Well, before I get to any updates today, I will share with you the most frustrating garden-related event of recent weeks. On May 17, I posted an update and a To-Do List. On the To-Do List was to order fertilizer, which I did promptly after posting that list. The name of the company from which I ordered my fertilizer will remain undisclosed, for reasons which will soon become apparent. However, this company offered a very reasonably priced 50 lb bag of organic alfalfa meal, which is exactly the stuff I wanted. In addition, this company is a small business fairly close to Fort Collins, which is a big bonus. I ordered a bag of fertilizer without further ado and awaited its arrival.
Ten days later, I received a rather brusque email from one of the company's employees. This email stated several things. First, it said that the company had never received my order, due to a glitch in their ordering technology. For this, the employee apologized sincerely. Next, the email said that the shipping price the site had given me was inaccurate - the upshot was that my total price would be almost twice what it was before. No apologies or offers of discounts for my trouble were attached to this information, although what had happened could be interpreted as false advertising. Finally, the employee offered me the opportunity to refund my order, if I so desired - or I could continue with my previous order, at the real price.
I decided that I would refund my order and went back to the website to see what the real shipping prices were for other products so that I could find a suitable replacement product. Sadly, the prices were still the same as when I had placed my first order! I wondered how many other customers were having the same issues as I. I added to my email a query about the price of a smaller quantity of alfalfa meal and the attached shipping. The employee replied with the prices, and eventually I decided on two 5 lb boxes of alfalfa meal. That's one-fifth of the amount I originally ordered, and it came for a higher price than what I originally ordered. Through this whole process, the employee was less than cordial, and did not approach apologetic, even though what should have been a quick, simple process had now turned into a bit of an ordeal. In light of the employee's lack of courtesy, I am in the process of writing a letter to our local Better Business Bureau.
Now, on to happier news. Yesterday we had gorgeous weather, and it seems as though the weather here has finally turned for the warmer (knock on wood), so I went ahead and planted most of the remaining crops. The first order of business was to extend the netting to cover at least some of the things I planted, but the net would have to turn a corner. The last time we tried that it didn't work well at all, so I cut the net, pulled it over a new hoop, and staked it down. Then I stretched the cut end of the net over the other net, at a 90-degree angle - thus turning the corner - added another hoop, and staked it down again. In the midst of this, I planted another row each of carrots and beets, four cucumber seeds, and two lemon cucumber seeds. Then I staked down the net and continued to plant elsewhere in the garden, according to the garden plan I created on Mother Earth News's website back in April (you can see the garden plans on our Facebook page).
In addition to the carrots, beets, and cucumbers, I planted four zucchini, six yellow squash, four butternut squash, three watermelon, three cantaloupe, and two melons of a variety called Tigger - I'm very excited for the last type in particular! After I planted all this, I did some light research to see when we can expect to see baby squash and melons. It looks like if this weather holds up, they'll all have sprouted within a week! Then, I transplanted our two kale plants and three of our broccoli plants, plus the three cabbage (two green, one red) that I got from the Starter Barter about a month ago. I'm stoked, to say the least.
On Friday, I transplanted the peppers into individual containers, and they are positively thriving. Next up are the eggplant, which are still somewhat puny. I'll be transplanting the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant pretty soon here, but I want them to get a bit stronger first - after transplanting the tomatoes, we put them in the coldframe, and then we had a couple of cold nights. Three cherry tomatoes didn't make it, and most of the other plants wound up with chilling injury. I brought them back to the apartment to make sure they would be warm enough from here on out. After what happened to the tomatoes, I didn't put the peppers in the coldframe at all, but brought them back to the apartment as well for more windowsill time.
I have thinned the beets to one plant per cluster. I also bought six 3-ft-long pieces of rebar yesterday. When we start stacking additional tires on the ones the potatoes are in, I'll stick two pieces of rebar in each bottom tire to hold the stack up straight. The next tasks on the list are to remove the netting from the peas, put up the trellises for the peas, set up an anti-child barrier, and get more hoop materials from ReSource so that I can extend the netting over the squash, zucchini, and melons. As always, I shall continue to weed to keep those dastardly garden demons under control.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading!
WOG out.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
The Summer Begins in Earnest! ...and in Fort Collins
I hope that title made you at least smile. My dad used to say, "It's raining in earnest! And in Maryland." It would make me and my brother crack up.
Anyway, on to the tasks at hand. There are many! They are plentiful. They can not wait! And yet, they have waited, because I've been busy and then out of town. But now that I've returned from my brief visit home, the garden takes first priority.
