Oh, Gnats!

In previous posts I've mentioned my resident fungus gnats attempting to take over the cilantro buckets and salad table, and today I've discovered they're trying to claim territory in my indoor seedling pots.

First off, I don't know why they're called fungus gnats. Seems to me that they'll land anywhere there's dirt. Secondly, why they're finding my indoor plants so attractive besides that fact that they're plants living in dirt befuddles my mind. Can you feel the resentment here? The soil isn't overly moist or fungus-y by any means. Actually, I probably don't do a good enough job of keeping them moist. I don't ever open the window in here, although we open the rest of the windows daily... I guess it was only a matter of time before they found this new resort.

Anyway... I have got to get rid of these flying [enter expletive of choice here] before my plants head outside or I'll just be continuing the cycle--especially with my SWC setup. So, I've spent the past hour in my dining room (probably the most usage it's ever had) battling these guys. My strategy, whether or not it's logical to anyone else but me, is to apply a Neem oil on the soil surface of ALL my pots, and for the first week (today) flush everything but my newly transplanted tomatoes and nasturtiums with a BTi water solution I now keep at the ready. Then apply another layer of Neem oil to the top of the soil. Next week I will do the same to everything (unless anyone chimes in with a better, more knowledgeable strategy).

Not very exciting, but the white flecks are a few of the youngest larvea that have been flushed out of the pots.

Sorry it's hard to see, but on the end of this toothpick is an older larvea that came out.

If you so choose, you may look at more pictures of fungus gnats and larvea here. Blegh!

At least I've enjoyed my dining room a little bit today LOL...

Potting Up The Leggy Ladies

On Sunday I potted up my super leggy tomato plants. I went to the dollar store on a whim a while back and found 5 of these pots for $1. I should've bought more...

Here's what the plant's roots looked like after 40 days. Pretty healthy, yes? I repotted the plants in a mix of seed starting medium, compost, perlite, and a smidgen of Epsom salt and all purpose slow-release fertilizer.

After the tomatoes were done, I potted up my nasturtiums with the Little One's help. Here he is stirring the mix...

And then he helped fill the pots with soil...

Oh yes! My carrots are really taking off now that I'm shading them, and we're in for cooler weather than last week so I think they'll have a fighting chance now!

Have a terrific Tuesday!

A Puny Harvest Monday

This week I've been plucking all the mature pea pods I can find in this miniature jungle...

I just hope the rest will plump up before I need to remove the plants to make way for my tomatoes...

Here's my harvest. Enough to give me--only me a side of peas to go with last night's steak and baked potato. Everyone else had to eat something green from the store lol.

Daphne hosts Harvest Monday each week, so feel free to check out her page to see what others are harvesting.

Happy Arbor Days!

National Arbor Day is coming up at the end of April, so when my second grader came home last week with a redwood sapling and a "Certificate of Adoption," I was a little perplexed. It turns out that about half of the states in the U.S. celebrate their Arbor Day on a day other than our National Arbor Day--California's being March 7th.

A large nursery in the next town over participates in Arbor Day by providing saplings to the second graders in all of our city's schools as well as the two cities next to ours.Wow! That's a lot a' saplings! So today Boy Wonder and I planted his redwood sapling  (aka Sequoia sempervirens) in a container. Sorry the picture's blurry. The pot was heavy so I had to move fast...

Along with the Certificate of Adoption, Boy Wonder received a flyer with instructions on how to plant the sapling in either the ground or a pot. After doing a lot of reading in the past (some may say too much) on growing things in containers, I was pleasantly surprised to see container growing tips like, "Plants dry out more quickly in pots than in the ground so remember to check them at least every other day for watering, daily if it's hot." And, "Your plant will need to be transplanted into a larger pot or into the ground when a) Roots grow out of the drain holes. b) You can't easily press your finger into the soil next to the pot rim." Even better, the flyer lets the new owner know they need to fertilize their tree with an organic fertilizer, and that one should "never feed a thirsty plant. Always water one day and feed the next." Sure, sure... To we container growing people, these seem like common sense (although I have to admit, it's almost too late when you can't stick your finger in the soil lol) but it's good to see it on paper so when a child brings a living plant home to their black-thumbed parents, they'll have an idea of how to care for their newest addition.

