Garden is IN

Saturday morning I finally got to put my garden in! (With a little help. Thanks Dad!) It's a plot in an area that was formerly just weeds and tall grass, but the condo association removed all that recently and put in grass seed (which I am very skeptical of working, since they didn't put any hay/protection on it, nor have watered it at all, as far as I've seen–the birds seem to like it though). Lucky me, it's all very rich loam-y soil, which I amended with a 5-10-5 fertilizer, although I've got some miracle grow up my sleeve too.

The temperatures have–and will be–pretty mild, averaging around 40 overnight. It may look pretty barren right now, but there's a lot buried under the soil (or just too tiny to see)~! Here's a view looking down from the second floor of my apartment.

Here's a bit of a close up. Right now I've got the tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers protected in little semi-translucent shelters. They'll grow up and out in no time, and then I'll have to get them fashioned with cages and trellises.

I also have several marigolds tossed in among the plants. They help keep all sorts of little buggers out, plus they look pretty. Double win!

Since I can reach most of my plants from the edge, I only really needed one path–you can see it there in the corner of the picture. I suppose rows are more traditional and all, but what can I say? I'm a rebel.


And, just to prove there ARE plants in those plastic things, here's a close-up of a pepper plant.







There are a couple places where there's still some room to put things in. I have some cherry tomato plants growing inside, since they're still a bit too small to plant out yet. They won't quite fill out the space though, so I'll have to think of one other thing I might like in there. Melon? Broccoli? More lettuce? Hm... so many choices!

The other exciting thing I discovered are some wild blackberry bushes growing just behind my garden, between our yard and the neighbor's. The tallest cane was well over 8 feet tall, probably closer to 9 or 10 feet.


I read that canes should be trimmed back to around 4 feet to encourage lateral growth (not to mention more berries, and that's the important thing). So I went out and clipped off the tops of the highest canes today.


I have more pictures on my camera, so expect another post on blackberries in the future!

Herbs n' Things

I recently received a cookbook. It's very pretty, the food looks yummy, and for the most part the recipes are doable. Oh, and at least a dozen recipes in said-book list fresh mint as an ingredient...

...so that's my excuse for buying myself a peppermint plant.

I already nibbled on a leaf, and WHOA is it minty...yum! It's a little small for regular 'harvesting' though, so I'll have to be patient until he's a wee bit bigger.

I also plan on using it in tea and jam, so this guy's going to be put through its paces. You can even dry the leaves and make tea solely out of the leaves. I'm thinking iced tea, mojitos and mint juleps for summer!

It's funny too, I never liked mint-flavored things when I was really young. I even avoided it in toothpaste for as long as I could. (Sadly, they do not make bubblegum or fruit flavored adult toothpaste readily available.)

While I was at the same nursery I also picked up a Pineapple Sage plant, to the right here.

"Why oh why do I need a Pineapple Sage plant when I already have a traditional Sage sitting on my kitchen windowsill?"

The answer, my friend, is that this smells EXACTLY like pineapple. When you rub the leaves between your fingers and sniff, it's like you dunked your hand in a tub of pineapple juice and stuffed it in your mouth.

I can tell you right now this is also going to end up in teas and jams, not to mention some chicken recipes.

Oh, and it may look small for the container at the moment, but the lady at the nursery said they can get pretty big, so I'm being optimistic.

The other item  bought yesterday was... strawberry plants! Unfortunately, the plants that were the sad subject of this post, I gave up on and tossed. They were still infected after I checked later that week, the plants were not growing as I felt they should be, and even some of the new growth was dying back.

Looking on the bright side of things though, the pot was salvageable. I rinsed it, left it outside for a week (in rain, shine, and freezing temps) and then gave it a good second wash before transplanting. No buggies in sight (before, when I watered, they would bounce around, or swim around on top of the water).

Looks much better than before!

They're an ever bearing variety, as opposed to June bearing, which wouldn't have done well in a container I think.

For those that don't know the differences, June bearing gives one crop of berries in June. Day neutral gives two crops, one in June and one in August. Ever bearing produces throughout summer/fall.

