Shively Vegetable Garden

Pond #3

2010-04-18T08:08:00.003-04:00

Pond Rocks. Thanks Kim!!!

Pond #2

2010-04-18T08:04:00.003-04:00

More pond updates.

Pond#1

2010-04-18T07:59:00.002-04:00

We recently built a pond in the bach yard. Here are some pictures of the progress.

Truck Blow Dry

2009-05-08T19:57:00.002-04:00

Pretty funny video of my neighbor Joe using the gas blower after washing his truck. You dont see that in the big city!!!

Spring Shower

2009-05-08T19:38:00.004-04:00

We had one hell of a spring shower today. I would guess 3 inch's in less than 2 hours. The field looked like the Ohio, and spilled over into our Tomato patch a bit. Will have to see how everything survived in the morning.

Veggie Time

2009-05-06T19:47:00.005-04:00

Back to the veggies!!! We put the first patch of cucumbers in the ground tuesday night. Its a little early, but they were about to bust out of there peat pots. Hope they make it! Still have 18 more to hit the ground.

The 1st batch of brocoli is starting to form heads. Maybe 2 weeks till ready to eat!!!

Derby Week

2009-05-06T19:00:00.003-04:00

Its been way to long since my last post. Derby week was a blast!!!! Damm that Calvin Borel!!!

Here are a couple of pics. Little Cammeron just loves to run up and down the paths. He is picking up on all the going ons. Now if we can just get him to pull weeds. He is the perfect height.

The other pic is me weed eating the border. Have to cut down thru the dirt to keep the pesky crap grass out!!!

Soggy Sunday

2009-04-19T19:36:00.002-04:00

Well, it was a nasty rainy Sunday. We had a great Saturday, actually got a little sunburn. Here is an update on the broccoli patch and cold frame. The broccoli is doing well. The second batch is in the ground and growing well. WE have a new organic spray to keep the cabbage worms off, hope it works. The cold frame is filling up. Have about 1/2 of the tomato's in there now. Its been working great, but I'm thinking greenhouse next year.

New Plants

2009-04-19T19:12:00.003-04:00

Here is a look at some of the new plants we have added this year.The first pic is the strawberry's. We planted 50, they are doing great, most have new leaves after 1 week. The second pic is the asparagus patch. Ricky thought we had a bunch of gophers, but thats the way I read to plant them. Fresh asparagus sounds so good!!!

Beets

2009-04-19T19:07:00.002-04:00

The beets that Jennifer and Ricky planted are starting to grow. They are a pretty purple. I dont know if I like beets, but I think they will love the new raised bed.

New Plantings

2009-04-12T21:27:00.003-04:00

These two pictures are pretty funny. We have tomato plants blooming in the cold frame, just a little bit early. The other is our freshly planted strawberry's. First try at these, have 50 in the ground, bet they turn out good.

Good weekend of work.

2009-04-12T21:19:00.002-04:00

We got a good bit of work done on our little patch this weekend. Got the second bunch of Broccoli planted, under the row cover fabric. I am checking out the first batch in this pic. We also built a wash table for the garden. Turned out really good.

First Saturday of April

2009-04-05T20:57:00.004-04:00

What a beautiful first Saturday in April. To bad we have two days of 40 deg. weather coming up the next couple of days. You got to love this first picture. Jennifer is painting the barn bench, with plenty of help. Four supervisors critiquing every brush stroke. Someone get them some shovels to lean on!!! Later we had a nice fish fry. The crappie were the best I have ever had.

New Plants and Techniques

2009-04-02T21:01:00.003-04:00

Well, the new Blueberry plants look to be doing really good. They have a good bit of new growth. To bad we have to limit the production the first year, I bet fresh blueberry's taste great. The other pic is the sheltered broccoli plants. There are 36 plants under that cover. They are doing great. I'm really impressed with the fabric cover we are starting to use.

