Sweeeet Potatoes

This morning I thought I'd check on the progress of my sweet potato (SP) experiments. On May 1st, I placed one in water, and one May 8th I placed a second SP directly in the soil. On May 15th, I noticed my submerged SP sprouting leaves on the end that was submerged, so I flipped it. The pictures below were taken today. Flipping my SP meant I had to move my googly eyes, and one didn't make it. LOL. The slips are growing nicely but I'm having an issue with the submerged portion beginning to rot. Hopefully I'll be able to detach them from the SP soon, root for a few days, then plant. The SP I direct sowed is also doing well. There are 4 slips growing on the side shown, but the biggest is on the opposite side. There are also a few roots at the bottom. When I replaced the SP in the soil, I didn't put it as deep as before. I'm hoping this will get the slips into the sun, and growing foliage a little faster. In conclusion, it looks like the bases of the slips coming out of the directly sown SP are thicker than the submerged SP, there are fewer slips, and there isn't any foliage yet. There doesn't appear to be any rotting on this one. A quick fact about sweet potatoes: "These tuberous roots are among the most nutritious foods in the vegetable kingdom. They are packed with calcium, potassium, and vitamins A and C."

Dig, Pull, Shovel, Dump

I just couldn't take it anymore. Although I don't know what I'm going to put in the 2'x24' section along the deck, I had to get rid of the ugly looking CA poppies. This morning I spent 1.5 hours digging out and pulling up the deep rooted poppies, and shoveling and dumping the black bark/mulch that covered the bed. I still have another couple feet to do, and I have to dig out some type of large bulb and a 1-2' sapling at the far right, but that was too much for me to tack onto the end of today's work. There is also a stump on the left side, but I may just plant around that. It looks like it'd be a doozy to remove. BEFORE: AFTER: The LO did a good job hanging out with me and not getting in the way too much. He enjoyed getting the rocks I dug up, and putting them in his bucket. He must've tasted a few, and been rolling around in the dirt when Momma wasn't looking, because he had it everywhere. In the creases of his neck, arms, a nice dirt 'stache around his lips... Oh, and somehow, even with pants on, that boy managed to get dirt in his diaper! ROFL. *sigh* At least he let me get some work done, and he enjoys baths. As we were heading back inside, I noticed my Meyer is missing 2 of it's 3 lemon babies, but the last one has turned yellow. Now grow, grow GROW lil lemon!

Bugs, Beans, and Maybe Bings

I've been frustrated this weekend with the bugs who seem to enjoy my bush beans... I removed around 10 leaves containing leafminers, squashed numerous black flies which I'm told by the pest people over at Garden Web are aphids, and now I think the birds are pecking at my new baby green beans. I was checking out my broccoli, and discovered this little guy on the underside. I think he's the same worm as the one I discovered last week. I took the leaf off because there are signs of leafminer larvea. I borrowed the book, Garden Insects of North America, and think the two worms are cabbageworms, so bye-bye green wormy. I'm beginning to grow impatient with my broccoli, and am tempted to pull them up so I can use the spaces for something I know will be successful this summer. I won't know if they've bolted until the crown starts to develop (I just don't know how else to tell), and they just seem to be taking forever! Probably because they just can't take the heat... I'll give them another few weeks. They have until my radishes are ready for picking, then I will probably replace them with okra--or more green beans, depending on how the existing okra are doing (they're behind the broccoli in the pic below). Look at how the broccoli plants go from shortest to tallest, left to right. I think this is because the shade cover I made isn't protecting the one on the left very well in the afternoon (the sun moves from right to left over the sfg). On the plus side, the bean and carrot seeds I sowed to replace the first failed carrots have sprouted. I'm not concerned with the beans growing but I'm still holding my breath for the carrots. The existing 4-6 carrots are doing well, and the foliage is filling in on top. I'm sooo tempted to pluck one to see how they grow, but I want to eat the grown carrots more teehee. I used the last bit of hardware mesh I had, and quickly made a cage to cover my baby green beans. I'm hoping that what is going at them are the birds, and this will keep them out... The last bug for today is a new species my 7yo created. It's a Combee, and is a beneficial bug that lives in the rainforest. His class is finishing up learning about bugs, and his last project of the year was to create a new species of bug. I felt it only appropriate to add this bug to today's blog. ;-) I wanted to end with an upbeat picture. This weekend, I noticed we have a cherry tree in our yard! Our landlord never mentioned it, and when we moved in last year it had finished bearing fruit. I don't know if we'll get to eat any cherries since they're about 12 feet up, but we'll see! I'll get back to you next time about the variety...

