New Transplants to the Neighborhood

Picture by Letty Musick

Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

Our seedlings have been living the plush, comfortable life in a tray in our family room window.  Sorry kids, out you go...

It's time to show these youngsters the way outside where they will now have to sink or swim in the cold, cruel world.

Actually, it's pretty warm now that spring is here and we've made a nice, comfortable, and nutritional bed for them with our tilling.

The little peat pockets I've started them in snap right off of the tray.

Next, a small hole is just right for that little peat pot.  The plant stays in it as the whole thing is put in the ground so no transplant shock and the peat serves as food for the plant.

Time to water in.

Some plants, like the tomatoes and this canteloupe, need some protection from predators so I put this wire basket around them to keep the bad guys at bay.

Now, they're all part of the garden. Let's get ready for the harvest later.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

MacGyvering the Garden

We call my wife Momgyver because she's always coming up with little solutions for problems that pop up. Today, I did a little Dadgyvering in the garden.

Inspecting my spray patterns, I noticed that the water was going right over the top of my onion plant. I tried to get the leaves of that bougainvillea to cover the sprayer but it would not stay there.

No problem, I got this little fly swatter someone gave us that is completely useless for killing flies but it makes a great screen to catch the water and direct it to the onion's roots.

Also, easy propagation...

When a branch breaks off the plumeria, instead of throwing in in the green waste can...

...just stick it in the ground or a pot.

After filling with potting soil, I stick the branch in.

Watered in, it will soon sprout and become a new plant.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Shock Treatment

I have an extra volunteer zucchini plant that must have sprouted from one of last years seeds.  I transplanted it to a sunnier spot.

Here it is a couple of hours later, showing signs of extreme shock.

I watered...drenched, actually...in with B1 and water but I guess that only goes so far.

Luckily, it's still a hardy plant with lot's of life inside. Three days later, the plant is looking much better.  Now, we'll see if the sunny side of the path is more to it's liking.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Mid Season Adjustments to the Team

Like a baseball team, we make adjustments to our lineup and batting order in our garden. Luckily, this year seems like it will just take a little shuffling around with our players and not a fire sale like last year's growing season.

This weekend is one of those weekends where the chores are gloriously few. Yeah, I had to mow the lawn but this sun-scorched patch of drought plagued grass does not have much left to cut.

It only took five minutes.

Time freed up, I decided to try a couple of things I've been wanting to experiment with.

First, I got a little volunteer zucchini plant that must have sprouted from one of last year's seeds.  This gives me an opportunity to move it across the path to the sunny side to see if I get more production on that side rather than the shady spot it's in now.

There it is, put in the ground. It'll now sink or swim in between our tomatoes.

Second, I have an old piece of an onion that I've been holding in the fridge for an appropriate time like today.

It's starting to sprout, so I'm putting it in the whiskey barrel to see if I can turn it into a crop.

Both plants drenched in B1 and water, it's time to let them go and see what happens.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Right Reserve

Carrots for Mental Health

Recently, my son had a bout with depression and anxiety. While we spent many hours with professionals, I thought of something we could do at home to take his mind off of things. I had him plant a mental health plant.

To do this, I showed him our collection of vegetable seeds and let him pick one. He picked carrots.

Taking a red solo cup and poking holes in the bottom, we filled it up with mix and he put the seeds in. He's been taking very good care and watering it every three days. Now it's time to transplant.

The picture above shows the plants ready to go, with a beer-bottle filled with a B1 mix to prevent transplant shock.

Now in the whiskey barrel, we'll see how these carrots do.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Caging You Up for Your Own Good

Last year, the garden was devastated by animals coming down from the dry mountains to eat the succulent, tender shoots of my vegetables coming out of the ground. This year, I'm determined not to let that happen again, so the main theme of this weekend's gardening is animal repellent.

No, I'm not using any chemical or traps. I'm not interested in harming anything...at least proactively. My goal is, however, to make my plants look uninviting and a bit hazardous for critters to get to so maybe they'll find greener pastures to feed in.

This year, I've got new onion, tomato, zucchini, and corn seedlings.  There's already evidence that something has been chewing on the onion seedlings, which I left in the open after transplanting. No one seems interested in the corn, so I'll just leave that one alone.

So here's my plan...

