Gardening Notes: June 2014

My raised bed is looking very happy, overall. The tomato is growing like crazy. A week ago, I tied some of the branches onto the trellis to keep it upright and growing in the right direction, and I think that looks very nice. The jalapeno plant was kind of lagging behind, but it has gotten bigger. The green beans are shooting up super fast, as well, and I feel like I should have given them more room... I did thin them out quite a bit after they were all established, especially because some of them lost all their leaves from the hail. But the smaller trellises I used are already too short. I mean, they would grow 30 feet high if you let them, so I guess anything is going to be too short.

Actually! Fuck it, they don't even need to be there. If I get the right sized containers, I should just grow them all over the patio walls. I put some of the purple beans in the containers with the morning glory, figuring it would help fill it out, and it would be a stronger climber to carry the flowering plants along, but I wasn't really thinking it would take off like it did. I have at least 3 feet of height there. If I'm a little more vigilant about weaving them back and forth through the wall, I could cover a lot of space. And I would cover that whole wall, the short one, with the planters inside the patio where I can keep an eye on them, but ideally the plants would grow to cover both sides. And it gives me a lot more space to grow other things in the raised bed. Like more tomatoes maybe. Square Foot Gardening says 9 bean plants per square foot, so each plant needs 4x4 inches. So in a long planter, like the one the morning glories are in now, you could have like, 15-20 plants. And you'd be able to control the soil and you could start it a little early...

Anyway, the raised bed. The tomato looks amazing, the jalapeno's good, the Swiss chard looks like it's getting on fine. I think if I grow that again, I need to grow a lot of it for it to be worthwhile. Because you get a couple of big leaves a week, not enough to make a meal for one person. Well, I think that would be an easy one to start from seed, so, yeah let's do that. The parsley is amazing. It looks so good, I don't know why my parsley couldn't look like that last year. The chives are good, I almost feel like I should use them as an ornamental grass somewhere else. I just planted more purple basil and Thai basil, so, we'll see, but the regular basil seems ok. I may really regret wasting space on Thai basil. I just want tons and tons of Genovese basil. But the purple basil helps the whole thing look more attractive. I don't think the thyme is doing so great. I think it's getting kind of shadowed by the big leafy things. So I guess I'll see if it makes it. Maybe it will be really nice in the fall. The cilantro of course went to seed already. I planted another one like 2 weeks ago and it's fine, but won't be for long. I planted some seeds in there, hoping I'd get little cilantros that were picking up right when the big plants were quitting, like Mom did, but I was too late. But I think I could start those from seed pretty well! And there are a few nasturtiums, just plugging along. No flowers yet, I think not until July.

I ordered a grow light. So, when that gets here, I'm going to start some cilantro seeds, and I think some of the bok choy I bought. I have a few late-season seeds to start, but those say to start in June-July. Like, outside. And then you have bok choy to eat in 2 months, which sounds kind of amazing. But if I start them like, now, and they're ready to be transplanted within a month, where would I put them? I guess I could just put them in containers. I don't see how they could need that much space, if they grow in like 2 months. It's not like they could create a huge root system. I guess I could even start the first round right in the container? Sure, why not. I guess I need to be more thoughtful about what I use as a growing medium.... So excited about my grow light!

I'm trying to remember to take pictures of my shit throughout this summer, so I know what grows where, and I don't end up planting a ton of things on top of each other and leaving other spots bare. (At least, not any more?)

I'm also hoping to figure out where the sun ends up at different times of day/ year. I think I spend a lot of time in February and March watching what got sun, and when, and how long, and making charts on graph paper, and starting seeds and other wastes of time. But, yeah, the sun is different in the summer, and the trees have leaves.

Today, May 31st