my marigold problem

I think I have mentioned my marigold problem before, but today I would like to elaborate. 

The books on companion planting and natural pest deterrents suggest planting marigolds alongside certain veggies. When I started from seed the last week of April, I bought some marigold seeds for this reason.

They started out innocently enough. 

But then they just kept growing!

It was around this stage that I started wondering why they weren't flowering. They had two successful months growing and seemed an appropriate height to earn some buds....

But they just kept growing!!! So, I finally checked the seed package. Apparently, the marigolds you see in most gardens are the miniature variety and, apparently, I unknowingly went big then brought them home. My marigolds are to grow to 24" average height. 

This last week or two I have learned the affects of not reading the package. Things are starting to crowd and not work out the way I planned.

Example 1:

Flashback a few weeks ago, I originally wanted the lower portion of my herb planter to have a row of marigolds. You know, to keep the bunnies away. So I planted a few. Six or so along the bottom rim. And they did what my marigolds do, grew and grew...

Last week I realized that if that marigold between the tomato and kale is as big as it is... and still growing... These little guys in the blue pot will soon be towering over the top shelf sage and outright consuming the middle row basil. 

Today I pulled all of the marigold out of the herb planter and dropped them into  the dirt next to it. Today, I also had to do something about this guy. 

The tiny seed in the tiny blue pot is now two feet tall. She is root bound and the pot dries out minutes after a watering. I dropped her into the soil with the others and hope that her transplant shock won't slow down her flowering.

I'm not kidding these things are getting huge. The difference in sizes are due to some starting from seed indoors in April and others starting from seed outdoors when we planted at the end of May.

SERIOUSLY!! See the terracotta pot in the middle? That's all marigold.

And lucky for us, some of them are getting their first buds... 

... or as I am affectionately beginning to call them... My little monsters.

and their heads popped off

Remember those big, beautiful zucchini blossoms? Need a reminder?

Well yesterday, the biggest one broke off and lay in the dirt next to the plant. When I saw, I thought it seemed strange - maybe a critter ran through and snapped it off? It certainly didn't look chewed on. And whoever might have broken it off obviously had no interest in eating the delicious blossom. The stem looked clean cut, not chewed or bent or damaged in anyway. Must be a critter brushing past, right? So I did the only thing I knew how to do and put out some Shake Away (fox urine) on the grass circling my crops to deter the pests.

Then this morning... I see this:

Two more snapped off! Laying in the dirt. That's three stems that look severed at the tip. You can see them in the picture. The weirdness seemed weirder. Now I did the only other thing I could think to do - google it.

Apparently this is a normal thing. A normal thing that my gardening bible didn't mention. When male flowers are finished they just pop right off. I suppose in attempt not to waste energy. The other reason this happens is female flowers will fall when they weren't properly pollinated, presumably for the same reason. So then my question was... Do we have a pollination problem and when do you step in?

I am also turning to google for this one. I watched a vimeo with explanation of male and female flowers and how to help pollinate. I learned that the three flowers we lost were all male flowers, so I guess it's not terrible that we lost them. Zucchinis produce both male and female flowers but the trick is that they have to be open at the same time to have the chance of cross pollination. This might be reason enough to plant multiple zucchini plants, we only did one and maybe multiples would make this process a little easier or greater chances of happening 'the natural way'.

So today and tomorrow.. we will survey the scene. It looks like we have some male and female flowers that are getting close to opening. I'll report if we intervene!

come on little guys

You can do it!

Zucchini

Raspberry

Tomato

Bean

what two weeks looks like

Harvest time

My first harvest. Some basil. A little kale. And a radish that just won't bulb. None of them did, so we pulled them to make room in the trough for the sprawling zucchini. We will try the radishes again for a fall crop. 

My Pinterest planter

I started browsing Pinterest for ideas while I dreamed about this year's garden. In some cases, it has been useful and in others ... not so much. 

Starting my seeds in eggshells... Pinterest.

This planter... Pinterest. 

But the jury is still out on this one. What I like about it is it's vertical nature. I'm always trying to grow up and above the heads of the neighboring bunnies. I also like the aesthetic and it seemed a good use of the spare terracotta pots in the garage. What I don't like about it might be a longer list. 

The tilt on the pots make them pretty difficult to water. Water just runs down and out, away from the very plants that need it. With that water run off comes some soil (hence the constant dirt on the sides of the pots). And WITH that soil, comes whatever seeds you were trying to germinate or mature. The heavy rains over the past few days have washed away my mint seedlings. Yet again. I have resown them three times already.

