Vegetable Garden Upgrades

Last season's vegetable fared especially poorly.  My tomatoes stayed leafy with little fruit.  Staking them upright, both with plastic stakes and later with metal cages, did not keep them upright.  Fruits gave way mostly to pests and to blights.  Peppers grown from nursery plants went nowhere.  Seeds planted into the ground mostly disappointed.  I generated a cucumber vine but only one cucumber. Pretty much a dud all around.  My pots did not fare a lot better.  I wonder whether lawn care extended their herbicides to my vegetables and herbs.  Or maybe my seeds had passed their expiration dates.  Perhaps my soil needs selective enrichment.  Even weeds did not grow making me a little suspicious of my lawn care service.  Some plants grew green.  The beans did not generate beans but stalks rose.

The agricultural division of my state university offers a soil analysis for a nominal fee.  They have kits, but will also accept samples placed in a one-quart freezer bag, like the TSA does for screening liquids.  I've been reading their collection requirements.  Cumbersome, but within my level of skill.  I will need to wash, maybe sterilize, the garden trowel that collects the sample.  I'll follow the collection procedure that they require.  Fill the sample bag, label it with my identification and the intent of a vegetable garden, and enclose a check for $22.50.  Mail in a secure envelope that I can get from the post office.  Enrich the soil in the way the agricultural chemists advise.

I would like to harvest some vegetables this season.

To make space more efficient, I've used a Square Foot Gardening approach.  Mine never produces nearly as bountifully as Mel's who wrote the book, nor as well as the many online sites that guide amateurs through that method.  Considering the magnitude of last year's gardening failure, maybe it's time to return to row planting.  And new seeds would likely enhance yield.  A couple of layers of organic compost from a gardening center or hardware store could also contribute to success.  I don't have a good defense from pests, though.

I will need to reconsider what to plant.  Every amateur looks forward to tomatoes.  Either exotic heirlooms or beefy globe tomatoes.  Cucumbers have been successful.  To minimize weeds, I have a layer of cloth weed block.  While successful, it also makes root vegetables unrealistic.  I've not done well with leaf lettuce, nor do I particularly like eating a lot of it.  Bell peppers never produced.  I would consider chili peppers.

But first, collect soil and do what the chemists report.

Planting Season

Unlikely to get more frost, so spring gardening approaches.  I did rather well this winter.  Having made a decision last year that vegetables go in the ground in the backyard, while culinary herbs grow in pots outside my front door and in my living room, some of my culinary crop survived.  I have a decent stem of rosemary, a somewhat straggly stem of sage, and a pot of spearmint that has begun its annual recurrence.  In the three chia pots, parsley has big leaves, though not that many.  Chives have been straggly, while basil underperformed previous chia attempts.  The hydroponic aerogarden's dill has overflowed and oregano grows abundantly.  Cilantro was a dud on two attempts.  Sage has sprouted from seed.  Chives has only a few leaves but probably enough for a sandwich.  Basil planted indoors did not sprout, probably due to excessively soggy soil.  Pot put outside to dry a bit, and I have plenty of fresh seeds for a do-over, or to plant basil in a different pot and use the soggy one for something else.

While different plants have different optimal direct in-ground times to plant seeds or transplant vegetables grown from seeds indoors, for my region, the weeks between Passover and Mother's Day seem the calendar's sweet spot.  My pot collection exceeds what I really want to plant.  Moreover, each year Shop-Rite sells discounted flourishing basil, chives, and parsley in containers that I can simply transplant to larger containers all ready for harvest.  I must choose primarily which herbs I want to grow, then enrich the soil, plant the seeds, and label what I have planted in each pot or subsection of a larger pot.

