Weeding, seeding, and the view from the air!

With the weather finally warm enough to set things out (that have of course been properly hardened off), I decided to hurry up and get some stuff in the ground before I whisk off to California for a few days.

That required some heavy-duty weeding action first.  I probably weeded for a solid hour, and it still needs work, but I don't feel bad showing pictures now.

First thing - and no weeding required - the strawberries are starting to poke their heads out.  I'm not sure if I'll actually get fruit this year - but I'm optimistic.

All of my brussels but two disappeared - I'm not really sure where they went...and the two that are still there are pretty pitiful looking.  So I caved in and got some young plants the other day.  C. really likes brussels, so I really want to have some to feed her at some point before the frost. ;)

I also got some of my seedlings for the three-sisters area put into the ground - three of the corn stalks are big enough and two of the luffa plants:

(there are peas seeded in between the corn stalks - so as the corn grows, the peas will vine right up it (in theory))

And then, of course, the luffa will get big and sprawly and keep the weeds out of the corn/peas' roots.  If I were doing it right, I apparently would have put dead fish in both of these mounds, but...I didn't.

I also put the big-enough-cuke plant in.  It's a little shocked from transplant, but it'll perk up in a few hours:

In a few weeks, you won't recognize it, it'll be climbing up its trellis like crazy.

Here's a shot through the cuke trellis - I won't be able to do this for very much longer:

You can see that I still need to weed more, but there are chard, beets, carrots, spinach, some lettuces, broccoli, garlic, basil, onions and tomatoes out there.  The other day I seeded in my Paris Market Carrots (by the tomato plants) and some Lisbon Bunching Onions as well - they'll be poking their heads out soon.

And last, the view from the air.  It's been really weird to work around my landlady's trees.  Some of them desperately need to be pruned and I might help her out with that a little while she's in Italy.  The shadiest part of the garden has the greens, beets, and carrots in it.  The next sunniest has the tomato patch (with more carrots, onions, and basil) and soon will have pumpkins.  The sunny side will have the melon patch - and you can see the circular places where the mounds for the three-sisters area are being put in place. 

Intercropping - Carrots Love Tomatoes!

I've been reading the book Carrots Love Tomaotes by the late Louise Riotte - its a great book on companion planting and also a really helpful general garden reference.  Most people know that marigolds (as I overheard at the garden center yesterday) - "keep something bad away from your tomatoes...or something."  But most people don't know that there are plenty of other plants that will protect each other - for example mint planted among cabbage will repel the cabbage butterfly, cucumbers "are offensive to raccoons" so are good to plant with corn to keep them away and corn seems to protect cucumbers from wilt, if you plant garlic in a circle around fruit trees it will protect them from borers.  Did you know any of that?  I didn't.  The book is an excellent reference and her writing style is old-fashioned but cheeky.  This book should be on any gardener's shelf.
 
So, with Louise as my guide, I'm trying to do a little more intercropping than I have in the past - while some parts of my garden are just rows of stuff (with consideration about what is to each side), others are (or are going to be) more of a blend.  The three-sisters area (which I'm repeating from last year) is an example of this, but this year I'm doing a different take on a tomato patch.

I had just watered it before this picture was taken, so it gives a better visual.  To break it down - there's a big square, segmented into 4 smaller squares. The big square is marigolds around the border (I just put some full grown ones in as markers, but there are others seeded along  the sides) and also intersecting the large square and basil at every corner and at the intersection in the middle.  Each smaller square will be a tomato plant in the center, an onion at each corner, and one or two Paris Market carrots (I've just ordered them from Seed Savers (dot) org) at the North/South/East/West points on the smaller squares.

This is what a Paris Market carrot looks like:

Isn't that fun?  I'm so excited about them.

These are some of my more-developed seedlings having some outside time.  Three corn plants and two luffas (which are for the aforementioned 3-sisters area), a cucumber, an eggplant, and two tomato plants.

I'm sure that my neighbors will be happy when this is gone.  There are a few bigger (purchased - I'm impatient) tomato plants, a stevia, some extra basil and some trays of corn, watermelon, jenny lind melon, and pumpkin seeds that just went in yesterday.  On the sides are pots of morning glory that are staying there and hopefully swallowing up the railing.

And speaking of things that I impulsively bought at the garden center yesterday - lime tree!  With limes!  Anyone have a good name for a lime tree?

Out in the garden-proper - the broccoli is starting to make food!

The lettuce is starting to look like salad!

Beets are really starting to do their thing!

And it won't be long before my Titans will be knee-high!

Shots from a double barrel.

Over the Winter, my rain barrel was neglected and wound up damaged.  I rescued it and then rebuilt it - bigger, bolder, waterier.  As I am not a plumber, there was much to be learned about hosing and connections....caulk, PVC glue, some other stuff.  The guy at the home depot gave me a few pieces that you can't buy individually as they are part of weird kits like a water heater draining kit.  Exciting!

I also had to patch a sizable hole where the original water-spout came out...which involved two chinese-takeout-soup-lids, some pvc glue and some caulk.  I did a pretty good job, but it has a tiny drippy leak there.  It still holds water really well, although if it ever winds up empty again, I'll recaulk it and see if I can't get it to stop.

This is after I finished it - pre-rain.  I still need to patch the old lid and cut the new one.  I want to make sure that mosquitos have a hard time.  I've also just read that garlic oil kills mosquito larvae, so I'm thinking I might press a couple of cloves of garlic into them every now and then to try to stave off the little bugs.  Maybe it'll work?

I use a cut off OJ container for drip-catching - it gets to be about 1/3 full on dry days and I just dump it on a nearby morning glory while I'm filling the big can from the spout.

Gertie, however, decided that it was nicer to drink drips than her sink water and got her head stuck in it last week:

What a goon!

In other news:  Cherry Blossoms and Solar-Powered Lanterns are go:

The big one doesn't get as much sun on the sensor as the little ones do, so it goes out by around 10 or 11, but the little ones stay lit most of the night.  I also have some free-standing solar path lights scattered around.  I feel good about the ambiance... :)

Just so there are some plant pics in the mix:

My luffa has sprouted.  This is actually about a week old, so it has a full set of secondary leaves now.  I so hope that they're productive.  I want to make some luffa soap slices with herbs from the garden and my little gourds.

My lettuce continues to be adorable.

My spinach on the other hand is bolting already.  :(  I'm thinking of ordering a different variety for my succession plantings becuase these have dissapointed me the last two years in a row.