Yellow Cherry

Its been raining here so I haven't really been able to tend to the garden the way I've wanted to but I did get to spray everything with Sea Magic yesterday and do some thinning.  

Here is a quick overview of things by plant type;

Strawberry Plants-
1) I finished planting the strawberries in the recycled bed. I'd said earlier that I didn't know what to do because the berries that were present were touching the soil and would rot. That's why I held off on planting them all. Well I figured it out. I cut a black plastic trash bag, making it into a sheet, and laid it over the soil. It was difficult to cut the bag in the exact right spot for the strawberry plants that had already been planted but I figured it out. Then I cut X's, appropriately spaced into the black sheeting and planted the rest. It was actually very fortuitous that I'd chosen that bed for those plants because the bricks hold the sheeting in place, firmly. Very firmly! Rain is a bit of an issue but after it rains I just make sure to pinch at the sheeting so that the extra water slides into the holes watering the berries. The sheet warms the soil immensely and keeps the berries from touching it. The plants, except the one Loran (rest are Ozark), have shot up about an inch each, have grown flowers or started berrying out. All I need to do now is keep the birds away. They've already started pecking at the green berries.

2) The Loran strawberries I planted around the edge of a round container have not grown, almost, at all. Sadly, I don't think they're going to make it. When I say 'make it' I mean produce fruit. The plants may grow and be green but I don't know that they'll do what their supposed to.

3) The two Eversweets planted in the taller 4x4 bed haven't seemed to have grown at all. I don't know about those 2 varieties. The Lorans came in a six-pack for a pittance compared to each of the Ozarks and the Eversweet plants looked red funny when I picked them out but they advertised the easiest growth and sweetest fruit so I thought, why not?  I only grabbed 2. Anyway, let's hope we get something out of 1 of the 3 varieties, that don't go to the birds.

4) My darling survivor! The single strawberry plant, in the 5 gallon bucket, that made it over the winter has a gorgeous white flower on it. Its thriving. I will not be surprised, at all, to see a couple of berries from that little guy. It's amazing how both that plant and the lemon balm made it through the winter without any care, at all, and are doing better than some of the freshly bought/planted seedlings.

5) Finally, the extra. One of the Ozark Beauty containers had a little extra plant attached to it that I removed, on the day I purchased it, and replanted in a terracotta pot. It is thriving as well. It has 3 berries of varying sizes and has shot up a few inches, at least. I only put a few inches of soil in the pot because I'd planned on replanting it but now I'm worried that if I do move it again, Ill lose it. The amount of soil in the pot is double the Bonnie size and triple in width but I don't think it'll be enough. I wish I'd thought ahead and planted it as if that was going to be its perma-location when I did. It may have to do.

Lettuce-
1) The Romaine seedlings I bought from home depot are green, firm, and growing. They were wilted and looking like they were on their last legs for a few days there after I transferred them but the rain has done them well. I'm hoping I'll start to see some twisting and turning. That'll indicate that they are going to "head up."

2) The Romaine seeds I planted have poked their little heads out and then some but are grouped together so tightly its been hard to thin without pulling out too many. Lettuce seeds are so small it was hard to plant them without grouping them tightly, especially since I primed them in warm water prior to transplantation. Each seed had a single, fairly long, root when I finally put them in the soil. I don't know that we'll get even a single lettuce leaf from those because the roots aren't holding tight and they do not have the space they need if they go un-thinned.

3) Not lettuce but spinach is used as such so I'll add it in this category. It is ready for picking. Something has been nibbling on it and I've had to pull off and toss a few leaves but the plants look like they should; dark green and crinkly. Nothing like last years. Can't wait to give my Mom some.

Tomatoes-
1) The Yellow Cherry variety, planted next to 2 cucumbers, is doing the best. It has a few little yellow flowers and 2 tiny green rounds. I was so excited to see those today. I didn't know if we'd get anything from this years garden because of the late start and the depleted soil. Seeing those two tiny green rounds gave me an enormous amount of hope.

2) The other plants seem to have gotten their color back and have a flower or two but they haven't shot up in height like the ones last year did shortly after transplantation. I'm hoping its just a delay but if we only get Yellow Cherries that will be OK with me; as long as we get something.