It's amazing how many weeds can appear in a mere five days. That's all I was gone for - five days! - but the weeds took advantage of it and were waiting for me when I returned. It's almost as if they knew... So. First garden task is weeding. Ben and I did some of that yesterday, and removed the largest ones, but we mostly just skimmed the garden looking for the big bad guys. Today, I shall expend a greater effort scouring the soil for little weedy menaces. Also, I asked Ben to just leave some pretty darn big dandelions yesterday; I'd rather get them with a trowel to make sure I get the whole dang taproot!
Next, I shall remove the netting from over the peas, which, by the way, grew most vigorously in my absence! One of them is starting to twine its tender tendrils around the netting. This I will not allow, because as the pea grows, it will be forced to either come through the netting or grow up and over the arch that the netting forms as it follows the hoops - this will not only make harvest difficult, but it will also block light from the other peas. the netting must be removed from the peas now or never, because the longer I leave it, the more peas will attach themselves to it.
After I remove the netting, I'll need to set up trellises for the peas to climb on. Some will be able to climb on the fence, but the fence isn't up yet - maybe Anne Marie and I will spray paint some fence pieces today and then attach them, but she has some other obligations, so that might have to wait another day. Sadly, the swingset is right next to the peas and onions, and of course this is the play area of choice for Louis' children, including the infamous Joseph. We shall have to devise a way to keep him off of that side of the swingset, lest he fall on the unprotected peas and destroy the crop. I'm thinking some kind of gate; maybe I can create a barrier using the netting from the peas, or something.
I also need to transplant some of the seedlings from their containers in the coldframe into the garden. Chief among these are the cabbages, kale, broccoli (the ones in the apartment as well), and fennel. The fennel may go in Ben's herb garden; not sure yet. I'll be referring to my Mother Earth News Vegetable Garden Planner for placement of these crops (see new album on our Facebook page!).
Speaking of transplants, I need to put the eggplant and peppers in some individual containers. They're getting crowded too, and even though it'll soon be time to put them in the garden, I want them to get a little stronger and grow some more roots in individual containers.
The beets, as I have mentioned previously, have sprouted in clusters (this is supposed to happen). This is great, because it means they're healthy, and it looks really cool - however, I'll need to thin each cluster down to one plant so that plant will form a nice-looking root instead of a lumpy conglomeration of the roots of all its siblings. This is a fairly urgent task, because the beet seedlings are getting rather large.
So, our To-Do List this week is as follows:
1. Weed!
2. Thin beet seedlings.
3. Take netting off peas.
4. Put up trellises for peas.
5. Construct anti-child barrier to prevent entry into pea area.
6. Start fence latticework for peas to climb on.
7. Transplant seedlings into garden.
8. Transplant eggplant and peppers into individual containers.
9. Plant most of the cucurbits.
- the following are continued from the previous post -
10. Plant more carrots and beets.
11. Extend hoop-and-netting system.
Now for some updates:
The carrots have finally sent up some true leaves! This is very exciting, because these seedlings have been up for over a week with no tangible sign of true leafage.
The beets and peas, as mentioned above, are looking fabulous.
The remaining onions look pretty darn good. There is one red onion that I need to keep an eye on - the leaves are looking a tad wilty, and it seems to be significantly smaller than most of its buddies. Hopefully it's not another case of mold, but I guess we'll see.
The potatoes have finally sent out some real leaves! The Colorado Rose ones have, anyway. The mystery white ones that we got from the Food Co-op haven't sent any real leaves out from their buds yet, as far as I can tell.
The strawberries are looking dang fine. One that had come back from the dead is dead yet again. But who knows? Maybe it'll come back again! I'm hoping for some fruit out of those guys in the next few weeks.
The raspberries are looking fantastic! I can hardly tell which were the ones I'd transplanted anymore, because they have made such a comeback from their transplanting ordeal. I don't expect fruit from those little guys this season, but they're looking really healthy - and I guess you never know. The plants that Anne Marie already had have bloomed a little, so it looks like we'll definitely get a small harvest from them (not surprising - Ben told me he got a good deal of fruit out of them last July).
That's all for now! More updates later. Thanks for your patience as I've come and gone from the blog these last few weeks, and as always, thanks for reading!
WOG out.
Anyway, on to the tasks at hand. There are many! They are plentiful. They can not wait! And yet, they have waited, because I've been busy and then out of town. But now that I've returned from my brief visit home, the garden takes first priority.
