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September 2003: Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Keane McGee, owners of Nichols Garden Nursery, received a surprise visit from me, Fred Jacquot, while I was vacationing in Oregon. We swapped a lot of information, and they gave me the grand tour. They turned out to be just as nice as they appear in this photo.

NOTES:

March 7, 2003:

Below is our planting guide for the 4 plots. Note that we are starting more plants this year than we did last year. Those plants include melon, watermelon, pumpkin, and squash. Last year we directed seeded these and lost a lot of plants due to the cold snap we suffered in June. Our beans are getting started in peat pellets this year to foil the local beetles that eat the newly emerged bean sprouts at night. Once we get the beans up for several days the beetles do not seem to bother them.

March 18, 2003:

• We had a mild January, a cold and snowy February, and now a warm March with very heavy snow. As it snows I am reminded of the old rule of thumb for spring in Wyoming: It isn't really spring in Wyoming until the daffodils have been snowed upon at least three times.
• 2002 was a successful season despite the hardships imposed by the early wind and the June Cold Spell. We are now beginning the planning work for the 2003 season. 2003 TRIALS: We will do a limited trial for pole beans and a major trial of winter squash.

April 1, 2003:

We are running about a week late on our starts for setting out. Most of this is due to late arrival of seeds. We may have to order earlier next year. This year we placed all our orders on February 11. Much work remains on setting up the plots for the new growing season. We have not yet aquired a low fence to keep wind off young tomato and corn plants. Nor have we begun moving in manure.

April 7, 2003:

Well, that's one (snowstorm on the daffodils). Sunday we just got the potato boxes prepared when it began to snow, and a nice snow it turned out to be. Pepper starts are nearly all up. All tomato starts are up except Legend and Jumbo. Nearly all Brussel Sprout starts are up and all the Cauliflower is started - with 4 plants already up. We will plant potatoes in the next two weeks.

April 21, 2003:

The fence for the corn and tomatoes is built. We have hauled in two pickup loads of manure for mixing in to boxes and tires. Cabbages and Cauliflowers are started. 9 tires of onions are planted.

April 28, 2003:

The tires are now placed and have upgraded soil in them. The onions in the nine tires are mostly up thanks to the lovely rain we had last week. Mei Quig Choi is started. We will direct seed the Mizuna.

May 6, 2003:

There was a hard freeze this morning, just as the lilacs were ready to start blooming. The Apples and Cherries are in full bloom now, though there have been an inadequate number of insects to polinate them thus far. All the blooming trees are early this year by a week or two. About half of the boxes in the plots have had their soil mixed and have been lined to prevent water leakage late in the summer.

May 13, 2003:

We are getting close to having all four plots ready for planting. It has been so cool this spring, that we are in no rush to set things out. This is the second day with any heat in it at all. The insects are finally out in the Cherry and Apple trees, which are loaded with blossoms. Lilacs are ready to bloom but can't quite bring themselves to do it. Between the four days of May 8 through May 11 we had 3 days of cool steady light rain. Casper Mountain got a new dusting of snow too. The tulips and daffodils have been particularly nice this year.

May 19, 2003:

All the boxes and tires are ready now for planting. We have yet to till the area for the corn. Yesterday it started to turn cool in the afternoon. Overnight Casper Mountain and the foothills got a light dusting of snow, but Casper itself was spared. It got down to 31 degrees (F.) last night, and this morning we experienced brief snow flurries, which melted as soon as

May 20, 2003:

This morning there was frost on the cars and the grass. It dropped to 27 degrees (F.) last night. Yesterday evening the soil temperature was 62 degree, which is all right. But it is 4 degrees cooler than on the 17th. Are soil temps going backwards?

it landed. Some folks who planted early this year are going to find that their plants got damaged by the cold.

May 27, 2003:

We have most of the plants we started and most seeds in the ground now. We are only missing tomatoes and peppers; which we will start placing tonight. We are in no particular rush though. Some of the eager beavers got their sprouts frozen last week. And there have been disasters reported. One lady gardener lost all her basil. We miscommunicated on some of our starts, and don't have as many as we would like to have. If you aren't facing some minor disasters you aren't seriously gardening.

Soil Temps are running high, with all the heat of the last few days. They vary from 72 to 86 degrees, depending upon time of day and whether the soil is wet or dry. The Last Average Day of Frost for Casper is May 25. So we are relatively safe in planting now. We beefed up the corn area with 4 to 6 inches of good manure before we tilled on the 24th. Now we expect some corn to emerge from the soil so fast we can call it 'nosebleed' corn. Onions love their tires. Squash have only been in the tires for two days and many have grown an inch and added two more leaves. All of our Brassica starts look healthy too. On with the show!

June 3, 2003:

Many flowers and fruit trees are running a week to two weeks ahead of normal. This must be due to the mild spring we had. Usually we can still see snow on Casper Mountain from the city at this time of year. It is all gone. So we are, by that measure, still in a drought.

