First Bed is Planted

I am recovering from the flu, but decided to spend the day working on the garden. To start off, I planted rosemary in one of the beds in front of the house, two more Flame Seedless Grapes on the back fence, and put in one more Celeste Fig. I spread a little dog poop around each planting (except for the rosemary), because that keeps the dogs from digging them up. I then double-dug a 5x6 foot area in the garden, working in 1 cubic foot of composted manure and 2 cubic feet of compost.

I checked the 10-day forecast, and freezing weather is not predicted. So I decided to go ahead and put out some of my more cold-tolerant plants. The 20 sugar snap peas that I had planted in flats had only produced 3 nice looking plants, so I went ahead and transplanted them. Then, I directly planted in the ground around 70 more pea seeds - all 3 inches apart. I was nicking each one with a hacksaw blade, but about halfway through I stopped doing that as it was really slow. Besides, I will have some with nicks, and some without, so I can see if it really made a difference.

I was only planting the seeds about a half inch deep, but when I had planted about 50 seeds I looked at the directions and it said to plant 2 inches deep. Oops. The last 20 went in much deeper. I had been punching holes in the dirt with a really large nail. In hindsight, it would have been much easier to dig rows.

I also planted about 4 rows of carrots (but not over the spot where I worked in the manure). It is very difficult to control placement of carrot seeds, because they are so small. I was trying to plant a seed every 2-3 inches, but sometimes I ended up dumping 5 seeds in one spot. I was first dropping them by hand, but found it much easier to control by dropping them directly out of the packet. I did plant these in rows, at about half an inch deep.

I finished off by sprinkling about a quarter pound of general purpose fertilizer over the bed, and then watered it. I head back to Europe in 8 days, and I don't expect the peas to have come up by then. Hopefully the carrots will be sprouting so I can thin them out. I am in Europe for 3 weeks this next trip, and the carrots really need to be thinned out before then.

Next up will be the broccoli transplants. I have about 15 that will be ready to plant before I travel. The broccoli plants that I planted last August are really starting to produce; hopefully these transplants can get a crop in before it gets hot. But next year, I know I can plant broccoli at any time during the winter and have a crop coming in during the first couple of months of the year.

I also have lots of seedlings sprouting in flats. I have summer squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and jalapenos all coming up now. It is going to be a tough call whether to plant them outdoors before I head back to Europe. I probably won't risk it, but then they will be really crowding the containers by the time I get back.

One final note. I put in quite a bit of Giant Liriope in the front beds for landscaping. The rabbits love it, and have munched it down to the ground. I have sprayed them with various rabbit repellants to no avail. So today, I placed some dog poop under the mulch in front of each one. I am hoping this turns them off enough to leave the plants alone.

What I Plan to Grow This Year

Eventually I want to start using heirloom seeds, but this year I went with what they had in the seed rack at Home Depot. My garden is laid out in a 5 foot by 25 foot plot. I may have to add some on to that. But here is what I have planned:

20 Green Goliath Broccoli
20 Sugar Daddy Snap Peas
16 Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash
10 Big Boy Tomatoes
6 Clemson Spineless Okra
6 Burpee's Hybrid Zucchini
5 Pimiento Jalapenos
Big Top Carrots
Genovese Basil
Oregano (Origanum vulgare)
Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum)
Marigolds
4 Flame Seedless Grapes
2 Celeste Figs

As I have mentioned already, I have been experimenting since August with some of these. Cilantro and the broccoli thrived through the winter, surviving a low temperature of 16°F (Jan 16th, per the Weather Channel's website). I had some jalapenos outside in containers, and they survived until a hard freeze in December. So I am optimistic that I can get in a really good harvest of those until late fall. I have one basil and some oregano in the house. The oregano has thrived and the basil has survived, and I will plant both outdoors in late March.

The temperatures start to regularly get into the 80's in early May, so I hope to have a crop of broccoli, snow peas, and carrots finished by then. I will replant some of the warm weather items like jalapenos and okra in their place.

Spring Planning and the Double Dig

January 22, 2009 – Freshly arrived back from Europe. None of the 40 seeds I planted before I left have sprouted, but the soil is still damp. I now have two broccoli plants that are ready to harvest. I will do that this weekend.

I harvested the compost from one of my composters and spread it around on the ground where I am going to do a double-dig of about 125 square feet. I realize I don't have enough, so I will need to either pick up more compost or some peat moss. One of the things I am learning is that decaying organic matter in the soil is very important for good growth. Not having that is why it took my broccoli all winter to produce.

I started the double-dig, and it was slow going. Lots of white rocks as big as my head have to be removed. I had put up a temporary fence to keep the dogs out, but I can see they have been in and gotten mud everywhere. My back started to get sore about halfway through the double-dig.

January 23, 2009 – I awoke this morning to find that 10 of the broccoli seeds and 3 of the snow peas have sprouted. I guess they were just waiting for me to get back home. I plan to let them grow for at least a couple of weeks – and maybe a month – before transplanting them outside. The only problem is that the flats are not very deep, and even now I have roots trying to come out the bottom.

Back in the fall when it froze and killed my nice-looking jalapeno (which in December was just about to bloom), I also had one in a container. I brought that one into the garage, and left it to die. Funny thing is that it didn't die. It doesn't look good, but I have some hope that I might be able to keep it alive until time to transplant it outside.

Right now, I am scheduled to go back to Europe on February 16th. I plan to transplant the broccoli and snow peas outside just before I go, as well as plant a row of carrots. Today I also planted 6 zucchini, 6 tomatoes, 16 crookneck squash, and 12 marigolds in a couple more flats. I plan to transplant them outdoors some time after I return from Europe the first week of March. Hopefully they won't be too packed in the flats by then. I am also going to plant some jalapenos in some small pots, which should be ready to go outdoors in March.

I went to Home Depot today and bought two grapevines (Flame Seedless) and a fig tree. I plan to set them out tomorrow.