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.

Annuals

It's too hot and humid to do anything outside.  I should be emptying out the finished compost so I can load it up with more stuff, but I really don't want to.  Actually, there is a long list of things I should be doing.

Instead, I want to think about what annual flowers to grow next year.  I'm still not sure how I feel about the gladioli.  I think they're very cool, they do make everything seem very lush and colorful, but they're a little... I dunno, tacky?  I still have two boxes I didn't plant this year, so I will probably end up doing something with them.  But DON'T buy any more.

The Morning Glory are not worth it.  I'm getting like, 2 blooms at a time, 3 tops.  And if I had bean plants in their place, that would be so much more productive, and so easy.  I mean, seriously, I put way too much work into getting those things started, and this is the 3rd year I've tried it, and I think I should just stop.  The Moonflower were even worse.

I'm very enamored of Zinnias right now, so I say let's do a bunch of those.  They can be in containers, or whatever, but now that I know what I'm doing, I think it will be really nice.  Just don't put them in the window box again.  And the ones I got from Home Depot are some sad little fuckers.  I should have ripped them out after a week.

The nasturtiums aren't that bad, the ones in the grow bags.  The raised bed really doesn't have space for something decorative like that.  I mean, maybe petunias or something would be more graceful, but I think these are cute.  I will definitely do all one color again.

Everything about that wall planter seems kind of shitty.  It obviously dries out like crazy.  Everything I put in there dies, except the Thunburgia which looks like a messy weed.  (Um, that's cause I need to cut it back.)  I think next year I will put a plastic liner in it so it doesn't get so dried out.  And I don't know what to put in there...

The Mandevilla was not a great choice.  I wish I had gotten a Clematis.  Not that they're really comparable.  I'm just disappointed that he's not actually climbing.  Putting a container in that spot in the bed was fine, I guess, although I think it looked weird for a while.  But the big hole in the bush has filled in, so I think we're good!  I was planning to bring the Mandy inside for the winter. I think I still will, because it sounds easy to care for over the winter (unlike the Clivia...) and it would be a plant that I could have inside, which would make me happy, and because reasons.

Let's see, what else did I plant...  The Vinca look great in the front bed.  I am kind of starting to understand the way people who are serious about gardening want to have purely perennial beds, but it really works well to just fill out the front with little annuals.  They look so good with the Sweet Potato Vine.  And they were cheap, and they live forever no matter what you do to them.  The ones I put in the container look good, too.

I bought that pack of...um... Lantana?  And they were supposed to be pink and yellow, which were my colors for the front bed, but then they looked more red, so I put them in the Bed of Neglect, where there is a red and yellow yarrow, but then they started to turn more pink, and now they're kind of pink and red and yellow?  Google Images seem to have the same problem.  But they are tough as nails.  I have basically ignored them (I mean, I banished them to the Bed of Neglect) and they're growing all happy, with their weed friends.  Ha, weed friends)

And... I put some calibroachia in the front bed, because it was pink and yellow, and I guess it's fine?  I never look at it, because it's on the other side, but it had a few rounds of flowers with no attention from me.  I guess things in the ground are pretty safe in general.

Now, on the patio- the hibiscus is so sexy with its big-ass flowers.  I want to try to overwinter her inside, as well.  I just asked the internet how that would go, and the internet was like, "Ooh, yeah that's going to be tough, she needs 2-3 hours of direct sunlight a day."  Relax, internet, I got this.  I have southeast-facing sliding glass doors, and I actually get more direct sun in the winter.  I did learn that it is in too big a container. (The container is insane, it's like a bathtub)  So I think I'll transplant it first, which I would have done anyway.

Both the Mandevilla and the Hibiscus need to come inside before nighttime temperatures drop below 40.  So, Mid September.

And... I also have some New Guinea impatiens and some begonias that never flowered and some coleus.  Coleus is fucking amazing, and that's why I'm going to grow it my damn self next year, because I couldn't find any this past spring.  I see they have it all over the place at work, so I think they must have hoarded it all.  I think I will not be doing the plant stand next year, just the raised bed that I set up.  And I would like to fill that with primarily hostas and ferns, but I kind of know that's a bad idea.  I mean, I know Mike McGrath would tell me not to do it.  He'd probably be like, "They might not necessarily die, but why try it when you could just leave them in the ground where they'll be happy and healthy?"  And he would be right.

