Love Them Berries

The long awaited raspberry patch came into full production last week and the yields and quality are very good ! Last summer I opened a straight trench bed in what is probably the only remaining section of our yard without significant sub-surface limestone deposits. We put in five Jewel blacks and five Encore reds alternating them along the bed.

So far, the blacks have out-performed the reds. They come on in clusters of five fruits going from red to black as they ripen. The reds on the other hand seem to come in clusters of three and go from white to red as they ripen. The blacks definitely have more flavor and are sweeter at least for this first year. Needless to say we are seeing about 75% black to 25% red in any one picking. Summer bearing floricane-type bushes only produce fruit on second year canes. So our current production is coming off the canes that came up last summer right after we put in the bed. The new canes for next year (primocanes) are shooting up right now and some are huge. Perhaps we will get more reds next year.

Luckily we have seen very little insect damage; only an occasional cluster of leaves with a Japanese beetle or two and so far no sign of stink bug infestation which is very surprising since I've seen them on some of the wild berries on the edge of our property. Raspberries are very tender so I would imagine they would have no problem feeding off of them. Also no sign of any significant bird damage, and our ground-hog seems to be content with the mulberry bush.

The real fun will be in a few weeks when the harvest is complete. The second year canes will have to be removed and the primocanes thinned to make room for next years production. Like any bramble weed, the bed is already out of control so it will be tedious picking through the canes and cutting out the right ones. Right now we continue to pick and freeze and most will go to jam and fruit leather.

Seed Rows

Well the strawberries are about finished for the season and the raspberries are just about ready to come in. What an excellent transition between fruits. I can't wait to get all of this fruit processed into jam and dried fruit leather.


The seed rows are sprouting in the main garden. We have string beans, lima beans, carrots, beets, squash, and cucumbers. We've also had several cuttings of lettuce although last week's heat wave was not particularly beneficial for a spring crop. Once the pole beans are up six inches or so we'll do a good mulching with straw and put up the bean wall. The Johnny's basket-weave system is working well for the tomatoes so far. We'll have to see how it does when the plants get really big and heavy fruits start to develop.


The herb garden is coming in well too and the central butter fly bush is about to start blooming. All and all life is good, and the spring rains look to have put us back by only about a month or so.

First Harvests

It certainly has been an interesting spring. The recent monsoons really put a hold on planting but we were rewarded with previous hard work by this week's arrival of the strawberry crop. The first pull was actually last week along the outer south-west edge of the bed. I guess these are the first to receive the most direct sun. Yesterday we were able to collect several quarts throughout the bed and I expect the next two weeks to be peak production times. The berries are of excellent size and quality. However they aren't quite as sweet as last year and I suspect this is due to all of the rain we've had.



The tomatoes went in two weeks ago and I had to plant them in the rain (and in the mud) because they were out-growing their pots and I was getting tired of having to water them and shuttle them between the lights and the few periods of direct sun we received between storms. So far they are doing well and I hope to begin the basket-weave support system on the main line in the next few days. I got this idea off of the Johnny's site, and it looks like a convenient method of support especially for the heirloom varieties that don't tend to have the vine strength of the hybrids. I'll be cutting down my older concrete wire cages for the Romas and the grape tomatoes. Unlike years past where early intentions were noble but not followed, I plan to aggressively prune our vines this year.



Also this year we decided to go almost completely heirloom except for one hybrid that will be our emergency backup just in case we have a major crop failure with the heirlooms. This year's hybrid is Johnny's Defiant PhR. This mid-size slicer is advertized as being bred for both disease resistance as well as taste. Since it is a PhR strain, it will be interesting to see how it does with late season blight since that is a common occurrence in all local gardens. The basket-weave support system along with aggressive pruning should also help with the blight situation.

This year's heirlooms are our old stand-by Pruden's Purple along with Valencia, and Striped German. For drying and juice, we are sticking with our old favorite Roma VFN. And for the grapes we are trying two new varieties this year; Sugary, the 2005 AAS winner, and Tinkerbell which is reported to be a mini plum.



And this will be the first year of production for the much anticipated raspberry bed. Last spring we planted five reds and five blacks alternating along a single straight row and as expected this "weed" bramble is definitely doing it's thing. If the number of flower clusters is any indication of yield, we are in big trouble. Maybe this year it will finally be time to try some country fruit wines using some of the excess strawberries and raspberries.

