Garden Report 09.09.11

While the weather is cooling off outside (in the 50s, 60s and 70s this week!), I'm slowly growing herbs for the winter and starting plants for next year.We've slept with the windows open all week. I love this weather!
Next week, after I take my last exam, I'll repot some of these herbs into larger pots. I don't want them getting all scraggly like the dill has gotten!
I've decided cumin is not a plant to start from seed. I bought new seed this year and none of it sprouted. I planted it multiple times, and the seeds all molded before they sprouted. But all the other seeds around them, of different herbs, sprouted without molding. 
The artichokes I planted to get a head start on next year's garden. I planted some this spring that have been outside all summer and they don't look near as healthy as these that I planted inside a couple weeks ago!

 I also started some wildflowers to put behind the greenhouse and in the beds in front of the house.

The only eggplant that has set on is on the plant that I did not use fertilizer on. The other plants are twice as large but haven't bloomed. I applied fertilizer twice, at the interval and amount as suggested on the package. To remember which plants had fertilizer, I only fertilized the ones with the identification tags. So one out of every 4 peppers, one out of every 2 tomatoes were fertilized. Same thing happened with the tomatoes; the ones that weren't fertilized produced more tomatoes. I think the fertilizer I used had too high of a nitrogen content, but it was stuff I had sitting around and wanted to use up. Guess I'll find a different fertilizer for next year!

Since it was cool this week, I put several plants in the greenhouse. Left to right: Golden Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary.

These are the four surviving artichokes out of the dozen or so that sprouted this spring. See how small they are in comparison to the others that I started inside recently?

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Garden 2011

I started seeds this morning. The Hubs bought me a Burpee Seed Starting Greenhouse and a Hydrofarm Seedling Heat mat. Here's my setup this year:

I have two grow lights and a heating mat. I won't turn on the lights until I have seedlings. Until then, I'll have the heating mat on.

Here's a closer shot of what I have planted so far. The seed starting tray has 72 cells, but I only used 30 so far. I'll probably start some herbs closer to transplant time.
This year, I'm limiting myself to 2 plants per variety. I planted 2 seeds per cell, and 3 cells of each to ensure I'll have enough to transplant. The excess will be donated or given away.
A majority of these seeds are from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds out of Mansfield. They do not have banana peppers or poblano peppers, so those seeds are from Lowe's. All of the seeds I started in the tray today are from last year.

Peppers:
Red Cheese
Quadrato d'Asti Rosso
Golden Marconi
Banana
Poblano

Tomatoes:
Amish Paste
Thessaloniki
Black Cherry

Eggplant:
Thai Long Purple
Rosa Bianca

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Garden Report 07.18.2010

I believe my tomato plants have septoria leaf spot. They had this last year as well. Here's a link to the MU Extension office's website, with photos of the disease: http://ppp.missouri.edu/newsletters/meg/archives/v7n7/meg1.htm
I harvested quite a few vegetables yesterday. About 4 banana peppers, nearly a dozen anaheim peppers and about half a dozen cayenne peppers. Also about 2 cups each of yellow pear tomatoes and black cherry tomatoes. One Cour di Bue tomato, three Thessaloniki and 2 amish paste.  Two cucumbers.
The squash also have squash vine borers. I've been very diligent about applying diatomaceous earth, but they still got to them. No squash bugs though, just the borers! Sadly, The Hub's acorn squash may not make it, but I'll keep trying. I sprayed the squash, tomatoes and eggplant with a spray mixture of Garden Dust. I've used this the last several years. It is an organic pesticide and fungicide that can be used up to the day before harvest. There are little black bugs that have attacked the eggplant this year. I dusted them with diatomaceous earth several times but they weren't phased. We'll see if the Garden Dust helps, but the leaves are so holey that I don't know if they'll make it either....

Gardening is an experiment. It's a learning experiment. I know things now to improve my garden next year. The main thing I keep hearing is to stop trying to grow squash because the last four years I've tried to grow it, the squash vine borers have enjoyed more of them than we have. But I'll keep being persistent!

 

My dinner tonight: a Greek salad, about as Greek as it can get, with Thessaloniki tomatoes! And a new beer (new for me at least) from New Belgium Brewing called Skinny Dip. Reminds me of a mix of their Fat Tire and Sunshine Wheat.

These next couple pictures are from last weekend's harvest:

 

Anaheim peppers, yellow pear tomatoes and cayenne peppers

 

I ended up taking these tomatoes to work with me because I had too many to eat.

.

This is what's left of yesterday's harvest. The photo is so yellow because my harvest tub is yellow. Those are two Thessaloniki tomatoes and all the cayenne peppers, black cherry tomatoes and yellow pear I harvested yesterday. Also some tomatillos. We ate all the anaheim and banana peppers in fajitas last night.

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Garden Report 5.2.10 and Bakersville Planting Festival

Today, Melissa and I went to Bakersville for their annual planting festival. What a crowd! There were hundreds, if not thousands of people there! Lots of nurseries set up their plants for sale there, as well as crafty people with dish towels, pot holders, doilies, baskets, soaps, candles and more. There were also several old-timey bands playing and supposed to be several speakers there, notably the editors of Mother Earth and Organic Gardening. We didn't stay long after we bought the plants we wanted. Apparently I'm the only weirdo trying to grow artichokes this year, as no one had them for sale as plants. I did find one booth with tomatillos, and purchased two, because mine are not very large. My plants look like oregano, and the plants I bought today looked like full grown basil plants. HUGE!
Also purchased one Corno di Toro Rosso (Red bull's horn), one Olena Red (vendor said they are good for stuffing, so it is to supplement the Red Cheese peppers I grew from seed), one Anaheim (the ones I grew from seed have been chewed on by something!) one Rosita eggplant, and one Ping Tung eggplant.
Probably should have purchased a few more eggplant, as mine are not quite as large as what I purchased today, but they'll go in the garden sometime this week.

I bought a really awesome watering wand at Lowe's last week. It has seven different spray patterns. I was worried it wouldn't have enough pressure to water with my rain barrel, but it does, and it's like a gentle rain shower. (Unlike the pouring-mad-hailstorms we've had in the last two weeks.)

Today when I got home from Bakersville, I put the plants in the ground that I bought. I also planted Jimmy T and Perkins Long Pod Okra, a row of bush Blue Lake green beans, carrots between the tomatoes and onions, and marigolds and sunflowers with the artichokes. All of the castor beans I planted have come up. I think I will need to plant a few more, but I want to see how the pepper/eggplant bed fills in before I plant more seeds. I also planted some cosmos (free seeds that came in the mail) in the asparagus bed. The thyme and a couple of the basils are coming up that I planted the other week. I think I need to re-seed the Thai Basil though. That was old seed and none of them have sprouted yet. Neither has the Cilantro or Parsley. The Cilantro was the oldest package of cilantro seed I had- I have three different packages of that seed...
The green beans that I planted in with the root vegetables are coming up. Some of the second sowing of carrots and beets are coming up too. The marigolds and bachelor's buttons that I planted with the asparagus are coming up, and the acorn squash, butternut squash, cucumbers and their accompanying marigolds and sunflowers are coming up. I dusted them with diatomaceous earth today. The charentais melons haven't pushed through yet.
I need to get some mulch to put around the plants. I would like more of the cotton seed hulls that the Hubs got for me a couple years ago.

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