Wordy Wednesday - Garden Update
How does your garden grow? And to think I originally entitled this Wordless Wednesday! Ha!
I am so sad that my green beans and French beans aren't coming up at all. That said, my kohlrabi went wild (and was the first up) - they're the ones in the middle. I think I'm going to try to thin them and replant in another egg container. Any thoughts as to how to help them survive?
I also planted tomatoes two weeks after the other ones - both Roma and Beefsteak. They came up quickly and successfully; I put only 2 seeds per cube.
I neglected to read the instructions for carrots: plant them directly to the ground so their roots grow straight. Oops. Crooked carrots will still taste good, though, right?
My "herb" mixture is coming up well. It's all sorts of chives and basil an such.
Only one of my peas sprouted. I'm debating growing another one. It was so cool to watch it pop up. For awhile it looked like Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors. I was actually concerned that I had done something wrong when the peapod part (at the bottom) started popping out from the soil; I thought I'd planted it too shallowly. Unfortunately, I also noticed that one of my cats ate the first leaves to pop up. I think I need to find a way to protect them from not just the outdoor vegetation theives but the indoor ones, too!
With the weather still wet and chilly here, I haven't put them outside yet (thanks to those who explained what hardening means). Once we get into the 60s in the day, I'll start putting them out during the day.
My next step is to thoroughly weed the patch that will be the garden. It was somewhat clean, but all the rain we've gotten has sprouted everything you could possibly imagine there. At least the soil is soft, right?
What else should I be doing?
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7 comments:
Almost every state has master gardeners that are on hand to answer calls with gardening questions. So if you think of anything you need to know, you can always try that route for help too.
I'm sad that we're moving in June and won't be able to plant much until the fall season (but yay for the South having a looooong growing season!). I'll live vicariously through your garden updates.
If you have a list of questions, I can email them to my mom- she's a master gardener. No joke. :) I think they look pretty decent! I am jealous, I really want to do a garden but failed last year.
Claire - We do have Extension offices in Illinois with master gardeners, but .. I don't know how they work (yet). That's a good reminder to use a resource that's there. I feel badly that I know so little though!
Heather - You know I may take you up on that one. Gotta love resources like that. Fortunately the cost of failure is cheap since seed packets are so inexpensive. Try again this year?
I still have to weed my garden plot. I'm not ambitious enough to sprout my plants from seed, I cheat and get plants from the garden center.
Tara - Glad I'm not the only one. It's raining again today, so no weeding but more weeds sprouting. Ugh. I can't buy the plants from the garden center though - too much guilt when they die. The seeds were easy though, and so much cheaper. Because I am cheap! :)
When I tried planting beans that were more than a year old, they didn't grow. Maybe with beans you have to plant them the same year as they were bought in the store.
When a bean or pea starts to sprout, first it sends down a root. Then it sends up a stem with the first leaves. The two halves of the bean/pea are like a backpack holding food in it for the plant (I tell the kindergarteners that when they start bean seedlings held up by a wet paper towel in a glass jar.) Those two sides of the pod or bean are the "baby food" for the plant, full of the perfect nutrients. It eventually rises above the surface of the soil as the plant grows, and it still provides nutrients for the plant until it shrivels up and the plant gets all its nutrients from the soil.
Actually, I've given up on starting from seeds--I just buy the plants I want at the nursery or Home Depot-type store. They're already several inches tall and have a well-established root. system.
I'm learning along with you from all your great blogging gardening buddies here...
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