Assorted Update

Lots of things have happened in the last couple days. Here's the breakdown.

Tomato Bed:
The Hawaiian Currant made the transition back into dirt well and is beginning to put on some height. Given how miserable it looked when I picked it up, broken and wilted, off the ground a few weeks ago, I am shocked that it made such a recovery.

Hawaiian Currant looking good!

Green Zebra is still looking a little sad. I hacked it pretty good to remove a bunch of wilting leaves. The good news is that the brown wilt seems to be gone. The bad news is that there is only one growing tip left (until it grows a few suckers) and its leaves are somewhat curled, as if to protect itself or reserve water. I think it will be fine eventually, but it's not recovering easily.

Green Zebra...not looking good

The other tomatoes all have yellow flowers, and several are working on making tomatoes. Black Plum and Sun Gold both have lots of little green fruits. I'm curious to see who ripens first. Considering how well Black Plum did last year on neglect, and how well it's doing again this year, I suspect it will cement its position as favorite tomato.

Sun Gold tomatoes


Black Plum tomatoes

I put about 1 lb of E.B. Stone’s All-Purpose Fertilizer into the tomato bed. I also sprayed the bed with Neem Oil and sprinkled some Sluggo in the area. The tomato plants don’t seem too bug infested, but my poor pepper plants are just getting munched (except the Dulcettas, which somehow seem immune), I suspect by slugs & snails.

I bought a replacement Cayenne pepper to replace the one that got munched. It came in a 4-pack, so the others will probably go in pots. I also bought an Anaheim pepper. The one in the garden got so munched that I’m not sure it’ll make it, so I thought it best to have a plant on reserve just in case.

Anaheim Pepper might recover if the slugs stay away


Dulcetta Pepper looking awesome


Shallots (and one shallot that is probably not a shallot)


Garlic (Borage in upper left corner)

Legumes:
The pea plants look great. It’s going to break my heart when I have to pull them out in a couple more weeks. I’ve harvested about a dozen peas and there’s at least that many left on the vine for a salad or stir fry this week.

Very tall Pea plants


Peas

The fava beans are also doing well. There are several pods growing, and lots of flowers that should lead to bean pods soon.

Fava plants


Fava Beans

Leafy Greens:
Chard has taken over the garden. I really need to eat more chard. Lettuce looks fantastic. I think I’ll try to nurse it to the end of June for a BBQ on the 26^th, and then I’ll pull it out to give more room to the melon and strawberry plants. The Asian greens have also outgrown their welcome. I think they will become Chinese Chicken Salad this week. Mmmmm.

Red Chard


Asian Greens

Fruit:
A few of the melons have finally taken hold and appear to be growing. The ones closer to the back get much less sun, so they will take longer to get going, but I’m not sure having a delay between the plants will be a bad thing later this summer.

Charentais Melon

I finally got the 4 Chandler strawberry plants in the ground. Two of them already have strawberries trying to grow. Hopefully the others will get going soon.

Chandler Strawberry

Squash:
The zucchini plants are GIANT. I will have to hack it back a bit to get the corn in, but I doubt the plants would even notice. There are a couple zukes on it that will have to get eaten soon before they get huge. The other squash plants are doing well too. There are acorn squashes forming on one plant and the other squashes seem to have finally sunk their roots in and started growing.

Zuchinni growing


Acorn Squash

Other:
Radish seeds have sprouted out in the garden. Hopefully they’ll also be ready for salad for my BBQ in 3 weeks.

Radish sprout

The sunflowers have also grown quickly. I don't think I've mentioned them much in earlier posts, but the tallest is now taller than me.

Sunflower corner

My corn seeds have sprouted (all but one) in their little newspaper pots. When they reach ~6 inches tall, I’ll move them out to the garden.

