The Garden -- Part 7 5/24/09

Back to the garden this weekend for the rest of my planting. But first, let's check in on how the current crop is doing.

Potatoes exploding

The potatoes have gone nuts in the past couple of weeks. I've been mounding them to make sure none of the potatoes start to break through the soil surface. We should have a really good crop of these come fall.

Lettuce looking weak

I'm very disappointed with the lettuce so far. The first batch has been growing for a month, and this is all I've got. It doesn't look good for summer salads.

Radishes looking good

The radishes, meanwhile, are doing really well. In fact I "harvested" two this weekend -- my first crop! Sage said they tasted good; a bit strong, but fine. I tried one, and I still don't like them.

2nd batch of radishes and lettuce

The 2nd batch of radishes and lettuce look a lot like the first. Radishes coming in nicely; lettuce looking sparse.

Peas growing up the twine

The peas are doing nicely as well. Hopefully we'll have some pods in a month or so.

That covers the previous plantings. But the main activity for this weekend was to put in the rest of the crops: tomatoes, peppers and squash. I picked up most of the plants at Russell's, and the rest were gifts from Roy.

I'm not a squash fan, but Sage loves summer squash, so I decided to try a couple of those plants.

Summer squash

Peppers were the next items to go in, and they have their own bed. Roy gave me 6 volcano pepper seedlings, which appear to be a red chili pepper variety. This is great, as I like to have plenty of chili peppers hanging around. I also wanted some red and green bell peppers, which I got at Russell's.

Peppers going in the ground

Pepper bed all planted

I didn't have room for all of Roy's volcanoes, so I put 3 of them in pots. Hopefully they're big enough pots for them to grow.

Finally, it was on to the tomatoes. Tomatoes I've always had the best luck with (normally all you need is good soil and lots of sun), and I've learned a few things. First, if you want cherry/grape tomatoes, you only need 1 plant. Every time we've had one of these varieties, we'll get way more than we ever know what to do with. My plan was to only grow 1 cherry/grape, but Roy gave me 3 of them, so I was covered there. Second, regular tomatoes weren't a priority. I don't use them too much, and in the past I've never gotten a great yield from them, so I only needed 1 or 2 plants of these. Roy gave me 6. Again, I was covered, but also running out of room for what I really wanted to plant -- Roma/Plum. This is the last thing I've learned through the years -- plant as many roma/plum tomatoes as you can. First, they're the most versatile. I like them in sauces, marinaras, salsas, etc. Second, they're usually pretty good at getting a big yield per plant. However, since they're also smaller than a regular tomato, I need more to get the amount I want. At this point, though, my small bed was getting close to full, so I only ended up planting 4 roma varieties, which I got from Russell's. I really didn't want to crowd my tomatoes this year (I end up doing it every year, and by the first of August it's a crazy mess of plant limbs and fruit), and I do think I've given them a bit more room than usual, but it's still not the ideal 2-3 feet between plants that's recommended.

10 tomatoes squeezed in a space for 6.

I had 3 leftover tomato plants which I also put in big pots. You can see them behind me in this photo.

That's fish emulsion coming out of the watering can.

My last step was to build cages for the tomatoes. In the past I've tried a bunch of different ways to keep my tomatoes in line. I've never had any luck with those cone cages from the garden center -- and they're usually way too short to begin with. I've done bamboo poles and tied the tomatoes up, but I've always had trouble getting the plants to stay tied up without tying them really tight. After reading about some other ways of caging tomatoes in Organic Gardening and online, I've decided to try a custom cage method. I bought a 5-foot high metal fence, and then cut them in 4-foot sections. I then enclosed that section in a circle, tied it up with some baling wire, and voila -- it's a straight, tall tomato cage that's about 15" in diameter. The fencing I found might be a little tight as far as the spacing of the wire, but I figure I can always cut out some of the fencing holes to make them bigger as I go along. I got all my cages in place, but forgot to take a photo of them. Next week I'll try to get that one put up.

Finally, I thought I'd put up some photos of some of the flowers and shrubs that are in bloom. The previous owners did some great landscaping around the house. It seems like they've timed everything really well. As soon as something goes out of bloom, something else comes in. I don't know anything about flowers and stuff, but they look nice.

Purple irises (??)

Some yellow lilies (??) and some orange thing.

Beautiful pink azaleas (these I'm sure of)

We also have a couple rhododendron bushes in the front which are just about in bloom. I might have some photos of those next week.

A Guardener update. The main one in the garden seems to be doing it's job, I guess. Nothing has gotten in and started easting anything yet, but who knows what might yet occur. Funny story about it from today. I was finishing putting in cages today, and I had my headphones on, and before I started I turned off the machine. As I'm working I hear something over my music. I turn around to see what it is, and it's the Guardener doing it's job -- by spraying the area with water! I was out of it's range, and after inspection I found out I hadn't turned it off after all. The Mini version seems to be doing it's job as well, as I haven't seen 1 squirrel near the composter since I installed it. (Of course that doesn't mean they're not going in there, as I'm not watching it every second. But I do think it's working a little bit.) However, I had to turn it off today. I was outside grilling and the party horn kept going off on it. I walked over to see if something was in the composter, but there was nothing. Not sure what was causing it to keep going off -- maybe the wind moving the leaves on a bush nearby -- but I didn't want it blowing its horn all night, so I had to flip the switch on it. I'll see if the squirrels come back, and maybe I can come up with a happy medium.

So the good news on the garden is that all the building and planting is complete. Now I just have to keep it watered, fertilize the plants that need it, when they need it, and keep an eye out on any bugs that might start eating my leaves & blossoms. Hopefully more harvests to come.