Project Garden Noob - Year 6

Oh poor, poor garden.  I'll admit, it's been neglected.  So what went awry?  1.  We have a small child, which makes spending hours putting in a drip system "challenging." 2.  Spring did not exist this year.  It went from torrential rain, to upper 90s, and is apparently going back to torrential rain. 3.  Husband and I have been a bit overwhelmed with various life happenings (medical junk, refinancing our house, job interviews)  It's funny how life just insists on happening despite what you want to do. I was able to plant tomatoes and onions the first week of June, which I know, is painfully late on the onions.  One of the tomatoes appeared to die, so I bought a replacement.  Then I managed to nurse the dead tomato back to the living.  We managed to plant some cucumbers and zucchini last Sunday, June 21st. Here's the rundown of what we have: 1. A baby rhubarb plant that also came back from the dead 2. Potatoes in cages (a p...

One day (in 2014) I stumbled upon a post in the LA Times about tomato cages (article from 2012).  There seems to be a lot of theories out there about how to grow tomatoes (up, on the ground, upside down?), and I knew our homemade cages last year where just painfully too short for how large those plants became.  I really liked this cage configuration from the Times - it seemed simple enough and cost friendly enough.  I initially checked out some of the basic cages at the nursery and were surprised how expensive they were.  I went to Home Depot and was able to find fun colored ones for roughly $6 each.  My wonderful mom purchased 10 for me, paired by color.  They are nice enough that they can be reused year from year, and they stack well - not taking up too much room in an already too full garage.  I was able to buy a pack of 6 bamboo poles for $3.  So 5 permanent cages for $35-40.  Perfect. Setting up the cages was relatively painl...

Our personal history with trying to grow potatoes: 3 years ago - Husband and I have attempted potatoes on the deck of our apartment in a plastic "pot" type thingy we found at the nursery.  Nothing.  2 years ago - The first year with the garden, we tried them in a felt container that was sold as a potato growing kit from Tagawa .  Hilling (see video below) potatoes in a flexible felt "pot" was a challenge.  Again, nada. 1 year ago - Put potato cages outside of the garden. Great concept, but this pregnant lady did not have the time, resources, or inclination to hill.  Also realized potato greens are technically poisonous to animals.  Violently pulled them out, pissed off husband, pissed off pregnant lady. You are caught up to now.  While I'm not as excited about the prospect of potatoes, hubby is, so I'm trying to do some due diligence and figure out how to make these bad boys grow dammit. Step 1.  I'm going to have a supply of hilling...

A couple years ago my husband made me Valentine's dinner.  He made paninis with a side of julienned carrots and parsnips in a lemon butter sauce.  I was so surprised and touched, my husband seems to fear the kitchen, so the fact he made the effort still holds a special place in my heart.  The other astonishing thing about this meal is it was the first time I ever had parsnips.  I immediately fell in love and decided we have to grows these in our garden. Desired end product: For two years, I planted parsnip seeds.  You know what I got?  Nada. Nothing happened at all.  Carrots were just fine.  So I was a little perplexed with the parsnip and decided to do some research. Apparently, parsnips take some love.  I discovered the following traits of the parsnip to take into consideration: You must use new seeds each year.  They do not store well.   You should soak the seeds before planting to assist with germination. They t...

It's been almost a year since my last post and oh what a year it was.  Pregnancy kicked my butt, I remember planting my lettuce seeds sometime last May, looking at the fluffy dirt and just laying down. I know if I were living thousands of years ago, I would be dead.  Easily.  So while we planted the garden, the garden did not receive the love and attention of Year 1.  Here's a little recap of the season: We planted very similarly to the previous year (tomatoes, zucchini, onions, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, lettuce). We tried to plant squashes on the hill, but right after they sprouted, they were mysteriously gone.  Either rabbit or dogs, not sure which.  Next year will require a more thorough defense plan. Tomatoes:  They did better than last year, and I was excited about harvest time (kinda, chopping up tomatoes in a lot of work), but a tragic hail storm hit.  And well, this happened: Zucchini:  They did fine.  We end...