~Agrilife Update~
As the season quickly draws to a close, and our tomatoes are slowing down, most of the summer garden is still producing well, most especially our peppers and chilies! Whewwww! This awesome harvest of peppers, chilies, eggplant and tomatoes, was donated to needy women’s shelters in the city! : )
~Smooth Criminal Yellow Squash Update~
Our Smooth Criminal yellow squash are growing very fast! We checked all of these vines Wednesday, tied up several. But many of them must have grown 6” or more from Wednesday to Friday! Many tops were hanging low. We had to be very carful easing tops up, pruning off lower leaf stalks and tying.
Its amazing how well all of these yellow squash plants are doing with just that little trickle of water coming out of each micro bubbler. It has been well worth the effort of changing the growing and irrigation methods for this little garden adventure! : )
~Tomato Planting Happy Dance~
A Good Time In The Mater Patch!
“A Snowy Day At AgriLife”
~HOW TO PRUNE ROSE~
EPCMG-Rose Garden Committee (10/10)
This is a 10-part video tutorial series. Each clip is brief, yet informative. Enjoy.
~HOW TO PRUNE ROSES~
EPCMG-Rose Garden Committee (9/10)
This is a 10-part video tutorial series. Each clip is brief, yet informative. Enjoy.
~HOW TO PRUNE ROSES~
EPCMG-Rose Garden Committee (8/10)
This is a 10-part video tutorial series. Each clip is brief, yet informative. Enjoy.
~HOW TO PRUNE ROSES~
EPCMG-Rose Garden Committee (7/10)
This is a 10-part video tutorial series. Each clip is brief, yet informative. Enjoy.
~HOW TO PRUNE ROSES~
EPCMG-Rose Garden Committee (6/10)
This is a 10-part video tutorial series. Each clip is brief, yet informative. Enjoy.
~HOW TO PRUNE ROSES~
EPCMG-Rose Garden Committee (5/10)
This is a 10-part video tutorial series. Each clip is brief, yet informative. Enjoy.
~HOW TO PRUNE ROSES~
EPCMG-Rose Garden Committee (4/10)
This is a 10-part video tutorial series. Each clip is brief, yet informative. Enjoy.
~HOW TO PRUNE ROSES~
EPCMG-Rose Garden Committee (3/10)
This is a 10-part video tutorial series. Each clip is brief, yet informative. Enjoy.
~HOW TO PRUNE ROSES~
EPCMG-Rose Garden Committee (2/10)
This is a 10-part video tutorial series. Each clip is brief, yet informative. Enjoy.
~HOW TO PRUNE ROSES~
EPCMG-Rose Garden Committee (1/10)
This is a 10-part video tutorial series. Each clip is brief, yet informative. Enjoy.
~Cool weather veggie harvests are coming to an end at the Agrilife Garden~
~Hard Freeze Morning~
Brrrrrrrr... A cold, hard freeze had all of us shivering this January 3rd morning at the garden. All the cool weather veggies in the raised bed hoop houses seemed frozen stiff with cold fear! As the morning progressed and we all, humans and veggies both, began to thaw out a little, we could definitely see an improvement. Shocked leaves warmed becoming far less fragile as their color improved. It was after 11 am when we tended the soil gently under each plant, and harvested leaves from each one. I think that many of those little plants felt relieved to have some of their droopy leaves removed. Everything harvested was still edible. We even harvested 3 beautiful heads of broccoli! The greens of the raised bed hoop houses are a hardy bunch of cool weather veggies. As long as we do not have a long sustained freeze, i.e., 12-24 hours or longer, they endeavor to overcome.
~Batch Compost 2~
David Cohen, MG intern is using a small electric tiller to stir, mix and further break down browns and greens that had been layered into the bin. This stirring and mixing brings hot organic waste to the outside of the mass and cooler organic waste to the inside of the mass where heat created from hungry, feeding bacteria is held onto. As the organic waste is consumed the size of the mass shrinks and chunks, pieces and particles become smaller and smaller. No additional organic waste will be added to the batch as it can slow down the process. It will continue to be turned as long as heat is being generated by the action of feeding bacteria.