It's amazing how many weeds can appear in a mere five days. That's all I was gone for - five days! - but the weeds took advantage of it and were waiting for me when I returned. It's almost as if they knew... So. First garden task is weeding. Ben and I did some of that yesterday, and removed the largest ones, but we mostly just skimmed the garden looking for the big bad guys. Today, I shall expend a greater effort scouring the soil for little weedy menaces. Also, I asked Ben to just leave some pretty darn big dandelions yesterday; I'd rather get them with a trowel to make sure I get the whole dang taproot!
Next, I shall remove the netting from over the peas, which, by the way, grew most vigorously in my absence! One of them is starting to twine its tender tendrils around the netting. This I will not allow, because as the pea grows, it will be forced to either come through the netting or grow up and over the arch that the netting forms as it follows the hoops - this will not only make harvest difficult, but it will also block light from the other peas. the netting must be removed from the peas now or never, because the longer I leave it, the more peas will attach themselves to it.
After I remove the netting, I'll need to set up trellises for the peas to climb on. Some will be able to climb on the fence, but the fence isn't up yet - maybe Anne Marie and I will spray paint some fence pieces today and then attach them, but she has some other obligations, so that might have to wait another day. Sadly, the swingset is right next to the peas and onions, and of course this is the play area of choice for Louis' children, including the infamous Joseph. We shall have to devise a way to keep him off of that side of the swingset, lest he fall on the unprotected peas and destroy the crop. I'm thinking some kind of gate; maybe I can create a barrier using the netting from the peas, or something.
I also need to transplant some of the seedlings from their containers in the coldframe into the garden. Chief among these are the cabbages, kale, broccoli (the ones in the apartment as well), and fennel. The fennel may go in Ben's herb garden; not sure yet. I'll be referring to my Mother Earth News Vegetable Garden Planner for placement of these crops (see new album on our Facebook page!).
Speaking of transplants, I need to put the eggplant and peppers in some individual containers. They're getting crowded too, and even though it'll soon be time to put them in the garden, I want them to get a little stronger and grow some more roots in individual containers.
The beets, as I have mentioned previously, have sprouted in clusters (this is supposed to happen). This is great, because it means they're healthy, and it looks really cool - however, I'll need to thin each cluster down to one plant so that plant will form a nice-looking root instead of a lumpy conglomeration of the roots of all its siblings. This is a fairly urgent task, because the beet seedlings are getting rather large.
So, our To-Do List this week is as follows:
1. Weed!
2. Thin beet seedlings.
3. Take netting off peas.
4. Put up trellises for peas.
5. Construct anti-child barrier to prevent entry into pea area.
6. Start fence latticework for peas to climb on.
7. Transplant seedlings into garden.
8. Transplant eggplant and peppers into individual containers.
9. Plant most of the cucurbits.
- the following are continued from the previous post -
10. Plant more carrots and beets.
11. Extend hoop-and-netting system.
Now for some updates:
The carrots have finally sent up some true leaves! This is very exciting, because these seedlings have been up for over a week with no tangible sign of true leafage.
The beets and peas, as mentioned above, are looking fabulous.
The remaining onions look pretty darn good. There is one red onion that I need to keep an eye on - the leaves are looking a tad wilty, and it seems to be significantly smaller than most of its buddies. Hopefully it's not another case of mold, but I guess we'll see.
The potatoes have finally sent out some real leaves! The Colorado Rose ones have, anyway. The mystery white ones that we got from the Food Co-op haven't sent any real leaves out from their buds yet, as far as I can tell.
The strawberries are looking dang fine. One that had come back from the dead is dead yet again. But who knows? Maybe it'll come back again! I'm hoping for some fruit out of those guys in the next few weeks.
The raspberries are looking fantastic! I can hardly tell which were the ones I'd transplanted anymore, because they have made such a comeback from their transplanting ordeal. I don't expect fruit from those little guys this season, but they're looking really healthy - and I guess you never know. The plants that Anne Marie already had have bloomed a little, so it looks like we'll definitely get a small harvest from them (not surprising - Ben told me he got a good deal of fruit out of them last July).
That's all for now! More updates later. Thanks for your patience as I've come and gone from the blog these last few weeks, and as always, thanks for reading!
WOG out.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Quick Update and WOG To-Do List
I apologize for my recent chronic absence - the Internet at our apartment has officially gone kablooie (like that word? That's a Calvin and Hobbes special, right there!), so I have to come to WOG to do anything online. Also, Chris (my boyfriend) graduated from CSU this past weekend and his mom was in town for that, so I was somewhat distracted from my gardening and related duties. However, now that finals week is over and the summer is stretching before us, there is much more time to spend on said duties! But I'll get to those in a moment. First, a speedy update of WOG happenings.
