Two Month Update

Cukes gone byebye. The aphids, or whatever, were too much. I cut them down.

But the tomatoes are doing nicely. I have an abundance of green ones, the largest 3 inches in diameter. I did not check which ones were the big producers yet. But hopefully, some will started getting the red color soon.

The peppers are acting pepperly and coming in fine. I think I have some green peppers, habaneros, and jalapenos.

The weather has been kinda cold and I have done nothing to protect the plants. The low temp got to around 40 degrees.

I went by the farmers market guy and asked him a little about the tomatoes and should I pinch any of the small ones off. He said no need. He also gave the following advice:

1. Mix 14-14-14 Ozmocote(sp?) in with the soil at planting. It gives time released fertilizing over the life of the plant.

2. It is better to use a small amount of liquid fertilizer often than a large fertilizing more infrequently.

3. In my planters, use 1/4 Epsom Salts every month.

So, today I put in the reservoir of each planter 1/3 cup Epsom with around 1/8 cup of Miracle Grow.

We will see if some of the smaller tomatoes grow up better.

Cuke Update

I hit the Cukes with malithion on Sunday along with adding a big spoonful of Miracle Grow to each of the containers (through the water pipe).

I also examined the black dots more closely. Some of them moved. Must be aphids.

We'll see what happens.

My current Pineapples

I have a pineapple patch with around 15 pineapples in it. I have another 5 or so around the yard in various places (some with over a 6 foot wingspan). I got another two pots with 2 or 3 plants in each pot.

That makes over 25 plants.

When will they put out fruit?

Veggies After One Month

After one month.....the tomatoes are performing good for the most part. I don't see any fungus, leaf, or bug problems. The tomato rankings are:

• Left: Bush Beefsteak (from plant guy) - 3rd out of 5. This is the worse performer from the plan guy. It still beats the snot out of the Home Depot plants.
• Middle: Homestead (from HomeDepot) - 4th best out of 5 tomatoes. The Home Depot plants were a big dropoff from the plant guy's plants.
• Right: Husky Reds (from plant guy) - 1st our of 5. Best performer. Really large strong stems and very rich, dark green.

• Back Right: Big Boys (from Home Depot) - 5th out of 5. This is just now starting to grow after one month in the ground.
• Left: Bush Early Girl (from plant guy) - 2nd out of 5. Strong and tall.
• Middle: Peppers (from seed)
• Right: Cukes (mix from plant guy and seed) - See prior post for issues

Cuke Issues

My cuke plants are growing large and bountiful. But....I got problems:

Little Black Dots
I assume this is bugs. I didn't find anything but went ahead and sprayed. Hopefully that will take care of it.











Yellow Leaves
I don't know what this is. I will check and/or post on the internet to see what I can do.

Orchid Update

Here is the original orchid. It now has an incredible number of shoots.














Below is the other orchid. It seems to be going well.














All I have done is put them under my oak and did a hose spray once every week or two. Hopefully they will be able to make it over the winter.

Fall Planting in the Ground

I planted all the stuff today. I prepped each container with 2 cups garden lime. I also put two cups 10-0-10 fertilizer in a strip on the top of the soil.

In 60 days, (beginning of December) I should have tomatoes and peppers.

My son has planted the lone non-pepper survivors of my seeding experiment. We shall see.

Planting for Fall

Fall plantings are now on the schedule. Where are the seedlings from August?

Here are the results form 8 weeks.











Not too hot.

So...off to the Saturday Farmers Market.










From the Farmers Market, I got...
3 Bush Early Girl
3 Bush Beefsteak
3 Husky Red
3 Bush Cucumber
1 Basil

The basil was $2, the rest were $1.

Earlier, from Home Depot, I got:
4 Homestead
4 Big Boy

At this point, I may run out of room with my planters. Also, I need to research a little soil prep for the tomatoes.

New Orchid

My one shining success seems to be the idea of putting orchids under my oak tree. The original one is now on it's second flowering. Since that one worked out so well, I went by the orchid lady and got another.

Here's the original with the new flower and the new one.

Bad Seedlings and Garden Update

The seedlings failed the first time due to being rained on. I retried (with the same soil)...here is what I got. Maybe they will grow to something I can use.










The beans are now growing well. They were grown from seedlings. They have taken off most recently. Next time I would start earlier with better seedling development. BTW...it takes ALOT of beans to make even one serving of beans.














Here is the progress on the sweet potatoes. I have no idea where the potato is actually going to come from.











AND....had Sam do the Miracle Grow on the lawn once more.

Seedling Update

Here's where they are at....9 days later.

The cukes and melons took off. The rest are coming up slowly.

Supposedly, for our region, the seedlings should not be planted until mid-September.

Grafting.....0 for 30 something

All the grafts I put down have failed. The stem grafts failed almost immediately. The stems browned within a few days. The T-buds just didn't take.

Here is an example:

My take on the problem is either the buds were not cut right (maybe they need to be thicker).

OR...I think my bud selection is not correct. Some of the docs talk about a bud appearing next to a leaf. I never saw anything like that in the stems I used.

Fertilized the lawn

I sprayed a packet of Miracle Grow on the lawn. It is getting a little sparse. I am not sure what the deal is. The grass seems to be dying intermitten with nice growing grass.

Late Blog from July 28th - Garden Update

Late July 28th update.....

The Mango is ready.














The Beans look like they are growing better from the seedlings.

Late Blog from July 28th - Planting Seedlings

Last week (July 28th) I went and planted some seedlings. I used a packet of stuff from Lowes and my seed from Southern Exposure.














The seeds I planted were from Southern Exposure.

TOMATO Tropic VFN
MUSKMELON Hales Best
WATERMELON Sugar Baby
CUCUMBER PICKLING Arkansas Little Leaf H-19
CUCUMBER Marketmore 80
CUCUMBER Marketmore 76
PEPPER, HOT Jalapeno
PEPPER, BELL (SWEET) California Wonder

Checkup on Summer Gardening (II)

Awhile back I tried some seedlings. It looks like the collards and tomatoes did not do anything. The beans look OK but don't seem to have grown in the last two weeks.

The black containers are the black beans. The green are the queen annes peas. The tomatoes died off. The collards did not seem to go anywhere.

I used fresh potting soil for all the seedlings.

The beans are now in planter boxes.














I planted some bean seed directly into the planters. They seem to be prone to getting eaten. I ended up spraying lightly with malithion. Some of them seem to have gotten through.

Orchid update (and pineapple)

One stalk died, a few leaves yellow, but I think there is some new growth. Basically I have been giving it a rain shower when doing gardening once or twice a week. Also, here is my pineapple. It doesn't look like it is getting larger.

Grafting Attempts

I set up some grafts today. I am trying to get the Gibson's mineola onto one of my trees. I went by and got some cuttings from the Gibson's mineola one of there navel oranges.

I tried the following:
On my tangerine...
6 T buds and two grafts
On my grapefruit...
1 graft
On my orange
1 graft

Most of the it was using the mineola stock. I used plumbers tape for all the grafts. For some, I used some grafting wax.

I am mainly trying to get ONE graft to take. Supposedly, I will need to check the t-buds in 12 days. The other grafts will be checked in 3 weeks.

Checkup on Summer Gardening

So where is my summer gardening right now?

The oregano looks a little junkie. I cut it back a little. The basil is flowering and so I cut the buds off that.










For the seeds I planted, it has been two weeks.

These are the collard and tomato seeds. They finally came up. I am not sure which is which but it looks like they have a fair amount of more growing to do before I transplant.











The peas came in pretty good. Even now, I am getting some new seedlings coming up. I am not sure how high to let them get.








The sweet potatoes seem to be holding there own. I was expecting a little more growth. Both the 1/2 sun and more sun sights look pretty much the same.

Trying Sweet Potatoes

I bought some sweet potatoes from Home Depot on Sunday...8 plants for $3. They were around 10 inches high and looked pretty healthy. The brand was Bonnie...the variety Beauregard.

They were planted today. I put 4 in the back of the garden (less sun) and 4 in the front of the garden (more sun). They went directly in my sandy, dry soil. Supposedly sweet potatoes are OK for that.

Let the experiment begin.

Oh Four Four

I am officially 0 - 4 in my summer plantings. 9 days ago I planted:

Queen Anne Blackeye Peas
Peking Black Southern Pea
Wild Cherry - Tomato Cherry
Georgia Green Collards

The QA peas came up and were eaten immediately. I think a few PB peas came up a few days later. Those were eaten immediately also. The other two are MIA. Maybe it takes 2 weeks for them to germinate. Who knows? (Not me).

Anyways, I am now trying to do some starter pots for the seeds. Maybe I can transplant them when they are larger.

The round green pots contain QA Peas. The round black pots contain PB peas. The other is a mix and match of the other two. I put the pots under the potting table. I don't think they need direct sunlight yet and I am worried about them drying out. I went ahead and put them in pans of water to get them through the day. It is just an experiment.

Bean seedlings getting eaten

My bean seedlings are getting eaten by something. The seeds pop up really nicely, then overnite, the tops get eaten. I initially thought it was racoons or some animal. I tested this by placing small plastic planters over the sprouts in the evening. In the morning though, the lanters were undisturbed but the seedlings were still eaten.

grass fertilization

Last weekend I fertilized the grass with a 29-3-4 weed and feed. I also put a bug killer down.

Cuke Problems

My Cukes are problematic. I have tried a number of things....here are the latest results.

Type: Burbee Straight Eight seeds

Problems: Mold/Fungus - light white spots that look like mold.

Also, loosing leaves...I get new growth but then the new leaves go bad pretty quickly.

I tried a milk spray and Ortho Garden Disease Control.

I did get a number of cukes that I ate fresh and jarred.

My Orchid

I bought an orchid from the orchid lady on business 41 last month. I asked for something 'with the best chance for survival'. It lives under the backyard oak with a staghorn. I have been hitting it with a hose a couple of times a week...kinda like fake rain.

Type: Dendrobium Hollywood

Tomato Results

The last batch of tomatoes are now out. The best of the bunch were Bush Champions. These were bought from the venice farmer's market guy.

1st Summer Plantings

Today, I planted the following in 4 of my planters:
Queen Anne Blackeye Peas
Peking Black Southern Pea
Wild Cherry - Tomato Cherry
Georgia Green Collards

All of these are from seeds purchased from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

I emptied two of the planters and remixed the soil.
For fertilizer I mixed in a Lesco 8-10-10 Palm and Tropical fertilizer.
Why that fertilizer? Cause that is what I got.

What do I really want to accomplish

To feed my family fully on the bounty of the land. Well....that goal died fairly early on based on my first plantings.

Actually, my first goal was to get rid of the grass in my backyard. This I accomplished with Great White Shark methodical killing efficiency. All it took was my gardening skills. It was funny because only after the grass died did I realize that it was a goal of mine.

Skip ahead three or four years.....

My latest goal is to learn how to grow one useful vegetable a year. The list so far:
1. Tomatoes - My skill is a 6 out of 10. I get varieties from the local farmers market and have varying success. Usually I get some good tomoatoes each season.
2. Peppers - These are easy so I give myself 8 our of 10. I just don't like peppers so the success is blunted.
3. Cucumbers - This years project. My plants start off with a bang but end with wilt, worms, fungus, etc. I did get enough cukes to jar up soome pickes so I call it a 3 out of 10.

Failures: Watermelon , corn, cantelope, onions, squash, etc. Not a single inch of fruit from any of these.

I am an Unsuccessful Gardener

I am an unsuccessful, frustrated gardener. Plants fear me. They fear when I purchase them. They fear when I pay them attention. They fear my neglect.

I really suck at gardening.

But my main failing, is that I am also disorganized. So frankly, I can't even learn from my mistakes.

Even my successes are failures.

What were those tomatoes that grew so well? Where did they come from? When did I plant them? Did I spray them with anything? Would a monkey have a better chance at reproducing those tomatoes than me? (the answer is yes).

So in hopes that I could possibly learn from what the hell I did in the past, I am putting together this journal to track my goings on in the garden. Maybe, just maybe, I might learn something.