Kersey Gardens Update - June 10, 2012 ...

Well underway now in the Gardens 2012 - actually had the unpleasant joy of having to weed out the raised beds the yesterday (couldn't have too many weeds in the pictures, duh ...)  Thank goodness for some good Revive and Scott's Max Green Fertilizer to get the grass to green-up before snapping this picture - almost fairway quality ...

The potato grow bags are going crazy!  We started them this year much earlier than we've done in previous years.  On the last day before I was to leave the first flowers were just starting to blossom on the russet potatoes - second up from the bottom on the photo below.  These potato grow bags that I found three years ago from Gardener's Supply Company have worked really well and are a great way to grow potatoes in a contained space.

Caesar's Salad anyone??  Kerry's little salad garden that she helped plant in the upper raised bed really took off and both her and Laura (and I'm thinking others as well) have been enjoying the fresh Romaine lettuce over the past couple weeks.

The main corn and bean bed is coming up ... You can see the bean sprouts and corn plans pushing through about 7 days after Kerry dropped the seeds in the ground.  I did cheat on the six plants in the first row (left side of the picture), picking those up at the greenhouse and dropping them in.

 

The pole beans are off and running, should be climbing in about a week.  Hopefully this year we'll work to pick them a bit earlier.  For the past couple of years we've let them grow a bit longer and they've gotten very stringy and chewy.  This year we're hoping to harvest them a bit younger.

Of course the raised beds are taking hold with the tomato and pepper plants growing well.  The Big Beef tomato plant in the middle spot of Bed #3 is already four rungs high on the support.  The Mountain Fresh Tomato plant (front spot of Bed #3 shown below) already has fruits growing.

Can't wait for the first Roma Tomatos for my yacos.  Both the Roma plants in Bed #2, middle spot and in the rear raised bed have large fruits already growing - just waiting for them to ripen up.  Have to mention that you can also see (in the first picture below) Kerry's Carrots are sprouting along the right edge.

Not to be forgotten, the pepper plants are going well - but they typically don't take off and grow like crazy until we get into the dog-day, 90 degree consistent heat of summer.  The one exception is the Sweet Bananarama plant that already has three peppers growing at full side - probably will make an early delivery to the Van Leuvens.  Surprisingly, we also found the first sweet belle pepper growing this week (third picture below).

The Murder's Row Pepper (containers) are struggling a bit.  These are usually smaller plants in the pots, and with that they sometimes get more water than they really need and I think that slows them down.  From the bottom to top, after the Patio Tomato plant, is a Chayenne pepper, then a hot jose' jalepeno, then a Thai Pepper plant, followed by a tabasco pepper and then two Fogelberg Habanero plants.  Nothing in that row that doesn't require some serious stomach anti-acids.  The Patio Tomato plants on the ends of each row have really taken off (much to my surprise) - first time I've had success with those.  We'll see how many fruits these are able to produce.

My Wife's Favorite Color is Yellow !!!

A Rose by Any Other Name Would Still Smell as Sweet

End of May, and the first roses of the year from Laura's Rose Garden are in full bloom.

Peace (Pink & Yellow)

Abraham Lincoln (Red) Rose

Pope John Paul II (White) Rose

In honor of those at Columbine, here's a look at our Colorado State flower in it's various different types from the front flower beds.

Yellow Columbine StarBurst

The "Standard" Light Blue Columbine 

Start the Clock !!! The Plants are in the Ground !!!

There are two days I look forward to every year; first is Fantasy Football Draft day, the second is garden planting day.  With that, we're underway ... The Kersey Gardens 2012 is planted and now the rest is up to Mother Nature

"The Kersey Gardens 2012"

No chance of there not being enough fertilizer this year for stuff to not grow well.  Dug up all the beds, amended them with Eko-Compost (good stuff), sprinkled in granular Miracle Grow and then lightly mixed it in - no deeper than about 4-6".  After dropping the plants into the soil, we hand watered all the plants with a souped up mix of water and liquid Miracle Gro.

"Corn & Bean Bed"

Peaches & Cream (my wife's favorite). Potato bags up along the fence - Russet, Red and White Potatos growing within. The pole bean tower is in the upper left hand corner, and we'll have a row of bush beans along each edge of bed. This photo also shows Kerry's salad bed on the left side and the Van Leuvenator Banana Pepper bed on the right. 

the "Van Leuvenator" Sweet &  Hot Banana Pepper Plants

the Van Leuvenator Banana Pepper bed holds a trio of hot banana pepper plants in the top tier, and three sweet banana pepper plants in the lower tier.

Frog Garden Beds 1, 2 and 3 

Frog Garden Bed #1 - Pepper Bed

Frog Garden Bed #2 - Vining Tomatoes

 

Frog Garden Bed #3 - Beef Steak Tomatoes

The #1 Frog Garden Bed (closest in the top photo) contains 8 total pepper plants, the middle four of which are multi-colored sweet belle peppers.  The two on the left of the photo are "Jose Jalepeno on Steeek" plants (you have to be a fan of Jeff Dunham to understand).  On the very right side of the picture, you can see the Fogelberg Ghost Pepper Plant - the hottest known pepper in the world

The two further raised beds house the tomato plants.  Frog Garden Bed #2 houses the vining tomatos, including Roma tomatoes in the middle - my personal favorite in the middle.  In the far bed (#3) are the Beef Steak and Mountain Fresh tomatoes. 

