I've got it bad this year. Of course this is what happens when I take off two years from gardening.
The biggest problem with taking two years off from gardening, or maybe it's been three? I just remember buying seeds in November 2006 and never getting around to planting them due to extenuating circumstances. So I guess it's actually been three years.
The biggest problem right now are the weeds that have invaded my garden. Every square inch is covered with mallow in varying stages of growth, desert grasses, dandelion and other types of weeds. This is how most of the garden looks currently. Secondly, since I got sick with this cold that affected my lungs so badly, I have been experiencing even less energy than normal. I was very weak for a couple of weeks, but am now feeling a lot better.
I spent three hours on the 23rd clearing a 6 foot square area that has an 18 inch path around the bed. Dh dumped a full load of composted goat manure/hay into the bed and it's ready for planting, but it takes a while to get the watering system put together. I need to get the seeds planted immediately because if I wait any longer it will be past the date to plant these seeds. Here is the area I worked on. Since I'd been sick, and I don't have much energy to begin with, the way I cleared this area was to sit on a milk crate and shovel an area, then pull the weeds out, shovel an area and pull the weeds out. Repeatedly, for three entire hours. It was hot out that day, too, so I was sweating and it was really uncomfortable. On January 23rd! If you look closely in the picture below, you will see the garden bed is surrounded by chicken wire. This is to deter the gophers which are taking over my garden!! Not only do I have to worry about removing weeds from the entire garden, but anything sown into the garden needs the protection of chicken wire underneath and coming up the sides of the bed. It's terrible. Dh's business is beginning to pick up, so he has had little time to help me in the garden and I can't do it all myself.
Inside the house, in my indoor seed cage, which resides in my bathroom, I am growing tomatoes and eggplants. I got them started on the 19th and they are doing nicely. I have to transplant them into bigger containers this weekend as they are already outgrowing their little starting containers. Here you can see a few of the tomato varieties that I'm trying, and one of the eggplants.
I'm trying six kinds of tomatoes, and three kinds of eggplant.
This next picture isn't very good, but if you look closely you should be able to make out the long row of baby plants growing under the fluorescent lighting.
It has been so uncharacteristically warm out that much of what is in the garden is bolting. It looks like most of my kale has bolted, and I guess we won't get broccoli this year as that has gone to flower, too. This next photo has lettuce and cilantro that bolted sometime ago.
This section has lettuce, peas, carrots, broccoli, kale, swiss chard, beets, bok choy, celery, and spinach. Obviously not large amounts, but all are present in this plot.
I have plenty of pea pods, but the peas don't seem to be growing. There are peas in the pods, but they are about the size of a grain of rice. Those would be considered really baby peas.
I got an idea about the mystery plant and decided to investigate this morning.
I decided to take a look at the underside and check the root. And voila! But what is this? I don't think it's a turnip. Maybe a parsnip? I am going to look in the seed catalog that I bought the seeds from.
I've also ordered more seeds from my favorite seed catalog Pinetree Seeds. This time I ordered potatoes, corn, squash and cucumbers.
Do you yearn for the seasons first taste of corn from your garden? This corn will surely help you get a jump start on the season. One of the earlies bicolors, the 7-1/2 inch ears are filled with a delectable collection of kernels that will make your mouth water at the first sight of their ripened ears. Grows on shorter 4-5 foot stalks.
#144 SPACEMASTER CUCUMBER (59 days) - $0.95
A full sized 7 1/2 inch cuke, primarily a slicer, on a short 3 foot vine; good for trellising in a tight spot or in a container. Its nice flavor and appearance is enhanced by its resistance to mosaic and scab.
The old standby that still provides a nice combination of earliness and abundant yields. Fruit can be used at any size, growing to be 5 1/2 inches long, 2 1/2 inches wide, and a dark mottled green. Vines are rambling and prolific.
An elongated Japanese type cucumber, Summer Dance is notable in that every one of the fruit seem perfect, 10 inches long, about an inch wide with a deep green color and fairly smooth skin. The plant is a very vigorous grower setting many lateral vines for high productivity. It is resistant to both powdery and downy mildew. The flavor is sweet, mild, and refreshing, no need to peel these.
This hybrid zucchini provides excellent yields. The medium green skin is flecked with gold. Skin is very smooth and flesh is crisp and white. The reasonably compact plant is open for ease of picking.
#34501 BENNINGS GREEN TINT - $0.95HEIRLOOM 1914 A scalloped squash developed by Charles N. Farr. The squash are creamy in color but with a distinctive green tint. Squash are scallop shaped and this is a very heavy yielder. The pale green flesh is delicious, especially when picked small.
An exceptionally early and high yielding yellow crookneck variety, we counted 15 squash on a single plant at the same time. Squash are best harvested at around 6 inches and if you don't let any big ones get lost in the foliage, Horn of Plenty will continue to yield over a very long season. The flavor is great, buttery and not watery.
A wide, flat, Italian-type bean with a unique flavor that we find very pleasing. Yield is remarkably heavy. In our tests, a total yield of twenty plus pounds was recorded from a plant that occupied only three square feet on a seven foot trellis. Yield is continuous from mid-summer until the first frost. Pick when young.
HEIRLOOM 1877 This dual purpose bean can be used for either eating fresh or as a shell bean. It came from a woman named Nancy Davis in Kentucky. Pods grow to 9 inches in length and yield is continuous from mid-summer to the first frost. Picked young, they are among the tastiest of green beans.
The reason this one is called pink surprise is that the pinkish ones are in fact a surprise. Most of the flowers are a lovely gold with a bit of a darker burnish, some of the flowers have a more pinkish tinge on the edges, and some of the flowers are actually pink with touches of gold. A handsome, easy to grow, calendula.
Plants can be twelve to fifteen feet tall and blooms are eight inches across. Petals are a bright golden yellow and centers can be quite dark or quite light. Seeds are black and striped. A good planting for the birds.
The earliest red potato on the market. The skin is very smooth and a pleasant red; flesh is bright white. Yields are high and the tubers are relatively large. Good flavor.
Now I need to spend all my spare time (heh) getting the garden ready for the tomatoes and eggplants, oh and I also have started watermelon seeds in the seed cage. The seeds are from 2004, so they may not germinate, but I hope they do. I think I am going to have to set up a heat lamp situation for them, as they have not germinated after five days.
This one is early, productive, thin skinned, yellow, and delicious. We harvested our first one just 75 days after transplanting (they were grown on black plastic). One hill yielded twelve fruit. The largest ones exceeded eight pounds, although more typically they were 5-6 pounds. Fruits are round, medium green with dark green stripes, rinds are thin and the lemon yellow flesh is eye pleasing and tasty.
#W695 MALALI WATERMELON (90 days) - $1.10This Israeli melon will produce robustly in dry conditions and yield a number of impressive, ten pound watermelons. The delicious flesh is a deep red with a sweet, unique flavor, even the seeds are edible. Watermelons are very common throughout the region, even growing wild in some locations. 15 seeds
Did you notice I ordered some flower seeds? The sunflowers are the ones that grow really big, I'll have to cut through the top of the garden chicken wire to let them poke their heads up. I am also planting calendula, which are edible, and marigolds, to attract bees to the garden. I have Sweet Peas in the garden right now, but they are not growing too well.
I'm excited to plant more seeds, but at the same time, a little discouraged that things aren't going better. I need to get the indoor plants into bigger containers so they don't become root bound. That means I'd better get off this computer.
Until next time.
