It has now been about three months since I planted my first plants outside. Being halfway through the year, I thought it would be appropriate to write a bit of a lengthy post detailing some of my thoughts and major discoveries so far. This is going to be a long post, as I'll talk about each different plant on its own. To step back in time and see what these boxes held and what they looked like on April 12, click here.
The Romas have done pretty well. I know they got a late start. Back when I first planted them, they just didn't seem to be doing anything. I saw a pic of my mom's large tomato plants, and I knew I was doing something wrong. It wasn't until I started feeding them that they really kicked into production. None of the Roma plants have gotten especially large (they're supposed to be about 4' tall by now), but they are producing a ton of fruit. The three large Romas in the back have 15-20 tomatoes each on them. The large Roma in the front has about 20 fruits. The smaller Roma in the front was one of my original plants that I grew from seed. That plant is nearly six months old, but it only recently began growing beyond the little twig it had remained. I'm glad that I bought those plant starts and just decided to keep the one that I started indoors as a backup experiment. I would have been quite disappointed and discouraged if none of my tomato plants had gotten any larger than that.
As the tomatoes began to ripen, so came the griefing birds again. I lost my first few ripe tomatoes to the mockingbirds, so I began looking for ways to keep them out. The two best ways to keep birds out are a full frame cage with good mesh or a motion-activated sprinkler. I didn't have the extra money for either of those options this season. People suggested hanging CDs in the plant bed to scare away the birds, but there are a bunch of videos on the Net showing birds standing right next to the CDs, eating away at tomatoes.
A good suggestion was to hang red Christmas ornaments on the tomato plants before any of the fruits are ripe. The birds will try to eat them and, unable to do so, will write the entire plant off as a fake. Moreover, as other birds enter their territory, they'll be chased off by the birds saying "Stay away! Those are MY fake tomato plants!" Then they'll leave the actual ripening fruit alone, thinking that it's just more fake ornaments. This is an interesting theory. I'm gonna grab some extra ornaments this winter for next season.
What I ended up doing, though, was also suggested on the Net. It required close watch, but as each fruit becomes barely ripe, I wrap it in a paper towel and spray it to get it wet. When it dries, the towel is kinda paper mache'd around the tomato. The birds can't see the red fruit, so they don't bother them. This has been surprisingly successful so far. The only tomatoes I have lost to birds were unwrapped ones (though I did lose three to some weird caterpillars that ate them from the inside out).
A good suggestion was to hang red Christmas ornaments on the tomato plants before any of the fruits are ripe. The birds will try to eat them and, unable to do so, will write the entire plant off as a fake. Moreover, as other birds enter their territory, they'll be chased off by the birds saying "Stay away! Those are MY fake tomato plants!" Then they'll leave the actual ripening fruit alone, thinking that it's just more fake ornaments. This is an interesting theory. I'm gonna grab some extra ornaments this winter for next season.
What I ended up doing, though, was also suggested on the Net. It required close watch, but as each fruit becomes barely ripe, I wrap it in a paper towel and spray it to get it wet. When it dries, the towel is kinda paper mache'd around the tomato. The birds can't see the red fruit, so they don't bother them. This has been surprisingly successful so far. The only tomatoes I have lost to birds were unwrapped ones (though I did lose three to some weird caterpillars that ate them from the inside out).
The Brandywine tomatoes have been growing quite large. Both of them. Yep, that plant has two fruits on it, despite being much taller than the Roma plants. Again, I'm sure this stunted production is due to my delay in properly feeding them in the beginning. There are a few other blossoms on the plant, but I'm not expecting them to really become anything. Maybe I'll be pleasantly wrong, though.
Box 1: Garlic
That green thing poking up right below is the only garlic I planted that survived out of twelve. I stuck my finger into another place to dig one up and see if they had just rotted away. I had to dig through a mat of roots, and when I pulled the root, it went all the way back to the nearest tomato plant. So it seems that, while planting garlic and tomatoes near each other may not produce any adverse effects to the food itself, the thatch of roots that tomatoes create choked out these underground plants. Next year, I'll have the garlic in its own bed. Also, I learned that garlic has an incredibly long growing period. I need to replant the garlic around Halloween this year for a harvest next June.
Box 1: Bull's Blood Beets
Similar to the garlic, I only see one beet that appears to really be growing well, and that was the one located farthest away from the tomato plants. None of the others are really thriving, and certainly I can't see the tops of any other root like this one. So, putting in-ground vegetables in the same box as a plant with a very prolific root system is a no-no. That's good to know-know.
Box 2: Lacinato Kale
The kale (back row) has done awesome. It loved that plant food, and they produce a lot of leaves that keep being replaced. I just grab a leaf from each one, and that's enough for our rabbit every night. He absolutely love it too. He just dives in and devours it whenever I give him some, and he'll even turn his back to regular lettuce if I try to substitute it now. Blob-rabbit demands sacrifice.
