Take risks! jump in!

I'm going in! The forecast has no frosts through May 15th, which is the average last frost date - so I'm going to plant my tomatoes and everything that I was going to plant indoors last week (like marigolds) outdoors today or tomorrow (depending on the weather). Then I will pray. And possibly find out who has extra floating row cover (a white, floaty mesh covering for plants in case of late frosts - it has to be hooped up over the plants with pvc piping). I only need a little bit, so it would be a shame to buy a whole row.

My tomatoes are tall enough to be staked at this point. The peppers didn't respond well to hardening off, so I lost 2 plants in the cold frame, but that's okay. the few calendula and daisies the survived the dampening off epidemic that hit this spring are going strong. The leeks are spindly and never quite grew well. I can't tell why, but I'll try to transplant them and see how they do. I've decided I'm going to grow several of the smaller tomato varieties (Garden peach and also the ground cherries) in pots so as to have them right at my doorstep. I'm also going to try to keep the black krim in a pot, though I don't know how much they like that, seeing as they're big plants. the sauce tomatoes will be fine in the garden. I have a steady supply of chives, oregano, sage, marjoram, and rhubarb from my landlord's garden

Lettuce, chard, kale, chives, and chamomile have all germinated. More calendula has been direct seeded in the garden, which will be coming up soon. The peas are going strong and climbing up the trellis. Everything has been thinned. I'm doing basic weeding, but keeping off until the little veggies get a bit bigger so I don't weed them by mistake (and because weeds are easier to pull when they have 4 leaves). My constant weed struggle currently is with the morning glory vines that insist on popping up everywhere and grow faster than humanly imaginable. The thistle in the northwest corner of the garden is, sadly, growing strong. I might take a scythe to it to keep it from flowering.

Sorry for the lack of updating. I'v been too busy lounging outside and enjoying the weather.

Garden Journal - 5 weeks Before Last Frost

I planted my ground cherries, finally. And I separated my seeds into separate envelopes, as is my habit, organized by planting times. That way I can reach for my packet that says "3 weeks before last frost - indoors" and plant all of those seeds in one go next week without consulting which seeds I need to plant or where I need to plant them, or searching through all my other seeds for them.

In other news, I thought my rosemary was a lost cause, but it germinated! yay!

Things seem to be doing well. Some damping off of daisies and calendula, but the repotting has helped with the mold, which seemingly cleared up. Most everything has a second pair of leaves on it.

Time to get out the cold frame and start hardening off some of my lovely little seedlings.

Repotting, fighting fungus

I repotted all of my nightshades yesterday into plastic pots, composting the newspaper ones into my weeds-only compost. The mold was clearly growing in the newspaper itself, and only then spreading to the soil. Hopefully, the move will help with the fungus problem. I haven't found my book on organic disease-curing in the garden (probably lost in the move, alas!)

Please feel free to ask questions - I'm always happy to answer. Leave a comment and I'll let you know all about it if I can!


More later (about kombucha). For now, endless amounts of data entry.