Sunday, January 29, 2012 0 comments By: Nerdular

Busy day!

I did a lot in the garden today! Scott helped. :)

  • Planted another round of seeds: tomato, pepper, eggplant, lavender and basil
  • Majorly thinned the existing seedlings
  • Laid cardboard around the perimeter of the new beds and weeded
  • Dumped a bag of some natural gardener compost in the rear raised bed
  • Watered the cardboard and beds
  • Went to the nursery down the road for onions, wandered around admiring and testing* plants for at least a half hour, came home with shallots, 4 strawberry plants, a russian red kale, a lemon thyme, and a lettuce (no onions)
  • Went to Home Depot for mulch, found onion sets! Also finally found the soil testing kits!  (Last time I asked, they acted like they had no clue what I was talking about.)
  • Mulched over most of the area (need more mulch, plus some good black mulch for on top of the beds)
  • Planted everything mentioned above (minus the shallots, need to research!) in the way we were shown in class; gently massaged the roots, made a few pricks with a sharp point where necessary (the thyme plant had some pretty serious roots, but I wanted it too much to not buy it!)
  • Watered some more
  • Admired the work!

    * testing plants:  Paige taught us, while we were planting the bed, how to look for good transplant candidates. If the plant roots are coming out of the bottom, or look like they have completely overtaken the bottom, that's generally a bad sign; the plant will probably take a bit longer to establish itself than one that isn't so root bound. There were a lot of plants like that at the nursery!

    The coming weeks should be busy, busy, busy. I plan to get a rainwater collection set up soon, hopefully a DIY/cheap solution. We will be learning about it in class, thankfully! I am also keeping a very close eye on all my plant babies. It's been so nice and warm during the day that they get a lot of time outside. I've moved a few (a tomato, a pepper, a cucumber, and an onion; plus the new strawberry planter) to pots and am keeping them in the greenhouse, sort of as an experiment (but mostly because I have no room for them otherwise!) So far they're still alive, and we're going on day 4 or 5.

    I will post photos soon! I just downloaded the Blogger app to my phone; hope it doesn't suck. ;)
    Saturday, January 28, 2012 1 comments By: Nerdular

    Citizen Gardener: class one

    My first of 3 citizen gardener classes was this morning. I enjoyed it!  We built (and planted) a raised bed garden which will serve as the kids' garden at In.gredients -- the USA's first package-free grocery store, coming soon!  We also built a compost pile out of wood palettes (why didn't I think of that?!)

    I already have a compost pile and a couple 4'x4' raised beds, but I still managed to learn a lot today! I learned about what kind of soil is best here in Austin (sandy! no mel's mix!), how to best utilize the space in square feet, how tying string around upholstery tacks is WAAAY easier than the retarded looking grid I made for my first bed (and how to better assemble the bed, for that matter: my first bed is pretty retarded looking, so the second was purchased premade!) I am looking forward to trellis building next week!

    On top of that, I learned a lot about plants and their relation to the sun here in Austin.  I learned how to plan according to the sun angle (just googled this site), how the sun moves in this area and changes with the seasons, and how plants are affected by its position.  I was happy to start to understand this stuff and I really need to study it more! I also learned a little more about companion planting and placing plants so that some can shade others. This is something I have been studying a lot lately as I plan my Spring beds, a process that seems to be taking WAY too long, but the perfectionist in me is showing!

    One other thing I learned about plants is that, in Austin, our Spring season is short, so we should be using veggie varieties that have "70 days or less" to maturity.  I hadn't paid much attention to this! I also learned how to best transplant and plant seeds. I can read as much as I want, but nothing beats seeing it in real time. :)

    We got a nice sized packet of information upon leaving that I have been looking through as I have had time throughout the day/night.  There's a list of vegetable varieties for Travis County that I wish I'd looked at before I started buying seed! ;)  It will come in handy if I end up needing to buy transplants.  I can tell this part, in particular, is going to go a long ways toward helping me finally get that Spring plan done:

    Plants that are OK in Partial Shade
    beets
    brussels sprouts
    cabbage
    carrot
    collards
    kale
    lettuce
    mustard
    parsley
    radish
    spinach
    turnips

    Plants that are OK in Alkaline soil (most of Austin)
    beets
    broccoli
    cabbage
    cauliflower
    leeks
    lettuce
    okra
    onions
    spinach
    swiss chard
    watercress
    new zealand spinach
    Friday, January 27, 2012 1 comments By: Nerdular

    Succession Planting Guide | Garden Guides

    Succession Planting Guide | Garden Guides

    Succession planting has been a bit more difficult to nail down than I expected. Mostly because I don't really know what to expect, given that I'm still (technically) in my first year of doing this, and last Spring I had NOTHING produce in my little 4x4' plot! I've got a lot of catching up to do. :)

    More links:


    Thursday, January 26, 2012 0 comments By: Nerdular

    late January update and to-dos

    I may have to give up on my onion seedlings. They're not doing so great.  I should've purchased sets/bulbs! I suppose it's not too late to do that. I'll have to make a trip to a local garden shop soon and hope I can find some. Worst case scenario: I have to plant something else. What a shame!  I have a box full of seeds, what ever will I plant?  (Beets, perhaps!) I will save that trip until after my first Citizen Gardener class, coming up soon! Really looking forward to it!  There will likely be at least one or two things I'll have to buy after that!  I need fertilizer, for one.