The raspberries, peas, and beets are all looking fantastic. I recently learned that beets come up in clusters of 2-5 plants, because that's how many embryos there are per seed. I think I learned that from this book, but I can't remember exactly. Either way, the beets are indeed coming up in clusters, and the seedlings look quite healthy. There are still only a few carrots coming up, but I am confident that more will emerge shortly. The remaining onions look quite healthy, except for the ones that got crushed by our friend Louis' two-year-old son, Joseph - those lost a few leaves each, but hopefully the bulbs will continue to grow vigorously. The potatoes haven't really grown at all, but the leaves are still there. Perhaps the seed potatoes have been expending their energy on sending down roots. The seedlings in the coldframe are looking pretty happy. Two of the three garden huckleberry plants that we got at the Starter Barter have died (probably from cold, in spite of our efforts to keep them warm), but the surviving one will be nice and tough. Amazingly, the strawberries that looked dead have sent up new leaves - hopefully, they will continue to recover.
A less encouraging situation has been underway at the apartment - the seedlings there have not been very happy lately. I had been watering all of them daily, but the paste tomatoes began to wilt. After some light research and asking around for opinions, the consensus was that they had been getting too much water. I let the soil of all the seedlings dry out for a few days and watered them all again, and they started to look a little better. I waited a couple of days again to water, and this morning I still hadn't. When I looked at the tomatoes this morning, though, I knew I had to water them - not only were the paste tomatoes wilty, but so were the cherry and slicing varieties! I gave them and the rest of the seedlings a nice drink, and employed my willpower to restrain myself from watering too much. Hopefully when I get home later, they will have perked up some.
Now, on to the To-Do List:
1. Keep weeding! - Bindweed and kochia have shown up and are probably here to stay - but weeding will sure help.
2. Transplant tomatoes into larger containers. - They are surely running out of root space, all crowded into their flat.
3. Plant more carrots and beets. - That way, we'll have a steady-ish supply of both.
4. Buy some fertilizer. - We don't want any nutrient deficiencies!
5. Get more mulch. - Some of the pathways still aren't covered.
6. Paint and put up the rest of the fence. - This will help keep out munchkins such as the aforementioned Joseph, as well as provide some support for peas, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, melons, and pumpkins.
7. Extend the hoop-and-netting system. - We'll need to do this anyway to cover the crops we'll put in later, and the sooner we protect the onions' leaves from Joseph and company, the better.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading!
WOG out.
The raspberries, peas, and beets are all looking fantastic. I recently learned that beets come up in clusters of 2-5 plants, because that's how many embryos there are per seed. I think I learned that from this book, but I can't remember exactly. Either way, the beets are indeed coming up in clusters, and the seedlings look quite healthy. There are still only a few carrots coming up, but I am confident that more will emerge shortly. The remaining onions look quite healthy, except for the ones that got crushed by our friend Louis' two-year-old son, Joseph - those lost a few leaves each, but hopefully the bulbs will continue to grow vigorously. The potatoes haven't really grown at all, but the leaves are still there. Perhaps the seed potatoes have been expending their energy on sending down roots. The seedlings in the coldframe are looking pretty happy. Two of the three garden huckleberry plants that we got at the Starter Barter have died (probably from cold, in spite of our efforts to keep them warm), but the surviving one will be nice and tough. Amazingly, the strawberries that looked dead have sent up new leaves - hopefully, they will continue to recover.
A less encouraging situation has been underway at the apartment - the seedlings there have not been very happy lately. I had been watering all of them daily, but the paste tomatoes began to wilt. After some light research and asking around for opinions, the consensus was that they had been getting too much water. I let the soil of all the seedlings dry out for a few days and watered them all again, and they started to look a little better. I waited a couple of days again to water, and this morning I still hadn't. When I looked at the tomatoes this morning, though, I knew I had to water them - not only were the paste tomatoes wilty, but so were the cherry and slicing varieties! I gave them and the rest of the seedlings a nice drink, and employed my willpower to restrain myself from watering too much. Hopefully when I get home later, they will have perked up some.
Now, on to the To-Do List:
1. Keep weeding! - Bindweed and kochia have shown up and are probably here to stay - but weeding will sure help.
2. Transplant tomatoes into larger containers. - They are surely running out of root space, all crowded into their flat.
3. Plant more carrots and beets. - That way, we'll have a steady-ish supply of both.
4. Buy some fertilizer. - We don't want any nutrient deficiencies!
5. Get more mulch. - Some of the pathways still aren't covered.
6. Paint and put up the rest of the fence. - This will help keep out munchkins such as the aforementioned Joseph, as well as provide some support for peas, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, melons, and pumpkins.