...As Visions of Gardening Dance in My Head...

The lawn guys came yesterday, and I was able to get a few (literally) clippings in my bin. I knew I wouldn't have a lot, but when I went to take a look at what they dumped, I guffawed at my "reward." Oh boy... I better get creative, or move on to vermicomposting the kitchen scraps I've been saving. During my walk yesterday I noticed the city lawn service collecting the park's lawn clippings in a truck. I may stop by next week with an empty container or two and ask if I can take a load. I'm sure they put them back into keeping up the city's parks, but maybe they'll see giving me some clippings as less work they have to do for the day, hehe. I don't know my neighbors well/yet, but maybe a good introduction could be interrupting them while they're all sweaty from mowing their lawn to ask for their clippings... I have visions of a steamy bin and want to stick with this project. Cross your fingers for me! I think this section of the yard will be my next project. It's a 24'x2' section running along the deck, and as you can see, the CA poppies are about done and looking pretty gnarly. Also in the bed are random weeds, a stump, and ugly black wood chips. It'd be nice to remove what is there now, and make a raised bed. I'm thinking of 4-5 sections, and the two below the bars for the canopy on the deck containing a few vine vegetables. Perhaps sweet potatoes in the summer, peas in the fall. The vines would look nice growing up the canopy bars. The other sections would either be filled with bulbs/wildflowers, strawberries, or more vegetables... I'm hesitant to have food growing there because of the boys playing in the yard. I'd be ok if flowers were accidentally broken, but probably more upset if food crops were hurt by flying balls, falling bodies, or a curious toddler. This is another project area on the right side of the lawn that I have planned for the spring of 2010. This is the spot where I want to put a 4'x'4 bed of strawberries. I think it'll end up being a little bigger than 4'x4' because I want to have the strawberries bordered by herbs and flowers. After my first experience I previously mentioned with strawberries not being pollinated, I want to encourage as many beneficial bugs as possible to visit this bed. The two issues I foresee with this spot are the shade to sun ratio (haven't payed a ton of attention to yet), and the tree that shades the spot. I don't know what kind of tree it is, but it's in the neighbor's yard, and in the spring, it drops a *TON* of pollen and fuzzy seed pods in that spot. We're already planning on cutting it back this fall (don't want to kill the neighbor's tree by pruning at the wrong time, ya' know?) so hopefully that will help the pollen count. I thought I'd share a few pictures of our orange tree today. The orange oranges are actually from last November's blooms. I pulled a few off over the past few weeks, and although they're very sweet (or so DH and Boy Wonder tell me--I don't like them), the insides of them are about halfway hard or containing just pulp now. The green oranges are also from November's blooming, but they didn't start growing until around February I think. The small babies in the third pic are from blooms we had two weeks ago. I need to do some reading and asking about how to care for the orange bush/tree, but it's not one of my top priorites right now. Probably because I don't much like the fruit. I spotted this grasshopper chillin' on my containerized Yolo Bell peppers. He's the biggest I've seen so far so I scared him off. The little babies I've spotted have been squished (sorry guys), but he would've been a little too gooey between my fingers. blegh. I also spotted this caterpillar (you'll need to click the pic to see) on the underside of a bush bean leaf. I think he along with the growing number of white flies, are the ones making holes in my leaves. He's gone now too, but I didn't squish him with my fingers like I do the other little pests I see... Plucked him off with tweezers. I am finally seeing some little bees on my snapdragons. I haven't seen any buzzing close to the house before, so it's nice having them visit. The window box overlaps one of the kitchen windows, so I can get nice and close without scaring them (or myself) off. Laslty, a quote I like to remind myself: "There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments." -Janet Kilburn Phillips

