Plant my first garden

Andy O'Shea I actually started this experiment a couple of weeks ago and have created a schedule for the spring and summer on what to plant when and where. The schedule is a little different than what is recommended for some plants since my wife and I will be gone for most of July and want to be around when a plant is ready for harvest.

Mar 21, 2010

Matthew Cornell Hey - we built six 4'x8' beds last year with the intention of doing square foot gardening. We planted and had fun last year, and we'll try the technique this year. Maybe we can compare notes! I love the idea of a compact, highly productive space.

Growing your own food is so satisfying. I love the idea as long as someone else does the work ;-) Seriously, it's cool.

Good luck!

P.S. Brock pointed out that tags need commas between them, FYI.

Mar 21, 2010

Andy O'Shea Thanks for the comments guys! Awesome to hear that you've tried SFG before, Matt, and been happy with it. I'm really curious about how good the soil Mel Bartholomew recommends creating will work. Also, thanks for the tip on the tags, I will fix that shortly.

As for wildlife and pests (like the woodchuck you mentioned, Liz), I have no idea what I'll do to stop them to be honest. I plan to see what things come up and then do some research online to find ways to stop them. Last year our neighbor's garden was ravaged by a rabbit and she found an awesome solution online: shiny pinwheels. After putting those throughout the garden, the rabbit stopped coming for whatever reason, which was awesome! Anyways, I think that whatever wildlife I encounter will spawn off its own experiment hehe.

Mar 24, 2010

Lizzy Andy, that's so funny, shiny pinwheels to repel a rabbit in the garden. I love it, its so simple and non-toxic. I should find a woodchuck solution other than giving up. ;-)

Mar 25, 2010

Andy O'Shea That's a good idea with the netting and wire frames. When we have a permanent garden setup I will almost definitely be using those solutions, but since this spot is so temporary I'll probably hold off on anything that labor intensive. Unless the pest problem gets really big.

I started seedlings for 18 basil and 3 lettuce plants plants. I planted 3-4 seeds in each spot at 1/4" deep and have put the seedlings in the same spot as the eggplant ones from last week. I'm a little worried for how well the basil will do since we're planting it as early as possible so we can harvest it before the trip to England in July. If it fails, though, we can just buy some basil from local farmers to supply our pesto-making day before we leave.

Mar 28, 2010

Andy O'Shea Today we planted three red lettuce seedlings (2 seeds in each plot, 1/4" deep), 2 square feet of peas (about 24 seeds 2" deep), and 6 spinach (2 seeds each, 1/4" deep). This is the first time planting something in the ground, which was really nice. Next week will be the first transplant (the lettuce) and i'm excited. I'm going to attempt to "harden off" the seedlings as recommended for a day before planting them.

The seedlings planted earlier are all doing well. The eggplant is about 2.25" high, the lettuce is 2"-3" high (a large variance and most of the lettuce are all lying horizontal on the trays instead of standing up), and the basil is all about 3/4" high. I've thinned out all of the plants, down to 1 eggplant in each slot, 2 lettuce, and 2 basil. The tomatoes still haven't come up, which is a little disconcerting, but I'm assuming right now that this is normal behavior.

Apr 11, 2010

Andy O'Shea Oh, yah, pics are a great idea. If I have time this week I'll snap. some.

This week I transplanted the first of the seedlings - three lettuce plants. My method for transplanting didn't seem to go so well. I wet the seedlings as was recommended by SFT, but that caused the potting soil to crumble in my hands when i took the seedlings out. I don't think I killed any of the plants, but it was close. Next time I will try not wetting the soil before transplanting. Also, I transplanted in the morning today, but next time will try at night to see if that helps the plants adjust to outside more before being pelted fully by the sun. Oh, and today I also thinned out the rest of the basil seedlings. Also, the spinach and peas which I planted outside last week haven't sprouted yet.

Measurements time:

Basil: 1"-1.5"
Eggplant: 2" - 3"
Lettuce (seedling): 1"-1.5"
Cherry tomatoes: 2.25"
Tomatoes: 1.5"-2" (the tomatoes sprouted *much rejoicing*)

Apr 19, 2010

Matthew Cornell Interesting, if not particularly welcome, results. I bet something's nibbling on your delights. Way to work with it, Andy - buying replacements and trying new things. I'm curious how you're managing any disappointment you might be feeling... Finally, I love the word "repurposing" :-)

Apr 26, 2010

Andy O'Shea This week I bought 6 red onions to transplant from the farmer's market in Amherst. I also moved all of our seedlings outside where they are getting much more sun than the shaded spot inside they were at.

