Planting, Round 2

Still lots of rain, and the soil mix is retaining plenty of water. I'm hoping it's not retaining TOO much water. Most of my plants look like they're thriving. The exception is the rosemary plant I bought at Lowes and transplanted. Slowly, slowly, lots of the leaves are turning brown and dropping off the plant. Is it the shock of transplanting, too much moisture, or maybe it was just a crummy plant? The reason I bought it was because I forgot to order rosemary seeds and couldn't find seeds locally either. I guess I'll have to keep an eye on it and see if it recovers.

My spearmint hadn't germinated at all. Probably a rookie mistake like covering the seeds (smaller than poppyseeds) with soil so sunlight didn't get through. So this morning I sprinkled a few seeds right on top of the soil. Cross your fingers! Yesterday at work, one of my coworkers was waxing poetically about making mojitos. If half of this spearmint takes off, I bet I'll have enough mint to give him a packet of mint so he can have a happy happy hour!

I only planted one square of tomatillos (one plant, really). Yesterday I was reading another gardening blog which mentioned that you needed at least one other tomatillo plant close by (pollination, most likely). I had a brief moment of panic about my lone plant. I did have one empty square in the same box with my tomatillo that was originally slated for more lettuce mix. This morning I planted another tomatillo seed there instead. The original plant has a three-week head start, but at least it'll have a pollinating pal.

I transplanted the (dead) cactus into my compost bucket. It was time. That square now has lettuce seeds. The three week lag time after my original planting day should give me a steady crop of lettuce when the first round of lettuce is done or bolts, whichever comes first.

Rain + warm weather = Lots of growth!

We've had a good amount of rain every day for the past week, so the seeds are really taking off. I first saw sprouts three days ago. Since then, the plants that had sprouted are growing quickly. I also have new growth.
I've seen a lot of difference with the eight-ball zucchini plants

The green beans are also looking very healthy, with all nine plants in each square pushing up through the dirt.

The radishes have all sprouted. I only planted one square. I know I like radishes, but I'm not sure if everyone else has acquired a taste for them.

(Sorry for the crazy formatting on the pictures . . . still learning the ropes on blogging.)

Scott was wondering whether he drilled enough drainage holes in the bottom of the boxes. We followed the directions in Square Foot Gardening and drilled one hole per square. I guess we'll see if that's enough drainage.

I'm going to have to come up with another way of labeling my plants, too. We cut strips from an empty gallon milk jug and wrote on it with a permanent marker. I noticed today that some of the lettering has already worn off. Good thing I sketched my garden boxes and labeled what I put in each square! I have some wooden popsicle sticks in my storage room at school. I think those might wear better over time, so I'll bring a handful home tomorrow.

Unbelievable!

I checked my garden today after work. We had a couple days of solid rain, so the soil was staying nice and moist. Today . . . SPROUTS!!! My lettuce has sprouted, one basil is poking out of the soil, my radishes have all sprouted, and my zucchini plants are going great guns already. I sure didn't expect to see such results three days after I planted.

Photos to follow soon.

Brown Thumb Gardening? What?

Growing things has never been my strong point. (It seems the children are a happy exception!) DH swears that I once had a cactus that was so desperate that it screwed itself into the dirt as it died. Twenty years later, and I am still hearing about it. He talked the kids into buying me a cactus for my birthday a couple of years ago. So now the whole cactus myth is a family joke.

Why a garden now? I subscribed to a CSA (community supported agriculture) for a few years, getting a box of produce every other week. I loved the fresh produce, but discovered that there were only so many things I can do with three or four eggplants every other week for two months. I decided against resubscribing, but it's so disappointing to go to the supermarket and look at the generic produce - cardboard tomatoes, wilted lettuce, starchy corn. And to spend a big chunk of my food budget on that? I also was spoiled by visiting my parents for three weeks this summer. My mom is the original green thumb - the woman can grow anything! I grew up eating all the produce most kids turn their noses up at: asparagus, soybeans (back before it was tagged as edamame), okra. Anyway, three weeks of fresh, homegrown vegetables was enough to convince me that I should try gardening again. Something more than a solitary flowerpot with a scraggly tomato plant, or a store-bought basil plant that baked in the hot sun on my patio a few summers ago.

I spent many hours on the web, learning about growing zones (zone 10 here!), planting seasons (September to May, the opposite of almost everywhere in the country), and ordering seeds. I also read about Square Foot Gardening, scoured the area for vermiculite, convinced DH to build my SFG boxes. Today was the big day. The garden is planted.