Cucumbers-
1) I planted 2 cucumbers in the far left bed with the Yellow Cherry tomato plant and installed the trellises right away. Those two don't seem to have grown much but I'm not worried about it because at planting-time they were looking like they were an inch from death. Now, they look like lively, small, seedlings. They needed time to heal. I'm sure now that their color and strength is back they'll start to shoot up like weeds?

2) The round container cucumbers have shot up about an inch each. It was a single seedling pot with a double plant. They are doing just great! Its the same container that grew last years beauties so I'm not worried about them, at all! Well I'm not worried about their growth. I am worried about the container placement. I've seen some funny soil movement that I don't like. I think an animal has been digging into them. I may have to move them behind the fence, which would be fine because the backyard is so beautifully clean. I could use the patio for containers this year. Keep the animals at bay.

3) The recycling bin cucumber hasn't grown much but it was  in the same condition as cucumbers #1. Now the plant is green, straight, and firm. I may have to move it to the patio as well. Im just waiting for the mama bird and her chicks to get a little older and move on. I wouldn't doubt that she'd attack my plants if I put them on the patio right now. She goes nuts when we even get close because her nest is right there.

Herbs-
1) I planted the parsley and basil in the back far left bed with the spinach and lettuce seeds. The parsley hasn't grown much but it looks really nice, green, supple, and fresh. I'm sure it'll make its way up.

2) Last years Lemon Balm. My baby! It's enormous. It made it through the winter without any tending. I ripped off all the old brown leaves and twigs in March and it has blossomed. Its twice the size it was and has grown at least 4 inches taller. It is amazing!!!! I cannot get over how the plant that claimed it needed the warmest weather made it through the winter and is thriving more than any other! Its crazy. I love it!

3) The new lemon balm plan went in the bed with the Parsley. Its grown a bit, looks fresh. That's all there is to say about that.

4) The basil was yellow when I put it in. Now its green and has grown. We can start using it on pizza or whatever else we'd like. It smells amazing and looks wonderful. HUGE! Last years Basil didn't do too well. I think this years is doing better because I bought the larger size. It was more established to begin with.

Radishes-
1) The French radishes are thriving. It took them one day to sprout up out of the ground. It looks like every seed made it and they have already grown their second set. Ive been thinning like crazy because I primed them and wet seeds are hard to separate. So they grew in tight groups like the lettuce seeds. Luckily these have strong roots and are easier to thin, it takes time but it's worth it. We'll have the best French radishes this side of Wilson Blvd. Haha!

I forgot to bring my phone out with me so I don't have any updated pictures to include with this post but I'll add some when I take them first thing tomorrow.

Cleaning!

We had the guy building our deck bring a gardener to take care of sweeping, raking , and trimming. There was millions of leaves, twigs, and etc. that needed to be gathered and bagged. He did an amazing job. I feel like the garden will be more enjoyable this year because of the clean fresh start. It's never looked so good. 

After he had finished the days work, I went outside to plant the two spinach plants. They are cool weather plants and had started to shrivel a bit from lack of space. I planted them and enjoyed the new cleaned and organized backyard. I watered everything else and headed inside proud of Potogar Patch! 

The gardener clean the strawberry bed area as well. Trimmed all of the ivy back so that it wouldn't strangle the plants. Amazing. I couldn't have done it alone, but from hear on out I'll be keeping it up. Happy for it to be my job! 

Clean Potagar Patch.

Cleaned and trimmed strawberry patch. 

New implanted spinach plants. 

Leafy Greens Galore

Harvesting the Leafy...

I went out this afternoon and checked on everything but didn't water because I knew rain was coming. It was overcast and humid so it was definitely coming. The next 5 days are going to be a game changer. The weather is supposed to be in the low 90's and sunny. All of the crops are warm/hot crops except for the lettuce and spinach. Even the carrots I planted are specifically attune to warm/hot weather so the next 5 days should make everything really blossom, not flower blossom, well maybe some but grow quickly. 

After I checked on everything I noticed that some of the spring mix leaves had bolted, gone to seed, flowered. So I decided to harvest. I harvested 2 full baskets between all four heads and the mix green leaves. Even after the two full baskets I yanked there is still at least 4 more baskets for mixed greens and another unknown high number of lettuce leaves since I'm using the continuous method. 

Basket one.

Basket two. 

