Tomatoes!

Tomatoes are starting to ripen!

We picked our first tomatoes on Friday. So far, the plants are very healthy and the fruit is perfect! I believe I picked some Early Girl tomatoes and definitely some cherry variety but not sure which.

The squash plants are getting big now. The eggplants and peppers are growing fast and putting out fruit that is growing fast now.

We are in the middle of a heat wave here in Portland and I'm a big concerned about my very little starts, but so far they are doing alright.

To do in the garden for the next week/weekend:
-Finish filling the new raised beds with dirt (we have two new concrete lined ones IN the garden
-Plant the kale, chicory, lettuces, chard, brussel sprouts, etc the first week of August
-Harvest mulberries and figs and plums and save mulberries and figs for canning/jams
-Take stock of what we have and see if we can guess how much MORE we need (of Winter gardening plants!)

I think that is it! Oh, and of course harvest my perfect little eggplant!

Perfect Little Eggplant

Well, container planting seems to have been successful, as I have a perfect little eggplant outside! The pepper plant next to it has been demolished by slugs, and I am hoping my eggplant avoids this fate. It seems the eggplant plant out front though, is having some trouble, as it has yet to bear fruit. And this one is far bigger, so I thought it would bear some fruit before the others! Again, D was playing with the starts and they got all mixed up, labels falling off, so... I do not know the varieties of anything that is maturing in the yard. Note for next year: toddler-proof labels.

I will try to start putting up photos, starting with one of my perfect little eggplant!

Soil Testing!

We have various plots where things are grown, each with different types of soil and different nutrients being fed on a regular basis.

In the front boulevard, we have raised beds: two with humus brought in from Nature's Needs. this humus seems to be nutrient rich but is very dry and water absorption is an issue. The other two beds have soil from the old raised beds (topsoil and compost blend).

Inside the garden, we have the wheel area, which has clayey soils and soil that has been amended with compost/chicken manure. The two other beds IN the garden have the soil from the old beds. Also this area gets constant droppings from the huge fir tree, so the soil is more acidic.

Then, in the back, we have the random ground soil which seems to have a lot of sand to it; we also have potted vegetables out back.

SO: next year perhaps a soil test in various locations would be good. Perhaps some areas need more of something. It would be nice to even them all out some or see how different they are!

Catching Up and Fall Planting Notes

It's amazing what I can get done without D around. W and her went away for a few nights and I have been getting so much done in the yard. Funny, it doesn't look much different to the outside eye... but:

I took two hours today and pinned up all the tomato plant parts that were dragging on the ground. It's good to see we have various varieties going strong. Two hours, because we have 20 plants! What we lack in other vegetables this summer (due to my faulty planning), we make up for in tomatoes!

I finished filling the other two beds that we are trying to use for Fall / Winter planting. I planted many of the chicory, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage starts. I read up on Steve Solomon's advice for leeks and trimmed the stems. I thinned the carrots which seem not to be doing so well; I also thinned the beets and the cauliflower that I direct seeded.

I made a big batch of Steve Solomon's complete organic fertilizer in an old doughnut bucket. Why we have a doughnut bucket I do not know, but we do. I also spread some fertilizer around the plants.

I started lettuce seeds (again!). I have had such a problem with lettuce this year. I didn't plant enough in the Spring and then recently my starts fried out in their trays with the hot weather we suddenly had. So, all I can do is start again. Gardening I have found is all about "oh well, start again". It's hard for me to be ok with that kind of work, because I usually have a plan for anything I do, and then I execute the plan. Not so with living things! Sometimes they don't start when you want them to; sometimes you don't nurture them enough or realize they need some help.

I also started kale, chard, mustard greens, and some other things.

I am wondering about the number of plants I have and if I need more: cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts? I have no idea. One of the hardest things about year round gardening is that I have NO IDEA how many plants I need to feed us! Trial and error. It is only the first year of really trying this, so I must be patient.

It's been HOT HOT HOT here. It was 92 degrees yesterday and almost as hot today. I have been able to really water the plants alot, which has been good.

It seems that no matter what, any time I pick up Steve Solomon's book, I realize I am doing SOMETHING wrong. Very discouraging to say the least. Today I was reading about water. It was getting very very specific and I stopped reading. I got the point I needed to know - that lack of adequate watering leads to root stress, which leads to poor root development, which leads to plants not able to mature as they would. In general I think I water enough, but apparently with the ground wet 6-8 inches is not enough. I do know though that I have two problems:

I start sowing seeds about a week too late
I do not water well enough
We have different beds with different types of soil (amended differently), so what works for some does not for others and makes for difficult application of fertilizer, water, etc.

I think both of these things contribute to most of the problems I come up against. Those problems being mainly one: that plants don't mature to the point I think they should.

All in all, I spent about 10 hours between yesterday and today doing work in the garden (what I consider BASIC work that was in desperate need of doing). It's amazing how much more I could do, but I have other things to accomplish before my alone time is up!

More Winter Planting

Today I got quite a bit done - finished the other small beds out front. Now we have two 4x8 beds and two 3x3 beds. I also, much to my Dad's horror, made another bed out of chopped up concrete. I read extensively about concrete and whether or not it leaches chemicals into the soil, and came to the conclusion that it is not a concern. Apparently most of the chemical leaching is done when the cement itself is made (due to the heavy metals in the machines it is made in); the other time chemicals can leach out is when it is mixed for use. Once it solidifies and is formed, this no longer happens. At least that is what some scientific article all about cement and concrete said, somewhere on the web. I also consulted a few organic forums/resources and all agreed that it was not a concern to them. But my Dad's horror lies in the appearance. Apparently it's way to trashy for him. Well, it's free (since we already had it) and holds the dirt in.

I planted a million leeks. These were from a friend and they look strong. But she gave me hundreds it seems. Oh wait, I said millions. Well, a LOT. My own leeks are growing, but very slowly, and I'm hoping they will gain some speed. I also planted some chicory, collards, beets (yes more beets!), and cauliflower.

I've also decided to keep the "wheel" in the center of our garden as is. W and I are doing much rearranging in the garden, and had plans to break open the wheel of bricks and make more rectangular shapes at the top (better for laying out a vegetable design), but I decided that the wheel is very nice as is, and with all the extra beds we are making, I think using the wheel for things like pea and bean trellises and tomatoes and potatoes, even squash - that will make good use of it's circular shape.

We have already pulled several large ornaments/herbs that we had far too much of and were blocking space and sun. It's all in progress. Hopefully I can put up some photos someday.

We also had an arborist come by and give us an estimate on some pruning and removals. It wasn't as much as I expected and it's very exciting knowing that soon there will be MORE sunlight and happier fruit trees in the garden!

I also restarted my lettuce seeds after noticing some moldy seeds. Perhaps they were too moist, but I don't think I did anything differently this time. The rest of the starts are getting used to the cool Portland July nights in their little trays, soon to join the big kids in their open spaces.

Fall, Winter Planting

I have to have more faith in my seeds!

Some have germinated but the lettuce is dragging its feet. I know, 6 days often for lettuce, but I'm still antsy. I am also unsure if I've started enough. Spring planting was not enough. I should have done a second round two weeks later, but with the Fall I want it to be a success! I want to be sure there will be enough to last us through the winter. No matter what I do that will probably not be the case, but it's a goal.

So I'm waiting for the seeds...