Today's Garden Perusal

Today, day 19 of my SFG experience, my first weed was pulled. LOL I had to take a picture of it. I was tempted to let it grow so I could find out if it was a CA Poppy coming up through the cardboard (would the cardboard be decomposed enough already for that?), or if it came from a bag of cheap compost I bought. I yanked it after remembering that the weed will take up precious space in my Green Bell pepper's square. My Pink and White Beauy Radishes are right on time. Four days after planting, the seedlings have emerged. The row I added to the front of the broccoli squares get a little more shade from my shade screen than the row added to the okra (at the back of the broccoli squares), so their first leaves look a little hardier. You'll need to click on the pic to get a good look... I mentioned my groovy looking snapdragons the other day, so here's a picture for you along with the white verbena. A lot of heat bounces off of the stucco behind them but the snapdragons are holding up well. The verbena not so much... The one shown is the best of the lot. These are my Meyer Lemon babies! The green pods will turn into my first juicy Meyers! When I took this, they were almost dripping with nectar. I've moved the tree to the shade during the day because the newest leaves were getting droopy from the heat we've been having. I didn't get a good picture of the ladybug I mentioned on Friday, but it looks to be doing well, and now it has a neighbor. After doing some quick reading, the two ladybugs on the side of the deck are in their pupa stage. I wonder how long they'll be there... Yesterday I saw a spotless ladybug hanging out on a bean leaf that had been partially eaten by something. Go Ladybug! It's nice seeing them moving into the SFG, and that they didn't all fly away. Here is a ladybug in the larval stage, having some quiet time in the shade of my Fresno Chili. You'll need to click on this pic too for a good look. It surprised me the first time I saw the ladybug larvae. They look nothing like a ladybug. There was even a pic and note/warning on the package of ladybugs I purchased not to kill these guys, thinking they're something else. And for the last pic, and my favorite part of today (ok, favorite part so far)... Buckets! Check it! Let me just say that Freecycle rocks! I've been reading about Self Watering Containers (SWC), watched an awesome instructional video over at You Tube a few times, and I'm going to give them a try--probably next spring. I posted a "want" post on freecycle, and here are the results. I obtained 12 kitty litter buckets, and 5 pool chlorine buckets. It'll take 2 buckets per SWC, and each kitty litter bucket will hold an equivilant of 1 square foot's worth of plant(s). My plan "A" is to find an outdoor paint that will stick well to the plastic, and use some stencils to beautify them. Plan "B" is to obtain free scrap wood, paint that, and enclose the containers to hide the ugly exterior. I haven't figured out where I'll put these yet. I think that'll depend on which beautifying plan I go with. I received an extra bonus for taking the kitty litter buckets off of a fellow freecycler's hands... I picked them up from her at her classroom where she teaches 3rd grade, and she used the buckets and I as a quick lesson on free/recycling. She let them know that they aren't accepted in the recycling [here], and was storing them in her garage. I let the children know I'd be growing veggies in them. That made me feel all good n' stuff inside teehee. ;-) Cheers!

The Compost Bin is Ready!

YAY! We just came back inside from completing the compost bin. Man, it's a stinkin' hot day today, especially with it being "high noon," but that's when the LO was asleep, and we could both work on the bin together. Fortunately, we were working in the shade the whole time... I read that it's good to have a 3'x3'x3' bin because that amount of materials will generate enough heat to break everything down, and "sterilize" the contents in the bin. The finished bin size is ~4'x3.5'x2' tall. We didn't want the walls of the bin to be 3' high--that just seemed like it'd be more of an eyesore than a 2' high bin... Pictured below, Dear Husband (DH) is stapling the wire to the base. I chose a 2' wide wire aviary netting. I liked this better than chicken wire because it has a smaller gauge. My thinking is that less stuff can fall through this type of wire... Completed base with awaiting walls... It is complete! We used plastic zip ties (because we already had them) to hold the sections together. I don't know how they will hold up, but if they don't last very long, we'll switch over to wire. My biggest concern now is obtaining enough "greens" (ie grass clippings) to get a hot, steamy pile going. A part of our lease is having a lawn service, so I'll let the gentlemen know to dump the clippings in the bin for a while but since it's getting hot out, the grass will slow down it's growth. Also, I've been collecting news and white paper which I've been shredding, and these will be my "browns." Dead leaves are an ideal "brown," but there aren't any right now, and I want to get the compost pile going. I've been freezing food scraps (already have 2 gallon ziplocs + 1 of coffee grounds), but the wonderful people hanging out on the compost section of Garden Web said it's best to have a hot pile going before adding food scraps. I'm assuming it's because it helps keep smells down by decomposing the food faster, and it keeps the critters out. Oh, yes. The greatest things about the pallet bin and it's location are that it blends in with the wood fence, and the orange bush hides 90% of it. Well, for now anyway... If this bin goes well, I may add an extension bin moohahahahahaha! Garden addiction. ADDICTION I tell ya! No. Wait. NOT addiction. I'm just doing my part to help the planet. Yea... I'll keep telling myself that's the root of my gardening motivation... Yea...

I forgot to mention yesterday...

I forgot to mention that along with planting more green beans and carrot seeds, I planted a few radish seeds along the front of the okra and broccoli squares. I purchased a mixed pack of Pink Beauty and White Beauty. I just read the packet, and it says they "Thrive in cool weather." Oops... Oh well... It's all an experiment in my first season of gardening. I haven't tasted a radish in years, and when I last did, I didn't like, but I'm quite curious to see how they grow, and how they'll taste fresh out of the garden. If all else fails, I'm sure I'll be able to give any successful growers to someone...

Update on the Garden (I have picturitis)

Wahoo! After this post, I'll finally be up-to-date with the going on's of my little slice of growing things... A lot of pictures below, but I can't help it! I'm proud of my plants for working so hard. Feel free to click on the pictures for their full size versions. I love this picture... My LO is *so* good about not touching any of momma's plants. He walks up to them, shakes his head, points, and walks away... so cute! This isn't the most current pic (taken 5/7) of my onions and beans, but I love it because it shows how perfectly the AC unit shades my onions in the afternoon. I bought 2k ladybugs a few weeks back to get an aphid outbreak on the plum tree under control. They did a great job. Here is one of the baby's on the side of the deck turning into an adult ladybug. *Definitely* click on this one! Here's a more current picture (5/13) of the left side of my SFG. It just tickles me how straight up the bean leaves are in the afternoon sun. Unfortunately, my 3 rows of carrots bit it. Well, actually the only ones still alive are 8 that I remembered to add vermiculite to when I planted the seeds. I know it's not the right time for them, but I replanted more carrots in the 3rd square in front. I added vermiculite to each hole with the seeds and will be more dillegent about keeping them moist--especially with this weekend's temp's getting into the 90's. In the 1st front square, I planted a cherry tomato *gasp*. That's right, folks. Me, a non-tomato fan, am growing a tomato plant! I went to a Master Gardener's class two weekends ago, and they gave me a Cherry Tomato baby. I know *nothing* about tomatoes but no worries. I'll be doing some reading soon. And the left side (5/13) of the SFG... My okra and peppers are loving the heat, and my broccoli are doing surprisingly well (thus far, but praying the 90's don't bolt them). Shading them in the afternoon has been very helpful. My peppers, marigolds, and basil. My basil is so tiny because I took so long to thin them out. This is also my 2nd round. None of the seeds germinated the 1st round, so I started over with a lot more seeds... I finally remembered to look at the type of hot pepper I'm growing... Here are the first blooms on my Fresno Chili plant. Boy Wonder picked this out for Daddy because Daddy *loves* spicy food. These are the 3 broccoli I kept in the salad table. They enjoy the shade too. I don't have the greatest shade setup here, so I'm using an empty pot to keep the sheet from smooshing the plants. These guys are all that's left in my table--again, because I started too late... My canteloupe have finally started to grow. It was touch and go for a while for the front left plant. I had to cover it with an empty container at night, and that seems to have done it well. See the baby leaf in the middle?

Ah, yes. My pride and joy... This is my Dwarf Meyer Lemon. I was so extatic when I saw this! If you've ever tasted a Meyer Lemon, you'll understand where my joy comes from. They aren't sour/tart like Eureka or Lisbon lemons--those are the standard store-bought kind... They have this sweet, perfumy smell and flavor, and you can almost eat them like an orange. It's in a 5 gallon nursery pot right now, and the guy I bought it from at Western Garden Nursery said I should be able to keep in the pot for a year, then pot-up to the one I have it resting in.

Lastly, here is a view of the whole "garden." I took out most of my strawberry plants from the window boxes because they weren't being pollinated by bees, so the berries were tiny. I also planted these before I read about them, so I didn't plant them correctly and they ended up having a few issues. I kept the healthiest two which I replanted in the bottom box. I just want to see how they grow, and see if I can overwinter them successfully in the garage. I already have plans for next spring for a 4'x4' raised bed for strawberries--but that's a TOTALLY different post for another time! In the top box I planted some pretty groovy looking snapdragons and verbena. I used to have the "If I can't eat it, I'm not growing it" mentality, but my first season of gardening has taught me that having flowers around is quite beneficial. They help keep the bad bugs (blasted aphids) away, and attract the beneficial pollinator bugs (yay bees & butterflies). Hope you've enjoyed my garden update! Cheers.

A Few Projects and More Plants

With my SFG up and running, it only took me a day or two before I became bored, and needed more projects to work on hehehe... I thought I'd share a few things I've done. The first thing I did was construct a shade cover for my broccoli. I had an extra dowel left over from creating a shade cover for my salad table, so I cut it into 3rds and stuck in the soil behind the broccoli's. Next I took leftover hardware mesh, leftover bed sheet fabric (I'm so glad I saved this!), and zip ties. Used the zip ties to attach the fabric to the mesh, and made a "lean to" shade cover. Not the prettiest thing, but I was able to make it at no additional cost, and it does great for shading my broccoli babies. The only problem I've run into is on breezy days (um, most afternoons) it occasionally gets blown over, but always onto the concrete and not the plants. I had been doing some reading on composting when my brain was too full of content on growing plants, and decided to attempt composting. There is a perfect spot in the back right corner of the yard, and is partally hidden by the orange tree/bush. The biggest problem with this spot was the existing dirt pile I had to remove. I was hoping it was an old compost heap and I could use to get my pile going, but it turned out to be one big dense clay mass. On Mother's Day, one of my "presents" was being able to spend a couple hours digging in the dirt while Daddy played inside with the boys. The picture below is after I already started chopping away at it. For some reason I always forget to take pictures before I start doing things... Taking a break... Finally! Three hours of digging, and a few blisters later, here is the result. This weekend (ie tomorrow) Hubby will saw the other free pallets I got off of craigslist for the walls of the bin, and attach them for me. This was The Husband's project last Saturday. The deck was looking pretty ragged, so he took the sheers off of the side of the canopy,removed a few non-working strands of white lights, trimmed the pear and plum trees in the back, and swept the deck and pillars. It's finally a nice spot to go and relax! I was at OSH getting blood meal for my pepper plants, and although I knew I shouldn't have, I went to look at the veggies they had... I ended up bringing home 3 canetloupe babies. LOL I don't know *what* I'm going to do with these guys, but I couldn't resist! If they make it long enough, I will either find one heck of a creative way to trellis, or I'll move the container to a dirt spot on the west side of the yard. I haven't done any reading on canteloupe, so I don't know if I have them too close. Hopefully this 15" pot will suffice... We shall see! Lastly, my sweet potatoes... Ok. Again, my green thumb impulses and boredom got the better of me. I couldn't help it! I love sweet potatoes, it's the perfect time to get them a' growin', and I have a big clay pot that was here when we moved in. So. I decided to conduct a sweet potato experiment. I bought 2 Beauregard sweet potatoes from the grocery store and stuck one in the pot using Mel's mix with sand/pea pebbles added to help with drainage. I stuck the second potato with two corn cob holders and put in a container of water. HAHAHA! After looking at my soaking potato, it felt like it wanted to be looking back at me, so I gave it some eyes. Oh, and Boy Wonder #1 gave it some ears. teehee Few! Another long updating post... Almost up-to-date! My next post I'll be showing a few current pictures of my SF and container garden. Ciao!