I'm wrapping tomato cages in chicken wire.

It's a bit tricky when the wire comes on a roll to flatten it out so I can cut it. I hold it down with my foot and snip away.

After wrapping the cage, I make cuts in the edge at the top to form little spikes in case any animal gets adventurous and climbs up. The poke should make 'em think twice about going over the top.

All done.

I'm using the temporary wire cover I used for the tomato seedlings to cover the onion plants to give them a chance to survive the season.  Let's see how all this caging works out as the season goes.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

At the End of the Falls

This hanging basket of tomatoes is called 'cherry falls.' It didn't do real well it's first year but I left it alone and another year of benign neglect led to some pretty good harvests this year.

Tomatoes are not really known as perennials, however, and I think it's the end of the line for this plant.

Easy enough...I have a batch of cherry tomato seedlings in need of transplant so I dump the old plant, line with a plastic bag (with a few holes poked in it for drainage), and fill with mix.

Tada! The new seedlings are ready to go.

They're hung up, got their own dripper, and are being watered in. 

Let's see how they do.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Deep Sixing the Seedlings

OK, 4 weeks in the nursery is enough. Time for you kids to go out and earn your keep.

At two weeks, they were poking their tiny, little shoots above the mix.

Three weeks, they were starting to show their differences.

Now at four weeks, they're about to bust the pots...except for the onions, whose leaves still look a little weak.

Tilling the ground with a little Amend and then popping those seedlings into their slots for the season.

The roots are very healthy, as you can see in this pot of corn. They're biodegradable...in fact, already dissolving...so I just pop 'em in the ground.

I need to find something to repel the pests. For now, I'm covering with some chicken wire, watering in, and then tend until harvest.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

This Year's Model (Crop)...

I've decided to start my vegetable garden a month later this year. Instead of planting in January, as I have in years past, I'm starting at the beginning of March.  You can see the crop selection up above.

Last year's garden was the most unproductive I've ever had. The main culprit was the extreme and prolonged drought California experienced.  While the lack of water was one thing (a 50% surcharge was added to the water you used over your allotment), the critters were another.

We live right up against the mountains. The very, very dry mountains.  With no food and little water, the animals were pushed down into the residential neighborhoods below.  This meant deer would eat my roses. Rabbits and squirrels joined the mocking birds and jays, taking turns eating the fruits of our labors, or most often just chewing up the tender new growths of the plants.

They killed our zucchini, decimated our chile plants, and took all our tomatoes.  

Only the tomato plant I had in a hanging basket and our grapes gave me any meaningful crops, and not much at that.

Let's hope I can come up with some strategies of pest repellance if the dry weather makes a comeback.

In the meantime, I'm starting my seeds.  It's a rainy weekend, so this is a great project to do indoors, in the garage.

I got this little 7 pot seed starter kit at Lowe's.  The pots are biodegradeble, so I can just stick 'em in the ground when I'm ready.

My wife has this bag of potting mix for her euphorbias and I'm going to use a little for my seeds.

Filling up each pot with the mix, I tamp down on the soil with my fingers, pushing it down to good seed depth.

I put a few seeds in each pot, cover with mix, tamp down and water in.

Finally, I'm leaving them indoors until they're strong enough to transplant and repel the invaders. They're sitting in a sunny, southern window until then.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

The Grass Could Be Greener

This is the time of year my lawn looks its best. From about February to April is its peak. Last year, I tore up the dirt and seeded in a drought tolerant blend in November. This gave me an even longer lush looking lawn, from December to June, then the hot, drought afflicted summer months took its toll, making it hard and brown.

I still have one bag of seed left of that drought-tolerant mix (actually, not tolerant enough for our extremely hot summers). The weather forecast says we're about to get four days of free water courtesy of Mother Nature.

This is the perfect time to put that last bag in the spreader and overseed the lawn.

While the lawn is looking good, it still hosts of lot of weeds and sports a few bald spots where I dug some of those intruders up.  I take my spike tool and aerate those spots, giving the seed holes to take root in.

I go over the entire lawn twice, the bald spots get four passes with the spreader.

Seed spread, time to go in before the rain starts coming down. It may still be a drought but we should be getting at least twice as much water as last year.  

I'll be eager to see how long the lawn lasts this year.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved