Tag Archives: carrot

Catching Up

The lettuce is coming in, but the celery did not. The carrots are coming in, but the spinach is not. The Sugar Snaps are doing great but neither the tomato nor the pepper plant came up. The lettuce came in really well so I thinned by transplanting a dozen or so to where I had planted the celery. I bought a few tomato and pepper plants a week ago and planted them. They are doing well and I look forward to eating them. The watermelons have sprouted.

I weeded my gardens today. It's so much easier to do when the dirt has never been stepped on.

While weeding I found this egg. It was inside the fence and near the edge.

I have taken to a strange practice with my rain barrel. I grow catnip in it. Maybe none of the reasons I do it are any good but here they are anyway. First, because I can. Catnip grows very easily and quickly puts out roots in water. Secondly, I have found the water, if left to it's self, will start to smell bad. With a plant growing in it that usually goes away. I suspect that the catnip feeds off bird droppings and other dead plant life such as algae that sometimes grows.. Thirdly, I found that catnip is a pretty good deterrent to ants. If I can water with a natural ant deterrent then I will. I'll never forget the nightmare of stepping onto the walkway of my garden to find that it woke up the colony. I've since planted some catnip in that spot and I haven't had trouble since, but spreading the love around is OK with me.

Maybe I'm just crazy but I feel like this helps.

Starting Planting

I planted a few seeds this evening. In Garden #1 I planted a square each of spinach and carrots next to the garlic.

In Garden #2 I planted lettuce, celery, sugar snaps, watermelon, Old German tomato and bell pepper. I was careful to not plant the tomato and pepper too close to where I had the tomatoes last year. The watermelon seeds are left over from the watermelon that grew last year.

I forgot to update on the rain barrel. It works quite well for me. The gutter system captures less than a quarter of my roof area but even an inch of rain fills the barrel. I think I have space to add an additional barrel if I could find one on the cheap.

Seed Tray

I purchased a planting tray to start my seeds in. This tray has 72 cells for starting seeds in. The cells are open to the main tray in the bottom so that water can flow freely throughout. As you can see, when water is added the pods expand. I have seeded several plants. I am following the directions for the tray (which includes a clear plastic cover) and am placing it in a warm place, out of direct sunlight.

I labeled each column and row so that I can keep track of what is growing where. For instance:

A1, A2, B1  Bell Pepper
C1,C2, B2, D1  Cranberry Bean
B3-B6  Black-eye Peas
A3-A6  Black Mexican Corn
C3-C6  Lemon Balm
D2-D6  Greek Oregano
E1-E6  Celery
F1-F6  Chives
G1-G6  Spinach
H3-H6  Sugar Snaps
H1, H2, I1-I4  Old German Tomato
I5, I6, J6  Sweet Pepper
J1-J5, K6  Carrot
K1-K5  Tennessee Red Corn
L4-L6  Cayenne Pepper