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!

Marching toward April

So big news is that my landlady just gave me 80% of what used to be her garden.  She's 85 and going to be away fron mid-June to mid-August.  Apparently her grown sons lived with her for a while in the 90s and made it into a vegetable garden but she's just been doing tomatoes and flowers for a while now.  The soil needs help - I just started in with some manure and am using my coffee-grounds hookups to get myself premium nitrogen input (I've got a bag that will go in as soon as it cools off).  I'm hoping the poo and coffee combo will get this ground back into shape.

To start, some inside seed-bits all cloched up and waiting:

I've got tomatoes, brussels, eggplants, and onions in so far.

Brussels (Long Island Improved, for the record) getting their secondary leaves!

These guys just sprouted today! (they were definitely right on the edge yesterday) they're about to get moved into a brighter spot.

Basils and a Rosemary in the kitchen.

Peony a-comin' - I'm thinking about moving this inside over the weekend...it's supposed to snow, although I've seen plenty of other in-ground peonies coming up in the neighborhood, I worry about my babies.

Spinach Babies!

Chard babies!

New garden spot!  Colleen and I turned the soil at the back part already and you can see the dark area that I've amended.  The trashbag in the right corner is coffee grounds that I'm going to do another amendment with...and probably mulch a little high around the garlic sprouts in preparation for tonight's snow.  They're supposed to be planted out before the frost, but I still worry about them.

Composter all nestled in the shrub line.  You can also see the wire fence that I'm going to use as a trellis for my gherkins.

Light sprinkling of poo.  I have 3 more bags in the car.

Garlic I transplanted yesterday...not terribly gracefully, I must say.

Garden watchers.  I want two others.  I have to find my goose...so maybe I only want one more.

 

 Dirty Garden Sketch.  Really the best kind of map.  It's about 11' by 18' (not totally regular and punctuated by random tiny trees that may or may not do anything).  Starting upper left and moving clockwise there's a watermelon patch, 4 tomatoes and 2 eggplants surrounded by frilly borders of marigolds, the next rectangle is the partly amended part - garlic, bollyhocks and brussels sprouts, lettuce, spinach, onions, carrots, beets, and chard in rows followed by two cuke plants on the trellis fence.  In the upper right is the composter that I plan to partly screen with dwarf sunflowers. The rectangle full of circles is my three sisters area that will be corn, snap peas, and then two mounds of Jenny Lind Melon and three mounds of Luffa.  Next is a spot that I'm going to put two seed bombs that I have no idea what's in them, and then last (beyond the drain pipe) is the pumpkin patch.  There's going to be a row of nasturtiums between the watermelon and the pumpkin.  There's also going to be a row of Titan sunflowers behind the three sisters.

Closure.

Last year's garden ended in me having to leave it. I have no idea how/if the harvest came out, but here are some phone pictures from before I had to leave:

This is the Mexican Sweet Gherkin (started indoor from seed) as of 7/28/09:

In flower on 8/23:                                                             In fruit on 9/3:

Boston Pickling Cucumbers (bought as a plant from Home Depot) on 8/11:

Tassels on the corn in my 3-sisters area on 8/23:

Amish Paste Tomatoes on 9/3:

Ripe Beets on 9/3:

Going Gangbusters on 9/3:

Tassels on the corn! All sorts of stuff going crazy through the screen on an upstairs window.

How I threw my back out...or...the garden is done!

I took this picture on Friday-- so a week ago-- and some of you may have seen it already, but this is how my garden looked at that time:


Click for large and legible version.

It feels good to have gotten all the veggies in and I'm so excited about my three-sisters area. I'm sort of following this guide here.

Basically you plant corn and when the corn is 6 inches high, you plant peas or beans which climb up the corn and bind nitrogen into the soil. Then you plant a vine crop like a squash or a melon which shades the roots and helps keep the weeds down. Genius.

So I have corn, sugar snap peas, and then I'm going to do one mound of melon and two mounds of spaghetti squash.

After the week I had-- Monday and Tuesday clearing the ground and fenceline, Wednesday roto-tilling and sifting the soil (with help from Dougie and Anastasia), Thursday hauling three pick up trucks' worth of yard waste and logs by myself (but I got to use the new chainsaw!!), and then Friday planting it all...plus shooting 2 long weddings Friday and Saturday...when I bent down to tie my shoes on Sunday, I couldn't stand back up again. So I've been seeing a muscular therapist and am mending well but still in pain. Damn it. I still haven't learned to pace myself-- I'm either all in or...not.

Also, Anastasia wanted me to share her chicken coop plans:





As always-- click for large and legible.

A little progress, a little snow.

So my greenhouse is busting with little lives and I just seeded my next set-- so I thought I'd post a few pictures.


From the outside!

We found a grow light in the basement just as I was going to buy one - which was nice. A few weeks ago I put in tomatoes, brussels sprouts, onions, and broccoli as well as pansies. I also had to resuscitate my rosemary which was doing fine until about 3 weeks ago.

At first I was a bad plant mom and the grow light would be on for days and off for days-- but I got a timer from home depot this week and so the kids are getting 12 hours of light every day from 6am to 6pm. I plan to up the time soon.

Today I seeded in eggplant, cucumbers, balloon flowers, and marigolds. I put geraniums and dahlia tubers in pots. I also put garlic, daffodils, and spinach outside...oh and a clematis vine. I wasn't going to buy a clematis but there was a whole shelf of them and they were in this little phalanx and one right in the middle had sprouted this feisty little vine. It won me over.

I don't have any pics of the outside plants - but here's a little tour of the greenhouse:



In the front are marigolds that I just put in today. I think I might pot the spares and put them out as decorations for the bridal shower if they're big enough...6 weeks? That should give them time to be a little bushy. To the left are the brussels sprouts. The big tin pot is the sad rosemary. In the back are the tomatoes-- I really want to grow them upside down. I registered for the tomato upside down hanging things and I have my fingers crossed that those arrive at the bridal shower. The two little 4-tops in the middle are the cukes and eggplant. Just in today.



That's still the tomatoes at the back, marigolds in the front and you can see the cucumber 4-top. The set of 6 beside it has more pansies in as does the 4-top to the right behind it. The other two 4-packs are basil and broccoli. The random singles in there are miracle fruit seedlings that haven't done a whole lot yet.



2nd shelf-- my baby lime tree is at the back. I need to repot it this week. In the middle is my supermarket rose bush that lived in the garage all winter and is starting to bud. There are sprouted onions at the back and balloon flowers up front.



This is the somewhat boring shelf- the two little pots are dwarf bedding dahlias and the big pot is the geranium. We'll see how these go.

This is my boring back yard:



There's snow in this picture-- we had a random flurry today. It's hard to see.

The landlady says that the gardeners "don't speak much English" and "whip through there with the mower" so to be careful about that. I plan on making clearly marked guerilla garden installations. So far I have hidden spare dahlia tubers in what I hope to be a safe place. I have clearly marked the clematis vine below the porch railing (not shown). I also plan on putting some titan sunflowers along the garage. I have to get a few more seeds, there are only 5 left in my packet from last year and I can't find the ones I saved. Square one.

Photos from 7/27

Celestial Mix Up Close


Fully-opened sunflower.


Baby Watermelon.


Heavenly Blue, finally open.


White Cypress also finally open.


Tomato!

More updates:

Watermelon from the 16th


Watermelon from the 18th


Scarlet Magic Tassel going to seed.


Second round of beets.


Moonflowers making a move on the tomato trellis.


Big tomatoes.


Sunflowers on the make.