Wow, so much has happened in the past 6 weeks or so! My camera met with an unfortunate accident as do so many things in life...although most of them are not forgotten on the back of a car and fall off in the road! Camera loss discouraged me from blogging but I found the courage to pull out the old icky less than 2 megapixel camera from the closet. Better than nothing.Much of what I planted in April just did not come up. What a bummer. I guess it was a combination of it being perhaps too early (?) and/or lower than hoped for seed germination rates. I'll have to find some of the beets that are used in the Square Foot Gardening book (if you look at the germination percentage tables in that book - not sure which edition - you'll find that at certain temperatures beet seeds actually germinate at rates approaching 200%!!! Thanks to my aunt for that information)
Lettuce, spinach, onions and peas mostly (but not all) failed to come up. Things I planted inside in pots did come up but slowly. So next year I definitely need a better system. This means I'll probably have to either give up on starting plants inside or get an actual real grow light. I'm pretty sure that the $10 work lamp just ain't cutting it. You get what you pay for.
I replanted all of the above and I've had better success in planting since May 1. I've had a great time being completely obsessed with it. You can see the chair upon which one can sit and gaze (although I can't manage to stay seated - I just get pulled onto the ground and next thing you know I'm running my hands through the dirt. My son thinks I'm addicted to the bacteria that acts like an antidepressant). I put in a brick walkway in the front so that weeds and grasses don't take over there. I wander through it every single day I can, pulling a few weeds here and there.
Here we have some tomatoes and garlic. I tried to start some tomatoes from seed and they did indeed grow. But not very well. So I found my organic tomato source from last summer and lo and behold she was selling some extra tomato plants! I bought 5, each a different kind. Stupice, Prudence Purple, Black Japanese, Amish Paste and Fourth of July. Still impatient, I also bought a patio tomato plant from a local orchard (so impatient!) and a cherry tomato plant from a local garden center. You can see the beautiful garlic next to the tomatoes.
And more impatience on my part...I also bought some broccoli. You can see it there on the left, beyond the banana potatoes. There are beets above the broccoli and potatoes, although you can't seem them well in the pic. It was not even remotely in my plans to have broccoli. In fact, I had considered it and decided against it rather strongly. However, there it was at the garden center, looking so...appealing. So here you see the broccoli and the potatoes. Yes the potatoes came!! (Roningers, and I bought ONLY 8 kinds because I am ONLY that crazy). I "chitted" them in the attic for a couple weeks until they were just slightly green and most importantly had little buds on them. I cut them before putting them in the attic to "chit." They were in great shape...and there were lots of them! Blue potatoes, yukon gold, colorado rose, maris piper, banana, french fingerline, desiree, romance...I guess if I have them all off the top of my head I am obsessed. These are what take up most of the south half of the garden. There's a row of red winter kale on the end, then a row of sugar snap peas (Sugar Daddy), and then begin the potatoes. And they are budding beautifully now! After the potatoes come the broccoli (sharing it's "row" with the banana fingerlines) and then a row of beets.
The potatoes were planted about 2 weeks after "chitting" began, so that would have been on May 7th. (I'm pretty sure...I know it was a Wednesday...). The kids helped me and did a great job. It's been 3 weeks now and they are vigorously growing, having just broke the surface of the soil about a week ago. The pictures here don't do them justice because they were taken Monday and today is Wednesday and since Monday they have REALLY grown! Anyway, after planting all those potatoes, I realized that I had completely forgotten about the beans...and zucchini...and pole beans...and cucumbers...and eggplants, all of which were actually trying to grow under a silly work light in the attic. Yeah. So I dug up another 2/5 x 6 foot area. Oh yes I did. Double dug, too. All in one day. And guess what -- beans just don't transplant too well. At least all mine died. So next year, no planting beans early. Just not worth it. Eggplant didn't die...not right away. I think I still see it there, weakly attempting life. I ended up buying eggplants and pepper plants at a local roadside stand...along with some romaine lettuce plants. They had impatients too but I didn't buy any. Apparently I already have plenty.
I also had strawberries that came from Raintree nursery, along with a black currant and a gooseberry. I was not that impressed with Raintree (really expensive shipping charges that were mostly a surprise) so I probably won't order from them again. I supplanted the strawberries with more that I bought from the local garden center and the Raintree strawberries have already caught up. The currant bushes are also looking good. Pictures of them next time...
