The unseasonably warm weather has held for the past week. Tomatoes are continuing to ripen on the vines, as are red peppers. The basil which was heavily pruned has put out lots of new growth. I may get another batch of pesto out of this.
The broccoli plants are now just about a month old and are looking good. Several nights ago I added Dill seeds to the troughs between the plants. No sign of seedlings yet. The soil has been warm and I've done a good job of keeping the soil moist.
The fennel, also a month old, is not developing as quickly as I thought it might. One of the plants got munched by slugs, although not enough to destroy the plant. Sometimes I wish I could rent a chicken.
Showing posts with label fennel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fennel. Show all posts
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Late fall planting
It's been unseasonably warm the past couple of days. I took the opportunity to work in the sun and get the seedlings into the ground.
12 bulbing fennel plants went in where the green beans had been this summer. It's a nice rich soil mix there.
18 broccoli seedlings went in to the north of the remaining basil. They'll get good sun there, and will have enough space to develop. I'm thinking I'd like to plant a fair number of garlic and onions, but where to put them?
TheRoommate wants to put in bulbs, but I'm not sure how to square that with the available sunlight and all of that. Ranunculus are my favorite, but I don't know of the corms are squirrel fodder.
12 bulbing fennel plants went in where the green beans had been this summer. It's a nice rich soil mix there.
18 broccoli seedlings went in to the north of the remaining basil. They'll get good sun there, and will have enough space to develop. I'm thinking I'd like to plant a fair number of garlic and onions, but where to put them?
TheRoommate wants to put in bulbs, but I'm not sure how to square that with the available sunlight and all of that. Ranunculus are my favorite, but I don't know of the corms are squirrel fodder.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Fall harvesting, cleaning & planting
Harvesting:
As per usual, the tomato plants did not get the memo suggesting that as November looms they should stop blossoming. I picked 2 dry pints of cherry tomatoes and nearly 3 gallons of red slicers, the crimson carmellos. A batch of tomato sauce made from a mix of the cherry tomatoes and slicers was very tasty.
The basil is flowering madly, but was too dry to harvest. I'll give it a gentle deep watering and pick most of it in the morning.
There are quite a few red peppers on the pepper plants. The lone pepper that was in with the cucumbers is trying to make up for lost time. It's covered in blossoms and is setting quite a bit of fruit. I'll feed it a bit today as well.
Cleaning:
Today I tore down all the forlorn corn stalks that had been decimated by squirrels. The spent sunflowers came down as well. The trumpetvine which cascades over the eastern fence was blocking a lot of sunlight to the ground, so I cut that back very aggressively.
There was quite a bit of wood sorrel choking the basil, that's now gone too. However, the backyard is generally looking like an episode from Weeds Gone Wild. I'll have to convince TheRoommate to bust out his weedburner.
Planting:
The seeds that germinated at the beginning of the month have yielded some results. I sucessfully transplanted about 6 of the fennel seedlings, but only 2 of the broccoli seedlings.
Today I'm going to direct sow broccoli into a long planter box. When the fennel seedlings get bigger they'll go into the barrel where the sweet peas had been previously. I added a few seeds to the planting box where the bigger seedlings are. Hopefully, they'll germinate.
As per usual, the tomato plants did not get the memo suggesting that as November looms they should stop blossoming. I picked 2 dry pints of cherry tomatoes and nearly 3 gallons of red slicers, the crimson carmellos. A batch of tomato sauce made from a mix of the cherry tomatoes and slicers was very tasty.
The basil is flowering madly, but was too dry to harvest. I'll give it a gentle deep watering and pick most of it in the morning.
There are quite a few red peppers on the pepper plants. The lone pepper that was in with the cucumbers is trying to make up for lost time. It's covered in blossoms and is setting quite a bit of fruit. I'll feed it a bit today as well.
Cleaning:
Today I tore down all the forlorn corn stalks that had been decimated by squirrels. The spent sunflowers came down as well. The trumpetvine which cascades over the eastern fence was blocking a lot of sunlight to the ground, so I cut that back very aggressively.
There was quite a bit of wood sorrel choking the basil, that's now gone too. However, the backyard is generally looking like an episode from Weeds Gone Wild. I'll have to convince TheRoommate to bust out his weedburner.
Planting:
The seeds that germinated at the beginning of the month have yielded some results. I sucessfully transplanted about 6 of the fennel seedlings, but only 2 of the broccoli seedlings.
Today I'm going to direct sow broccoli into a long planter box. When the fennel seedlings get bigger they'll go into the barrel where the sweet peas had been previously. I added a few seeds to the planting box where the bigger seedlings are. Hopefully, they'll germinate.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Fall planting
It's only been about 5 days and all of the kale, fennel and broccoli seeds have gone to town germination. The rainbow chard sprouts are very pretty. I don't have time to get them situated into little pots this morning. Tomorrow, tomorrow.
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