Spring Monsoons

Things are a bit behind with the garden plot this spring. The trail has been calling and the grass suddenly needs mowing. The spring monsoons have made it nearly impossible to get in and do the final work-up with the tiller in order to begin planting. I did manage to do an additional shallow work-up to try and help all of those oak leaves rot in. The leaves are really helping to hold in the moisture. Of all years, this was probably the worst to have added in oak leaves but I just couldn't pass them up. It will probably be another week or so before the final deep till.

The tomato seedlings are also about two weeks behind schedule but this is not a bad thing. They got a little frost nipped last year and I actually lost a few so I don't mind not being the first kid on the block with a ripe tomato by the Forth of July this year. I'll still have plenty of time to transplant them to larger pots before moving into the garden.

I am sure glad I was able to get the strawberry bed taken care of early on. They are doing well and beginning to bloom. We'll keep our fingers crossed but even more rain is predicted for tonight and tomorrow.

First Day of Spring 2011

Today was the first day of meteorological spring and it was a gorgeous day so I figured it was time to wake up the strawberry patch. Surprisingly, the garden was fairly dry so I also went ahead and started working in all of those shredded oak leaves Dad gave me. This was a real chore taking nearly all of the afternoon. Once they begin to rot down some, I'll do one final deep till and the plot should be ready to go for spring planting.

The berry patch survived the winter in great shape and some of the crowns were already sending up new leaves through the straw blanket I put down last fall. I pulled off the straw, mowed the leaves down being careful not to hit the crowns, aerated between the crowns with a turning fork, added in some limestone and a pound of 10-10-10, and then topped it all off with an inch or so of chopped straw. This should get things moving for a second year of production.

I was supposed to have had lettuce seedlings ready to go into the black film by now but life has been busy so I hope to get the plant lights up from the basement this week. The raspberries are just beginning to show some buds too and I can't wait to see how things turn out for their first year of fruit production.

The First Work-up

The incessant winds that have battered our area for nearly three full days finally subsided during the night and the morning broke sunny and warm. With showers predicted for tomorrow, I thought it might be a good idea to see how the garden plot was doing. Even with all of the wind we have had the soil still was fairly damp (no shit; its February 20th for crying out loud!). Anyway, I just had to get the hoe in there and get a small area worked-up for some early lettuce seedlings I hope to plant by March 15th. Some pelleted limestone, a handful of 10-10-10, and some shredded leaves, and it was ready to go. I covered part of the area with black plastic to help it begin to warm up a bit over the next few weeks.



I had been holding onto a scrap of concrete reinforcing wire that I had left over from making tomato cages a few years back and it was just crying out to be made into a tunnel so I covered it with heavy-duty poly. I'll stake that down over the area once it is planted and block the ends with bags of leaves. I'll also include a few gallon milk jugs full of water. These will soak-up heat during the day and radiate it back out to the tunnel during the night. That should give me sufficient frost protection to get some lettuce by late March and also offer a nice area to harden-off other seedlings for spring planting.

Varieties for 2011

Here is a breakdown of the seed varieties we intend to trial this year. Some selections are based on past experience and they will be described in detail later as they are planted.

Tomatoes
Roma VFN (for juice)
Defiant (F1, determinant; catastrophic failure insurance)
Sugary (grape)
Tinkerbell (grape)
Pruden's Purple (indeterminate heirloom)
Valencia (indeterminate heirloom)
Striped German (indeterminate heirloom)

Lettuce
Johnny's Allstar Gourmet mix

Beet
Red Ace (F1)

Carrot
Chantenay
Hercules (F1)

Cucumber
Marketmore 76
Alibi (F1 pickling)

String Beans
Brittle Wax Yellow (bush)
Trionfo Violetto (purple pole bean)

Lima Beans
TBD

Summer Squash
Raven (F1; zucchini)
Zephyr (F1; yellow)

Pepper
Flavorburst (yellow bell)
Karma (red bell)
Atris (red horn shaped)
Orangesicle (orange horn shaped)
Sweet Pickle (mini multicolor for pickling)

Herbs
Red Rubin Basil
Genovese Basil
Leaf Parsley (dark green italian)
Chives
Bunching onions