Earth Day

It was a pretty big day for gardening, considering I was at work all day!

I brought all of my first-round Basil plants in to work to give away.  Last night I sent a kind of embarrassing email to everyone who might be interested, describing in great detail what the basil's history was and what they should do with them.  All of them got taken, and when someone wanted to take the last 3 I got a little worried and felt like all my Basil was gone.  Then I remembered that I have 4 that I started like, a month ago.  And I just transplanted them up last night, so I don't know why I would forget that.

Part of the reason I like giving away this stuff is because it prompts a lot of discussions about what other people have grown and what's worked, comparing our respective landscapes, talking about all the ways we have all failed along the way.  It gave me some ideas of other things I might want to try.

More than one person has successfully grown carrots.  I'm not sure why I thought they would be difficult, maybe because Mike McGrath is always so exacting in his carrot advice.  The only real complaint was that they come in all at once, and they don't stay good for long.  Maybe I will try them in the fall.

Also got some insight into growing cauliflower and broccoli.  It sounds like the plants are actually a little different- the cauliflower has just one big head, and the broccoli can form multiple florets.  That actually should have been obvious to me, just based on what the veggies look like.  Both are pretty big plants and take a long time, and you basically get one meal out of them.  If I want something like that, I think it would be Brussels Sprouts.  They're just so cool looking.

Then, maybe because of all the gardening enthusiasm, I finally worked up the motivation to go to Lowe's.  A while ago, I pretty much decided I wanted bright pink tuberous Begonias for the Patio Bed, Sweet Potato Vine for the grow bags, pink and yellow striped Calibrocha for either on the ground around the roses or the window box.  Even though I can't plant the Begonias until the Tulips are totally done, I decided I would buy them whenever I saw them because there's a chance I won't find them if I wait until like, June.

Amazingly, Lowe's had all of those things.  I found one begonia and had to ask someone to help me find more, but they were super helpful!  Then I found one on the clearance rack for $1, which was not in significantly worse shape than the full priced ones.

I got two 64-Quart bags of potting mix.  Regular kind, not organic, because for some reason, ones that don't have fertilizer cost more?  I swear it wasn't like that last year.  Maybe they wised up to the fact they could get away with charging more.  I struggled to get them in the cart, and in the trunk.  I'm not looking forward to carrying them in from the parking lot.  I did see an old lady put one in her cart and she was having no trouble at all, so I'm just a failure.  Or she's a secret bad ass old lady.

And I got a new soaker hose and a new watering wand nozzle.  It's the exact same one I got last year, because I left mine out and I guess when it froze it split some kind of seam.

You know, if I took better care of my shit, I wouldn't have to keep buying this stuff...

Somehow I managed to spend $91, even though I didn't think I had that much.  I hate how they never have any prices posted for any of the plants.  That's not really why it was more than I thought- only half that total went towards plants.  In fact, now that I see the prices on the receipt, I probably would have bought more.  Like, if I had known the Sweet Potato Vine was only $3, I would have bought twice as much.  And I would have broken $100.

Time to make some plans for the weekend!

• Put down the new soaker hose in the sidewalk bed and water the hell out of it.  Actually, water the hell out of everything. 
• Pull out the leaves and weeds from the Side Bed.  And cut back the Hyacinth leaves. That area will actually look pretty good once I do that.  The Creeping Phlox is at peak bloom right now.  I was going to grab some of that at Lowe's if they had it.  Maybe I will check out Home Depot tomorrow.  
• Take down the god damn Christmas garland and put it away.  Maybe put up the summertime lights.  
• Harvest all the Radishes!  I've decided Sunday morning is the best time to do that, because that night is going to get down to 41, and that is definitely the lowest in the next 2 weeks.  
• Fertilize all the bulbs with some Bone Meal.  
• Deal with the compost.   Oh my god I really don't want to.  But at this point it's not going to do anything else until I get out the non-composting stuff.  And then I can use the compost, obviously.  That was kind of the point.  
• Plant the Zinnias and Sunflowers in the Sidewalk Bed,  Actually I probably should do that before I start watering.  
• Start working on some containers!  I finally got some stupid potting soil.  I should get some Morning Glory going.  I've got very few that I started a few weeks ago, but I will soak the rest of the seeds tonight so I can plant tomorrow.  
• I was going to talk about planting the container tomato, but it is probably going to be a little chilly still.  I mean, it's not even May.  I think I should use the giant pot, and I'm not bringing that fucker inside every night.  
• I want to plant these Sweet Potato Vine in the grow bags, on the back patio wall.  This would be a perfectly good time to do that, as long as I don't fuck up the Tulips in the process.  I think it's ok- I would attach the bag first, with zip ties, and then fill it by scooping in the soil.  I probably want to get more of those plants, so I can do 2 per baggie.  

