Sweet Summer Rain!

We went about two months without rain in the Greater Milwaukee Area.  I had to water the garden with a hose daily or risk losing everything.  All of the yards around the city were brown.  The hugelkultur project has done quite well in  the drought.  The Burr Oak is the real achievement.  In such a bad drought year the maturing Quercus macrocarpa had put on a foot of twig growth! We never watered the tree directly, but the runoff from watering the garden daily was full of nutrients from the high-quality compost we used to kick-start the soil building process.  Mature shade trees really benefit from getting a little compost on their roots every year or so.  Here are a couple of photos of the oak.

We did water regularly. The rain finally came last night.  It was nice and steady and fell for a couple of hours until late morning today.  It was such a relief.  I prefer the rain to water the garden as the water doesn't contain the chemicals that come from the tap.  But beggars can't be choosers and I had little option if I desired to have a productive garden.  That said...

 The transplants all did really well.  Even the much-maligned  Greens Bed has been transformed into a productive garden.  I transplanted tomatoes there.  The result was a surprise.  The space originally didn't seem to get enough light.  Now however, it has tomatoes!  I am excited also to report that there is dill in the same low-light garden bed.  Here are some photos.

 Moving on to the main hugelkultur bed.  All of the transplants have taken off and most are producing flowers or some fruit.  The tomatoes have looked pretty wilty  since they were transplanted.  However, there are tomatoes on the vines so I am not too concerned.  I have two large squash going and two melons.  My borage looks beautiful as do the marigolds.  I have had to trim back the melons and squash and erect barriers between them and the peppers.  I am confident that the peppers will do well.  They are already flowering and the fruit is starting to come.  I am proud of the peppers and tomatoes because they were started by seed and outside.  Here are some photos.

Pepper and tomato transplants along with marigolds.  The Cherokee Trail of Tears bean is in the background.  Surrounding the chicken-wire enclosure are squash and melons.

Borage is the flower in the middle of this photo.

The marigolds are attracting a lot of bees.  We have a number of different types of bees too.  We have Honey Bees, Bumble Bees, and some type of solitary ground bee. 

Squash!

Butternut Squash.

I think this is a pumpkin...

Musk melon.

Honey Dew melon.

We harvested the beets, and potatoes.  The peas were finished in the three straight weeks of temps in the 100* F range.  We got about three pounds of potatoes from the pots.  I am going to start another round of them soon.  Once the main garden bed is done growing squash and melons, or if the tomatoes or peppers in there die, I will replant beets, carrots, and radishes for fall.  Once we're into September, I will replant peas.

The harvest: beans, dandelion greens, potatoes and beets.  We also recently harvested carrots, peas and the greens.

The Salsa Garden is a huge success... so far.  The tomatoes are about five and half feet tall and full of fruit and flowers!  The peppers in there are about two and a half feet tall.  Some of them have large peppers already!  All of them have a number of flowers.  This bodes well for the future!  Here are some photos of the Salsa garden.

It's no joke!  Those tomatoes are almost as tall as me and I am 5'11" tall!

Sweet peppers.

Anaheim  Chile.

The heat torched the peas and the lettuce.  I am going to replant the lettuce and wait on the peas till September.  My next post should be pretty interesting.  This season has been pretty good for growing peppers and tomatoes and I really looking forward to all the salsas and chilies that I a going to make.  I will keep you posted.  As always please comment on the post!

The Promise of the Future Part II (More Pictures)

Here are the rest of the pictures from the last post.  We will start with the planter-boxes on the deck.  

 Next are the pictures of the Salsa Garden

I just loved the progression from bare earth to abundance in that series!  Next we will look at the peas and the potatoes.  Enjoy!

Peas and potatoes are in the pots.  The peas are in the green pots in the foreground.  The potatoes are in the white and clay-colored pots.  Notice how there appear to be no plants in the white pot at all.

Peas coming along nicely

Training the peas to climb to the chicken-wire.

Potato sprouts!

The potatoes have had soil added twice now.

Peas exploding up the chicken-wire.

Potatoes exploding too!

Peas are pretty don't you think?

I transplanted these hot peppers in these pots.  They are not doing as well as I would have liked, but we will give them time.  Maybe they will still surprise us.

Finally, here is the progression in the Main Garden Bed.  It has been remarkable. I'm sure you'll agree.

Sprouts of carrots, radishes and beets.

Sprouts of beans and squash share the bed with the blueberries and hazelnut.

Beets and radishes getting a nice start.

Radishes

I choose to pack in the plants.  That minimizes the necessity of weeding. 

What site in the springtime when nothing else was growing yet.

Carrots coming up next to the beets and radishes.

Squash and beans!

The blueberries in front of the Black Turtle and Trail of Tears beans.

Beans!

Green Beans in front of the squash.

Then things really started to progress.

It still wasn't warm enough to plant the melons.  I'm glad I waited.

Open space in the garden will be utilized.  However, at the start, it's nice to have little room to step.  I wait until the initial spring weed rush is through as well as wait for other seeds to grow into transplants before I fill in all of the spaces.

The hickory growing tall over the beans and squash.

squash and pumpkins.

Hazelnuts, blueberries and beans.

beans and squash.

Carrots, beets, and radishes

Open space.  Notice that there are some weeds.  That was ground-cover protecting against erosion until I plant what I want to plant in the space.  The "weeds" are actually valuable in that they also often have benefits for the soil.

The Cherokee Trail of Tears bean is a pole-bean.  That means that it's a vine and it will need a structure upon which to grow.

The pumpkin before I got it under control.

Finally the melons are sprouting!

The poor transplanted tomatoes are wilting.  The borage is sprouting under the carrots which along with the beets and radishes are getting huge and crowding each other out.  That is less than ideal because it decreases yield.  Sometimes pruning is necessary to get adequate sunlight to the slower grower.

A further angle on the crowded beets and radishes.

The transplanted tomatoes are looking much better here. 

Beans!

The beans are blowing up here!

The melons are filling in so it was time transplant the open area in the middle of the hugelkultur.  I put in peppers that were getting blocked out by the tomatoes.

Time to finally harvest those radishes.

The space that is in the middle now has kale, dill, peppers, and a big fat dandelion.  I will keep it in there until it's about to seed.  Then it goes on the compost pile.

Beans and squash getting huge.

I transplanted an acorn squash next to the beets.  There is a bit of morning and noon sun that was not being capitalized upon.

Melons!

A close-up of the kale and the lacinato kale.

A close-up of the cabbage.

A close up of the dill.

What else does it need?

Borage!

Big carrot leaves don't necessarily lead to big carrots... we will see.

Trail of Tears Beans!

Squash and pumpkins

We finally got out the radishes.   The beets were stoked.  We will harvest them in a couple of weeks.  Then we will sow seeds again.  We will do the same with carrots.

Melons!!

We added some marigolds to the garden to attract pollinators.  I think they add a nice touch.

The transplanted tomatoes finally need a rack!

Well, thanks for checking out my progress.  Till next time...