After harvesting I went back into Patch and noticed that the cantaloupe container had a new flower and that there was a much larger strawberry than the one I deemed "largest yet" hiding in the 5G bucket. I thinned some carrots and radishes while I was there because I remembered what happened with the last batch of radishes. When I thinned the carrots even though they were orange or large I could tell the small roots were starting to form carrots. It was nice to see that they were "working." 

New! Largest berry.

Thinned carrots. If you zoom in you an see the roots starting to take carrot shape. 

Cantaloupe flower.

Slips...

I forgot to write about how I pulled my slips off of the sweet potato yesterday and stuck them in a glass of water to take root. I did. I did so because the leaves had lost there vibrant green and purple color and turned yellowish but I didn't feel they were tall enough. They haven't started to root yet and I'm not sure that they will but I do hope. 

I took pictures of the changes in the patty-pan and crookneck squashes. They'd grown and lost blossoms. 

Blossom wilted and fruit growing. 

Potagar Patch- Video Update

Written...

I went out this morning to check on everything after the wind and cold and things were pretty good but not great. The wooden tomato cage I built was blown over and took the tomato with it. The cantaloupe plants that were in the greenhouse were completely wilted from the chill and the one planted was too. As the sun warmed up things got better and Mr. S. rebuilt the wooden cage so that it was sturdier and not, as he called it, so Charlie Brown. Other than that I didn't do much gardening because I wanted the sun to just warm everything back up. It rained last night so no watering was necessary and even if it hadn't rained I wouldn't have watered because that would have slowed the soil warming process. I thought the strawberries would be affected but they weren't, they are looking so amazing. I have at least 6 sizable berries and 25 small berries that look like they'll become sizable. I have about 50 flowers that should become berries. It's amazing! I took video of it all for you to see.

Video Update...

The video upload button isn't working so you'll have to click the link below to watch on YouTube...UGH!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLT46uNoBYY

Tomato Patch?

Maintaining...

It was supposed to rain today and it did look cloudy and dark but then it would get sunny. So I waited awhile not going out to work in the garden because of the weather and because I didn't want to over water. Finally, I went out and watered everything in Patch. I thinned the spinach in P.S. and 2 bean plants. Now the plots hold exactly what they should. After I thinned those out I went back into Patch, cleaned up and swept the path. 

I grabbed the EcoSmart from inside when I was done cleaning because I noticed that the grass hasn't died and everything else I'd sprayed had only have died. The spray only kills what it directly touches. Somehow the rest of the plant, even if its half burned off, survives. The grass didn't even half burn down it only slightly toasted. I re-sprayed everything from the grass in the beds to the sidewalk cracks. 

I finished spraying the weeds in the cracks in patch Market last then took a closer look at the strawberry buckets and noticed that the 5G bucket had a few new and large flowers and the Topsy Turvy had flowers to match. I was hoping that would happen and it did. 

I took a break then when back out. 

Larger, more likely to become a berry, flower on Topsy.

Cantaloupe Tomato...

When it didn't rain after another hour of being inside I went back out, on my way out the door I noticed another spinach plant had gone to seed. This time i just snipped the flower off. I water everything in Potagar and then decided to fill one of the containers I bought at Dollar Tree and plant something in it. I wasn't sure what I wanted to plant so I went with the extra cantaloupe plant. I poked holes in the bottom of the container, filled it with compost, added Perlite, and organic Vigoro soil. I mixed all of the components together and carried the bin and the plant over to Patch. I only decided to put it there because the container didn't fit on the table and the next best sun was next to the strawberry containers in Patch Market. I took off half of the cardboard pot after soaking it, and planted the cantaloupe plant. Then, I went inside grabbed the seaweed concentrate and mixed half a cup with 2 gallons of water. I watered the container thoroughly and made sure it drained properly. It helps that I placed it on an old tree stump with a hollow in it. I decided to use of the triangle trellises to maximize the space. It looked great. I took pictures and went inside after using the rest of the seaweed water on a few of the plants still in the greenhouse. 

