a more balanced approach to feeding my food.

i know these are fred's paid advertisers and fred needs these to stay on the radio. lord knows i need to have my weekly gardenside chat with fred - as such, i am a believer in supporting the sponsors of my favorite radio shows. thats how they stay on the air and its a win-win symbiotic relationship for us all.

so in 2008, i used for the first time, dr. earth's organic 5 tomato, vegetable and herb fertilizer. i figured what the heck, i had nothing to lose and possibly more to gain. i applied it on a weekly basis - possibly more often than recommended - but being organic, i had no issues. i noted not one difference in crop performance - on the upside or downside; thats good so at least i know it works as well as the miracle-gro. one thing i had hoped to improve was the occurrence of blossom end rot.

i know blossom-end rot is caused by a calcium deficiency - brought on by erratic watering. although i water at 2 times a week, filling the bowls around the tomatoes several times during a watering - so i dont see my watering as erratic - but the tomatoes dont lie. i noted a high calcium content of dr. earth and thought that might improve the free-calcium in the soil, making it less of an issue for plant take up.

(btw, foliar calcium sprays probably dont do as much, if anything, as university research suggests calcium isnt absorbed thru the leaves - gleaned from ff some time ago)

well, last year i got my typical blossom-end rot, in the normal numbers - and i can usually trace it to a sharp spike in temps when the tomato was formed. so dr. earth didnt help with that. but one BIG difference i did see was when i actually pulled the plants last fall. the root system of the tomatoes were incredible. i have never seen such a well developed and spreading root system - and this was across the board for all tomato plants.

so this year i am doing it again. its dr. earth for me in the garden. everyone always has a cost threshold - and yes dr. earth is more expensive than the synthetic fertilizer i have used for years - but this year, is my first year to use my recently finished raised beds and my goal is to keep those beds as naturally fertilized as i can.

so between the dr. and my own compost i generate - i hope it will work out. will keep you posted on my results.

to pluck. or not to pluck - that is the question.

well, farmer fred says to let them be. my grandpa, told me to get rid of them. my personal experience leans me towards grandpas advice. what am i talking about? its whether to remove tomato flowers when the plants still havent been planted - i.e. still in pots; getting trucked into the garage nightly and out of the garage morningly (is that a word?).

pa told me the to take them off as it will probably stunt the tomato plants growth - let the plants focus on the roots. a few years ago, i missed a flower on a plant and it was a tomato about the size of a quarter before i saw it. i decided to let it go, that particular plant didnt do much until that tomato was harvested - after which it zoomed up in height and still got a decent crop from it.

what can others glean from this? well, my experience relates to only 1 plant, thats about as small of a sample as one can get - and with a sample population of 1 - the bell-curve is bit whacky - so your milage may vary. but i will continue to pluck those puppies, until the plants actually hit the dirt. sorry fred, but pa wins out on this one.

6 boards short.....

this weekend saw some decent progress on the fence, all of the posts were placed and set in concrete by friday evening, so fishing on saturday didnt hinder progress on the fence as it gave a full day for the concrete to harden up. i was out side before 8:00 am and by 8:30 i was cranking up the volume on farmer fred's show and putting in the fence.

this morning all of my boys were recruited on the project. the oldest was in charge of slathering on the thompsons waterseal on the boards and the youngest took the lead in hauling up the boards so i could cut the semi-circles at the top.

the gate is next, well - the last 6 boards too; to be exact. cedar bark will quickly follow and this portion of the garden project will be in the books. next stop, actual planting of my vege's. april 28 - 23 days away and my tomatoes go in the ground. yipee!

and then there was one.....

thats all folks... its been awhile since i have been able to blog a bit. work activities over the past few weeks has prevented blogging or work in the garden.

BUT the last bed has been set and subsequently filled with 2 yards of soil. so it looks like the garden for 2009 will be have all hands on deck with all 12 beds ready. next steps for the garden will have to interleave with many other tasks, but will include:

final grade work around the beds. recent rains exposed drainage issues that need to be corrected to ensure standing water doesnt rest against the beds.

cedar bark will be brought in and spread around the garden to finish the area nicely and equally important to keep the dust down.

the final side of the fence needs to be installed and when that is in, i will investigate an electric fence to help keep the deer at bay. tomato planting day is april 28 (farmer fred's bday), so it looks like we will be there with bells on.

a surprise cherry tomato variety hits a home run

i use starts for my tomatoes and on my quest to capital nursery to purchase my plants for 2008, i was searching for a variety i had heard rave reports about but ended up with a variety that knocked my socks off.

sweet million is a red cherry tomato which farmer fred holds in high regard. i was unable to find it at any of the nurseries i frequent but in my search for it, i ran across a variety which may be even more important than sweet million - and that variety is called sun gold.

sun gold is a yellow cherry variety and the tag attached to it - described it in a manner that really caught my attention. the tag, however, did not state that if you grow this tomato, it will forever change your perception of cherry tomatoes. that fruit was awesome and i can honestly say that there will be at least one sun gold growing in my garden every year - for the foreseeable future. small, 1/2-3/4 inch bright orange/yellowish tomatoes - in trusses of 10-20 tomatoes cover the plant. the fruit is surprisingly sweet and in my opinion is the ne-plus-ultra for cherry tomatoes.

if you prefer a more toamto-ish/acidic flavor, you might find this isnt the tomato for you. however, if sweetness in a tomato isnt a deterrent - i think you will not be disappointed in sun gold. we at GGG (Garry's Garden Gnus) gives sun gold a 2 thumbs up!

and now a word from our sponsor....

not really. i have no sponsors, except my wallet and my wife - who puts up with way more from this garden geek than she should.

i did want to do a shout out to farmer fred hoffman, local gardener guy on the radio every sunday from 830 am to noon, starting on 1530 AM (kfbk) and moving over to 650 AM (kste) at 10 am. i love his show, its fun to listen to (especially when he and darcy paulin go at it) and at times, find i actually pick up a thing or ten to file away in my brain somewhere.

in case you are listening during the garden grappler (the prize section of the show on kste) and hear a 'garry from diamond springs' - thats me! i have been the big prize winner twice and smaller prize winners several other times. listen to fred, i bet you would enjoy it.