The Fall Garden: A Budget-Friendly Endeavor

The first summer garden project was deemed a success and we are back with more!  In an effort to save a buck, we went aggressive and planned for an all seed garden plan.  This would include starting all plants from direct sow.  In lay terms, you put the seed in the pot and hope for the best.

Here was the plan:

All our supplies were obtained at Lexington Fayette Seed, a garden supply store.  This time around I hit the jackpot by getting a bunch of free gardening advice from the employees.  Try to go early morning if you can.  They are less busy and can spend more time hashing out your gardening problems.  For us, it was starving plants the first time around.  We were shooting for eco-friendly, but the truth was we needed stronger fertilizer.  Because we are pot planting, we cannot take nutrients from the ground soil.  This also means we don't necessarily have to worry about improving the soil quality because new soil is used with each planting.  We spent $45 for seeds, soil, fertilizer, and more pots.

After watching a bit of Genetic Roulette this week, there has been a lot of introspection on the role of organic seed and fertilizers.  If you are unaware about genetic modification, please spend some time educating yourself about this scary new trend which is infiltrating farming and our grocery produce.  While we are not practicing organic gardening at this point, we do plan to make a conscious effort on our next garden to practice these important methods.  At any time, you can find Mary around the house with her head in the Seed Savers Exchange Catalog.

Just look at the beauty.....

Off the high horse and onto the rest of the supplies....

We started by preparing the pots with rocks on the bottom.  Mary may have obtained these from a big pile of rocks at the end of an empty cul de sac in the rain frantically while also trying to not draw attention to herself.  This ensures adequate drainage and promotes good root health since they won't be sitting in sopping wet soil.  Mix in a bit of fertilizer with your potting mix if you are using potting soil that does not include fertilizer.  The kindly employee also said composted manure works well mixed in the bottom soil, so it does not come in contact with the seeds.  Most local stores will sell composted manure bagged like soil.  Not to be confused with that flaming bag of poo some conniving teenager just left on your front step.

For very small seeds, Cut a toilet paper roll in thirds to make sure watering the soil does not move the seeds around.  Some people like to throw their whole seed packet in and thin later.  It seems like a waste of seeds that will last for the next several years!  The toilet roll will compost itself.  We store our seeds in the fridge in a mason jar in a plastic bag in their original seed packets. Whew!

Of course we had to take the time to make adorable plant tags!  Would love to make some polymer clay tags in the future....stay tuned.

Stay tuned for the three week progress update.  What are you planting this fall?  Any thoughts on genetic modification (GMO)?

Happy Digging!

The Holsingers

Adventures in Summer Gardening

Hurray!  Our very first endeavor in vegetable gardening!  Of course, we have dabbled in the past...basil here....rosemary there.  This was the real deal.  We had to care for something consistently.  Oh lord, please let this be better than all our potted plant attempts (RIP White Bird of Paradise).

We started with the list.  This would be a small ordeal to avoid the potential massive waste of money.  The first trip was to our local Farmer's Market where we picked up the loot.  We bought 4 plants for $10.  We also went to the local seed shop to get four plastic pots and a whole bunch of soil for $25.  The amateurs would have to return for two tomato cages a couple days later mainly because our Pink Lady Tomatoes had an estimated height of NINE FEET TALL.  Oops.

1. Delirio Orange Peppers
2. Summer Sweet Peppers
3. Pink Lady Tomatoes
4. Sun Sugar Cherry Tomatoes

We planted everything around Mother's Day, which was a great decision because we ended up getting a very late frost which would have possibly been detrimental to our plants.  This was strictly by luck and absolutely no knowledge of plants.  Our first harvest would not come until July 4th weekend, which I hear is pretty typical for Kentucky.  Fast forward to August.

As Emeril would say, BAM!  If only everything were as easy as scrolling down for results.  Fortunately no tears were shed in the growing of these plants, but certainly a lot of learning occurred!  You will notice the addition of three herbs.

1. Cilantro
2. Basil
3. Parsley
4. Mint

Direct Sow Seeds

Basil started in individual empty yogurt containers then transplanted

The herb packets were a whirlwind decision at Walmart (yes, I know everything was local earlier in this journey).  We had the basil on hand from another season.  All were a direct sow right into their respective pots.  To keep the small seeds in place, I cut old toilet papers rolls in half and buried them most of the way into the soil.  They will decompose on their own.  Cost: about $10 with the addition of three more black plastic pots.  We also needed more soil.

By this point, we had reached (or overreached) the point of fertilization.  After some research, it was decided Fish Emulsion was the way to go.  There are A TON of fertilizers out there.  Many of them are made with unnatural ingredients and do nothing to improve the quality of your soil.  Fish Emulsion is very cost effective because you only need a little and it does add nutrients to the soil.  WARNING: please prepare yourself for the foul-fish smell before use.  Also house your pets as they will try to roll in the puddles that you spilled all over the deck.  Don't worry, the smell dissipates after it dries.

Every learning experience is not without a few hiccups.  We had our fair share of difficulties along the way.  Many thanks to Gracie Hyland for her immense plant knowledge!  We certainly tapped that (her plant knowledge that is).  She also gave me a great resource for troubleshooting.

WARNING




IMPENDING GROSS PLANT PICTURES




ALSO BUGS




LAST CHANCE TO EXIT THIS PAGE

We are certainly not experts, in fact if you have read anything up to this point, you know that we know nothing about plants.  But with enough research, we believe the above pictures to be Blossom Rot.

Blossom Rot occurs with irregular watering.  Unfortunately, irregular watering is the most likely rookie mistake.  Water once daily, unless it rains. (That is straight from the guru herself, Gracie).

Do you see him?  He does blend right in which is why my face was about 6 inches from his face when I spotted him.  He is a Tomato Hornworm and thankfully that big spike is just to show off.  He loves to hang around at the top of tomato plants and munch to his hearts delight.  He will likely not do any serious damage to your plants, but he should be removed.  NOTE: He will cling to the branch with kung-fu like strength which will promptly snap off in your attempts to remove him.  He was safely relocated to the alley after this photo.

Our adventures in summer gardening was deemed a success!  We have had countless herbs and tomatoes, but the peppers have been succumbing to blossom rot (only one harvested and eaten at this point in time).

We would love to hear your experiences!  Successes? Failures?  Also, can you properly diagnose our plant problems?  Moving to the fall gardening adventures which will follow soon!

Happy Growing!

Mary and Carrie