Corn sprouts

More New Beginnings

I spent a chunk of my morning making small newspaper pots to start my corn seeds! Corn is always exciting to me because it was the flagship in my family's garden as a child. I will be planting corn along with beans between my already planted squash in a Three Sisters Garden. In this arrangement, the corn provides support for the beans, the beans provide nitrogen fixing for the heavy feeding corn and squash, and the squash grows around the base of the corn and beans providing shade (and therefore more moisture) for their roots and protecting them from animals with their prickly leaves and stems. This arrangement also allows for an efficient spacing of plants; I hope to have about 30 corn and bean plants planted by mid summer. The newspaper pots should provide a good nursery for my corn plants that will break down once I transplant the sprouts into the garden. The corn seeds are soaking as I right (and have been since this morning) and they'll go into their little pots this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

Other new beginnings are everywhere. My pea plants have just started to blossom, the fava beans have blossoms EVERYWHERE, almost every tomato plants has little yellow flowers, and even my boysenberries have a few white flowers to show off for summer. The carrot seeds I planted a few weeks back have finally started to sprout. The asian greens and mesclun I planted with them didn't fare so well, with only a half dozen or so mustard greens sprouting. But summer is fast approaching and the greens will get bitter with the heat, so it's not much loss. Perhaps I didn't water enough, or the seeds were too old (I bought them in 2009).

Plans for this week are to put in the pepper and strawberry plants I bought last week, seed the corn, seed more radishes and beets, and tie up the tomatoes and fava beans which have outgrown their last set training ties.

Squash Planting Done! (almost)

Today I planted squash transplants. The squash I transplanted a few weeks ago are HUGE by comparison, so much so that I fear not all of these transplants will make it. But at least now they're in and they have a fighting chance. As I try to do with all transplants, I put a bit of E.B. Stone's Sure Start at the bottom of each transplant's hole. I still have a couple acorn squash and butternut squash transplants that I didn't put in, mostly because I don't know where the heck I'm going to put them!

I also pruned tomatoes. The Paul Robeson and Blood Gulch were slower to start and are only about half the height of the other tomatoes now. I realized today that part of the reason for this is that they were putting all their effort into growing strong suckers. I should have pruned them much earlier. Now I know.

The daphnia population for feeding my aquaponics has exploded. They're going through the green water really quickly. Every couple days I have to pull water out of the main setup to feed them, otherwise their water becomes quite clear and you can see the thousands of little bugs wiggling about.

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Melons Planted

Yesterday I got my melon seedlings in the ground. They are taking the place of the many strawberry plants that never decided to grow. Hopefully today I'll get the rest of my squash plants in. The four squash plants that I put in a couple weeks ago are HUGE compared to the ones that are still in their pots. It's interesting to see such a difference when they were all about the same size not too long ago.

I also managed to get all of my herbs into pots and baskets (finally) along with the remaining pepper seedlings (an ancho/poblano that looks good and a dulcetta that I don't think is going to make it), an artichoke, and moving the two boysenberry plants into a larger pot. I put a japanese cucumber plant (bought from Home Depot a few days ago) into a basket on the side yard. I'm not sure how well it will do there, but if it thrives I think it will be an interesting addition to my little container garden.

It's a hot day, and summer is certainly on its way. Jobs for today (or tomorrow): Get the squash plants in and start some corn seedlings.

Squash Blossom

My first squash blossom appeared yesterday afternoon on one of my zucchini plants. It was beautiful, but unfortunately when I went to take a picture this afternoon it had already closed up. But not to worry, it looks like there are more on the way!


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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!

Show Me the Green

My first strawberry leaves have started to pop up along with the first sweet pea, and many of the fava beans are breaking ground as well!

Strawberry Start (Sequoia?)

Fava Bean and Sweet Pea Shoots

I spent the afternoon double digging the vegetable bed. I got halfway done, so hopefully I'll finish that up tomorrow. It won't be a minute too soon either. I put peas in wet paper towels on Monday and they're already trying to sprout. The sooner I can get those off my kitchen counter and into the ground, the better!

Squash/Melon Flat

Pepper Seedlings

My seedlings are coming along. Many of the herbs died, but the squash, melons, and peppers are all putting up their first true leaves.

