Vacation Before and After

We've been away on vacation for the past 10 days. My neighbor watered the garden while we were gone. Apparently he put some magical grow stuff on there along with the water because things have gotten out of control.

The ball of pea plants was so out of control that I had to buy a small trellis this morning. They were so twisted around each other that I couldn't separate them without tearing the stems. I untwisted them as much as I could and draped them around the bottom of the trellis. Hopefully they like it and grow up it themselves instead of taking over the green beans.

I had to do some thinning today. I'm feeling good about it now because it seems to have done wonders for the plants that have already been thinned. I also bought a small container of generic brand cayenne chili powder to use on the squirrels.

My basil and cilantro turned almost edible while we were gone. The basil is going to be delicious on our garlic/olive oil/fresh mozzarella/basil pizza!

And the cilantro is going to be fantastic in my salsa fresca!

New Supplies

trellis ($4.99 @ Meijer)

cayenne chili powder ($2.49 @ Meijer)

A Tale of Two Strawberries

A few days ago, I wrote about my one almost ripe strawberry and how excited I was to eat it. On Saturday, after I erected the chicken fence, I decided to leave it for one more day.

Mid-morning on Sunday I head outside to partake in that delicious strawberry only to find that it's gone! I think that answers my intruder questions. Obviously, it's squirrels because there's no way a rabbit climbed my 2 foot tall fence.

So, I go inside and pout about my lost strawberry while googling ways to murder...uh, I mean keep squirrels out of my garden. The solution that I could most immediately put into action was cayenne chili powder. Apparently, they hate the stuff. So, I take my chili powder out and start sprinkling. Did I mention that cayenne chili powder isn't cheap and I'm liberally sprinkling it over a box of dirt?

When I get to my cucumber square, I notice something weird in the dirt. Something bright red. There, in the squirrels' favorite digging spot is MY STRAWBERRY! So, to add insult to injury, the big jerk stole it, only ate half of it and then buried it less than three feet away!

You'll want to brace yourself for what I did next. I dug that strawberry up, brought it inside and washed it, cut off the end that had been nibbled and ate the rest! Oh, yes I did! I'm not proud but that was a seriously good strawberry!!

In far less interesting strawberry news, I had one today that was almost ripe enough so I went ahead and picked and ate it. Even though it wasn't fabulously bright red like the first one, it was still delicious! And, since I couldn't really make a ceremony out of eating the formerly muddy, half squirrel eaten berry, I celebrated this one.

Not So Helpful Helper!

Weekend Update

I did some more thinning today.

Also, due to the recent pest invasion, I bought some chicken fence to keep them out (not chickens, rabbits and squirrels). It's so tacky, but it should definitely work. That stuff is pretty stiff so in this picture, there's nothing (like nails) holding it to the box. It's simply standing there by itself. 

Last, I'm eating this tomorrow!

 

Planting Round 5

And it's the last round of planting until July when I plant my pumpkins! All I had to plant today was the last of my lettuce and I planted a couple extra cucumber seeds in my first cucumber square. This is why:

This cucumber plant represents all of my fears associated with thinning. I singled that guy out as the strongest...I was wrong.

Garden Invadors!

I think it's time for some fencing. I came home from work on Monday and my garden had been invaded worse than ever before. Oddly, whatever is digging isn't specifically digging up any of my sprouts. It's digging close to them in some cases but it doesn't seem to care about them at all. It did, however, take a taste of my strawberries and most of my biggest ones are now gone.

I'm trying to do some forensic investigation on those teeth marks to determine who the intruder is.

I'm hoping I can find a fencing solution that can be easily removed. I like to sit on the corner of the box frame while I'm working. Fencing could make that pretty difficult.

On the positive side, the ONE big strawberry that is left is getting really pink! I'm definitely going to have some sort of ceremony when I eat the first thing (hopefully this berry!) out of my garden.

Thinning Round 1

I did some maintenance today. First, I thinned out everything that I could at this point-- 4 peas, 2 beans, 2 cucumbers, 2 lettuce, 4 tomatoes and 1 cauliflower. Then, I put down the weed fabric under the strawberries.

Thinning was hard. Deciding which of three (or more!) good plants to keep was very difficult. I had no criteria to go by. I really hope I made good choices. There were two ways that I found to do it. First, I could pull the extras out by hand, root and all. Or, I could snip the extras off just at the dirt level. It seems like the second method is preferred so you don't disturb the roots of the plant you keep. So, that's the method I chose.

The peas and beans were the hardest. I started with two clusters of beans like this:

And I ended up with these two guys. Six down to two.

And my pea square went from twelve down to four.

I went from eight cucumber plants to two. My lettuce, tomatoes and cauliflower are still a little small and they were very small seeds so they have many more than three seedlings per hole. I thinned them down to three and will thin again once they get bigger.


I also thinned down my herbs. My basil is growing very well. I had probably 30 baby sprouts in my tiny little pot. I thinned that down a lot-- probably down to 10 or fewer.

