Gardening

9/1 planted cilantro on east side of house near well-established basil. Soil temperature was 82 degrees F at 1 pm.

9/4 planted 3 five foot rows of Botanical Interests Early Wonder Beets in front yard where there is lots of sun. Soil temperature was 95 degrees F. Extreme Gardener recommends soil temp be less than 90 degrees, permaculture guild says it is okay to plant beets after Aug 15. Covered with old piece of mesh fence to stop birds from eating sprouts.

also planted 3 4 foot rows of Botanical Interests Broccoli De Cicco.

9/15 about a half of the beets came up. I planted more beets to fill in and to extend the rows.

Not many of the broccoli seeds came up at least that I can tell (I am not certain I know what they look like) so I planted more broccoli.

The cilantro is up. I am going to leave it uncovered thinking that maybe the birds won’t see it under the basil.

9/15 planted mustard seeds in the back yard in an area that gets some sun and some shade. These are seeds that we harvested from our mustard plants gone to seed in May of 2008. I covered this with a 3 foot by 1 foot greenhouse (wood and plastic sheeting and staples). I planted them behind the strawberries.

Dilly and Hetta helped me mulch the strawberries.

9/18 I went to check on the mustard seeds. We got irrigation yesterday so I thought maybe the soil/seeds might have got washed around. All was well, probably because I buried th sides of the mini-greenhouse. I took a peek in a hole in the plastic and saw that the mustard seeds had sprouted. Lots of them. After only 3 days! I recall that I did not plant the seed deep in the soil at all, maybe 1/4 inch.

9/19 planted kale in the back garden partial sun/partial shade. 3 6 foot rows. 1/2 of two rows is winterbor hybrid kale. The rest is dwarf blue curled vates. We have collected so many seeds over the years. For this Kale planting I am surprised (that means I forgot) to discover the types of seeds we have and just plant what we have. I covered this with our green house made out of the frame of an old sofa bed we landfilled covered by 2 mil plastic sheeting. My idea for using the greenhouse is to quicken the seeds growth, it is getting late in the season, and to protect sprouts from birds.

9/20 Dug out the bermuda grass around two parsley plants that survived the summer. This is in the back yard, next too the kale, mustard green, and strawberry garden. A path runs between these two gardens to the compost piles.

9/21 Bought some broadleaf sage (Organiks from Whole Foods). There were four plants in the single pot; separated and planted them behind the two parsleys.

9/24 bought 4 gangley Candid Charm cauliflowers plants from Baker’s Nursery and planted them near the sage. They are about 3 inches tall. Interspersed parsley seeds, Italian Dark Green Flat (Botanical Interests), in the parsley, cauilflower and sage garden. My Companion Planting Chart and the Extreme Gardner both suggest planting sage near cauliflower.

Dug up a second garden area in the front yard. This one gets sun until the afternoon when bushes block out the sun. It also gets some shade during the morning because of the Chinese elm.  I dug up bout 2 feet of it and planted 3 rows of collards, Georgia Southern (Botanical Interests). Dilly helped me a lot breaking up soil mixing in composted mulch. Hetta and Dilly and I each planted one row.

The beets are looking good. Some of the first planted seeds have grown into plants with many leaves, two inches tall. The second set of seeds planted are also coming up. The broccoli is coming up slowly. Only one plant had grown from seedlings to a recognizable broccoli plant.

9/27 Next to the collards in the front yard, I planted 4 rows of swiss chard. This does not get shaded by the Chinese elm. It does get shaded by bushes in the afternoon.

Kale is coming up. I left the couch-green house on it.

I uncovered the mustard greens; took off the mini green house..

9/28 Next to the swiss chard, I planted 4 short rows of collards.

Collards are sprouting in the first collard patch, Dilly’s collards.

9/30 Bought a pack of 6 broccoli plants (premium crop) and a pack of 4 broccoli plants (bountiful harvest’s “small miracle”). Only two of the Botanical Interests Broccoli De Cicco seeds I planted came up. So I planted the ten plants around those two seedling. I interspersed nasturtiams in the broccoli garden.

Mulched the beets, broccoli, cauliflower, sage and the two parsley plants.

Transplanted three mustard greens; one died.

10/1 planted about 6 more beet seeds to fill in the space between the beets and the broccoli.

in front garden, second collard garden is sprouting. Swiss chard sprouted several days ago

10/2 between kitchen and driveway planted a 3 foot row of French Breakfast Radishes (Seeds of Change) and three 5 foot rows of Purple-Top White Globe Turnips.

10/4 planted 4 rows of Royal Chantenay carrots (about 4 feet long; botanical interests) and 2 rows of cherry belle radishes in back yard, partial shade, on the other side of the strawberries

planted dill (botantical interests) next to established lemon balm, by the kitchen window. Broadcasted dills seeds on surface of soil, sprinkled a light dusting of mulch on top of seeds. Closer to the driveway planted some santo cilantro (botantical interests)

mulched established peppers and eggplants on the east side of the house, south of the kitched garden.

10/7 nasturtiums (one at least) and side garden radishes are coming up