Gardening 101
June 22, 2001:Well, I'm starting to feel like I'm making some headway against the weeds, but it's very slow going. I got the pumpkins weeded and thined a while back, and they're doing much better. I also did the cucumbers at the same time, but they're not nearly as big as the pumpkins, so I didn't thin those. Both types of plants seem much happier now that I've gotten rid of the weeds that were working very hard to choke them off! I also put in some stakes by my tomatos. Still haven't been able to get cages, but I'm thinking that I'll invesitgate the rumors of 75 cent cages in the next few days here. Monday, my Visiting Teacher gave me some broccoli and tomatos that she'd thined out of her garden. I've planted them, but they're not doing so well right now. I think the broccoli will eventually make it, if it doesn't become rabbit lunch, but I'm not so sure about the 3 little tomato plants. I didn't get them back in the ground as quickly, and they were looking a little peaked by the time I got through with them... But even if they don't take, I've still got 12 plants. 3 more isn't going to be a big addition, or a big loss if they don't make it. This evening I spent more time than I probably should have weeding my watermelons and cantaloupes. I may have one watermelon left, but I found 7 of my 8 cateloupes by the time I was finished weeding. They're not very big, but I don't know if they should be or not. And they've been totally shaded by the weeds for quite some time now. So it's not a real big surprise to me that they're small. I also harvested some of my dill. I've been reading books from the library, and searching for relavant webpages with instructions on picking, storing, and recipes for using my herbs. Tonight I added 2 links to my main page on the topic. I may end up giving gardening and recipes their own section on the page! They're starting to take up a fair amount of room.
June 12, 2001:Whew! For most of the past month it's either been raining or I've had other commitments, and I haven't been able to get out to the garden. Well, I went out yesterday, and Wow! I spent most of the evening killing waist-high weeds that I once thought might be volunteer tomatos. I'm hoping to transplant some of my plants away from the pumpkins so that the pumpkins have a little bit of breathing room. I planted about 32 of them, and they're way too close together. Probably, now that I see what they're doing, 32 should have been planted in an area about the size of my whole garden... oops. I'll know better next year. My spinach is going to seed. I'm thinking that I'll try just letting it, and see if any comes up for a second crop. I don't know if that will work or not, but Dollar General more or less out of seeds and I don't have enough money to be spending over $1 on a single package of seeds. I'd be better of spending that money on cages or big stakes for my tomatos. They're turning into bushes. But, they're also flowering, and that's a good sign. I told Mom I'd bring her some fresh tomatos when we come up in July for the baptism.
May 12, 2001: Life happens sometimes, and I haven't had time to write for a few days, even though there's been a bunch of stuff going on in my garden. It's becoming my santiy saver, where I can go and not listen to demanding kids (work) or the raido (home) and just be. But I must admit I'm a little nervous about the bees coming out... My eggplant is doing much much better: it's even putting out a few new leaves. There's a bunch of stuff that's come up in the past little while too. Beans, carrots, corn, cantelope, watermelon, and parsley. The pumpkins are doing well. They have big leaves. (Yes, I know that's just a bit of a statement of the obvious.) I also got some more tomato plants, because the tomato weeds are just weeds, but the new ones aren't doing so hot. Worse than the eggplant was. I don't know. Looks like 3 of them will be just fine, but the other 5 new ones are in various states of "that doesn't look so good." The 4 old ones that I put in a while back are looking really good. I put in stakes by them today, so that I can tie them up as they get big. So far, they're not really needing anything like that. I've got a few sunflowers that Andy and Kris gave me are planted. They think that the birds will get all the seeds, but you never can tell. I need to find out what to do about my strawberries: the bugs have eaten all the ones that grew so far, or I'd've had some by now. But I have harvested several of my spinach leaves. They're getting big. Or at least, they look big right now, but they're still growing. I'm thinking that I like the spinach well enough to get some more and try planting it in between the tomato plants. It's supposed to be better there, cuz it makes shade for it to grow in.
May 3, 2001:My pumpkins are up!! I'm very excited about them, and the cucumbers too. My herbs are also looking like they're going to finally do something - I've got little tiny dill starting to poke through, as well as onions. The okra is also starting to grow. Anybody got any recipes for okra? I don't know how to use it... help
. I bought a buncha peppers of all sorts of different types, since my indoor starts didn't do very well. I think that if I want to try starts next year I'll have to find a grow light and a place where my kitten will leave them alone. Most likely, though, I'll just buy starts again. I got most of my starts at Target: jalepino, yellow bell, green bell, and tomatos. I also picked up a white eggplant just for kicks. It's got these huge leaves, but it doesn't do well with being doused when I water. I've started watering around it, and not just spraying the whole area down. And when I was done yesterday, I rinsed off its leaves. It looked better when I left than it has, almost since I put it out. We'll see how it's doing today. In addition to the peppers that I got from Target, I also picked up a few from Kohler Brother's, my favorite garden store. I got cyanne and red chilli peppers from them. There were others, but they were more expensive at Kohler's. But the people there give free advice!
April 22, 2001:Since I wrote last, I've put in carrots, parsley (yes again, oops) okra, cucumbers, pumpkins, and a mint plant my neighbors found growing wild by our gardens. My garden covers quite a bit of my area now, and I can't wait until more stuff starts coming up. The herbs I planted should be coming up any time now. My spinach and lettuce are doing well, but it looks like something thinks my mustard is tasty. My strawberries are trying to grow some berries!! I'm very excited about that. One of them died after the frost last week, but the rest seem to be doing fine. I covered them up with newspaper for 2 days, and they are still kicking. I've seen my first few bees of the season, but so far, I haven't freaked out like I sometimes do. I am more and more sure that those little weeds are tomato plants, and so I still haven't bought any of those. The water is on out at the gardens most of the time, and things seem to be going well. Now if I could just grow something besides rocks!
April 12, 2001:I've become much more aware of the weather since I started gardening. Between being busy with the rest of my life, and rain, today was the first time I've planted anything since I put in the strawberries, on the 9th. I put in parsley, oregano, green onions, and dill. I also started preparing to put in the cucumbers, but I ran out of time. The process of weeding has definitly begun, although so far most of what I pull up is probably volunteer tomatoes. I'm transplanting the best of them to what's become my tomato area, but there's not anywhere near room enough for all of them. If they are tomatoes, I'm going to have quite the bumper crop! I also have some neighbors in the plots next to me. The one lady is really nice. I look forward to seeing her. Hopefully they'll turn on the water soon!
April 7, 2001:Weather's too rough today. Still threatening to storm some more. I put some green peppers in little plantable pots (I don't remember what they're called.) but I don't think I'll put the strawberries in the ground today after all. It looks like it's going to storm hard. I don't want to loose the plants to a badly timed storm! I guess that I can't resist planting after all - I'd thought that I'd wait until the water got turned on before I thought seriously about planting any more. But my tiny little kitchen looks like a nursery and it'd be nice to be able to cook!
April 6, 2001:Got off work and went to my car in the pouring rain. Found some strawberry plants on the way home at a nursery that's going out of business. The tag says they're everbearing straberries. They're pretty big already, and I'll probably put them in the garden tomorrow. Somehow, I've got to figure out how to keep the bunnies from eating them: I want some strawberries!
April 5, 2001:Rain. I'm very glad to see it, I don't think I'm carrying enough out there, even though I got a new watering can that hold more than the milk jug I was using. I watered before the rain came, but more is certainly not a problem!
April 3, 2001:Planted Spinach, lettuce, and mustard. Found out the water spouts won't be turned on for another week or two. Guess I'll be hauling lots of water until then. I don't think that I'll plant anything else until they get turned on...
April 2, 2001:Found a set of garden tools at Dollar General. Very cheep. Cheep is good. The forcast is changed to above freezing temperatures all week.
April 1, 2001:Rented a garden plot from the university. Yay! Planting will start as soon as the long range forcast doesn't have freezing temperatures in it anymore.
March 2001: Bought some seeds from Dollar General - a little bit of flowers for in front of the window, and some onions, carrots, and herbs.
Winter 2001 sometime: decided I wanted to plant a vegatable garden for no apparent reason. This is not as simple as it sounds, since I live in an appartment!
