Work on the new bed progresses

Well, we bit the bullet. We broke down and pulled out the old border blocks and scooped off MOST of the rocks. Some will have to stay, but I am okay with those at this point since they are now "drainage" rocks... They have a function. This is all we got done in a few hours on a Saturday. Correction, this is what Daddy and Brother did while Pooka and I were transplanting the tomatoes. I think it will look good, and the new blocks are here. We just need time to install them. The only question is when will that get done. If there were more hours in the day.

Progress

Plans... making plans

We all remember the side bed, the bed that has contained only sunflowers for years and that was mostly due to the fact they kept the weeds down. It was not the prettiest angle of the house, but we have realized that we need a tad bit more garden space. Since the garlic took up a bit more space than usual this year, we need to utilize this bed for either basil or hot peppers. However, the rocks and the weeds would be an issue, and really the border bricks were falling into the dirt so they were not as noticeable.

Before

Daddy and I talked, and we talked some more. Now it looks like this spring (hopefully) we will be redoing this bed to match the same brick work as the front of the house. We will put in multiple rows of brick and add some fill dirt (and cardboard) to smother the weeds while making a nice new bed. We will still have to be careful what we plant here due to the utility equipment, but it will give us just a bit more room and since this is the sunniest side of the house, whatever we put here has to be able to handle full sun. Now to see if we get it done. Cross your fingers we have time for it.

We started planning. 

Sunflowers down, sunflowers down.

This is a little story about how you should be careful what you think about. A few weeks ago I was thinking random thoughts while doing something else, and I said to myself, "Gee, maybe planting the sunflower seeds straight in the ground is the way to go. We have not had a single sunflower fall over this year."

A few days later, another one of windy, blustery storms came through. The next day I walked outside to collect some Chinese 5 color peppers and I saw this outside. 

And everyone hit the ground

As usual, none of the stems broke. One small set of roots pulled slightly out, but not by much, and with the fact the ground was so saturated with water, we were pretty sure we could just push it back down and it would be fine. 

Hi fence, how are you

Some of the sunflowers were laying on the neighbor's fence. Fortunately, they are very nice people and were understanding. They had a few of their own plants go falling over in the storm. The sunflowers themselves seemed in decent shape, even if they were a bit droopy. A day or 2 later (after we bought some more poles) we were able to stand most of them back up. In a day or two I will post the 1st of the month pictures for October, and you can see how we supported them for what little remains of the growing season.

Sunflower seeds anyone

Over a couple of weeks, I started to harvest sunflowers. Whatever was making a meal of the sunflower seeds was not leaving that many seeds for us. So we decided to do something we have never done before, harvest the heads and then let the seeds dry in the garage.

Sunflowers are being eaten

I will say we had sunflowers EVERYWHERE. They were hung on tool racks with the garlic and the coriander (both of which need dealt with as well). We hung up the two really good sized flowers from the mammoth sunflowers. Sadly, we didn't get many sunflowers from these since the critters seem to love the taste of them. 

Things drying out to be saved

We also had bags and bags of sunflowers sitting on Daddy's table saw. We are letting them dry, but we should have plenty of seeds for us, for the school's butterfly garden and some to eat. We will probably even have enough for swapping like we did last year. I know Pooka's Aunts love sunflower seeds. I guess I need to figure out what the price of sunflower seed for seeds are, as well as the price of roasted sunflower seeds. I think this year is our last year having bought sunflower seeds.

Bags of sunflowers

Although I have a feeling we will need to deal with these soon since Daddy seems to want his table saw back. Pooka is so lucky to have a very understanding Daddy.

Another mystery.

Saturday Morning, we had a bit of a surprise. Pooka and I were about to leave to do some errands and she noticed what she called a "giant yellow spider" in her basil. I went to investigate.

The yellow spider

As I headed that way, I saw lots of debris on the ground. It looked like some sort of plant had a rough night. Now the night before was a fairly normal night, but I do remember hearing a small thud, but attributed it to the cats.

debris everywhere

Apparently, it was a sunflower. This wouldn't be the first time we had a sunflower fall over, so I grabbed Pooka from the car and got out our plant tape and shears to tie it back up.

Kaboom

Once the sunflower was standing once more, I noticed this little mess. Looks like something likes our sunflower seeds.

