Archive | May, 2008

24 hours in a garden

by on May 20, 2008 in The Growing Garden

The heat finally left us and we were greeting to wonderfully rainy, 55 degree weather this morning. I was thrilled. I think even Chris welcomed it and he hates the greyness of the Pacific Northwest (Salem really isn’t that bad though, not like the Gray’s Harbor area he grew up in). So with the rain, I didn’t bother watering today and instead of checking on the garden every few hours (I’m a little obsessive), it was a good 24 hours since I last checked it.

All the taters grew, visibly – a lot. I actually said out loud, “Holy shit!” LOL
So did the corn. And the squash. And the zucchini. And the peas. And the tomatoes.
Strawberries are blooming like mad.
I could see some growth on the carrots and lettuce.

I have to say, I do think part of it is the Earth Juice. Some of those plants should have died from transplant shock and they’re just doing so well. It’s rather thrilling!

*Emerges from the sweltering heat* (with pictures!)

by on May 18, 2008 in The Growing Garden

I haven’t succumbed from the heat yet. The garden hasn’t either. It’s coming along quite well actually, everything is sprouted and doing well except the cucumbers, who I think just need more time. The only “problem” is there’s something eating little bits out of maybe half the plants. So to fight fire with fire, I spread out the nematodes I bought from Territorial Seed and watered super well yesterday evening. Hopefully they’ll catch and kill the little buggers before they get to my plants.

Here’s the strawberry patch. All the larger plants have started blooming, which I’ve pinched off the first blooms in hopes it”ll encourage them to grow bigger first.

Lettuce. My experiment with transplanting tiny seedlings. It seriously slowed their growth and I won’t do it again, but they are growing well now!

Peas are growing very well, but don’t want to grow UP. Next time I’ll do the trellis how I originally wanted, which includes vertical twine!

Short row of white radishes.

Cauliflower plants that I honestly thought wouldn’t make it from severe transplant shock.

Broccoli, lots and lots!

Close up of a broccoli plant

One of my new grape plants

My new blueberry plants, waiting to get transplanted.

All 3 grape plants waiting to be put in the ground.

The largest potato plant currently. One of the organic russets I bought from the store. The seed potatoes aren’t growing nearly as fast, but they are growing.

Some of the corn

I don’t like it hot, hot, hot

by on May 15, 2008 in General

4-5 days of miserable hot weather. I am fighting a migraine from the heat yesterday and it was only 72!!!
I’ll be getting up early, watering the garden and other outside chores then hiding inside. Me no likey heat!! Hopefully the plants don’t mind it, and I give them enough water so it’s not so stressful. I swear, I’m fretting more over the garden then a newborn baby!

Soaker hoses and mistaking radishes for carrots and pests, oh my

by on May 14, 2008 in The Growing Garden

So the whole soaker hose/clay soil thing isn’t working as well as I thought it would. The area we planted the taters and corn in is lower then the rest, with the area the taters are in the lowest…with the clay soil, the water drains very slow, so it’s flooding the potatoes before the corn is barely wet. We spent most of the day in the garden trying out various things, digging a drainage ditch, re-running the hoses, but it just wasn’t working. So we pulled the hose from that area, and reran the hoses going to the squares, mostly eliminating the pooling by the potatoes, but I left the drainage ditch so it should be ok. It’s gonna take me a week to get it all pretty again, lots of mud got dub up and it’s looking pretty motley again. Working on a solution for the other area. Forgot to get a timer, and that will be crucial to keep that area from flooding.

I’ve been waiting for the carrots to do something. There were 7 or 8 plants in the carrot area that I dumbly assumed were carrot seedlings, but scattered all over…today I noticed there was 2 nice straight rows of tiny seedlings and it dawned on me those were the carrots, not the other plants. Then I remembered Aiden (my 4 year old son) bumping me and spilling some radish seeds when I was planting. I looked over and DUH they were the same leaves. I felt rather stupid. So I pulled those up and am happy now, I have a ton of carrots!

The broccoli are HUGE! The leaves are just massive (relatively speaking of course, they’re the biggest in the garden so far, and biggest I’ve grown anything in years) and so healthy. I planted more spinach, none of it is growing, and more corn in the spots that aren’t growing anything. Something is attacking/eating the corn, I’m posting pictures in a few places to see what it is. The corn area has got a ton of ants…like a couple swarms of them, so I put out a borax trap (worst chemical I use) and will spread DE over the area tomorrow, but want to make sure those measures take care of whatever is eating my corn. If you have an idea what did this, please post a comment! Thank you!

Slow Blog Day

by on May 13, 2008 in The Growing Garden

Sorry for the lack of bloggage – I finally was able to get busy with work and have been working and grocery shopping and other inside household stuff today. We had company yesterday and I spent 2 days scrubbing a perfectly clean house (I grew up in filthy squalor thanks to good ol’ mom and dad, I have clean issues) before hand…been hectic.

I have to finish my watering system tomorrow. The plants aren’t getting enough when I just water by hand. I need to replace one of the soaker hoses already down, it was a used one and I think it’s part of the problem with the flooding. I’m going to get up early and go visit my dad and get that out of the way, then come home and spend the day in the garden, then work in the evening.

Lets see, for growth…I have at least a dozen good strong zucchini sprouts, about 6 squash, about 15 corn (I hope more comes up!), the broccoli is looking awesome. The herbs…blech. I’m thinking about pulling them and using the space for something else…none of it is looking well. I still need to sown more carrots, lettuce and spinach. I should be able to get that done tomorrow.

