Branching Out

Greetings!

It is finally getting nice out!  I have radishes growing rapidly in the garden box and some other greens sprouting!  It's great!

This year, I have decided to join a community garden.  I found one not too far from our house.  It's the Broadway Community Garden.  It's near the Double 8 grocery store on Fairfield Ave, if you know the hood.

They do have one more plot available, if anyone is interested.  The plot I picked out is the biggest one, I think.  It's over 20ft long and 3ft wide.  When I arrived, it was completely weeded over, big time.  Here's a pic of it when I got started. 

I did clear part of it before I took this picture.  I had to clear the plot and the walk ways. Part of the deal is that you need to upkeep your garden plot.  That means keep your garden and walkways weeded, and trash and debris removed.  They provide compost for your bed and mulch for your walkways.  The provided tools, but I had brought my own.  They provide water, but the hose was gone, so no water today.  I'll have to look into that one.  Miss 38th Street helped me bring a container of water over to water the new seeds. 

So, 5 hours later and a tuckered out 38th Street Gardener, we have this: 



I kept with the square foot style garden.  It looks nice now, huh?  I did all seeds for this bed.  Here's the rundown:

Golden Midget Watermelons
Sugar Baby Watermelons
Sweet Corn (variety unknown)
Black Krim Tomatoes
Eva Purple Tomatoes
Blondekopfchen Tomatoes
Jalapenos
Chives
Miniature Red and Chocolate Bell Peppers

I might have went a little nuts on the watermelons.  You know guys and their obsession with melons! Sooooooo...  I'm gonna put up some trellises for the melon vines to grow up.  I'll probably need to make a couple more trellises, though.  I put about a tablespoon of worm castings in each seed hole.  I hope that speeds up germination.  I'll probably have to stop by and water these seeds again today or tomorrow.  I think I'll stop by and pick up some Merrygolds for the perimeter of my plot.  Wish me luck!

The Update on the 38th Street Garden
I have the second round of greens seeds in the garden box, as of two weekend ago.  This comes two weeks after the first round.  That same weekend, I also planted tomatoes and peppers in pots which are placed around the property, which are sure to bother Miss 38th Street at some point (Sorry, Babe!  I have a gardening problem!).  And just like the years before, those damn squirrels are destroying my garden box and the POTS!!!  If there are any squirrels reading this blog, YOU BETTER WATCH FUZZY LITTLE BEHIND BECAUSE IT'S ABOUT TO GET REAL 38TH STREET IN HERE!!!  Keep it up and you're going to be a snack for Chui!!!

OH, he's ferocious!

Ok. Update complete.

38th Street Gardener

The Garden Will Be Filled with Greens!

Happy Sunday!

Today was a fantastic day in Indy!  It was warm and sunny and around 70, I believe.  Actually, Saturday was that way, too!  

Today, I really got a boost of the gardening itch.  I have to be honest, I haven't been feeling the gardening love this year, but today, I felt it.  It was good.  We had a walk with the dogs, a bike ride up to Broad Ripple, and a couple Bloody Mary's and lunch.  Great start, hun?  I know.  

Did I mention Saturday?  Ok, Saturday, I cleaned up the garden box and the front yard.  Looks a little more presentable now.  I put four bags of organic garden soil in the garden box.  Trimmed some bushes, flowers and shrubs and put the trimmings in the compost box.  Did a lot of raking.  I wasn't feeling the best, so I took it slow.  It was still nice to be outdoors and in the sun.  It really felt like spring!

Sunday, we got down to some gardening!  We got some seeds planted in a few different places.  We had some left over seeds from last year, so I got some of those in the ground.  We had a little patch were we planted garlic last year, but can't do that this year.  So we had some left over Columbines and Bee Balm flowers which we mixed up and spread.  We hit is with some worm castings and a drink, and hope for the best.