We will see how this concoction does throughout the growing season. My hope is that as the plants mature, their leaves might create an umbrella of protection and prevent the soil from washing out during heavy rains. Watering is possible with patience and a gentle touch. I simply have to remember the Tender Loving Care part with these herbs.

My advice if you try this - don't bother with seed. Start with mature plants. My basil and sage are doing alright at the moment. Maybe not flourishing, but not withering either. 

Tip - this planter also tends to get waterlogged. So pick appropriate plants that don't mind moist soil.

Raspberry Update

Remember when I bought a raspberry on May 3 and it looked like this:

?

Well, today, it is May 28 and my raspberry bush is looking pretty bushy. I made my first rhubarb crisp of the season last weekend and I eagerly await the day I can make raspberry/rhubarb crisp. Party at my house... hey...

Lots of brand new shoots have been sprouting from the dirt. Little guys like these...

There are little buds on the tips of each branch that might be the start of the actual berries? But I'm not entirely sure and, I suppose, only time will tell.

This plant is probably the most curious to me. Well, this plant, and maybe the radishes since I can't see what they are doing down there, way underground. Today, Rob pulled one up because the greens are getting pretty tall and they were in the ground for about 4 weeks now. It was a stem and no radish bulb. I think that means we have too much nitrogen in the soil? We are going to try to balance the nutrients in the planter to see if it helps. 

But.. then.. it begs the question... are these plants spent then? Can they still develop a bulb? Do I need to start anew? I have no idea. Most of what I have read on radishes is that 'they simply grow'. No rules or regulations. They are just supposed to work. Mine worked sans bulbs. This is what bulb-less radishes look like.... 

Oh me, oh my

My poor, poor little plants. You nurture them for 6 weeks, fawning day in and day out over them, and then they are slapped in the face by reality. Mother Nature can be pretty heavy handed sometimes.

The zucchini, tomato and marigolds in the large planter weathered most of last week well. But one night (Thursday perhaps?) came a hard frost. A frost that made me nervous enough to throw a fleece over the hoop house. Though they survived the night, they were definitely kissed by the frost. The zucchini shows it the most. My poor plants.

                                             

Saturday was planting day since the forecast predicted a week full of 70 degree weather. It felt like the time. Planted on Saturday and Sunday became a blazing, sun filled scorcher fulfilling the 70 degree promise. While I was away at work, my babies were getting a sunburn. Our efforts hardening off were no match to the sun strengths. All of those days they sat outside weathering were nowhere near as sunny. And sunny Sunday did a number on them. At least, I think it is sunburn? It turns out it's a rather hard thing to confirm online. Even harder to find a remedy to. The leaves on my bean plants and some marigolds look almost metallic; pale silver in color and losing green pigment. My poor, poor plants.

                                                

And then came Monday. A day that I should have been more prepared for - rain. The rain was not a surprise, but the torrential downpours were. My plants were left soaked, droopy and heavy with fluid.  We (and by we I mean Rob) scrambled to move what we could indoors and secured the failing hoop house. My poor, poor, poor plants.

I am hoping for the turn around. Wishing for the perk up. I'm feeling a little bit like a failure and a little bit overpowered by nature. My poor, poor little plants.

Woo woo!

They made it through the night! No signs of unhappiness. We even have a second zucchini blossom opening...

Hello hoop house

I've been desperate to get things outside and of course the weather hasn't been cooperating. Granted, it's mid-May, which isn't very dependable and generally too early to put things outside. But I'm doing it anyway.

I built a mini hoop house around my big planter to protect from the elements, hoping to move some things outside and out of my kitchen. I used PVC tubing anchored by some U-shaped brackets that I screwed onto the outside walls. Covered, of course, by plastic, and the 1mil I bought isn't heavy duty enough, but it'll do the job this time. This was a $10 solution to the 'get me the fuck outside' problem. 

I left the kale in there last night to weather the storm, and it seemed a success. Today we (by we I mean... I made Rob) planted our tomato and zucchini. Cross your fingers everybody!!

This gives us the opportunity to pull the tarp back during warm minutes, and protect a little bit against the cold ones. I hope it does the trick, if not, I still have one tomato and one zucchini waiting inside as back up.

Also, those tiny sprouts in the middle are radishes.

I can't wait to start reaping the rewards.