I have a Tomato problem.  I planted these things in January, right.  And I've kept most of them alive, and for the majority of that time. I kept them in rows so I knew which was which.  But then, like 2 weeks ago, I was re-arranging them into vertical rows instead of horizontal or something, and lost track.  I realized it as it happened, and maybe I could have re-traced my steps and put them back, identified them, and kept it under control, but I didn't.  

The Brandy Boy are distinct, because they have a potato-like leaf, but the Sun Gold and Fresh Salsa are really identical at this point.  Last night, I spent a long time looking at the leaves of the ones I have labeled, trying to identify any differences and extrapolate from that which of the smaller ones were which.  

This is kind of a problem, because you would treat these plants a little differently, as far as where you would plant them, how you would support them, etc.  It's not a big deal for me, because I have several bigger labeled ones, and I have my keeper Brandy Boy, Sun Gold and Fresh Salsa all picked out and ready.  But I would like to give these other plants away to a good home.  

I asked one of the more competent gardeners at work if he wants any tomato plants.  A few years ago he and his wife grew a cherry tomato and their yield was insane.  I seriously think they could have filled a hot tub with cherry tomatoes.  Maybe 2 hot tubs.  They threw out many buckets of them.  He does not even like fresh tomatoes!  He made sauce from them!  Sauce, from cherry tomatoes!  He even blanched them and took off the skins!  I can't even.  So he is definitely only interested in a Brandy Boy, so that's fine.  

I think some of my other colleagues are limited to containers, so I was thinking the Fresh Salsa would be a big hit.  But now I can't give someone a tomato and tell them what to do with it.  I mean, cherry tomatoes grow fine in containers.  It's not a big deal.  I'll just have to be honest and say, this is a tomato, and part of the adventure will be seeing what kind.  Enjoy!  

This could have all been avoided if I had bothered to label them properly.  Just needed to grab some popsicle sticks from work, and write BB, SG, and FS as needed.  

I am not going to give away tomatoes until a more appropriate tomato planting time.  So like, 2 weeks.  The reason for the delay is, ok, that's the best time to plant, but also it will give them some time to keep growing and harden off more,  They don't really look great right now.  I'm not exactly proud to show them off at work.  And maybe in 2 weeks, after they've grown a lot, something about their growth habit will suggest which tomato we got.  But they will all grow more and get more presentable.  

Other stuff.. I might want to replant the Coleus again, into something bigger, cause they are getting big.  And I gotta get some decent Swiss Chard and Cilantro going.  

Snow Day

Oh my god, it is snowing outside.  It's April 9th, and I would have thought we were out of the woods, because the average last frost date is like a week away.

So I'm not doing any outside gardening today, maybe something tomorrow.  I've still got a ton of Liriope divisions to plant, I think I've got 9.  And I've got long containers full of smaller ones that sat in containers over the winter and may or may not be viable.  I've got many Day Lilies in the other containers and I think they're ok in there for now.

I still haven't pruned the roses, and maybe that's a good thing since it is so cold now.  That would be a good project to do tomorrow.

Inside stuff-

I watered all the Rudbeckia, which I have not done in quite a while.  One of them looks really sad, all wilted and limp.  The others look really great, and they are putting on new growth.  The new growth looks kind of like the perennial Rudbeckia that is coming up outside (now under the snow).  They are getting pretty rooty at the bottoms, so I really hope I can get them planted next weekend.  I have not given them any fertilizer, because I don't really want them to start growing yet.

I transplanted six of the better looking tomato plants into larger containers, the tall black plastic ones that you buy perennials in.  I did two of each variety.  I turned the tomato out of its little square container, and placed it in the bottom of the big pot, and then added old potting soil around it to bury the next like, 4 inches of stem.  I worked a decent amount of Espoma fertilizer in there.  (I actually forgot to do the fertilizer when I planted the first Sun Gold tomato, but I think that's ok.   That plant is a monster, and if I feed it I'm afraid it will take over the laundry room.)  For most of them, this deep planting seems to make sense because they are getting pretty long and don't have a lot of leaves down low.  So in theory, these are still basically the same height, but now there is like, 8 inches of pot and 4-6 inches of Tomato plant.