Box 2: Marigolds
The marigolds have been kinda shrively, but just recently perked up again like you see in the photo above. I have been giving them the same plant food as the others, so it must have been the intense heat recently that had them so depressed. They're doing well, but they're not a food, so I only planted them for the companion planting benefits.
Box 2: Carrots
The carrots are growing bigger and bigger. I had quite a few small carrot plants torn up by birds, so that was when I finally broke down and put the bird netting over the beds and planted seeds to fill in what was lost. Once safe, the carrots grew fast. In each hole, I had dropped 3-4 carrot seeds, and lo and behold: in each hole, 3-4 carrots grew! I wanted them to establish, so I let them grow for a while. When I could tell which one of the group would be the dominant plant, I began thinning the others around it and giving the ones I culled to our bunny (he loves those too).
Since I was giving them to him, I didn't want to waste them by pulling up every extra one all at once and just throwing them in the fridge. Instead, I thin a couple every few days. That gives me a steady stream of carrots to feed the rabbit, and it lets me kinda track the carrots' progress. Since there's no way to know how they're doing without pulling them up, this method lets me continuously harvest and monitor them in one action. In the picture above, you can see one I culled today. It a decent size for being this early. The good thing is that pulling this one leaves more room and resources for the bigger one it was next to. It's exciting to see this kind of growth.
Since I was giving them to him, I didn't want to waste them by pulling up every extra one all at once and just throwing them in the fridge. Instead, I thin a couple every few days. That gives me a steady stream of carrots to feed the rabbit, and it lets me kinda track the carrots' progress. Since there's no way to know how they're doing without pulling them up, this method lets me continuously harvest and monitor them in one action. In the picture above, you can see one I culled today. It a decent size for being this early. The good thing is that pulling this one leaves more room and resources for the bigger one it was next to. It's exciting to see this kind of growth.
Box 2: Spinach
In this block, I have nine spinach plants planted. Five of them made it, and the one in the middle is definitely the main plant. Even though the SFG Handbook said that nine plants can go in a foot, I think this is too many. The larger plants have grown quite leafy, but have completely shaded out the other plants, leaving them very small indeed. Next year, I think I'll restrict it to only four spinach plants per square foot. That should be enough room for them to spread out but not crowd each other.
Box 3: Broccoli
This is the third box when viewed from the front. The broccoli plants are huge. I though broccoli was gonna be like the fantasy version of broccoli: a short leafy plant with one large head of broccoli in the middle- like a Cabbage Patch Kid. Instead, the early heat caused them to bolt. I jumped in and kept them pruned back to keep the broccoli's taste from changing as best as I could.
The taste remains nice, but the plants themselves became tall and thick. Instead of one central head, I have dozens of smaller tops sprouting out all over the plant. I snip them and eat them the same way I would as if I had cut them off a large head, and they taste the same, so I'm happy. My only problem is that the plants are so tall that they are starting to poke up through the bird netting. When the bean bushes in the same bed are big enough to resist utter destruction by beak, I'll take the net off this bed,
Box 3: Lacinato Kale
Same plants and progress as in Box 2. See above.
Box 3: Bountiful Beans (bush)
Now that they're protected from the evil Avian Nation, the beans are growing well. The two on the right were the two that I ended up having to re-plant very late in the season due to griefing, and the one on the left is larger, but it was still a replant that happened just a bit earlier. So, with my failure to feed them early and the plants being destroyed anyway, none of them are the "bush" that I expected. That's not to say that they are growing poorly, though. They are growing exactly as they should be along their timeline. That timeline is simply behind by like 40 days. The beans grow well despite being somewhat shaded by the Hulk broccoli and his three brothers in the front row. But I didn't plan on the stuff in the front row to get taller than the back row to begin with. It's all a learning process.
The production of actual beans is right on time. With their late starts, I won't get as big of a crop as I would've otherwise, but the beans are fully forming and taste exactly like they should!
Box 4: Carrots
I had more carrots in this bed than in Box 2, and while a few of the small plants were pulled up too, this bed received surprisingly little attention from the birds compared to the other one. I think that might be because Box 2 is just closer to a large dead tree in the neighbor's yard that many birds live in, so it was an equation of convenience. I slowly thin this bunch of carrots the same way I do in Box 2.
Box 4: Italian Flat Parsley
Back when the peas were suffering from Nitrogen deficiency, the parsley was also being affected. Not quite as badly, but I was having some yellowing. Once I started feeding them plant food, though, they thickened to the mass of health you see on the bottom right. That's only four plants, but it is a LOT of leaves. Nitrogen makes plants leafy. That's bad for plants that produce a fruit or pod, but incredible if the plant is ONLY leaves.
Box 4: Amish Snap Peas
Viewed from the back, you can see the spacing of the pea plants. I have supplemented a new seed here or there along the way, but they seem to finally be taking to it.
Just like the beans, the peas are wasting no time in producing their tasty wares. These sugar snap peas taste amazing, and it's such a treat to grab a couple right off the vine and munch on them while I tend the rest of the garden.
