A Spare Moment

I feel so negligent. I have so many notes and updates that I want to be able to reference next year and thereafter, but never a spare moment to document anything.

We are a good month in now with plants outside in their permanent homes. Here's what we have so far.

10 wonderful self-watering containers seem to be doing the best. I was not sure what to expect when I ordered them online. Here are our contents....

1. Tumbling Tom tomato (cute, bushy, the size of a basketball) with lots of blossoms underneath the leaves. I had heard this was more of a novelty item, but it sure is cute and I'm hoping he's productive. 2nd plant in this box, a regular zucchini plant that is HUGE and has probably a dozen small zucchinis already between 2 and 4 inches long. SO excited to taste something other than lettuce!

Boxes 2, 3, 4 hold 6 tomato plants (2 each box) including roma, cherry, brandywine, beefsteak, big boy. There are lots of blossoms on each plant. I have kept the suckers trimmed and tied each plant to stakes so they each have one main stem. The plants are approximately 3 foot tall at this time. I look forward to seeing what they do.

5. The next box houses 2 eggplant plants. I tried eggplant last year in the raised beds with no luck. We have a couple of blossoms so far, but the plants are large and healthy which is encouraging.

6. The next box is not showing signs of produce just yet, but it housea an acorn squash as well as a winter squash (butternut). The plants are very large and have sprouted vines that are cascading down from the wall where the boxes are located. I understand they might be late bloomers due to the lengthy growing seasons for these vegetables.

7. The next box is both full and unique. It houses 8 pepper plants including 2 red bells, 2 serrano, 2 habanero, one hot thai and one ornamental. Blossoms on each one. They are about 18 inches to 24 inches high at this time with the exception of the ornamental which is only about 8 inches high. I know nothing about ornamental peppers, so not sure what to expect from this plant or any of the peppers for that matter, but my husband was excited about the possibility of home grown peppers.

8. I have a box with 2 cucumber bushes; one regular and one pickling. I am really hoping to make some pickles this year!! These plants are supported by small, folding trellises in hopes of encouraging proper, shaply vegatables. There are blossoms and tiny little cucumbers on each plant; about an inch in length at this point. So cute!

9. I have a box loaded with pole bean plants. Attached to this box is a 12 foot ladder for the pole beans to climb. It looks pretty silly sticking up in the middle of our yard, but at this point I don't care as long as those beans climb, climb, climb!!

10. The last box is pretty full. It houses a cantaloup vine, an 8-ball zucchini bush and a yellow neck squash. The 8-ball zucchini are already almost 3 inches in diameter and there are a handful of tiny yellow neck squash starting to grow. I noticed about a dozen blossoms on the cantaloupe plant today. I hope that's good news! My concern with the cantaloupe is that they do better with a hammock supporting the fruit, so I need to figure something out, especially if there are as many fruit as there are blossoms. Can you taste it???

That's it for the self-watering containers I ordered.

I do have some normal containers with produce as well. I have one large 18 gallon container full of leaf lettuce that we can't keep up with eating. I've given some to the neighbors and it looks ready to bolt as we're having more consistent hot days in the 90's.

Another of those large containers holds red potatoes. I put 5 seeds in there and they TOOK OFF!! I initially covered teh seeds with just a couple inches of potting soil. As the plants grew I buried half of the plant every time they grew 6 inches until the container was full. It is my understanding that the tubers grow at the part of the plant that is buried. We shall see. I need to do some reading as the plant looked less healthy today. Do the plants die back to let the tubers grow?? I post an update.

My 3rd large container houses 3 kinds of beets; red, chioggia and gold beets. The leaves are full, they seem to be loving life in a container, are safe from the local wildlife (rabbits) and the beets from the surface look about an inch and a half round. I am excited for fresh beets!

The 4th and final 18 gallon container is mixed. It houses 1 short, stocky patio tomato plant that is loaded with blossoms. My understanding is these plants stay small. It also house 2 now mature dill plants that are over 3 foot tall. Unless I read differently, I let this die and dry right in it's container and use the flowers for pickles and the seeds for spice... I think. This container also has chives, 2 oregano plants as well as 2 basil plants. I guess it's an Italian food box.

I have a few random containers. 2 - 3 gallon pots (like rose bushes come in) have paris carrots. These plants are more mature than those in the raised beds, so I think the carrots like the heat they get from the sun in a black container. In also put a Sweet 100 tomato plant in a 1/2 barrel and that plant is LOVING LIFE. I have not plucked suckers off this plant; just let it grow and feed it up through the cage. It a massive, happy plant with literally hundred of blossoms. This plant will produce our first tomatoes and I'm trying to be patient. It is not a self-watering container and cannot get enought water (but the barrel is well drained). 2 of my in-ground rhubarb plants are looking good. the shoots are narrow but mature so I will be cutting those soon. A 3rd rhubarb was moved and is very small after being trampled all last season by the fence guys and the dogs. If I could keep the rabbits off it, it would be much happier.

I have more to tell about the small in-ground bed and the 4 (4' x 4') raised beds that will wait until next time.

