March 22, 2011 - A Full Day in the Garden

Finally, a full day outside. It only rained on me once, so I got quite a bit done.


First of all, I got all the boxes painted and the paths around them weeded and raked up to, but not including, the strawberry bed. The 4' x 8' strawberry bed and the 2' x 8' pole bean bed (not shown) are all that are left to do in the north garden.


I attached the plastic fencing fabric to the hoops on the 3' x 4' lettuce bed, to keep the birds out. The front and back are just held in place with clothes pins, for easy removal, but the rest of it is permanent. I ran out of room after putting 28 lettuce plants in this bed, so I dug an area next to it for seven spinach plants.


Six more lettuce plants found a home under the garden ladder.


The lilies, next to the garden ladder, are up. They got a bit of composted cow poo, as well as some wire frames to hold them upright as they grow.


The new split level bed was planted with Romaine lettuce, shallots and garlic. Before planting, I used an 18" basket to mark where the broccoli (5) will be planted (bottom bed) and a 16" bucket to mark where the cabbages (8) will go (upper bed). Then I planted the garlic and shallots in the areas that weren't covered by the circles. The Romaine lettuce (6) went between the circles, and will be eaten before the cabbages need the room.


I still had 8 lettuce transplants left, so they went between the tomato buckets in the bed where the turnips, spinach and radishes were planted earlier.


My last outdoor job was to haul a couple of wheelbarrows of composted cow poo to the raspberry bed. The canes are beginning to show quite a bit of new green, so it won't be long before they are nice and bushy.


When I planted the tomato and pepper seeds, I only filled the little cups half full of potting mix. They have now grown tall enough to finish filling the cups with more mix. You can see in this photo where the "old" soil level was, and how much dry mix was added.


I'm so proud of me. These are all of the tomatoes and peppers I started this year, and those four cups on the right are dill!

Now I have to eat dinner, which thankfully is simmering away in the crockpot. I got so busy today, I forgot to eat. No wonder I got so much done, I'm running on a tank full of caffeine! After dinner, I'll give the tomatoes and peppers a good drink of weak chamomile tea, then put all the plants to bed under the lights for the night. Then I think I'll be putting myself to bed.....early!


32 comments:

  1. Wow Grany, you have been super-charged! Everything looks so wonderful and you should be very, very proud of yourself! I love your photos and can't wait to watch them grow in!

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  2. Granny, Why do you give your tomato plants chamomile tea??? Should I be doing this too?

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  3. Oh wow! Lucky you: everything looks great! I've never heard of chamomile tea for seedlings...tell me more! I use compost tea: worm castings, mushroom compost, kelp and alfalfa meal and a teaspoon of fish emulsion.

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  4. APG, thank you!

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    Tiny & Lynda, I water with weak chamomile tea to prevent damping off of the seedlings. I experimented this year, with and without, and it did work. Not a single seedling was lost using the tea, I lost a couple to damping off with plain water.

    I just read someone's blog today (forgot who!) that green tea was an excellent fertilizer for the seedlings, so I tossed a couple of tea bags of each, green and chamomile, into a gallon of water this morning. I'm going to use that for watering.

    The planting mix I buy has fertilizer added, so I don't use extra except for an occasional dose of half strength fish emulsion.

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  5. Couldn't you just slow down a little so I could catch up!
    Or better still send me some of that energy juice!. I thought my Zero coke was an energy booster, but it seems to me the coffee is the spark:o) Everything looks very good and I'm sure it will all grow with that good care. I wondered what those straight sticks were :o) good idea ;o)

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  6. Wow that's a lot accomplished in one day! I would have never thought to do that with the tomato plants adding soil to the cup, almost like potting them up to get that root deeper but not moving them! I need to try that! That and the tea. You're a wealth of info for this fledgling seed starter. Michele

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  7. Holy Cow, Granny! It never ceases to amaze me how much you get done. You must have been out there as soon as the sun was up. It's all looking really good.

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  8. Ginny, did you think I went out and planted long sticks in my garden? LOL! You just wait until those things leaf out, it will be a virtual forest in that bed.

    I'm usually a one cup of coffee a day gal, but today I finished off the pot! I don't know how many cups that was, but it was about a half dozen warm ups, 'cause I kept letting it get too cold.

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    Michele, it works well with brassicas, too (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower). They seem to grow leggy no matter how close I get them to the lights.

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    Alison, I didn't get up until 8:30 this morning. I'm not an early riser! I'm retired, I can sleep in now. When it gets hot out, I'll be up early.

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  9. Wow! You got a lot done. Your tomato seedlings look great.

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  10. Doesnt' everyone garden on caffeine! LOL! I joke that I am an instant human - just add coffee. ;D

    You got loads done and those tomato seedlings look great. I love your idea of using the deeper cup and only filling half full and then toping off later. Brilliant!

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  11. You are such an inspiration. You have gotten so much done...and I'm pooped LOL.

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  12. Katie, tonight my body feels like I got a lot done!

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    Kitsap, I'm usually not a big coffee drinker, but today it worked :-) Mr. Granny has been on his diet for an entire week, and is probably eating less than half his usual/normal consumption. He hasn't lost a single pound, but I'm down three! He needs to take up gardening.

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    Toodie, I'm pooped too. I hope I can move tomorrow, and I hope I have another good weather day. I'd like to finish the last two beds in the north garden, 'cause I sure have a lot of hard work ahead of me in the newly designed east garden!

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  13. Stop it... please just stop... I can't take how much you can get done in a day! ;-) Everything looks great and wow that is a lot of lettuce you were able to get planted!

