Garden 2020: starting out
Apr. 7th, 2020 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sylkeIt's been a while since my massive planting kick. 2016 was the last time I had a truly successful garden. This year, what with the pandemic keeping us home a whole lot, we won't be traveling and I'll do well to have a project to keep me busy. I'm glad I have a photo of what the garden looked like back then! My biggest issues now will be that the mulberry and sycamore trees need to get taken down since they're casting So Much Shade on the area that's my garden, and they're gonna need to come out eventually anyway, better sooner than later.
Last year I did almost no planting since I knew I was going to be traveling so much, so nothing actually went into the ground fresh. I'm not even sure if I did purple pole beans or cucamelons, two of our favorites. I don't think so. I did so much traveling that I didn't even bother writing anything down for gardening, it looks like. But last year was my Mediterranean cruise and a bunch of travel back and forth to see my family, plus a full 2 weeks of Pennsic for the first time, so yeah. This year, it's entirely possible that Pennsic itself may be cancelled. I'll be in town for harvest time!
My grape vines have been cut back, again. I'm not great at training them. The one near the garage may be finally giving up the ghost, but the one next to the house seems to be ready to send out new leaves and shoots. The cherry tree has well and truly earned a spot in the garden permanently, but it does take a bit of proactive care to preserve the harvest from cherry flies. My strawberries died back over the winter, now half of one of the beds has strawberries starting to peek back in but I think I'm gonna put carrots in the top half. I like the idea of the looser soil for a root vegetable trying to grow.
I think it's another corn year. At least it'll be easier to get behind the fence this year with the bushes gone, so tending the plants will go more easily without my having to vault over the fence every time I wanted to check on them.
Currently, I have a few tomatoes and some jalapenos in seed starts. 3 Andrea-Tomatoes (we'll see how well those cooperate this year...), 3 cherry tomatoes, and 2 jalapenos. The latter two are fresh seeds so I'm not worried about germination. The Andrea tomato seeds are a couple years old and I put the last of the ones I had in these three pots. I've got a heated seed mat under them and a grow light right on top, and I'm sub-irrigating them. It's only a slightly ghetto setup. A red plastic bin from one of the kid's playsets and crinkly tin foil to keep the light in the box instead of diffused everywhere. Outside in 3 rail-planters I have kale, lettuce (I think green-leaf), arugula, basil, and chives. Not sure if the herbs will germinate when it's still this chilly, plus some sort of critter was rooting around in there a couple days ago, so I may need to re-seed later in the season.
Other things I want to grow: corn, snap peas, green peas, purple pole beans, carrots, cucumber, zucchini, edamame, purple tomatillo, cucamelon, and one or two squash varieties. I have seeds for acorn and spaghetti squash, and I just ordered some seeds for pattypan squash after seeing a friend's dinner photo where she had pickled patty pan squash as a side. The corn will go on the side of the yard over the fence, co-planted with some sort of peas. I guess I could do the purple pole beans over there, I know those grow reliably and they need a trellis. From past experience, whatever squash I plant along with them is unlikely to make much in the way of tasty food, but it serves to shade the roots of the corn and protects from weeds and getting too dried out. Maybe I'll do pumpkins there, I don't need more than a few for our own purposes. I'm not even sure the pumpkins will germinate, they're from a grocery store pumpkin that may or may not have been treated to be sterile. It's getting to be about time to do a formal layout of what's going where, and also getting to be time to see if anyone can take down those two trees. The boys are a bit sad about the mulberry tree going away, but I told them the berries aren't really that tasty and I can grow more and tastier food if it's gone and not shading the garden.
Timing wise, I put the greens into the boxes maybe a week ago? Probably Monday, March 30, that's when I did my shopping run to Lowe's. Thursday, April 2 is when I put the seeds in to start under the lights. The catnip got started on Monday with the other greens, and it sprouted a couple days ago. This morning I had a cherry tomato peeking up. That heated seed mat is making a difference! I may move the catnip to a windowsill when the ghost pepper seeds arrive so that they can go under the heat and light as well.
