Gardening Blog
Each season I will periodically post what I am doing in the gardens. Past year's activities can be found in each specific garden section.
(The Vegetable and Herb Garden, The Wall Garden, The Fruit Orchard, The Lavender Garden, The Perennial Flower Garden, The Pond Garden and The Cactus Garden)
Annual Blooming Table
2024 |
| Spring |
| March - May |
By the end of March the winter is coming to an end. Bulbs are coming up and blooming and the apricot and peach flowers are beginning to show color and opening. We can see the stirrings of spring! We planted onion sets on March 31 to be used as green onions later on.
On April 4th I washed off pine needle scale's protective white webbing that forms on the trunks and lower branches of affected pinion pines. If you have this problem a strong stream of water from a hose will wash them off. You will know the scale is present from last year by observing small black dots on the old needles. All of my trees and plants got their first big watering from the hose as well.
On April 20 we planted Fedco seeds in pots in trays in our sunroom. They will be nurtured there for a about 6 weeks before putting them out in the garden. We planted Nero di Tuscan Lacinato kale, tatsoi, Winter Density lettuce, Choko pac choi, Bright Lights chard, Red Russian Kale, Vates collards and Yokatta-Na Chinese Cabbage. Some even started germinating by the 24th!
2023 |
 |
| Spring |
| March - May |
Plants around the farm are beginning to bloom on time as in the past. March was cold, windy and wet with both snow and rain. April was still cold in the mornings, and the winds began to blow in the afternoons as usual for that time of year. Onions from the previous year began to grow as well as the chives and garlic chives. New onion sets were put into the garden on April 18th as well as Summer Island scallion seeds.
Fruit tree flowers were abundant so hoping for a good crop of all of them later in the summer. Three kinds of tomato seeds were planted in pots in the sunroom on April 14th to be put in the garden in May. They were Territorial seeds of Sungold cherry, Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye slicing and Stupice slicing. Takara Shishito peppers seeds were also planted in the sunroom into small pots. All of the tomatoes began to germinate and by April 21st all varieties were up and growing well. The Shishitos began to germinate on April 26. They are still not big enough to put out by the end of May.
 |
| Summer/Fall |
| June - November |
Transplanted 24 tomatos, 6 each of Sungold cherry, Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye slicing and Stupice slicing seedlings from the sunroom to the Wall Garden on June 14. Also 2 Sweet Banana Peppers from Lowes, zuchinni and yellow squash were planted there a week ago. Two wild arugula plants and several Egyptian onion sets that we got from a neighbor were planted as well. In June the weather is getting into the 80's in the daytime, but still in the 40's at night.
No rain in sight! Still no rain by the middle of July. The daytime temperatures are getting into the mid-90's! I did purchase five eggplants from Lowe's. I have to keep everything watered every day or so. No rain at the end of July. First time for us that there has been no monsoon in July! Heat has gotten into the high 90's everyday. Many of the veggies seem to be stunted, so I disbanded a couple of our beds. The chard and beets are doing ok, but eveything else had many aphids. Tomato plants are doing well as well as the new eggplants. Something ate all of the squash plants and I have pulled up all of the shishito peppers because they were not thriving.
No monsoon rains at all in July or the beginning of August. I pulled up all of the leafy veggies in the main vegetable garden on August 5th. All that are left are the eggplants and tomatoes, which seem to enjoy the heat with the water that I am able to give them. The peach tree still has unripe peaches that are turning color and the old Asian pear tree has small pears. There are a few greengage plums on one of the small plum trees in the front of the house.
Since we will be away all of the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers were pulled up. The tomatoes began producing until the end of the month. The peaches began to ripen and were picked and frozen for later use. Still only a few days of rain until the end of August. Lots of watering!
Not much rain/snow into the fall. Supposed to be a wet winter, but who knows?
Tips for Home Farming in Eldorado at Santa Fe