Been a long couple of days... laid out a bunch of new topsoil onto my 3 beds (2 big wicker, 1 "end of garage" tomato patch, 40 bags in all), and then transplanted my 26 tomato plants and 12 pepper plants. Also put in a few flowering shrubs to help attract the bees a bit more. Amazingly enough, all of my swiss chard from last year is now FULLY FUCKING GROWN. How...!?!?!? I also had a bunch of wild lettuce patches here and there, scattered due to it going to seed or birdshit... whatever, I transplanted it all and have about 2/3 of a row beside the swiss chard, and it's about 50% grown. Crazy. Tomorrow will be planting all the stuff from seeds... cucumbers, radishes, carrots. Basically my goals from my gardens are to load up on peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil. Swiss chard is awesome, as is lettuce, but it's secondary. I can practically live on peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil for the summer. Every night is a charcuterie night... just toss in some cheese, meat, olives, olive oil, balsamic. Can't wait.
@Nettdata You were busy today! Is that your swiss chard from last year? So it can withstand Canadian winter? I am optimistic about mine, then. I may plant some more at the end of summer to have in early spring since I only have about 6-8 plants now. I did some plantings today. Last 4 peppers and replaced a tomato that got eaten at the soil level. Something ate the outside stem and just the fibrous middle was left. It was getting worse and worse so I snipped it and put it in water. It had little root knots all over so it should root well, and was the only yellow brandywine I kept this year. I planted a few more san marzano tomatoes against the coop, threw some more duck run compost on the potatoes, placed some potato traps out, and harvested peppers, kale, and some brussel sprout leaves. I am keeping close notes on planting dates, germination dates, and problems encountered. This season is off to an earlier, more productive start and I'm hopeful that next season can begin even earlier if I can plant the right things in fall. Carrots, turnips, rutabaga, garlic. There will be a lull for a couple months in late winter and early spring, but I am hoping I can save enough here or there to have things to pull out each week.
Part of it stayed green all winter. Snow, ice, whatever, there was a hint of green. It's the same plants I had in there last year. I was worried that the ones that survived the winter would taste like shit, so did up a quick sautee to test, and I'll be damned it isn't just as tasty, if not more so, than it was last year. I had no idea it would survive and regrow over the winter. I selectively harvest leaves though, so there was a full bulb and lots of stems still left on the plant when the season ended, but I figured it would just freeze and die and be pulled out in the spring when I planted new seeds. I'll take a pic tomorrow and show you.
My potato traps work quite well. Pillbugs love them. I'm sure it isn't even putting a dent in their population overall, but it gives them something to target rather than my plants. I've seen thousands on them everywhere on my property, especially around the duck area/rotting straw (they are growing their own food!) and the compost buckets. I am fairly certain they ate up the roots of a couple kale, and I suspect they were behind the root level damage of my tomato I had to pull. Gardening thread meet homesteading thread, sorta. Was trying to embed these but I'm having difficulty. https://i.imgur.com/fKJV4Qb.mp4 https://i.imgur.com/brOQuDj.mp4
Yep, and scoop out the middle a little. I use them til they are gone, took about 7-10 days last time. So I put more out this time.
I am anticipating squash bugs very soon. They start emerging when it is warm, usually late May to early June. They fucked my shit up last year and my zucchini couldn't recover. I was overrun, the damage was bad, and I couldn't control it in time. So, I am checking the underside of leaves daily and just put a bug zapper out there. The bugs can fly and may be attracted to it, so it's worth a shot. Every bit helps. They can lay a lot of eggs very fast.
I noticed I had some potato plants coming up, apparently I missed a couple last year or they slipped in with the compost. Either way, I went ahead and planted the remainder of last years’ spuds. Additionally, I had a bag of Russett potatoes that were sprouting. Those, I took across the road to plant in a pile of rotting chicken litter and hay. Essentially, a giant compost pile on its own. If they grow, awesome. If not, nothing list. I have the rest of my stuff ready to plant, but the rain put a stop to that. Happily, my new compost setup is working well. I have it another stir today and could feel the heat coming off of it. I need to add additional sections so I can move the material as it breaks down.
Got any tips about growing potatoes? I grew some reds in bags. Time got away from me. They are already flowering and I didn't get to "hill them" (adding soil/compost each week as they grew) as much as I planned. I'm super curious about what my yields will look like when everything is said and done. Later, I'll be planting fall crops in the potato bags.
So something I read made me google praying mantis egg sac. Turns out, I have them all over the place. I've scrapped numerous ones off window casings and the deck. Oops. Wonder if they still hatched. I knew they had to be some kind of insect but didn't know they were from the praying mantises. Some have hatched, at least. I saw one small one in my melons by the front door already this year.
Other than "Stick them in the ground and watch them grow," not really. I don't have enough room to significantly hill them, but I'll either add more compost or cover the beds in straw, just to retain moisture. But honestly, I couldn't kill a potato plant if I tried. They pop up out of compost, or wherever an animal buried one... it's funny, really.
So, it's not the full-on garden that others have, but finally got most of my herbs and veggies potted and outside. However, I'm pretty sure my one tomato plant isn't going to make it so I might have to get another starter to replace it. Still have a couple of pepper plants to transplant, but I should be able to get those done over the weekend.
Just put the tomato plant in a much much larger pot, bury as much of the stem into the soil as you can, fertilize/water it, and you might be surprised. They need a ton of roots and water to make the fruit, and all the little fuzz on the stem turn into roots when buried to help with that.
Thanks, I have a couple of larger pots that I was planning on transplanting both into, so I'll give that a try first before chalking that one up as a loss. Just need to get some more potting soil since I went through all of mine moving into the current pots.
Yay weather. Just had to bring my basil in from outside as it doesn't handle cold well, but we'll see how the rest of it does. Ugly weather again for a while.
Sucky weather. Did you already plant the tomatoes and peppers? I had to place more potato traps in the bags with snow peas and beans. Something has been munching on my emerging beans and I noticed several pillbugs attached to the base of a bean seedling that was badly eaten up. I'd love to let the ducks loose in my garden because they are fantastic foragers, but they like to eat the plants, too.
Yep... they seem to be doing fine... despite high winds, glaring sunlight, and now cold and driving rain. I seem to have something eating the leaves on my peppers though, not sure what that is... but I've sprayed them down (for all the good it'll do in the rain) and will keep an eye on that. That being said, I already have little peppers growing on the transplants... like, half a dozen a plant. It's insane how fast they're going right now.
That's awesome. I'm glad it hasn't set you back too badly. I have lots of little peppers too. The first ones were a little small so I just fertilized everything really well this past week. I'm usually pretty bad about applying fertilizers but am trying to be better this year. My sister is tentatively scheduling a trip out here inn late June/early July. I would love to have beautiful fresh produce to feed them while they are here. Really wondering if I'll still have kale by that point, or if it will begin bolting. I think an extra layer of mulch is in order. Thinking if I can keep the roots relatively cool that will prevent bolting.