I Have Straw in Places Where There Should Never Be!

Hello Gardening World!

The month of June has been pretty good for the gardens.  We have had a good amount of rain and my gardens have loved it.  Both plots are doing well.  I just pulled two more heads of lettuce out of the garden box, as well as some more Arugula.  I made a salad for Ms. 38th Street and I made completely from greens from the garden.  I love it!

I was gone for the weekend up in Angola, IN.  When I came back to check on the Broadway Community Garden on the yesterday, I was happy to see it was doing well.  I did have a fair amount of weeds, too, but I pulled most of them.  I slapped on some more straw, too.  I had straw EVERYWHERE.  I mean EVERYWHERE (You know what I'm sayin, but I'm not sayin.  Tryin to keep this puppy clean, you know).

 

The tomato jungle is starting to form.  I always put those darn plants too close together.  Oh well, I'll hope for the best.  Man, I love the way the tomato plants smell after you brush up against them!

 

Hey!  Check out the corn!  I'm really liking the way this is looking.  It's around 4ft tall!

 

I have my mish-mosh of vines on the trellis.  They are going up!  That's great considering how this section started.  I have the one Cucumber, one Cantaloupe, one Sugar Baby Watermelon. 

 

I added the Marigolds for a little decoration and a little protection.  We'll see if they help.  Most of the flowers are looking good, though.

 

The Spanish Onions are doing OK.  I was a little skeptical about buying these transplants.  So far, so good!

 

  SIDE NOTE

 I found these trellis ideas I want to share with the people, el gente.  Ms. 38th Street might have given this to me, actually.  Either way, I think these are great ideas.  I also saw a good trellis idea from Skippy's Vegetable Garden blog.  I don't know if I should swipe a photo from her blog to show you, so maybe you should just check it out.  It's a great blog.  She is trellising her tomatoes.

 OK, maybe I should get to work.  Slow day today, though.  One of those days when you're just waiting for people to get back to you so you can move along.

Adios! 

38th Street Gardener is OUT!

Can I Get a Bag of Lettuce on 38th Street? Yes, You Can!

Hey, Hey,

I pulled two heads of lettuce out of the garden box this morning.  One of the Mantilia, and one of the Merveille Des Quatre Saisons.  I haven't tried them yet, but they are all clean and ready to go.  Thank you Salad Spinner!

I have already pulled out the Arugula and that turned out great.  I just can't keep up with it.  I have some that have bolted.  I might have planted too much of that.  The Tatsoi that I planted, which I haven't tried yet, has been totally devoured.  So, it looks like I won't be trying that this year.  The Spinach is not doing well.  It has been partially eaten and just not very big.  Oh, and the squirrels destroyed some of it.  The squirrels were lucky, though.  They got in the garden when Chui was napping.  He's really good at napping.

38th Street Gardener.  Back to work!

Work Day at the Community Garden

Hello Broadway Street!

I had my first group meeting with the members of the Broadway Community Garden.  It was pretty much a maintenance day.  Weed and cover the path, clean up your plots and clean up the remaining unclaimed plots.  There were 6 of us there this meeting.  The Organizer, Sarah, gave us some direction, dropped off a few waters and some donuts and she was off.  So, the rest of us got down to it and knocked it out.  Rachel, Josh, Isaac, and Angela are my gardener community.  Everyone was cool and not afraid of some work.

Side Note:  Sarah was pointing out who had what plot and she said some nice things about my plot.  I believe she said "beautiful."  Why thank you.  Ego boost! 

The Path got knocked, as you can see.  That's a lot of cardboard and wood chips, everyone.

After all the community stuff was finished.  I back to garden business.  The garden had a few casualties.  Only one of the four Cucumbers I planted lived.  So, I bought a Cantaloupe plant and put it in between the Cucumber and the Watermelon (I have a problem this time of year. I can't stop buying plants!).  Then I added the trellis for the bunch to grow up.

Hey, look at that Corn!  This the first time I've attempted Corn and they are looking great!  I'm excited about this.  The Corn smells awesome.

What's that saying?  Knee high by the 4th of July?  Well, we're looking good, 38th Street.

