15 Days Growth

March 12, 2011

March 27, 2011

Spring in Full Bloom

Flowers emerging on all the tomato plants

New growth shows no signs of the vinegar mistake

Canteloupe seedlings are getting their third leaf.  Others are still breaking through the soil.  If you click on the picture and zoom in you may see them.  Also in the top right you can see seeds that the birds found.  They've been split and eaten.  But we love watching the birds so this is a small price to pay for their company.  Something is also taking very small bites out of the seedlings.  Not sure what, but I won't be spraying them with anything unless the damage becomes life threatening.

Noticeable growth

Lea's flowers are bright and beautiful.  These Sweet William perennials are heat and drought tolerant.

Salvia flowers are like having a humming bird feeder that you never have to refill.  They have vibrant color and are also heat and drought tolerant.  What's not to love?

Red Bud blooming.  Always wondered why they call them 'Red Bud' when the flower is pink/purple.

Friendly Fire

I noticed a slug in the garden Monday.  I heard that vinegar is a good way of controlling these garden pests.  I also noticed little gnat like bugs on the tomato plants.  Not sure what these were. So I sprayed my plants with a water vinegar solution Monday night.  Looking back I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea.  I knew vinegar was an acid.  I guess I just didn't realize how powerful an acid it was, it should have been more diluted. 

My tomato plants now look terrible.  Parts of them are completely wilted.  I cut off the dead part.  I'm holding out hope that there is enough green leaves left to keep the plants alive.  No matter what, it's a set back.   The other plants look OK but have spots.

No more vinegar in the garden for me, but I'm afraid the damage is already done. 

Before, everything green and healthy

After, spots and wilted portions

 Casualties

...And things were going so well.  This shot taken right before using the vinegar.

New Life

Matthew 13:8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

God's Word is like this seed, we can plant it, but ultimately it's God that makes it grow in the lives of those we share it with.



Cantaloupe Seedling

So far this is the only seedling.  I hope the seeds weren't planted too deeply. 

Half of the garden is being watered by the drip irrigation more than the other half.  Considering adding some electric tape to portions of the hose on the heavy side to make more water available to the light side.  If this fails, there's a second soaker hose in the garage that can be tried.

Drip Irrigation

Spring has sprung!  March Madness is on, Lea is BBQing, the kids went swimming and drip irrigation was added to the garden today.  Hand watering is nice this time of year, but the heat is coming, so the soaker hose is ready for action. 

While the kids swam I read about growing corn in small gardens in Texas Gardener magazine.  Now I'm dreaming of Kandy Korn in 2012. 

The soaker was covered with a thin layer of mulch.  As the plants grow additional mulch will be added until a think healthy layer of insulation is established.

Heating Things Up

Emily adds the final touch to the garden

By digging in deep

Pressing firmly to remove any pockets of air

And finishing everything off with a generous drink of water

All done, now we have the heat we need for garden salsa.

Does anyone need jalapeno plants?  I have two left over.  Text me if you want them.

Time to Spice Things Up?

Still watering every day.  Especially the new seeds.  Contemplating adding one more plant to the garden, jalapeno.  With tomato, onion, and cilantro growing, all that's needed to make salsa is a little heat (and maybe some garlic).  Just not sure where to put it.  There is some room in the middle of the second bed but the cantaloupe is supposed to spread quite a bit.  Hmmm.

Canaloupe Beats Out Cucumbers

Texas Gardener magazine has great information for anyone interested in gardening.  There are lists of recommended plants and the planting times for the various parts of the state.  Listed among the of options for San Antonio was cantaloupe.  After taking a quick poll (of Bryson and Ethan) cantaloupe beat cucumbers/squash 2 to 0.  These budget friendly cantaloupe seeds from Burpee were only $1.



The mulch was removed and half inch depressions made in the soil

 Bryson carefully placed a seed in each depression.  Later we'll thin out the plants that germinate.

The seeds were covered and gentlly watered in.

Bryson and I had a great day in the garden.  Helping Aunt Lori get her garden started, planting seeds, taking care of weeds and shooting his BB gun.  Hopefully in about 90 days we'll be enjoying delicious cantaloupe.

Mission Accomplished

Holes were dug deep to accept the transplanted tomato plants.  They were gently moved and the ground pressed down carefully to remove any air pockets.  Then it was time to plant onions in the vacated spots so the guys got their hands dirty by poking holes and planting the small onion bulbs.

Finally everything was given a good drink of water, especially the transplants, and then mulch was added to keep the weeds at bay.  When the plants mature additional mulch will be added to make a nice thick layer of chemical free weed protection.

