Potagar Patch 2014

I know it's been a long winter and everyone has been getting sick of waiting to put their gardens together but it looks like the wait is coming to an end, hopefully! 

This year we'll be combining Potagar Schoultz with Patch Market. The new garden name is going to be Potagar Market. Exciting! The reason I did it this way was because I decided it was best to only grow the things we truly ended up eating and the things, out of the ones we ate that, worked. 

That came down to strawberries (they didn't really work but most of that was due to the excessive rain), cucumbers, spinach, basil, lemon balm, tomatoes (many different varieties especially our beloved yellow), peppers, and lettuce. I'm forgetting a couple of things but that is the bulk of the garden. Patch Market has officially been turned into a strawberry patch. It seemed fitting and much more conducive to growing the berries than anywhere else. I was not about to make the same mistake and squash all of my beauties, Ozark and Loran, into that ridiculous Topsy Turvy. The Ozark variety does need more space but that did not come into account when making the decision. It came down to- we love strawberries and the darn TT didn't work- what works best. People have strawberry patches so using the recycled material bed as a strawberry patch just made sense. 

We will be growing in all 6 raised beds, the recycling bin, 2 large rounds, and the brick bed. Fruiting will happen a few weeks later because I've yet to plant a thing. This time last year I had everything planted, most of all, planned and organized. I planted the last few plants on my birthday last year, April 18, including the tomatoes. So even though the start is late we should get a good crop. The summer has promised to be long and I hope that promise is kept. 

Planning and buying have commenced. 

We have a great new deck so the garden is even more welcome (not that it wasn't last year) in the sense that we can sit on the deck take in the sun, relax, and not worrying that we made a mistake in taking up the entire backyard with a veggie garden. 

Strawberry Boom

Hanging the Topsy...

Today was another chilly and windy day. It was sunny, though I just wasn't up for much gardening, I didn't sleep well. What I did have to do was set up the Topsy Turvy on the shorter shepherd hook, again. So I took the large hook out went into Potagar grabbed the small hook and put the chimes and lure hanging on it on the ground and trucked back over to Patch. I dug the small hook into the ground, on a level spot, as deep as I possibly could then I grabbed the Topsy, off the chair, and hung it using the new hanging hook so that it was able to turn and put the painted rocks back on top. It's funny because this time even though the Topsy seems to weigh more the shepherd hook didn't lean forward as much. It seems like the issue was more the hanging hook than the S. hook. I rearranged the lantern so that it filled in the spot that used to be filled by the large hook and the Topsy Turvy. 

5 Gallon Boom...

When I was done I took a look into my 5G bucket and noticed that I had the most beautiful strawberry flower, yet. It even looked like a strawberry because it had that big green stem and leaf part that top strawberries from the store. After I saw that I noticed that the there were at least 15 other big buds that look exactly like the flower did when it started. It's amazing because the 5G bucket took, at least, 3 weeks longer to produce any buds than the Topsy and the 8G bucket so I thought it either wouldn't produce at all or that it was setting up a stronger base and would produce better. I sure it'll be my second thought, now. It's producing what I believe will be my first berries. The other two containers have produced several flowers and buds but none that look like the ones in the 5G bucket and none of which have that leaf and stem formed; largely or properly. The flowers that seemed like they'd turn into strawberries have shriveled and aren't growing. I'm hoping that the flowers that die now aren't going to continue to die as more are produced. I hope that they're setting up a stronger base and will start producing flowers that look more like the 5G bucket flowers. 

Tonight is supposed to get down into the high 30's. I thought about bringing the 5G and 8G bucket inside but seascapes can handle as low as 55 degree soil temperatures, with ease, and I don't think one cold night will bring the soil temp. down that far. If it does I hope they are resilient enough to take it and perk back up during the sunny 80+ degree weather we're going to get the rest of the week.

5G flower and buds. Notice the large green leaves behind it. Looks just like a store bought strawberry's top. 

Video Patch

Video Update 3...

I promised you guys a video update of everything so here it is. How everything from the spinach container, to the radishes, to the melons in the greenhouse are doing! And how long they've been doing it! 

Diggin' for Gold

Filling the Beds...

