black pot tomatoes
Progress of three plants purchased from Lowes to get a jump on the garden, Bonnie growers brand. Roma, Heinz and cherry tomato.
Same soil, same pots, same location. Three different outcomes, major differences in plant reactions. Added Bio-tone and Superbloom but may be too late.
Last week, looked promising.
Now:
Roma
Cherry Tomato.
My seedlings have a ways to go
They’re not doing so well in this potting soil. I will have to make my own starter next time.
weed beds
I love the weeds in a weird way. I let them grow for the bugs and bees. It was too hot the last few months anyway. I always get teased about my jungle, but it’s so beautiful in it’s way. There are so many bugs buzzing around in there. It’s so alive.
second and third bed
I miscalculated the bed plan. I have two 4′ wide beds and one 2′ wide with two feet on either side. Might have to rethink that one, but the soil there is great and full of fat worms. The soil in this bed combined with soil next to the fence is like butter. It was so soft to run my hands through. My past problem has been that the texture of the soil has nothing to do with the viability for plants. I’ve been reading Steve Solomon’s book and I’m doing everything wrong, but what he says makes sense.
My Dad was so structured and scientific, my Mother will follow instructions and do things the right way. I don’t know where I came from. Maybe I’m best suited to be in charge of mutations. I remember the year I planted yellow and green squash together and surprisingly (to me) got striped ones.
I found some fertilizer and stuff in the shed. I didn’t know what I was buying most of the time, but I think I l got lucky with this. I put some bio-tone humate mix on the squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and beans in pots right before the rains came yesterday.
I also found some green light superbloom too.
Pots need relocation due to rain pouring off the roof, dirt is splashing on the house and the plants aren’t happy there. Mom put in her opinion to wean it down to no more than nine pots.
Cat is no where to be found today because she knows she’s guilty of messing around in the first bed and pots, the evidence is everywhere.
I’ll have to make her a catnip patch to stay away from MY stuff.
soil mail
I’m so excited, going to send off my soil sample to Logan labs today.
They’ll send me back a report like this one sample report which will tell me all the secrets of the universe inside my soil.
While I’m waiting I think I’ll start some tomato and pepper seeds. It’s been so long since I had a great tasting tomato or a pepper as meaty and sweet as my Dad grew or I had in Hungary. There is a little round variety that is stuffed with cabbage as a pickle side dish. I think I need some more hungarian ones.
Just checked my pepper collection and I only have eleven varieties. I think my oldest ones now are acongagua and corn di toro from Seeds of Change.
Growing update:
Beans are in and I transplanted the marrow and bush cucumber in the first bed and some pots.
The cherry tomato is flowering yay!
first bed
Finished clearing weeds and measuring up the first bed. Thinking of names to call them as the nifty planner has a title block, good idea to keep track.
I didn’t bother marking the squares too accurately. I was going to use chopsticks and string but I don’t have enough of them yet, so I just dragged the hoe through the foot increments. It’ll do for the bean trial garden I want to put in right now. The biodynamic Calendar says it’s a good time for fruits so it’s a go. I bought Maria Thuns book a few years ago, and read Steiner. I read and study so much, but the actual practice of gardening is a disaster.
I love love fresh green beans, I’ll eat them off the vine raw. My favorite bean dish is definitely green bean stew, sometimes with sour cream, or made with wax beans. To kick it up a few rich notches, dollop a spoonful of beef stew in the middle, rich! Yum. Oh yeah, add a splash of the spiced vinegar to cut the richness. I’m thinking I’ll have to start a recipe page if all goes well. Hungarian food as I knew it was vegetable heavy, so many great meals.
I did get soil from two places so I can sift it and send the two cups to the lab. I’m forcing myself to be scientific and as methodical as possible, it’s tough, by nature I’m impulsive and a little haphazard.
Csi Csa, big help, but better than walking over everything I’m doing as usual.
I’m tired of getting my seed packets full of soil, so I decided to make my seed tray based on my sfg plan.
This idea works well in theory, but I bumped it a little and they jumped spaces. Good thing I could tell them apart.