As far as the current state of plants, things could be better. 2 of the 5 broccoli outside aren't looking great, and 2 of the 6 red lettuce transplanted last week are also looking sick. I'm trying to figure out if there is something in common between the spots these plants are in, but no luck so far. Also, the spinach I planted last week is following the same pattern as the first batch of spinach - nothing is sprouting. I may have a bad batch of seeds so I will buy some others and try planting them next week. As far as the seedlings, the three lettuce I planted two weeks ago died this week. I'm not sure if it was because of moving the seedlings outside, though I'm fairly sure it didn't help because they had looked sickly before that. My wife pointed out that in the farmer's markets when we buy seedlings it is always a bunch of the plants in each slot, whereas I had been killing the smaller ones within a week of sprouting. We think that maybe having the seedlings near one another is a benefit in the beginning because they provide support (many of the seedlings have gotten too tall to support their own weight and end up lying sideways). So, for the current batch of lettuce that it sprouting, I will not be cutting any of the seedlings until right before transplanting. The basil that had looked sick last week is doing much better now, but a different one died. Also, the eggplant isn't looking great (I'm hoping moving the seedlings outside will help it because I read eggplant needs lots of sun).

Current measurements (seedlings):
basil - 2"
eggplant - 2"-2.5"
tomato (cherry) - 2.5"
tomato - 2.5"
lettuce - 1"

Current measurements (garden):
broccoli - 5.5"-8" (5.5", 6" are the sick ones)
garlic - 12"-18"
lettuce - 3"-3.5"
peas - 1"-2"
onions - 7"-8"

May 02, 2010

Andy O'Shea hey Brock - thanks for the info! That'll be really helpful if we start having pest problems. The info on the cutworms is especially interesting - I've never heard of them before.

This week's developments were a mix of good and bad. The peas came up! They are growing really fast and I set up some twine 2" high attached to supporting dowels to support their growth. The broccoli is doing much better and the basil seedlings are also growing well. However, the eggplant and tomato seedlings are all almost dead. This must be due to moving them outside, as nothing else significant has changed. I think moving them outside was a good idea for more sun, but I should have been taking them inside every night (even though there have been no frosts). Speaking of frosts, according to the various sources I found online, this is likely the last weekend of the spring that has a chance of frost. So, I'll be paying more attention to the weather to see how accurate the almanacs and weather people are. I had also originally scheduled for the basil to be transplanted this weekend, but given the failures of all previous transplants from seedlings I started, I am going to wait one extra week. Also, I know that I am trying to grow the basil earlier than is recommended (so that we can harvest it before leaving for most of July) and want to be careful not to destroy the plants. The final bit of bad news is that the spinach I planted 2 weeks ago has not sprouted, much like the first batch. However, I think there are two plants that look like spinach in the space originally allocated for the spinach. So, I am watching those closely. At this point I am highly suspicious that the seeds I purchased are bad. Though, I was talking to my sister who also planted spinach this year and has been having the same experience as myself (none have sprouted). So, we could either both be doing something wrong, or spinach just takes about 2-3 weeks to sprout at this time of the year.

This week I planted 6 more spinach, using 5-6 seeds in each plot (since I suspect the seeds are bad). I also planted it 1/2" down instead of the 1/4" that I had been using previously. Finally, I planted 3 more lettuce starters, but used red lettuce seeds instead (which were really big and white - looked like small candies. Much different from the other lettuce variety). This week also had some crazy weather with a couple of nasty windstorms, which might have affected the growth rate of the plants.

Current measurements (seedlings):
basil - ~2" (same as last week, but some are growing more leaves)
eggplant - 2"-2.5" (all lying down flat, looking pale)
tomato (cherry) - 2.5" (slightly lying down, looking pale)
tomato - 2.5" (all lying down, looking pale)
lettuce - 1" (same as last week, though a couple of the seedlings have started to die - which is ok since there are about 4 seedlings in each slot right now and they will need to be thinned out later anyway)


Current measurements (garden):
broccoli - 6.5"-9" (all growing)
garlic - 9"-16" (I've changed my measurement method, which explains the decline in height. Instead of pulling the leaves up to see the max height, I am measuring the highest point of the plant naturally)
lettuce - 2.5"-4" (two are still not looking great, but the other four are growing)
peas - 1"-2" (yay! They are growing really fast)
onions - 7"-8" (all growing, though some of the onions have their leaves bent over sharply)
spinach??? - 1"

May 09, 2010

Andy O'Shea RE: cutworms - good to know.

This week we did some heavy work on the garden. The biggest project was digging out a 4'x4' square, which my wife thankfully helped with (she seems to enjoy gardening as much as myself and it's pretty awesome to be working the soil together). We then planted a cherokee purple tomatoe plant (one of Allie's favorite varieties - super excited to have found a seedling for it at the Amherst Farmer's Market) and 6 basil (also starters from the Farmer's Market). While the basil we have grown from seeds was slated to be transplanted today, it is much too small still. I'm hoping that there will be some serious growth this week and it will be ready next week. Also, the basil we got from the Farmer's Market had two plants in each plot (we bought one of those 6-plot plastic trays). My natural inclination is that this will cause both of the basil in each space to be much smaller than they would be if there was just one. I plan on cutting one of the two basil in half of the plots, and we'll see if this suspicion is correct at the end of the summer (this will be a similar mini-experement as is being done with the onions). We also bought and planted a rosemary plant (mmmmm....it smells amazing). Some good news is that there are about four spinach plants growing in the plot I had planted the first spinach seeds. Some bad news is there was some miscommunication in our weeding efforts today and the plot containing seeds for another 9 spinach was wiped out. So, I'll try getting some spinach seedlings from the Farmer's Market later and transplant them. Everything I'm reading claiming spinach doesn't like to be transplanted, but I'm in an experimenting mood :) One final thing to note is that instead of the SFG-recommended 3'x3' space for the tomato plant, we are using 2'x2'. In my past experience that has been more than enough room.

Lots to talk about this week. We've successfully dug and planted our first 4'x4' plot (the recommended plot size from the SFG method). All the plants are looking great - especially the peas. They've started to latch onto the string and stakes we set up earlier and I installed a second layer of string about 7" high this week. Curious to see how high we can get the peas to grow (in our last garden they were about a foot high, but the CSA we belonged to had pea plants 3'-4' high). The seedlings are still doing about the same as last week, so not even bothering to post their measurements. Though, the lettuce we planted is all doing well - much better than it ever has in the past. I'm not sure if that's because I used a different seed variety (forgot to write that down *slaps forehead*) or if it's because we haven't thinned it out yet. I'm keeping the seedlings inside still, but hope to put them outside this week now that the danger of frost has been greatly diminished. The only things really growing there are the lettuce and basil now. And I was just reading that if basil gets cold it stops growing and then takes a long time to start again. So, looking forward to seeing what happens. Also, learned this week that we have been watering the tomato and peas wrong - we should be avoiding having water touch the leaves when we water them. Going to make sure to do that in the future.

Current measurements (garden):
garlic - 15"-21"
tomato - 11"
basil - 3"-4.5"
broccoli - 6.5"-9.5"
lettuce - 2.5"-5"
peas - 3"-7"
rosemary - 7"
onions - 7"-11"
spinach - 1"-2.5"

May 15, 2010

Matthew Cornell o The idea of heirloom tomatoes is very cool.
o We used raised beds instead of digging because the soil where we put them is so rocky (former parking lot). We have dug post holes, though - honest labor!
o Happy the the peas are looking good. Yum.
o Thanks for the pics - sweet garden.

Fantastic work, Andy.

Re: clickable URLs: As you pointed out in http://edison.thinktrylearn.com/experiments/show/147#observations , I'm still pining for clickable links for things like your picture URLs above. I'm spurprised "potential for abuse via xss and cscf attacks" hasn't been addressed in RoR apps. Isn't there a general solution, such as limiting carefully the tags that can be used? I like your idea of supporting just image uploading, but I don't think it's general enough. I frequently link to other pages, including blog posts and other Edison experiments.

Re: "limited abilities of "admin" users to control posted content" - not sure what you mean. That we can't moderate (e.g., edit or delete someone else's comments or comments)?

May 17, 2010

Andy O'Shea This week the garden is looking great overall outside. The only plants that aren't looking amazing are the basil - they are almost all a light shade of green. Since it looks like they are having a hard time adjusting I have decided to hold off on thinning them out. Also, the seedlings are all just about dead. There are some basil still hanging on, and I've moved them outside to see if that helps. I hope to try growing things from seedling again next year - though I will definitely wait longer before putting them outside. And I will wait a bit longer to plant the basil and eggplant. The peas are doing especially great still. They've grown so much I tied a third layer of twine for them to latch onto. Also, one patch of lettuce (the ones getting the most shade) is looking awesome - just about ready to pick a few leafs.

I was out of town this weekend, so didn't have a chance to buy anymore seedlings to plant in the garden. Next week I am hoping to get another tomato plant and a few more basil.

