Fall Veggies

Yay, my Burpee order came yesterday, so I can get some more seeds going.  I got...

• Radishes, "Crimson Giant," alleged days to maturity: 29.  (Not 30, why would you even say that.)
• Pak Choi, "Toy Choi Hybrid," days to maturity: 30 ("Radish, stop being an overachiever.")  The Bok Choy I planted already (the only one that is actually growing; what did I do with the others?) is looking kinda big, more like a grocery store Bok Choy.  I want the babies, the ones that are twice the price by weight.  
• Chicory (Radicchio), "Red Verona," days to maturity: 85.  That's a long time.  That's like... almost 3 months.  If I plant them now, I don't get them until mid-November.  Well, I better do it right now.  
• Spinach, "Harmony Hybrid," 42 days.  Why did I buy these again?  Oh, right, they were on sale.  If I plant these today, I should have spinach in early October, so that's cool.

I planted a tray of the baby Choy and put them under the light.  And now I'm reading the package and it says "Harvest in 30 days," and also "seedlings emerge in 10-21 days," but they're supposedly direct-sow, and usually Days to Maturity refers the sowing as the start date for those.  How could you go from germination to maturity in 2 weeks, for anything that's not lettuce?  I guess I should keep an eye on it and see what happens.  I'll also do a tray of the Radicchio.  

I planted 2 rows of Radishes next to the Kale that I have in a long container.  I figured the radishes would be a quick turn-around, and the kale can be a longer standing plant.  I also put a row of radishes behind the basil in the raised bed, but now I'm thinking that might not be so great- the basil is going to be there for a while, and I don't want them to block the sun for the radishes.  But whatever, I can keep sowing them every week or two.  

I transplanted a tray of Romaine into another long container, the 24" one.  (Actually just 5, the 6th never germinated.)  And I added some of the Mesclun seed tape around them, so hopefully that starts to look nice.  Next I need to transplant the other Radicchio starts into a container, I guess the 32" ones.  Maybe I'll add Spinach in next to it.  And I have some Kale starts in various containers.  

I started what I hope will be a pretty container I can give to mom.  It's that big square one, and there's a border of Mesclun, and then a border of Spinach inside, and then I'd like to put a Swiss Chard in the middle.  I've only got like, 3 weeks.  If I can't pull it off, I guess I'll just be getting her a real present.  

August Update

Raised Bed:

The Tomatoes and the Green Beans are producing like crazy.  I'm on an every-other-day picking schedule, and I get a quart sized bag of Green Beans every week, at least.  I really can't eat the tomatoes fast enough.  I should bring them to work...

The old Swiss Chard plants are kind of done. They didn't get enough sun, they didn't get any attention, and I just kind of left them there, so, whatever.  I ripped em out, to put them out of their misery.  (In the process, I saw the roots were like, a foot long or more, so I'm concerned about my Swiss Chard in containers...)  The Chives are still chive-ing, Parsley is still going, although it keeps trying to go to seed.  The Cilantro is of course long gone.  Of the little starter plants that I have, I don't even know if it's worth it.  I guess if I start some seeds now, they'll be good to plant in September, which is when cilantro can actually grow.

There is a Jalapeno plant in there, and he's alive, but no more peppers.  The one I bought recently and put in a pot is doing much better.  The mint looks like shit, I think I should put it out of it's misery.  I never used any of it, either.

The Basil plants are kind of hanging on.  I don't know what their problem is- why can't they just grow well, like mom's?  The one that rooted and then planted in some potting stuff seems to actually have some new growth, so I planted it in the bed- it was practically root bound, and it had only been a week, maybe 2.  Time to start another!

Obviously my raised bed is overcrowded.  I think this is mainly because of the beans.  The purple beans seemed to do quite well in the itty bitty containers, and that was with some pretty poor watering.  They get a lot of sun, which is cool, and I guess I could get pretty far with this if I give them a compost layer after the first round of beans, or at least some of that 231 fertilizer.  I'll use those 32" self-watering containers, and based on the Square Foot Garden charts, I could get 16 plants in each one.  I gotta do some purple beans, they're so cool, maybe one container of all purple, and the other two just the regular green beans.  If I didn't have the beans in the raised bed, I think it would be very nice and orderly, not this mess of leaves.

Everything gets morning sun, but the majority of it gets a lot of shade from the tree right around noon.  I don't know, I mean...  Should I even be growing vegetables there?  Um, I'm getting a pint of tomatoes and a quart of beans a week, I think it's ok.  And it's been a more cool, rainy summer than usual, so I would be ok, overall.

Anyway.  I'd like to get the whole thing really packed with those nice little cool season veggies as soon as the tomatoes come out.  Tomatoes usually go through September, right?  Meh.  It comes out when I decide it looks too shitty to live.

Front Bed:

Yeah, the Black Eyed Susan are great, so are the Echinacea, and the Day lilies are kind of underwhelming, in comparison.  I think they need to be divided next year, along with the Liriope.  The annuals are great- Sweet Potato Vine is awesome, so is Vinca, and that's pretty much all you need to look like you know what you're doing.  I'm going to put another Echinacea in there soon, when they go on sale or whatever.  I'd kind of like to move stuff around a lot more, but that's going to be tough because I won't remember where anything is.

Oh, shit, if I'm going to plant a ton of daffodils, I need to do that in like, November, but I could move some other plants around at the same time?  I mean, for something like a liriope or a day lily, I think whatever you do is fine.

Weekend

I finally took out the finished compost, and it seems pretty great.  It's super dark and damp and heavy, but crumbly, and there are so many worms!  The hardest part of this was definitely getting the worms out, so I could put them back in the compost bin.  I ended up leaving a significant amount of what is probably really good compost in the bottom, because at that point it was like, worms held together by compost.  (And meanwhile, Mom is throwing away multiple bags of leaves! I can't even.)

So, I put a layer on the Mandevilla (it's so neglected) and on the Rosemary, and I put 6-8 handfuls into the raised bed, trying to spread them near the back.

I was able to pick up the mostly empty compost bin and move it to the space between the AC and the house, where it fits perfectly.  It might actually stay kind of warm there, for a little longer.  So now there's this big empty spot where I can ultimately extend the raised bed and grow tomatoes and stuff.

Then I took the plastic planters with the Zinnias out of the window box, and put the containers in the spot where the compost was.  I thought about planting them right in the ground, but it's super compact clay, and since I'm going to build a raised bed on top, I don't see the point in amending the soil.  The plants are at least 2 feet high, so they look totally crazy in there.   I back-filled it with compost and more old potting soil, and I put in the starter Radicchio.  I'll also put in some Mesclun or something like that.  I think it should get enough sun, hopefully?

The green beans are finally producing at the rate I was expecting.  I filled a quart sized bag with less than a week's worth of beans, that I will probably give to mom.

I do need to figure out where to put all the seedling starts I've got.  The things under the light, I kind of want them to get farther along.  They should stay undisturbed until their roots are pressing up against the sides.  Right now I have a 6 pack of Radicchio that look nice, very compact and a little bit of red.  And there's a 6 pack of Kale that looks pretty good, but I wish it would grow a bit more.  I guess it's just making roots, which is good, right?  But yeah, it does not look like I should mess with it anytime soon.  I have a 6 pack of Swiss Chard that only has 2 plants in it, so I guess the other 4 didn't happen for some reason?  so I should go ahead and re-seed the other spots.  Then I also have the leftover nursery starters, 2 10-packs.  There's one with Bok Choy, and one with Swiss Chard.  I guess I need to get those transplanted.