May 1, 2009

Happy May Day.  Yes another year's gone by and I do think of May Day as a day about gardening, not the whole other thing, hehe.

Today was an even better day, a day much like San Diego is 24/7/365, you know 70 with a slight breeze.  When I got home the kids wanted to go out and play tag, and specifically didn't want to garden.  What that tells me is not so much that they won't be gardeners when they grow up, but that they're 5 and 2 right now and have been cooped up all winter inside, hehe.

So, after tons of running around and playing, I watered and took some pictures.  Mostly I wanted to get shots of the tomatoes prior to planting them out into their permanent SWC homes.  Here are some of the shots.



Notice how they're still drooping after two sunny and warm days?  What the heck are they thinking?  I know I'm not over watering, I only water every 3 days or so, and even then I probably don't soak it throughout the pot.  And I figure I'd know if I were under watering because they leaves would be curling (I've done that before).  Well, after pinging emails back and fourth with DoubleD/KitsapFG, we were at a loss, so I'm just going to plant them and expect the best. 



Of course when I plant them out I'll plant them as deep as possible in the growing chamber of the Self Watering Containers, but do I really want the tomatoes growing an inch or so off the plastic?  Look at those blooms near the tops of the plants, but the bottom once they're burried, hehe.

Anyway, while I was watering I noticed little tiny flies buzzing around the baby spinach.  LEAF MINERS!  Grrr.  I killed one, but after I watered I took the opportunity to spray them and other plants down with Spinosad.  It appears to be the same type thing as BT that EG uses so much.  Who knows, maybe it is the same thing just under a different name. 



I don't know if it will work on leaf miners, but it was worth a try.   We wash our greens before we make salads out of them anyway, so I'm not worried.  Here's to it working!

Lastly, while I was watering the greens, I noticed something growing in the middle of the mustard greens.  I have GOT to harvest them, they're getting so big I don't want them to be too big for salads, hehe.



It kind of looks like a broccoli head forming in the very middle.  I sure hope I didn't cook them into bolting so soon. It's very possible as they're under the hoop cover.  Next year I will make a note not to mix greens with early planted cukes.  One needs heat and the other can't stand it.  /sigh.

Well, tomorrow is an all-out day at the folks old house, but the weather's supposed to turn foul so I'm not too worried.  If the tomatoes don't get planted out until Sunday it won't be the end of the world.  It would do them good to be rained on.  You see, they've been outside 24 hours a day for the past three days.  They're no worse for wear as I see the temp outside is 55 degrees at 1 am, hehe.

I hope you have a great weekend.  Enjoy your garden!