We also got the garden box started.  Since our moving date is TBD, the garden is will be filled with the quick growing greens, and some radishes.  I bought all the seeds from the Seed Savers Exchanging this year, by the way.  Anyway, we're staggering the seeding.  That being said, we planted the following greens:  Mantilia, New Zealand Spinach, Merveille Des Quatre Saisons, Arugula, Tatsoi, plus the aforementioned radishes.  All these should be ready to go in a month or two.  We plan on planting them every two weeks.  We'll hope for the best!  

I have a bit of a bad back I've been dealing with lately, so I'm trying to take this gardening slow and easy.  Lift with the legs.  Bend over with your knees first.  Drink plenty of water.  Take some breaks.  Get your hand out of your pants.  I don't know if that's totally necessary in gardening, but it's advice I seem to receive often, so I think it's a good rule of thumb.  Well, I guess I'm not too good at following that last one, but we'll hope for the best.  

Ok, time for bed.  That's my garden update from this first weekend of April, 2013.  I hope you're garden is off to a great start!

Have a good night and remember to brush your teeth!  Wash your hands!  I know I will.

Rafael

First Blog of the Year!

Happy New Year!

Belated.

Hello All.  This is the first blog of the year.  I've been stalling on this blog because I really am not sure where our garden will be.  We're still not sure, but I'm starting the blog anyway.  I've waited too long!

This year will be a weird year for us for the gardening season.  The house is on the market and we hope we sell it this year.  If we do, we'll move to a more friendly location for us.  Something a little more comfortable in many regards.  Until that happens, we'll keep on trucking off 38th Street.  I mentioned this in the last blog of the year last year.

The plan this year is to have a lot of containers for a select few veggies and reserve the garden box for quick growing plants like greens and radishes.  I am also trying to secure a plot in a nearby community garden.  I'm eyeing a spot about 7 blocks away from us.  That way, if we move, I'll have a guaranteed for some veggies.  

I've ordered our seeds from Seed Savers Exchange this year.  Last year we used Johnny's Seeds, which were good, and Nature's Crossroads, which sucked, unfortunately.  One of our friends, Brooke Schafer, and some members of the Indiana Organic Gardeners Association told me about the SSE.  They're very cool company.  I'm giving them a try this year.  I mainly ordered greens this year since they grow pretty quickly and we just like greens.  So greens will be the main crop in the garden box this year.  I hope we can be around long enough to harvest most of the crop.  I have ordered some tomatoes, peppers and herbs for the containers.  If we move, at least we'll have a chance for some veggies that we planted.

Here's the inventory thus far for the 2013 garden:
Greens
Mantilia
Tatsoi
Merveille Des Quatre Saisons
Arugula
New Zealand Spinach

Veggies
Scarlet Nantes Carrots
Eva Purple Ball Tomatoes
Black Krim Tomatoes
Blondkopfchen Tomatoes
Miniature Chocolate Bell Peppers
Miniature Red Bell Peppers
Jalapenos, Traveler Strain
Orange Thai Peppers
Plum Purple Radishes
Chives

Most of these items we have never tried before.  The Seed Savers Exchange had a very good variety.  There are a lot of plants I've never heard of before and we're happy to try.  If you get a chance, check out their catalog.  I'll have to add them to the side bar in my links section.

I hope everyone is ready about this year's gardening season!  And wish me luck keeping this cute little garden wrecker out of the garden box.

38th Street Gardener out.

End of Summer and My Garden

Hello All,

I have not blogged too much this year due to long hours at work and the lack of production from the garden.  I have to agree with Lynne Sullivan, the Indiana Organic Gardeners Assn. President, when she wrote in this quarter's newsletter, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad that Summer is over!"   Man, what a dissappointing season!  Everything started so well, too.