I originally wanted a day neutral variety, because I read somewhere that they usually produce a higher-yield overall. BUT ever bearing was a close second in my mind, because I am impatient when it comes to yummy things.

Also, it's already got some berries on it!

The flat come with six plants. I planted two in the top (pictured here) then two in the middle-pockets and two in the bottom-pockets, leaving a couple pockets empty so it has a "back." That way I won't have to worry about turning the pot and evening out their sun-exposure.

It's sitting outside at the moment, cause it was outside at the nursery, and I want to make sure those berries get all the pollination and sun they can get! I get to eat them sooner that way. And that's the important thing.

And lastly, some seedling pictures! I'll let them speak for themselves.

Weekly Update

By happenstance my previous two posts have also been made on Sundays. Maybe this will be a regular thing for me? (Jinxes aside!)

Seedling update!

The cucumbers are looking good... except for the one I dropped and broke a few days ago. RIP, little dude. He was never as big as his cousins; if I hadn't been such a klutz he probably wouldn't have made it anyways.

By next week this guy will probably completely overtake his neighbor! Those are my (dirty) fingers in the picture for size, but that leaf is about two inches long, and the plant is about 4 inches high (maybe a little more).

The other cukes are two-leaved, so they aren't as dramatic-looking (size-wise) as this one, but they're about the same height.

According to Joy of Gardening, I should be transplanting these guys into the garden at this stage; that is, if the last frost was past. Oops!

His buddy in the bottom left is a miniature variety of lettuce plant. He's really mini at the moment, but the cukes have a week on them, so we'll see. They're going to stay put in the containers to grow, since they won't be getting too huge, but I'll put some in the garden as well.

My tomato plants are shooting up there too. A little leggy, perhaps, but that's just room for roots to fill in later, when planting-time rolls around.

The one to the rights is a Big Boy variety (or Better Boy? I always get them confused). I'd say he's 3 or 4 inches tall, and so are his comrads.

All the "normal" sized tomatoes have officially out-grown their miniature grape-sized counterparts now, which makes sense... but still! I planted the cherry tomatoes almost a week before them! Oh, and speaking of cherry tomatoes, I felled one a week or two ago. Some people have to plan on a certain percentage of seeds not germinating, being lost to bugs, rodents, or frost – me? I have to plan around my two left feet.

That is a plastic knife in the background if you were wondering. I'm going to be using them as markers in the garden. Yay, recycling!

Another recycling project was the creation of this container, to the left. All I used was a plastic bag and a small cardboard box that something-or-other came in. You have to line the box twice though: the top liner should have a couple holes for drainage, the bottom liner should be in place to catch said-drainage. The cardboard would melt away and rot otherwise. (Also, a sandwich baggy now tops it off, to help germination.)

Not the prettiest thing I've ever made, but I've always felt veggie gardening had a sort of industrial/recycled style to it. I've also got several of my seeds planted in milk and juice containers, although I gave in and bought some plastic white ones too – there's a limit to how much milk and juice one can consume in a week, after all! I'll have to remember to save up for next year.


So that's the seedling update for this week! I wonder what next week's post will look like? Hint:

Growing...

Lots of growth in these past couple weeks! See for yourself:

The secondary leaves are popping out on the cukes, as on several of the tomatoes too.

I've also started some mini-lettuce in the past week which is coming along nicely. The seed package says 45 days for the growth period, so I decided to try out a couple in containers --- just some milk and (pine-orange-banana) juice containers I cut up. Should be a perfect fit! I'll of course plant some in the ground too, but I want to see how these turn out in the containers too.

In other news, everything's flowering and budding out in the neighborhood! I've got some daffodils and other flowers coming up besides my door outside (they must have been left-over from the previous occupants; everyone has their own 'thing' going on besides their doors --- most have flowers and shrubs, just all different styles)

That's all for now! With all the warm weather CT (well, the whole northeast, really) will get in the next few days, expect more pictures next week!