Two's Company; Three's a Crowd

It turns out the rows in the garden are overcrowded.  There should be two plants per row instead of three, giving two or three feet between each plant to maximize fruit production.  Mature tomato plants are about the size of a barrel. 

The plan is to relocate the middle tomato plant on the back row and the two tomato plants in the middle row to another raised bed garden. Onion bulbs will be planted in the space vacated.  There will also be room in the new raised bed for one more resident.  Let me know if you've seen a squash plant looking homeless. 

So the guys and I get to work.

Practice...

 ...makes perfect

Isn't child labor great.  Their little hands work great in these ackward corners.

After all that work it's time to go (backyard board) surfing

The spot was marked off and a rake was used to get rid of mulch and vegitation.  Then footers were dug and the box leveled off.  It took a couple of attempts to get it level.

Added 2 cubit feet of garden soil and 1 cubic foot of compost to the existing soil. 

The new box, ready to transplant tomorrow

Additional cedar mulch was purchased to cover the bed, bringing the total cost of both beds with plants to about $65.  That's a lot of tomatoes.  Hope this works. 

Rookie note:  If your wife planted a plant last year and now it looks dead and the branchs are dry and brittle don't assume it's dead.  Some plants have roots that stay alive even when the plant looks dead.  If you aren't careful you won't realize this until you get the root out of the ground and notice the new green leaves sprouting at the base of the plant.

Keep This Under Wraps

Rookie mistake.  You can skip this step if you don't plant your garden too soon.  It's supposed to be in the 30s tonight so I'm playing it safe and covering the plants.

Just Add Water

(pictures by Emily)

It's a good idea to support your tomatoes, keeping them off the ground.  This larger support will work well for the Tycoon tomato which is supposed to have larger tomatoes.

HEB Plus (grocery store) has better prices on tomato support.  This larger support was only $2.44, while the smaller cages from Home Depot were $2.78.  It may not seem like much, but if you were to buy 5 it would be a savings of $1.70.

It's recommended to keep the garden well watered the first few weeks so that the roots get established.  Here Macey is gently watering the young plants.

So far I've spent about $50 on soil, support, plant food and plants.  Next year the costs should be much lower.

No Green Thumbs Required

This adventure began with discussions with friends and coworkers as we shook off the cold and began eagerly contemplating spring plans.  I've always marveled at people that understood how to cultivate plants.  There's a lot of help out there for rookie gardeners and these friends were a great source of information and guidance.  The best advice I've heard so far is don't worry if you make mistakes.  So I bought a Celebrity tomato plant and some potting soil and planted it according to the instructions on the back of the tag in a very large plastic pot.  This was to be the extent of my gardening for 2011.  I soon found out from a friend that plastic pots aren't the best idea for San Antonio because of the heat we get here.  That was the first time I considered creating a real garden area.

My mom and dad are great.  Always loving and very supportive.  I love talking to my mom, because no matter what I'm up to, she always thinks it's a great idea.  But this time they surprised me, the very day I mentioned my interest in gardening, dad delivered four tomato plants to my workplace bringing my total to five plants.  I joked with him that now I was a real 'farmer'.  I didn't recognize at the time that 444 was a type of tomato, but now I know that there were three 444 tomato plants and a Tycoon tomato plant.  Now I knew I needed a real garden. 

March 5, 2011
I have enough experience planting trees and shrubs with my wife Lea to know that the ground here is mostly rock so I decided to create a raised bed garden.  This involves building walls to hold in soil above the level of the existing ground.  I knew that I would have to buy soil, so to keep costs low I used discarded wood from a new home up the street.  I cut 2x4s into 3.5 ft pieces with a miter saw and nailed them together.  I told Lea that if we had to survive on my nailing skills we'd all starve.  But the finished box looked pretty good.  My grandfather was a carpenter so maybe it's in the genes.

I don't have a big backyard and what I do have is sloped.  But digging in and leveling the box was easier than I thought it would be.  Turns out the spot I picked wasn't as rocky as I expected.  I picked a spot with plenty of sun but where the back fence would block the evening sun.  Then, since it was too early in the season to plant, the long wait began.

March 6, 2011
24 hours later the long wait was over.  Spurs vs Lakers was not going well.  In fact my Spurs were getting thumped.  By halftime I was ready to be distracted from the game.  So I made a decision that may prove to be my first major rookie mistake.  I planted my garden.  I had been watching online planting videos at night biding my time and I just couldn't stand it any more.  I was excited and ready to go.

To finish out the box, I bought some bell pepper, cilantro, and onions.

Close Ups

And now... the stars of the show... the veggies...

Bell Pepper

444 Tomato



Celebrity Tomoto

Tycoon Tomato (need to get some support for this little guy)



Cilantro

Onions