Garden Update

For being 37 degrees outside this morning, we had an amazingly gorgeous afternoon.  The girls and I rounded up shoes and (soon discarded) sweaters and went outside after piano lessons.  While the girls climbed the play set and mucked in the dirt, I got busy in the garden.  Gardens.  Whatever.  You know you some people use buckets and cups all over their house to collect leaking water?  I have buckets and planters and dug up spots all over my backyard, collecting sunshine.

Added drainage holes to another spare garbage can, and threw in some sprouted yukons.  It’s a bit late.  OK a LOT late, but we have mild falls, and last year my potatoes were ready in September.  I think I still have time.

Purple spuds in the back (growing like mad) and freshly planted yukons in the front

(Funny story about growing potatoes- I checked on my vermicompost (worm) bin this afternoon and was SHOCKED to see 6 inch potato sprouts going straight up.  I threw some potato tops in there, and they grew like mad looking for light!  No roots, though.  Thankfully.  I keep my worms in a foam cooler- I have no idea why those potatoes went crazy sprouting like that.)

Found some old recycling bins, and set the girls to work filling them with dirt. (OK, yeah I helped a little with that. Mimi was doing a one-scooop-in, 2-scoops-out dealio) I THINK these are zucchini. I had 2 squash plants with ridged leaves, and 3 with smoother leaves. One is a zucchini (summer squash) one is a acorn-type squash (winter.) So… I have them flanking my raspberry patch. I hope 10 feet of separation is enough to avoid any nastiness.  (Seeds courtesy of the fantabulous Mama Papaya)

Of course, when my back was turned Mimi went back to her two-scoops-out shenanigans and managed to bust a leaf. Aww.

Yeah! My mesclun mix of lettuce (and bucket of bibb, in back) has sprouted! I have a horrible time starting seeds, so this is great. I sowed these seeds TIGHT. Maybe too tight. But I plan on “cut and come again,” and cutting at about 3 inches. Hmm…maybe too tight. We’ll see.

Little Tom Thumb is blooming! This is so exciting. I’ll be sure and sow a TON of peas in late summer for a fall harvest, now that I see how few flowers each vine has. Good thing they like to be packed in tight.  (Oh, and big thanks to Mama Papaya for these lovely seeds!)

Let’s see, what else did we do back there….I found pots and spots for about 15 basil starts- still have a ton to plant up, but I planted the biggest ones.  Transplanted ground cherries from a seedling tray into cups- again, just transplanted the biggest ones (that had a set of true leaves.)  These ground cherries are SLOW getting started- they were planted the same time as those zucchini you saw (in the same greenhouse) and are just barely getting going.  Guess they needed more heat.

OK, that’s it for the garden!  We should have sun for the next little bit- hopefully it’s enough to get the concrete guys in here to do the demo on our front yard and pour the new driveway/patios/stoop.  Fingers crossed!  Then it’s just a hop skip and jump to building the boxes and putting out the tomatoes and peppers.  And, you know, whatever else is hanging around.

I’ll sneak down to Mom’s greenhouse tomorrow, so you can see what we’re up against in the ‘what’s hanging around’ department.