In spite of what I said...

I wasn't going to start anything new for awhile... but I did. I recycled some of the non-sprouting peat pots to start 6 spearmint pots for Wes and 5 "226" eggplants for me. In soil-mix cells that I gave up on, I planted 4 Sweet Marjoram and 3 Stevia.

I was resolved to keep better track of which plant was which. I started out labeling everything by section: 9 pots of this, 9 pots of that, etc. Then some of the peat pots in the tray started sprouting before the others, and I moved them out to the light, and lost track of which section they came from. I sorted out and rearranged everything today, ending up with (including both peat pots and soil cells) 54 identified seedlings, 13 unidentified.

Three newspaper pots have sprouted! Those were only seeded 3 days ago! Add on soaking two days before that, it's still faster than anything in the trays.

The identification of the pots is tentative yet: I think I have one pot of Brandywines and two of Early Girls. I'll be able to tell for sure when they develop a bit more. I'm hoping I can sort the others out over time, too. :)

Hold the phone: one Oregon Spring cell in the trays just sprouted!

Photos from May 29

Lots of action lately, not much blogging! Here's catchup, with some photos.

The garden is filling in nicely. We put bird netting up last Wednesday (May 23); with David, Claudia, and I working together it went a lot faster than I expected. We also got some tomato cages for the three biggest plants; there's no room for cages around the smaller ones (planted too close).

To the right: that corner of the garden a month ago.


Along with the netting, we bought replacements for the cucurbits that the birds ate: three pots of "burpless" cucumbers (which came to five plants total), some vining zucchini and a bush-type zucchini, some new Sugar pumpkin plants, and a couple of the "Sunburst" type scalloped squash. I have another half a dozen of those (called "Sunny Scallop") coming up from seed, but when I saw two great big ones in a pot, I saw earlier gratification and had to have it!

This time I put some bone meal at the bottom of each hole before I set in the plant, and I also worked some bonemeal in around the surviving zucchini and pumpkin from the April 28th planting.

Two of our zucchinis on May 5; I thought they were doomed.


Here is one of the new zucchinis I put in on May 22 -- and one of the two little zucchinis I thought were dying on May 5th! Bonemeal did it! (The other one didn't make it, though, even with bonemeal.)




I also set out some seedlings I had started indoors to protect them from the starlings: ten lemon cucumber seedlings, a dozen spinach seedlings, and two dozen beet seedlings. They hadn't gotten much sun indoors, though, and were pretty weak. None of the beet seedlings made it; a few of the spinach seedlings took hold; and four of the lemon cucumbers are still thriving. Here on the left are two
of the strongest lemon cucumber seedlings.

My friend and fellow Raging Granny Shirley Morrison gave me some chard Saturday morning, the 26th, after our Seattle Raging Granny meeting. I went home by way of City People's Garden Store and bought two lavender plants to fill out the corner where the birds nibbled our first lavender; an Italian basil, because I just can't wait for our basil seedlings to get big enough to start harvesting; and three pots of arugula, which were absolutely the last salad greens they had
out in pots.

To the left there is some of the Swiss chard, filling out one of the vacant spaces in the Salad Patch.



Left is the new Italian Basil; right is a closeup of some of the Sacred Basil I planted from seed.



And here to the left is the lovely new lavender: two kinds, "Goodwin Creek Gray" and "Grosso."



Here's some new arugula set in on May 26 near some of the mesclun plantings we put in on April 28. You can almost make out the yellow flowers of the mizuna plant starting to bolt. The first arugula is starting to get leggy and bolt, too.

I'm Ba-a-a-ack!

Jean kept an eye on the garden, and thought it needed no more water even without rain. Everything is fine except the tangerine gem marigold seedlings.

I made a quick trip to the garden store and bought new cucumber, zucchini, and pumpkin plants, some well-grown sunburst-squash to supplement the sunny-scallop squash seeds I sowed earlier, plus a few more lettuces and a healthy-looking young borage. Putting them in I found that although the soil is dry on top, it is moist (not damp, but cool-moist) under the surface, and six inches (or more) down. It will hold until I get the compost tea tomorrow.

Only a few of the tangerine gem marigold seedlings are still there; the radish seedlings are thriving; a few more spinach seedlings have sprouted; it looks like a few borage and calendula are coming up; and some of the basil are coming up! The nasturtiums I got potted are struggling along, and it looks like a couple are coming up from the seeds -- including one in the border outside the raised beds.

I don't see signs of new nibbling, but the golden sage and the peppermint haven't recovered from the nibbling they got, so when I go to get the compost tea I am also going to get some new sage and peppermint; and some nasturtiums I saw that are already in flower.

I'll take some more pictures tomorrow, when everything new is in. See you then. :)

Cayenne works!

No more new nibbling! Whatever it was, the cayenne border around the garden seems to be repelling it.

Sunny and warming.

I'm going to Yakima tomorrow morning and I won't be back until Friday evening. I've passed the word: If the weather continues hot and sunny the garden will need more water; if we have rain, that garden will need more cayenne.

One of the zucchini plants appears totally dead. The second is sprouting new leaves. Even the one chewed down to the stem seems to be sprouting new leaves!

There are a few grass-like shoots coming up where I planted the spinach. Yup, that's what spinach seedlings look like.

The rhubarb is definitely dying, and I'm not too sure about the pumpkin; it looks like it's sprouting new leaves, but it also looks like the older leaves are dying. I'm going to check the ground in that end of the garden before I leave, make sure it's retaining water.

The mesclun plants are standing up proud and practically gleam with health. We may have salad next Wednesday!

I ordered more Sacred Basil, Mesclun mixes, some purslane and some white clover, and had them shipped extra-fast, with the manic intent to sow them before I leave for Yakima. They came today, but so did a bit of my sanity. I'll hold off any more planting until I come back, when I can see more of what's coming up, and I can keep any newly sown seed evenly moist.

I'll post again next Saturday!