Tag Archives: Weather

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When Nothing Seems to Do the Trick: Home Grown Gardening Database

Record Keeping

I started this blog to help me keep track of what I planted when, what worked and what didn’t.  I’m not one for keeping notes on paper and at the time I started this I couldn’t find software that I liked that did what I wanted.  I recently looked again as it has been years since I last browsed the offerings. I did like an Android program called Garden Time.   I’m on a trial now and may end up purchasing it but it still isn’t exactly what I am after.   I auditioned a couple of other programs for the desktop rather than the phone and nothing really did what I wanted. I gave up and decided to build a web based version using a mySQL database.  I’ve put together tables for plant types, varieties, plantings etc.  I still have to build a harvest table.  In addition to the blog posts I take photos with my phone whenever I do anything so filling the entries should be fairly easy if I ever get the time to finish it.  I haven’t done any of the coding yet but have most of the variety table filled using a db tool called Navicat.   I’ve also downloaded and imported historical weather data.  Not garden specific but close enough to give me something to play with.  Eventually I’ll probably incorporate info in the tables with the blog somehow even though exactly what that will look like has yet to be determined.

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Spring has Sprung

Last year was so hot, watering was pretty much a daily event in the raised beds and Rockfarm. This year many of us are adding some peat moss in hopes of a bit more water retention on those hot days. Hopefully it won’t retain too much water if we have a wetter growing season.

Impatient for some lettuce, I picked up a couple of packs of lettuce from the local garden supply. I opted for a variety of red, green and speckeled. In addition to the lettuce I picked up a 4″ pot of Sorrell. It has a nice lemony flavor and the young leaves are a great addition to salad. Its a perennial so it will be around for some time…I hope.

A half row of peas went in on the end where the garlic was last year. Some folks are adding boards at the end of their plots to hold the soil in. I think I will too.

The spinach I planted last month doesn’t seem to be doing much so I put in another 1’x5′ section of Palco. This variety didn’t bolt as soon as bloomsdale did last year. The leaves are larger and paler than Bloomsdale. They stay tender and tasty even when they get large.

Potatoes were never something I could grow in Kentucky without using boatloads of poison. The colorado potato beetle decimated the crop both years I attempted to grow them. I even tried the Bt that was supposed to work on CPB to no avail. Now this was a number of years back so perhaps things have improved since then. Here at Rockfarm in WA the potatoes I’ve seen growing seem to be doing fabulous so I thought I’d give them another shot. I opted for some Russian Banana fingerling potatoes. I decided to dig a couple of ditches, plant them deep and replace the soil from the trench as they grow. Since potatoes are formed along the stems planting them deep is the way to go.

I ended up pulling the Roquette. It was too bitter for my liking. As with the greens from last year I dug it into the soil and will plant over it later.

The cutting lettuce and mesclun blend I planted last month are coming up nicely. We had a couple of hard rains not long after I seeded the two 1’x5′ beds and I was worried the seed would all be washed to one side of the bed. It appears there was a little condensing of the bed but not too much.

The overwintering kale has shot up and will be ready for a picking soon. This year I want to get it out sooner. Last year I let it go to flower in hopes of getting more leaves and all I ended up with was more flowers. :-/

As expected the Arugula has made itself at home. The few plants I put in the ground last year has reseeded into a thick mat of seedlings. I’ll have quite a harvest in the coming weeks.