The backyard poses more of a challenge.  I've been formatting the vegetables in the manner of a Square Foot Garden, mostly with disappointing results.  I also have an accessory area that I misjudged trying to plant beets and carrots.  Basically, I have few weed problems because the landscaper many years ago installed weedblock cloth in the defined beds.  My two 4x4 foot beds will generate 32 squares.  The weedblock layer, however, limits my ability to grow root vegetables, despite a previous attempt to make the soil thicker.  Moreover, tomatoes grown from small pots purchased at a top nursery overtake the square allotted to them.  They grow leaves and stems that exceed the ability of my plastic stakes to maintain them upright.  It does not help, that the weedblock layer makes it difficult to insert the supporting stakes as deeply as I might like.  The abundance of green and paucity of fruit suggests that the nutrient mix needs to be better.  Since tomatoes are one of the reliable plants that always taste better from my garden than what the supermarket, or even farmer's market can offer, this gets priority.  I think I will only grow two plants this year, allotting each two square feet, and supporting with cages instead of stakes.  Eggplant and peppers also never reach their potential when grown from nursery pots.  Peppers are easily obtainable at the supermarket, but eggplant more expensive.  My bok choy and lettuce never produce.  Swiss chard is iffy.  Green beans sprout, but the harvest is difficult.  Maybe four squares this year, and a different four than previous years.  Vining plants like cucumber and squash often do well.  Since they need room to spread out, they can only be planted at the outer squares of the grid, but they often produce a very gratifying yield.  This may be the place for that accessory planting portion separate from the 4x4 grid, or maybe even a reason to use a linear rather than grid format for this year's vegetable garden..

Then, once I know what to plant, I need to get the seeds or shoots.  Many of my seed packets are quite old.  I should get some fresh packets.  The best price on seedlings is always Home Depot on sale or the local nursery.  I've priced seeds several places.  I prefer the local hardware store, not because they are better seeds or better value, but because I am grateful for the many times they made it easy to get the home maintenance items I needed in a trouble-free way.  I can spend a little more for loyalty, but I also need selection.  The best prices on seeds seem to be Walmart.  Target sells Burpee for slightly more, but it's a good deal closer than Walmart.  Lowe's seemed expensive.  Home Depot is out of the way, worth it for plants, not for seeds.

So it seems best to invest the week before Passover and Chol HaMoed on planning.  What to plant, herbs and vegetables, which squares or even whether to continue this Square Foot format.  The soil will need to be enriched, so a few packages of organic soil enricher, maybe get a soil test, maybe consider some chemical additives.  Buy a couple of tomato cages.  Then mark and plant and set a maintenance schedule.  Indoor went well this winter.  No insurmountable obstacles to duplicating a reasonable herb and vegetable yield outdoors this season.

This Year's Gardens

Gardening has been removed from my semi-annual initiatives in favor of other things.  While it never became a focus as intended, it has found a niche in my seasonal activity, much like monthly donations or monthly financial review has moved from targeted activity to ordinary continuation.

The plants have four general placements.  In the living room, an aeroponic unit that always underperforms, yielding nothing meaningful to my culinary herb needs.  The chia pots, three of them, have been productive of basil, less of other things, but for the first time I'm giving dill a go.  Outside my front door I plant container herbs.  Bought mint since it was on sale, and bought rosemary since mine never take from seed and I need robust rosemary for cooking.  All else is from seed.  Mostly planted, a few sprouting.

Near the back door on the deck I plant flowers in the tree wooden plantar boxes.  They do well most years with very little care.  And then the big project, vegetables, most not yet chosen.  I started tomatoes, eggplant, and pepper from seed indoors.  All sprouted and were transplanted outside, still alive a few days and one watering later.  Radishes go well.  Some yellow squash planted in a different location than usual.  And I want to have some cucumber in a place where the vines can have room beyond the 4x4 wooden confines of my Square Foot format.  Then choose the rest of the vegetables.  Since weed block limits the depth that root vegetables can pursue, I found another location for carrots and beets this year.  A row format for these.

Maintenance probably twice a week for each bed or container, daily for the indoor plants with near total reconstruction of the aerogarden needed as a single focus.  I don't do well with fertilizing or other feeding, and pests have limited past harvests.  But whatever I can get with the limited focus I am willing to give this will be an increment of personal pleasure later on, something in current short supply.