I spent most of today outside in the chilly clouded weather finishing the filling of the beds. I had to fill the wheelbarrow, add Perlite, mix the Perlite, wheel to bed, and pour. Digging into the pile and filling the wheelbarrow was one of the hardest parts but unlike I expected it was not the hardest part. I think the hardest part was pouring the compost/perlite mix into the actual beds. The beds were not anchored to the ground so tipping the enormous industrial size wheelbarrow over the edge would cause the bed to move and most of the compost mix would remain inside. I'd then have to rake the mix out, shake the barrow, and/or push it all the way over so that it was upside down over the bed. I had to do this all without shoving the bed over too much because once the beds were a certain amount full they could not be straightened out properly. Let me tell you, beds arranged the way that our beds are arranged do not look very good when they are crooked. The most visually appeasing part of laying them out as we did is the lines, straight lines across the space. Anyway, I had to do this about 5 or 6 times. It took me awhile. After I'd had filled all the beds I filled the wheel barrow one more time and spread the contents between all the beds just to make sure they were properly topped off. Then, I raked them all out making sure that the compost was level and the corners were filled in, it was hardest getting the corners filled because I tried doing so without tossing any compost mix out of the bed. 

Tomato Tepees...

After I filled the beds I worked on the tomato cages made of bamboo, done tepee style. What I did to make them was take 3 bamboo sticks make all of the ends level on one end and wrapped a rubber band around them. Then I'd spread the tepee out and take one more bamboo stick and break it into 3 pieces attaching them to the 3 sides of the tepee with 1 rubber band for each end of the broken piece. This made a tier for the tomatoes to rest on. That way we won't have to tie the stems to the tepee. The tomato will find its own way up the tepee-stake and rest its stems on the ledges. I made 3 more before running out of bamboo. We'll need one more pack to make 2 more tepees, one for the green beans, and a trellis for the squash. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to make the trellis but I have a couple ideas. I also saw some very cool easy ones on Pinterest that I may want to copy. When I was done I placed all 5 of the completed structures outside in the beds they'd be living in this spring and summer. I wanted to make sure that the sizes were adequate. They looked good, if you asked me. I went back inside to work on seed tape directly after finishing the tepees. 

Bean Tape...

My last garden task for the day was to make seed tape for the green beans. We have very few items planned for the garden that are cool/warm weather crops but the ones that we do have are a little late. We need to plant them as soon as possible. So I wanted to make sure that the one that the one crop that needs the longest cool/warm weather was ready for tomorrow before I completed my "gardening" day. I cut 12" strips of newspaper and mix flour and water to make a paste. I used a ruler to mark every 3 inches with a pen and put down a drop of flour paste on each mark then dropped a bean in the paste. It went much quicker and was much easier then the carrot, radish, and spinach tape because the beans are so much bigger. I was done in a few minutes and left them to dry. Before I cleaned everything up I went upstairs to strain the other seeds that were soaking. I wanted them to dry out a bit for tomorrow when I make their seed tape. When I strained the Mesclun mix I noticed that many of the seeds had pre-germinated  a bit during there soaking. So I left them in a little water and will just broadcast them on there plot. I put the spinach seeds and mesclun mix in separate zip lock bags and finally finished everything I'd set out to do for Potagar Schoultz today. 

Once I plant the cool/warm weather plants I'll be focusing my attention on Patch Market and the tests I've been waiting to get results from... some have produced results that I just haven't had the time to tell you about but don't worry I'll report everything later in the week. I should be done with the Potagar for a little bit, anyway, after tomorrow. 

FYI- Tomorrow is officially our Last Frost Date, April 16 2013!

Potagar Schoultz with filled boxes and tepees in place.

Madness Depot

Home Depot...

Today, I didn't do that much garden work period. The bulk of what I did was for Potagar Schoultz. I watered everything that needed watering in Patch Market. At around one this afternoon Mr. S. and I went to Home Depot to get the plants we needed for the garden. We got there and it was madness. There were tons of people buying up all the plants. Most of the vegetables were gone and it was hard to maneuver our way through the garden center. We ended up getting a lot of what we needed by luck. We found vegetables and fruits people and picked up and put back down in different places. Luckily, we were able to do self check-out because everything we were getting was small and had a bar code. Mr. S. pushed the cart ahead to self check out while I got 2 more bags of Perlite. I tried to catch up with him but this horrendous old lady thought I was trying to cut in front of her on the way to the line and kept blocking me off. Finally, I was able to step in front of her and she tried to smash into me on my way passed with her cart. Sunday is a horrible day to go to Home Depot but we got cantaloupe, lemon balm, summer squash, spinach, mesclun mix, zucchini, and a few others I can't remember. Mike's dad picked up some tomato cages because he couldn't find bamboo and of course the Perlite. 

Once we got home and unloaded I went to Ayers (the local hardware store) to pick up a few more plants. I got there and could immediately see that things were pretty sparse there too. Even though things were sparse I got a tomatoberry plant, patty pan squash, Chili peppers, and cucumbers in the plant section. I ended up grabbing a packet of bamboo for the trellis and a plant spray bottle. When I got home I unloaded and let Mr. S. know what I'd picked up. I told him that we should return all 6 of the cages he'd bought at Home Depot and use the bamboo. The bamboo was $4 a pack and each cage was $8.00. The savings is worth the return trip. 