This week's measurements:
basil - 3"-5"
broccoli - 9"-11"
tomato - 1'
spinach - 2"-3"
lettuce - 3"-6"
onion - 9"-11"
garlic - 16"-26"
rosemary - 8"
peas - 1'

May 24, 2010

Andy O'Shea Good to know about the pepper trick. As of right now, nothing looks to be eating our peas, I hope it stays that way for the next couple of weeks.

Last weekend was so crazy I never found time to do the weekly garden maintenance and measurement, but overall the plants are going great. The seedlings are now completely, dead though. I'm looking forward to next year when I can try again using the lessons learned from this experiment.

Over the past two weeks we've started to eat some of the delicious food from our garden, starting with the red lettuce. We've been using it to put in sandwiches so far, but hope to eventually make a salad when enough is ready at the same time. Overall, it's not as good as what you'd get in the supermarket, but makes up for that by the knowledge that we helped make it. Also, my wife taught me a trick after I complained that the lettuce was soft and floppy when I picked it. If you put the lettuce you have picked in a bowl of water for a few hours it helps clean it and the lettuce firms up nicely.

In other good news, the garlic scapes look to be almost ready and the peas should be ready for harvest a week early. The broccoli plants all look really healthy and there are two big broccoli bushes starting to grow. I'm especially excited about these because in the shared garden we helped with last year most of the broccoli was eaten by non-humans and we never got to eat any.

Now for the bad news section. It looks like some sort of pest is imbibing on our tomato plant. There are lots of holes in a few of its leaves. I did some research and it sounds like it is from flea beetles. If that's the case, then I'm not very worried since the plant is large enough to sustain the small damage it is currently taking. I'll be keeping a close eye on the plant (and the new cherry tomato plant) to see if further action is necessary.

In other negative news, the spinach is still struggling. We got our first newsletter from our farm share, and they said that all of the spring spinach is dead from the crazy spring weather. So, I'm going to chalk our spinach's poor performance up to the same reasons.

The final bad news is the lettuce we transplanted this weekend looks like it's not going to live much longer. But, I'm still hopeful because the red lettuce went through a similar phase after it was first transplanted.

This week we added some newcomers to the garden. I planted the seeds for a squash plant, transplanted 6 green lettuce plants, transplanted 6 more basil, transplanted 2 eggplant, and transplanted one cherry tomato plant. We had picked up these transplants last week from the farmer's market, but never had a chance to plant them until yesterday.

By next week we should be ready to harvest some of the peas, the garlic scapes, and possibly a broccoli or two. We'll also continue to peck at the rosemary, red lettuce, and basil.

This week's measurements:
basil - 5"-9"
broccoli - 11"-14"
purple tomato - 21"
spinach - 7"
red lettuce - 6"-8"
onion - 11"-16"
garlic - 19"-30"
rosemary - 11"
peas - 16"
green lettuce - 4"
eggplant - 11"
cherry tomato - 14"

Jun 06, 2010

Brock Tice Black pepper eh? I got some cheap bulk cayenne and chili flakes. Those squirrels will rue the day they were born (they like to dig).

Jun 10, 2010

Andy O'Shea Last week was crazy, so I didn't have time to take measurements or make a post. But, this week I made sure to fit that in.

Glad you're enjoying the observations, Matt. The lettuce has been pretty bitter, actually, never thought about the weather affecting that. Otherwise, though, things have tasted pretty normal with one exception: broccoli. We harvested our first tiny head today and it tasted like the broccoli you get at the supermarket, but with an extra kick in the teeth of bitter/broccoli flavor. I normally cook broccoli before eating it, but when I've had raw broccoli I've never had it taste so strong.

Anyways, I'm happy to report the garden is going strong. The peas are ending their life cycle - we picked a dozen or so, all delicious, but the plant isn't looking so healthy. These peas have been the first big success of the garden, but it is a bummer that we got so few actual peas out of two square feet in the garden, and the extra effort of putting in the supporting dowels and string. Next year I will definitely plant a lot more, because we really love snap peas.

Today we also harvested our first broccoli after reading up on it. Turns out, we should have harvested the heads from two other plants, but let them sprout into flowers. Now I know to cut off the first head early, when it's still small, and that other heads will form later.

We also harvested all of the garlic scapes over the past couple of weeks. Not sure what to do with them all since we got a bunch from the farm share this week too.

In final harvest news, we had a delicious salad today from the red lettuce of the garden. Though one of the plants has mysteriously disappeared over the past two weeks, the other 5 are doing amazing. The green lettuce is still looking sickly, but there are still signs of life, and I'm hoping it will eventually make a full recovery.