Beans Planted

Made a few key garden decisions.  My eggplant, tomato, and pepper seeds all failed.  But failure can be salvaged, sometimes even upgraded.  Since I had to buy plants, I did five different tomato varieties, one outside the front door, each of the other four in the back corners of the backyard beds.  Bought one each of pepper and eggplant, planting each in the garden.  It had been my intent to have four of each, but instead I scaled back to two, starting one of each as another set of indoor seeds, which have sprouted reliably, then transplanting once germinated.  It was not my intent to plant green beans but I had a lot of seeds and extra squares from not having as many peppers and eggplants.  These sprout well but are difficult to thin and harvest so I only put one seed in each hole to avoid thinning.  If some don't take, I have more seeds.  That leaves me two squares of green beans totaling 18 plants.  They are difficult to harvest, with pods appearing and maturing at different times, while the Square Foot Garden pattern bunches beans rather close together.  But some invariably reach my table.

Planting timed nicely to the weather, with a useful overnight shower.  Some neglect the rest of the week so that the seeds can germinate and the transplants take root.  May be ready to start thinning the original seed plantings of beets and lettuce.  

Trimming Branches

While another snow storm could occur, for the most part we've not had either a big snow or freeze problem this winter.  Garden preparation, one of my twelve semi-annual projects, now moves to its next phase.  I've planted the indoor vegetable, some more successful than other, but with a chance to correct what did not go well.  As the season warms, I will need to offer my raised backyard beds more sunlight.  that means some serious removal of branches, thorny and smooth that impede sunshine to the corner squares.  They also make tending to weeds and harvest difficult.  I really want to have a stellar garden this season so the more I do, planning and execution, the more pleasure the effort will bring.

Harvesting My Gardens

In anticipation of a special anniversary dinner, I went out to see how much of it I could contribute from the bounty of the gardens set as a semi-annual project last cycle.  One tomato plant flourished.  That became salad.  No cucumbers yet.  Lots of basil that became pesto.  Parsley became garnish.  Thyme leaves enhanced glazed carrots.  Flounder came from a fisherman more skilled than me.  

And there will be more tomatoes as one plant has produced fruit to abundance.

Gardening is here to stay though in a different form.  The herbs except for sage and rosemary did better in a pot.  Those two stay in the backyard, as my sage did poorly in the pot.  The rest of the backyard beds seem better suited to vegetables.  Tomatoes need more room.  See what happens to cucumbers.  Maybe try eggplant and peppers from the nursery instead of from seed.  Beans were a disappointment.  Soil analysis next spring I think, with targeted enrichment.  Now that I've added depth between the surface and the weed block, I can reconsider root vegetables, maybe beets that don't grow very deep.  

And I have enough herbs to keep me going through Thanksgiving.

Summertime 2021

And the living is easy.  Or maybe not that easy.  Sweltering days have arrived, though to my surprise the container plantings with commercial potting soil have all retained their moisture from the last deluge a few  days back.  I've not checked the backyard square foot garden.  Deck plants appear healthy even though their soil has dried.  Maybe try staking the four tomato plants later.

Summer marks fewer appointments.  One doctor's visit later in the week.  Maybe see if the Blood Bank will have me back as a donor.  No OLLI classes.  No looming deadlines.  In that sense, the living is easy though better not to be too easy.

Post-Covid travel has begun to open.  I went to the Delaware beaches twice amid prudent restrictions, plan to do this again in the more open environment.  Maybe go to Lancaster after my medical appointment, as I've not done that at all during the pandemic.

Significant blocks of unstructured times also create opportunities.  My traditional six month cycle reaches its conclusion soon, more successful than most given the pandemic's limitations, but still with enough loose ends to require some element of self-directed effort within some specific self-assigned work times.  Still another kg to go on my weight goal.  Still sitting on three completed essays of good quality but lackadaisical about seeking a publication for submission.  Not exactly summertime activities but still on the not yet completed list.  Too soon to harvest my gardens.  I've had a little too much medical care of late.  Complete this appointment and steer clear of providers the remainder of the summer.  And shul reopens but for now without me.  

Since my initiatives get created in June to transition in July, summer for me is never really hazy or lazy.  I have made peace with what I did, didn't do, or could have done, thought about what I'd like to continue or do instead, and come the hottest days with the least fixed structure, immerse myself onward.

