Tall Telephone Pea Sprouts
May 30, 2008
I’m so bad at planting peas in early spring when the soil is still cold. It’s the best time for them as peas really like cold weather and can withstand a few light frosts. About three weeks ago I dragged myself to pre-sprout some Tall Telephone pea seeds on my heating mat and then planted them in a tiny corner of my garden.
Who knows, maybe I’ll have a tiny bumper crop which will carry over to next year and I’ll get my act together to plant peas early in the chilly spring.
And for the record I still have to get around to planting carrots, onion bulbs (way, way late) and bush beans. I really should be more disciplined and stick to my planting dates. Maybe I need a gardening buddy to whip me into shape.
Crippling Country Frost
May 30, 2008
The last few nights have dipped down to + 3°C and two days ago I got an email about the satellite garden. Apparently there had been ground frost and I should come out for an assessment. Here’s what greeted me:
Complete death of a Black Eel zucchini. Truly, if you were to look up “severe frost damage” this would be the picture. Everywhere I looked there was frost damage:
There were some survivors. The Peaches and Cream corn made it through okay:
As well as some of the frost-hardy veggies like Laurentian rutabaga:
Melody spinach:
Watermelon radish:
Detroit Dark Red beets, White Globe turnip and Cylindra beets:
And the Norland potatoes:
Almost everything else was a write-off: Citron watermelon, Moon & Stars watermelon, Black Eel zucchini, Smart Pickle cucumber, Jack O’Lantern pumpkin, Boothby’s Blonde cucumber, Bottlegourd squash and Canada Crookneck squash. All the curcubits.
So I decided to start some new seeds and fast-track them by pre-sprouting on my heating mat. They’ve all germinated in the last two days and I’ll keep them inside where it’s warm once they’re potted up to get them growing quickly.
This is my one ray of hope for tasty watermelon this summer. I just hope I don’t flub it up. Again. Gah.
Deep Watering with Pop Bottles. Verdict? Not So Deep
May 29, 2008
I decided to try deep watering my tomato plants using 500 ml pop bottles filled with fish emulsion fertilizer. I rinsed out the bottles, filled them up, capped them off and poked three holes in each on one side with a push pin. I made a long depression in the soil with my finger and set them push-pin-hole down. They looked pretty good:
I thought the fertilized water would slowly drip out but it’s been a day now and the bottles are still fairly full. I lifted a couple up and checked the soil underneath and it wasn’t noticeably damp. There was a bit of dampness but that was probably from me squeezing the bottle when I picked it up. Maybe I need to make bigger holes. Maybe I need to elevate the bottles off the surface of the soil so that the holes don’t get plugged up.
First Harvest!
May 28, 2008
Here’s a shot of my first harvest from the garden:
From top left to right is Tendergreen Mustard Green, Red Deer Tongue Lettuce and a lone Mizuna Mustard Green. From bottom left to right is a lone Black Seeded Simpson lettuce and two piles of some mystery loose-leaf lettuce.
They were pretty tasty on my ham and swiss last night!
Tomato Pictures
May 28, 2008
Here’s a few shots of my tomato plants, most are pushing the one-foot mark:
Black Pear (a potato leaf cultivar)
Aunt Ruby’s German Green
Bonny Best
Sometimes I can’t believe I’ve grown these gorgeous plants from seed. You can see the potato leaf of the Black Pear tomato in the first picture. A regular leaf (RL) tomato has serrated edges on the leaf whereas a potato leaf (PL) cultivar doesn’t, resembling the smooth leaf edges of a potato plant.
Last night was really cold so I decided to put my tomato plants in the winter sowing storage containers for a bit of protection. They came through the night pretty well:
