Rookie Urban Gardener

Turning the soil

2010-03-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

We turned over the soil this morning. There's some life in there already. Lots of worms, grass blades on bulbs and most importantly, chives. The chives are already on their way back. I thought swiss chard was the toughest garden plant, but these chives have just impressed me. I wonder when we will have enough to eat.

I am planning to put our onions out, as it sounds like it's not too early. They will be in a new spot between the rose bushes against the house, where they will get all day sun.

Research does suggest that I plant my seeds in a starter mix rather than soil. I guess I wonder why that's important if sowing them outside would be in soil? It will be Sunday most likely before I get out to grab starter mix, but that will still leave plenty of time for things to get started.

I'll get some pictures when I'm out later this afternoon.

Grow It Eat It

2010-03-08T03:18:00.000-08:00

I'm on the Maryland State Cooperative Extension website this morning. They have a campaign called "Grow It Eat It" through which their vision is to support 1 million Marylanders in growing and eating their own food. You can join the network as well. I'll keep an eye out for a master gardener class in our area. http://extension.umd.edu/gardening/index.cfm

This weekend was beautiful. It feels like the ground is thawed and I'm hoping it stays warm and I can start turning things over.

I bought some seed starting pots--100 to be exact. I am planning to start my stuff next week. According to the Cooperative Extension, April 11 would be and early frost free goal--still a 10% chance of a frost. I think the local wisdom is Mothers Day--but that's May 9th. I will keep an eye out starting mid-April.

The extension said that we could work in compost and fertilizer now and that onions could be started outside as early as now.

My question is, what about all the stuff from last year? Till it in? I think if I do that this week it will provide some time for breaking down before I add the new stuff.

My other ah ha is that I shouldn't start seeds in soil? They should go into a mixture. I'll do some more looking into that. I had planned to plop some leftover potting soil into my little starter pots. I'll "dig around" and post back.

Other growers: tell me about salad tables.

Greens

2010-03-04T13:04:00.001-08:00

So I started some chard, kale, spinach and lettuce about a month ago.

Last weekend I moved the little seed starter pods into some containers inside at a kitchen window that gets the most direct sunlight in the house. I turned off the radiator underneath so they wouldn't bake.

Our beloved 3 year old pulled one spinach seedling. He received an incomprehensible, angry lecture about food being precious and a lengthy time out.

The others are not thriving, really. I suppose I can really only hope that they live to produce more quickly outdoors in a month than newly planted seeds. I think the soil is not as loose and well draining as they want and the plants know they are not in the great outdoors.

Foolish daydreams of fresh windowsill greens.

Monday January 18, 2010

2010-01-18T06:11:00.000-08:00

I have just placed my seed order. I actually still have some seeds left from last season and I'm hoping there is life in them yet. I ordered the same varieties I ordered last year plus radishes, celery and snap peas.

I have plans to expand the garden a few feet. I am also toying with creating a hoop or frame system in order to grow in the off season. That would be something we could build in the fall. If anyone knows anyone who knows about these things, I'd appreciate being put in touch.

The garden is resting now but seeds are about to be started indoor for greens.

Happy plotting.

August 3rd

2009-08-03T13:43:00.001-07:00

I've always found that come August, I crave October. It looks a bit like the garden is too. Our once dark green and sprawling squash are light green and yellow. The cucumbers desperately need a trim and trellis. Oh but the good is so good. The tomatoes are producing more than we can eat. The green beans and cucumbers are more crisp than I've ever found at the grocery store. The chard is, well good for us and is easily hidden in eggs and pasta.

Here are some updates.
Here's our wimpy squash. My friend has summer squash that has beaten a retreat recently as well, so I'm assuming that it's time for that. The acorn, however, is supposed to grow until October. Judging by the looks of it today, it may be time to say goodbye to the acorn squash.

Once it was the tomato block. Then patch. Now jungle. There are 6 in cages, then volunteers all around. I allowed the multitude of volunteers because I really wanted the prized Juliet Jelly Beans (the little yellow ones below). They are exquisite. And snack worthy.

This is what I grabbed while taking pictures this afternoon. Grabbed as many tomatoes, a cucumber and two handfuls of green beans this weekend. I'm very grateful to our Earth for its gifts to our table.

