Happy 4th

Here at Pooka's science garden, we want to wish everyone a safe and happy 4th. We like so many others are working on yet another home improvement project. This one doesn't have anything to do with the garden, so you won't see much except the finished product if that.

We also want to take a moment to say thank you to those who put their lives on the line for our freedom. A large chunk of our adopted family have served. We have been lucky to have everyone come home safe, we also know not everyone is so lucky.

Until then, Have a happy holiday and enjoy yourselves. I know we will. And hopefully you will have fresh produce to enjoy. We are waiting for the strawberries to turn.

Strawberries and carrot greens

First tomato

Sometime between my walkthrough of the garden and Daddy's walk through today, this little guy jumped off the plant. We have our first little tomato. Now to see how long before we start getting more. We will have to wait and see.

A tomato... it has begun

Starting over

The green onions have looked better, in fact, I think they have died off. They were potted from sets and we just harvested them too much. I never realized how much we would eat something like this when it was just sitting there and we needed onion for eggs, or anything that matter.

Looking pretty sad

However, our nursery still had a few onion sets in stock. Pooka and I picked up a few to start fresh with. I admit it is nice to walk out of the nursery with a total of less then $0.50.

Onion sets

We grabbed this planter that had spinach in it. We had harvested a bit too much and it bolted, so it was free to be reused. We planted the new sets in it and are awaiting more green onions.

Reusing a ready to go pot

Meanwhile  the bok choi had not only flowered but also formed seeds. They were past rescuing sadly.

 

It is done.

I had mentioned this to Daddy, but I hadn't had a chance to deal with it yet. Daddy swooped in one night while I was at work, and cleared them out for me. I added a few of our Pak Choi seeds back to the bed and am hoping the rains we have been having will help us get some more Bok Choy. It seems the kids and Daddy really love having it mixed into things.

 

Reseeded and ready to go

 

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.

Sunday Surprises

Today was a day full of surprises for Daddy, Pooka and I. Pooka woke up and found this little beauty on her morning glory. She was so excited but also asked where the red ones are. I told her they weren't ready yet.

 Pooka surprised me by asking if she could have "the colored leaf chard" for dinner one night. She wanted to decide if she liked it before she grew it. We checked and our store doesn't carry swiss chard right now, but for the cost of a set of seeds, it will be cheaper then trying to find a bunch to try. Granted, Pooka has always been the adventurous child when it comes to food.

Daddy was surprised that I came home with more seeds. I got the Neon Swiss Chard (I couldn't find the rainbow mix, but close enough for now), a Baby Choi seed that should work well in a pot out front as well as one more variety of spinach to try. He is so understanding and he sees that we are getting out plenty for what we are putting in.

A surprise for the whole family was this little guy. We had brought some herbs in to dry from the front planting beds and found a young praying mantis come walking out of them when I reached for the basil. Surprise. We observed him for a short time, then released him on the lemon balm to continue eating all the bad bugs.

 

I did it

I managed to kill mint. How, I don't know and may never know, but I killed an entire pot of mint. After I pulled it out of the pot, this is what it looked like. It's dead dead. The lady at the nursery couldn't even figure out how I did it.

So I am trying again. The mint is fairly important to a project Pooka and I are doing, so we are didn't want to give up yet. Pooka and I went to the nursery and brought home another chocolate mint plant.

 It was fairly root bound, but we broke it up a bit and planted it. Hopefully it will do better in the pot.

Now its all planted. I guess I just need to make sure I try and keep this alive. I think part of the problem was there were 2 plants in this pot, so we went down to one.

Making it work

What do you do when you are in desperate need of a trellis, and have a GIANT paper bag of rusted canning rings and some zip ties?

What to do?

 You make a trellis. While this was my test section, you can see that it isn't all the same. I later corrected it, but I wanted to see if the idea would work in the first place.

Trial and error

How did I make it, well the white section is the rails of a shelving unit that was in the garage when we moved in. However, after over 6 years, we have never found brackets that fit it. It was time they were put to a better use.

Before

I connected the rings with 4 zip ties. One to the ring on the top, one to ring on the bottom and one on either side (to either rings or through the holes in the rail sections. About this time, you start to wonder if this is going to work. But it does, it took me a couple of days with 10 minutes at a time intervals to accomplish this part.

After

I then snipped the ends off the zip ties. This makes for a much cleaner look and allows it to sit flater when laying on the back.

Clip it off

After doing this a million or so times, I had this.

For a cleaner look

Then I spray painted the entire thing with black rustoleum. This took at least 3 coats. Honestly, I would probably not spray paint the thing again since it was a pain and we ended up with quite a bit of overspray. In fact, it was all over the grass and the tree behind it. If I were to do this again, I would probably take a brush and a can of paint to it.

Painting is messy

As you can see here, it turned out quite nice. I do not plan on using it to support food since my concern is that the chemicals can could leach into the dirt. However, it will be perfect for holding up the morning glory. Now to wait for the morning glory to grow up it and see if it works as well as I think it should

Finished product