Growing and Seeding

The weather has gone down a few degrees lately so I decided it's time to start the cool weather crops. The hot weather crops are doing alright, I suppose. With the cooler weather they don't take as much water and have not wilted at all recently. But, they do continue to grow.

Here you can see where the cucumber plant has grown over into the tomato area and is about to invade the basil plant.

I don't really mind it bothering the tomato; the silly thing has yet to produce one delicious tomato for me to feast on. It keeps blooming and blooming and blooming and blooming and blooming and NO FRUITING! I don't know what's it's deal, because I've seen pollinators. Both my cucumber and pepper plants have gone to fruit. Eh.












All that is exciting, but not as exciting as planting SEEDS!!!! WOOOOOOOO!

A few posts ago I think I said that I bought seeds from Seed Warehouse and was just waiting til the weather was right to plant them. I was bored yesterday and thought a productive way to procrastinate (oxymoronic, I know) would be to plant them.

Lettuce
I took one of my window boxes and made it just for lettuce. I have three different varieties and gave each a third of the window box. I planted about seven or so seeds for each variety to start out with. They recommend spacing lettuce about 6 inches apart.

• Organic Marvel of Four Seasons Butterhead: I don't know what is organic about it. The website also had non organic but what does it matter if you're just planting seeds? Whatever. Butterhead lettuces "have outer leaves that do not wrap tightly together but rather deveolpe an open, fairly flat rosette surrounding the inner leaves" (Vegetable Factory). So these are the floppy ones that aren't iceberg or romaine looking but still maintain a ball in the middle. The Seed Warehouse described this variety as having "stunning reddish leaves flaunting cranberry red tips with excellent flavor make this lettuce a must for your garden. If you are looking for a lettuce that is both attractive and tasty, this heirloom may be your choice." They also say it's a good container plant that will grow to 12-16inches in diameter and mature in 55 days. 
• Cimarron Romaine: A romaine lettuce, so long and skinny and delicious. This one is a deep-red color and is heat and cold resistant. Seed Warehouse says this is a good container plant that will mature to 10-12 inch long heads in 60 days. 
• Tom Thumb: This is a miniature butterhead!! It grows to the size of a tennis ball so cute. Seed Warehouse recommends growing these in containers and using them for individual salads. They also say they can grow indoors fairly well. Hmm... Matures in 50 days.

 I also do a window box just for leek. I think I put about 9 seeds in it. The only variety Seed Warehouse had was the Large American Flag Leek, and I think it's the most popular variety here in the states (go figure). If you've never used leek before, you are missing out. It has a sweet, mild onion flavor that does not over-power like green onion can. American Flag takes 120 days to mature, so it's very slow growing and sensitive to heat I think. I'm keeping mine in the shade mostly.

I popped three Super Sugar Snap Pea in with my cucumbers. The cucumber's root system has taken over the window box so I'm not so sure the peas will pop out. Sugar peas are easier than regular peas because you don't have to shell them, and that is why I got the sugar snaps. They mature in 66 days.

I put some Little Finger Carrots into the top of my strawberry pot. These are miniature carrots that grow no larger than 3 inches.  These are the true baby carrots; the ones you buy at the store are just shaved down large carrots. Little Fingers supposedly taste sweeter and have a deep orange color. These mature in 57 days, and I plan on planting them in waves in various pots.

I also transplanted the mystery tomatoes from the pepper plant pot to their own window box. They were just getting super leggy and in the way. I did not plant my Corriander/Cilantro because 1) I forgot 2) I didn't know what pot to put it in. Next time maybe. I also just remembered that I have some mesclun (baby greens) stashed somewhere that I need to plant as well. Oops.

Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be harvesting my peppers, which seem to have stopped growing, but aren't turning red, and perhaps a few cucumbers. And, goodness willing, I'll get to eat a tomato before it gets cold. In a few months I will be eating lettuce and carrots nomnomnomnom!!

Growing Cucumber

Reading Materials

Now that I've sent Anna her birthday present, I can tell you about the book I've been using.

The backyard Vegetable Factory: Super Yields from Small Spaces by Duane Newcomb


It's a little outdated, but very helpful. Newcomb goes through the entire process of creating a 25 square foot garden with helpful tips, scientific findings, and concise writing. He does not focus on the aesthetics of gardening, unlike many other sources I've seen.

Obviously, I'm not gardening on a plot of land. He has a small section on container planting, but the book is more useful for its explanation of how to garden. It's quite hard to explain.

The first 130 pages or so are about starting seeds, pests, planning, etc etc etc. The other half of the book is basically straight up facts. He profiles types of vegetables and describes their particular needs. There is also information on freeze dates, vegetable time range, and vegetable companion suggestions. It also has bibliography that I haven't gone into yet.

The book also has some very nice diagrams and illustrations, which really helps me out. The only section that the pictures didn't help out was for the pests. Even that wasn't because they were poor illustrations. Rather it was that the drawings weren't the same size as the actual creatures nor were they colored. So it's a bit of a mystery.

Newcomb also considers the gardener's environmental footprint AND her pocketbook. He supports the re-purposing of objects and wholly supports organic growing. His compost section is excellent.

There is a lot to say about the Vegetable Factory, but you really can't learn much from it if you don't read it yourself. It really is good.

Pick it up at Half.com for $1.13 (hardcover) at the time of this posting.

Enjoy

Who would have thunk?

After weeks of ridiculing it, the pepper plant is officially the first plant on the terrace to go to fruit.

This just nine days after I saw the first blooms!! A few more fruits are coming out, but this one is the largest. My book says most bell pepper varieties take 60-75 days to mature. I got mine June 28 as a seedling, meaning I've had it 83 days. Who knows how long it was growing at the nurseries. What a poky pepper! I guess it was mature when I saw the blossoms at 74 days. So really it's right on time...?

Now for some pretty pictures of the cucumber blossoms:

An Elephant Flys!

The Pepper Plant is blossoming. There are about 4 open a few more buds sitting around.

Pepper Plant Pests

The pepper plant finally has something interesting to look at.

Neither Nicholas nor I knew what they were. They look like little red ant-like things with long legs. Nicholas figured they were either Assassin Bug or Leaf Leg Bug nymphs (what comes after the larval stage but before they are fully mature). Apparently the two bugs are in the same family(?) and don't look much different from one another at this stage. After some interwebbing I concluded they were the Leaf Leg Bugs, before they have their leafy legs.

Click on Photos to Enlarge

Assassin bugs generally are lone creatures who stalk the stalks for other creatures to feed on. Leaf Legs gather together in wild packs, sucking the life out of leaves or burrowing into the fleshy parts of fruit. (Slight exaggerations). Assassin bugs are somewhat beneficial and leaf legs are not. I cut the leaf holding all the nymphs and tossed it over the balcony onto the nearby crepe myrtle. Hopefully they'll stay on it and not bother my planties.  

My plants have been as busy as me!

     School started a week ago but if feels like three times that. But in a good way. I've been doing a lot of art stuff and my plant's haven't needed much tending to. That's a good and bad thing. They have been growing like weeds though. Goodness!! I think the new balcony has a lot more sun in the mornings; roughly five hours of direct light in the a.m. and seven hours of indirect light the rest of the time. A HUGE wisteria vine (I should say tree) shades the balcony keeping the temperature down, and I've trimmed it so it still lets light in on my plants.

All the plants have grown a good bit. The pepper annoyingly puts out more and more leaves. No blossoms or anything that looks like it could become reproductive. I think it's a dud. The basil seems to have a 1.5ft radius, and is becoming more flavorful. I like to chew on it as a breath freshener, hahaha. The tomato has gotten super tall, one branch being at least 4ft tall and the other not much below it. It also has a dozen or so blossoms, a few of which look like they'll go to fruit (crossing my fingers).

Now the cucumbers...

... they've gone buck wild. Those leaves are about 5inches across. I've pulled three seedlings, but the others are thriving. They naturally used the balcony siding as a trellis, soaking up all the eastern light they can.

In this photo you can really see how they poked their leafy heads through and started growing! The window box  down there just seems empty. I put bits of shell in it as a pseudo mulch. I don't know if it actually works.

One of the plants is growing down. It's leaves aren't as big, nor is the plant as tall/long, but it's doing alright. People below might have to watch for falling fruits soon. The packet says they mature in 60 days, so I've got about a month more to wait.

I'm also waiting to plant some new seeds I ordered from Seed Warehouse. They had a fairly good selection and somewhat local (Georgia). I got several lettuce varieties, snap peas, cilantro/coriander, carrots, and leek. The one thing they didn't have was Bok Choy. I think it's still too warm to put them out. We'll see how long I can hold out.

Oh, and last but not least my strawberry pot! The oregeno is doing the best, practically flowing out of the pot. The sage and rosemary seem to be carrying on alright. One of the rosemary isn't getting as much light, since its on the other end of the porch.  I want to put it down stairs at our entrance, but rather wait til it was full. I just don't know what to put in it. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Strawberry Pot

The last weekend in June, Nicholas and I went to Petals from the Past near Birmingham, AL. They specialize in antique roses, heirloom shrubs and hard to find perennial flowers and herbs. I went there earlier in the summer and got some half-price seeds, including the lemon cucumbers. Nicholas got a whole mess of perennials.

This time Nicholas got another mess of perennials, and so did I! They were continuing their June Special of "Buy two, get one free" and had their pottery half off! Their pottery collection was pretty awesome and fairly priced to begin with. What caught my eye was the Strawberry Pots. They had 3, 3.5+, and 5 gallon strawberries. I picked up the last 3.5g for $21.00. Excellent buy.

I had to fill this pot with something, and since it ws buy two, get on free I picked up some herbs. I got a prostrate rosemary, sage, and oregano. A regular rosemary that Nicholas brought me from work also went into the pot.

I forgot to take pictures of the finished pot, which is super cute, but here is the putting together of it. Whenever using unglazed ceramic, soak the pot in water overnight. Ceramic absorbs water, which makes it really good insulator and excellent at regulating soil moisture, but if you put soil into a dry pot it the soil will quickly dry out. Because my pot was large and funky shaped I didn't soak it underwater, but wrapped a wet towel around it and filled as much of the pot I could with water. Every few hours I re-wet the towel.

The bottom three inches of the pot has soil covering it. In the center I stuck a sodabottle to conserve space/weight. Around the bottle and on the sides where roots won't grow are packaging peanuts for the same purpose. 

When transplanting, I shoved the roots through the hole rather than the leaves. Roots are more robust and its good to break up the rootball anyway. I water it every day from the top and each plants' hole and sometimes spray the pot with water.

I'm not sure what I'm going to put in the rest of the holes. Nicholas wants some mint, but it's not my favourite flavor (except on lambies..mmm). I thought maybe green onions or spinach/lettus. Or just some pretty flowers. Don't let the photos fool you, it's super cute! I'll take another picture when I get the chance.