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Gardening 'Note to Self'
Jun. 17th, 2010 02:13 pmDon't transplant tomato plants after they're well established and around a foot tall, even though you planted them 'way too close together in the first place. Doing that pretty much assures you'll be making a trip to 'The Wall of Marts' for replacement plants.
[sigh]
For those who don't know, I'm living in a 'family house' here in Idaho. Built by one pair of Himself's grandparents after WWII, deeded to his stepfather, who gave it to his daughter/ Sister-In-Law #1 as a wedding present. SIL#1 moved out of state and has other SIL#2 acting as landlord. I rent it and that rent helps pay the mortgage [because the place did need quite a few repairs/upgrades when SIL#1 received it]. The place is huge and has a massive yard and nice garden area. I'm in massive luck that SIL#2 loves to do yard work like mowing [as least so far] and I'm doing the rest.
BTW, did I mention the well established raspberry canes and the grape arbor? Or the huge rose by the back door?
So yeah, 'The Gal with the Black Thumb' is learning to deal with green things and trying to remember all those things me Grandmother used to tell me when Ihad to help got to help with her garden almost 40 years ago.
On the upside, I've been nomming on the two lettuce plants that are big enough to start thinning for the last week. {Fresh Lettuce!}. The radish is going street rat crazy, along with the lettuce-from-seed, the cabbage and the broccoli. The squash [unknown] and peppers [unknown] are doing well and the squash have about 4 to 6 blossoms on them each. The two tomatoes I didn't mess with are doing great. The snap peas are few, but trying, the carrots are barely trying and the onions have finally stuck their heads out. The 3 new rhubarb plants aren't doing squat and may well be replaced in the next couple of weeks, but the old one has been producing for the last month and I've got little baggies of chopped rhubarb stuffed in corners all throughout the freezer.
The things in pots are doing fair. Three peppers in one medium big pot, a 'sweet mint' in another and a transplanted mint from out back in the third. There's a bunch of mixed herbs in two larger pots: fennel, dill, parsley, purple basil, regular basil, etc that are still trying to make up their mind, but the two rosemary in the last big pot are settling in well. The herbs are in pots so they can be transplanted into their own big pots and the ones that don't like 20 degree weather can be moved indoors for the winter and the others will go out in the beds somewhere.
I still want to put some bush beans in the ground but have given up on corn - the only two spots left are either too wet or don't get enough sun. But I've got to move a metric buttload of bulbs around and plant those few that survived the winter but I didn't have the heart to plant last fall or this spring so that needs to go on the list of 'to do'. And later this year, I'm planning on taking the garden spot that tends to collect water [the lower end of a slightly angeled walled in garden] and make a raised bed out of it. Hopefully that will solve the whole 'wetlands' aspect of that area. Or it may simply be the fact that the garden hasn't had anything in it for about 5 years and the soil has compacted itself too much.
So, the ideas for the rest of this month will be plant some more peas in the same area [I think the really wet spring did most of the seeds in], get the beans and bulbs in,and replant the carrots [seed], try to get ahead [or at least give it a valiant try] to deal with the Creeping Myrtle encroachment in the raspberries, try to get the free range mint under a bit of control and get more tomatoes [plants].
We'll see what actually happens.
[sigh]
For those who don't know, I'm living in a 'family house' here in Idaho. Built by one pair of Himself's grandparents after WWII, deeded to his stepfather, who gave it to his daughter/ Sister-In-Law #1 as a wedding present. SIL#1 moved out of state and has other SIL#2 acting as landlord. I rent it and that rent helps pay the mortgage [because the place did need quite a few repairs/upgrades when SIL#1 received it]. The place is huge and has a massive yard and nice garden area. I'm in massive luck that SIL#2 loves to do yard work like mowing [as least so far] and I'm doing the rest.
BTW, did I mention the well established raspberry canes and the grape arbor? Or the huge rose by the back door?
So yeah, 'The Gal with the Black Thumb' is learning to deal with green things and trying to remember all those things me Grandmother used to tell me when I
On the upside, I've been nomming on the two lettuce plants that are big enough to start thinning for the last week. {Fresh Lettuce!}. The radish is going street rat crazy, along with the lettuce-from-seed, the cabbage and the broccoli. The squash [unknown] and peppers [unknown] are doing well and the squash have about 4 to 6 blossoms on them each. The two tomatoes I didn't mess with are doing great. The snap peas are few, but trying, the carrots are barely trying and the onions have finally stuck their heads out. The 3 new rhubarb plants aren't doing squat and may well be replaced in the next couple of weeks, but the old one has been producing for the last month and I've got little baggies of chopped rhubarb stuffed in corners all throughout the freezer.
The things in pots are doing fair. Three peppers in one medium big pot, a 'sweet mint' in another and a transplanted mint from out back in the third. There's a bunch of mixed herbs in two larger pots: fennel, dill, parsley, purple basil, regular basil, etc that are still trying to make up their mind, but the two rosemary in the last big pot are settling in well. The herbs are in pots so they can be transplanted into their own big pots and the ones that don't like 20 degree weather can be moved indoors for the winter and the others will go out in the beds somewhere.
I still want to put some bush beans in the ground but have given up on corn - the only two spots left are either too wet or don't get enough sun. But I've got to move a metric buttload of bulbs around and plant those few that survived the winter but I didn't have the heart to plant last fall or this spring so that needs to go on the list of 'to do'. And later this year, I'm planning on taking the garden spot that tends to collect water [the lower end of a slightly angeled walled in garden] and make a raised bed out of it. Hopefully that will solve the whole 'wetlands' aspect of that area. Or it may simply be the fact that the garden hasn't had anything in it for about 5 years and the soil has compacted itself too much.
So, the ideas for the rest of this month will be plant some more peas in the same area [I think the really wet spring did most of the seeds in], get the beans and bulbs in,and replant the carrots [seed], try to get ahead [or at least give it a valiant try] to deal with the Creeping Myrtle encroachment in the raspberries, try to get the free range mint under a bit of control and get more tomatoes [plants].
We'll see what actually happens.