June 13th

2009-06-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

Rainbow chard, flanked by beans on the left and squash on the right. This very chard made its way along with some spinach and herbs into our eggs this morning. I don't think I've ever felt better about something I cooked than that frittata.

Roma paste tomatoes. This plant came from the BUGS after school program at the Living Classrooms Foundation. It proves that it's not necessarily Wal-Mart that makes for an early fruit.

Those would be the first tomatoes that showed up a couple weeks ago. Bush Goliath, courtesy of Wal-Mart. At the base you will see some strands of baby onions and little volunteer tomatoes from last years' seeds.

Can you see them? Tiny, fuzzy little beans the pretty white flowers of future beans.

The largest squash plant in the front left, zucchini I believe, could easily take up the entire corner of the garden. I do believe it will be growing into the lawn. Soon.

So. There it is, the garden is under way. I have used lots of the herbs and it's already feeding us chard. It is a very low maintenance garden; the only things I have done are thinning and weeding. I casually weed once a week, but have learned to be careful doing this in front of the children. When small people see big people pulling up plants from their roots from the soil patch they tend to think it looks really fun. And that's how we lose our squash.

Lessons learned? Marigolds are natural pest fighters, and it is great to pop them into the beds or nearby. I think I should be trimming off any sick looking leaves to keep whatever that is from spreading. I'm not actually doing that, but will probably get to that this week.

Questions? Should I be fertilizing and with what?

Not that I'm the most faithful (or interesting, gracious, I read this all back when I need to sleep!) blogger, but I will mention that I'm going to be leaving the garden to the neighbor for a couple weeks and will be back with pictures the week following the 4th of July weekend. I'm hoping to start harvesting early tomatoes and beans at that point, but that is simply hope as I have no experience or research to tell me if that is realistic.

Happy gardening all.

June 12th

2009-06-12T04:40:00.000-07:00

There are tiny beans growing on my bean plants. I wonder if I should be doing anything to help the plants along?

Also, my chard is looking much more like the bunches I buy. I am planning to lop off quite a bit for dinner tonight and eggs tomorrow.

Tiny roma tomatoes are starting to develop on my second tomatoe plant.

Did I mention in May 30ths blog that due to heavy rain one of my tomatoes broke? Well, my mom was in town and she replanted it with one leave spot below ground and it has rerooted and looks promising now.

Squash does not reroot.

I'm going to go look for several more basil plants this weekend and put them in a pot so I can make lots of pesto this summer for the freezer.

I read a nice article on canning. I would love to learn this over the summer, but I think to be realistic, I will plan to start this two summers from now once I get a little more comfortable with the growing part.

I'll try to get more photos today. It's a jungle out there.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

2009-05-30T19:18:00.001-07:00

I Thinned the cucumbers today, leaving 3 plants at the base of each stake. Early on the leaves were being eaten, but they look good now. I asked a gardener at North Bay and he said to sprinkle lime on the leaves if it continues. I was amazed that the leaves smell like cucumber already.

I also thinned the rainbow chard yesterday and today (hooray for chard and spinach frittata). I still think my chard looks a little wimpy. Maybe I didn't get the seeds deep enough? Or perhaps this is the normal way it grows. It just doesn't look like it's going to ever look like the bunches I buy. Tastes good though.

Squash? Meet toddler. So, we have a really strong plant toward the left. Then there was a plant doing just fine that Adam uprooted today. I think unless I can find another seedling we will lack butternut or acorn this year.

Peppers are in. I started them pretty late inside, so perhaps our yeild will be small and late but they are in now. Only 6 leaves per plant. Hoping that's ok.

I am coveting everyone's salad greens. Next year I will start them inside and much earlier. I have a space on the side of the house where I can see building a simple raised bed.

There are two tomatoes on my Wal-Mart tomatoe plant.

May 8th, 2009

2009-05-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

On the left, cucumbers in back, then beans, then chard and peppers and sqaush in front. The herb garden is in the middle and then tomatoes and onions on the right. There's also two spinach plants from Shannen that I stuck in. They're happy there.

April 25th, 2009

2009-05-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

Local Blog

2009-04-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a Baltimore Sun blog:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/gardening/vegetable_gardening/

In the minutes since my last post I've become terrified of vine borers.

soil temperatures

2009-04-22T05:59:00.000-07:00

So, as I looked over my plan I went back to the Heritage Seeds website and read the planting recommendations again. For my main garden, the recommended soil temperatures range from 60 to 80 degrees.

I searched for Baltimore current soil temperatures, and found a Dept of Ag source that is tracking the soil conditions daily in Powder Mill (a bit south of here):
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/nwcc/scansmst.jsp?days=1&site=2049&state=md

According to this report, yesterday the soil was just above 54 degrees.

I also noted that my squash in particular is recommended to plant in late spring/early summer. However, I need to check some local resources on this as I'm wondering if that would reflect temperatures and conditions in a different zone.

All in all, other than being behind on my pepper sprouting, I'm feeling less behind this week as I learn that things actually need to go in a bit later than I suspected. It is supposed to be beautiful and rain free for a few days starting tomorrow, so I'm really looking forward to finally finishing my bed preparations, setting up my compost system (thanks to Shannen) and soaking up the D vitamins.

Cooperative Extension

2009-04-21T04:51:00.001-07:00

Reading on the April tips for the Maryland Cooperative Extension I found some differing tips. They recommend not putting down the warm weather crops until frost danger is completely over and the soil is warm--around May 10th. So, that Mother's Day rule I once heard is about right.

It also sounds like I can go ahead and do my spinach, kale and lettuce now as well even though they're cooler weather. I'll probably get a yield before it gets really hot and then I'll have to do another round in autumn.

Spring

2009-04-20T06:59:00.000-07:00

The trees are all bright fuzzy green and red now, tulips are up and daffodils are fading.

Since my last post in March I've been to Florida for vacation, New Jersey for parties twice, and finished up some work projects. I believe I will be home now for a few weeks and when it stops raining in 2 days I will surely get my bed planted.

I have noticed little changes in my thinking leading me to believe that I'm perhaps beginning to think like a gardener. For example, as I watched the weather report last night I told Marc that I wished I had gotten seeds in during the good weather this weekend because they would have loved this rain to get started.

I've learned some things as well. As you know, I was confused as to when to begin planting. The rule for this is to wait for your zone's "frost free date" which here in Baltimore, ranges between March 10th and April 11th (there's only a small chance that we would have a frost after the 11th of April). If one is more experienced at nurturing seeds through a frost, one could plant in March, but for rookies like me, getting things down mid-April is a safer bet. So, I can now get seeds down any time, and the sooner the better for our yield.

Also, the rule of thumb for starting seeds inside is to begin them 6-8 weeks before the frost-free date so they can be transferred to the bed while planting the other seeds. I missed that. But, my tomatoes usually come up on their own and I also buy started plants from a little program called "BUGS" at the Living Classroom Foundation (an after school gardening program for Baltimore students) who hold a farmer's market to sell their seedlings the first weekend in May. I'm going to start my peppers and beans indoors today and I'll see how they compare to the BUGS seedlings in a few weeks and decide which to put down.

My gardening plan is ready now as well, thanks to my mom. I'm going to employ block gardening. This is a method of planting in blocks rather than rows to take advantage of the plants' natural ability to help each other. Planting my onions at the base of my tomatoes for instance offers both plants protection. From what, I'm not exactly sure, but that's what Ma says.

My main garden will contain my tomatoes and onions, cucumbers, beans, chard, peppers, zucchini, and acorn squash. I'm going to put my pumpkins behind the garage along the fence. I'm going to wait to plant my lettuce, spinach and kale in August and get some cool weather crops from them. I think typically these go down in the fall and yield early in spring, but I'll learn a little more about all that later in the season.

I'll be sticking garlic in somewhere, but we aren't sure how long my garlic will take to establish--it may take until next year. Also, I need to move my herbs. I may put them back on my porch steps to keep them close to the kitchen. My only issue with that is that I'll likely need to move them to keep them from scorching on the really hot days.

Off to dig up my seed starting kit.

Check out the website for the Maryland Cooperative Extension: http://extension.umd.edu/

crisis

2009-03-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

So, the seeds are here! I felt like I was meeting a new little baby when I carried in the little parcel.

I was crushed, however, to find all my tidy white seed packs neatly packed away WITH NO DIRECTIONS. I've always seen the packets all printed with sun, water, and planting recommendations. Apparently, the people who order from Heritage Farms know what they are doing already.

I now will need to do a little more homework. Off to get right on that...

Stall

2009-03-22T16:58:00.001-07:00

There was no garden progress this week.

I have tried daily to reach my seed company, but their phone is busy or no one answers. It is time to move on and try to find seeds somewhere else.

I have farmed out my little boy and cleared my schedule of other projects in order to get outside (rain or shine) this week and get things going.

The good news is that Jim hasn't put down seeds yet either. So, if he knows what he's doing, I'm still ok. If he doesn't or is late, I'm hosed.

Off to rest up for a big week.

Still Waiting

2009-03-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

So, on Tuesday I skipped my garden and planted some pansies.

On Wednesday we turned over a bit more soil.

Thursday and Friday were a little chilly and I was busy with some other things, so we didn't get out.

This morning, Adam and I went and got our hoses sorted out. I wanted the longer one at the front of the house and I had an old broken hose reel I needed to get all untangled. I did most of this with Adam on my hip because there's a pesky little black cat who has figured out he scares Adam and loves to come freak him out. Despite his making my gardening task a bit more difficult by terrifying my toddler, I enjoy this little "diddy dat." Charming personality and some good company.

I still need to finish preparing my bed. The weather doesn't have use below freezing again in the 10-day, so I'm hoping my seeds will arrive this week and sometime in the next couple I can get them in the ground.

I'm going to try to come up with first draft plan for planting tomorrow and run it by my mom. I hope to also do some reading about composting. My friend Shannen sent me some good links. I'd like to try to compost without buying special equipment, but I have to read up and see what will work.

Soil

2009-03-09T15:01:00.000-07:00

Today the kids and I drove out to Valley View Farms. They began their Spring hours today, and it felt special to be there as the nursery was waking up. Just a few shrubs and trays of pansies in what is usually a packed indoor and outdoor garden center.

We took a soil sample. It turns out our soil is slightly acidic. Our PH level was about 6.8 and we want it a bit lower, around 6. The garden guy recommended an 8 pound bag of lime. The whole clay issue is apparently a non issue. I asked about peat moss, but he said that peat moss could lower the acidity too much. He said we should be fine, but to just add a 2 inch layer of Leaf Grow to the top of the soil. He also pointed me to a bag of organic fertilizer I can sprinkle.

This information was a sweet relief, for some reason I was expecting them to tell me I would need a truckload of manure and 7 bales of peat moss. A few bags of Leaf Grow, some lime and fertilizer seem simple. I was also pleased that no one seemed to think I was behind. I felt almost like I knew what I was doing.

I emailed the seed people today as well. I'm sure they are rolling their eyes at me, as I actually only placed my order on February 25th. It's been fewer than 2 weeks and I'm already tapping my foot. I wonder how I'll do waiting for seeds to become food.

Our last accomplishment in our garden front was the most fun. After naps, I took the kids out back and let them play while I dug. I've expanded the garden about a foot and then turned over soil and pulled some weeds in about a third of the bed.

On a sad note, I learned this morning that a friend and a cousin-in-law both passed away this weekend. I don't know how to put losses like these in words, so I won't try. It just didn't feel right to write without acknowledging this change in the world and lives of those I love. May they rest in peace.

In The Beginning

2009-03-06T05:25:00.001-08:00

There was earth.

A little patch against our garage that gets half a day of sun. Mostly the noon til sundown sun.

Three summers ago, while we were away for the summer, our neighbors planted tomatoes and zinnias in the little stripe of potential. For two years the tomatoes came back and I apologized every time I saw Jim that I wasn't taking better care of them.

Then last spring we had a fence built, and that summer I actually tended my little piece of land and added three new varieties of tomatoes to my returning cherries that Jim had put down. Along with some herbs, I managed to keep tomatoes growing on 6 plants.

This year, I would like to keep a garden of about 10 vegetables. I'm aiming for easy ones. It is a learning year.

I am already a bit behind. Sigh. I've ordered, but not received, seeds. The next thing I need to figure out is how to get my soil ready. It's on the clay side and I think I need to mix something in there. I also need to expand my space a bit and make a plan. I'm waiting for my seeds so I can read the back and decide where to plant and how to space things.

This week I'm going to figure out what to do to the soil and check on my seed order.

I hope anyone reading this will feel welcome to share any information you have, as I am very truly a rookie.