The smart thing to do would be to fill that spot with things like Begonias, Caladiums, Coleus and Elephant Ears.  3 out of those 4 are tubers that can be dug up and stored inside over winter.  So I could develop this really lush patio landscape of big leafy things, a Hibiscus, and a Mandevilla, and as long as I pay a little attention, I don't have to keep buying them.

(BTW- remember that container at Mom's, with the gorgeous foliage plants for shade, like the begonia and the other weird thing?  If she doesn't want to save it, I should try to get a hold of them and save them, and then repot them for her in her own containers next year.  So smart!  Good Mother's Day gift!)

Other annual flowers (god, I did not realize I had done so many)- the Sunflowers.  Ok, so I have like, 6 of them, in a nice little patch in front of the AC.  They're like, 4 feet tall, which is not too offensive.  But, like Mom said, they are fucking ugly.  (Actually what she said was, "I think they look best when there's a big field of them, far away."  But that's because they are ugly.)  And it's the end of July and they don't really show any signs of blooming.  The ones at Pete's looked great the first week of July, and 3 weeks later they're looking a little spent.  So, best case scenario is still not great.  I don't think they're that awesome for home gardens, unless you have a lot of land, and you want to entertain kids with them.  Because I can see how it's a good project for a kid, this tiny seed can grow a total monster of a plant. (which looks like a nasty weed and has an unremarkable flower, woo!)

But wait, there's more!  I threw some Sweet Alyssum seeds into the Side Bed around April, and they're actually growing and it makes a nice border.  I kind of want to put Thyme there, though.  The Thyme is so low-growing that it just does not stand a chance in the raised bed.  I don't think it gets any sun.  But if I put it along the side of the side bed, next to the sidewalk, it would get great sun, it would drain well, and it would be more likely to perennialize because it's close to the house.  And it could be pretty, I could get some flowering kind.  Or I could also get some Sweet Alyssum seed, and start them inside.  (Calm down, you have one grow light.)

Longwood

My trip to Longwood yesterday was great.  I could wander around, thinking thoughts, and walking and totally different paces at different sites.

Their perennial beds actually looked a lot like mine- lots of herbaceous perennials blooming like crazy with no real order or scheme.  By that point, my phone's battery had died, but I would have taken lots of pictures otherwise.  It kind of looked like there wasn't a ton of care taken- like, an above-average amount of care, for sure, but not the Longwood type that I would expect.  (I also think the vegetable garden looked a little under-tended, but we don't have to talk about that.)

All I want in the world is to get that front bed to be the bestest perennial bed, where it just fills out and looks lovely, no maintenance. It's 80% of the way there.  I just need to put in another Echinacea, or maybe they'll even self-sow and things will be good.

Vegetable Plants Aren't Here to Make Friends

Let's talk about the veggie and herb growing situation that I hope to have next year.

First, what did I do this year that was awesome?  Well, that tomato is kind of insane.  Last year I grew one in a large container, and that was cool, and I got some tasty little tomatoes.  So this year I was like, a) I can't put it in the same place again, because reasons, and b) let's try it in the raised bed, even though it isn't the most sun ever, and see how it does?  And I bought a Sun Gold type something cherry tomato and Lowe's (the Bonnie Plants brand) instead of the yuppy place with my mom like last year, and I planted it after drawing a lot of pictures on graph paper of the one square foot it would need!  See, on the paper, how many pictures of plants I can fit into that space?  HahahahaaaAwesome!

So I put a tomato plant and a jalapeno pepper plant side by side, like lil buddies, with matching trellis...ess...s that were 15 in wide. and like not even 4 feet high, thinking they would grow up side by side and make nice little vegetables-that-are-really-fruits together.

And the pepper was like, "Tomato, you're my best friend," and the tomato was like, "Hahahah you little bitch.  I mean, sure, you too buddy."

The tomato obviously grew a little faster, which is fine, everyone grows at their own rate and that's ok.  You just do you, lil pepper.

But then, 2 months later, the tomato is like 10 feet tall and has taken over the world, and is carrying with it a bunch of thug pole bean plants, and the pepper is nowhere to be seen. I planted like, 20 seeds, but then there was hail and a bunch of them looked like shit so I pulled out about half and still they're kind of out of control.

A lot of this happened in the first week of July.  I went to Utah for work, then to DC for fun, so I was gone a solid week.  The day before I left, I watered everything like crazy, gathering up the empties from the summer festivities, peeling off the labels for decency, and filling them with water and inverting them into pre-drenched soil.  Everything survived, which is amazing, so let's do that again, but the tomato and beans were flopped over on to the lawn, unable to support their own massiveness.  Which is normal, right?  How many times did Mike McGrath explain to me that the tomato is a huge plant?  And that if you want a tomato that tastes good, at has to be a total fucking monster?