7. Extend the hoop-and-netting system. - We'll need to do this anyway to cover the crops we'll put in later, and the sooner we protect the onions' leaves from Joseph and company, the better.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading!
WOG out.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Prince Charles FTW
Even the Prince of Wales is on the sustainable farming bandwagon! Thanks for the link, Anne Marie!
http://washingtonpostlive.com/conferences/food/archive
Enjoy.
WOG out.
http://washingtonpostlive.com/conferences/food/archive
Enjoy.
WOG out.
The Not-So-Steady March of the Seasons - and Afflicted Alliaceae
Well, we have now had our first truly hot weather of the year in Fort Collins. The temperature has reached the 80s both yesterday and today, after weeks of indecision on the part of Mother Nature. The plants, of course, were surprised - Anne Marie has been extremely helpful, keeping the garden soil moist so nothing would get too hot. I think the strawberries in particular were shocked; several of them have wilted in the past couple of days, in spite of Anne Marie's watering efforts (supplemented by my own). The peas and onions seem unaffected by the shift in the weather - the same goes for the seedlings over in the area of the beets and carrots. Everything in the coldframe is at a slightly greater risk of heat stress (and water stress) than the plants that are actually in the garden, because the babies in the coldframe have access to a very limited volume of soil, which can hold a very limited volume of water. We have been paying particular attention to the seedlings in the coldframe, which include several broccoli, two kale, one fennel, several peppers of different varieties, one wonderberry, one garden huckleberry, two green cabbages, one red cabbage, and a few eggplant.
While we're on the subject of transplants, the broccoli, eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers in the apartment windowsills are all looking fabulous. They don't seem to mind that I started them late - hopefully this will continue all season and we'll get some good yields from them - and they have all produced true leaves or are about to do so. They all love it in the curtain-greenhouses, and the broccoli look a lot more comfortable now that they're not so crowded. I've been watering them daily, and they have responded with lovely green leaves and rapid growth. Yay! We'll be transplanting them into the garden before we know it.
Speaking of crops in the garden, I am now entirely convinced that the mystery seedlings in the general area of the beets and carrots are, in fact, beets. I studied the seedlings closely and then looked up pictures of beet seedlings, and they were a perfect match. In other words, we have some beets! Hooray! I have also been keeping a keen eye on some other seedlings in the same area of the garden, and I now believe they are carrot seedlings, based on their location and on the pictures I found online. Double hooray! There are only two or three carrots up so far, but I expect to see more before long.
Alas, the updates this week are not all happy ones. The onions seem to be plagued with disease. The other day, I pulled up three more moldy red onions and one yellow onion that appeared to have the same blue mold that's afflicting the red onions. I hope we don't lose all the onions, but if this trend continues, we will. We are now down to nine red onions and I think about 26 yellow onions. The good news is that the remaining onions all have very healthy leaves. Some of the leaves have been damaged - I suspect this is a result of cats playing on the netting. I am considering removing the netting from the onions to remove the cats' temptation to play on it. The leaves of several of the plants are poking through the slanted end of the netting anyway - and I doubt that the cats will try to eat the leaves, because I've read that they don't like the taste or smell of onions, garlic, etc. I'll have to contemplate this further before making any sudden moves.
Even in light of the diseased onions, the big news this week is that I finally got some potatoes in the ground! The sad part of this is that I never actually called any auto shops - Alpine Tire Center responded to my post on their Facebook wall, and said that we could come talk to Mark or Jeff about getting some tires. So, on Friday, Anne Marie and Ben and I drove Mrs. Teaberry over there, found Jeff, and loaded up on free tires. They had a very large pile of old tires that they get recycled, but they have to pay by the tire for that service. Anne Marie didn't want to have to store any tires, so we only got three - each would form the first layer of a potato tire stack. We brought them back to WOG and rinsed them off with the hose. Then Ben and I moved them to the potato section of the garden and I arranged them there. Then I dug out a large circle of soil for each tire and buried each halfway in the soil. Then I cut the seed potatoes into sections with several eyes each, and planted several sections in each tire. I have five seed potato sections of the Colorado Rose variety that we bought from Abundant Life Seeds and nine of a mystery brown-skinned, white-fleshed variety that I got from the Fort Collins Food Co-Op - we had intended to eat these, but we left them too long and they sprouted. So, we figured there was no reason not to plant them!
