And it is still hot as hell. Wednesday’s (9/23) garden yielded 1 tomato the size of a golf ball and one okra pod. The last rain in Charlotte was Sept. 11. The last rain on my garden was way before that. Finally today, Sunday (9/26), it is raining in Charlotte again. Hopefully it is raining on my garden too.
The mulberries and grapes are so dry the leaves are turning brown. I cut a bunch of scions this morning and put them to soak in water. The rooting hormone, which is always in the way, was hiding this morning, so the scions will be planted in wet sand when the hormone sneaks out and gets caught.
All of the fallow beds have been re-worked and covered with mulch. Everything for the fall garden has sprouted except the spinach and lettuce which haven’t been planted and the onions which are probably waiting on rain. The mustard is almost ready to start picking. If this rain cools the soil a little, the spinach and lettuce can go in the ground.
David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/
Showing posts with label mulch; fallow rows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mulch; fallow rows. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, November 2, 2009
Falling Leaves
There are bags of leaves all along the street waiting for city pickup. The oak trees are still covered with green leaves. The other trees are still covered with yellow, brown and red leaves. How can so many have fallen? When the grass was cut last week about half of the material from the bagger was leaves. That went into the compost; but I don’t really care a lot for composting leaves.
They do make great mulch. They hold the moisture and the warmth in the ground. They prevent muddy shoes when walking through the garden. They look good. Earthworms love them. The down side is that they remind one that soon there will be no grass clippings. This is the major ingredient for my compost bin. Green stuff makes nitrogen. Leaves make carbon. Carbon is a necessary building block for healthy plants; but most of them make this for themselves. The leaves do provide a lot of organic matter. They can just be tilled into the garden in the spring before planting.
The leaves in the garden come from the bags on the side of the road. The leaves in the yard get blown around trees and into beds for mulch. I am too lazy to bag them or drag them to the garden.
David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/
They do make great mulch. They hold the moisture and the warmth in the ground. They prevent muddy shoes when walking through the garden. They look good. Earthworms love them. The down side is that they remind one that soon there will be no grass clippings. This is the major ingredient for my compost bin. Green stuff makes nitrogen. Leaves make carbon. Carbon is a necessary building block for healthy plants; but most of them make this for themselves. The leaves do provide a lot of organic matter. They can just be tilled into the garden in the spring before planting.
The leaves in the garden come from the bags on the side of the road. The leaves in the yard get blown around trees and into beds for mulch. I am too lazy to bag them or drag them to the garden.
David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The Fall of Fall
The first day of fall has arrived. Leaves have magically arrived in bags on the side of the street. The trees are still green; so these must be from last year. At any rate they still make good mulch in the garden. So far they are only around the raised beds. Planning has begun for next years perfect garden and except for periodic replanting of some things, the fall garden is planted and coming up. The only things not up are the onions and the mesclun mix.
We had tacos last night with peppers, tomato, arugula and onion from the garden. The third crop of figs is coming on with a vengeance. It seems that they are afraid they won’t be ripe before the 1st freeze. Seeds have been planted for 6 tomato plants that will be put into the raised bed in the greenhouse. Only 3 are needed; but who knows how many will actually come up. Last year seeds for the greenhouse were hard to find in local stores in December. They will be purchased early this year.
The garden will grow by a few feet. More raised beds will be built. An 8’ fence will be constructed in the hopes of keeping the deer out. They can jump 18’; but maybe they will go for easier forage. Some stuff will be planted for them outside the fence. The motion detectors on the side of the house don’t phase them at all; but maybe a noisy motion detector would help.
David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com/ , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/
We had tacos last night with peppers, tomato, arugula and onion from the garden. The third crop of figs is coming on with a vengeance. It seems that they are afraid they won’t be ripe before the 1st freeze. Seeds have been planted for 6 tomato plants that will be put into the raised bed in the greenhouse. Only 3 are needed; but who knows how many will actually come up. Last year seeds for the greenhouse were hard to find in local stores in December. They will be purchased early this year.
The garden will grow by a few feet. More raised beds will be built. An 8’ fence will be constructed in the hopes of keeping the deer out. They can jump 18’; but maybe they will go for easier forage. Some stuff will be planted for them outside the fence. The motion detectors on the side of the house don’t phase them at all; but maybe a noisy motion detector would help.
David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com/ , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/
Monday, December 29, 2008
Casting Seeds on Rock(wool)
Casting Seeds on Rock(wool)
Almost everything planted in the greenhouse has sprouted except the things planted in rockwool. Very, very few of them have come up. Another thing learned by experience. Waxed paper cups do not make good pots in a cloche. When used in uncovered flats, they seem to last long enough for the plant to be put in the garden or repotted. The ones I used for starting seeds just dissolved. I can’t even read the label on them. As evil as it is, I bought Styrofoam cups for the new seeds.
Yesterday I repotted and relabeled everything that had sprouted. This morning I planted to replace the things that had been planted in rockwool. I did not throw the rockwool away yet. There still may be hope. Today (Sunday) was a really nasty rainy mess. I am very thankful for the greenhouse so that I wasn’t trapped inside.
The brightest spot in my garden right now is the compost. There was a mountain of leaves picked up on the side of the road. Some of them had been mulched and they were wet and starting to rot. Those went into the compost pile. There were not quite enough leaves to mulch the whole fallow part of the garden. I guess I have to keep scrounging.
David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com/ , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.
