I’m leaning toward calling this the result of powdery mildew. It’s hard to tell as the leaves had yet to really open. But with the mower down for a couple weeks and some extremely tall grass in the vineyard, conditions were moist and warm. Likely some kind of fungus, and powdery mildew is one of the more common grape diseases.

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Copper solution is somehow an organic fungicide. Time to start our spray regimen – which for us is not very regimented. Anne tries a lot harder than I do. Perhaps this vine loss will inspire me to join the mold battle. If anyone happens to know definitively what this disease is, I’d be eager to learn.

It’s year three for our asparagus bed and it is producing some rather fat, yet still lovely stalks. We’ve been enjoying the flavor in salads, quiche, pasta, tacos, and on pizza. Asparagus is good just about anywhere.

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Everyone asks if I have a nice sharp knife for harvesting. I don’t have much anything nice, let alone sharp. And if I did have a knife for cutting the asparagus just below the soil as many suggest is the proper way to harvest, I’m sure it wouldn’t be near me when I happen to walk near the bed and decide to pick what needs picking. Perhaps that makes me a just-in-time gardener, or perhaps a serendipitous gardener. Whatever the name, since I am too inspired (or lazy) and feel the immediate need to harvest, I snap the asparagus as near to the soil as it will naturally snap.

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Of course now I am wondering if this has welcomed disease. Every so often, one of the fatter stalks appears to have suffered some kind of damage. The damage is minimal and usually appears like a stocking runner or vertical scar. This doesn’t seem to disrupt the taste at all. Other times, the stalk grows twisted and curly. I found reference to frost below the ground as a possible cause, but we haven’t had that kind of heavy frost for days. I’ve also read about the beet army worm, but I haven’t seen any and we are a bit more north than their preferred climate – at least for this time of year. So, I’m not sure what it is. Maybe it’s nothing.

I’ve waited as long as I can possibly wait. This weekend the veggie garden seeds were started in a bigger than usual way – a full orchestra accompanied the task, complete with oboe! Okay, that’s a lie, but I did plant more seeds than before. I normally seed two/three seeds per cell, but given the small-celled plug trays we bought, I decided planting just one seed per cell would be a more economical use of seeds. Less economical use of soil, but these are really small cells (200 per tray in the photo).

Yep, I planted 200 pepper seeds. It seems like a lot for us, but some varieties are interesting (YumYum Gold, Healthy Organic Red, Bulgarian Carrot…) and could possibly appear at our plant sales starting in May. I anticipate more potting-on will be required with these plug trays. That will be time-consuming, but worth it maybe. I also started tomatoes, artichoke, eggplant, a few Chinese lantern flowers, and radish this weekend — the radish were planted in the hoop-house. Obviously, there are no guarantees on any of these. Our seedlings usually do very well until we neglect to open a cold frame and fry them, or forget to close a cold frame and freeze them. With any luck, we will have learned these lessons already and not need to learn them again.

We’ve placed our first seed order for 2010 from Pinetree Garden Seeds. Take a look at the potential garden.

SMALL SUGAR PUMPKIN (95 days heirloom)
KIWANO HORNED MELON (90 days)
RED BURGUNDY OKRA (55 days)
BEER FRIEND SOY BEAN
ROSE ORACH (heirloom)
TABASCO PEPPER (85 days)
MINNESOTA MIDGET MELON (60 days)
KENTUCKY WONDER BEAN (66 day heirloom)
CYLINDRA BEET (58 days heirloom)
GERMAN GIANT RADISH (37 days heirloom)
CHERRY BRANDY RUDBECKIA
TENDER SWEET (heirloom)
LEMON CUCUMBER (65 days heirloom)
HOMEMADE PICKLES CUCUMBER (54 days)
TURKISH ORANGE EGGPLANT (heirloom)
LAVENDER TOUCH (F1 hybrid 66 days)
PENGUIN GOURD
PEPINO (95 days)
BANANA MELON (80 days heirloom)
FRECKLES LETTUCE (70 days)
SUHYO TK CUCUMBER (65 days)
ORANGE SUN PEPPER (81 days)
PAPRIKA PEPPER (80 days)
CAYENNE-LONG PEPPER (70 days heirloom)
EIGHTBALL ZUCCHINI (F1 hybrid 35 days)
PAPAYA PEAR SQUASH (F1 hybrid 40 days)
CARNIVAL SQUASH (F1 hybrid 85 days)
DELICATA SQUASH (heirloom)
OREGON SPRING TOMATO (68 days)
KELLOGGS BREAKFAST TOMATO (79 days)
WHITE SWAN ECHINACEA
CHIOGGIA BEET (55 days heirloom)
VIRGINIA GOLD TOBACCO
MOULIN ROUGE SUNFLOWER
FANTASIA MIXTURE SUNFLOWER(F1)
STATE FAIR MIX ZINNIA

We are working on expanding and tidying the garden. One approach is building additional raised beds to better define what is garden and what is path. Our raised beds are primarily built from old bleacher seats attached to four corner posts. The bleachers were being used for fencing on the property. I probably wrote about this before.

Our current bed prep consists of a layer of cardboard and a whole lot of compost from the somewhat local composting facility. This bed is about 3.5′ x 14′. I also built two smaller strawberry beds to help contain the strawberries. Strawberries are one of the crops we have a hard time managing. They need to be controlled – we are hoping the beds will help us do that.