Faceplanting carrots, soaking seeds, and stopping suckers

He's dead Jim (the carrots)

Yesterday was a big garden day--four and a half hours in both the front and back. Rarely am I afforded such time. The most significant is the planting of new carrot seeds. My first planting was a dismal failure, and I am now convinced that my garden hose watering of the row washed the seeds out and left them undernourished. I conducted an experiment yesterday where I sprayed down the row for a good amount of time, giving time in between to allow the water to sink in. Despite all of this, the water barely penetrated the row. So after planting a new row of carrot seeds, I dropped my soaker hose on the row and let it run for about two hours. I'm resolved to run the soaker everyday for the next week, just to try and keep the seeds moist in the early dog days of summer.

Unpretty Pine Straw

The bulk of my actual work consisted of loading up wheelbarrows of pine straw, laying down newspaper on Maia's patch and then dropping three inches of pine straw down as a weed barrier. I'm tired of the weeds. The pine straw ain't pretty, but I'll drop proper pine straw on it when the time is right.

I noted in the last post that I dropped some compost on the half-ass herb garden and on various backyard plants. I did some weeding as well. Ha. It looks like hell back there, I'm not afraid to say.

Waiting for Godotomato

Today I pruned suckers off of the Orange Blossom tomato plant. It is already growing fruit, so I'm going to try and redirect growth to the fruit to produce some big ones. Not having any basis for comparison, I have no idea if it will work. But it's kind of fun.

fertilizer

Fertilized the garden again yesterday. Fertilized tomato plants, begonias, jethro tull (and whole front bed), and Maia's patch. I also added compost to the half-ass herb garden and to various backyard plants, such as the Lantana.

The Orange Blossom tomatoes are popping. The Sunny Boys are beginning to fruit as well.

a new tomato plant

The white tomato seedling. Bug-challenged Barbarella looking on

A neighbor in Jefferson Park gave me a white tomato seedling which I planted this morning. I mixed potting soil with a little fertilizer into the unamended soil and buried it this morning, finishing it with my dirty mulch and some eggshells around the plant to try and protect it from the bugs. It creates some aesthetic incongruity in Maia's patch, but I can fix that if I just buy some more cypress mulch.

I have no idea what kind of white tomato this is. We shall see.

Maia's patch, aesthetic incongruity and all

"Dirty mulch" is the name I have given to the compost from the vacant lot. My neighbor and I have been composting lawn and yard clippings back there for some time, and I have been composting vegetable and fruit waste there as well. Because of the pine trees that proliferate, the compost is replete with pine straw which does not break down quickly enough. So I've been using it as a "mulch," with the hope that the pine straw will actually help both water filtration and prevent weed growth. I'm sure every amateur gardener has his geek moment, when a small success after months of toil brings joy and anticipation. Utterly incomprehensible to everyone else, such moments are stowed away greedily as treasures. I'm having that kind of geek moment with this compost. I've long wanted to  add truly organic matter to my garden. Now, after months of trudging out with buckets of carrot shavings, onion bits, and lemon rinds to the vacant lot, I am adding organic matter to my garden.

new garden planting

How ya like me now

In an effort to spruce up the dead space around the mailbox, I have planted an assortment of purple sage, Cuphea (Mexican Heather), French Thyme, and Fluted Coreoposos "Jethro Tull". Vinca Major is still growing from transplants, and I've tried a couple of golden pineapple sage cuttings, which don't really seem to be taking root.

The Fluted Coreoposos "Jethro Tull" is by far the most interesting planting so far. A carefree and everblooming new introduction. Compact habit. Bright yellow blooms with unique fluted petals. Spent blooms should be removed to encourage continuous flowering. It sits at one foot right now and will grow another foot before it is all over.

The fluted petals are pretty cool

I have begun laying down my own compost mix in with my flowerbeds. The compost has quite a bit of pine straw in it, so it makes for a good mulch. My hope is that the watering draws down the nutrients into the soil (trickle down gardening?) and the pine straw serves as a weed barrier. It is definitely "dirty mulch," but it could always be covered should one want to go that route.

I also planted BW Pink Begonias along with Coleus "Training Red" in the front planters and Ivy Geranium (Burgundy) and Kuai Rose wishbone flowers in the back planters. Finally, some color...

The Bee Balm finally blooms

garden update

Today I pruned and fertilized the front rose bushes. I also fertilized the pepper plants and eggplant, as well as the mortgage lifters, which are the weakest of the tomato plants at present. Carrots have done NOTHING, and I'm about to throw in the towel on growing from seed. Maybe a row of flowers.

I've also removed a bucket of compost from the back lot. It is not completely broken down yet, but it is now in a plastic bin and will decompose further before I throw it down somewhere.