Anyway, I cleaned out the garden last weekend.  Funny thing is, the tomatoes plantes looked great and were starting to have little tomatoes everywhere.  Same thing with my tomatillo plants.  Too little, too late, though.  I have emptied the rain barrel but I still need to winterize it.  I also emptied all of the plants in the containers, and stored both trellises that I used for cucumber and sugar baby watermelon plants.  I'm still deciding on what to do with the garden box.  You see, Miss 38th Street and I could be in a transition in the next three to six months.  The house is for sale and we're determined to be out of the house soon.  We'll hope for the best!  So, I don't want to spend a lot of time and money in the garden, yet.  Ahh!  I might have to change the name of my blog!  Who knows, I might not be an urban gardener anymore.  We could be out in the country.  We could be 20 or 30 blocks north of here.  We'll see.  Either way, we will continue to garden and I will continue the garden blog.

Speaking of gardening blogs, check this one out!    Skippy's Vegetable Garden   I really like her blog.  It's wonderful.  I've got to step up this blog, and the GARDEN so I can class this joint up!

The recap of this year's 38th Street Garden is this; the gardening season started out great, summer was brutal and not a lot to show for all the hard work and money we put into the ol' garden.
My seedling operation, which I stepped up this year, went well.  I had a lot of seedlings.  Too many, really.  I gave a lot away.  My greens and radishes were fantastic!  They were successful early.  I transplanted my seedlings successfully.  I have only a few plants die or I had to remove.  Then Summer, as we all know, was too hot!  I had only a handfull of tomatoes from 10 tomato plants.  Sad.  Even the cherry tomato plant, which are pretty prolific, gave me very little.  No tomatillos, no green beans, very few peppers of any variety.  I did get some cucumbers.  They did ok.  Not as good as last year, but decent.  I got two watermelons, which was the same as last year.  The herbs were fine.  I love fresh basil and mint.  Oh, the garlic was pretty awesome, I have to say.  I got twelve good bulbs.  I think I will plant these again.

I won't have much to write about for a bit, but I think I'll have to post some ideas and options for the 2013 garden.  I have no idea where that garden will be located, but it will be fun regardless.

I hope everyone had a good garden and enjoyed the experience this year.  Till next time!

Rafael

Long Over Due Post

Hello,

It's been a really long while since my last post.  Simply put, I work too much.  Anyway, the update on the garden is...  eh.  As a whole the garden is not doing well.  Everything is pretty much surviving, but that's it.  I think my basic problem is my soil is not good enough.  It just doesn't have the good organic goodies everything needs.  I've picked up the fertilizing.  I'm using mainly water soluble fertilizer.  I'm using a 2-2-2 fish fertilizer which i'm spraying on the plants' underside in the evenings or mornings, Botanicare Pure Blend 1-0.5-1 organic compost solution on the plants, and Organicare Humega soil conditioner.  I picked most of this stuff at Worms Way around Bloomington.  Man, that store overwhelmed me!  Cool store, though.

The veggie rundown:

Very few tomatoes this year.  Much like last year, actually.  The difference from this years' to last years' tomatoes it that this year, I have no blooms.  Last year I had lots of blooms, but they didn't turn to fruit.

Peppers are fairly non-existant.  I have one Aji Limon Pepper in a pot that's doing fine.  That's it.  No Green Peppers, no Serranos and the Scotch Bonnet Pepper I thought I ordered wasn't a Scotch Bonnet!  It was a Cherry Pepper.  No biggie, other than I only had one that survived.

The cucumber variety that I planted this year is ok.  Miss 38th Street doesn't really care for it and I'm not too fond of it either, yet.  We've only had a couple.  Boo!  Cucumbers are one of my favorites!

Green Beans.  I got eight.  Eight!  All of the beans were eventually reduced to skeletons and died.  I'm sure a little yellow beetle with four black spots on its back is to blame, but I can't prove it.

I already told you about the Blueberry situation.  None.

Carrots I'm not sure about.  They're still growing, so that's good.

Sugar Baby Watermelons are not giving me much.  I have one melon per plant.  Just like last year.  One day, I will have these watermelons figured out.

The Tomatillos are just starting to fruit.  It took a while, but they are finally coming around.  The plants are getting huge.  I need a picture of the biggest one.  The bees like it, too!

Now, the garlic, which we harvested in June, then let cure for a couple weeks, is pretty awesome.  They are potent!  Very happy with the garlic.


