More plantings…

May 29, 2013

I mentioned previously that I have been moving more and more of my cool season vegetables out of the full sun/main garden into my shaded garden by the house.

I moved kale, which looked pitiful…then we had a 3 hour downpour and they perked right up. Next, I moved some lettuce (no rain since and I am unsure if it will rebound as well). I can tell the kale and lettuce I transplanted from my greenhouses have grown but only time will tell how long I can keep the cool season vegetables healthy.

Other things that have been done in the garden this week…

I transplanted some extra zucchini, yellow squash, and cucumber that sprouted. Since I have old seed, I plant extra seeds and many times I am pleasantly surprised by getting better germination than planned.

(cucumbers) (yellow squash)

Our watermelon finally sprouted! I planted more spaghetti squash in corn box 2 and all of the running beans around the corn are starting to pop out of the mulch! I also planted another section of snaps and lettuce.

Passing it on…

I got an idea from a website about ways for your child to earn money. One was for the child to plant a garden and then sell the produce to you. My 7yo was very excited about the prospect of making money so a week ago, she went through my seeds and I helped her plant a tomato plant, watermelon, running beans, cilantro, and lettuce. Some of her running beans and lettuce just started popping through the mulch! It is so much fun to see her excitement 🙂

(Here is my daughter’s garden. Top left of the garden, you can see a bean popping through the mulch. That was yesterday. Today SO many more have come through. Exciting!)

One of these days, I’m going to harvest something! You would think! I am thankful we are still getting lettuce and kale from winter plantings. I already miss our spinach and broccoli. Until then, I’ll just keep planting 🙂

I am linking back to Simple Lives Thursday…whenever we start harvesting, we’ll really be living the simple life!

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Transplanting Corn

May 28, 2013

When I planted corn, I had very old seeds. In one box, I put 2 seeds/hole and in the other I threw a lot in each hole, hoping to increase my odds. The first box had spotty germination but in the second box, I ended up with about six or so corn plants/hole.

(box 2 early on)

(box 2 at the time of transplanting)

They looked so good – I hated to waste them. I transplanted some into the first box to fill it in.

(box 1 – the tall plants are those transplanted. there are smaller ones from the original planting, just peeping out of the mulch)

I then raked back mulch & ripped up plastic & weed cloth in another section of the garden to create another corn patch.

(mulch raked back, tarp ripped up, corn plants transplanted – corn boxes to right)(up close of corn transplants)

With the plastic and weed cloth, the mulch was unable to condition the soil so it was pretty compacted. However, not wanting to waste the corn plants, I transplanted them anyway and put some chicken manure in that area as well. I probably should have dug some holes but I was trying to get it done quickly because when the baby is taking a nap, you only have so much time.

The corn still goes through droopy-looking spells but has not died yet! Even after all of that, I still had to thin some corn plants. I also planted running beans, pumpkin, and spaghetti squash in box two, as the corn plants are already getting pretty tall. The pumpkin and spaghetti squash are coming up strong and the beans are starting to sprout as well! I am attempting the three sister garden (corn, squash, beans) with the corn this year.

Has anyone else done a three-sister’s garden? How has it worked out for you? I am a little concerned that I have too many squash plants – that they will run out of room!

Bug update, Corn, and Harvest Monday

May 26, 2013

I mentioned that the bugs on the snaps have slowed down but wondered if it was from the cool weather and rain. Once it got hot again, I would only find one or two bugs/day. The snap plants seem to have gotten over the shock of being transplanted. Yay! However, the interesting news is that when they were transplanted, there was a row that was established and a row that was just popping out of the ground…the newer row has surpassed the established row, which, for a week or so, looked like they were just hanging on for dear life.

(snaps in center are established…just to the right they are just starting to pop through the mulch…just trust me on this 🙂 )

I mentioned previously that I made a homemade fertilizer (chicken poop & water – stir 2-3x/day for a week). Tonight, I went to take pictures of the beans so you could see the vast difference between the two rows (one was YELLOW and one was green) but…both were green! I guess the fertilizer worked!

(Plants on L were the established plants when transplanted. Plants on R were just popping out of the ground. You can see the plants on R have top growth that is uneaten & plants on L are slightly more yellow and have more bug bites. Lettuce is growing at bottom of photo. Carrots are growing between plants on R.)

I am thankful I stuck to the organic route of picking the bugs off, using chicken manure, and being patient while the plants got over the shock of transplanting and became healthier. I definitely see the temptation to just spray them with something though – it is disheartening to go through the planting process to end up having all of your plants being eaten by bugs.

Instead of focusing on the bugs, though, we should be focusing on getting the plants healthy so the bugs will not attack them. I mentioned before about how nature works: predators go after the weakest…the straggler, the old animal or the baby animal…bugs are the same! They go after the weak plants. If your plants are being attacked by bugs, figure out how to make them stronger! (most times it has to do with the soil)

It’s interesting to see the difference between the plants that had to be transplanted because of the weed cloth and those that did not. The snap beans that did not have to be transplanted are starting to get some blooms on them already while those that were transplanted are focusing all of their energy on getting stronger and getting over the bug attacks.

(from R to L. row of snaps, another (less healthy) row of snaps…next, at the top of the photo – can you see how those two (shorter) rows of snaps are MUCH bigger and healthier? Those are the ones that were not transplanted)

It is getting warmer, which means the bugs are coming out more and more. The kale is starting to get eaten (another example: kale is a winter veggie so when it gets warmer, it gets weaker, and the bugs attack…they never ate my kale during the winter or the cool spring).

I went ahead and harvested a grocery bag full of kale, a grocery bag full of lettuce, transplanted what I could, and threw the rest to the chickens. The kale is getting over the shock of being transplanted beautifully. Not so much with the lettuce

I am linking with Harvest Monday at Daphne’s Dandelions today. She is such an inspiration as to how she feeds her families and neighbors from her garden! Also linking to Simple Lives Thursday. Any day I am able to harvest from the garden instead of drive to the store is a good, simple day!