Mike McGrath is always like, Get some industrial strength steel and build an actual WWE Octagon cage-fight cage, because anything else, your tomato plant will TAKE IT DOOOOWWWWN.  And I was like, ooh you know what would look pretty, some little wooden trellis things; but not too big!  Maybe I could make it out of reclaimed 18th century toothpicks!  Blah blah Pinterest!

So I bought these cages (2), for tomatoes next year.  They at least fold up, so they don't have to just hang out in front of my house like so much garbage.  And I like that they are square.  They are 14 1/2" square, 20" diagonally, which is how I plan to arrange them in the rectangular, 24" deep bed, as a reminder of how much space they need to do their thing and to not think they're going to be friends with a pepper.  Come on.  (Actually, I got Tomato Towers, not Tomato Cages. They are tall.)

I also got these "self watering" containers (3) and I will use them for something?  Something that's going to climb up patio walls.  The Morning Glory are lovely, but I'm not sure they are getting along with the pole beans.  I think I'm getting more bean plant and less flowery plant.  The purple pole beans are so fucking cool.  The stems are purple, the leaves have purple streaks, they have purple flowers, it's awesome.  And I've already gotten like, 1/2 lb of beans, while I haven't had one bean yet from old Kentucky Wonder over in the raised bed.  And Kentucky regular-ass-green bean plant has grown a lot, like it makes me nervous hanging out near it cause it might strangle me, but no beans yet?  Is that a "too much nitrogen" thing?  But the tomato is messy with fruit, so that doesn't make sense.  The best explanation I can come up with is sun- the ones on the patio (purple) get beaten with sun, so they don't need to make crazy leaves, but the raised bed gets dappled sun for a minute and then some shade after about 3.  So I think they get just barely 6 hours.
The other reason to not grow pole beans in a tiny raised bed is that they take that shit over.

And this is at Longwood!  (So, I don't wanna be a bitch, but did anyone else thing Longwood's vegetable garden was actually not that impressive?  I mean, did you see the tomatoes?  They've kind of let themselves go.  And cut back your kale already, it's July.)  

(Longwood: "Remember those zinnias that were bigger than your fist?"  Me: "Shut up, Longwood.")

So, pole beans are really better suited to covering up ugly things than sharing space. And clearly they do not mind being in little tiny containers that dry out.  Since so much of my space is concrete, I should be doing more in containers.

But, also, the opposite of that- there's no reason I can't have vegetable plants near flowers.  The spaces that are already established as planting areas get the best sun, and no matter how many graph paper pictures I draw, I can't come up with a way to set up a raised bed in the good sun.  So maybe in makes sense to put some of these lettuce and greens plants in the planting beds?  And the herbs, too?  The thyme is really perfect for an edging plant, the basil would probably do a lot better if it didn't have to compete with those assholes Tomato and Pole Bean, and maybe a pepper and and eggplant could find a home in there as well.

The jalapeno I thought was lost in the gang violence of the raised bed is actually still there, surviving, not quite thriving, but fruiting.  I did buy another one today from Wedgewood.  He was suffering from another kind of struggle- sprouted as a seedling and potted up in about 6 fl oz of soil and left in the sun, fertilized excessively, and laden with more pepper fruits than his little pepper body could handle.  My first pepper is like the kid from the bad neighborhood, and this one is the affluent over-achiever who was planning to hang himself in his parents' finished basement. And I'm about to pot him up with some perlite and compost, while I leave the other one in the raised bed, swarmed by bean plants?  He was able to squeeze out a few little stumpy peppers to get my attention, so now I'm like, "Clearly you're fine, sorry your friend Tomato turned out to be such a dick" ?  I should think more about my choices.

Compost

I bought this lovely raised bed thingy for my patio, and I'm delighted with it, it's perfect.  But I haven't planted anything in it.  Right now, I'm just throwing in all the cuttings from any plants, including all the cut-back liriope from 3 months ago.  It's like a pre-compost, I guess.

My actual compost bin has this dark, steamy, unctuous mass sitting at its bottom.  When I went outside a few days ago, it was 7 am and relatively cool, and the sun was not yet on the bin, but the thing was so hot I could barely touch it.  So I think that's going well.

Since it's almost done, I could just take it out and pile it up in some container, and start another batch.  I could pretty much get it finished before winter, right?