Someone is a very messy eater

It was eating out of the giant sunflower next to the one that fell. Best answer I have gotten is something climbed the smaller sunflower to eat off this guy, and at some point the sunflower couldn't hold whatever it was and it fell, sending our little friend with it. Fortunately, there wasn't any damage that couldn't be fixed. We did lose one branch on the Thai basil, but nothing else. Hopefully our little friend learned a lesson, but since that giant sunflower is missing more seeds since this picture, I doubt it. At least the plants are a bit studier now.

Dinner for 1 I hope

Sunflowers

Yesterday, Pooka and I walked outside and were surprised by the sunflowers. Now generally, we plant the sunflowers and forget them. In fact, we don't even water them much, but we were amazed at how well they were doing this year. Some are over 12 ft tall, but what amazed us more was all the different ways the sunflowers had bloomed.

 

Velvet Queen

Pooka's new red sunflowers had bloomed. They are a bit shorter then the others, but still a good 6 feet tall. She loves the red look of them and the fact that they are different. We all know Pooka loves things to be different.

Tallest

Here you can see the varying heights of the sunflowers. That velvet queen looks so tiny compared to the mammoth next to it.

Tiny flowers

 We have giant sunflowers, but this was just the cutest little sunflowers. They are hidden under another sunflower, but they have the smallest heads. At least I think they are sunflowers.

Surprise

 I am assuming this one came from the velvet sunflowers seeds. This is not quite what we were expecting, but it gives a nice color and surprise to everything. If we go off of just Pooka seeds next year, we may have some very interesting results.


Giant

This is our biggest sunflower. The bloom is bigger than my hand. Forgive the horrible angle, it is so big, it has fallen over a bit and I had to climb underneath it to get a picture.

I am curious on what kind of seeds we will be able to save from all these flowers. I think its a great experiment in genetics and to teach Pooka with. She wants to see what kind of sunflowers she will get next year, maybe multi headed, colored giants?

July 1st pictures

The first of the month has come again, and I while I am a tad late, I want to get up the monthly picture. I feel so much has changed, but I am still waiting on that first tomato and cucumber. Soon I hope. Also, if you look up at the top, there is a page where I am keeping track of my harvest totals, so feel free to check that out.


Corner set up

The corner stand still holds the zinnias, the lone oregano pot, the green marigold pot that has some sort of squash in it, and the snap dragons. The lilac is doing really well in this spot.

Deck side one

The pots on the deck are looking very green. The second sowing of carrots has begun to sprout, the squash and eggplant are getting large. We had to get trellises for the squash to grow up. The blueberries are starting to ripen while the strawberries are covered in flowers and berries.



Deck view two

The other side of the deck shows the greens doing well, The zucchini is growing well in the corner and the marigold on the table has the beginnings of a bloom. The second pot of spinach also has begun to sprout.

Bok choi and broccoli

The Geometric broccoli had some problems with cabbage worm, but a cup of soapy water has fixed that. They are slowly growing back but seem determined to keep growing. The Bok Choi was removed since it had long past gone to seed and has since been reseeded.

Peas, beans and peppers

The peas seem to be starting to die in the heat. However, they hold on and are still producing if a bit slowly. The green beans however are getting their step and really starting to produce. The basil plants next to them have flourished in this spot and I cut them back just this morning to start drying some.

Peppers, tomatillos and onions

The sweet pepper plants continue to grow, but do seem to be struggling some. The store bought sweet peppers have begun to produce, but seem to be having some issues. Meanwhile the green and yellow peppers are doing quite well. They are all flowering and growing. The tomatillos keep flowering, but have yet to put any tomatillo on of size. They are flowering, fruiting then drop these tiny little flowers. The onions seem to do well and we are thinking of cutting them since the winds in the recent storms keep damaging the greens.

Corn, squash, potatoes

The corn is doing well, but needs to be staked up. The squash is flowering and fruiting, but so far none of the squash is of a big enough size. The potatoes in the back seem to be dying back and I am thinking it means we will have potatoes soon.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli

The broccoli suffered a bit from the cabbage worms as well, but the biggest plant has already produce one small head that we had for dinner. The cucumbers have yet to really put fruit on, but we have seen them flowering. The tomatoes still hold tons of tomatoes that we keep watching for any signs of ripening. They are getting good sized.

Tomatoes

The tomato plants continue to love this spot. They have already gotten their second tier on the custom built cage. We have green tomatoes everywhere, but yet to see a red tomato.

Jalapenos, poblano, cherry tomatoes

The hot peppers are doing well. The jalapenos are flowering and you can see tiny peppers, the poblanos are starting to really grow and may start showing us blooms soon. The cherry tomatoes are growing as well and have good fruit as well, but we have yet to see anything turn ripe.

stargazer

The stargazers out front are growing quite well. The blooms are starting to appear on the flowers. A bit of color out front.

garlic bed

We have harvested most of the garlic now, but the biggest ones are still seeming to do well. Daddy and I remembered we didn't amend this bed very well and think that may have something to do with the small garlic bulbs. We have already made plans to get some compost in this bed before winter.

Herb bed with lilac

The front herb bed is doing really well. The cilantro is trying to bolt, but other then that, most everything is growing quite well. We have already been drying herbs for the winter. Mostly tho it is nice to be able to go grab fresh ones for dinner. The lilac is still struggling, but I am hoping it makes it.

sunflowers

The sunflowers are growing quite well. I doubt for the second year in a row that we get anything near the 20' tall mammoths the package promised, but they all seem to be doing well and we have blooms on a few.

Tidying up

With all the transplanting, a few more minor things have been pushed to the side. As a result, it seemed that everything was getting a tad untidy. Now while this didn't mother me too much, it was one more thing I needed to work on. In times like now where I am trying to play catch up, that one more thing can drive me nuts.

A perfect example of this was that the sunflowers needed tired up. It is a five minute job, but one that gets put on the back burner way too easily.

Sunflowers before

 The sunflowers had fallen over, the weeds were getting bad mostly due to the rain, and you could barely see some of our sunflowers. 10 minutes, the plant tape and a pair of garden shears and it looked much much better. You could really see the height the sunflowers have started to reach. A few will be needing taller supports very soon. I am happy to say we only lost one velvet sunflower. The velvets are smaller, but they look healthy.

Sunflowers after

 Another thing I realized this morning was that the tomatillos are getting fairly good sized, and would need some support soon. Especially with all the flowers on them. I was getting worried if I didn't them some support soon, I may not be able to get a tomato cage on them.

Tomatillos before

During the tomatillo caging process, we had one flower that was given in sacrifice to the gardening gods. May they have a wonderful harvest as we hope to.

The tomatillo for the gods

 After a bit of trial and error between me and Pooka (especially since I have never used a real tomato cage before) we got the tomatillos supported. You can really start to see how much they have grown. We hope to get some good crops out of them.

Tomatillos after

While I had the cages out, I realized I really needed to get them on "Captain Eggplant" as Pooka calls him. That is the name that the Growum's call it, and thats what she has decided their names are. Anyway, Captain Eggplant and his little buddy were getting rather big as well and I wanted to get them supported since supposedly they can get a bit heavy as well.

Eggplant before

 A bit less fumbling from Pooka and I and we had the cages on. However, I forgot that since they are in pots, the cage won't go down as far as they will in the dirt, so they stand up a bit taller. But this should help the eggplants from trying to take over the deck.

Eggplant after

I did manage to get the peas connected to the trellis and the deck a bit better this afternoon. However, I was running in and out between storms, so there is no good pictures. I can say for certain we have not only flowers on our peas, but I saw a few pea pods as well. Pooka might be able to harvest her first pea in the coming days.

 

While there is still plenty to do (trellis's for the morning glory, squash and zuchinni, weeding, start corralling the tomatoes, ect), it is nice to be able to say the day was not wasted, and I knocked off a few things off the old list. 4 things done. 200 to go.

Finally something in the ground

Even with all the insanity of late, we have finally started to get plants in the ground.

First was the tomatoes that were getting too big for their pots. Those went in last week before we even had the beds finished.


Tomatoes

On Monday before we had to leave to deal with family matters, a pot of broccoli fell and the terra cotta pot broke. I grabbed the plant up and got him into the ground.  Not the way you want to plant, but it worked well enough.

Broccoli

But Wednesday Pooka and I finally got a chance to get some real planting done. The weather was nice, the lows were going to be in the 50s, we decided to take a chance. First we started by gathering all the sunflowers in the front yard. It didn't seem like that many when I counted them

Sunflowers all gathered up

Then I had Pooka put the pots where the plants were going to go. There is no rhyme or reason, this was how Pooka wanted to plant them. I did go out and write down on a piece of paper which variety was which so we would know.

Ready for a new home

Next came lots and lots of planting. I don't have pictures since I was getting a tad dirty and moving the rocks to plant was a bit of pain. I will say the rocks have helped with the weeds in this bed. But I am going to be watching it to make sure they stay that way. Once they were all in the ground, this is what they looked like.

Welcome to your new homes Sunflowers

Sadly, the sunflowers due to rocks and weeds took a bit longer then I had expected and we had to leave to do some other things. However, after we were home with Kiddo and Daddy started to make dinner, Pooka and I got the Pak Choi in the ground. They were a tad wilted that day due to the heat, but their new home is in bit shader place which should help. They perked right up after we watered them.

Pak Choi (Bok Choy) that can grow 4 in a square foot

Hopefully this means over the next few days Pooka and I can really get to work getting things in the ground. I know Daddy would like to be able to walk on the deck again, let alone sit down in a chair. Lets all hope the rain holds off until its too late in the evening to do much for the next few days.

Pooka's sunflowers vs. Commercial ones

Last year we tried saving sunflower seeds. Thinking this would be a good test and we wouldn't be out much. We had planted commercial sunflowers, but the volunteer sunflowers (the ones that grew from seeds left there by previous plantings) seemed to have done better. Being that we didn't want to discriminate, we harvested all the seeds. Some Pooka and I roasted about half of them and saved the other half. 

The Pooka's sunflowers

Pooka's sunflowers as we have come to call them have been given away. They were in the goodie bags for Pooka's party and some were given away at our impromptu seed swap. But the real reason to keep some were to start our own seeds. Maybe one day I can stop buying sunflower seeds.

Well, this year I wanted to see the difference between a Pooka Sunflower vs. the mammoth sunflowers that we had planted last year. Being the scientists we are, the experiment was born to test for differences. First Pooka's sunflowers and the Mammoth sunflowers were planted in the same seed starter (next to one another) and both were given 9 cells with 2-3 seeds per cell.


Mammoth sunflowers vs Pooka's sunflowers

On first glimpse, you can see there is a very large difference in the germination rate between the Mammoth ones vs Pooka's. The Mammoth ones (seen on the left) almost all sprouted and grew quite well. The Pooka sunflowers only about 3 of the cells sprouted. Or so we thought.

Given a few days, a few more sprouted. All have survived their transplants into the pots. They don't stand as high due to the bit of a light issue we have (aka, they are doing alot of reaching towards the sun).

Pooka vs. Mammoth sunflowers

At this stage, the Pooka sunflowers have now reached 4 pot which holds the sunflowers from 6 of the 9 cells as compared to the 8 pots that holds 8 of the 9 cells from the Mammoth sunflowers. The Pooka ones are smaller, and there are fewer in the same spots. The mammoth ones are growing fast and seem to be doing very well. The real test comes when we put them outside and see how they do and how they flower. But for now, I think the Pooka sunflower's are doing okay for a first attempt.

Our little seeds are growing up

This week we have been super busy here at the science garden. We have started to seriously transplant the larger plants into 6" pots to "hold them over" until they can go outside. Some I am hoping to get outside sooner rather then later, others well, they will need to wait a bit longer.

Peas, beans and sunflowers..oh my..

As you can see, we have been transplanting alot. This table shows all the sunflowers, Pooka's saved seeds from last year as well as the commercial "mammoth" sunflowers.  The differences between them is another post.  This also has our pea plants as well as some of the green beans. I am hoping in the next week or so it will get warm enough I can start taking some of them outside to get better light.

Snowing on the peas

I tried briefly on Wednesday to put plants outside. I had the newly transplanted sunflowers and the peas outside to get some of the precious sunlight. I had noticed it was clouding over so I pulled the sunflowers in. Not 5 minutes after I had put the sunflowers in the house we got snow, in MID MARCH. At least he peas didn't seem to mind.

Green beans with the seed starters

This is the front room. It is a bit crowded currently with seed starters still floating around and the green beans that are living on that table. We had 8 green beans that were ready for tranplant out of 9. I noticed yesterday it looks like the 9th is starting to sprout as well.

More transplants withs the tomato and pepper seeds

Here is the third table we had to put up this week. We were running out of horizontal surface in front of windows. In front you see the tomato and pepper seeds, but in the pots are the Growum's tomatoes and half of the cilantro starters from Growum's. All seem to have taken to their transplant well, but I do worry they may not be getting enough sun there. Come on warm weather so we can move some things outside.


Flowers

Remember the flower Pooka got from her birthday from her Great Aunt. Well it flowered this week, giving us a very pretty red bloom. Pooka loves that it is red since red is one of her top 2 favorite colors (purple being the other one). I swear its a red, even if the picture makes it more orange looking. It has been nice to have a real spark of spring while we wait for the real spring to come.