April 10, 2012 - Getting Back in the Groove (part two of two posts)

In the garden:

Jenny, from Simple Garden Made Easy, was sweet enough to send me some strawberry plants, both Cabot (June bearer) and Alpine. I do hope they survive, as the Post Office managed to completely mangle the heavy Priority Mail box in which they were packed. Both ends of it had been completely ripped open, allowing the soil to escape from around the roots of the plants. I soaked them well and planted them immediately, now I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


I finished cleaning up and amending the soil in the old 4'x8' strawberry bed, and planted two 6' rows of spinach, one 6' row of beets, and three 6' rows of carrots lengthwise down the center of the bed. On each end I put in two rows of radishes, which are way too many considering I have radishes coming up elsewhere in the garden.

I had planned on demolishing all three of the old half-barrels in the garden, as they were rotting and falling apart. The first one was done, but barrel #2, being in better condition than expected, was moved to the center of the garden to be the future home of the butternut squash. I think I explained, in an earlier post, that there is the remaining base of the old maple tree stump and some huge surface roots in that area, which make it impossible to garden. A perfect place for a deep container and room for vines to sprawl all around! It's still three weeks too early to plant the squash seeds there, but I figured what the heck. It's only six seeds, and I probably have a lifetime supply left, so I went ahead and planted them. I covered them with a layer of row cover, and then started some more seeds in the house.......just in case. In fact, if they all grow, I can probably find some plantable pockets of soil around the outside of the barrel and have a double amount of butternut squash plants. Have I mentioned how we love butternut squash? Can't have too many!


I pulled the tomato buckets from next to the shed and cleaned out that bed. I think I'll plant the tomatoes directly in the ground there this year, so I need to haul in more big buckets of compost and get the bed prepared. I'll be putting four indeterminate cherry tomatoes there next month. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that the plants don't develop fusarium wilt, which has been a real problem in this soil. I'll also need to replan my sprinkling pattern so the bed next to it will get overhead sprinkling, but this strip will get drip watering. I may also remove the wood surrounding the bed to allow the sun to better warm the soil there.


I planted a few more tiny lettuce seedlings in The Thing. They were some I'd started in the potting mix that is producing nothing but stunted seedlings. I also planted out the eleven stunted dwarf cabbages, three of the stunted broccoli and three of the stunted Chinese cabbages. I still have at least a half flat of stunted seedlings that will be planted out this week. I've started more seedlings to replace the cabbage and broccoli if necessary, and these one week old seedlings have nearly caught up with those that were started a month ago.


I've never had much of a problem with weeds in my garden. I'm quite diligent about using the hoe for a few minutes every day or two and not letting the weeds get ahead of me. This year it's going to be a battle to keep the volunteer sunflowers, giant cosmos and alyssum (in photo above) hoed down! I (stupidly) left the sunflower heads on the ground for the birds and squirrels to enjoy through the winter. Mammoth sunflowers are popping up everywhere! I do not want mammoth sunflowers. I'm still trying to dig out the tree trunk sized stems and roots from last year's mammoth sunflowers. Same with the forest of cosmos that grew 10' tall and overtook the entire bed behind the shed. At least they were shallow rooted and easy to pull, and hardly any flowers bloomed on them, so there weren't a lot to go to seed. The alyssum will be allowed to grow in some areas, but there are millions of tiny plants growing among the onions and potatoes that will have to be hand pulled eventually.

Inside, the seedlings are growing beautifully. Yesterday it was warm (70F) and overcast, so everything got carried outside to the back yard to spend the entire day, then brought in at dinnertime for a good watering before being put back on the grow shelves.

I put the four large tomato plants on the front porch, where it was even warmer but maybe a bit breezy for them. I noticed the biggest one was suffering some sunburn on the leaves when I brought it in. It also looks like it needs a dose of fertilizer. I really need to tip it out of the pot to see if it might be getting root bound, it's getting so large.


I have over a dozen tomatoes on the plants, but nothing getting ripe yet. Maybe a few more days on the sunny porch will help ripen them.


They actually got so tall they wouldn't fit in the window, so I had to clip off their tops last week.


Today it's overcast again, so the seedlings are back outside. It's supposed to get up to 75F later in the day, so I'll have to make sure the tables get moved back onto the patio and out of the strong sunlight when and if it happens.


The perennial bed is really growing well this spring.


Sugar snap peas are growing in front of The Thing, which is filled with lettuce seedlings of various sizes and varieties.


Shelling peas growing in the triangle garden, with radishes around the edges. A tiny broccoli plant struggles to survive.