Before we stack more tires on top of the first layer, we'll have to get some white paint, a little bit of paint of various colors, some tall rebar stakes, and some straw. After we rinse the next tires, we'll paint them white so they reflect the sun and don't get too hot for the taters. Then, we'll use the other colors paint designs them so they're not too boring and/or ugly. I'd like to get the rebar stakes so that the top tires won't blow over even in storms. The straw is on the advice of our friend Louis, who has tried the tire method and has found that soil inside the tire gets pretty heavy and that using soil can make it difficult to find all of the tubers. He recommends that we use straw instead, at least in the inner part of the tire (not in the center).
Well, that's all the updates for now. I promise to update more frequently once school is out - finals next week! Wish me luck! And as always, thanks for reading.
WOG out.
While we're on the subject of transplants, the broccoli, eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers in the apartment windowsills are all looking fabulous. They don't seem to mind that I started them late - hopefully this will continue all season and we'll get some good yields from them - and they have all produced true leaves or are about to do so. They all love it in the curtain-greenhouses, and the broccoli look a lot more comfortable now that they're not so crowded. I've been watering them daily, and they have responded with lovely green leaves and rapid growth. Yay! We'll be transplanting them into the garden before we know it.
Speaking of crops in the garden, I am now entirely convinced that the mystery seedlings in the general area of the beets and carrots are, in fact, beets. I studied the seedlings closely and then looked up pictures of beet seedlings, and they were a perfect match. In other words, we have some beets! Hooray! I have also been keeping a keen eye on some other seedlings in the same area of the garden, and I now believe they are carrot seedlings, based on their location and on the pictures I found online. Double hooray! There are only two or three carrots up so far, but I expect to see more before long.
Alas, the updates this week are not all happy ones. The onions seem to be plagued with disease. The other day, I pulled up three more moldy red onions and one yellow onion that appeared to have the same blue mold that's afflicting the red onions. I hope we don't lose all the onions, but if this trend continues, we will. We are now down to nine red onions and I think about 26 yellow onions. The good news is that the remaining onions all have very healthy leaves. Some of the leaves have been damaged - I suspect this is a result of cats playing on the netting. I am considering removing the netting from the onions to remove the cats' temptation to play on it. The leaves of several of the plants are poking through the slanted end of the netting anyway - and I doubt that the cats will try to eat the leaves, because I've read that they don't like the taste or smell of onions, garlic, etc. I'll have to contemplate this further before making any sudden moves.
Even in light of the diseased onions, the big news this week is that I finally got some potatoes in the ground! The sad part of this is that I never actually called any auto shops - Alpine Tire Center responded to my post on their Facebook wall, and said that we could come talk to Mark or Jeff about getting some tires. So, on Friday, Anne Marie and Ben and I drove Mrs. Teaberry over there, found Jeff, and loaded up on free tires. They had a very large pile of old tires that they get recycled, but they have to pay by the tire for that service. Anne Marie didn't want to have to store any tires, so we only got three - each would form the first layer of a potato tire stack. We brought them back to WOG and rinsed them off with the hose. Then Ben and I moved them to the potato section of the garden and I arranged them there. Then I dug out a large circle of soil for each tire and buried each halfway in the soil. Then I cut the seed potatoes into sections with several eyes each, and planted several sections in each tire. I have five seed potato sections of the Colorado Rose variety that we bought from Abundant Life Seeds and nine of a mystery brown-skinned, white-fleshed variety that I got from the Fort Collins Food Co-Op - we had intended to eat these, but we left them too long and they sprouted. So, we figured there was no reason not to plant them!
Before we stack more tires on top of the first layer, we'll have to get some white paint, a little bit of paint of various colors, some tall rebar stakes, and some straw. After we rinse the next tires, we'll paint them white so they reflect the sun and don't get too hot for the taters. Then, we'll use the other colors paint designs them so they're not too boring and/or ugly. I'd like to get the rebar stakes so that the top tires won't blow over even in storms. The straw is on the advice of our friend Louis, who has tried the tire method and has found that soil inside the tire gets pretty heavy and that using soil can make it difficult to find all of the tubers. He recommends that we use straw instead, at least in the inner part of the tire (not in the center).
Well, that's all the updates for now. I promise to update more frequently once school is out - finals next week! Wish me luck! And as always, thanks for reading.
WOG out.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
More Updates, and the Sad Tale of Several Onions
I went over to WOG this morning, and made the usual rounds. Watered the babies in the bedroom - it's still too cold to put them out; hopefully it will warm up soon. I also watered the strawberries and raspberries. The raspberries are looking good, and so are most of the strawberries. Sadly, some of the strawberries are severely wilted - possibly because of inadequate or damaged roots - and may die. But on the bright side, their brethren will fill in the gaps within the next couple of seasons, if any do die.