Outdoor Gardening is Kicking in Gear

2009-04-02T20:48:00.003-04:00

Here are a couple of pics of what we have been up to in the garden. Had some spring like weather the last couple of days. The cold frame is filling up quickly, looks like Ricky is right, we need a greenhouse!!! The tomato plants started in late January are damm near 2 ft tall now. If we can keep them growing, we should have Tomatoes by mid May. I also added a second chamber to the compost bin. This should help us turn the compost for quicker production.

Mom's Quilt Show

2009-03-15T20:00:00.003-04:00

Here are a couple of pics from Mom's quilt display at the quilt shop. We practically had a family reunion there on Saturday. The display was very impressive, great job Mom!!!!

New Gardening Techniques

2009-03-15T19:41:00.003-04:00

Here are a couple of pics of some new ( to use) gardening techniques. The first one is our just finished raised bed. We are using fabric row cover over some freshly planted beats. We tryed the row cover on our first batch of radishes, and the covered ones came up well before the uncovered. Looks pretty promising. The other picture is of the early started flowers and herbs in the cold frame. They are doing very well.

Broccoli Plants

2009-03-12T20:31:00.001-04:00

Here is the first batch of broccoli. Came up great, and growing even better. There is nothing like fresh broccoli!!!

Updated Seedling Room

2009-03-12T20:23:00.005-04:00

We have been hard at work in the seedling room. Build two new shelfs to store the new plantings. Just have to hang the lights on the third level. The tomato plants we started early are growing like weeds. Had to put them in some bigger pots. We will see how they do when they hit the dirt in a couple of months. The may be 2ft tall by then.

Is Spring here?????

2009-03-07T21:24:00.002-05:00

We had a beautiful day here in Shively today, near 75 degrees. The storm damage clean up continues, the first pic is the fire pit with a nice stack of logs and branch's. We also got the potato bed tilled, will be planting the Yukon Golds tomorrow!!!!

Seed Starting Update

2009-02-25T20:12:00.002-05:00

Here are some updated pic's of our seed starting. The first is the onions we planted on 1/17. They are doing well, already had to give them a hair cut to stimulate root growth. The second is three different tomatoes. They are doing good, we will see how big they get by planting time. We started them 2 months early. I see them spending some time in the cold frame this early spring.

Seed starting Experiments

2009-02-08T18:18:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of pics of some seed starting experiments we have going. The first one is our first attempt at growing onion transplants from seed. They are doing pretty well, just started a whole flat on Thursday. The second pic is the marigolds we started from seed about 3 weeks ago. They are growing really well.

2009 Storm Cleanup

2009-02-08T18:07:00.002-05:00

Well, we finally had some nice weather here. Its been in the 50's the last two days. I have most of the yard cleaned up, there are about 6 different piles of logs around the yard like the first pic. The rest of the branch's have been halled to the back. Next stop for them is the fire pit.

Ice Storm 2009

2009-01-29T19:53:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of more pic's of the storm damage from Tuesday. The first is the front of the house. The limbs are covering my power line, but its still on. The second is the back side, where the biggest branch's fell.

Winter Hell!!!!!

2009-01-28T20:08:00.004-05:00

Well, we got hit again by bad weather. 3/4" of ice on these tree's is not pretty. Here are a couple of pics. There are Branch's everywhere. Its hit and miss on power. I have power and cable, but both cables have limbs hanging on them. More to come...

Winter storm

2009-01-27T17:41:00.003-05:00

Its a winter wonderland here in Kentucky. We received about 3 inch's of snow last night. All day today we have had sleet and freezing rain. Its supposed to turn to more snow tonight. I hope the power stayes on, 28 degrees right now.

The Garden is all iced over, kind of pretty. The shed is getting some nice sized icicles forming. I am ready for spring.

Small farming

2009-01-25T21:12:00.002-05:00

Wow that looks good. Here is a pic from a blog I follow. Great site, http://tinyfarmblog.com/

They are in Canada and put out this kind of beautiful produce.

