April 17, 2011 - Tomorrow's Another No Harvest Monday

I was planning on harvesting enough lettuce and spinach for a salad for supper, but earlier this afternoon I decided to give some of the plants and seedlings a good fish emulsion drench. I mixed up a gallon of the diluted fertilizer and applied it with a sprayer. By the time the sprayer was empty, I had doused all of the seedlings and half of the plants in the garden. I decided the harvest could wait a few days, as the aroma of fish fertilizer on lettuce leaves wasn't really very appetizing.

Soooo......I still haven't participated in a Harvest Monday since leaving my Arizona garden. My time will come though, and in the meantime I'd love to see your harvests over at Daphne's Dandelions!

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The quail made a run through the east garden this morning, and mutilated some of the lettuce, so I'm glad my main crop is protected under the netting. I sure hope they don't get the peas, I guess I'd better construct something to keep them out.

Yesterday I caved and planted both pole and bush beans. Checking my notes from 2009 (spring 2010 was too warm for a good comparison), I had an excellent crop of both when they were planted this early. I figured it was worth a try, as I have an awful lot of seeds. I put in my second planting of carrots, too. I'm going to plant a new carrot bed every time the previously planted one sprouts, and hopefully have enough to keep the family happy this year.

I was busy all day today! I finished constructing my indeterminate tomato fortress, a lot of work for three plants! I can't believe I put seven big plants in that bed two years ago. Last year even four were too many. Anyway, I got the 8' support posts pounded in and screwed to the cross bar, then wired the tops of the double decker cages tepee style (Mr. Granny hung on to me so I wouldn't nose dive off the ladder....the tops are over 8' from the ground!) Then I strung heavy garden twine about every 8 inches across both sides of those X shaped fence posts, which should provide lots of support for all the branches. I filled the wheelbarrow with garden soil, then added an equal amount of compost, a bunch of perlite, a half cup of 10-10-10 fertilizer, a pint jar of the pulverized egg shells + old calcium tablets + aspirin, and even tossed in a packet of powdered milk (read that one somewhere on GardenWeb), then filled the three bottomless tomato buckets with the mixture. Heck, all that added stuff might not help, but it can't hurt. Something made them grow over 10-feet high last year! I forgot to add the cornmeal and alfalfa pellets, so I'll dig some of that in tomorrow. Then it will have 2-3 weeks to settle and begin its magic (or not) before I plant the tomatoes. There are only ten more tomato planting spots to be prepped by May 1. Yes, I'm holding my tomatoes down to only 13 plants this year, surprise, surprise!

I filled three 1-gallon milk jugs half full of compost, added some alfalfa pellets, cornmeal and molasses, then filled them with water and set them out on my three hill squash-patch-to-be. They can brew into compost tea and do double duty by warming the soil underneath for an early planting of squash. I kept the lids next to the jugs, and every time I walked by them, I put on the lids and gave them a good shake. I figure they'll be ready to use by Wednesday morning, when I'll dilute the contents with more water and add some fish emulsion.....then I'll give all the plants a good drink, except for the few that got the foliar spraying of fish emulsion today.

I had another dozen shallots that were beginning to show green shoots, so I planted those between the three big tomato buckets, and I moved a columbine from the side yard to the kennel garden. It has never grown well in its old location.

That doesn't sound like I did that much, but it took me all day! Mr. Granny took one look at me when I came in, and said it was a good night to order pizza, so we did.

Anyway, I'm bushed....think I'll head to bed early tonight.