Winter is coming (kind of)

Tonight (Saturday) it's supposed to get down to 38, which would definitely kill the tropical plants, so I need to bring them inside today.  I'm a little worried about that, because I'm sure I'll end up bringing in bugs.  I'm supposed to hose them down pretty hard first, which should help, but I'm not confident.

I have the Mandevilla, the Terrain Hibiscus, and the Home Depot Hibiscus.  I'm really unclear on  how I'm supposed to take care of them.  Some sources say they should both be encouraged to go dormant by not giving them direct sun and withholding water, but another source says this is stupid and it's totally easy to have a hibiscus as a house plant as long as you keep it evenly moist and your house isn't super dry.  I think I will be using the humidifier this year.  I don't know how I'm going to get the Mandevilla washed off, because it's kind of compact on its trellis.  Which is great, I think, I want it to fill out.  I heard someone on YBYG talk about an indoor palm they used as a Christmas tree, and I think I'll try something similar with the Mandevilla this year, since it has that shape already.

I also need to bring in the Jalapeno, and the Ginger.  The Ginger has not impressed me so far- it's only just started to sprout.  I guess I wasn't very thoughtful and I planted it too deep, and after a few weeks realized my mistake and removed an inch of soil.  But they say it grows well as a house plant, so I'll keep trying.  The Jalapeno... man, I don't know.  It's not a very large pot, and the plant hasn't done terribly well.  But there's no reason not to try, other than space.

Eventually I will need to bring in the Rosemary.  It seems pretty happy right now, probably because I've left it alone all summer to soak up sun and occasional rain.  Part of me wants to just keep it in a "protected area" where it won't freeze... but it's in a pot, and it's not a big pot, and it's only a year old...  It's perennial to Zone 7, and I'm Zone 6, and it's in a pot and Mike says that's not going to work, which I have a hard time believing because tons of people grow other perennials in pots...  I had a Rosemary in the raised bed last year and it absolutely did not make it, so I don't think this one stands a chance.  I don't know what I'm doing, I shouldn't be free handing this nonsense.

So, I'll bring it inside, but not yet. Maybe in November, around the same time I plant bulbs.

If it is going to get cold tonight, like in the 30s, that should kill any tomato plant, right?  (Please?  I'm really sick of that guy.)  And the green beans should be following suit.  If it stops raining this afternoon, I think I will go ahead and rip them all out.  They're really looking like shit, and I want to use that space for kale.

Also, the other annuals should be dying off, right?  The Zinnias look like they're still going strong.  For some reason, when I cut them and put them in jars, they aren't even lasting for a few days before turning brown and sad.  Before, the same cut flowers would last me for 2 weeks; it was crazy.

The Morning Glory have been looking great this past month.  I wish they would get going a little faster, I want them to be like this all summer.  Maybe they don't like that hot sun.  Maybe it was because they were mixed in with the green beans, and nothing can out compete a green bean.  Maybe it wasn't until I pulled out all the bean plants that the Morning Glories could really get going.  I've also given them some Miracle Grow which should be a bigger source of shame, but they're just an annual flower, their only purpose is to make flowers and look pretty for me, and they're not supposed to be healthy well adjusted individuals, I'm just going to give them drugs to get what I want from them and then kill them when they can't perform.  I can't romanticize every plant.

About the Begonias... I think I should wait until frost kills the leaves, and then save the tubers.  I could try to grow them over the winter inside, but I don't think I have space.  It's getting kind of out of hand.  The Impatients...I think they're pretty frost-tender and everything, but I think they are perennial?  I think I will try to bring them inside.

I also have that big container with the purple oxalis that I'm very fond of, and I'd like to keep it around.  I think a lot of people grow it as a houseplant.  But I'm not going to bring in that big pot with the ivy and the Creeping Jenny.  I mean, there's no reason I can't, but it's big, there's nothing that special about it.  And, maybe I could just dig up and transplant the Oxalis to a smaller container?  That seems way more reasonable.

Ok, so plants coming inside are:

• Mandevilla
• Yellow Hibiscus (giant pot)
• Pink Hibiscus (normal pot)
• Jalapeno 
• Ginger
• New Guinea Impatints (3)
• Oxalis (transplant) 

That means today I have to hose down the big guys and do the transplanting.  And I really should plant those stupid Coreopsis I bought in like, August.  I don't want to...  

Cleaning up and stuff

I finally cut the overgrown stuff in the front way, way back.  Mostly it was Sweet Potato Vine, which has grown like crazy and was hiding a ton of plants I didn't know where there.  And I pulled out a ton of dead shit off the poor day lilies, which are barely hanging on,  Oh, and I cut the Black Eyed Susan and the Echinacea down quite a bit, because their dried out heads were depressing.  I found a Hosta.