Update

40 Days and 40 Nights

I managed to salvage a few hours on Sunday to plant in the 10 boxes that finally arrived. The dog run is not yet complete nor is my large planter box (8' x 4').

We're sporting 6 additional tomato plants, eggplant, various melons, peppers, cucumbers (including pickling), and multiple kinds of squash. I'm eventually going to plant some pumpkins in the ground and likely beans in the planter box.

It's been raining off and on since and is supposed to continue steady into the weekend with possibly some short breaks and continue raining next week. I know we need the moisture, but this is getting excessive.

Here's hoping for a nice Memorial Day weekend! I'll be pushing it to plant after that time as the grow season will be too short.

The Planters Have Arrived!

....and so has the rain. New planting will have to wait, but the things already in the ground are lovin' it!

A bit InDeCiSiVe

A decision HAS been made for this year. There will be NO tilled bed. The cost of the tilling, bringing in the remainder of the necessary fill dirt, compost, weeding, indecision on where it will go, how big it will be, etc, etc, etc... Container garden it is!

So as you'll see at the left.... the tree is down. The wood was split this past weekend.

We have 4 - 4' x 4' raised beds at this time sporting the following good eats:
- strawberries
- lettuce
- spinach
- broccoli
- cabbage
- brussel sprouts
- 3 different types of carrots
- peas
- onion
- and 1 sunflower plant

My self-made, self-watering containers (in light green) are housing potatoes, 3 types of beets, lettuce and an Italian mixed box of tomatoes, basil, dill, oregano and chives. There are various pots with brussels, cabbage, carrots and onions.

There are no large volumes of any specific vegetable at this time due to space issues.

I have 10 - 30" x 15" containers on order as well as 1 - 8' x 4' x 18" high planter box to assemble. These will accomodate additional volume of the above vegetables, tomatos, potatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, hubbard squash, amish pie squash, watermelons, eggplant, probably some peppers and who knows? Options are limitless. (But I'm hoping for one giant pumpkin). My hope is that the quality soil of the containers will provide greater nutrition to more plants than the in-ground bed, so we'll get more produce. I'm new to this, so each year's experience is a blessing.

PROGRESS

I think we made some this weekend. I made 4 self-watering planters out of 4 - 18 gallon Sterilite containers. Those, plus a half dozen 3-gallon buckets make up our container garden so far. We've got onions, 3 kinds of beats, lettuce, red potatoes, brussel sprouts, paris carrots and cabbage. In the raised beds so far: lettuce, spinach, strawberries, onions, cabbage, broccoli and brussels sprouts. The rhubarb I split last year is thriving. The raspberry bushes are filling in. We have decided on a long arbor for the 2 grape vines if they come back this year. There are still raised beds to plants as well as some warm-season seeds to plant when the cool-season plants run their course. We did not complete the dog run this weekend, but we did make the plans and bought the posts and concrete. As soon as the dog run is complete, we'll be tilling out the in-ground permanent beds. I can't wait!

Rack it up to Experience..... or lack of.

I killed my tomatos and red peppers. I spent hours on Sunday transplanting the 36 tomato seedlings that had sprouted. I bought a small, inexpensive, tent-style cold frame and put them and the peppers outside with a cucumber and hubbard squash seedling that had sprouted in the last couple of days. They were protected from the sun and the cold frame was super humid. Dead. Every single last tomato and all but one red pepper. Nursery-bought transplants it is. I have a hundred and one thoughts running through my head right now. I'm leary to start new seedlings. Do I have time? Energy? Patience? Endurance to lose again? Really it's not that serious, but I am seriously weighing where I want to focus my efforts. I still don't have my dirt tilled, and if I did, I don't have any compost yet to supplement it, so renting a tiller is worthless at this point. I think one of our goals for this weekend is to complete a dog-run, so if I can get this accomplished I might feel... well, like I accomplished SOMETHING. I cleaned up my raised beds, put in my little picket fence barriers, but the corners are still open and every time I level, Sam digs it up. I also ground up where I planted tomatoes last year and once again Sam dug it up. Apparently the organic compost I put in the beds and the organic supplement I put in the ground were too much for him to resist. He's got spring fever like the rest of us. A couple of days ago I planted some carrots and multiple kinds of beets in some containers outside. It may be a little early but we are getting closer and closer to the anticipated date of our last frost and I am chomping at the bit. I did plant some other seeds including various melons, pumpkins, hubbard squash, cucumbers and zucchini. Those starters are outside in the cold frame. I am amazed at how warm and moist it stays. The cucumber and hubbard squash popped up in on day, but no more since. I'm hoping if I start them outside in the sunlight they will already be hardened enough to transplant when the time comes. Well, wish me luck. I'm struggling with balance as of late. Trying to balance a full time job, husband, 2 sons (11, 13), 2 step-kids (12, 16), 2 dogs, 5 rats, 1 snake, maintaining a 5 bedroom/ 2.5 bathroom house with a healthy and self-sustaining lifestyle. That's where the time, money, energy, patience and endurance comes in. I keep reminding myself it's one small change/effort at a time. My motto for this year is simple, functional, beautiful. I guess part of that effort includes sleep. 'night all!