Almost Done

Dave and I build the last 4'x4' raised bed this weekend. This evening I finished filling it with dirt and humus/manure. I'm going to let the manure air out a bit and work it into the soil tomorrow after work. Then it should be ready for corn, sunflowers, cucumbers and green beans. That will mean the end of all of my hard work planting. Now it's just waiting to reap the rewards!

I did lose 2 more lettuce plants - 1 red leaf and 1 romaine. I need to do some research and find out what's going on. It's like the plant rots from the base. It's all mushy and white. Yuck!!

The broccoli needs to be harvested and I have at least 1 head of cauliflower big enough to harvest. One cabbage plant is coming along nicely but the other seems stuck in "beginning to form a head" mode. I had this happen with a plant last year. Very strange. Eventually it produces but it will be a while. I noticed that one of the pea plants flowered today. Odd because both the pea and snow pea plants are only about 12" tall right now. From past experience they need to at least double in size to produce. All of the tomato plants love their new home - they have all at least tripled in size. I really need to harvest more lettuce! It will be too hot soon to keep it much longer. Dave's hops plants grow like 3" per day. It's crazy!

Today was the first of some hot, sunny, dry days to come. I watered everything well and that took 5 or 6 trips to the rain barrel. I suspect the next several days will see me making 7-10 trips to the rain barrel. I need to get something that will allow me to lug around more water. Hmmmm....

Who Needs Gardening When There's the Final Frontier?

New...Star...Trek...totally...awesome!!!!

Uh, garden? What garden? Oh yeah...that thing in the back yard. I'll tend to it tomorrow (do think I lost my cucumber plant because I failed to water it before I left for work this morning. Wah!).

More Surprises

Not much gardening activity going on this past week. I did replace the Juliet Roma tomato I inadvertently killed with a new one on Monday. She is now in the ground and appears very happy. We had a lot of rain Thursday & Friday so everything's doubled in size. I checked my cauliflower and broccoli and the heads have tripled! I'm going to have to tie off the cauliflower leaves to keep the heads from getting sun scorched.

Today was a day of unpleasant surprises in the garden. I discovered that one of my healthy, large red leaf lettuce plants just totally collapsed at some point this week. The thing was soggy and mushy when I pulled it out of the soil. I don't know if it got too much water or what. Too much water would be odd for lettuce as the plants like to be moist. When I got back from a day of adventure with my mom I discovered half of another plant had collapsed. Same mushy, soggy mess. I threw everything away too afraid to put it into the compost bin in case the plant collapse was caused by disease.

Other than the lettuce disappointments, everything else seems to be doing fine. I wish the peas and snow peas were growing faster. They seem to be stuck around the 5" mark. Not sure if it's because they haven't grabbed onto the trellis or what. Dave's hops are growing crazy. One is particularly happy growing about 4"/day.

Took a prowl around the Americorps website yesterday in between rounds of migraine headaches. I found the PERFECT opportunity for me! A farm manager at Gateway Greening's City Seeds project. City Seeds is a 2 acre farm in the heart of the city used to help rehabilitate the homeless and sell good produce in farmers markets in low income areas. Too bad they are not currently taking applications. I'm going to keep my eye on this...may even inquire. The experience would be truly amazing and would actually make me feel as if I'm DOING something with my life...leaving a small imprint on this big planet. Yes, I could always just volunteer my time but with a more than full time job and a household, finding a few hours is difficult. Listen to me whine...If I want it badly enough, I will find a way to make time.

I took some pix of the garden last week. I'll get them posted soon!

Surprises

Sometimes garden surprises are good. Like yesterday when I discovered that I had planted carrots in the middle of the upper bed. Given the fact that I have only 2 carrot sprouts in the lower bed because the lettuce is CRAZY happy and choking off all sunlight to the carrot sprouts, I was thrilled to discover the nearly dozen sprouts in the upper bed. Yay - I WILL have carrots this year!

On April 25th Dave and I built another 4' square x 2' tall raised bed. I've been filling it with dirt and compost since (40-ish bags to fill one of these puppies up!). Yesterday I planted a grape tomato and Early Girl tomato into the new raised bed. I would have planted a Juliet Roma had I not accidentally snapped its main stem during transplanting. :( The replacement Juliet Roma is sitting on my back patio awaiting its transfer to lots of soil. Maybe if I get up early enough tomorrow morning I can get it in the ground before work.

Oh, and to carry the surprises into another day, I discovered that the Cupid's Dart that I thought had died is resurrecting itself. It's a miracle! ;) Unfortunately it's right by the snow pea sprouts and someone's going to lose the battle if I don't intervene. Even if I do, the surgery is going to be quite tricky to extract said Cupid's Dart without killing off a few snow pea sprouts. Then there's the matter of finding a spot for the Cupid's Dart since all spots are taken. But, let's get through the tricky surgery first.

I still need to find a spot for the cucumber and basil I purchased yesterday. The idea is to plant the basil in with the tomato plants because they make good companion plants - or so I read. The cucumber...I'm not sure. I may try potting it again this year and hope for the best. Last year I had cukes growing until the plant collapsed after a long weekend in Indianapolis. Maybe this year I can get ONE cucumber!