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 report 4.17.10

Today I spent nearly four hours in the garden, weeding, planting seeds and transplanting seedlings. I'm trying to remember to wear sunscreen everytime I go outside for a long period of time now. I recommend Bullfrog Sunblock Quik Gel Sport Spray as it goes on clear without needing to be rubbed in. Now I'm relaxing inside with a bowl of pistachios and a BIG glass of water.

Here's what I planted today:

First, I planted seeds of borage, sweet william and cardinal climber vine in hanging plant baskets, similar to these: 18" Hanging Basket. The Hubs and his mom bought me two of these last year from the dollar store and I had no idea what to plant in them, so they were empty all last summer. I put the baskets on the front porch. Hopefully no critters get in them!

I also planted my squash and melons in the garden today. Four seeds each of Charentais Melon, Butternut Rogosa Violina Gioia, Marketmore 76 Cucumber and Fordhook Acorn Squash. I planted them in a row right in front of the trellis, and between each type I planted marigolds and sunflowers. The same bed will also have okra in it, but I won't plant those seeds until May. The Cippolini onions are in that bed, looking good. I  have spinach and a lettuce mix planted in between the onions, but it is SLOW to germinate. I started out attacking bugs right off the bat by sprinkling diatomaceous earth around the seeds. Hopefully that will help keep squash bugs and squash vine borers out of the garden. *cross fingers*

I replanted beets, kohlrabi and carrots because half of the seeds never germinated. I'm not very impressed with the germination rate of the seeds I bought this year. Next year I'm probably going to branch out and not buy everything from Baker Creek, which is sad because they are a local seed company. However, when the germination rate is less than 50 percent I'm not inclined to purchase from them again. Mostly it's the root vegetables I'm having issues with. The tomatoes, peppers and some of the eggplant came up really well inside. Hopefully the squash and melons have good germination. I planted 2 seeds in each hole just in case, though! There was an extra spot in the root vegetable bed that I didn't know what to do with, so I planted about a dozen green beans in there today, Bush Blue Lake.

Whew, and then I planted herbs in with the asparagus. Last year, at the end of summer, Wickman's Nursery had all their herb seeds for 25 or 50 cents a packet (I can't remember which), so I bought: Triple Curled Parsley, Italian Parsley, Dill, Cilantro, Sweet Basil, Blue Spice Basil, Compact Basil and Cinnamon Basil. I had Thai Basil left over from the last house, so I also planted some of that.

It's been so nice lately, and I've put the tomato, pepper and eggplant seedlings out for several hours everyday. I keep their soil moist, and they all seem to be doing ok. I'm a little leary about putting all of the seedlings out, since the Missouri Extension office doesn't recommend planting nightshade plants outside until mid May. So I convinced myself to only plant one of each type outside, so if they freeze at least I'm not out all of the seedlings. That means I have one of each: Thessaloniki, Black Cherry, Amish Paste, Cour di Bue, and a Yellow Pear that I bought. I planted all the artichokes outside. And then one of each of the peppers: Banana, Poblano, Golden Marconi, Red Cheese, Quadrato D'asti Rosso and Anaheim. Once I get all the peppers planted, I'm going to fill in between them with onions. I still have about a third left of each bunch that I bought from Dixondale Farms.

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Seed starting while drinking wine!

Today I planted the following herbs inside:
Dill, Sweet Basil, Cilantro and Flat leaf Parsley

I still have several varieties of basil to start, as well as castor beans and marigolds, but there is no room for them at the moment.

I planted onions outside today also. This year I purchased onions from Dixondale Farms. Usually I would purchase onions from the local nursery, but after reading the Farmgirl Fare blog I decided otherwise. And because I wanted different varieties of onions, and I wanted to know the real name of the onions besides "red", "white" or "yellow" because that's the only label they ever give to the onions at the nurseries around here.

So, I bought the Intermediate day sampler and a bunch of Borrettana Cippolini. The intermediate day sampler has: Candy (yellow), Super Star (white) and Red Candy Apple (yup, red!). The cippolini is a flat white onion.

I decided to plant the intermediate day sampler in the same bed where the tomatoes will be later this season. We'll see how they do together as companion plants. I planted a double row of each onion, which divided the rest of the bed into four spaces. Each of the four spaces will have two tomato plants.

The tomatoes I am growing for this year are Amish Paste (for making homemade tomato paste and pizza sauce), Thessaloniki (a slicing type from Greece, hopefully to make juice from), Cour di Bue (hopefully also for juice. This was a free packet sent to me when I ordered seeds from Baker Creek.), and Black Cherry (for eating straight off the vine, and for salads).

And now for the wine! I enjoyed a bottle of Sutter Home Moscato. I have this mental image of Sutter Home being a cheap wine for those who don't know how to choose wine. (right up my alley, right?) It wasn't bad at all. I like Moscato because they're always sweet and I never have to worry about the lemon drop pucker. There are two other Moscato wines that I like: Barefoot and Allegro Moscato. I like drinking Barefoot (not just the Moscato) because part of their profit goes to clean up beaches in California, so people can safely walk on them barefoot. Allegro Moscato is one of my mom's favorite wines, and is easily spotted in the wine aisle because the bottle is taller, the cork cover is lavendar, and there are ballet slippers on the label.

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