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  14. Boy Granny, you are putting me to shame!! I really like the idea of marking the bed with the basket and bucket. I am going to do that at the plots when I get over there to do some planting.

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  15. I don't know where you get your energy. It has to be more than the coffee. The garden looks wonderful!

    I too like the way you added soil to the tomatoes. Sort of potting up without actually potting up.

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  16. Granny I think you should write a step by step tutorial starting with seed propagation through preservation. I'm serious! I would be first in line to buy a copy! You amaze me! I just started gardening a couple of years ago and know next to nothing........so write a book for people like me!
    For instance, why chamomile tea?

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  17. I love your clever solution to not having to repot your tomatoes.

    You got so much done. I wish I would get that much done. It has been really cold out. Not nice at all so I've been staying in. On Thursday though I think we will amend the blueberry beds. I'll do this with my townhouse mates so we have to coordinate our schedules.

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  18. That setup for the birds is AWESOME, I will be showing that to hubby when he gets home, he's been looking "not as busy as I am" lately :)

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  19. Your garden is looking really good, we hope to get out and do some work in ours this afternoon...it's even supposed to be sunny out. Your seedlings look to be off to a great start.

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  20. Liisa, it was a labor intensive day. I need more of those! Unfortunately, the temperatures plummeted unexpectedly last night, so I might not have any lettuce at all today :-(

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    Robin, I'm always underestimating how large some plants will grow, so I figured if I marked the circles it would be a wise thing to do. I gave each future cabbage 16 inches, and the future broccoli 18 inches.

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    Rachel, I did that with my broccoli and cabbages last year, as they always grow so leggy. This was the first time I'd done it with tomatoes and peppers though, as I always started those in soil blocks and then potted them into the large plastic cups. I'll probably still be potting these into bigger cups before planting time.

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    Spiderjohn, you just made me spew my coffee all over my laptop! I'm afraid I cannot take credit for most of what I do, I just find it on line and try it myself. Although I've gardened for more than 50 years, this is only the third year I've grown my own plants from seed. I read about using chamomile tea last year, and it seems to work. Just Google "chamomile tea for plants" and you'll see quite a few use this method for controlling damping off.

    Fifty years of gardening hasn't necessarily made me much wiser. Case in point: I always plant too early, just daring Mother Nature to laugh in my face. Last night she may have laughed, as the temperatures plummeted down into the 20s, and the lettuce plants I set out yesterday might be "toast" today.

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    Mr. H., I'm hoping to finish the cleanup in the north garden today. I broke my garden fork last fall, as I was thinning out strawberry plants, so that job must be finished real soon.

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  21. Daphne and Erin, maybe if I have another cup of coffee this morning I won't miss your comments!

    Daphne, you have such a lovely garden setup, I know you work hard at it. I wish I hadn't dug out my old blueberries.

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    Erin, that setup for the birds is...for the birds. I'm plugging the holes this year, 'cause the birds wreck too much of my garden!

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  22. Everything is looking good granny. I just started raspberries in my 3X8 bed. I'd kinda like to know more about how you have yours set up. I am getting ready to blog about my new stuff if I get to it...kids, you know!

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  23. Shawn Ann, I just started with four raspberry canes in my 4'x8' bed in 2009. I though putting them in a boxed in bed would keep the suckers under control, but it doesn't. I battle suckers all over outside the bed all summer. I actually liked it better when I had my raspberry patch along the back by the fence, where I could keep the suckers cut down weekly with the lawnmower, as they were all in the lawn. Mine are summer bearing (1 crop), so depending what variety you have would make a difference in pruning methods. When I had everbearing, I found the easiest method was to let them bear only one crop a year by cutting all the canes back to the ground each spring.

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  24. Granny - It was a treat to view the pics of your garden! Love the way you have organized your space. I just put in seeds anywhere I find space, I guess that's the reason, my plants don't do as well as yours! Lol!

    My raspberries bear fruit late fall and I usually lose half the crop to frost. Any suggestions on some better varieties?

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  25. Random, I grow Canby, which is a summer bearing variety. The only other variety I've ever grown were Heritage, which are an everbearing variety, but I cut them down to the ground in the spring and used them as a fall bearing. I'm happy with the Canby so far, although the flavor, size and color are not as good as the Heritage. It might be worth it for you to try a summer bearing variety.

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  26. *SQUEAL* I can't wait to watch our garden green up the next couple weeks. :-D WHOOT!!!

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  27. Barbie, me too! Of course, the weather has to cooperate ;-)

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  28. We got up to 59 degrees in Shelton today...it was a great day for gardening!

    Carol, I'm curious...why do you put your tomatoes in buckets on top of the beds?

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  29. Granny, you don't give yourself enough credit. You haven't been "finding it on line" for 50 years. There is no doubt in my mind that you could write a book with better info in it than I have been checking out of the library written by so called experts. I'm learning more from your blog and some other bloggers (Erin ,for one, who hooked me up with Baker Creek seeds) than most of the books I've been reading! So, start writing ! Try to have it finished by fall so I'll know what to do before next spring!! Take care granny....

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  30. Deb, I'll put that bucket information in today's blog ;-)

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    Spiderjohn, you give me too much credit! I'll just keep blogging, and you just keep reading. I learn from the other garden bloggers, too. It's people like you, who say such nice things, that keep me blogging! Thank you.

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  31. My lettuce made it through a hail storm so I'm thinking yours should be OK... I hope so. :-)

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  32. Liisa, after a record breaking low of 23F that night, they all came through with flying colors! I was shocked, but happy :-)

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