Yesterday, I added some homemade compost, Garden Tone and some Fish Meal to the garden's vacant areas.  I watered it and let it marinate for a day.  Today I planted some more greens for a fall crop.  I think I'll get a fall crop because the all greens did well this year.  I planted Baby Spinach, Red Winter Kale, and Baby Leaf Lettuce (Heirloom Mix).  I planted them where I could.  They're kinda scattered, but it's cool.  Wish me luck!

No picture today.  I'll have more for the next post.

Good luck in the garden!

Good night, everyone!

Thinking Ahead

Happy July 6th!

I hope everyone is enjoying sweating their behinds off as this heatwave rolls on.  Right now, I look outside and I start sweating!  Hopefully, this heatwave will break this weekend.  

I started thinking ahead this week about canning the future bounty from the garden and about starting a fall crop.  I have not done either of these.  I want to try both, if I can afford it.  I definitely want to get the canning operation going.  Hey, I've come this far, I might as well do everything associated with home garden, right?  Right.  I am optimistic that I'll get a lot of tomatoes and tomatillos this year.  I can makes some sauces, some salsas and whatever else I can think of.  

I started looking at canning options today.  We have the boiling water bath method and the pressure canning method.  I'm trying to keep this operation real, so I'm going for the pressure canning method.  I like to have as many options as possible and the pressure canning method looks to let me can just about anything I would want.  Pressure canning is all about killing the Clostridium Botulinum microorganism, which is the bad guy responsible for spoiling low-acidic foods.  You'll have to research the list of foods that are low-acidic on your own.  There is a brief article about canning one the American Seed Alliance site.  Anyway, it looks like I'm going have to drop about $150 to get this started.  I think I can swing that.  If anyone has any opinions or suggestion on the canning topic, I would love to hear anything you have to say.  I love advice!  

I also started looking into cold frames.  I don't know if this is doable where I'm at, but I'm going to investigate.  I was telling Miss 38th Street I was interested in doing the a cold frame this year.  It depends on getting some scrap wood and an old window, as well as finding a good spot on the property that Miss 38th Street approves of.  Or I could just put it in and ask for forgiveness later? (lets see if she reads this post).  I found this link about cold frames today.  Very Nice.  It's from the University of Missouri so I'm giving it a read.  I also speaks about hotbeds, which are heated cold frames.  I'll stick to the cold frames, for now.

On a sad note, my six blueberry bushes, which were doing well this year, are not going to give me what I wanted.  Mainly because the BIRDS ATE ALL THE BLUEBERRIES OF THE BUSHES!!!  Ahhh!  They were looking so good, too.  I have 3 Jersey Blueberries, 2 Elliot Blueberries and 1 Blu Ray Blueberry bushes.  Well, next year, I'm putting a net about the bushes.  Because next year, I'm going to have this:

OK, if anyone has any advice or stories about these subjects, I would love to hear them.


Stay cool!


Seriously, stay cool.  It's hot outside.  Margaritas help.


38th Street!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

No personal firework display this year.  Banned in our county.  Too dry.  I have a feeling that this heat will be the norm from now on.  Anyway...

I pulled the Garlic yesterday.  It had went to seed, but I waited until there were only 5 to 6 green leaves.  I've heard a couple different things about harvesting Garlic, so I'll just try this first and see what happens.  Miss 38th Street is braiding the Garlic now, which I think is pretty cool.  Funny thing is, I planted the Garlic upside down.  So, all the garlic plants look like a "J" when I pulled them up.   Chui is assisting in the Garlic clean up.

Luckily, Mimi is not interested in the Garlic.  She just wants to play with the frisbee.  She's a little hot, so back in the AC for her.

I did have one garden casualty today.  I had to pull up the Roma Tomato plant out of the garden box.  It was diseased.  It was wilting and all of the green fruit had black bottoms.  It's out.  I might have to pull out one more.  We'll see.

Everybody stay cool today!

We're off to downtown for some fireworks.