Tag: garden

Winter Gardens: It grows, I do nothing

 

It has been months since I mentioned the winter garden hasn’t it?  That probably has something to do with the fact that, at least here, a winter garden is a hands-off process.  I don’t have to water the garden as it either rains or dew it sufficient to keep the plants happy, I don’t have to tend to the plants very often seeing as their not giant bushes overwhelming nearby plants (like zucchini and tomatoes.)  We planted it and promptly forgot about it until we need something like spinach, bok choy, or celery.

Oh, there was one pest… one that has somehow managed to survive the below freezing temperatures:

Beer traps don’t seem to work as well in the winter and either did nightly pick-ups.  We finally broke down and picked up some iron pellets which make them stop eating, but that doesn’t put an end to the breeding these pests do.  Who know slugs were so big on sex?  The only real victim of the slugs has been the lettuce and cauliflower.  Their leaves have been chewed all up and slug slime covers what is left, which means what cauliflower I have is tiny and, so far, inedible.

Appealing?
too small

So far we’ve eaten spinach, bok choy, celery, arugula, and some lettuce from the garden.  The carrots are still too small as are the onions.  Despite the lack of lettuce I’m still calling this season’s garden a success

How My Garden Grows: Winter 2010

It has been about a month since we put in the winter garden and things are finally starting to grow, as you can see.  The bok choy and lettuce are coming in the fastest but everything seems to be moving along nicely.  So far, the biggest problem has been slugs, much more so now than they were in the summer.  I’ll be putting in new, and perhaps additional, beer traps but am considering using coffee grounds as well.  The acidity of the grounds prevents the slugs from crawling over them, it can also burn your plants too though.  I suppose I could purchase a pesticide of some sort but we’re trying for an organic garden and I don’t want to see it come to that.

notice the holes in the leaves? slugs!

D thinks we can start harvesting lettuce from the garden now… I still think the heads are a little too small and Id like to give them a few more weeks.  The arugula and carrots both seem to be doing fine.  We didn’t lose much seed to birds or other granivores and it looks as if we’ll have plenty of both by harvest time:

arugula
carrots

I didn’t take any pictures of the celery or onions but they seem to be doing fine, especially because it appears the slugs are uninterested in them.  Not enough leafy greens I suppose.  The only other plant we have growing is cauliflower and while they seem to be doing fine they’re a long way off from harvesting.  Seeing as they have to flower first and then be germinated and then… Well, you (should) know how plant sex works.

In general, despite the pest problem, the winter garden seems to be progressing well.  As long as these plants don’t stall on us like the tomatoes and zucchini did in the summer garden and we don’t have a cold snap this season should be a success!

Vermiculture, or still playing with worms

J constructs a vermilculture box thereby making him responsible for 300 odd squirmy, slimy lives…

When D and I ordered the composter a year or so ago we had some trouble with the shipper not sending the the thing out for a month or so…  After numerous emails and a few calls to Amazon’s customer support people the composter finally arrived and with it, to make up for its delay, a worm composter or vermiculture box as well.

The Vermiculture box has been sitting in the garage in its shipping box since then.  Until today.  D had a pond to make and since she would be going to Ace and working out in the yard I figured now was a good time to finally get the thing put together and going.  Worm poo is fantastic apparently and I desperately wanted in on that action!

RANDOM FACT:  Worms can eat as much as their body weight in a 24 hour period!

So while D was picking up wife a wine barrel, some fish and a papyrus plant I got some worm take-out.  Once home I opened up the box and took at look at the box…  Everything looks the same here… and I only have half the instructions…

So what we have there is a water, or worm tea, collection tray, the bottom feeder tray, three additional feeder trays, a lid, two weed filters, and coconut coir.  Oh and a spigot for draining out the worm tea.  Once I found a complete set of instructions on the manufacturer’s website it wasn’t too difficult to assembly during which I soaked the coconut coir in some water.

RANDOM FACT: Worm poo is more commonly known as worm castings and worms can eat it too!  The more they eat it they better it is for whatever plants you decide to put it on.  Also, GROSS!

Now to add the damp coconut coir, mixed with some potting soil and food.  I put in some tomatoes, apple cores, leafy greens, and some figs.  Mix it all together and then add the worms!  I forgot to take a picture of everything mixed together with worms in it so you’ll have to use your imagination.

After I filled up the first feeding tray and added the worms I put on the second feeding tray and partially filled it with soil.  This vermiculture system works by slowly having the worms eat their way up through the boxes and then pulling out the lower ones and emptying them before placing them back on the top of the stack.  I’ve got to take care not to drown, cook, freeze, starve, or acid burn the poor beasties though so I’m sure micromanaging this all will be fun…

RANDOM FACT:  Worms will eat human hair?!

Finally, with all 3 feeder in I put in the last weed filter, which keeps the worms from getting out and other things from getting in and put the lid on it and placed it by the side of the house.  Where it should stay warm without getting too much direct sunlight.  I suppose during the winter if it gets too cold I can bring it into the garage.  The bins aren’t supposed to produce any odors.

Continued Adventures in Gardening

Next time I write about the garden hopefully it is in the context of me gorging on its bounty! Considering we had a long winter and a cold spring, how early I planted, and the fact that this is a first attempt at gardening I’m impressed with myself. The garden really seems to be doing well, despite the tomato plants just sitting there not giving me tomatoes. I’m excited to see how much we get of the garden this year and how much more I can get out of it next year.

When did I last write about the garden?  In April, May maybe?  I don’t recall and despite that fact that right over there to the right of this text box is a tool to help me find it, or perhaps even a direct link to the entry I’m thinking of I’m not going to bother looking it up.  I’m going to go with it has been awhile.  How do I know?  Look at that picture up there!  Last time my tomato plants weren’t the same size as me, nor were the zucchini plants growing outside of the planter.

So what all do I have going on in there?  Besides the hyperdeveloped tomatoes and zucchini?  I’ve got some soybeans growing, which I’ll be eating as edamame.

The cucumbers are starting to come in, they are still tiny, around the size of an adult’s pinky finger

My pepper plant is really starting to produce, everything is still to small to eat but there are a lot of them on the plant.  I wonder if I should prune it back in order to make the plant focus on fewer peppers?

What else is there in the garden box…?  I have an eggplant as well and it’s started blooming but there isn’t any fruit on it, yet.  I didn’t take a picture of it.  I have some pole beans too but , they haven’t produced anything either.  The beans have grown all over their supports and have co-opted the tomato plants as well… I’m hopeful they’ll start producing soon.

Despite the monstrous size of my two tomato plants there still isn’t any fruit on them.  My tiny cherry tomato has started producing though

That is about it.  Next time I write about the garden hopefully it is in the context of me gorging on its bounty!  Considering we had a long winter and a cold spring, how early I planted, and the fact that this is a first attempt at gardening I’m impressed with myself.  The garden really seems to be doing well, despite the tomato plants just sitting there not giving me tomatoes.  I’m excited to see how much we get of the garden this year and how much more I can get out of it next year.

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