Bean #1.
Friday, May 23, 2014
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Updates and soil temperature data link
One more gladiolus has come out! Unexpected and exciting!
Have started cutting spinach leaves young, leaving just a few on the plant so it can grow. Learnt from last time's experience that the leaves can grow large, mature and not too tasty if left on the plant for long.
Potato plants are growing steadily now, as are the peas and onions.
Have started exposing the tomato and pepper plants at home to the colder weather outside to harden them off. Plan to transplant them end of this month. Also started feeding them some Miracle-Gro organic plant food and spacing them out some more to keep them well-ventilated, as suggested by friends.
No news of beans or cilantro yet.
And finally, a useful resource: Soil temperature data can be found here.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Coriander and beans started
Sowed nine seeds of coriander (Burpee) and thirteen of beans (Bountiful Gardens blue lake variety) today. Soaked the beans seeds for eight hours before sowing.
Gladiolus and tomato health check.
Woohoo! The first sign of gladiolus is out in the garden! I had given up, nearly! I hope the last frost is over now, 'coz I don't know how frost resistant this variety is. The weather is nice these days - warm but not too hot, there is cloud cover. The plants in the garden seem to like this, although I suspect spinach likes it cooler. They are coming out alright for now. The peas are growing well too. I tied them some string on the trellis to hold on to, and helped some of them direct their tendrils there (like helping a baby walk). The onions grow taller everyday. I counted 64 of them, out of a total of 75 bulbs I had sown. I am glad I did not split them in two batches. I am sure many bulbs would have dried up by fall just sitting around at home. Same for potatoes. I sowed all the seed potatoes I had and there are tiny potato plants coming out now! Pictures when they are bigger. Beans are next.
The pepper plants at home are looking sturdier. A couple of them look like they can be transplanted, but I will wait till the first week of June before taking them out. The tomatoes will go out in June too, if they don't die at home. Over the weekend I noticed that some of the lower leaves on some plants were drying out, like the ones in the picture. Internet research led me to this. I don't think it is disease. And I don't think it is overwatering, because I have noticed the leaves wilt if I don't give them as much water as I normally do. So it is probably lack of food. The upper leaves look healthy, though. Maybe the plant naturally decides to lose the lower ones. I might get some plant food if more leaves start to dry up. Until then I am going with composting the pot some more.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Spinach and plant hardiness zones.
I can finally say for sure that the small seedlings on the spinach patch are indeed spinach. Characteristic curled up true leaves in the center! There are around 15 of these little ones on the patch, but most are close to where the peas are. But I am going to leave them where they are lest I stress them out by moving them around. It will be nice to get a couple of harvests before they start to bolt.
Plants at home got new pots today so they can grow more comfortably. Two of the super sweet tomatoes sprouted two days back. They have joined the two tiniest pepper plants on the window sill.
While snooping around trying to increase my general gardening knowledge, I came upon this great resource:
This map tells you what plant hardiness zone your area (in the US) falls in. Knowing the zone can be a great help to plan one's gardening schedule! And the almanac provides lots of useful information about plants suited for one's zone etc.
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