What am I going to do with them?  I guess I will just put them in front of the lights, so they are getting it from the sides.  I definitely don't have space to get them right under the lights and they are going to touch them and burn if I do.

I've still got 2 Fresh Salsa, 2 Sun Gold and 3 Brandy Boy.  I don't really want to throw them out, so I will keep them around I guess.  They will probably die eventually.  But if I keep them alive and they seem ok, I guess there might be people at work who want them.

Then I've got tons of Basil plants, and they seem ok.  I just need to stay on top of watering them.

I've got 2 trays of Zahara Zinnias, and 2 trays of big Zinnias, a tray of Cilantro, and a kind of half tray of small Basil.  And I've got several Morning Glory starts in the square containers which seem fine, but I should transplant them into containers outside really soon, like next weekend.  In the 12-pack, I have started some Sunflowers that will be the bigger ones.  (still only 5 feet, I don't mess with those giant monsters.)  I have 3 new trays I could fill out.  I could do Cilantro, or the Tumbelina Zinnias, or more Sunflowers.

The Sunflowers that I planted in the 12-pack have all germinated.  I had 2 seeds per cell, and I think all of them germinated.  As I thinned out the extras, I did pull out a root that was like 4 inches long.  And this is a seed that just germinated, no leaves yet, still has the seed shell hanging on.  So I'm thinking it is correct that I should not try to start more Sunflowers, especially in the normal sized six-packs.

The Zahara Zinnias that are in 2 six-packs are looking pretty good, although still very small.  I popped one out of the cell and there is some nice root growth, and it would not be bad to transplant them.  It was 4 weeks ago that I started them. And I think it was 2 weeks ago that I started the other 2 packs of the big Zinnias.  If I were to start the Tumbelina ones now, I would not be able to transplant them for at least 2 weeks, ideally 4, and that would be in early May.  So I'm deciding if I want to start some inside here, or if I want to wait until next weekend and just direct sow them.  I can do both, I have plenty of seed.  It's either that, or Cilantro.

Maybe after I do these 3 trays, we can call it off.  Seed starting season should be over soon.  After this week, it makes almost as much sense to just start things like Sunflowers and Zinnias in the ground.  Maybe I should just do 3 trays of Cilantro.  I will want a lot of Cilantro plants, right, I want at least 3 for myself, and I'll give a few to my mom and some to people at work.

Oh shit, I forgot about Swiss Chard!  I had that on my list to start this weekend.  I knew there was something else I needed to start inside.  The internet is saying start inside 3-4 weeks before the last frost date, which is only a week away, but I wasn't going to plant them outside for a little while because I still have all that Kale in there.  I probably won't plant them until the same time I plant the Tomatoes.

So let's do one pack of Cilantro and two of Swiss Chard.

In any case, I need to buy lots of potting mix.  I have pretty much worked through all the leftover stuff that I had.  Actually I have one more perennial pot filled with the soil that was growing in, but yeah, let's get a lot more potting mix.

What containers am I going to do?  I want to have at least two pepper plants.  And I need to plant all these Morning Glory into the long containers.  I am thinking I'm going to put the really big Zinnias in long containers as well, inside the patio on the short wall.  They will block the gutter garden, but there isn't much that I can put in there that will do well in the summer, unless I watered it every day.

In the window box, I'm going to try to do the Elf Sunflowers again.  They were pretty short lived, with only one flower, so I think I will try to stagger them.  You know, I do want to start them inside so I can get a head start... So does that mean I need more seed starting mix?

I also need more space.  The Basil could probably be moved out pretty soon.  I think I can start giving some away at work.  I found some motherfucking aphids on a few of them.  I guess I should try to wash them off, but with these little tender plants, I don't want to mess with them and damage the leaves.  But I don't want to give away plants that have aphids.  Let's say I have gotten rid of the aphids.  I think I can start giving away Basil, as long as I tell people that the should not plant them outside until May (specifically when the temperature at night is above 50).  I've got 10 plants, and I can probably get rid of 5.  (Alina, Nathan, Kadine, Bharath, Madhu, maybe Terri or Yash or Charles or Jim or Chris... aww, I've got so many friends at work.)  Hm, maybe I can get rid of more than 5.  I want to give at least one to my mom, and I think I want to keep at least 3 for myself.  Although I can keep getting new plants all summer long, so if I keep 2 for myself I think I'm good.  So I will bring 6 plants to work.  That will probably be in a week, a week from Monday.  Maybe 2 weeks.  But that will free up a ton of space.  It would be great if I could get most of those containers back, but I'm not counting on it.

