Purely Garden

Too much rain!! We have had almost 2 weeks of solid rain without a break. Friday it finally stopped and I assessed the damage to my seedlings and garden. All sustained the weather rather well with the exception of the tomatoes!! Seems that they have all yellowed quite a bit and some have developed some fungal spots (Septoria I believe). I immediately isolated the spotted ones and have been monitoring the rest. I am hoping to see if the yellowing will subside with some organic fertilizer and a good drying out. As for the fertilizer, I will use some organic worm castings or possibly fish emulsion.

I did however manage to plant out 30 tomatoes. I chose the best looking plants and set them in my garden (extra defence to help isolate from the spotting plants). I am going to play with spacing to see what works best in a tight space. I have 7 rows 36" apart and 4 plants per row 18" apart. I also potted up two early tomatoes. Today I plan to pot up about 8 more plants.

I set up the bean trellis yesterday right behind where I seeded the carrots and beets. I put in a 5 foot x 15 foot trellis and set close to 50 bean seeds. My pea trellis is doing well and those plants are close to 8" tall now. The carrot and beets look as if they just germinated so there will be more to come on that front. The interesting thing will be the squash plants. I started 2 types of acorn, 1 butternut and 1 yellow squash along with 3 types of watermelon. I have no idea as of yet where these will go but I guess that is have of the fun.

In response to a comment on the PotMaker - This is a really cool tool that certainly has its place in my seed starting endeavours. It also certainly does not work in other areas. First, the pots are great and stable as long as you use two sheets of newspaper instead of just one. This makes them a little more rigid and they don't collapse as you water the seedlings. It worked great for my basil, peppers and salad plugs. It however did not do so well for my tomatoes and Swiss Chard. These plants grow too quickly and needed to be transplanted quicker. You can find the potmaker for sale in many catalogs now and I am starting to see it in some stores. I got mine from Seeds of Change for ~$15.00. I have also seen it in Jung's and Gardener's Suppply's catalog. Here is a simple visual on how to use it.

1. Cut paper strips about 10" x 3.5" (I prefer newspaper as I can plant them directly into the ground and they breakdown very, very quickly. The ink is also soy based so it is not adding anything bad to the soil
2. Wrap around the PotMaker, fold the edges down cupping the bottom
3. Press into the base
4. Done!

Food Harvested:
Salad - YEAH!!
My first French Breakfast Radish

Things Planted:
2 Types of Carrots
2 Types of Beets
Spinach
French Climbing String Beans
Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas
29 Tomato Plants (10 Varieties so far)
Lemon Basil
Peppers

Seeds Saved:
None yet this season

Preserved/Cooked:
Chocolate Cake

Things to Remember:

Went for a quick walk through the garden this morning. Seems that the Black Beauty Zucchini and the Squash plants are much, much larger than any other squash I have planted before. Next year, I need to give them much more space.

Peppers also need to be started indoors much earlier, they are not a big as they should be and still no flowers. Hopefully soon.

As I have posted on both GardenWeb and SeedSavers forums, I need to think about a different way of gardening. I have too much grass growing up through everything and it is starting to take over many of the beds. Lasagna type of layering with a no-till option may be the way to go. Need to do some more research.

The Sultan beans have hundreds of beautiful flowers and the vines are well over 6' now. Should not be too much longer until we have some beans. Since these are heirloom and not offered much, I may try to save some seeds for next year if they are good.