Today was not as productive as we had hoped, but we did feed the plants in the Rosengarden pretty well. Mixed up way more "complete organic fertilizer" than we actually needed (don't worry, it's dry under the tarp) and side-sowed it liberally around everything there, especially the unhappy-looking lettuces. Also applied "Sluggo" organic slug repellent around the bok choi, Naomi's recommendation (don't do this more than 3x/mo.). Whatever fertilizer recipe we were using before this morning was some weird variant on Solomon's (no lime at all?), but what I used was nearly exactly what he recommended: 4 parts alfalfa meal, 1/2 part lime, 1/2 part "mineral mix," and 1/2 part kelp.
Purchased lime, straw, minerals, compost with Gabe. Didn't get rocks to border beds. Still would like to have them.
Piled up some straw around the happy-looking potato plants to encourage tuber production. (Why is the rhubarb still so small?) The peas in the Rosengarden are doing really well, but the ones in the middle are only a foot high and flowering already. Not sure whether it's good or bad for such short little pea plants to be fruiting already. Lucien and I are conducting an experiment to see if we can persuade the plants to grow a little bigger before making more flowers, by removing the flowers we found today on one of the three middle rows of peas. The other rows are being allowed to flower and fruit to their hearts' desires. Strung up some more trellis for them to climb, should they be so inclined.
Once we had done all this, it started to rain and thunder and we decided to call it a day, come back inside and do some planning. (Yes, the NPS-style signs are a good idea. We'll make some classy ones once planting season is over. See picture at the top of this post for Laura's interpretation of what kind of classy sign we're looking for, from the Grassi Lakes Trail in Alberta. Photo from Trent University Trail Studies Unit. Why am I not majoring in this?) Still need to get those tomatoes & peppers in the ground at South Campus. Perhaps this morning (since of course I write these posts the next day). Brief gardening hiatus to come as Lucien and I truck up to Seattle for my brother's production of Beauty and the Beast, but Lucien has made it clear that he'd like to take advantage of my raw planning energy to put together some proposals for various garden structures this weekend, so it's not entirely lost time. More dirt under his fingernails starting Monday.
I am not sure why I didn't think to check this blog earlier! There I was walking around Santa Cruz missing the gardens and wondering what they are looking like when I could have been getting updates with amazing photos and such.
ReplyDeleteAbout the peas: Don't pull off any more flowers! Those are bush peas! They are a dwarf variety! They aren't supposed to get big.
About the potatoes: Weee! They are going to love the straw. Keep piling it on.
About the rhubarb: I transplanted it dry-root style from home in Santa Cruz over spring break and it should take a while to establish.
About the sign: It looks amazing. That is exactly what I was envisioning.
Abut the strawberries: Did you mulch them with chips or straw? My family found out the hard way a few years ago that strawberries HATE being mulched with chips because the chips take nitrogen from the soil (not exactly sure how). Straw tends to work better :)
ANYHOW! Thanks for the update(!!).