I’m learning a lot of stuff with this. Much if it is what not to do next year lol

Water issue and heat

by on May 12, 2008 in The Growing Garden

So the soaker hose in clay soil is a precarious dance of getting enough water and not forgetting about it and flooding the whole potato crop in the process. Time for a timer. I sure hope the taters don’t mind the 2 complete drenchings they’ve gotten lol

It’s supposed to be 60s tomorrow, 70s on Wednesday, 80s on Thursday, 90s on Friday and Saturday (!) and then drop back down to upper 60s on Sunday. Must get the water system finished and working well pronto!

To the mama readers =)

by on May 11, 2008 in Off Topic

Aerial view of the garden & grapes and blueberries, oh my!

by on May 9, 2008 in The Growing Garden

Chris’ cousin gave us 3 soaker hoses when he moved and I finally tried them out. I didn’t have enough to do the entire garden so I did some research on soaker hoses and watering methods to make sure it was worth buying more (apparently it is, most pages I read on watering suggest to use the soaker method to keep the leaves dry so as to not invite diseases). So off to Lowes we went.

I got 2 75′ soaker hoses and some landscape stakes to hold the hose in place, plus a few other little things, looked at a BBQ/smoker that we’d like to have, then found the grape and berry plants. Dammit. They were only like $6.50 each and they were big plants, so I had to try. I got 3 grapes and 2 blueberry and they’ll be planted tomorrow.

I hopped up on the roof tonight to take a picture from above. I have got to get those evil bushes out of there!

Oh, I almost forgot, my first zucchini appeared in the garden today! I was happy to see the little guy =)

Less garden, more yard work

by on May 9, 2008 in General

Disclaimer: I’m on a quest to lose weight, so I didn’t ask for much help from Chris, in case anyone wonders why I did it all lol

Today, I:

Finished mowing the front lawn, and mowed the back. We have 1/5th of an acre, not a lot, but not a tiny city plot either, so that burned some calories. Also gave the mower a good cleaning. Chris doesn’t do it (he was raised much differently, in a “everything is disposable” house) so it badly needed to be done.

I trimmed a couple of roses that were getting unruly and cut off the broken branch from the Wisteria. Still pissed about it (I’m not taking it out on my son though, while he’s grounded for a week for lying and grounded from playing with that friend, I’m treating him like normal).

Made a new spot for the grass clipping to turn in the mulch, closer to the garden.

Spread grass seed over the front side yard’s garden area. I’m tired of trying to keep it weeded, so I’m going to overseed it with grass then make circles of mulch around the rose bushes. Then watered it well. I can’t believe how little rain we’re getting. My water bill is going to skyrocket soon.

Checked out each of the potatoes – they are all growing, most almost ready to pop above ground. Going to let the grass clippings cook for a few days then spread it out over the potato area. The corn is growing a little too. The herbs don’t look good at all. I’ll give them some more time and love, but I think they’ll need replanting.

Final layout

by on May 8, 2008 in Plans & Getting Going

Here’s the map of the garden. The fence to the left of the melons/pumpkins is going to be moved down so it keeps those plants safe from the dog and kids.

I have a full garden

by on May 8, 2008 in Plans & Getting Going, Tools, Products & How To

I have to write a short review of Highway Fuel Co, here in Salem, Oregon. Our first trip when we started the garden project to get compost was unremarkable, but this time I was very happy we went with them. I wanted to get some sort of soil amendment and was thinking a soil mix (other choices were compost, cheaper, and potting mix, more expensive) and peat moss fromLowes. So I bought 4 bags (1cu ft each) of the soil mix ($10, as opposed to $20+ for the potting mix)…when I went out to get them loaded up, the man asked me if potting mix was ok…they were out of bagged soil mix and he was fine giving is the potting mix. Bags of the potting mix are 5.50 each for 1.5 cu ft, so I really got a good deal and good customer service. A link to their website can be found in my sidebar to the right.

Anyway, we got the soil and peat moss and got it all mixed up and added to the 6 spots for the watermelons and pumpkins, mounded up, watered well, and planted those, then added some peat moss to the cucumber area and planted those. Gave the whole garden a mild watering and called it a day – I’m pooped! Tomorrow the front and back need to be mowed, badly in back, and that’ll give me lots more grass compost! Yay!

Speaking of compost, one of my 32 gallon trash cans (the buried one) is full and won’t be added to, only turned, I’m starting a new one. I can just see it if/when we move, taking these holy garbage cans with us lol

So the garden is close to being “in”…the tomatoes inside are close to being ready to harden off and transplanted, and I need to plant more carrots. Then the waiting game of seeing if the zucchini, squash, pumpkins, watermelon and rosemary come in.

Quizzicals

by on May 8, 2008 in Blog

I Am Cilantro
The bad news is that there are
some people who can’t stand you.
The good news is that most people love
you more than anything else in the world.
You are distinct, unusual, fresh, and very controversial.
And you wouldn’t have it any other way.
What Spice Are You?

This one is cracking me up:

I am a Lemon

You have a very distinct personality. And if you’re
not being sweet, you’re a little hard to take.
You’re a bit overpowering, especially
in one on one situations.
And while you are very dominant, sometimes
your power is needed and appreciated.
You can liven up a dull situation, and you
definitely bring a fresh outlook.
You are a bit of an acquired taste, and
you tend to grow on people over time.
People feel refreshed and rejuvenated
after spending time with you.
What Type of Fruit Are You?

I am a
Canna


What Flower
Are You?