M is for Mobile

The M*A*S*H* 4077 Mobile Garden

So this year I'm doing my entire garden in containers. Last year's garden was a complete fiasco; along with some family problems that kept me away from the garden weeks at a time and drought, I had every kind of pest, mold, and fungus one could develop. Black-turning leaves, white fly, worms, stunted growth, nematodes... The only way I got tomatoes at all was by purchasing some 5 gallon buckets and some starts from the garden center late in the season.

But I accidentally stumbled onto something good.  This year all the garden is mobile. So far just the peas and squash/zucs are planted, but have a look:

Crowder Peas

Squash and Zucchini, two to a box

Personally I think the idea of using tomato cages in with my peas was ingenious. I've used the stake and twine method to make rows for two years now, and I've found it tedious but do-able. This year is an experiment, but I already like the direction it's heading. In both pictures you can see my little sprouts!

Also mobile is my strawberry patch. They're looking much better than they did in February.

And finally, an update on the tomatoes and pepper plants. Look how big they're getting! I topped them off with some fresh dirt today, and I'm aiming to set them out in their own mobile containers about the first of May.

Planting Days

Half of the garden is planted! I've got 6 five gallon buckets planted with crowder peas, and two 58qt buckets planted with squash and zucchini.

All of our rose bushes have buds on them, and our flowers are blooming like crazy.

Rain today almost made my pepper seedling float off and hasnt helped my tomato seedlings. They really shouldn't have been out in the rain, but it came during the night instead of in the afternoon. I think they'll bounce back; right now they look kind of pitiful.

I've definitely got strawberries! I've seen tons of blooms, and now I'm seeing the green, unripened fruit emerging. I'll have to put my efforts into shielding them from birds into overdrive.

I picked up a pot of French Lavender from the store. I've missed having this beautiful herb around my house. I'm eager to make some lavender sachets for my drawers. I also trimmed up the mint and the rosemary. I'm saving the chocolate mint plant for when I can make some mint syrup with the leaves I'll be trimming off.

I almost came home with a pot of calla lilies, too. But the orientals have the center stage for now. Speaking of, the 12 pack I bought from the store are sprouting nicely! In fact, all of the bulbs are up except one, and that one may just be a laggard. So we'll see. I also may have identified the Stargazers from last year as actually being a dwarf look-alike, After Eight. I'll be perfectly happy with that, since the assorted bulbs should get pretty tall.

The day lilies are putting on buds too, and the azaleas still have flowers. So many new things to look at every time one steps into the garden...

Transplanting Tomatoes and Thinning Carrots

Today's garden foray was modest but important. The tomato seedlings were about 4 inches tall with two or three sets of leaves, and they were getting very tall for the seedling tray in which they were living. So, time to transplant!

Here they are in their tray... and here's how they look once in their new pots:

I think they'll be much happier now. I expect to see very rapid growth from here on out. On the other front, thinning the carrots was a new one for me.

I planted carrots last year - it was a dismal failure. You know what a pencil looks like when you've sharpened it all the way down to the eraser? That was bigger than the carrots I got. All six of 'em.

I got mad and tried again. Since carrot seeds are so tiny, I kinda just poured them into a narrow channel I'd made in the dirt with my finger. So they were growing up all clumped together, like this:

Not so good for carrot root formation. So I thinned them out to one carrot every inch and a half or so. I used fingernail clippers to clip off the leaves at soil level, so that I didn't risk harming neighboring roots.

It was disconcerting to be destroying perfectly healthy plants, but... I want some well formed carrots at the end of the season!

Here they are, thinned out:

What a difference, right? They might require some more thinning later, but for now, I'm leaving them be.

I might have yet another gnat problem in this pot, but they're growing fine so far, and I'm going to combat the gnats as best I can by drying out the soil and using pesticide Dust.

Tis all for now!

Strawberries and Roses and Other Things Too

So, an update! I've had several days off work, and I'll have a few more, and mom and I have taken the time to get our ornamentals planted this year.

We can't plant the garden for another two weeks according to the Almanac and the weather patterns we're experiencing, but we were determined to plant something. So we picked up some vincas, impatiens, pansies, and a very fragrant dianthus from the garden center to bring home some color to the flower bench.

I also grabbed a pack of 12 assorted oriental lily bulbs from the store. I love the oriental lilies, and I was going to pick some up from The Lily Garden, but I just couldn't bite the bullet on those prices. Perhaps in the future if there are one or two varieties I'm missing or I particularly like, I'll grab some from there. Nevertheless, that's a great site to browse for identification purposes.

As for other garden updates:

The tomatoes are up and growing strong! At the lower right, the pepper plant has made an appearance at 2 wks 3 days.

The strawberries are blooming! I'm honeslty surprised to see them do so, as I was certain transplanting messed them up for this year.

We've added a hummingbird feeder to the garden! It's standing next to my beloved Don Juan rose. We've had one brief visitor to it in the 24 hrs it's been up.

And finally, the roses are making roses! Pictured here is the biggest rosebush in my yard, a Sarah Van Fleet.

How To Build A Grow Light

So the seedlings are sprouting! The first two popped up last night, at exactly 7 days. They were the Roma and the Cherry. Naturally, now that I have seedlings craving the sun, we've got a cold front plus three days of rain coming in.

