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On a fine Seattle-area Sunday afternoon, I spent some time building a scarecrow out by the crop circle to (hopefully) deter the deer and birds. We'll see how it works. Actually, from a distance, it's kind of convincing. Of course, close up, you see the head is a shovel. You know, a Fiskars shovel with a lifetime warranty that broke. Click to see a close up of the shovel head ... :)
Continue reading "06/22/2008 - THE SCARECROW IN THE CROP CIRCLE"
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The crop circle has been planted for weeks but our Pacific Northwest region has been cold, rainy and gloomy ever since. The last few days, however, were sunny and near seventy degrees, allowing the tomatoes to flourish and persuading the pre-sprouted corn to shoot up from the soil. I've already got the crop circle staked in preparation for my famous nine-foot tomato plants!
Jim and Stew work the land in Silverdale, finishing the garden in time to share a nice steak dinner afterward. The garden holds one row of tomatoes, five rows of corn and 240 squash and pumpkin plants.
CAN I PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COME IN NOW AND STOP WORKING ON THE GARDEN I PROMISE TO BE A GOOD BOY!
If ever I've felt like I was held hostage or imprisoned, any one of my four gardens makes me feel that way. But incarceration is a good thing ... in reality, you would have to drag me kicking and screaming to get me out of the garden. :)
Jim's technique for growing green beans is often imitated, and he considers that the finest form of flattery. Here, yet again, a swingset has been stripped of swings and fitted with wooden stakes. This year's crop of broad beans will grow up the stakes. The beans will hang down, making harvesting easy. "It's like milking a cow," Jim says, demonstrating how it's done. "Just walk down the middle and milk the swingset. In the end, you get buckets of beans."
Last year, I started my tomatoes from seed on Feb. 20. This year, I was able to wait (although in pins and needles) until a more sensible date. Here, two of the trays sit in the garage under grow lights and heat lamps. Looking forward to a great year for tomatoes!
With four gardens this year, Jim W. Coleman has been busy - but not as busy as he'll be later when it's time to can hundreds of jars of vegetables. Here, you can see tomatoes, many of which are between six and seven feet tall, and growing inches each day!
The Pacific Northwest weather has virtually shut out any chance of stargazing, so I have temporarily converted the St. Wiggles Observatory into a greehouse of sorts. Here, heat lamps keep the observatory warm and lit - a perfect environment for my tomatoes. Hopefully soon, I can move the tomatoes out and the stargazing equipment back in!
This year, my main crop will be tomatoes, same as last year. Seems we can't can enough of them. Here you see the start of the 2007 tomato garden - 24 plants will go into these tires - and there will be four times that many out in the other garden at the back of the property.
Today, I also set the horseradish into the garden. Just thought I would mention that for anyone who might be interested.
WOOHOO! Or, for those with T9 - ZONINO! The garden has had almost a cubic yard of good soil added and has been tilled. Now, the peas have gone in ... so the season has officially started! ZONINO!
With no real place to put a new fruit tree where the deer won't get at it, Jim places a new baby plum tree smack dab in the middle of his asparagus patch. :)
The 2007 garden is now started and is expanding! With today's additions, I had to move the entire garden into my writing studio, pictured above. As it continues to expand, plants will find their way beneath grow lights in the garage as well. Tomato varieties are numerous: Bonnie's Best, Beefeater, Early Girl and Legacy.
WOOHOOOO! I have such a case of spring fever that I even wore my Dickies coveralls to work today ... and got all the JimBob jokes that goes along with it. Saturday, I tilled the garden. Today, I began potting tomato (and other) seeds in the garage where they will sit under grow lights until being moved early in March into the outside greenhouse. Next stop from there, the garden. And then into a canning jar, or directly into my tummy! After not doing a garden at the house last year, I'm more than itchin' to get going this year. This is just one flat out of many - the very early stages. And it's all starting in my garage - where all the good stuff happens...
A look at the Jim W. Coleman garden as it appeared on November 27, 2006. Here, some of the snowfall is melting and the sun creates brilliant streaks over the ground as the morning fog dissipates.
Couldn't resist giving you a peek at the spaghetti sauce. Most of the ingredients in this sauce came from the garden. This little "test batch" resulted in seven scrumptious home-canned pints. Next time, a larger batch will be coming ...
(This photo might take a bit to download (depending on your connection). Sorry for the delay, but you'll download it a LOT faster than I prepared it). This is a before and after shot of the canning I did over the Labor Day weekend, 2006. Look like a lot of work? I also did all this this weekend.
Instead of putting in his own garden this year, Jim W. Coleman helped his father-in-law with his garden in Silverdale, Washington. Here is a current photo of that gardening project. The first pickles and green beans will be canned this weekend.
Because of the sheer volume of landscaping work that needs to get done this summer, Jim decided not to put in a garden at home - surprising everyone, himself included. However, because he can't get gardening out of his blood, he works in his father-in-law's garden and will continue to do so until harvest.
Because of the heavy workload on the house this summer, Jim decided to NOT put in a garden this year, for the first time in his adult life. Instead, the carefully built garden space (scroll down) sits vacant, full of weeds.
However, when Rita (at work) brought in some squash starts and handed them out, Jim couldn't resist. Nor could he resist the inevitable joke: "I wonder whose will be bigger, mine or Mark's?"
Eventually, we all agreed that Jim's would be bigger, Rita's would be sweeter and Mark's would be ... well, dead. Check back later this summer for an update on the squash. This photo shows a small group of them planted in freshly tilled soil. I encourage Rita and Mark to submit digital photos to me from time to time so the mass billions in our world can monitor the contest. And later, we'll have a squash-feed at work. Rita's will be sweet, mine will be big and chunky and Mark's - well, if he doesnt accidentally mow them down, they should be fine. We'll see.
Moving to the Rocket Lane house afforded Jim more room to garden, and better growing conditions. Here is the growth of the 2001 garden, the first serious gardening effort at the new house.
This is a before and after photo of Jim W. Coleman's garden - the photo was taken in 2000, shortly after Jim began work on his prized white picket fence...
Monday was the first day of spring and each year, that excites me because it's gardening time again! This is last year's garden after it was first built and planted...
Jim's bountiful garden as it appeared on Sept. 22, 2002. What a lovely sight! (What a lot of back-breaking WORK!)
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