Garden Journal

Garden Journal


June 4, 2007
We expanded the garden area using fence boards and metal fence posts. Now it is 10’ 3”x 6’ 9”. I added probably ten wheel barrow loads of mostly finished compost and dug it in pretty well. We have been pulling out twigs and spruce cones for the last week.

Yesterday I transplanted a pumpkin start from the compost pile to the garden (it has tertiary leaves).

Today, we planted a row of Parisian Market carrots, and a row of purple carrots. Also, we put a red potato in the ground that had sprouted during the winter while in the dining room. We cut it in half for two potato plants.

Turned the compost yesterday.

Talked to two Master Gardeners at the Extension Office today. They recommend planting carrots at pretty much any time; when carrots are planted late, they can over winter and be ready in early summer; lettuce and spinach as soon as you can work the soil in the spring, and in mid August for late harvest; to trap earwigs, use cooking oil and soy sauce with some water in traps or tuna cans; use row covers to keep tomatoes warm which should either be planted very deep, or laid on their sides to encourage more root growth; zucchini will also need to be covered.

We will see.

June 9

Bought 4 brocoflower, 4 savoy cabbage, 5 tomatoes (Early Girl, Sweet 100 cherry, Lemon Boy, Big Beef, Sweet Chelsea cherries), and space miser zucchini from Lisky’s. Planted all of them around mid day also planting a pumpkin from the compost pile, and thinning some volunteers that were worked in with the compost.

Watered for about 25 minutes.

September 29

Picked tomatoes 7 1/2 pounds of green and pulled plants. Had a heavy frost last night, down to 25 in the morning. All the gourd and pumpkin plants are wilted. Brocoflower, cabbage, arugula are looking good. Also harvested three potatoes, and one zucchini (not three potato plants, but three potatoes total and one zucc total this year).

Amy is making pickled green tomatoes, green tomato pie and green tomato chutney.

Zoe and I picked the pears, not getting as many as I thought we would: the young robins, however, really like us.

As far as the tomatoes went: Amy liked the flavor of the Sweet Chelsea, but they were too big to be bite size; I liked the Sweet 100s, and so did the girls; the Lemon Boy did not do well. We had three ripen, but they didn't really look good, brown spots, etc.; the Big Beef were successful and pretty tasty as were the Early Girl.

My thoughts for next year: two Big Beef, two Sweet 100s, two Early Girls, and one or to experiments.

A few weeks ago, we planted arugula, basil, and lettuce. The basil and lettuce either were eaten immediately, or never germinated. The arugula is about 1 1/2 - 2” tall.

A Poem by Zoe

Little One Went Out to Play

Little One went out to play.
What did she see on this sunny day?
A bee, that is what she saw:
bzzz, bzzz, bzzz
What did she see next?
What did she see next?
A fox, that is what she saw next.
A bee and a fox went out to play:
bzzz, bzzz, bzzz.
Bee and a fox and Ron went out to play
what did they see?
what did they see?
They saw Big Ron,
that is what they saw.

by Zoe

Tule Lake, Butte Valley Fair

Well, we had a pretty good day: Nana (my mom) spent the night last night. We had dinner with Monte and Debbie (Papa Murphy's). Then this morning, we got ourselves going at 8:45 and headed to the Klamath Grill. After a delicious (though not spectacularly nutritious) breakfast, we headed to the Y soccer fields. We had pictures today and I am happy to say that our team was very organized and it took no time at all to get our pictures taken.

The flip side, is that if you get in and get out with pictures, then you have 45 minutes until your game starts. The kids did well entertaining themselves kicking goals in the big goal posts. We worried a little about them wearing themselves out before the game even started, but they were fine.

The game went well. We don't really keep score, but...out team won. We have a pretty old team (mostly four year olds, and one who will turn five in three weeks. Let me tell you, there is a huge difference between three and four year olds when it comes to soccer. Let's say that we feel fortunate to be on the winning side, but expect that any day, we will be crushed.

After soccer, we high-tailed it home to get Zia to bed (her usual nap time is around 11:45)

She slept for about an hour, which is about an hour less than she usually sleeps. So, we got Zoe up from her lie-down, loaded up after some snacks, and headed to the Tule Lake Fair.

We had a great time at the fair. Zoe was nothing but great, never negative in the least. Zia loved everything: at first she was hesitant about the animals, but after a bit, wanted nothing more than to go from goat to goat to sheep to pig and pet them all. Both of them were very cute.

There was a great kids section at the fair this year: kids could pump water, dig for potatoes, make butter, milk a model cow, play in corn-sand and generally have a good time being kids and learning about agriculture. We really liked that part, but then we are nerds who like to learn stuff.

After looking at all the animals and most of the exhibits, we drove back toward Klamath Falls, on the way stopping at the Polar Bear in Merril to have an ice cream cone. We sat at a picnic table under the enormous American flag and had a great time eating, vanilla, chocolate and swirl ice cream cones. We stopped by Grocery Outlet to pick up some dinner (and many other assorted goodies) then, well fed, put the girls down for their long winter (late summer) nap.

All in all, a very good day.

Pictures to follow.