Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 22 Entries. Tuesday, January 1 View Page Thought I'd build a bit of a diary of my transition from Phoenix to Minneapolis. Davidphx, soon to be Davidmpls here. Of course we moved back to hometown Minneapolis, beginning of December, during one of the snowiest winters on record....all l could do is look out the back window and wonder if I could clear enough trees to attempt a garden in the wonderful midwest soil. (We'll see if this picture shows up correctly)   Thursday, March 14 View Page I'm no dummy, bought a huge snow blower when I got here.....hey in early spring, you can clear a space for your home-made greenhouse, with it. Harry approved.   Monday, April 8 View Page What a difference a month makes, used my 3/4 inch pvc conduit skills I used in Phoenix high tunnels to build this for about $90....not bad...and the ribs are removable for storage.   Monday, April 15 View Page Here's what was cooking inside. I set up my t5 pumpkin lights in the furnace room and grew some hosta, wildflowers and tomatoes from seed in Jan/Feb/March. Did some more tomato grafting as I've done in the past. German Giants and various BrandyWines on Beaufort, Maxifort, Better Boy rootstock. I seem to be able to get 90% success or better with the grafts. It will be nice to see tomatoes and pumpkins grow in a regular Midwest season, instead of the Feb-May season in the desert.   Saturday, April 27 View Page So, I wasn't allowed to chew up lawn, so I had to hack into part of the yard that was light woods, on an incline.....I always liked to follow Norm Gansert's diary, so I find myself also growing on a hill, but with less sun. Guess I'm going to grow flag pattern, down hill. Huge pine trees to the east, so I don't get sun until noon....guess I'll be growing big porch dwellers (orange, of course)   Wednesday, May 15 View Page Well, pulling small stumps with a come-along, installing chicken wire fencing around roughly 35x35, cutting down two big trees, tilling on a hill, soil test, amendments, hoop houses....better late than never for the first year. Reclaimed forest is pretty sandy loam with all that good forest organics in there. Here is a 907 Young I got to sprout (1059 VM Selfed) and a 1044 Gansert backup (1059 VM x 811 Gerhardt)   Wednesday, May 15 View Page I also put in two 921.5 Gerhardts, main and backup (923 Gerhardt 603.5 Muller) I grew one of these one year and it was a perfect orange tall globe.   Sunday, May 19 View Page So, with the garden right next to the lawn, I built 8ft fence panels with hardware mesh nailed to the back. Used a roller to paint the mesh flat black with Rustoleum....worked pretty good, invisible. Hammered Tposts where each panel met and then screwed them to each other, wired them to t-posts hidden behind them. Forest side is just chicken wire attached to T-posts.   Tuesday, June 18 View Page Tomato Plants where left in the greenhouse until planting. They were 2 ft tall with blossoms when I planted them on the opposite side of the garden. I have some 1/2 dollar sized tomatoes in a couple spots already....Had to install boards on ends between each down hill row to keep soil in place in case of heavy rain. I also redirected one of the underground gutter drains into a 55g drum at the garden to capture rain coming off of part of the roof.   Tuesday, June 18 View Page Quick shot this eve of the 907/1044 tunnel. I left the plastic on with the ends half open for wind protection. Peeled the top plastic off tonight, supposed to be cloudy next few days. With 1/2 day, if that, of sun....time for open air exposure. Culling pending, one of the vines kinked/split while I was in Dublin last week....just going with the flow this first year home. (Tried all my tricks but couldn’t get this right side up)   Monday, July 22 View Page Greetings from rainy Minneapolis, quite a change from Phoenix! lol....Here are the 921.5 Gerhardt left uphill and the 1044 Gansert right downhill. Growing side by side, I’m about 3 weeks behind everyone here, no big deal for the first year.   Monday, July 22 View Page My brandy wine and german giant tomato grafts are cranking away, what a pleasure to be back home in Minnesota. In front of the tomatoes is a blue hubbard squash target crop...seems as healthy as the pumpkins! I did see my first squash vine borers in the trap I got from Joel Holland. Five of the bstards...   Monday, July 22 View Page One of the German Giants in a grafted rootstock, we’ve had a couple small Rutgers tomato blts already, can’t wait for these baby’s to ripen!   Thursday, August 8 View Page Well, my late kins just starting, some nice eaters off of my brandy wine/big beef graft experiments...fire up the bacon! 1.7 and 1.15 lbs   Thursday, August 8 View Page Nice shaped 1044 Gansert 1/2 down the hill, just culled a softball right after it, no time to be undecided   Thursday, August 8 View Page Nice spot about 15ft, first one didn’t take during a hot week.   Saturday, August 17 View Page Gansert genetics....abound three weeks, still wondering how I’m gonna get this up the hill, lol, a sled and a come-along?   Saturday, September 7 View Page Continue to work in the new patch during growing season. Built this 2x4 tool shed at the bottom of the patch last Sunday.   Sunday, September 8 View Page Here’s my late ‘kin day 44. 1044 Gansert about 450lb. About 30 days left, but the weather has turned cool. Hammered a bit of powdery mildew with Eagle on Thursday eve.   Sunday, September 8 View Page Here’s the blossom end   Sunday, September 8 View Page Here we both are, bottom of hill/patch. 3/4 ply and blocks to level the growing area. Ya make do with what ya got to work with.   Wednesday, September 11 View Page I was concerned about that deep rib...rained an inch and a half in two hours last night put a six inch split in it...”.swearword” couple afterthoughts on other vine for the porch...lot of new garden building for this..: