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June 30, 2010
Early morning pruning
Looks like my onion turrets are flower buds. I'm looking forward to seeing them grow. I'm not so sure about these mushrooms.
For the first time I'm pruning my tomatoes severely. I'm trying to keep the gap between the soil and the square foot strips clear of vegetation so there's good air circulation around the base of the tomatoes. Everything is just so lush it seems I'm pruning my tomatoes at least twice a week.
Pruning is also supposed to promote more fruit. Right now my goal is to avoid fungal diseases, which my mature plants are prone to in the Fall. This is the first time though I've actually seen mushrooms, cup mushrooms to be exact, form under my tomatoes. Not all mind you. Just the Black Cherry tomatoes.
I need to identify them and research their effect, if any, on tomatoes. I'm also ambivalent about severe pruning on ALL of my tomato plants. I planted a variety so their growth habits are really different. I wonder if different varieities call for different approaches? The only exception is Tiny Tim which is so compact and well mannered, it doesn't appear to need anything at all from me. At the very least, the pruning helped the sun loving interplantings of basil. I've got four varieties so far. Pictures will follow along with an attempt at pesto.
Which reminds me, I need to find a really good way to start preserving my herbs. This weekend I made melt and pour glycerin soaps with spearmint. I just chopped some spearmint, freshly picked of course, and blended it in with the glycerin. The soap turned a lovely green, saponfies nicely and releases the mildest of scents. Next time I think I'll add some essential oil.
June 28, 2010
Part of my daily
Everything I've read suggests the closer the garden is to your front step the lower your chances of neglect. Surely that's true. But I've never found negative reasons very compelling. I visit the garden several times a day, sometimes for hours, because I love it. Not because I need to maintain it. I didn't grow up picking lettuces for sandwiches or snipping chives for omelets or chopping spearmint for soaps. So this "now what can I use this for" is a fresh, new experience for me. There's also some new weirdness going on every day in this small space. A strange mushroom, an odd growth habit, a new bug. My small crop of onions, for example, have started sprouting these:
...and these!
So this view from my bedroom keeps me going out there. And since planting isn't a one shot deal, there's always something to check. Did the lavender seeds sprout? How is the second planting of peas coming along? Should I plant more corn or give the stragglers a bit time?
The learning is not just coming from the garden. We leased a small part of our back plot to a grower who is furnishing fresh herbs and veggies to a local organic restaurant. From her dad I learned how to pinch back basil and prune tomatoes. When I shared my crazy "no till" scheme to grow corn, he said, ah yes, that's called lasagna gardening. Lasagna what? Sure enough, there's a book out there called Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza. I picked it up for my birthday. If I can ever let go of The Seasons on Henry's Farm by Terra Brockman, I'll consume it heartily as it looks like a great read.
Final note, on my birthday my 14th year old stepson Logan and I planted sunflowers against the garage wall using what I now know to be the lasagna method. That Logan took over the planting and then remarked "it was a fun way to spend the day", was birthday present enough for me. And look what Daddy brought home!
June 25, 2010
Square Foot Gardening
It's been awhile. Okay, a long while. But I'm back with new projects, chief among them a brand new square foot garden.
So what does gardening have to do with knitting? Not much, not yet. Although I do see a dye garden in my future. Like knitting and spinning, gardening is something I've always wanted to pour myself into. If homesteading had merit badges, gardening is yet another badge. Like knitting and spinning, it's a huge slippery slope of learning adventures. Which is why I find it so compelling. Whoever took up spinning and just stopped at one fiber, one technique, one wheel even? So here goes...
Although I've done square foot gardening before, this is the first time I've maintained this many boxes so close to my front door. After playing around with different organizing schemes I came up with box names and ABC 123 designations. The idea behind this is that I could add a record marked Tilly B3 – Lemon Verbena and write a journal entry that I could easily track back by box and location for the following season. In the case of Lemon Verbena, I want to grow tons more. Having kept records on its growth habit and what I can use it for, I have something to base next year's decisions on.
For example, let me introduce you to Tillie. Tillie is my herb garden, or rather my "introduction to herbs" garden. Besides the dried up herbs I buy at the supermarket I know very little about herbs. I planted Tillie on May 25th. I'd love to say I raised the seedlings myself but no. Not this time. I bought all my herbs at Countryside Nursery. I chose them based on how pretty they looked, how familiar their names sounded and their smell. Having bought plants instead of seeds enabled me to choose them based on my senses rather than a description in a seed catalog. Not a bad approach for a newbie.
It's hard to resist filling up the whole square. Gardens always look so wimpy when you first set them up. Just one month later...
This is what Tillie looked like this morning. The only plant that hasn't spread is the Dwarf Lavender. I want more Lavender, much more, so I planted a different variety, 'Lady' Lavender, next to the Dwarf. Seeds this time, not plants.
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