June 6, 2009

Ah, time sure flies.  It seems like just yesterday my youngest was born, and now he turned three last week, and we've been celebrating ever since.  Good times.

Still, gardening has been done, and I've tried to take pics of whatever I did to share.  Mostly I've watered, especially the tomatoes.  They're drinking tons in this warm weather.  I am guessing a gallon a day is being wicked up into the growing chamber.  And they're nowhere near as big as they're going to get.  Although the two bushy ones sure are huge in their own way.



I really need to take the time to prune the useless vines out to make room for sun to get into the middle of the plant.  I did that last year after researching it on the internet.  I think this year will be better as I'll do a better job of leaving shade for the tomatoes in the heat of the summer.

I also took some time to garden with my eldest.  He had his shovel out and wanted to dig.  So I gave him a kitty litter bucket and asked him to fill it with compost from the compost bin.  Then I used it to plant carrots in some blank spaces behind the yukon gold potatoes.



Shame is, about 24 hours after I planted the carrots, I realized I wanted to use those squares to plant summer lettuce so it would get shade from the potatoes and the garage that blocks the afternoon and evening sun.  Doh.

Oh, and I also took the time to re-seed last fall's carrot patch with more carrots.  I sure hope they grow a good succession crop in time to replant for fall.  No, I won't be using the same area, but I guess I mean I hope these mature before fall.  Not sure, it's a test.



Anyway, with the left over compost in the bucket, I used it to "hill" the yukon golds.  No, hilling is not needed for yukon golds, but they do need 6 inches of space to grow their potatoes.  I think I had it already from how deep I planted the seeds, but I wound the extra long sprouts pretty high in the hole, so I may not have enough space.  And since I have about 3 inches of settling of the Mel's Mix since I built the beds, I decided to use the left over compost to add some more soil around the stems.  Hopefully the nutrients combined with the added depth of soil will make for perfect growing conditions for tons of yukon gold potatoes.



If you can't tell from that pic, the potatoes have grown like gangbusters in this heat.  Take a look at the potato patch in bed #4 now.



Lastly, while I was in the planting mood. I replanted some stevia seeds in my pot.  None of the ones I planted last time germinated so this is probably the last attempt this season.  Actually, I'm a bit concerned that I may have planted marigolds instead of stevia.  The seeds were in a small manilla envelop inside the stevia package.  That and they looked like strips of paper rather than seeds, very much like marigold seeds.  Not sure what they'd be doing in the stevia package, or why I would no longer have any stevia seeds.  If I'm out I'm contacting Territorial Seed to complain that non of their seeds germinated.



Sorry for the blurry pic, I must have moved.  However, note that I've built up a pedistal of brickto make it on level with the 16 inch high beds.  That way it gets sun.

Hope you got out today to enjoy your garden!