Friday, May 22, 2009

Garden update - May 22, 2009

Dinner tonight: Grilled southwest chicken salad. All the lettuce freshly cut from the garden. Dressing made with chives and parsley from the garden.

Nothing tastes better than eating the little guys that you've been watching grow from little seedlings.

I need to get one of those harvest tracker thing-ama-bobs because I'm meticulously weighing anything I cut/harvest from the garden (not herbs, but veggies, which has only been lettuce/greens thus far). I'm sure that will get hard to track once the tomatoes start up, as we pop so many little ones as a snack when hanging outside and just pick and give away over the fence.


Anyway, here's some pics from the past day or two of what's been shaking/developing. The lilacs finally bloomed - the scent is fantastic! We went from a late frost to mid to high 80 temperatures in the same week, and I think it took a minor toll on some of the plants, but all seem to be doing okay.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Green in the wrong kinda way...

Two of my friends who live up the block have an empty lot next to their house. Their father owns the empty lot, and they just put in a huge garden today. And when I say huge, I mean HUGE.

I am super jealous, and openly told them that. Their aunt and cousins were helping them put it in, and I think it is going to be more of a family kind of garden, but...did I mention it is HUGE? I swear it is bigger than my whole yard.

I can't believe I have garden envy like this. Sad, sad, sad.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Plea for Help

Ever get started looking for one little thing, and then you find a great forum, and then BOOM all of a sudden it is 3am and you still don't know if you can move your strawberries or how to do it, but you have about 8,000 new ideas for your garden and the wheels are turning because you're trying to think of where you can put this great new thing you just HAVE to grow?

Um, so it happened to me. OK, it's happened to me a lot. And it happened again last night. Sigh.

Anyway, in the week and a half since I last posted, a lot of stuff has started coming up and making itself known in the garden. Other stuff...not so much. I am doing a square foot gardening (kinda) thing, and still have two completely empty boxes, which is especially good since I always SUCK at succession planting and this way I will have some space to play around at the end of summer.

So here's the stuff I have questions on:
1) I gather that I cannot move my strawberries now (just planted them last year). However, is it okay for me to pluck out some of the daughter plants/runners that have rooted to transfer to a pyramid box set-up I'm building?

2) And if so....with the strawberry pyramid set up, I get the nesting doll thing with the box sizes. But do I fill the WHOLE bottom box with soil/compost/sand mix and then put the next box on top? I feel like that is wasting all that soil under the second box. I can't find a straight answer.

3) Is there a chance that the sunflower seeds I meticulously harvested from my rockin' flowers last summer/fall won't take this year? I planted a bunch today, and am now in fear that they won't grow for whatever reason and I'll be sunflower-less. I guess I can wait and see, but wonder if there are any odds for that kind of thing.

4) Our birdfeeder is currently right in the garden. We can move it with some effort, if we need to. Will the bird poop adversely affect the soil/plants? what about the leftover seed/feed that spills out? Just wonder if I need to move it for the benefit of the garden.

5) I want to start a compost pile. I'm thinking in the back of the yard, by the fence and the garden. I'm wondering if compost piles smell really bad. I know, I know, logic would dictate that they do. But just curious. I want it close to the garden, but don't want to have a stinky pile of compost spoiling my fake nature retreat.

6) Everyone's lilacs are blooming in town, except for mine. WTF? It is really annoying me as I cruise through town and smell the blooms, see everyone's pretty purple and white flowers, and come home to my shriveled looking whatever the heck is on there. Picture below, let me know if anyone has any insight.

Overview of them behind the swing. There are 4 bushes total.

Close up of the "blooms" - are they just not ready to burst open yet? Or is there something going on here?

Ditto to the above caption.

7) My raspberry canes, planted last summer, multiplied over the fall/spring. I pulled out a ton of the little scraggly ones, but some of the sturdier, thicker ones I have left. Will these become regular canes and produce fruit? The stalks aren't wood-like yet, like the canes I planted last year, but I am thinking this is just how these things work, right?

WHEW.

OK, so if anyone has any insight of any of these questions, I'd appreciate it!

OK.

 
design by suckmylolly.com