I think I'll add keeping the plant alive as one of Boy Wonder's responsibilities. Ya' know, work him up to feeding chickens. ;-)

Happy Arbor Days, dear readers!

EG's Self Watering Planter Idea Implemented!

Back in January, EG from Our Engineered Garden shared yet another one of his awesome creations--a self watering planter (or a self watering container; SWP or SWC). I instantly loved the construction of these SWPs because of the fact that they use recycled/inexpensive items, and each container only uses one bucket instead of the traditional "bucket in a bucket" method (you can find instructions for that method here and here).

Last year I received a bunch of kitty litter buckets from a very generous Freecycler, and planned on making SWPs with them but never got around to it. Frankly, I'm glad I didn't because I have a better understanding of how things will grow in my garden, and can now make more using EG's method.

I bought a couple floor tile squares at HD for $.65, and blew through those while doing a few trials of cutting incorrectly and drilling holes that were too big. I later found $.45 tiles at Lowes.

My redneck work area in the garage...

We don't have a tool bench or a table top that I could get all crazy on with the exacto knife, so I used cardboard LOL.  And, nooo, I won't be spray painting my containers gold... When I traced the yogurt cups for the wicking basket hole, it was way too big (or small depending on the side traced). The top to the spray can was a much better fit.

The tools...

I've used a hack saw for previous PVC cutting projects, but after someone at Lowe's cut my 9ft PVC pipe in half by squeezing a pipe cutter 3 times and after I picked my jaw up off the floor, I came home with one. I love this tool! I'm not strong enough to get a good back & forth motion going through PVC so it's always a pain to do. The pipe cutter was still hard to use. Actually, I ended up setting it up on the ground and stepping on it HA! (Not shown is whatever tool or bit DH will let me use to cut the holes in the lids.)

Because of the smaller width of the bucket, the yogurt cups overlapped the wicking basket hole/area.

Overlapping solution: cut the top sections of the containers.

Tada!

I will be using kabob sticks stuck in wine corks as my water level indicators.

I can't wait to see how growing bush cucumbers, baby bell and white habanero peppers in my SWPs will turn out!

Lastly, this week EG showed us how he is implementing his SWP concept with a large storage tote. Perfect timing, since I brought home these 18 gallon lime green totes (what? they were on sale!) two weeks ago! Now I can make two. Yeessss...

Thanks for sharing your brilliance with us, EG!

Seedling Update

When I pulled my broccoli and lettuces on Monday, I was ready for it. Then when I blogged about it yesterday, I felt really down about my spring crops coming to an end. I mean, who wouldn't feel a bit sad about pulling plants that are still green? So, to bring the mood back up, I'll update you on the summer seedlings I have so far...

I moved my setup closer to the south facing window...

My tomatoes are a bit leggy, so I was going to start over (which are in the covered pots) but now I think I'll stick with the first batch and give the second batch to a friend who wants to garden but won't start from seed. I'll repot the tomatoes this weekend.

Basil and peppers...

I was lucky enough to only have one plant out of everything not germinate--a yellow Baby Belle Pepper, so it's a bit behind the others, but that's no biggie since it's going into a container.

This weekend I will also be starting my Isabella Charentais melon seeds.

Lastly, I thought I'd done something wrong when I sowed my Chionodoxia bulbs with my crocus and hyaciths last fall because they hadn't shown up... Lookie what I noticed underneath the Crocus leaves!

Stay away, you slugs!

Happy Pinch Me Day!

For some reason, I always forget to wear green on St. Patrick's Day, and inevitably, someone pinches me...

A perfect example of forgetting to wear green? My centerpiece:

It may be St. Patty's Day, but I'm ready for Easter! ;-)

Garden Update

It's amazing how much things have changed in the 10 days since I was last in the garden. It feels like I missed out on the last part of spring, and stepped out into summer! The past few days have been in the 70's, but throw in the blazing sun on my south facing concrete garden, and my soil's temps are around 85 at the peak of the day.