When I got inside I started thinking about it and couldn't help but wanting to have a tomato in that container. I kept thinking, it'll look so nice growing up the trellis and the Atkinson is growing so well and Patch needs a tomato plant. So I went back outside uprooted the cantaloupe, planted it in a smaller container, watered it, and set it on a tile in Patch for the same reasons I'd set the larger container there. Finally, I grabbed the tomato, epsom salt, shovel and watering can to plant the tomato. I as deep as possible into the container added a handful of epsom salt and planted. I watered the tomato thoroughly because the sun had already dried the soil somewhat and took pictures. 

Blue Tomato container with wooden trellis and strawberry containers in Patch Market.

Cantaloupe plant moved into small red container. Lettuce after yesterdays harvest. Still looks big.

Radishes and Spinach...

I was heading for to my Mom's to drop something off so a few hours after planting the tomato I harvested the rest of the radishes and some spinach. I'll plant something new in place of the radishes tomorrow. Maybe more radishes in the thin plots and a peanut plant in the 10x12 plot. I'm not sure yet. After harvesting some spinach I planted a few leftover primed seeds in the container to start some fresh growth. 

My Mom ate the spinach and radishes at dinner an loved them. She said the spinach was exceptionally fresh and delicious and that some of the radishes were peppery and some were just sweet and crisp. She loved them either way. 

All of the radishes harvested, all period.

Spinach harvested.

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. 

Monsoon Patch

Rain and Hail...

Today was a hell of a weather day. It was sunny and beautiful out all morning and early afternoon then all of a sudden around 3pm a monsoon hit us. We had rain pellets the size of dimes coming down along with hail the size of gum balls. It seemed like the rain was going to last forever... I stood at the sun room door watching and by the time I got downstairs I saw the sun shining like crazy but it was still raining. Fifteen minutes after that the rain had stopped. 

Sadly, I didn't get to enjoy the beautiful part of the day because I had a pounding headache. I've never had such a bad headache in my life, it truly felt as if my head was palpitating. Between the monsoon weather and the headache I got absolutely no gardening done because after the headache and rain had stopped and I headed out it started raining again. I was lucky to get the pictures I did. The rain has done the garden well. I think it's the type of rain we've gotten. It'll be sunny for hours then pour in the afternoon. Natures done all the work for me the last few days and well. Everything has really started to shoot up, especially the spinach. 

Burpee...

Finally the sweet potato slips were delivered. They never sent me an Email that they were coming, like with the strawberries, so I wasn't checking for deliveries. Mike came down with a package and said "hey you got something but its all soggy and wet." I knew instantly what it was and that it'd been sitting out in the rain for awhile. I opened the strange box that said "live plants" on the side and inside were roots wrapped in damp paper, I'm not sure if they came that way or if that was from the rain, and a rubber band. They look funny, it's hard to explain so I've included a picture below. All I can say is that they don't look anything like the slips I'm growing on my sweet potato in the glass. If I'd know those would work out so well I would never have ordered these. Not because they look bad or dead, they do look weird, but because I would have like to save the money and I'd rather use what I started from scratch. Since Potagar calls for 7 sweet plants we would have needed them anyway but I'll only be using the ones I've grown from a potato in Patch. If you can grow plants from a seed or scraps due so... You know they won't infect your garden. You know how they've been treated and you feel a much greater sense of accomplishment. I can't wait to pull the growing slips off the sweet potato, put them in water, and watch them grow roots. Once, that happens I'll be able to plant them. It'll be a little later than recommended but according to the upcoming weather reports the temperature is going to get down below freezing, at night, for a couple of nights. After that, we should be all warm weather sun and blue skies for awhile. That is the type of weather sweet potatoes need to grow big tubers. 

Planting Georgia Jets...

In the direction pamphlet that came with the Georgia Jet sweet potatoes it says to wait until the evening to plant the slips and that it shouldn't be windy or rainy. Since it is both of those things currently, I won't be planting tonight. In part, I can't plant tonight because I didn't know they were coming and I need to add compost and hill the plots that will hold the tubers. At the moment the plots meant for the GJ's is shallow and will not produce a good size potato. So tomorrow during the day I'll amend both the Potagar and Patch plots meant for sweet potatoes. I'll be amending Patch not because it is a shallow bed but because it was recommended on Smart Gardener. It said that I should amend the top 8 inches with compost. I also want to make the bed even deeper than it is so I give the tubers even more space to grow. Rather than completely mixing in a few scoops of compost I'll add 8 inches and then mix a bit so the plants are planted in hills. Since I can't plant them in Potagar until tomorrow night I've but them in a cup of water with the moss they came wrapped in... it said in the pamphlet that this would keep them for a few days.

