I buckled down and did the pruning. I've been very hesitant since I don't know what they heck I'm doing. But I figure, better to do it wrong than not at all. I'll learn. I also watered the circle garden. The rock wall garden is still to go. We did get about an eighth of an inch of rain yesterday which is not nearly enough.
Today I prepared the mustard bed. It had a lot of cilantro that I just composted. It isn't nearly as nice as the stuff near the foundation of the house. So no need to eat it. It was a fine cover crop though. I know you usually turn under cover crops, but I tossed mine in the compost. Then I spread some manure and fertilizer and aerated the bed.
With my new spiffy rake I raked it smooth and measured out the rows. I'm not sure how far apart to put the plants. I've never grown mustard for seed and most of the instructions are for mustard plants for the leaves. I placed my rows 8" apart. I hope that is enough. The seed was put about an inch apart. OK the seed was not well spaced, but I'm OK with thinning. If you remember, this seed is my grocery store seed. I'm using half yellow mustard and half brown mustard. They did fine in their germination tests.
Before Harvest
After Harvest
Afterwards I picked the over wintered spinach plants. All of them. I didn't pull them out but picked all the good leaves. Some plants I was very careful and picked leaf by leaf. Some I just cut the whole thing with my scissors. The weathermen have finally come to a consensus about Monday's weather. It will be somewhere between 84F and 88F. This is not mid April weather. This is July and August weather. I'm thinking the overwintered spinach might well bolt. If not then the leaf miners will be out very very soon. The overwintered spinach is probably not long for this world. Better to pick and eat it all. Processing it all took forever.
I hope that the spring spinach that is on its way will survive the heat wave. Right now it looks so cute. And it is protected from the leaf miners with a row cover. So at least that won't be a problem.
Your spinach looks so good! I always seem to have problem growing it. It's nowhere near what your is right now. But it's supposed to be semi-warm 60-75 for couple of weeks so I hope it will fill out.
ReplyDeleteOur weather is all over the place. Today we are 80 and tomorrow we will be 67. We are even going to have lows in the 30's on Sunday. We have not been in the 30's in a month. It is crazy this year.
ReplyDeleteI just looked at our forecast and it is supposed to be 88 also. That's just crazy! I was going to plant out some of my cabbage and choys this weekend. But I think I will wait until it cools down a bit. My soil was delivered to the plots today. So, I will be very busy getting my potatoes and onions in and a lot of hauling dirt and building beds!
ReplyDeleteThat 1/8" of rain is more then we got!
What fertilizer do you use ? And how do you aerate the bed ? I am a new gardener in Houston and my plants look very stunted. I got good,organic expensive veg. garden mix from a well known place for the raised beds. I didn't add any amendments to the soil nor did I test the soil. All the seeds(beans, zucchini,etc.) germinated and the tomato,eggplant,pepper plants survived but they are not growing well. The peas did ok Can you help ? I am trying to grow organically and don't know what would you add to the soil.
ReplyDeleteI read your blog regularly and I am learning a lot. I recently built the compost bins and your post helped a lot.
Thanks.
I fertilize with a mix of things. I have a generic organic fertilizer (this one is 7-3-3 I think, but I've used 5-3-3 (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) in the past too). I also add bone char (or bone meal) for more phosphorus. And green sand and/or azomite, both which have a lot of potassium in addition to a lot of trace minerals. How much of the bone char or green sand I add really is based on what I'm fertilizing. For instance if I'm preparing a bed for greens like my spinach I'd just put in the basic fertilizer. Spinach really likes nitrogen. Whereas what I planted today got pretty much even amounts. I planted mustard which I want to flower and make seed. When I plant carrots I don't add a lot of the basic fertilizer, but more of the others. Too much nitrogen can cause problems in carrots.
DeleteThe NPK stands for nitrogen phosphorus and potassium. Basically nitrogen is for leaf growth. Phosphorus is for roots but also for seed production. And potassium is for flowering and helps with disease resistance. They all do a lot more than that, but its the basics. If you have your soil tested you can find out which nutrients might be plentiful or low in your own garden. Mine was lower in phosphorus than the other nutrients so last year I put a lot of bone char on the garden. Plants really won't grow well without fertilizers. You can garden without them, but it takes a lot more work than I put into my garden. You can make compost that is a good fertilizer, but it is hard. It has to be a hot pile and you have to be careful about what you put in. You can get composted cow manure which makes a good fertilizer too. But in my garden my compost is a slow pile so has a lot of good humus, but not many nutrients. Humus or organic matter is what keeps the fertilizer from leaching out of the soil so it doesn't go to waste and contaminate the ground water.
But things like peas and beans (which can take nitrogen out of the air) do OK and the rest don't, you really need to fertilize. Checking the pH of the soil is very useful too. If it is way off the plants won't grow well either.
