Gardening 2013 - May 5th

Here I am finally sitting down to start tracking my garden again. I hope you were wondering "Is she trying again? Any luck? Or did she give up completely and start consuming like everyone else?"

Well, no. I'm back to gardening. This year I was smart. This year I learned a few things from last year. This year I've introduced new things. This year I glanced at books. Last weekend I started saying "I should start the gardening journal back up again." I've always been intrigued at the idea of a gardening journal. There was a book I listened to that talked about a journal from the colonial times that talked about what was cooked and what was planted. It sounded amazing. Here we go.

January to March 2013:

• Started 8 things of seeds up again. These included: Broccoli, Iceberg Lettuce, Little Caesar Lettuce, Brandywine Tomatoes, Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Zucchini, and Peas of some variety. Please note, most of these seeds have dates of 200? to 2010. They've been in the fridge forever and some still grow!
• What actually grew: Broccoli, Iceberg Lettuce, Brandywine Tomatoes, Mortgage Lifters, Zucchini, Cucumbers.
• What actually survived to March and was potted: Brandywine Tomatoes, Mortgage Lifters, Zucchini.
• What I tried a second time in window box, outside: Iceberg Lettuce, Little Caesar.
• What I've bought: butter-something lettuce; cucumbers

Currently in the garden:

• Currently alive and very well (I think) is:
• 4-5 Brandywine Tomato plants (one is very weak but I don't have the heart to end it yet)
• 2 Mortgage Lifter Tomato plants
• 2 Cucumbers of a bush variety sharing a pot.
• 1 Zucchini plant
• 2 Iceberg Lettuce sprouts (last week I drowned one. ;_; )\
• 5 Butter-something (butter crunch I think) Lettuce from The Farm. One was nothing when I got it and I brought it back. Yay me!

Today I finally re-potted some of the tomato plants. I have some 8 inch diameter pots and I kept looking at the 12 inch tall tomato plants and (I think) they were sprouting roots above the dirt. So those in the tiny pots (2-3inches wide) from last month, got re-potted. 

I'm going to keep an eye on what I dubbed "the twins." The twins are two Brandywine Tomato plants that grew together in the pot. They split apart very easily at their roots (unlike the cucumbers I bought that live together in a pot) and now have their own pots. I'm oddly worried they will miss sharing a pot, but I'm hopeful all will have enough room to grow even more until they get planted in their final, 12 inch diameter pots (pretty red things that I treated myself too). Right now they are chilling outside as I'm attempting to harden them off, which I admit, will more likely look like "Hey! Nice weather. Out you permanently go!"

The only downside to the tomato plants so far is that Mortgage Lifters and Brandywines are probably not appropriate to container gardening so I may not have much of a crop but I'm totally winging it. Tomorrow, I'm hoping I can pick up a cherry tomato or Roma tomato plant (both my favorites in general) and one of them I'm certain is container friendly.

I also moved the Zucchini pot. I'm not sure if it is where it should be at this point in the season size-wise, but I realized it needed more sun, so it should be in a better spot now.

Lastly, my compost bin is awesome. I have some great compost but it still has a way to go. I'm hoping for more dirt in a few weeks so I can add that to the pots when I transplant the tomatoes.

Lessons Learned

• I still have lettuce and I have no idea what I'm doing (more of a need to learn).
• Sow seeds early, be attentive to plants, and so far so good.
• I have no patience for veggie plants (why won't they grow bigger and faster! Oh wait...because I'm not a fertilizer type person. I should but I do not like the idea of fertilizer.).