Transplanting My Plants Into The Garden This Past Week

I have been extremely busy with the garden and many aspects of it.  For instance this weekend I usually put up the nets for the blueberries along with the strawberries.  They need a net to keep the birds away and so you can salvage your fruit harvest.  They are targets for the birds and putting up a net can be a time consuming and boring process, but it needs to get done.

Along with putting up a net for my fruit plants I also needed to transplant many plants to the garden in their respective holes that were previously dug.  Since putting up nets takes at least a couple of hours I was short on time to get my flowers and vegetable plants where they belong.

Luckily it didn't rain this weekend and there was good weather every day.  Since the weather was good I decided on getting right down to it and planted my tomatoes, sunflowers, alyssum, pumpkins, and zucchini right to the garden soil.

Here is one cherry tomato that I took a picture of marking the first transplant into the garden besides the spinach plants that were done earlier in the season.

A picture of one of the two sunflowers that were placed outside.

Some alyssum that was put into the ground to attract the best insects possible as early as possible.

Last but not least the squash family of plants.

The First Planting Outside for 2014

Today I am here to discuss the first seeds that I have started outside this week in order to get the garden season going.  Corn and bush beans are the first that I planted, but I also had enough time to put carrots, celery, and pole beans as well.

I didn't fill the entire two rows with corn seeds because I want them to ripen at different times to prevent them from staying on the stalk and getting tough to eat.  If they ripen at the same time I will have about fifty ears of corn that I will have to eat and this is not something I can do. 

This year I am going to plant them at different times.  Basically once the first set starts sprouting I will then plant some more.  Now each section will ripen at different times and I will be able to eat them when they are good and ready.

I am also using seeds I have collected from previous years because these are heirloom corn seeds that I bought from Burpee.  They have been great and have produce very large and delicious ears that I can plant every single year.  All I do is save at least one ear and have it dry out for a month and then the next year remove the seeds and plant them in the soil.

I used about five feet from the two rows which will end up with corn plants.

I also planted some short rows of bush beans because I prefer pole beans because if done correctly you will have a much larger yield with pole beans than the bush types.  I had some extra room next to the rows where my pole beans are and decided to plant some bush beans anyways.

Celery was something that I decided on doing for the first time this year and it would be a good idea to plant it somewhat early because they are not good with hot weather.  They are similar to lettuce in that they tolerate some hot weather, but cannot withstand too much.

Carrots are very simple and do not need that much work except in the beginning.  When they are small they can be overtaken by many weeds and I will have to make sure that they are not near any weeds.  A good mulch will help out with this.

The two rows on the left have celery and carrots.

Tomato Holes and Bean Poles are The Focus

Today was an accomplishing day with putting up the bean poles which can be a real pain if you don't do it correctly.  It can take a few hours to properly set them up and today it wasn't as bad as it could be.  I like to perform all the more difficult tasks first so that all the easy stuff comes next.

Tomato holes were the next step that I completed today and it is one that I like to do as early as I can.  It is simple and easy to do and it can set the stage for all the other plants to be placed. 

Gardening Season Starting To Get Busy

Now that gardening season is starting to pick up it is time to let you know about some things that I have been doing the past couple of weeks.  I will also hopefully start posting more often about what I am doing each day and what is happening with the garden.

Recently I thought it was best that I start tilling the garden.  I find that May is the perfect month to start this process.  I do not like to go any further into the season to perform this task because you will lose much valuable time if you till any later into the season. 

I also added wood ash to my onions to give them the trace minerals they will need throughout the season.  I even placed a layer of mulch to keep the soil and onions cool from the warmer weather that we are experiencing.  They do not like the hot sun but can easily benefit from a layer of grass clippings or any other type of organic mulch.

Peat moss was also added to my blueberries which is something new that I am trying out this year.  This is one plant that needs plenty of water as well as the roots are quite shallow.  With some peat moss, and deep soaking, and some mulch on top is the best way to help out these plants.

This is all of I have done this past week and as I said earlier I will try to post more often as the season starts gain momentum and I will be busy every single day.  Check back often and find out what has been going on.

My Onions and Spinach are Growing Like They Should

Every gardener likes to see positive results from their work that they have put into this hobby.  It is always a sigh of relief when you are not experiencing any difficulties such as diseases, pests problems, or any other type of situation that can occur.  For the most part my onions and spinach leaves are doing quite well.

Even though the temperature has risen over the past week or so they are still thriving with dark green leaves.  A week ago I added some wood ash around my plants to see what would happen when I put them around the weakest plants.  So far the wood ash has proven to be a good supplement for these plants.

A week ago not all the onion bulbs were growing yet.  Only some of them have been sprouting and growing stems.  Now that they have had time to sprout and with the past rain that we received they have been sprouting on a consistent basis.  I would say at least 99% of them have begun to grow stems while only a couple have not.  This is the usual percentage that you should be getting when planting onion bulbs.

As you know I also added some pelleted lime to the onions that will last throughout the rest of their season.  I added them before the rain came because this type of lime is activated whenever rain or water is placed on these pellets.  You can see below that they turned into a fine powder that will be absorbed slowly by all the plants.

Most of the totes look like this but I am not worried because when I start watering them the lime will be pushed down into the soil where the roots can use it.