Maintaining good oxygen and moisture in that batch mass is vital to keep the aerobic and healthy for good bacteria and other decomposers. Do not tamp, pack or jump on the organic waste. Add enough water so that when you squeeze a handful it holds together and no water runs down your arm! Turning also helps to loosen and create air pockets and gives you an opportunity to check moisture and add more as needed.
Will our great weather stay around long enough for decomposition to be completed to compost? Stay tuned for more updates!
Composting in the Home Garden
https://web.extension.illinois.edu/compost/
Harvesting a broccoli floret head! : )
~Raised Bed Hoop House Update 2~
AgriLife Garden
The dinosaur and Red Russian varieties of kale are growing fast! We have had to provide some support to a few of the plants to help keep them growing upright, but otherwise are doing great and giving us 1-2 harvests a week! : )
~Raised Bed Hoop House Update~
AgriLife Garden
We have been blown away at how well the lettuce greens are doing this fall in the hoop house! Just a few short weeks from planting and we are already harvesting 2 times a week, easily feeding a family of 4 in weekly greens harvests! : )
~Harvest 11/19~
AgriLife Garden
Check out the greens harvest from the raised bed hoop houses! Pretty much harvesting twice a week right now. Red Russian and dinosaur kale, salad greens, arugula & spinach!
We are really having a hard time giving in to pulling out the chili plants, but yeah, we pulled out a few more plants today. Hence all the green Habaneros. But thats ok! Look at that harvest!! Snacking peppers, jalapeños & Habaneros!
~Sweet Potato Update~
AgriLife Garden
We harvested the sweet potatoes from 3 more of our sweet potato plants. Sizes ranged from fat fingerlings to 2” - 2.5” diameter, some very long in length. At this posting we are about 110 days, well within the harvest window. Other than some light abuse some the spuds suffered during digging, they all looked healthy with no critter damage. They all won’t be bakers or candied delights, but all are definitely usable. As mentioned in previous posts, sweet potatoes can be eaten right after digging, but will not have that sweet rich sweet potato flavor that curing produces.
Harvesting sweet potatoes is like working an archeological dig as sweet potatoes are very brittle and should not be rough-housed out of the ground. So don’t turn your bull loose in the china cabinet! Lol
We turned off the irrigation to the bed and have decided to leave the rest of the sweet potatoes to harvest after Thanksgiving. Watch for our final update post during the final week of November! : )
~Today’s Harvest~
We had a pretty nice harvest today at the AgriLife Garden. Our raised bed hoop houses gave us some wonderful lettuce greens, kale, arugula and spinach. We also harvest some nice dinosaur kale from one of our other raised beds and another kohlrabi. We are still harvesting a lot of jalapeños, habaneros and sweet peppers and a few Black Beauty eggplant fruit. But sadly, todays harvest of yellow zucchini was the last for the season. See an upcoming update post about those.
As for other activities at the garden. The guys finished cutting up 2 dead pine trees they took down recently. We are doing some clean-up of dead organic debris around the outside perimeter of the garden, and reorganizing some things in our sheds. We may not be as busy in the fall and winter, but the things we do during this time can and do help determine the success of our garden next season!
~Raised Bed Hoop House Update 2~
The west hoop house is growing some beautiful lettuce greens, red romaine lettuce, arugula & spinach.
~Raised Bed Hoop House Update~
How are the veggies looking in the raised bed hoop houses?! Well... you tell us. What do you think? : ) The east hoop house is growing Dinosaur & Red Russian Kale.
~Friday’s Harvest pt2~
AgriLife Garden
Sadly, we harvested the last of our Inchiban eggplant fruit today and took those plants out. The Black Beauties are still producing and looking great! We are still harvesting a few purple bell peppers and lots of jalapenos, snacking peppers and Habaneros!
Doppler Dave has predicted our first frost will be during the Thanksgiving holiday. Hoping he is right so that our sweet potatoes can have another couple of weeks to grow. : ) What are you harvesting from your garden today?
~Friday’s Harvest~
AgriLife Garden!
Our cool weather greens are growing really well in the raised bed hoop houses! Whewww! We harvested Wednesday, but 2 days later a lot of our greens are ready to harvest again. Thats awesome!