Sprouting

This would be the year for a great garden, and maybe it still can be.  With attention to pots at the front door easily accessible for care, layering of soil and nutrients in the backyard beds, nearly daily care to the aerogarden, and not getting too frustrated with chia pot disappointments, real progress emerges.  Planting seeds or placing nursery plants in the soil has its measure of satisfaction.  Weeding and thinning much less so.  But I'm at the weeding and thinning stage.  The pots only needed coriander selected as the healthiest looking of adjacent stems.  In the backyard, though, things appeared more challenging.  While I know where I placed the seeds, having made a good map, some rain or hose watering may have shifted some of the upper soil and the seeds with them.  For early sprouts I am often not sure which are the desired plants, therefore they have to be left alone until the appearance declares itself.  Some such as dill have delicate stems where more than one seedling in a planting hole germinated.  

Census in the backyard thus far:  tomatoes less vigorous growth than hoped but all viable.  Pepper, one schvok plant, replanted new seeds in each of the two allotted squares.  Eggplant not sure.  Bok Choi not sure.  Beans mostly OK.  Arugula too delicate to thin.  Swiss Chard limited sprouting from a usually easy to grow seed, though mine were dated for previous years.  Cucumber looked great.  Weeded and thinned.

Dill thinned with difficulty in hopes of more vigorous sprouts.  Chives needed some big weeds removed.  Marjoram and oregano uncertain.  Sage had a small plant with characteristic leaves right in the center of its square.  All other greenery plucked from that square.  Basil uncertain.  Thyme too delicate to thin. Coriander too delicate to thin.

Benign neglect for another week or so, then reassess.

Garden Planted

This would be the year to have a great garden.  It became my HOME entry for my current semi-annual initiatives, one that I maintained.  The Aerogarden semi-flourishes though basil grow too high and coriander did not germinate at all.  but I've used the basil and tarragon, will use the thyme, though the dill seems more suitable for a garnish than a culinary herb.  Chia pots have been repetitive failures except for basil, which eventually outgrows the sponge and withers.  It has great leaves, though, much bigger than the Aerogarden basil which I think is the same seed.  Tried to grow tomatoes and peppers from seed indoors.  They sprouted.  Tomatoes failed on transplant.  Peppers transplanted yesterday.

Outdoor container plants have begun to sprout.  I bought spearmint and have uncontrollable peppermint from last year.  Made the largest pot into a multitasker:  dill, parsley, basil, thyme.  Germination has begun on all but the basil.  Made pots of chives and coriander, no activity yet.  Some flowers have germinated.  Sage and Rosemary from seed likely to fail in the outdoor pots.  Planted sage from seed in the main garden and bought rosemary from Richardson's Garden Center so I know I will have some.

For the backyard, I have two 4x4 blocks devoted to Square Foot Gardening.  After many years, I made the effort to enrich the soil.  Tomatoes and rosemary as plants, all else from seed.  One for herbs + two tomatoes, the other for vegetables.  So it's Dill, Sage, Rosemary, Oregano, Chives, Marjoram, Parsley, Basil, Thyme, and Cilantro.  For the vegetables:  Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant, Beans, Bok Choi, Swiss Chard, Cucumbers, and Arugula.  Some watering on schedule, maybe even fix hose reel to do it better.  Then some patience.  Hopefully with weed blocking fabric beneath and layers of nutrients above, weeding will not be too much of a chore.  And this year I need to do better with pests, something I usually neglect, and perhaps enriching nutrients along the way.

But mostly scheduling chores and patience now that the hard elements of enhancing the garden beds and sowing the seeds are behind me.

Gardening Among the Semi-Annual Projects

Rather than declutter as my semi-annual home initiative, something that always falls short of intent, I shifted directions to focus on my gardens in a comprehensive way.  I've done this before in a limited way, selecting roses for one of the semi-annual twelve.  I now have two rose bushes on the side of my house, one thriving, one more of a runt but still flowering each spring.  Last year independent of formal initiatives I improved my containers at the front entrance and successfully planted asters in three cubical containers on the deck.  Caring for them took little effort, consistently applied, with disappointing container results.

This time I want to pursue something more elaborate. The Aerogarden has much more potential than has been achieved.  Containers can be planted outside the front with more attention to soil, plant selection, and plant placement.  Many years ago I established two 4x4 foot defined beds for a square foot garden.  These have never reached their potential, largely because I cut corners.  There are two areas in the back yard that can produce flowers.  And I have my roses.  