BTW as a beginner you don't have to buy separate fertilizers and mix them like I do. You can just buy a basic organic fertilizer and use it. Get one that is fairly even in its numbers (like 5-5-5 or something). Follow the directions on the bag as to how much to put on.
And I don't know what you veg garden mix that you filled the raised beds with. I'm a big proponent of real soil. Soil is made from rock. The green sand and azomite that I use for micronutrients are just rock dust. Nature makes rock dust all by itself in the soil at a very slow rate. Taking all the rock (hopefully in little tiny forms) out of a garden seems just wrong to me. The plants need it. That isn't to say you can't grow things in it, I just like natural soil well amended with organic matter better.
As to aerating the bed. I use a garden fork and I've been told that I use it just like people use broadforks. I put it all the way in lever it up, then put it back. I don't move the soil. I just put air in it. I fork the whole bed over this way before planting up. Roots need air to grow well.
BTW I don't know the issues with growing in Houston. You do have a very very different climate. From what I've heard your off season is summer and you can grow all winter long. Just make sure you plant at the right time for your area. My planting schedule would be a disaster for you.
Thanks for answering all the questions. Cleared up a lot of my doubts. Just one more question. Do you buy any particular brand organic fertilizer ? There are too many fertilzers labeled organic.
DeleteNo I don't buy any particular brand. I do buy organic, but that is usually as far as I care. If I thought about it much I'd probably use blood meal or maybe composted chicken poo as a nitrogen fertilizer just because they are waste products. It is the reason I like bone meal too.
DeleteYour doing great Daph! I cannot wait to get out and scratch around (now Im sounding like my Mother) this weekend - after the dentist tomorrow morning that is. Thinking about what Ill be doing in the garden will get me thru my appointment!
ReplyDeleteYour spinach looks great. I like the way the plants have grown so evenly. Mine is doing good, but plant size is all over the map. I should be able ot pick some this weekend.
ReplyDeleteTemps here will be in the high 80's too. I'm a bit worried how the plants will react going from a week of nights in the low 30's to highs near 90.
Hi! I just planted a little cilantro in a pot today. New to this plant. How do you use yours? We need rain too but hopefully will get some this week-end! Nancy at http://cozythymecottage.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteI get this question a lot. I use it in so many ways. I've had a couple of Thurday's Kitchen Cupboards that used a lot of cilantro too. They were a beans and rice dish (Gallo Pinto) and a stir fry. I'll also put them in scrambled eggs, fried rice, salads, dressings, salsas, Asian style soups, and anything with beans.
DeleteWatering so early in the season seem so strange. The local weather people were predicting rain for most of the week, but we didn't get much. I was going to plant out some lettuce and onions this weekend, but Monday will be HOT so I think I will wait until the temps return to somewhat normal. Your spring spinach DOES look cute. I hope the unusual heat doesn't affect it.
ReplyDeleteI went out to cover my spinach/beet bed yesterday, and was saddened to see leaf miner eggs on the leaves already. It's early for them, I figured I had another two weeks to prepare for them. I rubbed off all the eggs I could find, then covered the bed. I hope I didn't just trap in the flies. I'll have to be extra diligent with leaf inspection for a while.
ReplyDeleteThe spring spinach looks great. I have a question about the mustard, even if you're growing it for seed why not use the usual leaf spacings? My thought process being lots of leaves bigger plant, more seeds. Or is the thinking closer spacing will get them to produce seed more quickly? Would be interested to know how you are approaching it. I have put in a couple of mustard plants recently which I will harvest for leaf until spring and then I'd love to get some seed from them too, so I will be interested in your experiment. I'll still need cumin though if I'm to make my completely home grown curry and that I'm struggling with.
ReplyDeleteI normally would have used 6-9" for leaves. I used 8" because it spaces evenly across my bed that way. 9" across a 48" bed doesn't divide up well if I want half on one side (brown mustard) and half on the other (yellow mustard). I figured if I want them spaced farther apart I can space them more in the rows once they come up. I put a lot of seed in there and I don't mind thinning to 12" if I feel it is necessary. And no I don't want them to produce more seed more quickly. You tend to get more and better seed if you space them far enough apart. I'm just crossing my fingers.
DeleteBTW I'm struggling with cumin too. I tried last year but it bolted way too soon. I'm going to try again this year. It didn't seem to like being transplanted. So I'll probably do half of them in soil blocks, but only grown for a couple weeks in them and the other half direct sown as early as things warm up. Well as soon as they warm up permanently, not the up and down we have been having.
I never thought to grow mustard for seed. That's a great idea. I have a bunch of seed from the store, I think I'll do a germination test and if they look good, I'll plant them. Do you know how much seed you get from a single plant?
ReplyDelete