First Harvest

Spinach Bolting...

I went out this morning to check on everything after the rain. I was scared to head out because of the caterpillars but I put my large rimmed straw hat on so that if anything did fall out of the trees it wasn't directly on me. That gave me the confidence to go out and even head under the tree to Parch but before I did that I checked on the spinach container. One of the plants bolted. What that means is that it, basically, didn't have enough space so it flowered to go to seed. I have two options now concerning that particular plant, 1) I thin it out so that I don't chance the other plants bolting or 2) I leave it let it flower and collect the seeds to plant another rotation. I'm leaning towards thinning because the other plants probably need the space. 

 Spinach plant bolted, flowering. 

Radishes & Lettuce...

I moved into Patch quickly to avoid spending too much time under any given tree. I checked on the radishes first and noticed that my biggest plant had about 2 cm of an inch wide bulb sticking out and so did one other, much shorter, plant. I took a look at the strawberries and then the lettuce and realized that on of the heads of lettuce was starting to curl; making a head. So that means that it needed to be harvested or the outer leaves did. I went inside to check the size of Cherry belle radishes on Smart Gardener and when I saw that the average size bulb was .5 inches I grabbed a basket and headed out with my pink gloves to harvest a couple radishes and lettuce leaves. I pulled the two radishes with the most bulb sticking out and pinch a few lettuce leaves off the exterior of the forming head. I left enough of the plant, about 2 inches, so that those leaves would grow back. 

I took my harvest inside, washed it up, and set it out to dry. We'll be making a salad tonight. I'm not going to give my mom or AFAC 2 radishes and six leaves of lettuce so Mr. S, he likes radishes, said he'd eat them. Leaf veggies should be harvested for same day use. 

Georgia Jet Wilt...

I will be planting the sweet potatoes around dusk if it isn't rainy and windy like it was last night because they are looking really sad. The leaves are drying up and the water doesn't seem to be holding them over. I'm just going to have to suck it up and plant them even if I ant see caterpillars coming my way at that time of day. 

Bulbs poking out after a few days. Took them 2 days to double or triple in size.

Lettuce starting to head. 

My first harvest May 11th, 2013. 

Pest Pits

Mystery Demolition...

This morning when I got up and went outside to look at what I had planted, yesterday I was shocked. The green beans had been torn out of there spot and there was an enormous hole in the middle of the spinach row. I checked the Mesclun, lettuce, onions, and all of Patch. They were completely fine. That seemed extremely strange to me because two plots of Mesclun seeds that had partly germinated, which is amazing in 1 day, were left untouched as well as actual lettuce and onion bulbs. All of the stuff that seemed more "edible" was untouched. I still can't figure out if a rat or bunny dug up the seeds to be little sucks or the rain we got last night was too hard.

I replanted what was left of the green bean seeds. Pulled out the mutilated newspaper strips and left the rest as is because I was just so shocked. My radish and carrot seeds weren't destroyed. I think it may have something to do with the compost not the seeds but if that was the case the lettuce and onions should have been destroyed as well or maybe not because they are large.

I watered the seeds with 3.99 parts water to .01 parts Epsom salt to give them a boost after there trauma. I watered everything in Patch, the greenhouse and the Topsy Turvy then went inside for the day. The shock of finding Potagar Schoultz mutilated was just to much. I needed a break from the garden to ponder the cause. It is just so strange considering that I've had no trouble with Patch so far... Why would the first Potagar box be so damaged overnight when Patch has been planted for almost 2 weeks. It just seems weird and confusing. We have to put the fence up and the lights out as soon as possible. If it was the rain and it just washed the seeds out well okay but why wasn't the Mesclun washed out?

This is going to haunt me until I find out what destroy such a beautifully planted bed.

I didn't take pictures but I will before i fix the spinach and I'll post them with tomorrow's entry. Weird, shock, weirder.

Garden pests are the pits!

Before Pest Pits Weird Occurrence (After Coming Soon.) 

What I Don't See

Patch Market Tour Test Time...

I made another video just to give you a full view of everything that I've been writing about. 

I find that no matter what I read about gardening, nobody talks about testing, trying, failing, and succeeding. They all just give you there tips and you don't know which ones really work. So I decided to try every tip I find online, in books, and videos and let you guys know which ones work the best, at least in my part of the country. So my videos, this one and future ones, will give you a little tour and idea of the tests I'm running and a look at there successes and failures.

Child Alive

As of today my garden is alive and my thumb is green. The radish testers have sprouted to about an inch high, the sweet potato roots are growing there hairs, the potted spinach has shown signs of above soil germination, all of my strawberries are showing some green, even the one that I thought was dead, and my greenhouse is staying warm with condensation. The lettuce I bought at Home Depot yesterday and replanted in cups for root strengthening has grown new leaves.

It's pretty amazing to see everything growing and well. When I saw the radish sprouts the first thing I thought was 'They are so cute!' When I first started planning my veggie garden in Feb. I thought that I would be impatient and that the best part would be the harvest. I was so wrong. The best part is testing different planting methods on seeds and seeing what is most successful. The best part is getting dead looking barefoot strawberries and watching them come alive in days. The best part is making one really crappy greenhouse cover and making an amazing mini greenhouse 24 hours later that keeps the interior temperature up. The best part is everything leading up to the harvest, figuring out what works best for me, and then watching things come alive as a result of what I've done. It's an extremely amazing process. Somewhat like a little child birth.

If that makes sense... Child birth is obviously much more rewarding but since i dot have children this seems better to me. Let me explain. You plant a seed, feed it, water it and nurture it. Finally after a few days you have this little growing baby that will produce for you! Sounds similar right? Or is that just me?

Anyway, next up pre-germinating seeds for planting!

Dirty Deeds

Soil Troubles...

I was online just looking up some information about natural fertilizers for strawberry plants and happened to come across both of the specifications on the two types of soil I had purchased. Both said in bold lettering "Not for use in containers." So I kind of started to freak out thinking MY BED IS ONE LARGE CONTAINER and then pushed it to the back of my mind and continued looking for strawberry plant fertilizers, without much luck. The next day I start looking into the MG soil and Scott's soil. It turns out that they aren't for containers they are to be used as amendments for ground soil. Now what do I do, I bought 12 bags of the wrong soil and did all this work for what? I wasn't planning on mixing in any of my ground soil. That's why I did all that work with the raised bed. So that I wouldn't have to, ugh! Growing veggies is 50/50, water and soil, and I happen to get 1 fifty wrong. Fantastic. I couldn't sleep most of the night thinking about what ingredients were in potting mix and what was in what I got. I finally fell asleep at about 5am only to have to get up at 10:30am to help my mom run some errands. We spent the day out together and I forgot all about my soil problems. The second I got back, my problems were back. Not being able to relax I got up and went down to the local hardware store to check out the ingredients in potting mix.

Hardware Home Depot...

At the hardware store I took a look around for 1 bag identical to mine and placed it next to an overturned bag of potting mix to compare. It turns out the only difference in the MG potting mix and the garden soil is Perlite or those little things that look like broken up Styrofoam. So I asked the attendant if that was true? Was I getting it right? Did I just need to add Perlite? He said that as far as he knew it wasn't Perlite but Vermiculite that I needed to add. He showed me where both were shelved. I took a look at them both and then went back to the two bags for comparison. I didn't want to go against what he'd said so I headed to Home Depot for Perlite. I know that it's a good idea to add Vermiculite but as far as making the soil I bought into potting mix all I needed was Perlite. 

At the Home Depot I grabbed a cart and started searching for Perlite. It was nowhere to be found. I started getting really frustrated with my particular Home Depot this had happened once before, under stocking. I was going to leave but then this really nice older woman (seemed like a big gardener herself) asked if I needed any help. I said 'yes' and asked for the Perlite. She showed me exactly where to find it, INSIDE. They don't keep it out in the garden center but inside in the garden section. I grabbed two bags and headed to the seed racks. I grabbed 2 packs of Cherry Belle radishes and a pack of watermelon seeds, just for fun. Then I headed back out to the garden center to get some Organic Potting Mix for the strawberry planter. Considering, that I was making my own potting mix and I had read that poor soil would kill my berries I wanted something amazing and pre-mixed. I looked at both the MG organic and the Vigoro organic potting mix. Vigoro had Perlite in it and MG did not. Want to guess which one I got??? Duh! The Vigoro. I'd learned my lesson. I didn't actually know if Perlite was organic but the rest of the components matched MG ingredient for ingredient. 

Back in Patch...

Once I had unloaded everything from the car and into the garden I went into the house to grab my gloves and put on my boots. Perlite should only be worked with (apparently) when wearing gloves. I took that warning seriously for my hands and feet. Back in the garden... I unhooked the twine I was using to section off the area into square feet and started chopping up the soil. At first I was using a small hand spade and it was taking me forever and ever to mix even the first few inches. Then I grabbed an enormous shovel and started hacking into the soil just to get it loose and to make a hole to pour in some Perlite. I poured, mixed, and moved. Poured, mixed, and moved. I was sweating like a pig and cold at the same time. It was windy and freezing every time I stopped mixing, pouring, moving. Finally, I got back to where I started pouring and mixing and the entire raised bed was now speckled in white. It looked good and I could see that the soil even looked lighter. It may have been my hopes coming true in vision but I really think it did. I bought 8 quarts of Perlite and mixed in about 6.5 quarts. I don't know if that was too much or too little but every bit of soil now has a fine coating. THANK GOD! I would have never chosen to do it this way if I had known better but trust me next year I'll do it this way again (it's cheaper). I'll just mix in Perlite as I had soil. The hardest part about this was trying to get the Perlite all the way down to the bottom of the bed. I replaced the twine and went inside to collapse. I was tired, cold, sweating, and not rested but I was anxiety free for the moment! 

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::

String Them Up!

I started out the day by checking the weather because I decided that gardening in the rain when it's under 70 degrees probably isn't best. The weather read 57 and Sunny so I headed outside with my packet of spinach seeds, a new pair of gloves and a container.

I tried using one container but decided that it just didn't drain as quickly as I'd like... Considering that my strawberry plant was killed partially by root rot I picked a smaller container with better drainage and began filling it. I should have poured instead but I scooped. When I was finally done scooping about 30 minutes later I got one of those small rake looking things and a measuring tape. Why the tape you ask? Well, the back of the seed packaging said to plant the Bloomsdale Long-standing spinach 1/2 in. deep. So I measured the prongs on the small rake tool and raked through the top of the soil at 1/2in depth, abouts. Then I tore open the seed packet and was kinda shocked by how many seeds are in 1 package. I'd gotten 2 for 2 containers. You live and learn, I guess. So I put about 7 seeds in each row. If all of them germinate then I wasted like 38 seeds. I figured my chances were better that I'd get 3 to germinate by trying an overload of seeds. I'll definitely thin them out when they start growing if all of them do or more than 3.

Once I had completed the spinach container I decided that I needed to measure the interior wall of my raised bed considering that I hadn't moved the back wall in that meticulously. I knew it wouldn't come out to my originally planned 5x3 foot raised bed. It came to about 4.5 ft by 2.5 ft. Not exactly what I had expected but closer to that then I had figured. So I took a spade and started drawing the lines in the dirt. I had 6 1x1 square foot plots and on the perimeter I had one 4.5ft by .5in plot and one 2.5 ft by .5 inch plot. Although all of the plants I had plotted wouldn't fit into my square garden perfectly I decided not to be so disappointed by this and instead to be happy that I would have the space, in some sense, for each veggie selected. I am going to use the off-plots for the carrots. One variety in the 2.5 plot and the other in the 4.5 plot. I'll just plant 1 row instead of 2. That'll get me more than enough carrots. I hope. 

Once I had sectioned the dirt off with a spade I went inside to find some pieces of wood to use to hold my ties and string. I came back with 4 chopsticks, 1 paint mixer, 8 kabob sticks, and twine. I remeasured and used the bricks to hold one end of the string and the paint mixer, chopsticks, and kabob sticks to hold the end that ran to the concrete blocks. It took me awhile to get everything just right. I had to measure down the middle twice and remeasure each square once I realized I had gotten the middle off by 3 inches or so. Chopping the dirt up with a spade and tape measure wasn't as efficient as I'd thought. I finally got it right and my raised bed had transformed into a garden. Somehow, those string sections made it look real and fancy almost. I know it sounds silly but my picture of a garden includes those strings so "installing" them was kind of the last piece of building. All I need now besides the plants is a sign for the gate that allows entry to the side yard from the backyard. Then I'll be set.

As far as the container...

My spinach seeds should show something green in about 7 days but I don't know it may be more like 14. I told my mom this and she asked immediately "when can we eat it!?" I replied and said that it would be less if we picked the baby leaves. She said "baby spinach is better! With tomato though! When will they be ready?" And I replied again assuring her that spinach and tomato would be available together at some point in the summer but not as soon as the spinach, of course. I don't actually know this to be true but she sounded more disappointed then I was about sledge hammering my finger (still feel bruised btw). So I made a big to-do about how if we pick the leaves just right the others will keep growing. I read this somewhere but only once and I don't really know what "pick them right" means. I guess until I can plant the "ALFD" (after last frost date) plants I can look into harvesting the spinach and should. I never thought I could have an on-going crop. It'd be like having a home grocery store. Every time I want a spinach salad I just run out to "Patch Market" and pick the spinach fresh out of the container. That is kind of, REALLY COOL! I wish all the others were like that! Maybe they are?! Even if none of the others are on-going I'm pleased to try "picking them right." I told her she'd have to pick the spinach up herself considering that I've slaved over a small container to "make" it for her. I won't make her pick it all up herself but the same site that said to "pick them right" said that it would be better to eat the leaves the same day or moment (forgot) they were picked. So she'll either have to pick them up, get me to drop them off (some task she can get me to do almost anything) or eat day old spinach. I'm pretty sure the spinach in the store is about a month old so that won't be that bad.