Green beans that I've thinned and kept in a cup with water. They've actually grown.

Cucumber plants in a container. Planted on May 7, 2013.

My prized radishes. These are the tallest in Patch so far. You can see the fuller root at the soil line, that's the radish.

First real flower in the 5G bucket. Surprisingly it is on the "grindylow," the plant that isn't supposed to make it.

Georgia Jet's delivered like this. Looking pretty dead but it said that should be the case and they were still healthy.

Sweet potato roots covered in the moss they were shipped in... I'm fairly concerned that there aren't more roots.

Magic Juice

Arrived...

This morning my order finally arrived. I had placed the order for Sea Magic and a Predalure on April 29 and April 30th they said the "order shipped" but there was no tracking number or estimated delivery date so I just kept checking for it everyday. I didn't check today because I really didn't expect it and, of course, it came. I immediately opened it and look through all the instructions. At first, I was extremely confused by the Sea Magic directions. It said to pour the contents of the package into a 1 gallon bucket or bottle and that was it. I said to Mike "what is going on? Burpee advertised 60 gallons." What I didn't realize was that after you dissolve the contents you use that as your concentrate and mix 3 tablespoons of concentrate with every quart of water. Obviously, they weren't going to expect people to have a 60 gallon container to mix the contents into. So I mix half of the contents into 2 liters and zip locked the rest. I didn't even have a gallon bucket/container. Then I put it in a cool spot, as recommended, and went outside to hang the predalure. It actually came with 2 so I hung them both. One in patch and one on the Shephard hook in Potagar. We have a major earwig infestation in one of the empty beds so I figured we'd need all the help we could get. 

Sea Magic...

A few hours later after Mike left for his weekend trip I went upstairs to mix up a bottle of Sea Magic. I put 1.5 tbsp into 1.5 cups of water in a spray bottle. I sprayed all the plants, liberally, and watered the ones that needed it. I am so excited to see if this stuff works. I had to make 3 spray bottles but I finally got everything sprayed and watered. To be honest, I thought the plants were responding pretty instantly to the spray. They looked perkier after there spray down. The last bottle had about 1/2 a cup left when I was done so I poured it into the Topsy Turvy. You can water the plants and spray them with sea magic. Its up to you. The product is 100% organic so it doesn't matter how you use it, it's supposed to work.

Thinning...

After I finished spraying everything down I thinned a few of the plots. I thinned the green beans down to about 30 plants. I know I still need to thin them down to 18 plants but I want to figure out the trellis issue before I do so I thin the ones that aren't in prime placement for the second twine trellis, we'll need 2. I moved on to thinning the spinach. It's 4 plants per plot and 4 plots. At the moment, even after thinning, we have about 30 plants so I need to thin a little more there too but they are still in early stages so I want to give them time to show me there strength. 

Fencing...

Mr. S. built the first furry pest barrier today and I helped him staple gun the netting on before heading inside. 

Green beans I thinned today.

Roots of the thinned beans. I thought it was pretty amazing that the root system was already so big.

Fencing, its pretty amazing that you can hardly see a double layer of black netting around the bed. All you can really see are the posts and the corners of the netting.

Container spinach in progress.

Lemon Balm in progress.

All the watermelon seedlings I have so far. The count is 7 and they were all planted at different times in different forms.

Strawberries Galore!

Or beans...