By far the Square Foot beds require the most attention.  I've made many mistakes over the years but am willing to exert some effort to planning and execution.  I think one will be allocated exclusively for culinary herbs, the other exclusively for vegetables.  Each has an underpinning of landscape fabric which limits weeds but largely precludes carrots or other root vegetables that grow downwards.  Vines take too much room but produce cucumbers and zucchini.  Tomatoes have produced more green than fruit, overtake the cages which topple, and limit access to and production in adjacent squares, making me wonder whether Square Foot is really the best format.  

On a tour through the Christmas Tree Shop in mid-winter, their seed packets have come on display, which means I need to select and purchase what I want, at least for the herbs that tend to sell out first.  My own vegetables grown outdoors from seed have not generally done well, so perhaps it's time to do my own indoor winter planting.  But by far, the biggest challenge for me in those beds will be to enhance the thickness of the soil, and probably the quality of the soil as well.  I suspect my outdoor containers need better drainage, so maybe a layer of stones at the bottom of each might pay off at harvest time.  And most of all a schedule of what needs doing when without excuses that keep me indoors.  I think I can make it happen this time.

Recovery Day

About the midpoint of Memorial Day Weekend.  It's not really a day off for anybody, since those who are essential workers in a Covid-19 environment still have work that is ongoing and those of us idle are still idle.  For me, though, it seems at least a physical recovery day.

After being shelved from the scheduled treadmill sessions I am back in action, and yesterday for the first time I was able to complete the program at the level at which I had left off.  That left me a little sore, particularly in the calves, though respiratory and cardiovascular benefits seem to not need that every three days respite. 

Memorial Day Weekend starts the summer mindset.  Our SDS Weatherman predicted it to be warmer than what I experienced retrieving the newspaper from our driveway but I still attired myself in classic summer garb. 

It's also a scheduled day for full attention to gardens.  Indoor plants seem on schedule.  Outdoor containers could use some minor attention.  Focus on backyard beds this afternoon if it warms up and dries out a little.  I've not weeded yet but will need to this week.

Summer may be as much a mindset as a calendar designation.  I'm on my way, and today for the first time this calendar year look the part.

Taking Action

Maybe it was the resumption of naproxen but I feel better physically, still a little spunk deprived mentally.  Sending off my Medscape column offers one big monthly sense of accomplishment.  So did planting my 4x4 garden the day before, maybe even enough to proceed to the other 4x4 later on today.  Achiness limited my treadmill schedule which needs to hit the reset but get back to previously accomplished levels before long.  And I got some laundry done, enough to proceed with the seasonal transfer of clothing from storage to bedroom.  All this without bothering to get dressed at all yesterday.  I had associated looking ready to work with working, as had others.  Had outdoor activities been needed, I would have put on clothing appropriate to that, as I plan to today, but flannel bottoms are fine for working at my keyboard if I am dedicated to typing in My Space.  Today, though, I expand beyond My Space.

Square Foot Garden

This is the season that I pay attention to my gardens.  Roses from a few years back are now on autopilot with no plans for additions.  My focus has shifted to plants for my kitchen.  These will be a combination of vegetables and culinary herbs, planted in square foot format in the back yard or containers near my front door.  Spearmint has revived from last year.  New container herbs planted, some sprouting.  Aerogarden revived with some painstaking cleaning of the plastic tubes, new soil, and cleaning the hydroponic tub beneath.  First germination on its way.

I spent some time looking at square foot gardening options on the internet, though my familiarity goes back a ways to the original paperback and the show with its somewhat kooky host.  completely outlined all 32 squares in the two 4x4 foot beds, purchased the seeds I will need, the tomatoes and rosemary that I have never been able to grow by seed, and planted the near bed over the last couple of days.  Major rains headed our way so I'll let nature provide the hydration for now.  Each bed has weed block which I find mostly positive, though it really prevents me from including root vegetables in the garden.  Weed control has been a more troublesome task.  I've never made much effort at pest control.  Insects can be examined and sprayed.  Birds and mammals have been more difficult to address though they did not seem to harm my cucumbers or bush beans last year.  protective wiring seems more of a bother than I would like to undertake.

So far, off to a good start.