WR's 2017 Spring Garden

ninnymary · Mar 9, 2017

Everything looks so healthy. Dumb question but what is that yellow paper dividing your seedlings? Is it some sort of sticky tape?

Mary

ducks4you · Mar 9, 2017

I never thought about it, but I imagine that there are fewer extra seeds, too.

w_r_ranch · Mar 9, 2017

ninnymary said:
Dumb question but what is that yellow paper dividing your seedlings? Is it some sort of sticky tape?

Not a dumb question at all... yes, they're double sided sticky traps. Periodically white flies become a problem in the greenhouse, so this year I took pre-emptive measures.

Nyboy · Mar 9, 2017

Mary you can make your own sticky traps. Smear honey on yellow colored cardboard.

thistlebloom · Mar 9, 2017

Nyboy said:
Mary you can make your own sticky traps. Smear honey on yellow colored cardboard.

Or Vaseline. Cheaper.

baymule · Mar 10, 2017

Everything is looking good! I have tomatoes in flats putting on their leaves now and peppers coming up. I have been preparing the garden for planting and planted squash seed. Your onions are nice, wish mine looked that good!

w_r_ranch · May 12, 2017

Been pretty busy here. Like last year, planting everything occurred 2 weeks later than normal due to the constant wet conditions, although I finally got a window of opportunity on April 1st.

After all the seeds sprouted, I ordered & spread 28 yards of finely-shredded mulch.

On April 17th, I tilled & formed the row for the cantaloupe, then fertilized, planted the seeds & mulched these rows just before it rained another 2.54". These seeds sprouted on April 21st.

The last of the seeds to be planted were the watermelon, which was finally accomplished on April 20th, after tilling & forming this row. I then fertilized, planted & mulched them.

Did I mention all the rain we've had??? Well because if it, he onions are looking like they did last year, so I'm going to pull them early before they start going bad. I'd hate to miss which is normally the best 6 weeks for growth but it is what it is... On April 23rd, I harvested them & laid them out on the picnic tables in the party barn to start curing.

w_r_ranch · May 12, 2017

On May 2nd, the onions were cured enough to start processing them. After cleaning & sorting them we coarsely chopped 33 lbs. for vacuum packing/freezing (these are used when cooking). After that we select the ones that we will use fresh & the rest were finely sliced before dehydrating them... Dehydrating is an excellent preserving them, concentrating their flavor & sweetness!!! We did a total of 5 batches, storing them in sealed canning jars. Here's a picture of a finished batch:

Next up, were the potatoes, as their tops were dying back. They were harvested a couple of days ago & placed in curing trays down in the 'party barn'. We were somewhat disappointed in this springs harvest as we had only about half the yield that we normally have (only 5 trays). I attribute this to the wet/cool weather that we have had (everything else was exactly the same as past years). The ratio of large/medium/small is consistent with past harvests, just not their numbers...