I’m thinking I need something like a pez dispenser instead.
I got the beans planted, marrow and cucumber seedlings planted. Trellis for the pole beans (thinking positive)
And…sifted my soil sample. I was going to leave it on the porch to dry, but thought not in case Kitty thinks its her litter box.
Not that she uses it all the time, she’s mostly an outside cat who lived her formative years under the shed and inside my husbands car.
But that’s another story for a rainy day.
I officially hate this game. I was putting in bean maturity dates and I inadvertently deleted the bed. No undo. This is all that’s left.
I’m going back to my notebook with a pencil and big fat eraser and not playing with this planner anymore, instead I’m going to make some squash soup.
south of shed garden
Here it is. Full of weeds and rampant papayas. I used to have one papaya tree, however composting spoiled fruits and the helpful animals around here clusters of papayas are running rampant.
There’s room on both sides of the path leading to the rear gate. I’m planning on cleaning up and reorganizing the beds I had dug a few years ago. Hopefully the soil will be in good shape.
I only added some (homemade) compost, but avoided stepping on the beds themselves. The weeds are healthy so there may be hope. Long beds on the shed side, short beds on the fence side which back up to neighbors citrus trees. Peas grew very well on the short side a couple of years ago.
extreme hot-house
13 Tips for Gardening in Extreme Heat
“Some gardeners live in climates with extremely hot summers, where daily temperatures frequently exceed 90, or even 100 degrees. If this is your situation, summer may be the most difficult season for your garden, instead of winter.Extreme heat is not only stressful for many plants, but it can actually make many of them go dormant and stop growing – even if they are kept well watered. High heat can also keep plants from setting any fruit because extremely hot temperatures can kill the pollen. Other crops will bolt and go to seed extremely quickly.”
So begins the article by Debra Graff. At Squarefootabundance.com
Her Blog was so helpful and full of good advice and information, then I got to this article. OMG! No wonder the cucumber seedling shriveled and the tomatoes are turning brown. I’m sending them to an incinerator! Inside the porch it reads 85, it’s over 95 outside. Not only that, I have unwittingly added a few heaters.
Black pots
Crushed granite gravel (was there already)
Passive solar from concrete walls and dark metal porch wall.
And if that isn’t all, warm air blowing from three air conditioners.
I was so discouraged that I spent the rest of the day reading and playing with garden planning programs.
sfgplanner.com it’s like playing farmville, clicking cute vegetables into place.
I have decided to resurrect my mostly shaded old garden spot on the other side of the shed for the main garden and experiment with my black pot sauna incubator as a winter greenhouse. What if it stays so warm I can grow tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers all winter? We will see. Right now we are getting rain for a few days, so the furnace is on low.
Poor tender little kohlrabi seedlings. I’ll have to find them a safer home in a few weeks.
black pots
“Is there any kind of gardening you do that doesn’t involve black pots?”
Well, apparently not. I was pricing grow boxes which are beautiful and perfect for this location, but the budget said use what’s there already…which are “black pots”. I’ll move them out if my ship comes into some beautiful cedar garden boxes.
So, I spent the day monitoring the sun. The location where I used to try to grow things gets a whopping 2 hours a day. The only place close to the house that gets close to eight hours in sections of it is a miserable 27’x13′ patch between the house, shed, porch and fence.
That should be perfect, but the water softener, A/C unit, wall a/c and hose reel live there too.
That’s the project. Here’s the beginning.
sprouts
Watching, waiting, watering for signs of life is what keeps me poring over seed catalogs and filling my fridge with seeds. Happiness is sprouts, pure and simple.
As usual I’m going to try to grow something that will actually become part of an edible meal, or even just edible. Not going into how many years, garden types, wasted seeds, compost, plots and plans in the past, hope and planting season springs eternal and so I’m off to yet another round of creating an edible garden.
I’m more of a dabbler and dreamer than a gardener. No green thumb here, I just love being outside with the plants, soil, bugs, butterflies, frogs and assorted wildlife. I’m amazed how all these gardeners and garden blogs make it look so easy. They are clean, not sweaty and stuff grows like crazy for them. One day…..
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