Garden Tasks This Week

As I worked in the garden in the cool of the morning, it occurred to me I could record some of my garden tasks—for your review and my recollection.

Week ending 8/12/23
Fertilize tomatoes with liquid fish-seaweed fertilizer.
Add drop of food grade mineral oil to new corn silks.
Side-dressed tomatoes and peppers with one tablespoon epsom salts per foot of height.
Fertilized rhubarb with organic all-purpose fertilizer.
Bt to all bush beans for worms eating the leaves.
Week ending 11/27/22
Picked up six huge bags of liquidambar leaves from a friend’s tree. Soon we’ll “mulch” them with the lawnmower for easy storage and addition to the compost bin.
Dispersed rainwater from storage to water the vegetable and native plant gardens.
Week ending 11/20/22
Harvested three butternut squash and prepared the bed for arugula and annual flowers.
Week ending 11/13/22
Rake pine needles at another location after heavy winds for use as mulch
Week ending 11/6/22
Empty rain tanks in advance of coming storm. Set out barrels to catch garage metal roof runoff
Turn compost bin and sift compost for use in gardens
Tie up marionberry canes to trellis (late)
Gather bags of liquidamber leaves from a friend and turn to mulch with lawnmower
Week ending 10/23/22
Reseeded some areas of mesclun lettuce due to disruption by moles.
Thinned beet seedlings leaving one since, unless you plant mono-germ beets, each seedball/fruit will produce two to four seedlings
Turned and sifted compost for use in raised beds
Continued to fertilize seedlings with half-strength fish-seaweed liquid fertilizer at every watering.
Removed some of the green pepper plants and trimmed flowers to hasten ripening of peppers. Cauliflower is ready to go in the ground
”Moved up” broccoli seedlings to one quart containers while I wait for space to open in the garden.

Week ending 10/16/22
Covered broccoli with bird netting to keep out cabbage moths
Continued planting cool season crops
Removed strawberry plants to ready the bed for new plants
Turned compost bin and sifted compost
Tied up the marionberry canes

Week ending 9/25/22
Prepared parts of other raised beds for planting
Sifted compost from one of the bins
Prepared one raised bed for snow peas, beets, carrots and onions
Harvested more dried cannellini beans for shelling and a winter soup
Dispersed some of the 400 gallons of rainwater collected from a storm of 0.6 inches
Removed the last two tomato plants
Cleaned and stored stakes, cages, trellises for next season
Continued to plant seeds for later transplant to the garden. (See What I’m Planting Now)

Week ending 9/18/22
Removed two of four tomato plants
Shelled ‘Emerite’ pole beans for saved seeds
Collected large bags of coffee grounds from Starbucks to mix in with compost
Dispersed some of rainwater collected from a week ago. About 400 gallons remain in rain tanks.

Week ending 9/11/22
Shelled the dried cranberry beans.
Smoothed over about 25 holes dug by opossum(s) one night. Grubs are irresistible and I had just lifted the screens protecting open soil.
Removed spent marionberry canes.

Week ending 9/4/22
Planted seeds for transplant to the cool season garden in early October:
Romanesco ‘Veronica’, Broccoli ‘Jacaranda’ and Broccoli ‘Premium Crop.’

Week ending 8/20/22
Fertilized the tangerine tree and removed diseased leaves.
Showered the citrus trees, approximating a summer downpour to wash dust and pests from the leaves.
Removed spent marionberry canes.
Discovered and disposed of a half dozen tomato hornworms.
Inventoried my cool season seeds and prepared an order.
Prepped seeds trays for planting brassica seeds soon.

Week ending 8/13/22
Washed the powdery mildew from the zucchini, butternut squash, zinnias and cucumbers—something I’m doing most days.
Treated the tomatoes and peppers to a solution of Epsom salts—2 tablespoons per gallon. I watered the tomatoes at the base of the plants and gave the peppers a foliage drench of the solution.
Harvested the first dried seed pods of the cannellini beans.
Harvested the driest of the cranberry bean pods and laid them out in the garage for drying.
Selected a few of the best zinnia blooms to dry for later seed collection. A black garden tray turned upside down seems perfect to allow air circulation under the clipped blooms.
Added compost around the cannellini bean plants—sort of hilling them up.
Deep watered the ‘Babcock’ peach tree and ‘Dorsett Golden’ apples. Thinned the fall apple crop.