My poor oregano is having a tough time. I watered it last week and within a few minutes all the sprouts in the middle were laying down and eventually just died. There are three left along the outside. I'm going to let them go for a few more days and then I might plant a few more seeds in the center.

My cilantro seemed just about right so I didn't thin it either. There was a proud moment for my cilantro this weekend-- it's getting its big boy cilantro leaves!

And last, but not least, I put the weed fabric down under the strawberries. I cut holes in it and pulled the strawberry plants through it and then staked it down with some stakes we had in the shed. I'm happy that the berries are out of the mud.

Last night was cold and frosty and I think tonight will be the same. I'll need to cover it up tonight again. Hopefully this is the last of frost.

Planting Round 4

Today I planted green beans in my "question mark" square. Because I got a little confused on my first round of planting, I ended up mixing up my peas and beans so now my bean squares are separated by a pea square and two weeks in planting date. My beans are my best growers so I know they'll catch up quickly.

I also planted my second square of cucumbers and my last three onions/scallions in my onion square. Cucumbers are good growers too. I'm thinking onions are one per plant. That makes me think I should plant a lot more. I read that they're good for mixing with other veggies so maybe I'll just spread them out in any empty spaces in the garden. I'll need to do some more research first.

I planted two mor lettuce and will plant the final two next weekend. I've learned not to put quite so many seeds per hole for lettuce because it has no problem germinating.

I planted cantaloupe today too. Finally. I had originally planned two per square but based on the seed packet directions, I just planted one in the cantaloupe square. I also plucked my former weed-buddies from the cantaloupe square.

Last, my broccoli is looking pretty weak. They all fell over and some of them shriveled up. I'm not sure what's up with them. They're still just barely holding on but I went ahead and planted a couple more seeds in my broccoli square. Sad broccoli.

The Great Cantaloupe Debacle of 2010

Debacle (dĭ-bä'kəl)
n.
A total, often ludicrous failure.

Yep, that pretty much sums it up. I'm going through my planting spreadsheet this morning to see what needs to be planted this weekend. Two lettuce...two more cucumbers...the last of the onions...cantaloupe. Wait...what? Cantaloupe? But, I've been proudly posting pictures of my glorious cantaloupe sprouts for weeks. How can that be? So, I check my seed packets to see if the cantaloupe seeds had been opened and therefore, planted. Nope.

Are you kidding me? I've been flaunting my super cute...WEEDS?! Cantaloupe is getting planted today. Hopefully I'll be showing the real sprouts off soon.

Snip, Snip

After some research, it looks like I definitely need to thin my plants down to one plant per hole. That makes me nervous and sad. I got 100% germination in my pea square-- 4 holes, 3 seeds per hole-- so that means I have 8 plants to kill!

My green beans are doing pretty great too.

I think they need to be a certain size before they should be thinned. My peas, green beans and cucumbers are definitely to that size. I'm not sure about anything else though. So, that's on the agenda for the weekend.

All four of my tomato squares showed up today. They're still pretty wussy but at least they're there. After talking to a couple people, I was about to head to Lowes to buy some tomato plants.

And now for the pest report. The whole garden is filled with ants. Filled. The dirt looks like it's moving, but it's not...the ants are. It's pretty gross. Online sources say it's okay though, as long as they're not making tunnels that are exposing any roots. Also, I'm not so sure it's the bunnies that are digging. I found a hole with a bunch of peanut shells around it. Bunnies don't eat peanut shells, do they? The hole was right next to my cucumber plant, but didn't seem to be aimed at the plant at all. I think they're just digging places to hide their goodies. Stupid squirrels.

More rain tonight. I could get used to letting Mother Nature take care of the watering.

Rainy Weekend = Sprouts Galore!

Broccoli:

Cucumbers:Peas: And, I put my herbs outside this weekend and probably for good. The cilantro is growing like mad!

Planting Round 3

I planted my jalapenos, cauliflower, watermelon and more lettuce this morning. I was out planting between raindrops again. Hopefully my garden loves the rain this weekend.

My strawberries are really starting to grow. They're even getting the tiniest bit pink. Goooo strawberries! Additionally, they're already bullying the squares around them. Just look at them hanging over the divider like they own the place or something!

You can also see the maple helicopters laying by the strawberries. Those suckers just don't stop coming down. I'm sure with the rain storms this weekend, I'll have my hands full picking them out of the garden. Also, the strawberries are getting heavy enough that they're starting to lay on the ground now. I suppose I need to lay out that weed fabric soon.

I have a little forest of lettuce and a second one starting at the other seed hole from last week. I dropped a few seeds in each hole as recommended by an online source. Maybe I went a little overboard with the lettuce seeds. I think I'm supposed to thin that down to one plant. Sad. So many potential salads in that lettuce forest!

Now for another shot of my pièce de résistance, the cantaloupe! I have two sprouts that look just like this. They're good growers and they're getting pretty big.

And this week's Least Helpful Helper Award goes to... Lars!

I'm pretty sure he's contemplating how he can turn it into a giant litter box.