Earlier this week I purchased 4' stakes to support the tomato plants and installed them. I think the size stakes I bought is pretty optimistic for these plants, but I'm hoping to re-use them next year.

Now for the small amount of bad news. At least one mole has discovered our garden and is digging around it. So far it doesn't look like it has hurt the garden in any way, but I'll be keeping an eye out. Also, the squash I planted two weeks back still hasn't sprouted. So, I'll probably buy a starter from the farmer's market next week. Some of the basil leaves are being eaten in the same way as the purple tomato leaves were a couple of weeks back. I'm not too worried since the damage isn't extensive, but it's another thing to watch closely. Finally, I've abandoned all hope for the spinach and will be planting some carrots in the space it occupied eventually.

This week's measurements:
purple tomato - 28" (+7", with two flowers)
cherry tomato - 16" (+2")
eggplant - 12" (+1", looking very healthy)
garlic - 16"-27" (smaller because of cutting off the scapes)
basil - 6"-13" (+4")
peas - 20" (+4", nearing the end)
green lettuce - 4"-7" (+3")
red lettuce - 7"-9" (+1", but this is after I picked some)
rosemary - 13" (+2", we've already started using it)
onions - 11"-16" (no change in height, but the stalks are definitely thicker)
broccoli - 12-16 (+2" and this is after we cut off the heads of most of them)

Jun 20, 2010

Andy O'Shea Well, it's been over a month since my last observation on the garden due to a combination of laziness and a long trip to Europe, which my wife and I just got back from. We got some valuable gardening experience while over the pond, since two weeks of the trip were spent wwoofing (http://www.wwoof.org/). The bad new is that when we got back from the trip, we found the garden to be in a very poor state.overall. There are a couple of plants still thriving, though, and we're pretty excited about that.

Purple Tomato - This plant has been doing amazing, which we are very surprised at given how shady the garden is. One of the branches was so heavy with fruit while we were gone that it broke off. Still have yet to eat one of the tomatoes, but there are about 4 green ones growing, and we have one ripening on the windowsill. The plan is about 4 feet tall now!
Cherry Tomato - Just like the cherokee purple tomato, this plan has been doing very well. We've eaten a couple of the ripening tomatoes, and there are about 12 more green ones right now. The plant is about 3' 9" tall.
eggplant - The eggplant isn't looking super healthy, but one of the two has a fruit forming, so that's exciting. 12"
garlic - The garlic is a sad tale of woe. Since it was the first thing to be planted in the garden, we had high hopes. But, the bulbs we picked were extremely small, and a couple were rotten. We've dried the bulbs and are waiting for a time to attempt to use them for cooking.
basil - Doing ok overall, which is good news since we love basil and had expected it all to be dead.
peas - totally dead now, which was expected.
green lettuce - All dead, or bolted. Not surprising, given a three week lack of attention. Before we left, it started to look great.
red lettuce - all dead. Again, not surprising.
rosemary - looking ok, think it will pull through. 12"
onions - this was the second biggest disappointment when we got back (next to the garlic). Something or someone has dug up about half of the onions, leaving them in the garden and uneaten.
broccoli - all flowering, but the plants look decently healthy.
squash - one bit of good news was that the squash plant started growing before we left for England. It's about 6" now and still growing, but very very slowly.



Plans for the next Garden
At this point, I think I can start leaving notes on conclusions from the experiment to use next year.

-Use compost when planting, to see if it dramatically impacts the plants
-Buy garlic bulbs online, getting particular species
-Don't leave a garden unattended for three weeks
-Research broccoli plants and find a species that will produce larger bulbs
-Make sure to plant snap peas

Aug 10, 2010

Andy O'Shea Well, I think it's time to officially close the experiment for this year. Overall, I think it was a great success and I learned some important lessons. Since August the garden has been thriving despite my lack of attention. The last broccoli plant produced the nicest-looking head we had seen all year, the purple tomatoes kept coming (despite my lack of tying up the vines to support them carrying the heavy fruit), the rosemary is still kicking, the basil did amazing until the frost, despite being in the shade, and we even had a couple eggplants come in eventually (though they were eaten by something - the only produce to be stolen by critters thus far). The squash ended up never quite making it, I think due to a lack of water (from what my grandmother was telling me about her experiences with squash at least). It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to starting up a new experiment for planting garlic soon. And next year the bounty is sure to be better from lessons learned and no long trips to another continent.

Oct 14, 2010