Almost everything planted in the greenhouse has sprouted except the things planted in rockwool. Very, very few of them have come up. Another thing learned by experience. Waxed paper cups do not make good pots in a cloche. When used in uncovered flats, they seem to last long enough for the plant to be put in the garden or repotted. The ones I used for starting seeds just dissolved. I can’t even read the label on them. As evil as it is, I bought Styrofoam cups for the new seeds.
Yesterday I repotted and relabeled everything that had sprouted. This morning I planted to replace the things that had been planted in rockwool. I did not throw the rockwool away yet. There still may be hope. Today (Sunday) was a really nasty rainy mess. I am very thankful for the greenhouse so that I wasn’t trapped inside.
The brightest spot in my garden right now is the compost. There was a mountain of leaves picked up on the side of the road. Some of them had been mulched and they were wet and starting to rot. Those went into the compost pile. There were not quite enough leaves to mulch the whole fallow part of the garden. I guess I have to keep scrounging.
David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com/ , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Great Weather for Gardening (in my bed)
Great Weather for Gardening (in my bed)
Reading garden books, ordering seeds for the greenhouse, planning next spring’s perfect garden and searching for new plants and varieties are all great gardening activities for a cold rainy weekend. For the last two years I have planted Burpee’s Porterhouse Beefsteak tomatoes. They are early, huge and prolific. Unfortunately they don’t have much flavor. This year I ordered an heirloom tomato called “Bloody Butcher”. They have a very short maturity time and produce tomatoes that are about 2” in diameter. That is a little bigger than grape or patio tomatoes; but smaller than a Marglobe. Marglobes and some seed from last years best volunteers will provide regular tomatoes for canning and salads. Better Boys will be for sandwiches.
I did get to play in the yard all day on Thursday (Thanksgiving). I managed to break almost all of my toys. Neither lawn more, nor by leaf blower would start. I burned up the motor on my electric chain saw. I did get a lot done though. The leaf blower is fixed and the lawn mowers are in the shop. I got a new electric chain saw. The garden grew by about 200 square feet. The grapes, asparagus and strawberries have weedless beds and a nice top-dressing of about 2” of compost. If the rain stops today I will lay off the rows, test the soil and mulch the nice wet ground.
It is amazing how much the grapevines and figs have grown this year. They have gone dormant and should be pruned pretty soon. The grapevines will be cut back pretty severely since this is their first year. The figs, of course, will go back to the same height as last year. That is about eye level. They will be a lot wider than last year however.
David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.
Reading garden books, ordering seeds for the greenhouse, planning next spring’s perfect garden and searching for new plants and varieties are all great gardening activities for a cold rainy weekend. For the last two years I have planted Burpee’s Porterhouse Beefsteak tomatoes. They are early, huge and prolific. Unfortunately they don’t have much flavor. This year I ordered an heirloom tomato called “Bloody Butcher”. They have a very short maturity time and produce tomatoes that are about 2” in diameter. That is a little bigger than grape or patio tomatoes; but smaller than a Marglobe. Marglobes and some seed from last years best volunteers will provide regular tomatoes for canning and salads. Better Boys will be for sandwiches.
I did get to play in the yard all day on Thursday (Thanksgiving). I managed to break almost all of my toys. Neither lawn more, nor by leaf blower would start. I burned up the motor on my electric chain saw. I did get a lot done though. The leaf blower is fixed and the lawn mowers are in the shop. I got a new electric chain saw. The garden grew by about 200 square feet. The grapes, asparagus and strawberries have weedless beds and a nice top-dressing of about 2” of compost. If the rain stops today I will lay off the rows, test the soil and mulch the nice wet ground.
It is amazing how much the grapevines and figs have grown this year. They have gone dormant and should be pruned pretty soon. The grapevines will be cut back pretty severely since this is their first year. The figs, of course, will go back to the same height as last year. That is about eye level. They will be a lot wider than last year however.
David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Happy New Year
Happy New Year
My grandchildren are gone and icy weather is here. It got down to 19 degrees this morning and 17 is called for tonight. Yesterday was beautiful. The only thing I did outside was water the plants in the greenhouse. It was just toooo cold.
New Years day I got a lot done. I planted a garden hose to take water to the garden. I planted an electric cable to take power to the storage shed and greenhouse, I blew leave and with my grandson Reese’s help drug all of the leaves to the mulch pile at the back corner of the back yard.
I mentioned in an earlier blog that I was worried about not enough compost & mulch. The compost bins are all full. The fallow rows in the garden are mulched and I now have a big pile of leaves for use as mulch this summer.
The broccoli and Brussels sprouts that were planted on Christmas Eve came up on New Years day. I have a new book on “indoor gardening” and a new seed catalog. Life is good.
David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.
My grandchildren are gone and icy weather is here. It got down to 19 degrees this morning and 17 is called for tonight. Yesterday was beautiful. The only thing I did outside was water the plants in the greenhouse. It was just toooo cold.
New Years day I got a lot done. I planted a garden hose to take water to the garden. I planted an electric cable to take power to the storage shed and greenhouse, I blew leave and with my grandson Reese’s help drug all of the leaves to the mulch pile at the back corner of the back yard.
I mentioned in an earlier blog that I was worried about not enough compost & mulch. The compost bins are all full. The fallow rows in the garden are mulched and I now have a big pile of leaves for use as mulch this summer.
The broccoli and Brussels sprouts that were planted on Christmas Eve came up on New Years day. I have a new book on “indoor gardening” and a new seed catalog. Life is good.
David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.
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