We have everything in the ground now. The first corn came up on May 31, some 6 days after planting. Just emerging are: beans, radish, lettuce, mizuna. Nearly all potato, squash, pumpkin, and melon are up now. We have already suffered some bug damage to the cabbage, and have dealt with that. We have had some violent weather the last several days, including small hail. But we are very pleased with this start of the garden. It may be the best beginning we have ever had.

June 7, 2003:

We are covering plants again tonight for the third night, just to be safe. It was very stormy on the evenings of the 5th and 6th. This morning saw another dusting of snow on Casper Mountain. Brrrrrr. I checked the soil temp at the plots on the 5th and it read 69 degrees, so there was a lot of residual heat in the soil before the cold air mass struck. We are supposed to be in a warming trend starting tomorrow.

June 10, 2003:

We are covering plants again tonight for the third night, just to be safe. It was very stormy on the evenings of the 5th and 6th. This morning saw another dusting of snow on Casper Mountain. Brrrrrr. I checked the soil temp at the plots on the 5th and it read 69 degrees, so there was a lot of residual heat in the soil before the cold air mass struck. We are supposed to be in a warming trend starting tomorrow.

June 13, 2003:

On the 10th the soil temps had slipped to 59 degrees. Now they are up to 68. The plants are looking as though they need a bit more heat before they will take off. Our beans are being attacked again this year, but not as badly as last year. Of the pole beans, Musica and Helda are standing up to the bugs better than Ura and Marvel of Venice. Musica has better germination than the other three. The Autumn Gold Pumpkin's leaves are yellowing a bit, but we are not alarmed, at least not yet. The wind protection is coming off the cauliflower now because the plants are strong enough to withstand the wind. I am replanting 'holes' in the beans and cucumbers.

June 17, 2003:

The last two evenings in a row we have seen substantial rain (with accompanying thunder-boomers). The garden looks well after all that rain. There was a little bit of hail, and a few leaves were damaged. I am taking more measures to shade the new cucumbers. They are really suffering from too much sunlight too soon. The rest of the garden looks great. The tomatoes look like they grew an inch in the last two days.

June 25, 2003:

We have had another 3 day session of rain that ended with elevations over 8,000 feet collecting a bit of snow. Now forecasts call for a gradual warming trend. I am grateful that I have been diligent with my replanting. I have found that it pays to replant 'holes' in the beds where seeds did not germinate. I have also been diligent about fertilizing, and so this rain did my plants a lot of good.

June 30, 2003:

We had another good rain on the 28th. Tomatoes and melons look like they need more heat, a lot more heat. We have suffered some failures amongst the melons. Tripple Crown Watermelon is deemed a failure and that tire has been replanted with Lady Godiva Squash/Pumpkin. Lady Godiva was chosen because of all the squash in the trials thus far is has the best plant development. In second place is the Mooregold Squash. I also note that the Autumn Gold Pumpkin has ceased its yellowing. The Gold Bar Melon has simply stopped growing, so I have consolidated those plants into one bed. In the other bed I have planted Alaska Melon, the old standby. The shade I have been giving the emerging cucumbers seems to be working. We lost a Early Goliath to rot. It has been replaced with a Whopper. Two other tomatoes have been trimmed back to prevent rot damage. Onions are doing well in the tires. We have clipped off the blossoms and are using those stems as green onions. We will start harvesting lettuce soon. I also have to admit one sin. When I miracle growed the garden early this month I included the beans. That is a no no and the beans have been yellow as a result from too much nitrogen.

July 8, 2003:

About Cucumbers: Last year I made a note to myself that cucumber sprouts seem to need immediate heat but also need some shade for part of the day. Then I forgot about the shade this year until it was too late. We lost most of our starts of Cool Breeze Cucumbers. They appeared to have simply burned up. Then I remembered my note about the need for shade for young plants. And I recalled from past years that Cucumbers don't really take off until they are big enough to shade their own ground (over their roots). I also recalled a comment my partner Mark McAtee once made about how the first two leaves seem to fill the function of absorbing the abuse of our harsh sun in the early days of the plant. So I began putting mini shades up, pieces of paneling about 3 inches wide by 4 inches high just to the west of each new plant. It shades the plant for the last 1/4 of the day and breaks up the wind too. I did this for all Cucumbers and most Melons. It kept one musk melon from dieing, and the Cucumbers are doing better. Above the Cool Breeze I also put up strips which shade them even more.

