This has been a rather odd year for the garden. The last 2-3 years have had a long spring with lots of overcast and some snow or threats of snow. Because of this, it seems as though my tomatoes have not grown an inch since I’ve planted them, plus, I’ve already lost two. Thank goodness for the one volunteer that came up from last year. I would plant more in the front yard, but the soil is so clay-y and I need to sit Ralph down to discuss areas that he will need to voice opinions over (namely the area where he needs to get into to fiddle with the sprinklers).

What is growing is either suffering from immediate harsh sun; bleaching flowers or crisping leaves. The new peony and penstemon I bought this year will have to show me what they got next year because they are looking shot.

As far as amending the soil in the front yard, I was using this one spray that was seeming to work miracles, but not enough to let some plants thrive. I’ll have to find a way to dig up the soil and amend it for next year. If I do it now, I’m hoping that I might at least be able to plant in the fall. Everything is just so stunted that I feel like this year is lost. Let’s hope that I’m wrong.

This weekend was supposed to be fairly low-key with my only goal being to plant my seedlings. Then a client who I’ve been checking in with for months about doing their web site called to say they needed it up ASAP. So Friday, Saturday and Sunday was spent working on the site and getting it up for a Monday launch.

I found a half hour on Saturday to work on my smallest veggie bed. This year it is the bed of experimentation. I’m growing scallions, romanesco broccoli and cabbage all from seed. I had to rearrange it a bit due to the horrible soil I got that is nearly pure clay. Because of that, my scallions are too clumped together and the broccoli and cabbage grew on bent stems. I spaced these all out a bit better and hope they survive because today they are looking ragged.

Today, Sunday, I planted all of my tomatoes, eggplants, okra, watermelon and lemon cucumbers in the remaining beds. The artichokes have a few baby buds and the peas finally have blooms. My Kentucky Wonder Beans are looking a little runtish. Unfortunately, with trying 4 new things this year, I ran out of room for the zucchini and other squash. Decided to fill in the front garden with these, making it a true cottage garden. I had to plant the seeds in the sunniest of spots remaining inside the fence because the thought of them being outside the fence bugs me for some reason. The soil in horrible, so I’ll take the next day or two to think of alternate places to throw a few seeds in. There’s always the border around the backyard. I just consider that iffy since we don’t have a soaker hose in place there yet. Maybe it’s time to just put one in since I plan on focusing my efforts on filling that in next year.

I was hoping to email both Angela and Brian before the weekend ended, but I guess that will just have to wait until tomorrow.

Oh yeah, one branch on the thought-dead rhododendron has blooms. Maybe I’ll just move the poor thing one more time to see if it will survive after all. My peonies are also looking a bit runtish. Will give them a good dose of bulb food when it’s time to cut them back. They were barely over a foot this year. Got plenty of blooms from them, but the plant is supposed to be about 3′ tall.

Hi Gardening Michelle 2011,

It’s me again, GM 2010. I’m writing to remind you of a few more things to make gardening easier and hopefully more successful.

You’ve got enough iced mocha cups now, both with and without holes on the bottom. Remember to put the ones with holes into the ones without holes, but make sure the ones without holes have a little water in them. This will let you water from the bottom, which is better for the roots and will also reduce the frequency you need to water. Plus, if you use fish fertilizer, the top cup will block most of the smell and your house won’t smell like a pond. Just make the holes a little bigger because I’m not sure the water is getting soaked up as regularly as it should.

The plastic salad bins worked great as a greenhouse for the eggplants, consider getting at least one carnivorous plants for the gnats that may appear again (name it Audrey III), get the italian veggie seeds at Rail City and remember to start only half of your flower seeds indoors. Start the rest of the flower seeds outside, once you know what the seedlings look like. That way, you’re not pulling up poppy seedlings because they look like dandelions.

Oh! Before I forget, your lilac is going to look all fallen over as it did this year for the first time. Either remember to prune or trellis it somehow, because it looks like crap.