Later...

I planted the remaining strawberry plants in another container and put them in Patch and built two tomato stakes out of bamboo and rubber bands. I entered the plants we'd gotten into Smart Gardener and made the actual final plan and noticed that the lemon balm seeds I'd planted had germinated. It took them eleven days. I guess I was able to get some seeds in and they germinated faster because they were soaked. Even though they were hard to handle and I wasn't completely sure I had gotten the seeds into the cups it was worth it. 

Tiny Lemon Balm seedling. (top right)

DIY bamboo stakes for the peas and tomatoes. 

Seascape strawberry container.

Potagar Schoultz

Patch Update...

Today I didn't work on my garden except for watering and setting out the greenhouse. I noticed that the first carrot seeds started to germinate, there are only 2, so far, but I still have a few days. I hope they'll all come out but if they don't I'll have the time to replant. I didn't work on my garden but I did work on the Potagar.

Setting Up...

It was a beautiful warm Saturday with a nice breeze, Mr. S. was home and working on his garden. I woke up early but didn't get up until about noon. I stayed in bed watching Big Love. When I finally made my way up and out I saw that he'd built 4 out of the 5 beds. He had them laid out just as they were built and I asked "is this how you plan on setting them up?" He said "No I just built them and put them down. I still have one more to build. I think we might put one next to your bed [in Patch]." I thought about how I'd set up the raised beds in the measured space on Smart Gardener and about how I could have gotten the measurements so wrong. It didn't seem like all the four by four beds would fit around the four by eight bed. Next thing I knew I had the measuring tape out, had grabbed a built 4x4, and started moving it . Nobody was out back at this point so I thought I could easily try a few different positions out...

So I started rearranging and it turned out that I hadn't measured "so" incorrectly. I was a little off but not as off as it seemed. I moved the large bed into the middle and put 2 small beds on the left and 2 on the right (one was just the box of the bed that had yet to be put together). I thought it looked good but needed to get approval. I asked Mr. S to come take a look, he liked it but said I had to get Mrs. S to approve. One the conditions of Potagar Schoultz was that it made the yard look beautiful. He asked her to take a look and she liked it but thought that the yet-to-be-built bed should be left that way. Once I explained that it wouldn't take more of the space to the right she was in, I think she loved it! So I started putting together the last bed and set it in its spot. It looked good, GREAT!

Next Step...

The next step was to lay out the newspaper to kill the grass and weeds. Mr. S asked me to do that while he went out for a few minutes. I said that I would and went inside to grab a bunch of paper. I laid it all out and then realized that, that nice breeze was blowing it all up. I laid bricks, a rake, a hoe, and extra bundled up paper in the middle of each bed to hold it down. After I finished all of that I realized that those items wouldn't hold each and every end. I thought of how I could keep everything down while we added soil to each bed. I knew that we weren't going to do it right away and that when we did, it would take us some time. So, I watered the paper. Damping it did hold it down but I got soaked from the mid-thigh down. The hose isn't spraying properly anymore. I moved on to moving everything out of the way of the cement walk. We needed it cleared to roll the wheelbarrow back and forth. I finally grabbed the wheelbarrow, rolled over to the compost heap, and started filling it. I got it about half way full when Mr. S got back with lunch. I stopped cleaned up the remaining paper and went in to wash up for lunch. I was a hot mess from shoveling compost. It was the part I knew would be the most trying... 

After Lunch...

I took an hour break for lunch and to watch a little more Big Love. At around 3pm I went back outside. Mike's Dad was out there filling up the barrow for the 3rd time. He had almost filled one full 4x4. I helped him fill the wheelbarrow, add Perlite, fill more, add more Perlite, mix, wheel, drop in beds, and rake out what didn't drop. We did this 7 times. We filled two beds to the top and just added enough compost to the other beds to hold the newspaper in place overnight. The paper had dried by then. After that Mr. S went inside and I cleaned up the empty boxes, bags, and moved the wheelbarrow back to the heap for tomorrow. I was exhausted. I went in to shower, have dinner, and relax.

Later that day...

I took the print out from SmartGarden and started writing down the number of each plant we still needed and whether we needed seeds or seedlings. As I did that I realize that we had a large amount of certain plants to buy and they happen to be the ones that weren't favorites. For example, it was listed that we needed 16 sweet basil plants. I changed a couple things around so that 1 bed is dedicated to cantaloupe and the other to watermelon. I removed a few of the tomato and basil plants and added a few of the varieties with low yields  We're completely set for 1 more Home Depot trip if they have sweet potatoes if they don't we'll have to make one for trip for that. Once we buy everything and add the rest of the compost we'll be ready to plant each and every single seedling and seed minus the sweet potato, peppers, and watermelons. Those will be left inside until it heats up a little more. They like warm and long hot days. We're still in the "cool" time frame. It's going to look amazing with most of the things planted and even more amazing with everything planted!

Full View of all 5 beds from driveway gate.

Large 4 x 8ft. bed and left side 4 x 4ft. top corner bed.

Final Potagar Schoultz lay out.

Black Gold

Compost Pick Up

I stayed up late last night searching for compost. I had searched for it in the past with little to no luck but that was because I was searching in the wrong place. I should have gone to craigslist all along. Several farms and compost businesses were advertising there product in the GARDEN/FARMING section. So I emailed one farmer that advertised 65lb for $10.00. He didn't reply by morning so I moved on. I am happy that I did because I only had to travel to American University (about 20 mins drive) to buy 20lbs for $5.00 and I supported a Veteran business. 

Before Veteran Compost I called a man "known for his compost" and he said that the minimum I could buy was 4 cubic yards. I had already filled my garden beds with soil. I would have loved to fill them with compost but like I said I couldn't find it back in March so that wasn't going to work. I did keep him in mind for my boyfriends Dad because he delivered in bulk and the price was right. For the topsoil MG crap Mr. S would have ended up paying somewhere close to $400.00 for 2 cubic yards. Opposed to $125.00 for 4 cubic yards. After getting the no from Bulk-man I emailed Veteran Compost and a guy named Jeff called me back 20 minutes later saying that I could pick my bag/s up around 3pm at the AU campus. The ride down was a bit more complicated than I thought... I guess I don't know the area as well as I thought I did. I ended up having to turn around on Nebraska 3 times before I found the right AU gate entrance. It was worth it though. I meant Jeff picked up a bag and went home to plant my strawberries. 

Topsy Turvy...

The second I got home with the compost I pulled out the organic potting mix and perlite. I would have planted in all compost but the Topsy Turvy was already going to be very heavy and compost is heavier than potting mix. I didn't want to risk waking up to a crumbled over planter. I pulled out the freshly painted recycling bin and pour in 1 part potting mix to 1 part compost to .75 parts perlite. The mix was compost heavy but not weight heavy. I began filling the planter and un-cupped 1 strawberry. What happened next was something I was afraid of from the moment I received the bare root berries, the soil fell of and the holes in the planter weren't holding them. Now, the roots did grow in the cups but because I wasn't able to fan them out they didn't grab much soil so in the end I did have a better root system but I still had to plant barefoot. I added soil, a row of berries, then more soil, more berries and so on until I hit the top. I filled in the planter with 2 inches to spare and brought my Shepard hook to where the sun is currently best. I tried lifting the planter. I failed. I tried again with a grunt and heave and finally got it on the hook just to have to take it back down because I'd forgotten the lid. Another grunt heave and back up on the hook to water. I started watering, slowly as suggested, and realized that the water was just going down the middle. Burpee suggested that I got the roots to 3 inches so I didn't think the middle would do it for the first time around. I heaved it back off the hook and finally thought to myself, Topsy Turvy bad idea. It's almost as tall as I am and weighs about as much AND it's burying my CROWNS! UGH!! I don't really recommend it so far, especially if your a petite female. Maybe it'll grow amazing berries and I'll take this all back but the work has not yet been worth it. I watered and added some more compost mix because hanging compacted the soil and the top plants roots were showing then I heaved and ho'ed because it was heavier and finally got it back on the hook for good. Before I left the planter I went around to check that all the crowns were positioned properly. Hanging had caused most of them to dip down, so 1 by 1 I pulled them all back out. The planter has been a hassle and a half. I hope it produces and well or I might have to send Mr Topsy Turvy some "compost."

I have 12 strawberry plants left that I plan on planting in different containers around Patch. I think it'll be a good way to compare the results of the Topsy Turvy and ensure that I get some strawberries even if the planter ends up being complete crap. I didn't do much else but water today because picking up the compost and planting the strawberries took me a few hours. I did tell Mikes Dad about the compost and place the order. I think it's great that my misses ended up being helpful to his garden. We'll be getting 3 cubic yards of compost delivered to the house tomorrow. I'm very excited about, what I call, Potagar (French for Kitchen Garden) Schoultz. We'll all be green yet!

Plan for Potagar Schoultz