The seedlings I planted earlier aren't doing much. I have a feeling the ones I direct seeded yesterday will probably overtake them. If you look closely you can see the turnips popping up in the foreground, germination looks to be quite good on them, I see maybe two or three that didn't germinate, so I'll stick in a couple more seeds today.


Yesterday I got the raspberry bed amended with more compost. It's ready to grow!


30 comments:

  1. I can't believe what that PO did to the package - that is not how I sent it and I do hope they'll recover and will grow again. :(

    And love your little tomatoes - you might actually have first tomatoes in April! I restarted my seedlings for tomatoes as most of the current ones got sick for some reason so have to start a new batch. Hopefully with warmer weather they'll take off fast.

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    1. Jenny, I know you wrapped it well and had everything sealed up. I don't know what they did to tear it open like that.

      April tomatoes would be great! Heck, May tomatoes would be great :-)

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  2. I would think the strawberries would be fine. I got mine bareroot and they all lived. Not one of them died. If only I could say that about the asparagus.

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    1. Daphne, I've always purchased bare root strawberry plants. I do hope these survive. So far I see life in one of the Alpine plants.

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  3. I hope your strawberries make it through the horrible post office experience. I really wonder what they do to the pkgs. I have had several pkgs that looked like someone jumped on them.

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    1. Christy, I also wonder. Yet, I had a $130.00 refund check sent all the way from MN, in an unsealed envelope, and it arrived in pristine condition! The flap wasn't even tucked under, let alone licked and sealed.

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  4. I always wonder how the post office manages to mangle packages, sometimes it seems they jump up and down on them.

    Your tomatoes are looking great! I'm still waiting for my 'Mini Gold' tomatoes to sprout...

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    1. Ed, I just up-potted all four Minigolds and put them out on the patio. Three of the four did fine, but the fourth came out of the old pot minus half its roots. Touch and go if it makes it or not. We'll have to bring them in at night, but it's a shorter distance to the kitchen counter than to the laundry room window!

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  5. I just wanted to say hello and tell you that I look forward to reading your impressive blog each day. By the way, I'm Jeff's twin brother.

    Take care,
    Greg V.

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    1. Greg, hello and welcome to my blog! Yes, I knew you were Jeff's twin. He often speaks kindly (or I should say writes) about you. I'm also looking forward to watching your garden grow this year, and I'm finding the stories of your Mayan trips especially fascinating.

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    2. I'm glad you enjoy reading about my Maya trips. I guess I am the adventurous one in the family. I finally talked my brother into going on a trip with me to Guatemala later this year. It will be our first trip together out of the country. I have so much to show him, especially how the modern Maya people grow their vegetables up in the Highland region of the country. I think he will enjoy that.

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    3. Greg, I think that's exactly what Jeff needs!

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  6. It all looks so good! I can't wait to be able to get seed in the ground. Starting peppers and tomatoes this week indoors.

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    1. David, I have way too many seedlings growing, I have no idea where I'm going to crowd in all those plants! Oh, let's face it, I'll be giving half of them away. I grow too many every year, but I'm worse this year than ever. I just started 6 each of zucchini, yellow crookneck and cantaloupe and they all germinated. Not only is there not enough room to plant them all, we could never keep up with the harvest!

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    2. I always plant way too many seeds as I expect most of them to fail and they rarely do. I BEG people to take them off my hands!

      I've been a fan of your blog for some little time and just love your wisdom and hints (I'll be trying your seed 'tapes', next time I sow carrots!).

      I garden in Gippsland (Victoria, Australia).

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    3. Nina, last year I set out flats of tomato and pepper seedlings by the street, and they disappeared in about five minutes! I always wondered who grew my babies to maturity.

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  7. Hi! You sure are a busy lady gardening! I love Butternut squash too but have a hard time finding enough room to grow it. I got two last year! My first batch of radishes did not amount to a hill of beans. The second batch planted in a different spot looks better so hoping. I also planted a third planting but they aren't up yet. Glad you had a nice vacation. Nancy at http://cozythymecottage.blogspot.com/

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    1. Nancy, I think radishes are my hardest crop to grow! I have them planted in four locations, so maybe I'll get lucky with at least one planting. Butternuts, on the other hand, have grown prolifically for me and store well most of the winter. They certainly do take up a lot of space. The bush varieties aren't as bad, but don't seem to yield as well.

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  8. Here too, the volunteer flowers and lamb's quarter (that I don't eat LOL) are all over the place! The seedlings look great.

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    1. Erin, I wish the "good stuff" would volunteer! Well, I guess it would if I let it go to seed like the flowers did.

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  9. Hello Granny,

    Your raspberry bed looks so neat and tidy! Mine are overrun with runners. How do you manage to keep them so well? Perhaps it is a different variety....