Along each side of the tomato beds, I planted Nanches carrots from seed tape (Perry & Morse).  Last year, Kerry liked these so much she'd go out pluck them straight from the ground, rinse them off with the hose and eat them raw in the garden.

Raised Bed #4 and Colburn's Murder's Row Container Garden

The left row in the raised bed houses the Giant (sweet) Belle Peppers - Marconis and Big Berthas.  The right side of the photo are additional tomato plants.  Along the outside, in the container garden, we'll find Habanero peppers, Thai Peppers, Cheyenne Peppers and Hot Jalepeno Peppers.

 

We did bring back the everbearing strawberries this year, but instead of filling the entire low raised bed (#4) like we used to have, I've filled three containers with Ft. Laramie everbearing strawberries.  We'll see how those do, and if have any chance of getting some before Kerry gets at them.

So with that ... and the help of an automated watering system ... we leave the growing in the hands of lots of sun, good fertilizer and Mother Nature. At least for the start of the year, I've set the plants to get watered every other day. When the temperature cranks up into the 90s, I might have to change to daily.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year !!!

No, it's not Christmas (yet).  It's the first trip to the greenhouse to find this year's plants - a little bit like the mother ship calling you home.  My wife just dreads this day, shaking her head as I fill up the garden wagon with plant after plant.

People ask me all the time - are you nuts?  why in the world do you grow all that? there's only three of you, and you don't even like peppers? Well first of all, yes, I'm probably nuts but the simple answer - it's fun, it's relaxing and a sense of satisfaction. Nothing real fancy. However, the folks down at work do tend to really appreciate the Farmer's Market that usually happens in early September.

This year's first stop was to Miller's Greenhouse in Greeley.  Every year I seem to find really good stuff there, well tended, strong looking plants.  And this year was no different, $100 bucks later we left with three flats of flowers, peppers and tomatoes.  We'll always find our way to the Lowe's and Home Depot, but more times that not you can find unique and different stuff when you go to the greenhouses - this year's surprise - a Ghost Pepper, commonly known as the hottest pepper in the world.

So I spent most of Thursday prepping the raised beds.  I'm using Eko's Compost again this year to amend the soil in all the beds.  It's good stuff - not too hot, but very fertile.  Usually comes in bads about $5 each at Lowes/Home Depot.  If you ever really need HOT compost, better for churning into the ground rather than containers, the Home Depot generic brand is awesome.  Great stuff, very hot !!

Turned over all the soil (pretty deep in all the beds), spread about two bags across the top, and then only worked it in gently (not wanting the good nutrients to get buried deep where the plants can't really get at 'em).  Before planting, I then added Miracle Gro's Vegetable and Tomato fertilizer - the granular kind - across the top.

And with that the beds are ready; 18 raised bed pepper spots, 10 tomato spots, cucumbers on a climbing trellis and 4 rows of carrots, 3 hanging baskets for ever bearing strawberries, 5 upside down planters for tomatoes and peppers, and 10 containers ... all ready to house this year's hopeful bumper crop.

And They're Off !!!

Friday, (the) 13th of April ... Not real sure that planting anything on Friday the 13th is a good idea ...

The garden is a mess ... stuff everywhere ... it's my fault, I didn't make it home last year in the fall to do the annual full clean-up like I usually do ... The yard is coming along pretty well ... Woke it up two weeks ago with a strong dose of Scotts Turf Builder and Revive ... Went away for a couple of weeks, came back and it's already greening up everywhere.

Hoping that spraying Round-Up (didn't use the extended stuff, just the regular) on the thistle weed network that seems to have developed under the garden will knock them down some ...  First 48 hours have been promising, really seeming to kill them off ...

Of course, the weather is suppose to get pretty crappy this weekend, meaning not as much time as I'd like out cleaning stuff up ... Little miffed about that.

Was able to get the potatoes planted in the grow bags today ... three kinds; russet potatoes (perfect for baked potatoes, and my favorite), white superiors and reds.

Potato Bags, right after planting

 

Kerry's salad garden in the raised bed is doing pretty well - two weeks in, romaine and leaf lettuce.

Kerry's Salad Garden (Romaine & Leaf)

Couldn't help but post at least a couple pictures of KerryLynn and I starting the first plants of the year - her salad garden.  Highlight of my year is when we get out there together and start planting the garden.

 

With the weather moving in this weekend, and the chance of some really good moisture, I dumped a whole bag of RichLawn Turf food on the front and back yard this afternoon.  Get that soaked in and the yard should really take off.  Got the yard mowed and cleaned up first, and now it should have a chance to really green up.

Ton of work to go.  Updates to come.