The 3rd grader's science teacher sent him home with three small cups, some soil, and a baggie of a variety of seeds. I recognize three of them for sure, but the other two I'm not positive about. Kinda just want to plant them and see what happens! Maybe I'll section off a corner of the garden for the boys to grow things in themselves.
Last year I did almost no planting since I knew I was going to be traveling so much, so nothing actually went into the ground fresh. I'm not even sure if I did purple pole beans or cucamelons, two of our favorites. I don't think so. I did so much traveling that I didn't even bother writing anything down for gardening, it looks like. But last year was my Mediterranean cruise and a bunch of travel back and forth to see my family, plus a full 2 weeks of Pennsic for the first time, so yeah. This year, it's entirely possible that Pennsic itself may be cancelled. I'll be in town for harvest time!
My grape vines have been cut back, again. I'm not great at training them. The one near the garage may be finally giving up the ghost, but the one next to the house seems to be ready to send out new leaves and shoots. The cherry tree has well and truly earned a spot in the garden permanently, but it does take a bit of proactive care to preserve the harvest from cherry flies. My strawberries died back over the winter, now half of one of the beds has strawberries starting to peek back in but I think I'm gonna put carrots in the top half. I like the idea of the looser soil for a root vegetable trying to grow.
I think it's another corn year. At least it'll be easier to get behind the fence this year with the bushes gone, so tending the plants will go more easily without my having to vault over the fence every time I wanted to check on them.
Currently, I have a few tomatoes and some jalapenos in seed starts. 3 Andrea-Tomatoes (we'll see how well those cooperate this year...), 3 cherry tomatoes, and 2 jalapenos. The latter two are fresh seeds so I'm not worried about germination. The Andrea tomato seeds are a couple years old and I put the last of the ones I had in these three pots. I've got a heated seed mat under them and a grow light right on top, and I'm sub-irrigating them. It's only a slightly ghetto setup. A red plastic bin from one of the kid's playsets and crinkly tin foil to keep the light in the box instead of diffused everywhere. Outside in 3 rail-planters I have kale, lettuce (I think green-leaf), arugula, basil, and chives. Not sure if the herbs will germinate when it's still this chilly, plus some sort of critter was rooting around in there a couple days ago, so I may need to re-seed later in the season.
Other things I want to grow: corn, snap peas, green peas, purple pole beans, carrots, cucumber, zucchini, edamame, purple tomatillo, cucamelon, and one or two squash varieties. I have seeds for acorn and spaghetti squash, and I just ordered some seeds for pattypan squash after seeing a friend's dinner photo where she had pickled patty pan squash as a side. The corn will go on the side of the yard over the fence, co-planted with some sort of peas. I guess I could do the purple pole beans over there, I know those grow reliably and they need a trellis. From past experience, whatever squash I plant along with them is unlikely to make much in the way of tasty food, but it serves to shade the roots of the corn and protects from weeds and getting too dried out. Maybe I'll do pumpkins there, I don't need more than a few for our own purposes. I'm not even sure the pumpkins will germinate, they're from a grocery store pumpkin that may or may not have been treated to be sterile. It's getting to be about time to do a formal layout of what's going where, and also getting to be time to see if anyone can take down those two trees. The boys are a bit sad about the mulberry tree going away, but I told them the berries aren't really that tasty and I can grow more and tastier food if it's gone and not shading the garden.
Timing wise, I put the greens into the boxes maybe a week ago? Probably Monday, March 30, that's when I did my shopping run to Lowe's. Thursday, April 2 is when I put the seeds in to start under the lights. The catnip got started on Monday with the other greens, and it sprouted a couple days ago. This morning I had a cherry tomato peeking up. That heated seed mat is making a difference! I may move the catnip to a windowsill when the ghost pepper seeds arrive so that they can go under the heat and light as well.
The 3rd grader's science teacher sent him home with three small cups, some soil, and a baggie of a variety of seeds. I recognize three of them for sure, but the other two I'm not positive about. Kinda just want to plant them and see what happens! Maybe I'll section off a corner of the garden for the boys to grow things in themselves.