This just wont do. So I went to the internet for solutions. I needed a grow light. I do not have the money for a grow light. So I needed... well this:

The light is about an inch above the top of the box, which puts it about two or three inches away from the tallest sprout. Whatever the distance, the left side is the height of For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Three Musketeers, Robinson Crusoe, and As I Lay Dying. The right side is the height of The History of Art, The Return of the Native, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Scarlet Letter, and one I cant recall at the moment.

The light is one I had sitting around (or rather, dad had sitting around in the shop). And presto. Grow light. The set up was inspired by this article here, via Yahoo.

I'm very hopeful. I may combine this with my idea to put the tray on the air vent to warm the grow pellets. Grow light + warmth = happy tomatoes? I'll give it a shot and report back if I get brave.

Starting Over

So, bad news. I ended up with an infestation of gnats.

You know how a dog looks who's covered in fleas? That's how the surface of my potting soil looks. I think I discovered the infestation too late to effectively get rid of it AND save my seedlings.


Here's why: 

You see these two pics on the left? I took them tonight. These little plants are approximately 5 weeks old.

Now check out the picture under it, courtesy of Victory Seed's page on starting tomatoes from seeds. The plants pictured there? 16 DAYS old.

There is something rotten in the state of Stephanie's garden.

The best my research has indicated, the gnat larvae are probably feasting quite merrily on the roots of my plants; they haven't grown in a long time, not since putting on the nodes for their first leaves; a snap of warm weather allowed me to keep them outside for a long stretch, during which time they probably picked up the gnats. I didn't notice til a day or two ago when my house started filling with gnats because I was bringing them inside with the seedling pots.

 I did my best to get the gnats out of the soil. I even used pesticide dust to try and kill them. To no avail.

So, the game plan has changed.

I'll be buying a tomato green house seed starting kit from the store tomorrow night or so, and starting another batch of seedlings that way. With all luck and fingers crossed, I'll get healthy seedlings like the bottom picture in close enough time to plant.

It's disheartening to see 5 weeks worth of effort ruined in about two days.

That's all for now.

Meet Jack

So, Jack is my 10 month old cat. He likes to help with things. Like laundry. Or sewing. He especially likes gardening.

Jack has a green thumb.

Jack ate my pepper plant today at lunch. I guess he was hungry. He did not apologize.

The short of it is I am now down a pepper sprout. I've started another one today; the last one took two weeks to sprout. I'm aware how far this puts me behind on my planting timetable, but it is what it is.

Jack's lucky he's cute.

One day of sun = two days of rain

And one day of warm = two days of cold.

This is February, and this is how February behaves. It isn't unusual or unexpected, but it certainly is pesky when my tomatoes are so tiny and are getting tall and spindly because they're not getting enough sun.

My garden has moved from the top of the fridge to the porch steps to the plant bench to the kitchen counters and finally back to the fridge. Last year I fretted and worried and railed against the inconstant weather. This year, I'm just dealing with it. My tomatoes turned into fine, strapping young plants despite February's best efforts, and I'm sure they will again this year.

Speaking of! Sprouts.

Livingston's Paragon, Yellow Pear, and Kimberly Cherry - 16th, 7 days after sowing.
Cherokee Purple and Roma - 17th, 8 days after sowing.
Beefsteak - 18th, 9 days sowing.

Final judgement - The green house last year resulted in sprouts in 5 days. So with this method I had an extra 2 to 4 days wait. In the long run? All gonna be okay.

My bell pepper hasnt sprouted. I've read they can take 5 days to 3 weeks. Lesson learned? Probably should have researched it a bit more before I tried it, but I haven't given up on it yet!

A note to add:

Seeds have sprouted! Livingston's Paragon, Kimberly Cherry, and Yellow Pear. Such a relief to see. That's all for now!

Here comes the sun...

Hello, hello.

It's rained for four day (7 inches at least), and it's barely been out of the 40's. Naturally this happens just as I plant my seeds. My "garden" is residing on top of the fridge. It's the only moderately warm place I have that is also out of reach of my cat, Jack, who loves dirt, plants, and flower pots.

The "Garden" - I had to take down mom's top-of-fridge decorations hehe.

I planted my little seeds on Saturday the 9th, and there is predictably no movement yet (4 days later). Last year's garden was planted in one of those spiffy green house trays with the dirt pellets. You know, those things really work. My seeds sprouted in 5 days. The only down side to using them is you must transplant your little seedlings twice; once from the greenhouse into bigger pots to harden them off and a second time from those pots to either the ground or the final container they'll be growing in.

I am a lazy gardener. I selected larger pots to start with. This has probably cost me germination time as I can't maintain the humid temperatures as easily as in the green house, but it has allowed me to perpetuate my lazy tendencies and to transplant only once.

 To facilitate the germination process, I will be moving my pots back outside and covering them with plastic (prolly shopping bags, since (again) I'm pretty lazy about this stuff) to help raise the heat and humidity in the soil. Provided the weather is sunny for the next two days as promised by the weather forecast, such is my battle plan.

Comparisons: 
2012 - Planted seeds on the third Saturday of February. Seeds popped 5 days later.
2013 - Planted seeds on the second Saturday of February. Still waiting. :)