Smooches, GM 2010

Today was the long-awaited plant swap. Unfortunately, one of the other ladies didn’t show up so it was just the hostess, Shannon (who I brought along) and myself. The hostess, Kris, and her husband Bobby were very nice. Unfortunately, the only downside was that I didn’t get any plants out of it. Kris had prepared goodie baskets for the two people who were posting on the forum that the swap was first suggested on. Shannon’s seedlings were too few to share since she is starting her first garden, so I told her she was more than welcome to offer some of mine since I brought a ton. Came home with maybe half or a little less.

After running errands with Ralph, I consolidated what was left in the living room and was able to fit them all on window sills. The card table was put away and the plant holder is now back on the porch. I fed the compost bin, tried seeing if I could root some cuttings from the winterberry bush and started cleaning up some of the nursery pots to store away for next year. I’ve learned so much this season that I’m already looking forward to next season.

That’s right, snowed. So needless to say I’m not outside in the yard. I did give the seedlings indoors a bit of fish fertilizer because some of my eggplants were getting yellow leaves. I ended up pulling out a handful of seedlings that looked too beat up to even bother with. I figure that, since I have packets of seeds, I could pick out the ones that I had extra seeds for.

Of the two tomatoes I started (black zebra and Tula black seaman [no joke, that's the name]), the zebra started slower but is now looking more developed than the Tula.

Ralph has decided to only use one of the Topsy Turveys this year for his Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, so I may use the Topsy Tree for some of my seedlings. I also have a pot that a now-dead indoor tree used to inhabit. I will probably fill it up with sugar snap peas. In previous years I would only plant like 6 sugar snap peas because the plant quantity seemed like a good amount, but the average harvest was usually only enough to use as garnish (5-6 pods per plate). In one of the garden beds, I’ve planted 10-15 sugar snap peas, but this will allow me another set to harvest and to move in the shade if needs be. Plus, if it has a decent yield, I can always take out what’s in the bed for other plants.

After the fish fertilizing and seedling thinning, I think I have some better ways of starting seedlings for next year if I have to do it indoors. I feel like I’m blabbing.

I spent just enough time outside to water things. My Disney rose bush is looking pretty bad. I’m already determined to go buy another one, but I will wait and see what happens this week. 3-4 more tulips bloomed. I thought these were in an area I only planted friteralia in but I could be wrong since these are solid.

I didn’t realize the plant swap was so soon. I thought I had at least another 2 weeks. I’m not sure my offerings are looking too healthy right now. Might post that on the forum and see if others are suffering the same fate. We’re all in the same area, so there is a chance that it’s not just me having a black thumb. I’ll make sure everything is well-watered and then bring them all out in the sun tomorrow. It just feels like a bad gardening day.

A blue jay decided to build a nest above one of our back patio lights; the one closest to the grill. Between a metal patio roof, light fixture and grill, I’m worried that the eggs will cook rather than incubate. Ralph thinks we should move it before eggs appear and the bird get territorial.

Onions look like they are getting stronger after an iffy transplant. Not all of them, mind you, but a decent amount for my first try.

I mulched the Disney rose bush because it’s looking pretty bad. I hope, hope, hope it survives. If it dies, I’m going back for another. I absolutely love the blooms.

I think I figured out what is happening to my blackberry lilies. Either doves or quail are doing their butt-imprints and snacking on them…including the ones I just planted. If any are left, I’ll be very surprised. Two of my 5 dahlias have fallen over. I’m half tempted to think that the doves or quails had a hand in that as well because it looked like somethings tried to uproot my tulips, too. Might it be raccoons?

Had to replant some things for the swap. Since I hate the wind, I didn’t go out and peek at the seedlings I left outside to harden off and they dried out.

Other than that, I’m at a point where I just want to see if what I have and what I’ve planted are going to get to a good start from here on out. This is the last night in the next ten days at least where the night will be in the 30s. The lows are projects to stay in the 40s for most of the week with low 50s showing up by next weekend. *crosses fingers*

Dear Michelle 2011,
Has 2010 taught you anything? I hope so. For instance, I hope the first seeds you sow are your cool-season crops on or around St. Patty’s Day, as is the tradition in Reno. If you order seeds online, I hope you remember to give them to Ralph when they arrive so that he can hide them from you until Tax Day. You hear that? TAX DAY.