I went out this morning to water everything. It was a beautiful sunny May day and I had read some tips from Burpee about how to water the tomatoes. I thought I'd tackle that today. Since we don't have a great hose at the moment I fill up a plastic juice jug that holds 3/4 of a gallon of water and then pour that into the water can that holds 2 gallons. It's nice because it's marked from 1/2g to 2g. I filled the juice jug 4 times and poured then started on the first tomato plant. I was able to eyeball when the watering can was about half way full then I'd move on to the next. Since the can only holds 2 gallons and we have 6 plants that need 1 gallon each once a week I had to refill it three times but I think it will be worth the trouble. The Burpee tip, along with other references, said that watering the tomatoes deeply but infrequently was the trick to getting a "bumper" crop. Since Smart Gardener suggested this method of watering as well I went with it. I finally finished watering the tomatoes and moved on to watering everything else. It seems the rain did our garden wonders and I know it seems like "wow one gallon plus all the rain" but that isn't the case. The rain we got lasted 2 days but only have us about .5 inches of water. So I water the beans which are going crazy. We have about 18 plants now and more were popping up. I thinned a couple of the new seedlings because I knew that I'd have to thin them later and didn't see the point of letting them grow any longer. After the beans I checked on the spinach and noticed that the plants are growing there second set of leaves already. They went much quicker than my spinach. I thinned a few plants out the other day and a few more today. I am no longer scared to thin. I officially KNOW that the reason my thumb was a slow was, was because it was actually a slow one. I was waiting way too long to thin and the plants weren't getting there nutrients. I watered the lettuce and the mesclun mix, which also has its grown up leaves coming in, and moved on to the onions, basil and lemon balm. The lemon balm has about 50 bright green and new leaves, the basil is looking fresher every day, and the onions are another inch taller. So things are good in Potagar Schoultz. Once I watered everything there I refilled the can and moved over to Patch. 

Patch Progress...

I watered everything in the raised bed and noticed that my lettuce is not only bushier but taller and more of the carrots have real leaves on them now. Then I moved on to my prized strawberry buckets. The 5G bucket has finally filled all the way in you can't see any of the soil unless you move the leaves over and the 8G bucket has 2 strawberries coming in... SUPRISE SUPRISE!! The container doing the best is the Topsy Turvy it all of the sudden has big beautiful leaves and flowers on it. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I don't know if moving the container up higher so it got more sun had anything to do with it but it's thriving. I had my major reservations about choosing the Topsy Turvy because of the issues I had in the beginning but I'm glad to be proven wrong on this one. It's pretty amazing to know that those beautiful little white flowers will soon be juicy red berries. I can't wait! 

Finally, I watered all the strawberry containers and all the stuff in the greenhouse and went inside. I wanted to get some weeding, spraying, and research done today but I had a haircut at 2pm and it didn't go well so I put all that off for tomorrow. I spent the day inside trying to fix the disaster I call my hair at the moment but tomorrow I'll set out copper to deter the slugs and snails. I'll pick an insecticide and organic weed killer. And I'll hopefully get the sea magic and "predalure", I mentioned, and spray and put that out.  

Yarn trellis for the beans.

Strawberry flower on the Topsy. Amazing and Gorgeous!

Another Topsy flower just opening up!

The 5G (Right) and 8G (Left) buckets. 

Grown up carrot leaves!

Patch, raised bed. Bushy taller lettuce, carrots, onions on the climb and radishes that have just  hit there growth spurt. 

Twine Wall

...Trellis...

Last night when I was looking through the Pinterest gardening section I came upon a pin about a twine ball trellis. It looked amazing and decorative but also sounded like it would really work. What you had to do was build a tall frame out of bamboo shoots or wood and wrap twine from the top to the bottom and back until you got to the other side of the frame. Then you put the tip of each bean plant in the loops made out of wrapping the twine and they would, eventually, grow up the twine in fancy little lines. Mike's dad had just advised me that the bean poles were too short so I took a screenshot and saved the directions. 

This Afternoon...

I started building the frame, it was about 5 feet tall and then I leaned the frame against the wall and started wrapping the twine around it. When I got half way done the frame started warping. I held it between my toes on each foot to try to keep it straight and it worked but the second I let go it would lean heavily to one side or the other. Finally, I decided it was because the frame wasn't evenly put together. I started pushing and pulling, trying to get it even but that didn't work. I finally got so frustrated I ripped the whole thing apart and took the twine off. I sat down and started wrapping the twine back into a ball so that I could try again with a shorter frame. I used 4 bamboo shoots and made a new 3 foot frame. I wrapped the twine around and it was good. It leaned a little but not as much as the first. I took it outside, in the constant drizzle, and tried it out. It was too small. I knew it would be so I grabbed one of the worthless tepee trellises and brought that inside. I dried it off and started taking all of the poles off except for the 4 I needed for the frame. I untied each piece of twine and set it aside. As I was working through this I suddenly see an EARWIG. I abhor earwigs. They are so disgusting and they have pincers and they're extremely bad for veggie gardens. I didn't know what to do I didn't have anything on hand to smash it, not even a shoe. So I grabbed the closest book and SLAM. I smashed it. UGH! Then I put plastic kitchen gloves on. I was too scared to touch the trellis without them. I figured it had been hiding in the twine or in one of the holes in the shoot. So I continued and finally was down to 4 poles about 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide. I wrapped the twine, lifted it up, and it didn't lean. I had done it. It looked good too. I took it out and put it in place. It really adds something and I think that the beans will look all that much better when there growing individually up there piece of twine. It'll look decorative and we'll be able to see there progress easily. 

Patch...

After that I went to check on Patch. The constant light drizzle has done everything really well and so has my thinning. I didn't realize how important thinning was until today. My radishes are like 3 times the size they were before, the carrots are sprouting real leaves like crazy, and the spinach is an inch taller. The inch doesn't seem like much but believe me it is... they've only grown 5 inches in more than a month so one inch in a few days is major. On a not so nice note the 7 strawberry plants in the 5G bucket don't have any flowers, not one. They are bushy and growing like crazy but they aren't blooming. I don't know if I need to thin them out a bit or if they are just going slower or what but the Topsy Turvy has flowers and the 8G bucket has a strawberry starting and several flowers. The 5G bucket doesn't even have the promise of a flower. All the new growth close to the crown looks like leaf growth, no buds. I hope they bloom soon because I would be disappointed if they just turned out to be greens and nothing more. 

Beanstalk of an Update

Rain, rain, and more rain...

It has been raining all day. It's just totally soggy outside but I did promise a picture update of everything. I am so happy that today is the today I chose and promised to post because the beans have gone crazy, FINALLY!

Green Arrow beans planted April 6th are now about 3 inches tall. The rain has been really good for everything and especially the beans which have boomed.

Bloomsdale, thinned down to three. Growing 4th set of leaves.

Texas Sweet Onions, planted April 18th, have grown about 6".

Iceberg type lettuce planted April 12ish. Hasn't grown taller but is double the size in bushiness.

Cherry Belle radishes thinned to 3" apart and have grown about an inch since.

Topsy strawberries have gotten bushier and have about 4 flowers so far.

Sweet potatoes, grown about 6 slips in 8 weeks.

First strawberry started, April 28, in the 8G bucket. 

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! 

Slow Thumb

Today was a boring gardening day... I basically just watered and checked on everything. I hate this whole waiting to do stuff part. In a few weeks I know I'll have weeding, fertilizing, and side dressing to do but at the moment all I have to do is water and sometimes the rain takes care of that for me. To be honest, although all of my tests and seedlings have worked out, it seems like I have a slow growing garden.

My radishes are definitely not going to be ready to harvest in "22 days." My spinach is not going to be ready "30 days" after planting for baby spinach. I may have a green thumb but its also the anti growth hormone green thumb. I don't know if that makes sense but when I post my video update with the current length of time everything has been growing you'll see that things are about 2 weeks behind. Not the warm/hot stuff either. That would make sense because it hasn't been very warm, it's been cool, but things like the spinach that are COOL even cold crops are taking forever too.

Didn't do much more than that today. If anyone knows why veggies would take longer to grow than they are supposed to please let me know. An I missing something? Nutrient? Mineral? Water? Too much water? Anything I might have missed in my reading? And in turn ill of course let you all know if I find something.

Breaking Bad-- TEA?

Compost Tea...

Today, I did a couple side dressing things. I don't know what the difference is between side dressing and just overall care but that's what the label is on Smart Gardener so I am going with it. I don't use the exact side dressings recommended on Smart Gardener because I've done an enormous amount of reading on gardening and growing veggies so I wanted to try a few different things. I started with the compost tea, which was a recommendation, but I didn't do all the crazy stuff they list online like using a bubbler, strainer and extractor. To be honest it reminds me a little to much of Breaking Bad I didn't want to make the equivalent of Blue Sky compost tea. All I wanted to due was add some of the nutrients from compost into my already planted but not composted crops, like my spinach. Smart Gardener suggested that I side dress with compost tea every 3 weeks after the plants are 4 inches tall. Because my plants are supposed to be  harvest-able in like 30 days and there not even close, I decided to add compost tea at 3 inches. See I planted the spinach in the MG garden soil, no perlite. I think it definitely lacks something. So I went about brewing tea. I made a little sache garni with some old cloth, compost in the middle, folded up the ends, and rip tied. I put it in a 14 oz. disposable plastic (heat resistant) cup and poured boiling water over it. I let the "tea" steep for 4 hours as it cooled outdoors and then poured half of the mixture over the soil in my spinach container. I was very careful not to get it on the edible leaves. I only poured half of the mixture because the container didn't need 14 ounces of water. It is probably better to make it a couple days before you need it and water very infrequently before pouring it over so that the most nutrients are absorbed. Anyway, I poured the remaining half into 5G strawberry bucket because it is a "Heavy" fertilizer need plant.