The peas are coming in strong, more every time I look. This is fantastic news - I adore peas. The only problem is figuring out when to remove the anti-cat netting, and how. And when I do, how will we keep the beets and carrots protected? Ah, well. I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
The biggest news of the day is more onion issues. I gently dug out three wilty-looking red onions to see how their bulbs were doing, and discovered blue mold spots on all of them. This is not good! I did some research, and it turns out this is a soil-borne disease, and can exist in the soil on decaying plant matter - I find this unlikely, since we bought fresh soil - but it can also be introduced by infected onion sets. In my humble opinion, this is most likely what happened. I suppose I have only myself to blame - I bought cheap onion sets from a roadside stand, and didn't inspect them all that thoroughly. Well, live and learn, as they say. Next year, maybe we'll be able to start the onions from seed and avoid that whole problem. Or we could save seed from one of these onions, if any of them actually make it that far. I have hope, however! Almost all of the remaining onions are vigorous, with long, bright green leaves.
I also did some weed scouting today. I refuse to get behind on weeding! It was worth looking, too - I was able to pretty much sweep the weed seedlings (I find it fun to call them "weedlings") out of the soil, since they were pretty much all still at the white thread stage. There were a lot of them! And now we're already ahead of the game, in terms of weedlings. I'll have to make a habit of this, in addition to watering and scouting for diseases.
Well, that's all for today! Thanks for reading.
WOG out.
The peas are coming in strong, more every time I look. This is fantastic news - I adore peas. The only problem is figuring out when to remove the anti-cat netting, and how. And when I do, how will we keep the beets and carrots protected? Ah, well. I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
The biggest news of the day is more onion issues. I gently dug out three wilty-looking red onions to see how their bulbs were doing, and discovered blue mold spots on all of them. This is not good! I did some research, and it turns out this is a soil-borne disease, and can exist in the soil on decaying plant matter - I find this unlikely, since we bought fresh soil - but it can also be introduced by infected onion sets. In my humble opinion, this is most likely what happened. I suppose I have only myself to blame - I bought cheap onion sets from a roadside stand, and didn't inspect them all that thoroughly. Well, live and learn, as they say. Next year, maybe we'll be able to start the onions from seed and avoid that whole problem. Or we could save seed from one of these onions, if any of them actually make it that far. I have hope, however! Almost all of the remaining onions are vigorous, with long, bright green leaves.
I also did some weed scouting today. I refuse to get behind on weeding! It was worth looking, too - I was able to pretty much sweep the weed seedlings (I find it fun to call them "weedlings") out of the soil, since they were pretty much all still at the white thread stage. There were a lot of them! And now we're already ahead of the game, in terms of weedlings. I'll have to make a habit of this, in addition to watering and scouting for diseases.
Well, that's all for today! Thanks for reading.
WOG out.
Updates Galore
Only a few updates this week.
On Tuesday, I went to WOG to water and check up on things (as I usually do) and was watering the pea patch, when I noticed that some seedlings were coming up! We have baby peas!! This was especially exciting because we'd more or less given up on the peas as a lost cause - they had been in the ground for a few weeks, with no sign of life, and peas should be relatively quick to sprout. As mentioned in a previous post, we think the problem was that they weren't getting enough water. Well, we remedied that, and the result was some babies! So now we're trying to do a much better job of watering everything daily, or almost daily.
This strategy seems to have worked well, because either some beets or some carrots are also coming up. I think the leaves are more beetlike than carrotlike, but I suppose we won't really know for sure for a while, because the cats messed up the row markers a while back and I had to guess the exact location of each row. Hopefully the other crop, whichever it is, will come up soon as well. The remaining onions, the ones that didn't have Fusarium, are looking swell - only a few red onions are a little puny, and hopefully they'll catch up.
The raspberries look great. I think all of them have new leaves on them now. Hooray! We'll have plenty of delicious berries in a couple of months :) The strawberries look excellent, too - most of the blossoms have opened, I think, which is great news for yield. Of course, we'll only be getting a few berries out of them, but I bet they'll be scrumptious. And next year we'll have plenty of strawberries to go around.
The babies that are still in the coldframe are looking all right. Some of the eggplants and peppers are clearly stressed, probably because it's been chilly recently. We brought them into the house yesterday, because it was supposed to be cold last night (and it was).
The babies in the apartment are looking spectacular. On Chris' recommendation, I put them in the windowsills of the bedroom (it gets the best light, generally), and have just left them there, watering about every other day. I wrapped the curtains around the other side so that the white fabric would reflect some light back down on the babies, as well as create a little greenhouse-like microclimate in each window. This has helped reduce some of the etiolation that was going on, especially with the tomatoes.
