Assorted Update

More peas are growing, I've harvested about a dozen now. I'm saving some on the vines now for using in stir frys along with the asian greens. I will have to pull out the pea plants towards the end of June, and I'm sure it won't be easy. They will still have a lot of life in them, but they need to make way for summer vegs.

Fava beans are continuing to develop, I just hope they hurry it up before it gets too hot in July.

Tomato plants are coming along. The Hawaiian Currant made the transition well and is beginning to grow up. The Green Zebra plant still has not recovered from when I hacked away the yellowing leaves. Its leaves are somwhat wrapped up, as if it is trying to protect itself, and it hasn't been growing. Much of this is probably to do with the fact that I had to remove all but one growing tip. I am hoping some suckers grow soon so I can get a couple vines going. I would be surprised if the Green Zebra didn't make it through this, but it's a slow recovery. Most of the other plants have flowers and many have little green tomatoes. The Sun Gold and the Black Plum both are tied for best growing plants. I am curious to see which ripens first, though they both have plenty of green fruits and neither seems to show any interest in changing color yet. With Black Plum doing so well again this year, I suspect it will yet again be my favorite tomato.

I went to Armstrong Nursery again this past week and picked up a couple more herbs (Lemon Verbena, cinnamon basil, among others), a cucumber plant, an eggplant, a 15 lb bag of E.B. Stone all purpose fertilizer, Sluggo, and neem oil. I also picked up a packet of lime basil seeds, which I'd never seen before.

With my new supplies, I fertilized/Sluggoed/neemed the tomato bed. The neem oil has a snazzy hose nozzle attachment that dilutes as spray, so I got a little excited and neemed the other plant bed too. Hopefully the sluggo and neem will keep my poor little pepper plants from getting eaten. Almost all of them are getting munched, except for the Dulcettas. They seem to be immune.

I also planted marigolds and chandler strawberries in the other plant bed....this chore is LONG overdue.

Seeds and Squash

Yesterday I managed to be fairly productive in the garden, planting carrots, lettuce, squash, and doing a little garden maintenance.

In my vegetable garden I planted eight 36" rows of carrots , Carnival Blend from Botanical Interests, alternating with Renee's Garden Asian Baby Leaf mesclun. Row spacing was 3" with seed spacing of 3" as well.

Next door to that patch I planted seven 36" rows of carrots (six more rows of the Carnival Blend and three of Little Finger - also Botanical Interests) alternating with Renee's Garden Cut and Come Again baby mesclun. Again, 3" spacing all around.

Between these two patches there was maybe a 3" gap where I transplanted two Butternut Squash seedlings. One of the transplants has two vines while the other has four. I think I will thin that second one down to only two vines once it has settled and I can decide which two are the strongest. The spacing between these two transplants was 15" with five radish seeds planted evenly between them.

Tranplants

Butternut Squash in the Ground

At the end of the second patch I transplanted two zucchini seedlings. Again, with 15" spacing and 5 radish seeds between them. Both these transplants already have flower buds on them, which I left because I'm not particularly fond of zucchini, but I do enjoy squash blossoms. Perhaps within a week or two we'll have our first taste!

Zucchini Squash

Zucchini with buds

At the L corner, just next to the rhubarb plants, I planted my Wyatt's Wonder (giant pumpkin) plant. It has two somewhat sickly looking vines (somewhat yellowed and dry) but there are some new green leaves emerging so hopefully it can recover. I also planted an Acorn squash transplant at the southwestern corner of the strawberry/flower bed. This is a bush type squash, so I'm hoping it won't grow all over the place.

I planted borage seeds as well yesterday. One on each end of my tomato bed, one at the Western corner of my vegetable bed near the chainlink fence and one (or two...I think I lost one) at the corner of the L between my rhubarb and Wyatt's Wonder. Borage is a fantastic bee attractant and has pretty little blue flowers that look lovely floating in punch bowls or as a garnish for appetizers or salads.

Rhubarb
I also planted three Durango marigolds, one at each end of my tomato bed and one in the very center. Armstrong was having a 2-day sale (79 cents/4inch marigold) so bought those and eight more that will find their way into the vegetable bed. Marigold roots excrete a pesticide that supposedly lasts for a couple years in the soil even after the marigold is gone. They are the go-to plant for companion planting....and they're pretty too!



Tomato Bed
Lastly, I watered down all the beds and pots with fish tank water, since our fish tank was badly in need of a water change. The nitrate rich water is a great, low dose fertilizer and with a 160+ gallon tank, there is plenty of it. Finally, I set up more bird netting over the vegetable bed so that the dogs (and other lesser pests) will hopefully stay out of it.