I'm sitting here in my winter boredom thinking of things to do next year in the garden. I'm looking into starting up a little co-op this season. Maybe setting up 10 or so people on a every other week vegetable delivery schedule. Something like a old school milk man, but you get fresh vegetables.

More to come on this, I still have to work out my business plan. All I know is, if you could could get baskets full of veggies like this picture I would have all kinds of customers.

Experimental Seed Starting

2009-01-22T20:27:00.003-05:00

Well, its way to early to be starting seeds, but we have several flats of experiments started. The first pic is our trial of saved seeds. From front to back you have: 6 cilantro's ( 2 out of 6 have sprouted), 6 Marigolds (5 out of 6 sprouted), and 6 Black Eyed Susan's (4 out of 6 sprouted). Not to bad of a success rate. The second pic is baby onions coming up from seed. We are trying to raise onions for the first time, so this is promising. They are only 6 days since planting here.

Bird Houses

2009-01-22T20:19:00.002-05:00

Well its cold as hell in Kentucky these days, so I have been working on some new bird houses. Pretty cool plan I found, based around a coffee can surronded by wood. I made four, now looking at building some bat box's.

2009-01-15T21:35:00.002-05:00

Well, we couldnt set up the seed starting room without starting some plants. We saved some seeds from last years Marigolds and Black Eyed Susans. We were wondering if the would sprout. Good news so far, 5 days in and we have growth.

We saved several thousand seed from last year, so there should be flowers everywhere this year.

I think we are going to go crazy this weekend. We are going to start early plants for everything. See how big we can grow tomatoes and other plants under grow lights. We dont have anything else to do, damm its 8 degrees outside...

2009-01-15T21:28:00.003-05:00

Me and Ricky got the new seed starting room set up this past weekend. We moved from my spare bed room to the basement. We have two 4 ft tables set up and a work table. We have already talked about adding on levels. Shit could get out of control with our winter boredom......

2009-01-12T20:06:00.002-05:00

Its been way to long since my last post. There hasn't been much going on in the garden the last couple of months. We have just been prepping the ground and planning for the new years crops..

The first shipment of seeds showed up the other day, here is a pic of what came in.

Much more to come, we are trying a bunch of new plants this year!!!!

2008-10-09T19:22:00.003-04:00

Here is a little bit of the fall harvest. We tried some late beats, and from what I hear they are pretty good. These two jars are going to Mary Helen this weekend. We have also been vacuum sealing and freezing some broccoli and alot of green peppers. My freezer is about full, and more peppers to come. Time to start handing these out. Thanks to Judy Hartlage for the vacuum sealer, I got in 4 more rolls of bags today.

2008-10-09T19:18:00.002-04:00

Here is a pic of our lettuce patch. It is growing really well. The bright green is black Simpson, I think it taste really good. The dark green is romaine. I haven't tryed it yet, but will in the next week. We also planted spinach, but it didn't do to well. I will have to read up on it.

2008-10-09T19:13:00.002-04:00

Its been too long since my last update. Its been pretty busy around here, cleaning up the garden and storm damage from hurricane Ike. We have had very good success with fall broccoli, ever plant has produced a nice size head. I cant believe that the marigolds are still blooming. Next year I am going to plant some in every bed.

Hurricane Ike Storm Damage

2008-09-22T20:10:00.003-04:00

Here is a video I took of the damage we received from hurricane Ike. Its hard to describe, but 3 hours of 70+ mile an hour winds is pure hell. We were lucky, no one was hurt and minimal damage. Thanks to all my buddy's that helped out with clean up. Speaking for Jennifer, it means alot to both of us. True friends come together in times like this, like we all did last week. By the way, the campfire is at my house this fall. Thanks

Our new freind, the owl

2008-09-10T19:54:00.003-04:00

We have a new visiter to the garden. Some kind of owl, we are trying to find out what kind. Rick spotted it in the tree and took this picture. If you double click on the picture you will get a better view.