The baby broccoli in the windows desperately need to be transplanted into individual pots. I haven't done so yet because I've been worried about the cold weather. The plan was to do that today, but the high is still only going to be about 47. I could transplant them and put them in the WOG house bedroom, but I'm concerned that the cats might bother them. I will wait it out for a couple more days and hope the weather improves.
I still have yet to contact either local autobody to see if they can donate a few tires to us for potato-growing purposes. I need to get on that and get those babies in the ground soon!
Yesterday, Chris and I went to the Starter Barter in Avogadro's Number restaurant. Most of what people had to offer were tomatoes, and I didn't buy any of them, because I think WOG's neighbor plans to give us some of his starts that he's not going to use - plus, we've sprouted our own, and I want to see how they turn out. We did buy two more hot pepper plants from Drew - one Ancho and one Santa Fe. They are looking good, and hopefully they'll stay that way. We also got two green cabbage plants and one red cabbage plant, as well as five garden huckleberry plants and one wonderberry plant. I do enjoy experimenting with new crops! Hopefully they turn out well. I wonder where we'll put them all - space will be a little tight! But we'll manage, and we can always give some seedlings away.
All in all, this week has been somewhat eventful and vastly encouraging, since the peas and either beets or carrots started to come up. I can't wait to put more plants in the garden! Thanks for reading.
WOG out.
On Tuesday, I went to WOG to water and check up on things (as I usually do) and was watering the pea patch, when I noticed that some seedlings were coming up! We have baby peas!! This was especially exciting because we'd more or less given up on the peas as a lost cause - they had been in the ground for a few weeks, with no sign of life, and peas should be relatively quick to sprout. As mentioned in a previous post, we think the problem was that they weren't getting enough water. Well, we remedied that, and the result was some babies! So now we're trying to do a much better job of watering everything daily, or almost daily.
This strategy seems to have worked well, because either some beets or some carrots are also coming up. I think the leaves are more beetlike than carrotlike, but I suppose we won't really know for sure for a while, because the cats messed up the row markers a while back and I had to guess the exact location of each row. Hopefully the other crop, whichever it is, will come up soon as well. The remaining onions, the ones that didn't have Fusarium, are looking swell - only a few red onions are a little puny, and hopefully they'll catch up.
The raspberries look great. I think all of them have new leaves on them now. Hooray! We'll have plenty of delicious berries in a couple of months :) The strawberries look excellent, too - most of the blossoms have opened, I think, which is great news for yield. Of course, we'll only be getting a few berries out of them, but I bet they'll be scrumptious. And next year we'll have plenty of strawberries to go around.
The babies that are still in the coldframe are looking all right. Some of the eggplants and peppers are clearly stressed, probably because it's been chilly recently. We brought them into the house yesterday, because it was supposed to be cold last night (and it was).
The babies in the apartment are looking spectacular. On Chris' recommendation, I put them in the windowsills of the bedroom (it gets the best light, generally), and have just left them there, watering about every other day. I wrapped the curtains around the other side so that the white fabric would reflect some light back down on the babies, as well as create a little greenhouse-like microclimate in each window. This has helped reduce some of the etiolation that was going on, especially with the tomatoes.
The baby broccoli in the windows desperately need to be transplanted into individual pots. I haven't done so yet because I've been worried about the cold weather. The plan was to do that today, but the high is still only going to be about 47. I could transplant them and put them in the WOG house bedroom, but I'm concerned that the cats might bother them. I will wait it out for a couple more days and hope the weather improves.
I still have yet to contact either local autobody to see if they can donate a few tires to us for potato-growing purposes. I need to get on that and get those babies in the ground soon!
Yesterday, Chris and I went to the Starter Barter in Avogadro's Number restaurant. Most of what people had to offer were tomatoes, and I didn't buy any of them, because I think WOG's neighbor plans to give us some of his starts that he's not going to use - plus, we've sprouted our own, and I want to see how they turn out. We did buy two more hot pepper plants from Drew - one Ancho and one Santa Fe. They are looking good, and hopefully they'll stay that way. We also got two green cabbage plants and one red cabbage plant, as well as five garden huckleberry plants and one wonderberry plant. I do enjoy experimenting with new crops! Hopefully they turn out well. I wonder where we'll put them all - space will be a little tight! But we'll manage, and we can always give some seedlings away.
All in all, this week has been somewhat eventful and vastly encouraging, since the peas and either beets or carrots started to come up. I can't wait to put more plants in the garden! Thanks for reading.
WOG out.
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