Fava Beans looking tall!

Elliott didn't kill any plants!

Last Wednesday I put my tomatoes, garlic, and shallots in in a hurry so that I could leave town for a visit with my mother. I was rather nervous about leaving my garden because many of the seeds I put in over the last few weeks are just now sprouting, others have been up for awhile but are still small and tender, and the process of transplanting tomatoes is pretty brutal for the poor guys and they're very fragile for the first week or two afterwards.

Well, I couldn't be happier to see my tomatoes are for the most part looking no worse than the day I put them in. Elliott reports that they were pretty wilted while I was gone, but they seem to look fine now. I put E.B. Stone Planting Compost on them today as a mulch because the ground is a bit cracked in some places. Hopefully a little mulch will hold the moisture in (and makes the bed look much prettier).

Several garlics have already broken through the surface. I suspect the others will all be up in the next week or so. No shallots or elephant garlic yet, but it has only been 5 days.

My fava beans look FANTASTIC! Many of the plants are 6+ inches tall now and growing second and third stalks. The peas (sweet, snap, and snow) are all popping up. They vary in height from 1/2"-3" right now and a few sweet peas have started growing tendrils.

More strawberry starts have grown leaves. Maybe 8 or 10 have a leaf or two on them now, and a couple of those already have multiple leaves. The larger of my two rhubarb starts also has a beautiful green leaf that grew while I was away.

Seeds are sprouting all over the strawberry/flower/vegetable bed. My sunflower seeds are up and working on their first true leaves. I have a nice row of chard developing and a number of other seeds that I don't yet recognize. Many of these seeds are probably weeds, but I won't really know until they've developed a little further. I won't pull anything for awhile for fear of pulling out something I planted on purpose.

My potted Roma tomato is looking suprisingly stocky. It is close to a foot tall now and has an impressively thick stem with dense branches. I suspect I will have a very productive plant....hopefully in contrast with my tomatoes from last year which ended up long and somewhat spindly.

Today I went to Armstrong Garden Center to spend one of my Groupons from a couple weeks back. I spent it on three bags of compost and a variety of herbs (trailing rosemary, English thyme, chocolate mint, stevia, Italian oregano), an Artichoke plant, and a half dozen seed packets. Most of these (except the seeds) will end up in pots on my porch or driveway window sill. I'm looking forward to getting those all in over the next few days!

Busy Weekend

Alright...I spent all of Saturday afternoon and a couple hours on Sunday in the garden. Here's what happened:

In the Tomato Bed:

1. Tomatoes got pruned (any branches that were dead, dying, munched, or too close to the ground) and tied vertically against the fence



2. 13 Basil Seedlings (3 each Lemon, Mini, Purple, Genovese and 1 Sweet) were transplanted into the bed



3. 3 Scallions were transplanted into the bed



4. 1 Anaheim Pepper and 1 Red Bell Pepper purchased from Home Depot were planted
   


5. A cup or two of E.B. Stone Vegetable fertilizer was sprinkled on the bed
   


6. A bag of compost/mulch was spread around the bed

Along the concrete wall:

1. The edible peas and sweet peas were yanked up



2. Two bags of compost/mulch was spread around



3. Runner beans were planted (12 inch spacing...right under the drip line drips)



4. 1 Edamame bean was planted (I had others but I left them out overnight and somebody stole them)



5. Carrots tops were unburied so that they can continue to grow despite the mulch



6. Cucumber seeds were planted (3 sweet cucumbers, 3 English cucumbers)



7. A 5ish ft row of radishes alternating with carrots was planted.
   

In the corner:

1. 1 bag of compost/mulch was spread around



2. 7 corn seedlings were transplanted (and one new seed)
   


3. 1 acorn , 1 delicata, and 1 spaghetti squash were transplanted



4. 4 Sunzilla Sunflower Seeds
   

Digging for Tomatoes

I spent a couple hours today digging a trench for my tomatoes. It only ended up being about a foot deep, a couple feet wide, and four and a half feet long (enough for 3 of the 12 little tomato babies I have to find a home for...but I sort of felt like I was digging a grave. I swear I could have buried a midget in that hole.

I took a pick axe to the bottom to fluff up the dirt and the bottom and then filled it back in with dirt from the next four and a half foot section. Ideally I'll have a long enough trench of nice fluffy dirt to get all my tomatoes in there. In the meantime, my legs and back are already feeling pretty sore.