The Crimson Pirate

Garden Wide View 06/09/2011

After waiting and waiting for it to be dry enough for the farmer to plow, and then waiting and waiting for our schedule to permit it, we finally got out into the garden.  It has been plowed for a few weeks, so hopefully we aren’t too late.  I had previously gone out the day it was plowed and staked out our space.

As always, the notice from the apartment complex contained a warning not to take too much space as there was increased interest in the gardens again this year.  We were a little concerned we might have staked off to much, but only the usual 6 or 7 suspects are actually gardening again, and there is plenty of space left over.  I guess the lateness of the plowing and the usual loss of interest that happens by June weeded out the extra interest. 

Garden Tomatoes 06/09/2011

Wednesday evening we were finally able to go down and plant some stuff we bought earlier in the day.  At Lowes and K Mart we found that most of the plants we had been interested in were gone.  However the remaining plants were on sale so we got some things that weren’t part of our original plans.  But in the immortal words of Parker and Longbaugh “A plan is just a list of shit that never happens.”  So we rolled with it.

We got a couple of lemon boy tomatoes, a black krim tomato, a marmande tomato, a tumbling tom tomato, a roma tomato, and 9 beauregard sweet potatoes, a strawberry, and some purple cabbage.  Sorry, I get confused about the E in the plural form of tomato and potato.  No big deal since I’m not running for office.  We also planted a patio cherry tomato in a  container outside our apartment.  We love cherry tomatoes, pear tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and roma tomatoes.  We aren’t big fans of giant tomatoes, beefsteaks, etc.  I won’t turn them down, but I’d rather grow the smaller ones.

Garden Sweet Potatoes 06/09/2011

We managed to get the tomatoes and sweet potatoes planted and watered before it got dark.  Due to bunny danger my wife doesn’t want to plant the strawberry until we get the fence up.  So Thursday morning I got up early (never really went  to sleep, actually) and tried to get started on the fence.  I barely got a little bit of the front done and started on the short side before it got too hot to continue. It was over 90 degrees here.

Yesterday evening I was able to go down and spend an hour planting some of the stuff we put out to harden.  So far I have 8 baxter’s bush cherry tomatoes, 3 yellow pear tomatoes, and the moon and stars watermelon in.  I hope they survive and thrive.  Hopefully this weekend we will be able to get to the garden to finish the fence,  and plant the rest of our stuff.  But I got up at 0600 this morning (never really slept again) and it was pouring.  So much for an early garden start today. This year it’s been either raining or 90+ degrees almost every day.  That makes it very difficult to get anything done, especially with my crappy schedule.

Biofactory Plant Hardening B 06/09/2011

Due to work schedule issues, financial issues, and cat issues we have been neglecting the plants in the spare bedroom.  On Wednesday 6/8 we finally got out to the garden, and got to do something with the plants we had started in the bedroom.  I watered them in the morning and culled the one’s that had not survived the neglect.  In the evening we finally got around to transferring the rest of the plants in the greenhouses to peat pots, cups, or whatever I had available to serve as temporary containers. 

Thursday morning I placed them outside to harden so they can be planted in the garden.  Despite our neglect quite a few survived.  About 12 tomatoes, some assorted cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, canteloupe, a squash and a moon and stars watermelon, carnival pepper mix, Greek pepperocini, jalapenos, a single nardello sweet pepper, arugula, romaine lettuce, and some other stuff.  They have now been hardening for a few days, and last night I actually got 11 tomatoes and the moon and stars planted in the garden.  Hopefully this weekend we will get the rest of them in.  Better late than never.

Biofactory Plant Hardening A 06/09/2011

Garden Plowed Finally 05/26/2011

On 5/25 when I was leaving for work I saw the farmer plowing the gardens.  He finally got enough dry weather for the ground to dry out enough to bring out the tractor.  Of course he did it when I was working, and we have a busy weekend planned. But at least it’s plowed and we can start getting stuff in once we get our fencing up.

Early bird garden plot 05/26/2011

There was an early who had carved out a spot for a few tomatoes and peppers before the farmer plowed, and he left their space.  The farmer also didn’t plow two spaces in the middle where it looks like onions were growing.  He probably thought they belonged to somebody, but I think they were just left over from last year, or volunteer plants from previous years.

My wife was afraid everyone would run down and stake out spaces and we wouldn’t get any.  So I got up early on 5/26 and staked out our space.  I didn’t have time to fence it yet, and we have a busy weekend so it may be next week before we get to it.  I’ll probably take a stab at getting it fenced over the weekend.

Garden Plowed And Our Section Marked 05/26/2011

We have big plans for it.  In addition to the stuff sprouted in the Biofactory we want to get about 3 varieties of heirloom tomatoes from lowes, along with some other stuff.  We also will direct seed some stuff.  I’m really hping to have more time to spend on the garden this year.  Things have been very hectic lately but I’m taking steps to slow them down.  We really want to put the full effort in this time.

In addition to the garden I also want to put some plants outside our windows, and take another stab at radishes indoors.  I know I’m probably trying to do more than I can, but I have high hopes.

Biofactory 05/26/2011

The plants in the window are still growing nicely. The garden was finally being plowed on 5/25 just as I was leaving for work. So all of this can be planted in the next week or so. We have to harden it off, leaving it outside during the day for a day or two and then bringing it in at night.

I’m not sure about some of it, the carrots for instance. Should I plant a whole pellet full of carrot sprouts or split them up and plant individual sprouts? The brussel sprout that survived the winter is looking good, and the tomatoes are coming along nicely.   The squash is getting pretty big.

Herbs, both indoors in the planter and outside in a window box are coming along nicely.  I let the radishes get away though.  At this point I will probably have to trash them and start over.

Seeds of Change Seed Packets 05/19/2011

Back in March my wife clued me in to a Seeds of Change give away.  The Sowing Millions project was intended to distribute a basic array of seeds to as wide a range of people as possible for as cheap as they could do it. The object is to encourage people to go out and plant something, and grow some of your own food.

You get 25 randomly selected packets of seeds, you just pay shipping.  Shipping was less than $5.  I should have posted it, but had too much going on.  Plus when I told my friend Mike over at Urban Organic Gardener he had some reservations. Seeds of change is owned by Mars. He said he couldn’t support them.

I did some research and never found anything that would put off of Mars. In fact, it looked like they caved in a little too easily to critics in my opinion. So we jumped on it, and then forgot about it until Thursday (5/18) when they showed up in the mail.

We got a good basic array of seeds. Certainly enough to minimally sustain a small family if this was all they had to depend on, and an excellent supplement when added to other resources.

1. 4 Packets Bacarole Lettuce
2. 1 Packets Chiogia Beet
3. 1 Packets Endurance Sunflower
4. 4 Packets Coriander (Cilantro)
5. 3 Packets Pizza Pepper
6. 4 Packets Black Eggplant
7. 3 Packets D’Avignon Radish
8. 3 Packets Champion Radish
9. 2 Packets Rainbow Inca Sweet Corn

If you were putting together an emergency seed stash this would be a good starting base for it. They also sent a set of printed information on each of the plants. All of the stuff that would usually be on the back of the packet, plus some extra.

The extra information included seed saving instructions for each plant as these are all heirloom. That means that the plants grown from these seeds will produce seeds which will also be useable, unlike the seeds you buy at Wal Mart, or garden stores. You can let a plant of each type go to seed and have the same seeds again year after year without having to buy them again.

Sounds good to me. Now if the farmer ever gets the field plowed maybe we can get a garden going…………………………………….

Seeds of Change Sowing Millions