The container veggies are kind of stagnant.  The Romaine Lettuce looks fantastic and I'm going to probably cut it soon, yay.  The kale is growing very slowly, and it has some significant bug damage.  The Bok Choy are getting decimated by the bugs. The stupid radicchio in the window box is growing and everything, and it looks fine and healthy, but it's not making any radicchio.  It looks like I started those in early August, and while I think they are 80 or 90 day, they don't look like anything good is going to happen there.  I think they might be bullshit.  I may want to rip them out and put in more lettuce or spinach or something.   The long container where I had the mesclun is ok, there's what looks like arugula and some stuff...  I would like to replant it with another row but I need to get more seeds.  There's another long container where I put the rest of the mesclun seeds a while ago, and they're germinated and sprouted, but then they did nothing for the last 2 -3 weeks.

I have like, 4 6 packs of baby Bok Choy starts but I don't know where to put them.  They all seem to get nommed on by these little bugs, maybe also caterpillars.  If I go through the trouble of transplanting all these, will I just attract more of these little fuckers?  The ones I have are already much bigger than I thought they would be, so I'm going to go ahead and harvest those, and transplant the starts back into that container.  (I should go through it first and make sure there are no disgusting caterpillars.

I got worms.

I now have a worm bin (WormFactory) and approximately 1000 red wiggler worms.  When I got the worms 4 days ago, I made the starter mix they recommended, with damp coir, shredded paper, pumice and mineral dust, and lined the top and bottom with paper.  They asked for newsprint, but I used the brown paper bag material.  I hope it's not too dense.

I just fed them for the first time- I put the contents of my little kitchen crock into the food processor (2 batches) to try to break it down to a manageable size and chunkiness.  That was gross.  But yeah, I tried to spread that around for the worms...  it was quite damp, which is probably good because the paper on top and even the coir mix seemed very dry.  Hm... I definitely used tap water to dampen everything, and it's definitely chlorinated.  So going forward, I should probably make an effort to de-chlorinate that stuff.  You can leave it to sit out for 2 days, and the chlorine evolves into the air, or you can boil it for an hour, I think.  The best approach would probably be to keep a spray bottle near the bin so when things look dry, I can just mist it.  I'll need to do that with some of the house plants as well.  (Oh god, there are going to be so many house plants)

But I think this is going to be a good thing.  I can put the majority of kitchen scraps in there.  Some sources say they do not like onions or citrus or hot peppers, which worries me because I use those things a lot.  Why wouldn't they like onions?  What about onion skins?  They like eggshells and coffee grounds, and that's great because I have a lot of that, and I don't mind hoarding it.  I had a large stash of coffee grounds that I put in the outside compost, but I think the rest of them will go in the worm bin, because it sounds like everyone agrees they are the perfect for worms.  That, and nutrient-poor stuff like lettuce.  I am reluctant to put any fruit or tomato in there because of the potential for fruit flies, but everyone says that's not an issue as long as I keep putting in shredded paper.  We'll see.  I'm now getting very impatient, and I want to mess with it, but I should probably just leave it alone and check on it after a week.

So Many Plants

I now have 5 out of 6 of the rectangular planters filled with fall veggies- Bok Choy, Lettuce, Kale and Swiss Chard.  I think they're looking quite good, although today it's like, 90+ and sunny and humid and everything is looking a little limp and sad, including me.  The Swiss Chard looks really nice, and the first set of lettuce is pretty full, but not very green, for some reason.  When it's cooler, I'm going to cut back a lot, and see how it comes back.  I did that a few weeks ago and made a teeny tiny salad for myself, but now the Romaine are starting to form little heads.

I think next year I could do the 3 big planters with something fast, like lettuce and radishes, and then it will be all finished by May, when I would put in the Green Beans.  I don't think I would even need to clean the plants out, I would just plant the beans in there near the end of April, when the lettuce should be finishing, and they'll just succession-grow themselves.

At Home Depot, I bought some Coreopsis, which were 3 for $12, and I'd been thinking about putting them in the sad bed.  Right now the grasses are so huge I feel weird about putting anything in there.  But I will.  I would do it today if it wasn't disgusting outside.  I also got a new Hibiscus from Terrain, because it was on sale, and put it in a bigger pot.  Yet another plant I can bring in over the winter.

I'm starting to pull off any new flowers on the tomato.  It's not that we don't have time to get them ripened up, but I am sick of the ugly plant.  And I want to clear out some space for the next round of planting.  I want to get more Kale up in there.

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.