Too much water. Our tomatoes and peppers still have too much moisture around their roots. We are starting to get the heat that will cure that. I replanted Alaska Melon into one of the boxes that held Gold Bar Melon after I moved the Gold Bar remnants into the other box. The Alaskas are all up and growing vigorously. Gold Bar was a test to see if it could replace Sun Jewel. I guess it can't. Marketmore 96 is also a trial and does not compare well to Sweet Success thus far. The holes in the corn are all filled in now too. I must remember to plant a lot of extras in the corn to fill in holes. I should do the same for all the melons too. I just picked three plastic grocery bags (packed full) of lettuce and there is more left to pick. Lettuce is really coming on. Most of the squash are throwing runners. We have baby Gold Rush Zucs, baby Autumn Gold Pumpkin, and baby Lady Godivas already. We have 3 of 20 Packman Broccoli central heads forming already. We have had Mizuna in stir fry already and it is good. The Mei Qing Boc Choi are ready to harvest and their replacements are sprouted. Two weeks ago I would have said that our best poles beans were Musica and Helda. Now I would say they are Musica and Ura. The neighbors' Blue Lake Pole Beans look great and have resisted bugs well.

July 17, 2003:

Many of our plants are not as far along as they should be. When I consult my degree days chart I see that as of July 15 this year we had 709 degree days. On the same day last year we had accumulated 888 degree days. As for many of the plants: carrots, peppers, cucumbers, there just is not a whole lot we can do to speed production. On the tomatoes we can trim them to concentrate their growth upward. A few tomatoes of ours are curling their leaves a bit. These are the plum/plaste tomatoes. I think they need more calcium. So we will apply some bone meal.

July 21, 2003:

All of our Brassicas are under attack by a black flea. They have wiped out the Mizuna and Choi, and have done severe damage to Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Cabbage. We just sprayed with Malthion and we think we were able to kill most of the bugs.

August 5, 2003:

We killed the bugs on the Brassicas and they have not been seen since. It is clear now that we overimproved the soil for the beans and pickling cucumbers. We will have to 'crummy up' that soil before next season. As a result, I am thinking that the mini pole bean trial we ran this year has been invalidated, and will have to be repeated. We are harvesting broccoli. Half the Cauliflower has been harvested now and we canned a garden mix with that. Many plants act as if they are 3 weeks behind a normal season. We are hoping to get some extension in September to make up for the lack of heat in June. We are very pleased with the squash and melon growth thus far. Marketmore 96 cucumber is deemed a failure. I keep asking myself why we keep trying new varieties of slicers when we can and do grow great Sweet Success. Lettuce is great again this year. Revolution is very dark, but slow to grow.

August 13, 2003:

By now gardeners are able to see all the flaws in their gardens. The corn is too short but is tassling anyway. That variety of pole bean is just not working. Peppers are big but not putting on peppers yet. Yes, tis the season. We have trimmed a lot of leaves off the tomatoes to encourage production and ripening. The cauliflower is harvested now. We tried an new variety from Burpee this year, and we are not impressed. At first glance one might conclude that we had a lack of boron in the soil, and that was causing the 'brown curd' problem we saw. Curds turned brown on some heads and became quite bitter. But because we were shorted seed for the new variety, we also planted some of last year's cauliflower amongst the new. The old variety showed no signs of 'brown curd'.

Reading also prompted the suggestion that our problems with beans and pickling cucumbers might be a root rot instead of soil too high in nitrogen. We investigated this and rejected it because our stems lacked the telltale darkening of root rot. Meanwhile, we are very happy with lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, Sweet Success cucumber, and all melons and squash.

August 18, 2003:

It rained yesterday and last night. It provided a much needed break from the heat. I received a nice email from Rose Marie Nichols McGee, one of the owners of Nichols Garden Nursey in Albany, Oregon. She sent along a catalog, and I have incorporated the information contained therein into my pages. Nichols offers many of the varieties that I reccomend. The catalog is definitely worth viewing.

September 3, 2003:

Once a year I walk through the garden and take notes. Here are this year's notes.

GENERAL NOTES:

• Weather was extreme this year and stunted growth for many varieties.
• Beans, and Cool Breeze Cucumber did not like enriched soil this year, crummy it up for them.
• The shade given to cucumber starts was a good idea. Cool Breeze may require it the whole growing season.
• Some Tomatoes (Plum/Paste) seem to require some shade each day. Give them afternoon shade.
• Do plant Garden Huckleberry next year.
• The low fence for the corn and tomatoes (to keep the wind off young plants) was a good idea.