I actually did some physical work yesterday!  I dug out several Liriope and divided them into quarters.  That was actually pretty easy and went quickly.  Then I dug out all of my neighbor's Day Lilies.  That was a lot harder.  Some super genius planted them right up against the sidewalk, so you can't get a shovel in there, and the roots are all up in the concrete.  So that was tough.

I planted 8 of the divisions in the place of the Day Lilies.  I spaced them decently far apart but close enough that when they grow they will more or less reach each other.  She was actually  fine with just the 4, but I was like, Let's do 4 more!  Partly that is because it was so much easier to plant them in the soil I had just torn up than to dig a new hole in the sidewalk bed.

I still have not planted the other like, 8 or so divisions I dug up.  I left them sitting out there overnight, actually for about 12 hours, and it was 12 hours of insane wind, so it probably dried them out a lot.  I just put them in containers because I don't want them to totally dry out forever.

I have a lot of Day Lilies still to plant as well.  Those I did put in containers so they won't dry out or die or anything.

I can't  quite decide if I want to go outside now and try to finish planting these poor things.  In theory, yes.  I should plant all the Day Lilies first, because they are near the center, then do the Liriope around the edges.  I also want to dig out the little Stella d'Oro Day Lilies.  I don't think it makes any sense to have them in there when it's mostly roadside Tiger Lily types.  And I really want more little yellow Day Lilies in the front bed.  I think I have about 6 of those in the sidewalk bed.  I just don't think I can do it all today.  I probably should have kept going when I had the momentum yesterday.  Now my back and arms and legs and butt hurt.

So I don't know, should I push myself out there, in the "feels like 31" weather and dig some more holes?  Of course I should... but I should also get my shit together inside.  Next Saturday is not looking a whole lot better, but next Sunday looks ok.  And next Sunday I want to plant these Rudbeckia. Or I could wait another week.  That puts me beyond the last frost date.  But at that point I would be in pretty good shape- I'll have gotten all the Day Lilies in the sidewalk bed, close to the middle.  I will put the Liriope divisions around the border.  (I have 9 of them.  I don't know how I ended up with an odd number, but there we are.  I do have one more I want to divide.)  Once those things are in, I'll have the kind of solid, perennial things set up and I can fit in these annuals around.  It looks like I'm putting the Day Lilies near the front, so I'll group them in there, and maybe group the Rudbeckia down at the other end.

And I will have 12 Zinnias, the Zahara Bonfire mix, which are red, orange and yellow, and they will get up to 18 inches tall.  I think those need to go right up in front, probably on my side of the bed.  They will work well in front of the Yarrow, I think, and the red will work well there and the orange will tie in with the big Day Lilies.

Also, more seeds!

I planted the 12 pack with a variety of Sunflower that I bought from Home Depot or something which gets 5 feet tall.  All the ones I ordered specifically are more like 3 feet tall, but now that I am laying out the sidewalk bed, some 5 foot Sunflowers would be really nice.  I know you are not supposed to start them in containers and transplant because they get deep tap roots, so I am thinking these super deep cells will be better for them. Then I did 2 packs of the State Fair Zinnias.  I've got two more packs that are filled with soil that I can still plant... I could do Zinnias, or I could do more Sunflowers...I guess I should do Zinnias.  Maybe I will try to grow the green ones that I bought a few years ago.

Where would I plant them?  Actually, I haven't figured out where I am going to plant these other big Zinnias.  A couple options:

• Plant them in the long containers, on the ground inside the patio.  They would cover up the Gutter Garden, which is probably fine in the summer.  And I could tie them to the wall when they get big.  They would get pretty good sun there.  But being in containers, I would need to be more diligent about watering. 
• Put them behind the roses along the sidewalk.  That could be a little problematic because they would be spilling over into the sidewalk, where I need to walk frequently.  
• Plant them in the front bed, kind of in and around the other perennials in there.  That gets pretty good sun.  It would be a little problematic to get back there to stake them and cut them for vases and everything.  

I'm leaning towards the container option.  If that's the case, I can't even have that many.  I already have 12 pretty big ones, and 6 per container is probably already pushing it.  Of course, I can do all of the above.