I still have a difficult time keeping the peas fed enough. I'm trying to go easy on the plant food, because I'm just as worried about burning the roots and killing the entire bed. The peas will look yellowish one day, I'll feed them, and they'll be just as green as ever the next.
Box 5: Sweet Basil
First off, I'm going to address the giant green elephant in the room- eh, garden bed. If you look back at April 17 here, we had just had that freak post-frost date freeze, and the basil bore the worst brunt of it. My eight little basil (basils? basii?) were all freezer-burnt and shriveled. I even had to replace three of them with new plants that were just the same size. Fast-forward to today, and HOLY MOTHER OF MINECRAFT, I have an entire Basil Biome! I totally didn't expect these things to reach two feet tall and take up every bit of their designated quadrants. It's okay, though. When I saw the tiny plant starts, I thought to myself that I'd probably have to go easy on harvesting it, only taking a leaf here and there on occasion. Now I don't even care. I remove entire stalks of it just to thin it out. I bring the stalks inside and hang them in the kitchen window to dry, and I have a constant supply of both fresh and freshly-dried basil to cook with. Also, I LOVE to walk out to the garden and just run my hands through the leaves. It releases the most mouth-watering smell into the air, and it just fills the area with a peace reminiscent of the Old World. The only problem is that the basil actually crowded/ shadowed out much of the rest of the bed. Next year. I'll have to have a separate container just for basil alone. I'm okay with that.
Box 5: Green Onions
Yeah, only 5-6 of the original 12 onions made it this far. In the basil's defense, many of them died early because of my own lack of competence at that point. The ones that survived have been growing constantly, and have produced some large and flavorful onion chutes. Green onions are one of those things that you often forget to pick up at the store, but they can really add a lot to the taste of a meal, so I have enjoyed having these available.
Behind the onions, you can see the 4-5- spinach plants the I planted in this box. These are the exact same thing that was planted in Box 2, but these finally just gave up and had to bolt upward just to try and grab some sunlight from around the mass of basil. Again, their low success rate was from crowding and too little direct sunlight.
Behind the onions, you can see the 4-5- spinach plants the I planted in this box. These are the exact same thing that was planted in Box 2, but these finally just gave up and had to bolt upward just to try and grab some sunlight from around the mass of basil. Again, their low success rate was from crowding and too little direct sunlight.
Box 5: Rosemary
Viewing Box 5 from the back, you can see my rosemary plant tucked down there just under the right of the basil. Rosemary is woody, very hardy, and resistant to drought. You don't use very much of it when cooking, but this plant should still be larger than this. I think its smaller growth is a product of the late freeze and the basil shading it from just about all sun.
On the other end of the box, you can see the last group of carrots. These have done alright here, with only the ones closest to the basil (and nearly completely shaded by it) suffering at all.
On the other end of the box, you can see the last group of carrots. These have done alright here, with only the ones closest to the basil (and nearly completely shaded by it) suffering at all.
Box 5: Oregano and Chives
Down in that hole just this side of the basil is an oregano plant. It's not very big, probably from all the reasons the rosemary isn't, Hopefully I'll be able to cultivate bigger oregano next year, once the basil is out of the vicinity.
In the near corner are the chives. They are doing quite well. It took them a while, but they have really filled out- even the ones I started from seeds. They taste great, and they are just not displaying these purple flowers that shoot up, blossom, then fade away as quickly as they came. They just keep chiving on.
In the near corner are the chives. They are doing quite well. It took them a while, but they have really filled out- even the ones I started from seeds. They taste great, and they are just not displaying these purple flowers that shoot up, blossom, then fade away as quickly as they came. They just keep chiving on.
Box 6: Tribute Strawberries
The strawberries continue to flourish. This is my most stable and consistent garden bed. Being day-neutral (see this post for more on that), they have already begin their second round of fruit production. The last of the first batch was picked by me or just dried up, and there was a few weeks of nothing until the new blossoms begun to appear.
There are about 10-12 blossoms scattered over the plants at this moment, and a few have already progressed to the point where the fruit is forming. The new fruits appear to be better formed than the first batch. I was watching about strawberries on the Net, and a few people said they just throw all their first-year strawberries out, because they're not worth keeping. They were talking about June-bearing varieties, so hopefully that will translate to a better second harvest for these strawberries too.
I have quite a beautiful blackberry twig. It is only 4" tall, but that is twice as tall as it was two weeks ago. Maybe blackberries wait a bit longer before really sending up a bunch of stalks. I don't know, but it's still alive. For now, that's good enough for me.
Buckets 2 & 3: Potatoes
The potatoes appear to be doing well. They are bushy, and have already had flowers bloom and fall off. It's about time to add more dirt to the buckets, and I'm happy that I'll finally get to use my own compost for that. I have no idea what is going on under the surface, so it'll be interesting to see what this year's growing season produces.
Looking Forward
It's at this time that I am really researching Fall and cool-weather crops. It's a long, hot growing season here in TN, but I still want to be ready to clean the beds and get the next rotation in before I miss my chance. I'll post more on that as I learn more.