The Tomatoes are looking fine.  Once the hot weather starts, they should all pick up the pace.  We got to Mexi this joint up!  I need my tomatoes!

Here's the whole schabang.  Pretty nice.  I need to add a little more straw.  I have a few bare spots.  Those darn weeds kept on coming. 

 Well it getting late, just like every time I write.  I need to get my ass to bed and dream of tomatoes, corn, peppers and melons, and Miss 38th Street's melons.  Ha, Ha!  Just kidding!  Kinda.

38th Street OUT!

I Don't Garden Naked

June 1st!

Summer is moving right along.  I paid my weekly visit to my community garden plot at the Broadway Community Garden.  It is weed city over there!  Every time I go over there, it looks like I never weeded.

Today I hit Lowe's and Habig's to get some garden supplies.  I picked up some Garden Tone, a bottle of fish fertilizer, a couple bamboo stakes and some straw.  I did my weekly weeding then gave every plant a side dressing of Garden Tone.  They need watered so that fertilizer can take effect.  It better rain soon.

Then I covered the entire garden with straw to do two things:  keep the weeds down and keep the moisture in the bed.  Lastly, I put tomato cages and stakes around as many of the tomatoes I could.  I lost track of how many tomatoes I have.  Whoops.  Maybe I should take inventory, huh?  But hey, look at these lovely pics!

I tell you what, with planning a wedding, mixed with my full work schedule and the normal life stuff, I haven't been as attentive to the garden as I normally am.  Plus, I do have the garden box here at the house.  It's doing ok.  I got about 10 good Radishes.  They were nice in our salads.  The Arugula is bolting.  I thought it would have been bigger, but this is the first time I've grown them.

Well, that's it for now.  Man, I can't wait till I can eat some tomatoes and peppers from the garden!  And yes, it's true.  I do not garden naked.  That sounds like a terrible idea.  I think my friend Leah told me there was a national naked gardening day.  This will not be happening on 38th Street or any other street for that matter!  Unless I'm reeeeeaaaalllly drunk and decide it's a great idea to go work in the garden.  Oh please, let Miss 38th Street stop that before it happens.

38th Street Gardener.  Out.

Garden Edit

Hello All,

I had to do a little garden edit yesterday.  The Broadway Community Garden plot I have is a weed haven!  Holy cow, there are weeds everywhere.  I've been checking on it once a week.  I went to check on the seeds I planted again and most were overrun by weeds. 

The corn was the lone bright spot.  They are doing well for the most part.  I do have tomato seedlings now, but they are not impressive.  I'm sticking with them and I'll do my best to keep them growing.  All the peppers were lost.  The weeds were so thick, I couldn't tell what was what and I'm pretty sure I accidentally pulled a couple of them.  So no Jalapenos, no Mini Red and Chocolate Bell Peppers. The Sugar Baby and Midget Melons were all lost save two seedlings.  One is doing OK, and one is barely hanging on.  The chives were duds.  Nothing from them. 

I then went to Sullivan's and picked up a flat of various seedlings.  I picked up some Roma Tomatoes, Jalapenos, Yellow and Red Bell Peppers, Cayenne Peppers, Spanish Yellow Onions, Cucumbers and more Marigolds.  I plopped them in where I could.  The plot LOOKS better now.  We'll see if these little guys take off.  I did hit everything with a little more worm castings.  I put some around each base and hit it with some water.  It did rain last night, as well. 

I also had a few pots that didn't have any sprouts.  I had to replace one of the Orange Thai Pepper, the Mini Red Bell Pepper and the Eva Purple Tomato.  Now I have a Cayenne Pepper, a Chocolate Beauty Bell Pepper (I better not mention that to my neighbors.  They might think I'm racist!) and a Roma Tomato, respectively.  I have some left over seedlings if anyone wants any.  I have six. 

Sorry, no pictures this time.  I was rushing around trying to get all this done, I forgot to take some pics!  Which sucks, because I really like pictures.  Oh well.  Next time.  Speaking of next time, have a good weekend!

38th Street Gardener

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