The Franz (Mostly) Edible Garden: Ins and Outs

i had a lot planned this weekend. i did. and when i went out to my garden at 7:30am this morning, i found that there was more to do than i originally planned. okay this was my to do list this morning:

- work in the soil ammender, that i sprinkled on top of my cool crop plot #1.
- plant all the beets (i found out i have burpee's golden beets, NOT touchstone gold), broccoli and swiss chard seedlings into the plot (worked on above).
- prepare the cool crop plot #2 by dressing it with soil ammender and covering it with mulch to keep in the moisture.
- till the plot closest to the flower garden since i haven't touched that area yet, and work in some soil ammender and organic fertilizer to get some extra nutrients into that soil.
- find spots for the soy bean and bush bean starts and plant them.
- turn the compost and water it
- plant michihili, pac choi, red and brown onions, spinach and more of the broccoli and beets.

and the other tasks i added as i looked on my garden this morning:

- dig up the 4 soy bean plants near the zucchini plants (they were turning yellow and i think it was past their prime. once that happens, they are prone to fungus attacks and whatnot)
- prepare the area where the late amish tomato plant once stood to receive a bean plant.
- harvest (yes, harvest!) the ripe spitze tomato (yay!)

by 3pm, all these tasks were completed. yeah, i worked almost non-stop like a weirdo on a mission. it was great, though. i loved every second of it - even if it was occasionally filled with bouts of newbie stupidity! (but a good learning experience, i promise!)

to talk about my learning experience, i need to take you back in time when i started to plant my first seeds for the beets, chard and broccoli. i did a newbie no-no (learning experience #1) and didn't label my peat pots after planting the seeds. when they started sprouting, i have NO idea why, by i thought the leaves with the scalloped edges were the beets. in my mind i was 100% sure they were the burpee golden beets, so as i was labeling my second round of seed planting (aha! see, i learned), i took the time to label the scalloped-edge leaf plants "beets", and the ones with the green stem and two long narrow leaves "broccoli". the other one had the same kind of leaves as the broccoli, but had a reddish stem, which i labeled "chard".

well, when my second round of seeds started to grow, i saw scalloped-edge leaves growing out of one of the peat pots labeled "broccoli". my first thought (which had a very convincing "tone" in my head) was "sheesh, looks like i got some beet seeds in with the broccoli". but then later, in another broccoli peat pot, more scalloped-edge leaves sprouted...and nothing else. and then i looked into the pot labeled beets, it had plants with narrow leaves and green stems...THAT's when i realized...hm...maybe i am a bit confused. but i did label my plants correctly during the second sowing of seeds, so they must be right.

and i didn't realize this BEFORE i started planting the seedlings in the ground...nooooo...that would've been too convenient. i realized that AFTER all the plants were planted. and i was interplanting what i thought were beets with the chard and the broccoli! instead of having a row of beets between the rows of chard, i had BROCCOLI between the rows of chard! ARGH! so i replanted the beets and the broccoli. i just hope that my thought on chard vs. beets are correct. so far, i dont have new chard growing from the second set of seeds yet. ugh...anyways... so is the crazy life of a newbie. (and i HAVE learned my ways, i planted new seeds today and ALL of them were promptly labeled right after i sowed them in to each pot.)

anyways, onto my pictorial documentation of my day. *hiding my red face of embarrassment*

first off, the harvest:

my harvest...including the very first heirloom tomato picked fresh off the plant

the spitze tomato. i ate it with my toast for breakfast. very meaty, little pulpy seedy part. very delicious!

and here is the "grape" tomato i planted from seed. it sure is getting a really nice orange color to it. it should be ready any day now.

on to the planting...

my soil ammender (it is great stuff with organic humus and poop from various animals, including bats!), my organic fertilizer and an old trash bucket i will use to hold the mulch used on the plot.

my tools and the seedlings soon to be planted.

and here is the newly planted plot! i first removed the mulch that was on it and put it in the old trash bucket. then, i watered the soil down a bit to make it easier to work with. after that, i just started planting seedlings in the top left square (imagine cutting this plot up into 4 equal squares) and the bottom right. of course this is where i messed up the broccoli and the beet seedlings. but that's all corrected now. once some michihili and pac choi start to grow, i will plant them in the remaining squares and this plot will be all set.

here are some of the seedlings close up. (i actually fixed it before i took these)

in the foreground is the newly planted plot. in the back is the newly prepared plot, where i loosened the soil a bit (this plot was previously worked on a few months ago) and put an inch layer of soil ammender on top and another inch of much on top of that. then i watered the whole thing. the middle plot will be used during the third succession sowing of cool weather crops.

and here is the newly prepared plot with the mulch on it. just in case you don't know, that is a blue lake bush bean growing in the middle of it (also growing out of the plot i just planted with the seedlings). it will help bring nitrogen into the soil and help anything that grows near it to grow better.

this is the newly tilled plot. it used to hold my calla lilies, but i decided to move it up into the flower garden so i can have an extra plot to grow veggies in. i think i will make this the garlic/onion bed, since onions and garlic do not grow well near beans. i dug about 8 inches deep to make sure the soil is aerated, tilled in some soil ammender and organic fertilzer in there and watered it down a bit. later on it will be prepared like the other two plots before it gets planted with seedlings.

here is an overview of the two plots.

and as i was looking for a place to plant my bean seedlings (7 total), i saw something peeking through the back fence...do you see it?

here it is a bit closer up...

and one very close up to my eavesdropper. its some kind of squash/zucchini flower. it is smaller than my zucchini blooms, but when i peeked a bit around that area in my back neighbor's yard, there is what looks to be a large round speckled (dark green skin with speckled white/light green) squash! looks like im not the only one veggie gardening around here...nice!

so here is where i planted 2 of the 4 blue lake bush beans... this is nearer to the almond tree.

here is where i planted the other 2 blue lake bush bean plants, and 2 of the 3 soybean plants. this is where the previous soybean plants were planted. i uprooted them this morning as well and threw them in the compost bin (of course first removing the good soybeans from each plant). you could tell they were slowly dying after spending most of its energy in soybean creation (they were turning yellow, although i did not change the amount of water i was giving it nor was it a question of sun (we have been getting really great warm/hot weather here).

i just wanted to share this one with you because my carrots, in the background, are doing wonderfully! they are growing like weeds! i love it. after planting a few veggies, you come to realize that there are something you just need to plant a lot of - for us it is broccoli, carrots, onions, garlic, soybeans (for me) and one that probably will become one is lettuce.

here is a sugar baby watermelon getting bigger. it is about an inch in length and it is already on a vine that is hanging over the side of the top garden.