Although, I used the steeped version of compost tea I made an even simpler version. I put a tablespoon of compost in a plastic cup, opened the tap over it, filled, and mixed with a kabob stick until most of the compost had broken down. The mixture was much darker had very little to b strained and only seemed to get darker and darker as it sat. I let that mixture sit for a few hours as well although I'm sure I could have poured it in almost right away. I really only used the steeped version because I'd put more work into it. The chocolate milk version really seemed richer and was much easier. The point of compost tea is to add nutrients that the plants roots can absorb like water. Very simple. You don't need a double bubble, strainer, tubes, Bunsen burners and all that crap. Just water and compost or water cloth/paper towel string/tie and compost. Whichever you like more. 

Epsom Spray....

Like I said I didn't follow all of the suggestions on Smart Gardener to a T. I'd read a lot about the use of Epsom salt and the great affect it has on plants. Epsom salt, not actually being salt but magnesium sulfate, adds nutrients to the plants leaves that produce a bushier, bigger, and sweeter crop. So I mixed one tsp. of Epsom salt into a plant spray bottle shook and went a-sprayin'. I sprayed all of my strawberry plants, the onion plants, the spinach, and the lettuce. All of them were said to benefit. I didn't spray the tomatoes because I put a tablespoon of Epsom salt in the hole when I planted them. I won't spray them for another 3 weeks and I'll let you know if it has a negative or seemly positive affect on the plants I did spray. I left my tests in the greenhouse un-sprayed to compare and contrast the results. 

Strawberry rocks... 

When I went outside to spray I noticed there were a lot of birds about. All of which I suspiciously suspected of wanted to peck at my plants. Because I am so overly protective of the strawberries as you know I ran inside, grabbed my painted rocks, and placed them about. I don't think they are going to work as I've strewn them about just because it doesn't look like they are hanging off the plants. I don't know that the birds are that smart but I rather be safe than sorry so tomorrow Ill glue them to the containers so that they appear to be hanging off the side. CRAZY PLANT LADY - ONE! 

Compost Tea- sache garni (Left) and chocolate milk type mix (Right). 

Seedling and Test Updates

Update...

Sorry, I've been sick since my birthday so I haven't been able to catch you guys up on the goings on of Patch or Potagar Schoultz. So I decided to do a real test update as my first entry back. The last time I wrote I talked about the weird occurrence in the green bean and spinach patches. Nothing has happened like that since. I have since planted the tomatoes, basil, and lemon balm. A few of my tests and crops have come to life too.

Mesclun Mix: Planted on April 16 and germinated April 17. Half of the seeds were soaked and half came straight from the packet. The primed half germinated after 15 hours and the control group after about 36 hours. They'll need a lot of thinning but have been growing healthfully since planting. The roots appeared mid-prime. I planted the primed seeds just by making sure the roots were finally covered with compost.

Planted April 9 and now about 4 inches tall and ready to transplant when the weather cooperates. This pot had 4 primed seeds only one germinated but it is the tallest and best looking so far.

Primed lemon balm seeds planted on April 9 and germinated about 6 days later. Now we know they made it into the cup. 

Planted, uprooted, and replanted from April 16-17. The uprooting has not slowed there germination and priming the seeds has sped it by a few days since they have started to sprout as of today April 21.

Control and scarified watermelon seeds planted on April 9 have started to germinate 12 days later. Scarifying the seed seems to have made no difference in time and they took longer than the primed seeds to sprout. Although they did not move out of place like the first bunch. Priming may make seeds a bit lighter.

Seascapes have doubled in size in the last 10 days and are starting to show signs of blossoms.