2008-09-10T19:43:00.002-04:00

Its been awhile since our last post, been on vacation in Cocoa Beach. Got lots of sun and did some fishing. As you can see, me and Ricky didnt catch much. Rick's dad Dickie (J.R.) had the big catch of the week, a 22" Black Drum. What a beautiful fish. We had a great time, thanks Dickie and Joy!!!!!

2008-08-21T21:22:00.002-04:00

I have been slaking on updating this site, kind of the late summer blues. We did pick 11 lbs of cherry tomatoes Monday night. That's a ton of cherry tomato's. We need a vacation, 8 days away. Nine nights in Cocoa Beach will be great. Many more post to come.

2008-08-10T20:30:00.002-04:00

Here is a new addition to the garden. A plastic owl to scary the squirrels away. There are two of them. They seem to be doing some good, though its there first day on the job. Thanks Mom.

2008-08-10T20:21:00.003-04:00

Here is a project me and Ricky finished this weekend. Its a cold frame for growing late fall crops and starting spring seedlings. It is 8ft by 4ft deep. We got the clear material from our buddy Rippy, Thanks. I cant wait to eat lettuce and spinach this fall and winter.

2008-08-02T19:53:00.002-04:00

Me and Ricky and Jennifer canned 7 quarts of salsa today. We were going to take pictures of the process, but forgot. Beer may have been involved. Here is the end result, some zesty salsa, with a bit of a kick.

2008-07-23T22:00:00.001-04:00

Here is the first table full of tomatoes waiting to become salsa.Here bye the weekend, its salsa time!!!!

Canning Day

2008-07-20T19:55:00.005-04:00

We had our hottest day of the year today, 97 and

muggy. I suffered through picking 10 gallons of green beans, damn near had heat stroke but got it done. We moved the canner out on the porch, using a propane turkey fryer. It worked great. Better than heating up the whole house.

Summer Salad

2008-07-16T21:28:00.003-04:00

We made a couple of batch's of summer salad tonight. Good stuff. We have messed with the recipe a bit to fit our taste. I like mine with more vinegar and pepper.

Red Potatoes

2008-07-16T21:23:00.004-04:00

Me and Ricky decided to check on the progress of our potatoes tonight. They are just starting to have the vines start to die off, so they still have awhile to grow. We pulled one plant and got this nice batch of red taters. Almost 2lbs of nice looking red potatoes from just one plant. I think we will fry them up tomorrow night, I bet they are taste.

Canning Jars

2008-07-10T21:54:00.004-04:00

Ricky scored a good bit of canning jars the other day. Thanks to Pat Mathews!!!!!!!!! If anyone else has any laying around, we would love to have them. Any jars given to us could be returned full of goodies!!!

Hornworm

2008-07-10T21:40:00.003-04:00

There was an unwanted guest in the garden the other night. I had no idea what this critter was, but my buddy Joe said it looked like a tobacco worm. I did some online research and found out it is a tomato worm, about 3 inch's long and fat as hell. This big fellow is the only one I have found so far, so I hope his relatives will stay away. I would hate to have to start spraying some kind of insecticide on my plants.

Green Beans

2008-07-10T21:34:00.003-04:00

That's 8 pounds of green beans canned, 7 quarts. I'm sure they will be good for the upcoming cookouts or a winter dinner.

2008-07-07T21:38:00.002-04:00

Here is 14 pounds of squash and zucchini. Sounds great, well I picked 12 lbs two days before and another 10 lbs tonight. I think 5 squash and 4 zucchini plants are to many. Im getting tired of pawning off the stuff on all the neighbors. Im taking 15 lbs to work tomorrow, see if anyone will take it.