PLANT NOTES:

• Onions - Fair- Expand slightly next year, plant more varieties, larger varieties, and overwintering varieties
• Cauliflower - Fair - Do not plant First White again. Try Snow Crown and a new variety.
• Musk Melon - Fair - Scoop II came on earlier than Earlisweet. The flesh of Scoop II is sweet but a bit mealy.
• Tripple Crown Watermelon - Failure
• Casper Pumpkin - Don't see any pumkins from this plant yet
• Lady Godiva Squash/Pumpkin - VERY PRODUCTIVE
• Table Ace Acorn Squash - Fairly Productive - Plant a lot of these in the corn next year.
• Amber Cup Squash - Fairly Productive
• Green Hubbard Squash - Fairly Productive
• Sweet Dumpling - Failure
• Autumn Gold Pumpkin - VERY PRODUCTIVE
• Burgess Buttercup Squash - Fairly Productive - Plant a lot of these in the corn next year.
• Royal Acorn Squash - Failure
• Mooregold Squash - VERY PRODUCTIVE
• Patty Pan Squash - VERY PRODUCTIVE
• Super Zuc - VERY PRODUCTIVE
• Gold Rush Zucchini - VERY PRODUCTIVE
• Gold Nugget Buttercup - Fairly Productive - Compact Plant
• Early Goliath Tomato - Still the best one we have
• Jumbo Tomato- Big - worth planting next year
• Legend Tomato- Complete Failure - no tomatoes whatsoever
• Big Mama Tomato- Lots of blossom endrot due to rain in June, then extreme heat - give shade next year
• Black Krim Tomato - Mixed Results - worth planting again next year
• Gold Medal Tomato - Big - worth planting again next year - plant with 2 Sunny Goliaths
• Marketmore Cucumber - Failure
• Black Plum, Yellow Pear, Red Pear Tomatoes - VERY PRODUCTIVE, plant same numbers (2,2,1) again
• Kandy Kwik Corn - Stunted this year, mice got to it early. Plant again with taller variety.
• Sweet Success Cucumber - Fairly Productive - good in a very challenging season, double up on this variety
• Packman Broccoli - VERY PRODUCTIVE, do again next year
• Arrowhead Cabbage - Failure - exploded/split heads, look at Jersey Wakefield next year
• Savoy Express Cabbage - Fairly Productive - Good in a challenging season
• Mizuna - Attracted bugs early - do plant again next year, watch carefully
• Tasty Nuggets Brussel Sprouts - Only fair - try a different variety next year
• Goldbar Melon - Failure
• Heart of Gold Squash - Fairly Productive
• Bush Delicata Squash - Poor Production - do not grow next year
• Pole Beans - All failures - best were Musica and Ura, in that order. Helda and Marvel of Venice were awful.
• Potatoes - don't appear very productive - we'll see later
• Carrots - Mokum, Sweetness, Danver, just so-so. We have all been impressed with Tendersweet.
• Lettuce - Green Ice, Olga, Simpson Elite, Red Sails, Nevado: ALL GREAT, Revolution a bit slow
• Cool Breeze Cucumber - challenging year - just now starting to produce
• Bush Beans- Top Crop, Pencil pod - bad soil, bad bean year, plant same varieties next year
• Cherry Pic Pepper - Slow this year - plant again next year
• Round of Hungary Pepper - Slow this year - plant again next year
• Banana Pepper - Best producer this year - plant again next year
• Big Bertha Pepper - Slow this year - plant again next year
• Gurney Giant Pepper - Slow this year - plant again next year
• Jalapeno Pepper - Slow this year - plant again next year
• Thai Hot Pepper - Slow this year - plant again next year

September 30, 2003:

We have harvested most of the garden now, and we are processing things. Earlier this month I visited the Nichols Garden Nursery in Albany, Oregon. What nice people they are. They even have an employee who grew up in Sheridan. They have extensive beds of herbs. They trial everything before they include it in their catalog, and they grow all the All-American Selection winners for five years, so customers can drop in can see them.

MORE GENERAL NOTES:

• Reduce space given to cabbage, and rotate plantings of cabbage into the beds to space out production
• Eliminate Brussel Sprouts
• Cover lettuce and particularly carrots with clear plastic right after seeding to keep moisture in the soil.

October 15, 2003:

We ran several trials of new (to us) varieties in 2003. Here are the Results:

MELON TRIAL

• Scoop II Muskmelon - Fail
• Earlisweet Muskmelon - Fail
• Goldbar Honeydew? - Fail
• Tripple Crown Watermelon - Fail

  WINTER SQUASH - PUMPKIN TRIAL

• Casper Pumpkin - Fail
• Gold Nugget Buttercup - Fail
• Sweet Dumpling - Fail
• Amber Cup Squash - Fail
• Royal Acorn Squash - Undetermined - Retrial
• Mooregold Squash - Pass
• Green Hubbard Squash - Pass
• Lady Godiva Squash/Pumpkin - Pass

  TOMATO TRIAL

• Legend Tomato- Fail
• Jumbo Tomato- Big - Pass
• Black Krim Tomato - Pass
• Gold Medal Tomato - Pass
• Red Pear Tomato - Pass

Degree Days Chart for 2003:

I am running another Degree Days chart this season. I base it on a temperature of 50 degress Fahrenheit, and upon a starting date of May 25, which is the average last day of frost for Casper. Here it is: