I got home and checked my compost temp. It's ready to be mixed but I just ran out of time and didn't want my youngest involved. There's always this weekend for that. A few days rest won't kill it. But while I was pushing my son on the swing, I was watching and listening to the happy bumble bees on my favorite rhodie. I tried to get a shot of the bees, but I couldn't do it. Besides, for as much as I love them for what they do, they scare me, both for me and my kids. Anyway, I just want to share the beautiful color of these...
And a close-up...
Also, while I was out there I watered the potato bins, and what did I find? That after I panicked and burried them the other day they've grown tons since then...
So, after watering the garden with my son, I took him and came back out and cut more boards. A half-hour later and presto...
Unfortunately I underestimated the amount of Mel's Mix these bins can hold. Out of a half a yard of left over mix, I'm down to half a bag. I don't think I have enough to bury both bins. I may have enough to mound them again, but that's for tomorrow... hmm I think I just added something to my to-do list.
But before I end with my to-do list, I took some pictures from the garden. First off, I only shared three of the four beds yesterday. Here's my fully planted corn bed. You can't see all the new sprouts, but with the better weather the germinated seeds have been sprouting more and more every day! I love coming home and checking out what's grown since the day before.
Notice how the right side of the bed is the last planted... that's because it gets the most sun, so I wanted the "back" corn to be taller than the "front" so they get equal sun. The Seneca Horizon at the top is outpacing the Precocious. If it tastes good it's coming back and I'll try another variety next year. Gardening is a learning process that never ends.
Next I want to share a little more about the plant that towers over everything but the tomatoes. My prize cauliflower. At least it's supposed to be caulflower. Look how tall it is. The leaves are 1 SF individually!
See how it shades surrounding squares? I wouldn't mind so much but there's no sign of a caulflower growing inside. If only the leaves were edible I'd be able to feed an army! Take a look inside the center and tell me if you see anything resembling a cauliflower? hehe
Errr What's up doc? hehe Here are my carrots. They're probably getting much bigger underground right now. No clue when to pull them, but I'll try one soon I think...
Last picture. I took a close up of my spinach to show folks the white on the leaves. It's on random leaves and doesn't taste bad (I ate some small spots on accident). Is it safe, is it bad, treatable? What? hehe. Sorry for the water, I decided to take pics right after watering.
Before I tackle my to-do list, I read in the Edibles column in the Seattle P-I today about apple trees. Since I've got a new one I wanted to learn. It talked about clusters of apples from the blossoms and how you should thin them down to 2 or 3 per cluster to insure branches don't break and to encourage size, color and texture of the apples. When I got home I glanced at the tree and sure enough, the shriveled blossoms are getting fat, I think they're going to be tons of apples. However, if I've got to put nylon booties over tiny apple buds, that'd be insane, hehe.
Ok, my to-do list on the fly...
- Mow.
- Turn the compost bin.
- Add dirt to the potato bins.
- Make more Mel's Mix.
- Gut my greens for a monster salad for our party this weekend.
I'll add more if I think of it.
Enjoy your garden!
those carrots (and everything else!) look awesome - do you use any fertilizers? My garden is growing so slowly I'm thinking of getting some fertilizer for it.
ReplyDeletethanx for the tomato bin suggestion, will check it out :)
I have some Lilly Miller all-purpose veggie and tomato fertilizer, I think it's 5-10-10. I threw some down in the area of bed #2 that I planted succession lettuce, but the only other place I used it was as Judy instructed in the SWC. I did sort of fertilize by mixing in Starbuck's coffee grounds into the top 6 inches a month before planting. Oh, and I have some acid loving fertilizer that I used for my blueberries and potatoes once.
ReplyDeleteSince everything's going well I doubt I'll use any more fertilzer... other than urea for my corn when the stalks are 1 foot high.
The white patches on your spinach leaves looks to me like leaf miners. These are little fly maggots that make a living eating and tunneling thru the mid layers of the leaves. They are bad news. To check for sure, cut off an entire white area, and carefully, maybe with tweezers, see if you can separate the top and bottom layers of leaf in the white area. If so, look in there carefully for one or more small maggots.
ReplyDeletePull your carrots when you see a little orange poking up out of the soil. Great site!
ReplyDelete