2008-07-07T21:16:00.003-04:00

Here are some updated pictures from the tomato patch. We have picked 4-5 of uncle Nick's tomatoes, the red ones. The Roma's are still coming in, maybe a week or two. The cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen, just picking 2-3 at a time for now. Here in a week or so, we will have more tomatoes than we know what to do with!!!!!!

2008-06-28T20:53:00.002-04:00

Here is a little video walk thru of the tomatoe patch, starting with Uncle Nicks and ending with the romas.

2008-06-28T19:03:00.002-04:00

Here is a dish I cooked tonight. Grilled some Salmon with lemon pepper and fresh parsley. Then I sauteed some zucchini, onions, garlic, parsley, basil and balsamic viniger. Then I covered it with some Swiss cheese. This was an awesome dinner, and healthy. I cant wait to cook this up for someone else!!!!

2008-06-20T20:52:00.002-04:00

Here are a couple of updated pics from the garden. Uncle nicks tomatoes should be ready in a week or so, they look beautiful. The squash and zucchini are starting to produce well, picked about 18 squash tonight.

2008-06-13T19:44:00.002-04:00

Had my first garden meal of the summer tonight. I cooked some teriyaki noodles for the base, store bought. Then I flash boiled some green beans, broccoli, squash and some frozen onions and peppers. Then I put the veggies in a hot wok of olive oil, garlic, fresh parsley, splash of cider vinegar and splash of lemon juice. Turned out very good, maybe a bit to much vinegar, but still good. I cant wait to try this with some fresh green peppers, carrots, onions and zucchini.

2008-06-08T21:03:00.002-04:00

Everything in the garden is taking off, the plants are loving the sunshine and heat. Here is a pic of 3 happy sunflowers. I love having the color in the garden.

2008-06-02T21:38:00.001-04:00

Here is the radish patch, soon to be followed by tasty carrots. The radishes help break the ground for the carrots to follow.

2008-05-31T20:39:00.003-04:00

Here is the tomato patch, Uncle Nick's. They are loving the sun and warmth. The other pic is an emerging green bean plant. They were planted on Friday of last week.

2008-05-31T20:30:00.002-04:00

Here are a couple of new pic's from the garden. We have finally have had some warm weather, and things are taking off. The yellow onion patch is doing great. The other picture is a head of broccoli ready to be picked. I steamed some a couple of nights ago and it was so good.

2008-05-08T19:54:00.002-04:00

Here is the sunflower patch. They are at several different stages, there are more to come, just put the seeds in the ground. Yes, one little cabbage plant got squeezed out of its patch, it will have to hang out with the sunflowers for the summer.

2008-05-08T19:48:00.002-04:00

Here are some pictures of the broccoli patch. It is doing really good. Its starting to form little heads on some of the bigger plants. Steamed broccoli sounds so good, cant wait. You can also see 10 jalapeno plants to the right. The red potatoes are doing well in front, about to have there stalks covered by our recently finished compost.

2008-05-08T18:49:00.002-04:00

Been a week or so since the last post. Been pretty busy with it being Derby week. Had alot of fun, it is a shame about Eight Bells, at least she past doing what she loved.

Everything is finally planted. Having decent luck so far, did lose a couple of Roma Tomatoes to the cool nights. Also lost almost all of the cucumbers started inside, but they don't transplant well, so lesson learned.

The first picture is the squash plants. Looks like 5 out of six are going to make it. Didn't fair so well with the zucchini, only 2 out of 6 made it.

The second picture is cilantro for the salsa. It seems to grow over night.

2008-04-27T18:42:00.003-04:00

We got alot of planting done this weekend. Planted sixteen cucumber plants, ran some chain link fencing next to them to support the vines. Planted 36 total tomato plants as well. There are 16 of Uncle Nick's heirloom plants, 16 Roma plants grown from seed and 4 cherry tomatoes. Ricky also ran drip irrigation to each plant. It may be hard to see, but the one pic shows the individual sprinkler head that is ran to each plant. This way we can water direct to the roots without wasting any water.

2008-04-27T18:33:00.002-04:00

We got some free mulch the other day. A neighbor had a tree cut down, and they dumped the wood chips in the yard. Little did I know it would be 2 dump truck's full. This picture is about a half of what we started with. We were able to get all of the paths, watermelon/pumpkin/cantaloupe patch's covered. Plenty more to spread.

2008-04-20T20:01:00.004-04:00

Got alot of work done this weekend. The sprinklers for the corn are all set up. There are 2 for the bed, on opposite corners. We set them about 5ft off the ground to get over the corn once its grown. The one picture is Ricky adjusting the spray pattern on the far end sprinkler. We also got a refrigerator for the shed, thanks Jeff, no more trips to the house for cold beer!!!!!!

2008-04-14T19:42:00.000-04:00

Well, I knew we started to early, and here comes some late frost. Funny picture, its not easy to find 40 plus buckets and cans to cover this many plants. They did well the first night, 04/13. Got one more night to go, then things look better. Well the blog is somewhat caught up from what we have started this winter. I will keep adding as we go, enjoy.

2008-04-14T19:32:00.000-04:00

Alright, I though that starting my own plants from seed may be a little of out control. Well, Ricky came up with one to put the seedlings to shame. He came up with a whole irrigation system for the garden. Including a 5 valve system with programmable controller. He is going to set up lawn style sprinklers throughout the garden to cover as needed. Five different zones to take care of the different watering needs of the various plants. Several advantages in this. First is, no moving hoses or forgetting to water!!!! Second is putting water on the plants and not on our walking paths. Some initial investment, but should work great. And after the drought we went through last year, the plants should do great.

2008-04-14T19:20:00.000-04:00

Going to try something new this year, a compost tumbler. Had a compost bin last year ( in pic behind ), it did ok, but the tumbler is supposed to work alot better. I had a 55 gallon plastic drum, we then cut a door and added hinges and a clasp. We but some metal fins on the inside to help the tumbling action. I was going to mount it with a pole running through the middle to turn it, but my assistant gardener, Ricky, suggested putting it on some casters I had sitting around. Great idea, It takes a little work to turn, but the advantage is not having the pole in the middle of the barrell. Its already breaking down into good compost, and it hasnt even been warm yet.

2008-04-14T19:15:00.000-04:00

Finally the self raised broccoli and cabbage are in some dirt. Good luck to them, they are about 1-2 weeks early. At this point, we have about 140 ft of potatoes planted, and 50 ft of yellow and red onions planted. Carrots are on the way, but it is way to moist.

2008-04-14T19:08:00.000-04:00

Here is the side table on 04/05. Broccoli and cabbage are begging to be put outside. Its still a little cold and very wet outside, but they have a date with some dirt today. I would rather see them die outside then under these lights.

2008-04-14T18:58:00.000-04:00

At this point, 03/07, the table is full. Had to add a 2 ft fixture to the left of these 4ft fixtures. Im already thinking about a 2 tear design for next year.

At this point this is a mix of brocalli, cabbage, herbs and some flowers planted in egg cartons. The egg cartons work great!!!

2008-04-14T06:01:00.000-04:00

This tray contains our first crop of cabbage, Oregano, Parsley and Cilantro. Plants were started on 02/10. This picture was taken on 02/23. Everything came up great, oregano was a little slow. To bad we started these way to early, but we are learning.

2008-04-13T20:23:00.000-04:00

We decided to try starting our own veggies from seed this year. We set up a couple of lights/ table/ heating mat in my spare bedroom. This pic is from feb. 16th. Just getting some cabbage, broccali and marigolds going.

2008-04-13T20:03:00.000-04:00

This is my first attempt at doing a blog, so we will see how it goes. I have some catching up to do, so there will be a bunch of post in a couple of days to get things rolling.

Here is my garden last year before the drought. It was very cramped and unorganized. The 2008 garden will not have the same problems!!!