I spent a large part of my free time (ie the LO's nap) outside yesterday cleaning up, and clearing out. Here's what's goin' on...

I hilled up my 1st round of Russet mini's. They're already almost to the top of the bucket! I may need to come up with a way to extend the bucket's height. Maybe by cutting off the bottom of another bucket and attaching somehow. Any suggestions?  The rest of my potatoes are slow-going thus far... 

The left side of my SFG: Garlic, onion, shallots. I've trimmed all of the alliums several times over the growing season, and they look wonderful, don't they?

Close up of the shallots...

Yeah, above ground, they're pretty, but these two shallots (from one seed) are what they looked like when I pulled them out. I don't know what went wrong here. I even fertilized them once--maybe twice with a diluted solution LOL.  I also pulled a garlic plant, and it looks the same.

I'm feeling a little defeated by the alliums because I planted them back in October, and they should be ready around now. Either way, I'll have to pull them in a few weeks to make way for my tomatoes.

The right side of the SFG growing the peas and broccoli... I don't know why, but the left two broccoli plants grew very large, but not a SINGLE florret grew on either one of them! What the heck?

My peas are becoming infested with aphids. I think it's due to the heat and the compact space. I also have carrots squeezed in between the broccoli and peas, so in an effort to get the peas and carrots to mature, and because I was tired of the broccoli not producing, I pulled the broccoli...

Here is my last brocooli harvest of the season.

My lettuces in the salad table bolted some time last week. *sigh* This was my most productive part of the garden this season, so I'm really sad to see it go. I've cleaned out the lettuces, and moved the table to a shadier, cooler part of the yard to see if my carrots will mature. I pulled one, and it's the length of my index finger, but as skinny as a pencil. Here's hoping they'll fatten up a bit!

 I've decided that this coming fall I will probably either grow only lettuces or a combo of lettuces and cover crops to improve my raised beds soil.

A Lovely Week Off

After some lovely time off, it's back to the daily grind. When I posted ten days ago about my birthday, I mentioned my younger sister visiting... Well, she brought a wonderful surprise gift with her--our mom! I almost jumped outa my socks when I saw her standing beside the car!

I'm on the right

To ease back into gardening, blogging, and normalcy, I thought I'd share a few pictures I took of wildflowers along the path to Battery Spencer in San Francisco...

Mey-er Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, and I decided to make it a lemony sort of day. I planned on posting this last night, but these got in the way...

Meyer Lemon and Clementine Margarita

 

I started my day with a bit of frivolous birthday shopping at Target where I got this fruit basket to match my paper towel and napkin holders (lemons not from my tree)...

Next I stopped by OSH to get materials to replant my Meyer lemon tree. It's been in a nursery pot since I brought it home last May. Here's what it looked like when I removed the tree from the container:

The tree is mostly healthy, and there weren't any signs of root rot from all of the rain we've been having. I cleaned and trimmed the roots...

...And repotted in a mix of Redwood Soil Conditioner, peat moss, and perlite (4:1:2) with a bit of 10-10-10 slow release fertilizer and dolomite lime thrown in.

 

There is new growth all over the tree but unfortunately, most of them are covered in aphids. I will be applying a paraffin spray to the tree today.

Lastly, my little younger sister is arriving today from the east coast, so tonight I'll be closing out my birthday celebrations with her by making Meyer Lemon Bars (and maybe a few more margaritas).

I almost forgot! I picked my first ever home-grown flowers! These Hyacinths make the whole house smell lovely. The lazy susan you see there was another of my birthday purchases. I've always wanted one...

Harvest Monday

It's Monday again? Where did the time go?

For my Harvest Monday participation, I snipped a lot of cilantro, and my first Green Arrow Pea pod.

My cilantro came from the left bucket. I'm letting the right two go to seed for coriander...

 

Apparently the fungus gnats have invited aphids to live in the cilantro, so I soaked the leaves to remove them (I get plenty of protein in my diet, thank you). Gave the clean leaves a ride in the salad spinner, chopped, and froze. I harvested about a cup of chopped cilantro.

  

These babies tasted great!

 

Happy Monday!