So, like I said, we went to Hoyt Arboretum on Memorial Day. It was a pretty consistent mist during the hike, and then a 5 minute deluge towards the end. We had a lot of fun though! Here's a few pics that I took.
Daniel & Kate
Bart & Christina
Me & Kate
Me
Christina
I hope to paint or draw this :)
Gonna try to paint or draw this too.
Horsetail/Snapgrass
Best climbing tree ever!
Squirrel!
We had rain most of that week and the sun has just now been coming out the last couple days with today reaching a high of 85F. My garden is doing pretty good. My basil is completely gone from what ever has been munching on it. Also I found out that the cucumber had bacterial wilt which is transmitted by a cucumber beetle. It must have gotten the wilt before I'd purchased it though cause I haven't seen any beetles like that and it was already pretty wilted even before I'd planted it. So I'm going to see about getting a replacement and hope that it does better.
The California Wonder bell peppers are looking better since I misted them with the garlic/chili powder infusion. The Devil's Tongue Romain in the planter is doing really nice and I've got a really healthy looking potato plant coming up too!
Devil's Tongue Romain Lettuce
Golden Yukon Potato
In other news: My son is coming to visit for 6 weeks of his summer vacation this Saturday. I'm very excited about that. He likes gardening too so I hope to get some great family photos of us working out there together! Great timing too, since I'm starting to get more weeds since the rain - everything started growing more ha ha! That's about all to report. Thanks for reading!
It's been raining like crazy the past week or so. Really wish I had a rain barrel so I could make use of that water this summer! Oh well, I'll get one for next year for sure!
Pests! I've put crushed egg shell down to deter the slugs. So far that seems to be doing the trick. They were especially interested in my dill plant and it's already looking less droopy and less munched on. I'm pretty sure I've got flea beetles that are making a meal of one of my California Wonder pepper plants. I need to make a concoction of water and chili powder that I read about online to spray on it. Hopefully get to that today. Something has completely chewed up my basil plant. I wonder if it's the cats... Has anyone heard of cats eating basil? It's too much damage to be something small and putting eggshell around it didn't make a difference...
Other than the pest thing everything is growing pretty good. My onions and lettuce are coming along nicely. I figure another week or so and I should be able to start thinning/transplanting. The yellow California Wonder has a bloom on it. So far no blooms on the tomatoes but they've got a lot taller.
New plants! I got some strawberry plants and a bush cucumber that I put in the planters that +Bartholomew Brandner gave me. Also sowed some more lettuce seeds cause we eat a lot of salad.
Ozark beauty Strawberries
Bush Cucumber & Devil's Tongue Romaine Lettuce
Something strange is going on with the cucumber leaves - they look all dried out and lost color despite all the rain we've had. I'm not sure why and need to look into it. I asked Bart and he recommended calling the Metro Master Gardeners for advice, so I'm gonna see about doing that tomorrow.
My mom, +Diana Saxon, started her own blog about her patio garden too. I'm really excited for her and she's got a lot of stuff posted already so go on over and check it out at Gardening by the Inch. She's done some really neat things using pallets and wooden produce boxes.
Today we went to Hoyt Arboretum at Washington Park. The weather was kinda funny for it, misty/sprinkling for most of it then a great deluge for about 5 minutes. We had a lot of fun though. I'll post pictures later, though I didn't take many. Hope to go back again soon when the weather is better. Happy Memorial Day!
Just a short update. I've got onions coming up! I'm not sure if they're the Walla Walla Sweet or the Purplette Scallion because of how disturbed things were by the cats so I'll have to wait and see. Never the less, there are onions! I discovered this when I went out today to plant some old potatoes that had gone to eye in my cuppboard - might as well make use of them by growing more potatoes! I was going to put them where the onions had been planted since nothing had come up yet, but found something had!
So I dug out some space to the right of the garden in the small flower bed right in front of my patio and planted the potato starters there. I've never planted potatoes like this before - by using left over ones bought from the store. I'm not entirely sure it'll work, but they would have been just thrown away if not. So here's hoping I get some Golden Yukon potatoes!
Tomorrow it's down to the store to get the nails I need to put together my support system for the tomatoes and bell peppers. Maybe some more soil too for the planters I have and more plants too! I've a hankering to get some strawberries growing.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks to the same advice from many, I may have found the solution to my kitty poo problem. The citrus spray really didn't seem to be helping at all so I'm of the opinion that it's a wives tale. If anyone can share some success storeis using citrus and how they used it that would be great!
Round two: I've purchase, cut up, and laid down chicken wire between my plants. This is supposed to deter kitties because they don't like the feel of the wire on their dainty little paws and so won't use the area for future toileting. I just laid it down yesterday, so it's too soon to say for sure. I'll post again in a couple days to say whether it's done the trick for certain. So far it looks pretty threatening though:
I had some people say bury it, and some say just lay it over top. I
went with the latter option so that it would be less disturbing to the
plants. I'm really glad I decided to do it this way because it looks
like I've got some lettuce coming up!
Aren't they so cute! A little displaced from kitty digging, so I'll have to wait till they get a bit bigger and re-plant them in more uniform rows again, but I'm so excited that they've come up. Nothing on the California Wonder Green Bell Pepper, Purplette Scallion Onion, or Sweet Walla Walla Onion yet.
The scallion is supposed to germinate in 6-16 days and it's been 14 so if I don't see anything in the next few days I'm betting that the seed got too disturbed by digging. Same for the Walla Walla. The California Wonder takes 8 - 25 days so still too soon to really be concerned yet. If nothing comes up then I'll see about getting some seedlings to put in the places since it's too late to start from seed now. The rest of the seeds I have I'm going to save for my aquaponic indoor garden.
Regarding that I've started pricing the things I'll need to get that started and it's looking like I won't brake the bank to do it. I'm very excited to get it up and running, but need to be patient and ask that you all stay tuned for future posts regarding aquaponics and composting!
As I suspected, the cats in my neighborhood are ecstatic about the freshly tilled soil and have taken it as a sign from their kitty god that they no longer have to poo on the hard ground or grass where they had to scratch in vain attempt to bury.
I'm pretty certain the the onion and lettuce that I planted has been very disturbed by feline toileting needs and now not certain if they will germinate or not. I'm going to look into getting some starts going in post and transplant them as the cats seem to be leaving the areas around the established plants relatively unmolested by their poo-burying paws.
In the meantime I've investigated natural deterrents and found citrus scent to be unfavorable to felines. So I've been mixing 3 tbs lemon juice & 3 tbs orange juice in a 1/2 gallon milk jug I've been using as a watering can. - I used a nail and hammer to punch a few holes in it at the top as a spout, it doesn't work very well but well enough. At the moment I'm using 1 1/2 gal of regular water roughly every other day and then 1/2 gal of the citrus solution at the end. I'm also considering saving citrus peels and shredding them and scattering them around the bed.
On to composting!
I've found the kind of composting I'd like to do. That is I like the idea of being able to compost EVERYTHING - including meat & dairy products. Most DIY composts advise against doing this, but there is a composter on the market called Bokashi that does compost everything. It's a bit pricy, but it's small too so I think it's going to be a very wonderful investment. I'm hoping to order one in the next week or so. I'm very excited about the fact that it produces both liquid and solid compost in one 5 gal container!
The Bokashi system basically produces a "pre-compost" which can then, according to their website, be buried in holes or trenches and left for 14 days before planting in the soil above. Or, it can also be added to a regular compost system, including a worm compost which is the kind that I'd like to get started outside.
If anyone knows anything about this bokashi or worm compasting, especially whether or not they work well together or not I'd love to hear about it. Likewise if you know anything about a DIY version that would be cheaper then please let me know! Also, if anyone knows anything about deterring cats from gardens that would be great too!
It is, without a doubt, impossible to express with out rising
excitement, high spirits, and boisterous enthusiasm, that I have finally
started my own garden!
This blog will be a record of my successes and failures in my endeavor to
start growing as much aof my own food as possible. This is a goal which
has always been very important to me, but which I have allowed myself to ignore and put of for far too long. No more. On to the wee garden and what is planted and growing.
I live in an apartment and most people think that means they can't grow their own food. I hope to show as many as I can, especially my neighbors, that this is entirely false. I have a small bed which was empty and which I was given permission to grow in by my apartment manager. When I say small, I mean it. This is an oblong pie shaped bed which is roughly 5'x4' along the wall which it sits next to. That's more than enough though. As I progress I'll get some planters started. There are also some small beds in front of my patio which I hope to get some bulb flowers in, but that will most likely be next year.
I roughly divided the bed that I'm working with into 12"x12" squares. I'm taking the approach of traditional compact gardening for this year, and next year might try building up the bed into levels to get even more growth out of this small space. This has given me 4 rows, from back to front. They are planted as follows, from left to right:
Row 1:
California Wonder Green Bell Pepper - Seeds
Roma Paste Tomato - Seedling
Roma Paste Tomato - Seedling
ARP Rosemary - Seedling
English Lavender - Seedling
Row 2:
California Wonder Green Bell Pepper - Seeds
Fernleaf Dill - Seedling
Officinalis Sage - Seedling
Golden Oregano - Seedling
Red Rosie Basil - Seedling
Row 4:
California Wonder Red Bell Pepper - Seedling
Purplette Scallion Onion - Seeds
A big thanks to +Bartholomew Brandner for giving me the seeds that I've planted. I bought the seedlings at Fred Meyers on sale.
The land: I was hoping to test the soil, but finances have prevented me so here's hoping that I don't give +Daniel Coombs and I lead poisoning! My mom and step dad came up with their mini electric rototiller, we tilled the earth and they bought 1 cu ft of mushroom compost to till into the soil. A squeeze test of the soil after tilling and mixing in compost showed that it held it shape but then fell apart when poked. This is supposed to be really good for soil to do, so I'm hoping that means that everything will grow without too much difficulty. Deeper down, the soil is more clay so next year I may dig deeper and mix in some sand to allow for more drainage. We'll see how it goes this year.
We have a lot of cats and dogs in the neighborhood. I want to avoid chemicals as much as possible for various reasons but for the time being have sprayed the perimeter of the garden with Four Paws Keep Off! Indoor and Outdoor Dog & Cat Repellent. I was very careful to not hit any of the soil or plants - just the perimeter. For the future I'll investigate more natural repellents. I'm also going to look into getting some ladybugs and praying mantis to work as a natural deterrent of unwanted bugs. If anyone reading has had any luck with them or advice on keeping pests and unwanted animals away please let me know.