    My carrot, leaf lettuce, and spinach seeds (planted 2 weekends ago) have all sprouted.  We had a couple days of heavy rain/storms this week, so I was slightly worried about the tender sprouts, but they all seem to have fared well. As did the rest of what's currently growing: kale, collard, snap peas, lettuces, garlic, and cabbages (which seem to want to take like months to mature even though they're supposed to be "early variety" -- I think our unseasonably warm winter hasn't helped).

    Soon I need to support the peas a little better, trim some kale and collard leaves (both of which seem like they've been producing for months now!), and dig/amend the dirt up a bit more in the new beds.  Planting season isn't too far away!  I am surprised the peas have done as well as they have; they started flowering this past week.  I direct seeded them sometime in October, or maybe it was late September?  Or was in November? This is why I need to keep a journal now. ;)

    Heirloom Gardener had a great article on garlic in their Fall 2011 edition, which I only came across tonight. I'm glad I read it!  I planted garlic in late October but I really didn't have much of an idea about what I'm supposed to do with it since. :) I only have around 10 plants growing.  With the way we go through garlic, that might last us 2 months. Or less, since they're bound to be way smaller than the crap we buy at the grocery store!

    That's one thing growing my own food has made me aware of: how much supermarket veggies suck!  The abnormally large or unnaturally pretty things now creep me out a little.
    Friday, January 20, 2012 0 comments By: Nerdular

    plotting and planning

    #gardening

    Now sprouting: lettuce and carrots that I planted outside last weekend and the cucumber I planted in the seedling trays inside.  The outdoor spinach has not made an appearance yet, strangely.

    This weekend I plan to move some more of my tomato seedlings into individual containers because they're getting crowded!

    I just got the Mother Earth News garden planner (iPad app too!) and have been playing with that. Hoping it makes succession planting a bit easier to figure out.
    Wednesday, January 18, 2012 0 comments By: Nerdular

    Ode to the Pressure CookerI

    Ode to the Pressure Cooker

    I got one right before Christmas and have been singing its praises to anyone who might listen!

    https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/pressure-cooker-z10w0alt.aspx

    Get to Know the Wonder-Working, Timesaving Pressure CookerPressure cookers are useful in every kitchen, and help you save time, energy and money while providing better-tasting food. Learn how to choose a good model and how to read pressure cooking instructions.

    Growing Onions

    reading about onions and losing any optimism about mine growing this year. won't stop me from trying, though!

    right i am trying to figure out if/how i should prune my seedlings to space them, move them, or what! among other things. :)

    later this year, i will get some of these to try for sure.
    http://www.texas1015.com/
    Developed in the early 1980's by Dr. Leonard Pike, a horticulture professor at Texas A&M University, Texas 1015 Onions are actually named for their optimum planting date, October 15. Grown onl...

    Growing from Seed

    Good resource! I wish I'd read it before starting seeds, but it's early yet and if I need to start more I've got time. I love spending as much time as possible doing gardening things on the weekends. Once it warms up a bit, I'll be enjoying it more on weekdays too.

    This weekend I will probably move some lettuce and onions into larger containers to grow in. I still need to work out my exact plans with where to grow everything (and, the more difficult part: when it will be growing). I'll likely lose things and make more stupid mistakes along the way, but that's part of the fun, right?

    (Not really, but it teaches! Thank god for the internet!)

    http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/seed/
    The following are frequently asked questions from the Growing from Seed forum. Answers have been provided by other users and our staff. What is the dreaded damping-off disease? How do I prevent and/or...

    12/27/11: Seed storage

    https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/PSXFvEoajzX

    12/18/11: Gardening books

    https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/7weug6XGYS5

    12/11/11: Austin friends' favorite seeds for Austin weather

    https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/BpeH8C13PMY

    12/9/11: Entering the world of Baker Creek

    https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/dqYdBUB66Fm

    12/2/11: Hooray for rain!

    https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/EbRD342H5h9

    11/27/11: return from Thanksgiving vacation

    https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/DJShCNtqtCS

    Seed storage discussion 12/27/11

    https://plus.google.com/102792764821426862674/posts/PSXFvEoajzX