17.6.10

Right in My Own Backyard - Buds & Flowers

Evidence of a Break in
Evidence of a break in
I was out in the garden for several hours a couple of days ago (Tuesday June 15) I had only planned to go out and do a little weeding, but it turned into what seemed like an all day thing.  Naturally, the weeding turned into a fluff fest, - Some of you will remember I’m obsessed with fluffing the dirt up even where I don’t even have plants yet I dont know -  and that turned into, “Oh, I’ll just lay out a few of these bricks,”  which of course led to planting.  Before I knew it, I was totally engrossed.   And even though by the time all was said and done I was feeling like I had been run over and then backed over by an 18 wheeler, I had the nerve to go and help my Daughter plant her garden!  Am I a sucker for punishment or what?  Oh and get this:  I was mortified when I had seen the dirt in the tomato and pepper plants I had given her looked like they hadn’t seen water since the days of Methuselah, and yet, one of the pepper plants had a little pepper on it!  If I had known that was going to happen, I would have kept that one for myself and given her another one.  She decided to take out her Rhubarb plant completely, of which I took quite a few of the stalks.  She has this plant that I’m sure is a potato plant, although I could be mistaken.  But the purple and yellow flowers and the little berries look just like what grew on my blue potatoes last year.  Anyway, I’ve got some updated pics of her garden too.  And, I’ll be making a Rhubarb cake – have you ever heard the like? – and  sharing the recipe later on.  Also, it turns out I was right about birds being the garden thieves.  I went out for a quick peek  on Saturday, and I caught one red handed (or is taloned?) flying off with a leaf.

Last Original Cantaloupe Plant
Last of the original cantaloupe plants
Most of what I’ve planted seems to look pretty good.  I have seen some flowers and buds popping up on the peppers, tomatoes and strawberries, and I got some herb seeds into my topsy turvy plants.  I did some pinching off on the tomatoes; not that there was much to pinch off given the size of the plants.  I learned about pinching off from this guy right here. Not everything in the square foot garden turned out, but I think it’s not doing too shabby.  I did notice though that the square that I marked as peppers on the chart has a plant in it that looks remarkably like the broccoli plant that’s sitting next to it.  So, it looks like I screwed it up somehow.  Maybe I should rename this blog "A Gardening Comedy”.  I notice that the carrot squares seem to really be slow growing, but I’m happy that at least they are growing.  I had tried carrots in my very first garden about a hundred years ago, and I was never able to have any success with them.  I tried a few times with seed and seed tape, but . . . nothing.  The cantaloupe is still “iffy”  I planted new seeds in the square foot section and in two of the cantaloupe mounds.  So far one mound is actually sprouting.  The one plant I had left  after the stealing episode still looks pretty much the same.  I’m not going to touch it though.

I have finished with my layout, or so I tell myself, and I only have a few empty spots to fill.  I think the south west corner will be beets.  and maybe some more broccoli.   And just to clear something up.  When I said that I had planted a half a row of yellow beans, I realized that people might think I meant just that; a half a row of beans.  Actually, I had created a section that ran from east to west which I referred to as a “row” and then I planted about 4 or 5 horizontal  (north / south) rows of yellow beans which took up about half of that section.  I’m updating the chart, so you’ll see what I mean. 

I was back at Canadian Tire yesterday.  I picked up a couple of chrysanthemums.  I got this idea from a raid commercial.  Apparently, chrysanthemums are good at killing bugs.  I also got myself a couple of sage plants; one common sage and one pineapple sage. I had never heard of a pineapple sage before, but boy does it ever smell nice.   They still want 3.99$ for a small strawberry plant though, and they’re really starting to look tatty now.  Square Foot Garden Gal got a sweet deal at 1.49$ from her local Canadian Tire.  I thought they were all supposed to do the same thing.  I dont know

Right, so here’s the updated chart,





the video



and the latest photo album.  Enjoy.


1 comment:

  1. Anonymous18/6/10 22:07

    You are doing are real great job, starting to be a pro... at it.

    Lester

    ReplyDelete