If you forget and you sow early, you totally deserve the crowded areas around your windows, the gnats you detest so much that you forewent indoor plants for so long to avoid, the sad-looking seedlings that look like they won’t make it, the pain of hardening off too many plants that you didn’t winter sow (in and out, in and out, in and out), the realization that your Spring Cleaning efforts are almost all for naught after one weekend of said hardening off, the legginess of more than half of your seedlings because you don’t have a grow light.

Isn’t that what you should be doing right now, instead of fussing over seedlings? Spring Cleaning, finishing up any indoor projects before the warm, non-windy weather beckons you like a siren and doing more of the personal art projects I hope you accomplished in 2010. On nice early Spring days, did you spend the time to amend your clay soil in the front yard? The soil that make planting any new plants or seeds a pain in the ass? Have you at least mulched?!?!?!?

Please remember that late April through most of May is windy, and you hate the wind, don’t you? You’ll neglect things outside on the really windy days and realize that you may have to redo a lot of what you have already accomplished because you started too soon.

If you’ve found a way to create a hoop house, cold frame, cold tunnel or other contraption to lengthen your growing season, do not forget to only start with seeds you know you can replace/resow if they don’t make it your first year using your newfangled thingamajig.

DO remember that you liked using iced mocha cups for starting eggplants and tomatoes and that baggies over red plastic cups (for Sugar Baby watermelon, lemon cucumbers and zucchini) will only work if, as soon as the plant is big enough to not fit in the baggie, it should be near planting-out time. Beans grow fast and do not need to be started indoors.

Remember to try wintersown gardening. If you forget your reasons, look at token’s blog for 2010. He had hundreds of plants that were hardy and good-sized to work with.

Exercise patience, don’t use the generic Ace soil in the white bag and remember to order & use the nifty spray you found that reduced the clay-i-ness of your soil.

Best wishes,
Michelle 2010

I planted the Disney rose bush and two bishop’s weed. We’ll see if I regret the bishop’s weed in the coming years. It can be invasive but is such a nice-looking ground cover that I hope I won’t. That’s the hard part about ground covers, finding one that will spread a decent enough area that you don’t have to buy a million plants. Maybe that’s why I like my lamium so much. It grows about 18″ wide and then stays that size. If you cut some out to transplant, it fills back in. Of course, it’s a gorgeous ground cover, too. One of my lamb’s ears is not looking so hot so I moved an urn-shaped planter that was next to it in case it just wasn’t getting enough sun.

I wish I had more to report on the veggie gardening. At least I’m down to just one window (with a card table) of seedlings still indoors. I left a good portion of Plant Swap seeds and seedlings outside. Figured I can start the hardening off process for the future owners.

I still need to plant my pieris. I hope to do that this weekend, if not sooner, so that the plant doesn’t die in the pot. Each year, there seems to be one plant that suffers that fatality. Watered everything and it looks like half of the dianthus and poppies that were put in ground might make it. Keep your fingers crossed because tonight it’s supposed to be cold.

I hate working outside when it’s windy so I didn’t, even though my new Disneyland rose bush has already brought me so much joy. I love staring at it and kept a picture open of it on my desktop all day. I hope I can plant it out tomorrow. Also, due to the wind, I didn’t bring any plants out for hardening off.

I did a lot of potting up over the weekend. But now I think I’m at an awkward point where I should plant this weekend and hope for the best, but I also want the plants to “rest” a bit in their new pots. As gentle as I try to be when repotting, I’m sure it’s still enough of a shock to the little seedlings. The night time weather is still going to be in the 40s for the next ten days as least, so maybe I won’t be planting this weekend. Damn me and my early planting!!! A lot of my squash already have buds on them. I think they’re a bit small for that right now, but I have plenty of seeds left over to start from scratch if I need to. They are fast growers so I’m not overly worried about them. It’s the tomatoes and eggplants I need to worry about.