Rain Infinity

Rain, Rain, Rain, Rain & More Rain...

Apparently, its going to rain for the next 5 days straight. If my garden doesn't die I'll be shocked. Today was one of the mild rain days predicted and it was dark and drizzling and humid and gross. Even though it was drizzling I went out to plant radish seeds. Sea Magic was scheduled to be applied today but with all the rain watering with it would have been extremely dumb and spray it on the plants foliage would have been as good as not doing it at all because the rain would have washed it all off. 

So I planted the left over seed tape an seeds right from the package. I ended up using the large plot that I was thinking of using for the other peanut plant, for radishes, because my Mom loved the first harvest so much. The small plots only grew 9 radishes between the 3 so I figured why not and if I thin them out early they should be done by mid-June and then I an use the bigger plot for something else or just plant more if we find a place for the second peanut plant. 

On another not I watched some videos of green beans on YouTube and it turns out the type we are growing don't need trellises. They aren't going to get that tall. So when I rain stops, if it ever does, I'll be moving the trellis out and sticking some kabob sticks in to tie the beans off a bit. That's all the green arrow variety really requires. It sucks because the teepee looks so nice but now I have the trellises to make a tepee I the squash or melon bed, instead of between them. I'll probably teepee the cantaloupes since they only need 1x1 sq foot of space if grown vertically. 

I probably won't be doing much gardening for the next few days and the rain will squelch any picture taking but I will try to run out and check on everything quickly to keep you updated on, hopefully, good or bad progress. 

First strawberry flowers I've seen that are placed on one stem divided into 2 shoots with a flower on each end. Just for your viewing pleasure, not relevant to today. 

Pods Pop

Seedling Germinate...

I started the day climbing the stairs with my greenhouse to the backyard. As I headed outside I heard a bang bang bang and shake shake shake. I headed upstairs to the front door from the sun room, slowly. I thought it's either the cops or a burglar but I was set on burglar because the door was being shaken not just banged on. So I crept slowly to the door and and peeked out to see Mike's mom trying to get in... at that point it registered that I wasn't in danger and quickly opened the door to a beautiful day, it was about 61 degrees and sunny. 

After letting Mikes mom in I headed down to the sun room to place my greenhouse in the backyard sun and water them if needed. They were all just the tiniest bit bigger then the night before except for 1. That one doesn't seem like it's going to make it although I still have some hopes for it because as my mom pointed out when she joined me in the backyard for a look-see, "it has a little bit of green there you see?" There is a little green leaf, asleep, in the middle of the inactive crown. Like I said before my mom, still on her break, joined me in the backyard to help me finish watering the strawberries before our walk on the C&O Canal trail starting in Bluemont Park. 

Bluemont Park...

When we arrived at the park it was sunny and beautiful again. We were worried that it might be too chilly for a walk because the backyard had become windy and clouded right before we left. We hopped out of the car quickly and grabbed the plastic bag I'd brought to collect creek rocks in and started our walk. As we walked I told my mom all about continuous lettuce growing and how I'd recently decided to add lettuce to my garden plans. She mentioned that her father had a green thumb like nobody she'd ever known since. He grew lemons, maraNon, guava, mango, cilantro, spinach, papaya, and started the  it all from scratch. I then told her about Plot Against Hunger the charity that provides vegetables and fruits from local and home gardens to the needy children in the area. I mentioned that I had recently volunteered to help with the vegetable garden at the Central Library and anywhere else in the Arlington area. I'd learned some about PAH last year when I first discovered my love for food gardening and the Central Library food gardens. I've planned to donate my extra's from Patch to them but I wanted to do more for them and myself. My garden is small and I won't get to try half of the things I'd like. This way I can garden more and help the children. Amazing! 

As we walked along the trail and creek we collected little rocks shaped slightly like strawberries. I'd read that if you paint rocks to look like strawberries and put them by your plants in the garden the birds will believe them to be strawberries and when the real things grow the birds will believe them to be rocks and leave them alone. We were lucky because the second we decided to turn around it started getting clouded, windy, and looked like rain. Our walk back was quick, cold, and unpleasant. 

Testing...

We hopped in the car and drove back to my home so that I could put my greenhouse back inside. I didn't want the rain and wind to damage my plants. I ran up the drive and into the backyard and put the GH inside. On my way back out I checked my testers. I wasn't expecting anything. I was actually starting to think I had a black thumb for seeds but as it turned out the radish seeds had just sprouted and so had a few of the test spinach seeds. It was pretty amazing to see that they had germinated. I was so excited to find out I didn't have a black thumb I think I sort of uprooted the small babies. It doesn't matter in the scheme of things because I wouldn't have been able to transplant the germination testers but I would have liked to have the self control to allow them to get a bit bigger. Either way it was great to see... my tests, my strawberries, and my faerie garden were growing. YES, my faerie garden! 

Faerie/Container Garden...

The point of the faerie garden was to find out whether or not seeds/seedlings were as sensitive as all of the blogs, books, pins, and website articles made them out to be. It turns out that they aren't as far as germination goes. The Faerie garden has succeeded so far. The spinach seeds I planted have begun to germinate. Yes, it took them the full 14 days but it was worth it to find out that plants have a little wiggle room for mishap. Now, as far as my container goes that's a bit of a weird story. I thought that it wasn't working out so after lunch with my mom (I went back out with her after putting the GH inside) I came back home and started to dig into the container to replant. As I dug in slowly I started to see little white roots. The seeds I'd planted 13 days prior to today had germinated they just hadn't shown signs of germination. What I suspected was in fact true but not in the way I'd suspected, if that makes sense. I thought that the reason my spinach had not grown was that I'd topped them with too much soil and firmed it too firmly. That was the case but what I thought was that if I'd done that that the seeds wouldn't grow at all. That wasn't the case I think they just needed more then the full 14 days to appear because the soil was thick and firm. I don't know that to be a fact they could have died trying to come up, never making it to the surface, and not getting enough light but now I'll never know because I'm sure my digging killed them. Mind you I planted about 33 seeds, just so that I had better chances at getting 3 to germinate, and only dug up 3. After seeing that the 3 had shown some growth I left the container alone except for scraping off about a half inch of the topsoil. I still won't ever know if the seeds died because they were planted wrong, I dug into them, or they just were going to die. I should have been more patient but now I'll replant in another container and see what happens with the current one. As far as I see it 3 successes out of 4 is pretty good for a beginner. 

Patch Mark-it!

Plant Markers...

The last time I wrote about the plant markers I was so excited to have found something that would not vanish with the rain. It snowed on Tuesday and guess what vanished with the rain... the writing. Apparently, the nail polish pen I was so excited about wasn't nail polish at all. The actual nail polish fought through the snow without one scratch but the writing didn't make it. So, when I was done adding the Perlite to my raised bed yesterday I grabbed them all and trashed them. I must admit I acted a bit impetuously but I was only thinking those didn't work, now what? What I should have done was kept them, cleared off any "nail polish" pen that was left behind and written the names in black nail polish then glued them to the paint mixers I'd gotten from Home Depot. That was the original plan, to glue them to the paint mixers if they made it through the snow...

Once I got inside I instantly regretted throwing the tiles away. I could have just rewritten the names in black polish. I was so cold I didn't want to go out to the garbage and get them so I decided I would just remake them. I had already remade the carrot markers because the carrots I am planning on planting are two different types. I wanted the markers to reflect each type. Before I remade them I took the mixers and drew the veggie and name directly on them. I thought that might look nicer then the tile. It didn't. Then I used paint markers and drew the name and veggie on it, that didn't look good either. So, I started remaking the tiles and even though I had to write the words with a brush they came out pretty well. It was time to glue the tiles to the paint mixers. I grabbed them and a saw and started to cut them down to a more reasonable size. They were originally about 1.5 feet long. I cut them down to about 9 inches. Then I took tile glue that my mom happened to find and I happened to pick up and put it directly on the wood mixer where the tile would sit. At first, I had some trouble getting the glue out which was strange because I'd just tested it. Then I noticed glue was getting on my hand. From where? I looked and couldn't see where the hole was until I squeeze again. There was a hole on the top of the bottle before the screw. I ended up having to use the hole. It worked fine and I glued each tile to there stick. 

They came out just OK. I don't know if I like them as much as my first tiles except for the carrots but I like them enough to use them. 

Slips in water...

Other than the markers I checked on the spinach (container & faerie plot) and the sweet potatoes. The spinach has been germinating for 9 days and shows no signs of life in either spot. The sweet potatoes have been in water for 3 days and I've already seen some growing roots. I was so psyched to see that but it made me wonder if the spinach will ever grow considering it took my sweets such a short time to show some action. I need to either replant or keep waiting but I think I might replant and keep waiting. See which one turns out first the seeds started in MG garden soil, backyard soil or the seeds I start in organic potting mix. Want to take a guess?

Faerie Plot

Forgotten...

After I planted the container, I forgot that I had planted a few seeds in the ground in the backyard! I felt like it was so very sneaky at the time, maybe because I knew it shouldn't be grown there or didn't have much of a chance, I don't know.

I looked around for a spot that wouldn't be walked on for at least a week or two. Like I said, I knew the seeds didn't have much of a chance but I wanted to experiment. See if you really need loose soil, compost, and a root free ground. So I found a spot under what looks like a peeling tree (not one leaf, yet, so sun shines through) and used the rake type tool to dig into the dirt about half an inch. As I dug I saw worms, roots and felt the resistance. The dirt was muddy because it had rained the day before but I continued. Once I had dug out a tiny 4x4" plot I raked across the plot and put four seeds in each row. I didn't remove any roots, double dig, or add compost. I just added the seeds, covered them with dirt, and lightly patted them with a spade. Since I'd found a random spot to clean out and dig into, in what comes out to be a fairly large backyard, I needed something to mark my test. I went looking around and remembered that I saw an old plastic plant marker from last summer an hour earlier. That didn't work it was covered in muck. I ended up finding a larger plastic marker by the gate to the driveway and cleaned it off. Now all I needed was a marker (an ink one) so I went inside grabbed a Prisma Color purple and wrote "Spinach".

I headed back out, to the left of the peeling tree, to stick the marker in front of my 4x4" plot. A faerie garden was built!

Why did I do that...?

I don't know if they'll even germinate but I do kind of hope they do. It would be nice to know that plants are a lot more resilient then the websites and books make them out to be. I know that even if they do germinate that they won't grow to full side because that ground plot is fairly hard and I just don't think that the roots could push through even after the thaw, if I can't. Mike's dad keeps saying that we should use more of the garden space for things like blueberry bushes and etc. but I just don't know if they'd make it in the yard because I haven't read much about ground gardening. If these spinach seeds just germinate that will give me hope for a blueberry bush and for the seeds that I have planted and am planning to plant in loose, composted, well aerated, nutrient rich soil (thought in a snobby voice). I really am worried that 3 out of my 6 veggies aren't going to grow. So, if the ground plot even germinates one seed it'll boost my confidence in my seed sowing abilities. If they don't I won't take that to mean that my other seeds won't germinate and flourish but I'll be much more wary when I finally plant the carrots & radishes in my raised bed. Also, I'll take what the websites and books say completely to heart. Follow the directions even more meticulously than I have been (which is really really meticulously) and maybe even use some of the off-plot, that was allotted for the carrots (not all of it), for herbs that help my plants grow (as recommended). I'll get fewer carrots that way but some Lemon Balm and... uh Stinging Nettle may be nice too, MAYBE. 

::extra deep sigh::