Thank Garden it's Friday!

Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:36 pm

Which means tomorrow is my Gardening Monday.

I *was* going to build a new compost bin ... now I might not and go straight to making my worm bin first.

Either way, I have got to get my seedlings started and my salad table started this weekend ...

Any harvesting / fall planting plans this weekend?

Mon Sep 26, 2011 1:53 pm

Continuing talking to myself - I got pretty much nothing done on the weekend. Kid activities took up the bulk of it.

It did rain a lot so my pickle barrels got rinsed with rain water. Dumped it out on the bushes and lawn as I don't have enough skeeter covers or neighborhly goodwill to leave them out and about.

Whole Foods (had one of those group-discount coupon things) was handing out carrot seeds, picked up a pack (donation to some local gardening fund raiser).

Drove down to expensive stuff store and bought gen-u-wine milk crates. Found out I can fit six in the trunk of my runabout (no cargo carrier yet).

Then, last night, in a half dream, I was grousing about the price of the milk crates and trying to think of easy cheap alternatives (I need mobile, easy, table-residing gardening) and came up with making tubes of about the same size out of hog fence or chicken wire.

Next weekend is all driving again so I'll have to get some planting done during the week or early "monday" morning before we hit the road.

Thu Oct 06, 2011 3:28 pm

Got an email reminder from my local natural centers to start our fall gardens. Eeep! Aside from buying up my supplies I haven't done even a third of what I'd planned.

But. I have a guaranteeed Sat and Sun morning free and I'll be potting my little hands off.

1. Blueberry bush. I have that 20" pot to put it in - need some coir to mix with the soil and half-composted mush.

2. Heel in the citrus trees if they arrive. Probably keep in a cool indoors place until next weekend and hope for the best.

3. Finally xplant those tomatoes and starter onions.

4. Start carrots and lettuces and kale direct seed.

5. Start vine plants in tray.

Other things to do:

[*]hoe under the bushes to get up weeds and re-pretty the mulch
[*]find a couple more big pots for the hazelnut bushes on order
[*]repot some aloe and split my office spider plants
[*]blowtorch the weed crack in the drive

Thu Oct 06, 2011 3:29 pm

gah, bb [*] doesn't work

and there's no edit on this block

Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:23 am

Nuked the front porch tomatoes, the two I didn't save had a white frothy thing spread on the stems. We will see if the two stems I repotted survive.

Saved 1 strawberry, cut back & repot stevia. Split up a spider plant, repotted a few aloe. Rescued a couple of wild tropical somethings from the lawn mower - see if they survive. Some tree thing with green on the top of the leaf and purple on the underside.

Tomorrow I'll plant carrots and lettuce and start the other veggies. Want to pot the fruit trees ... Maybe.

Bought a couple of star fruit to try; if they're yummy I'll pick up a tree at the big box store.

Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:57 am

White frothy thing might have been spittlebugs. I just wipe them off with my hand (after putting on gloves, of course. :lol:

) They can also be washed off a plant with a spray from the garden hose.

Sun Oct 09, 2011 2:10 am

Just looked that up. Cool! Well, not thatcool; we have a big ag area just west.

It did rub off when I smeared it ; I'll know next time to smear it all. I didn't want to compost it so I pit it in the regular trash.

Tue Oct 11, 2011 12:19 pm

One tomato is looking a little wilty (but putting out a top flower!) the other is okay. Right now they are just balanced in potting soil - topped with some tree shavings (rabbit bedding from store) and still watered.

Water obviously pours out of the bottom of the milk crate - it's a 'real' one with a holey bottom, not the cheapy ones from the big box stores. Also square instead of rectangle. I'll persuade someone to lift up the whole bag of dirt (lined with weedblock) and stuff some newspaper under there.

Strawberry is coming back.

Must raid the neighbor's discarded bamboo before bulk pickup day!

Tue Oct 11, 2011 1:17 pm

Baby trees are looking good. No rain scheduled for this week so no plans to pot them yet. Soak them 2x daily in water per instructions, and have them propped in a bin of damp newspapers at an east facing window. House lizard has taken up residence with them and the blueberry.

Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:40 pm

Baby trees still looking good. Probably pot them this weekend. I think my two blueberries will cross pollinate, if not, the one I can return will be returned.

Tomato cuttings looking iffy - I'll give them a few more days. Meantime I bought one (or two? probably one) starter plant for bitty indeterminates and will plant it with more onions this weekend.

Also going to finally start carrots and lettuce - last weekend was a bit crazier than I thought. Need to start my squashes and peas, at least in starter pots.

I wonder if I can scavenge enough wood for a potting table or worm farm ...

Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:39 pm

Sooo sore today ...

Planted a lot of starter plants and seeded some direct-sow veggies.

Ended up with the trees in milk crates.

More to come - need to start beans before it gets too cold (nights are down to the 60s already - may be too late?).

The cut tomato I tried to repot did pretty well - dozens and dozens of root starts but i needed the pot so in the compost pit it went.

Wed Oct 19, 2011 3:01 pm

Well, got some more direct-sew veggies growing - it was raining yesterday so I piled the dirt and pot soil into a bunch of ready planting containers and loaded them up with seeds this morning. I'll go home at lunch and cover the direct sow seeds with wet paper towels and a bit of dirt, then pop the lid on the starter plant box (bought a "jiffy kit" that I can reuse with paper pots next round).

DS - carrots and lettuce and kale. Will sow more pots when I see sprouts or two weeks from now.

started - several squash, an egg plant, some melons and peppers; lots of snow peas and a few onions (I don't know where my starter bulbs went :()

.

Left to pot before the weekend: two pepper plants (soil bags sewn) and some more herbs.

Wed Oct 19, 2011 3:02 pm

fjaksfjdsk;ljfd;sljkfdsjalkf edit button!

Direct-sow, direct-sow I do know how to spell but "sewing" up garden bags for the garden I'm "sowing" has my fingers boggled.

Also need to make a potato bag, the potatoes on the counter didn't get used in time and are eyeing me ...

Also need to start worm box auuuuuuugh this week is not going in the direction I would prefer ...

Wed Oct 19, 2011 7:27 pm

Tilde, I love watching you have this conversation by yourself. I read this regularly, just thought I'd let you know. Keep it up!

Thu Oct 20, 2011 1:31 pm

Thanks, Stella. I figure I have a few lurkers given the read to post ratio on this thing.

Think I figured out a watering plan for zipping out of town if needed, phew.