That is the question of the day . . . can one's thumb be too green? I hope not, because I'm having a blast in mega-green thumb land . . . now, if only I could get some straw bales.
The reason I'm musing about the levels of thumb-greenness is that my greenhouse is full. Truly, bursting at the beams . . . last year, it seemed huge, with only 2 cucumber plants growing in it. I had heating and watering issues, so nothing really grew. Guess that's what happens when you live 10+km away from your garden and greenhouse, eh?
Anyhow, since my husband built me some stands for the plants (Mother's Day present), not only have I managed to organize the greenhouse much better, but it seems that this organization - and living only 10m away from said horticultural enterprises - has enabled the plants to live. To survive. Okay, okay . . . thrive!! As I mentioned in my previous blog posts, I have planted several varieties of tomatoes and cucumbers, as well the peppers and the broccoli. Just experimenting at this stage to see what grows best . . . I thought for sure I'd kill at least half the plants. Not so. Ooops. So now, its over-flowing.
Last week, I planted out 3 of my tomato plants into the garden (the Sub-Arctic variety). I also put out some lettuce (still have 3 in the greenhouse, just for kicks), and the beans I had started early. All have survived. Can't say whether those are thriving or not, because it rained for 5 or 6 days in a row. So now the weeds have grown as well, but I'm not going to moan about those today! Yesterday, I planted out the 2 Romaine lettuce which survived the greenhouse (had a small heat issue with the seedlings), the 4 Buttercrunch lettuce, one Diva cucumber, 2 Straight 8's and 2 Spacemaster's - all except the Diva, I started myself from seed in the dining room! So, there is a little bit more room in the greenhouse, but the remaining plants are only going to get bigger.
I have to repot the Sub-Arctic tomatoes which are staying in the greenhouse . . . hope I can do this successfully, now that there are little green tomatoes on the plants! I need to though, because they need watering 2x a day, when it's not hot, or else they're drooping.
Repotted the broccoli the other day, when it rained - they were seriously root-bound. My Dad says they should be in the garden, not the greenhouse, because of the nature of their roots. Spreading wide and all that. But since the growing season seems to be long, from what I've read - and based on the lack of success I had last year - I've got 'em in pots. Maybe next year, I'll put some out in the garden.
But I suppose you're all wondering just what I'm on about, with the need for straw bales. Well, way back in 1987 a bunch of us went out to Trish's bach at Rakaia (Bernice and Jo, you'll remember this day, I think) - on the way home, we stopped in at our Chemistry teacher's house (I don't remember why) and he was working on his garden . . . he was using straw bales as mulch. Kept the weeds down and the roots cool. My first year of gardening, I tried hay bales. Worked like a charm - the beans were out of the dirt, the leaves stayed clean and the weeds were kept to a minimum. Except for the weeds brought into the garden via the hay bales themselves.
I'm still trying to eradicate those!
So, with a lack of straw, I'm trying peat moss. In the fall, I'll just rototill it into the garden and will be improving the soil - also hopefully lowering the PH in the potato patch, because I have a problem with scab, which would be solved with a lower PH. I put down peat moss around the "early" plants yesterday, and it seems to be doing the trick. As far as keeping the leaves off the dirt - had a thunderstorm last night, and when I went to check this morning, everything looked good.
In the rest of the garden, everything seems to be doing well - all my spuds are up, both Russet Norkota and Sangre. Peas, lettuce, beets, onions and carrots have all sprouted . . . the beans, I've had to restart (in the dining room this time) because the pesky robins dug them all up whilst looking for worms. Kind of a pain, but I do have the other 3 bean plants already growing in the garden (that I started early), to tide us over.
Since it's raining again, there won't be any weeding for me today, bummer. Time to catch up on the laundry, so my kids have clothes to wear, and perhaps a little more greenhouse work. Or, I could just go and play with the new puppy . . . he doesn't seem to mind the rain!!
