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!