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    1. Random, I have to keep at them constantly. either by pulling or hoeing them out. I also use the pruners and try to cut (to the ground) all but about 4-6 healthy runners per group. You really have to be diligent about it, and they do get away from me at times. I find them growing as far as two beds away.

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  10. Haven't read everyone's comments yet but thinking the tomato patch might benefit from some red plastic tomato "mulch" (red plastic ground cover.) I used it last year and the tomatoes did pretty well and the plastic prevented some water splashing onto the plants. The only trick i learned was to put it down on VERY flat ground b/c otherwise the uneven ground will create pocets of water/dry and soil that comes up from around the plant will collect in these little pools making it harder to keep the red mulch clean to be used to reflect light onto the underleaves. Also thought you might want some black weed cloth over the area where the sunflowers are coming up. I read some about sunflowers being a not so great addition to the garden and don't benefit much. Oh wait it says the sunflowers help tomatoes and corn. Here's the companion planting chart I found on Wikipedia:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants#Flowers
    I planted some marigolds from seed that are doing well and some Seashell Cosmos along with a few Sensation Cosmos. We had the purple cosmos (bought from Freddies) last year and this year I wanted them but found the Seashell ones interesting so figured I'd give them a try. They're coming up fast! The marigolds are coming along nicely also!
    Anyways, here's a linkie for the red mulch:
    http://www.gardeners.com/Red-Tomato-Mulch/36-399,default,pd.html?start=1&q=red%20mulch
    just looks like red garbage bag type fabric but has a million holes poked into it and worked well to water on top of the plastic and got nicely into the tomatoes. My fertilizer we ended up using was mixed. We had "Mater Magic" we bought at Home Depot that helps, then I used some fish emulsion from time to time to just give it a booster shot. Also did a folliar feeding or two on the leaves with the fish emulsion. I think I MAYhave used another mixed veggie fertilizer also but thinking it was only mater magic and the fish goo. (man that stuff stinks!)
    I'm amazed at your tomatoes!
    Tragic about the box of strawberry starts. I hope they rally for you! I love the pics as always and will try to get some pics to send to you tomorrow! Crazy how much we have going in the house and taking it in and out the back door is getting tiresome. Will be glad when they can all safely live out there! :)
    Sounds like you earned a good night's sleep with all that work!

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    1. Amy T. thanks for the advise, but good luck teaching this old dog new tricks ;-) I'll only argue with the use of the black weed cloth. I never want that horrid stuff near my garden ever again! I know the red tomato mulch works well, but my tomatoes aren't all in one spot, but scattered all around (and most of them in 5-gallon buckets).

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  11. AG!! I've missed you! I'm not signed into Blogger much anymore, but I never ever miss your posts thanks for Google Reader :) Your garden is looking beautiful and so is your family. I went through a lot of changes since getting married and I no longer have my garden at my mother's old house (we moved her out due to financial issues). But I have been involved in a community garden near my condo, so I'm able to scratch the itch that way. Keep up the good gardening! Proud of you!

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    1. Kalena Michele, I've missed you too, married girl!!! So sorry to hear your mother had to move, but happy you are still involved in gardening. My email addy is in my profile....shoot me a long letter and let me know how you're doing.... *hugs*

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  12. I am just all worn out from reading all you have been doing! LOL! We have had some beautiful days and today we are getting some much needed rain. Forecast is for it to be back to beautiful for the weekend. Works out perfectly as all the young plants and emerging seedlings really needed watering! :D

    I hope your strawberries survive their dangerous journey to you.

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    1. Kitsap, I've either been hauling out the sprinkler and using city water, or carrying the watering can out as needed for the past two weeks. Today I found out we have had irrigation water for at least the last week, but our main valve was shut off! Mr. Granny couldn't budge it, but son-in-law came over and got it turned on today. I watered the garden well, so now we'll surely get rain!

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  13. Annie why the change to tomatoes directly in the ground compared to your famous bottomless pots

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    1. SidneyGardener, just a few of them will be planted in ground, the rest will be in buckets along the side of the house as usual. I had several in-ground last year, in places where I wasn't planning on growing anything around them. The only drawback to the buckets is the cost of the mix to fill them. In the past, I had the small pickup so I could get a load of compost from the nearby nursery whenever I needed it. Now we have the new pickup, and Mr. Granny will not let me haul poo in it! My son got me one load this spring, but it's nearly all used up so I'm going to have to resort to buying bagged manure, bagged peat moss and bagged whatever else I'll need ;-) I'll be filling the buckets soon, and when I run out of potting mix I'll just plant the remainder in ground.

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