Dead Herbs (except one Cilantro)

I reseeded a few pots in my squash/melon seedling flat today. The first seeds sprouted promptly and then wilted. I was afraid I'd lose the whole flat that way, but they seem fine.
Hopefully these seeds catch up soon.

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Squash and Melon Seedlings!

Success!




Apparently it was the sun baking the seeds that contributed to the epic fail of my first flat of squash/melon seeds. I have been much more successful with this second round as at least one seed of every type has now popped up!



Many of the squashes are starting to work on their first true leaves while the last of the melons are working their way out of the soil.

Fail

So I think I cooked my seeds in the sun because almost none of my melon or squash seeds sprouted and of the couple that started to break though they very quickly dried up and died. Hopefully it was my mistake and not that the seeds are dead. With this hope in mind, I've replanted the whole flat and I've got inside, sitting on top of our fish tank where it stays nice and warm (instead of outside baking in the sun).

The second flat (which I kept inside and seeded a couple days ago) has started sprouting. The cucumbers were the first to sprout, followed by the basils.

A fresh start

Clearly, I am terrible at keeping a journal of any sort. I haven't posted in months and my garden has been almost as neglected. So, with Spring just around the corner, a new batch of seeds flats, and an iPhone to hopefully make it easier to post...I'm beginning again.



I've got melons, squash, peppers, eggplant, cucumber, and a variety of herb seeds in seed starter mix.



A couple courageous melons have started to creep upwards and I look forward to seeing their more timid flat mates soon. Boysenberry starts from my Aunt Steph are also waking up for Spring.




This morning I sprayed Round-up on the weeds that infiltrated my beds over the winter and I look forward to their slow death that will ensue. By the time my little seed children are ready to go out and play, hopefully I'll have the beds weed free and dug to fluffiness. Beet, carrot, radish, chard, and pea seeds are at the ready and will hopefully make their way into the garden in the next week.

It's good to be back with my hands in the dirt!

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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
   

Beans Begin!

I emptied a package of Magic Beanstalk Scarlet Runner Beans and 6 Edamame seeds into a wet paper towel in a bowl. I'm planning on putting them in the ground on Friday or Saturday.

Tonight's dinner menu comes from our garden again. My Juliet tomato plant has finally decided it wants to fruit so I decided we should have BLTs tonight to celebrate the little tomatoes. Bread machine sourdough is rising as I type and a pack of bacon is defrosting. I've got a little head of some sort of red leaf lettuce (it randomly grew in what used to be the chard bed) that will join some Juliet tomatoes and a sliced red onion (sadly store bought). I also took out a cup or so of the fava beans I froze a little while back and I think I'll make a spread out of those to moisten the sandwich instead of the traditional mayonnaise.

All the squash seeds have sprouted except the Black Beauty Zucchini. Honestly, I'm not heartbroken about that! I only wanted the Black Beauty for its blossoms anyways, so having that plant get a little bit of a late start is fine by me. Zucchini squash is gross...except in zucchini bread (mmm).

The Dulcetta pepper seeds definitely get the award for being the most reliable seed. Another one has sprouted, and nothing from the other three types of peppers I seeded at the same time.

My tomato bed is becoming overrun with (surprise) tomato plant. I'll have to go out as soon as I get a chance and start training those up the fence so I don't lose the ground space. My plan is to plant my basil, onion, and pepper seedlings in there on Friday or Saturday.

Tally:
11 oz Juliet Tomatoes

Seeds Sprouting...slowly

Two scallions have sprouted and a third is just popping through. The Acorn squash has sprouted and both it and the Delicata are working on their first true leaves. Only one sweet basil seed has sprouted so I'll be adding a few more of those seeds this weekend. I think I'll replant some scallion seeds too. The marigolds seem to just be a total nonstarter. I probably didn't treat the seeds well enough when collecting or something.

When I went to water the flat this morning it looked like the 9-pack of melons and eggplant was only wet to the first 1/8 inch or so. I watered a little more aggressively and what I think is a Charentais seed popped up looking like the day I'd put it in the seedling mix. I made sure to water those few carefully and thoroughly, so hopefully they'll get started germinating soon.