Eggplant has germinated...

and the grass is beginning to pop up from below. Keeping 'em pulled. Also planted some extra pepper, squash and cukes in a large container off to the side. Just in case!

Laura thinks I overdid the beets and I think she may be right. I'm considering cutting back from 4 rows to 2 and planting something else. Maybe peas or beans? Not sure.

Germination

The beets have germinated (yesterday, 4/25). Unfortunately I'm also starting to see some grass poke through too. No sign of the eggplant yet.

Yesterday, I planted 3 each of bell pepper, squash and cucumber in the hay bales. Ripped out the tomato I had put in prematurely a week ago - it was withering. I have my doubts about this hay bale garden; it's HOT in the bale - hot enough 2 inches in that your finger will feel very uncomfortable. I can't imagine the plant root system will survive that. We'll see!

Nuttin' honey

Just added a quarter cup of NH3NO3 to each bale, and watered. 2 more days of that to go. Those bales are hot inside! The tomato plant I prematurely stuck in a few days ago isn't doing well - I think the bale is too hot.

No birds *sigh*

Another pretty day

Third day of treating the straw bales with ammonium nitrate. Man those things are getting ripe! Smells like a barnyard back there!

Took opportunity to finish cutting the yard, then I drank 2 (2!) beers whilst sitting on the back porch as the sun went down. Nice day.

Not a lot today

Continued preparing hay bales - 1st half cup NH4NO3, have to do that 2 more days. It's not my imagination - there's now a distinct earthy-stable odor in that part of the yard. I think its the hay. Lettuce doesn't look too happy. I watered again, we'll see. Cut the outside yard and west yard today also. So it goes...

By the way, today is the 20th of April- the peak day (most years) for the spring bird migration. I sat outside for half an hour this morning, got nothin'. Where are the orioles? the warblers? the tanagers? Maybe tomorrow.

Plants in the ground

Today, April 19, I put plants in the ground! Tomatoes actually went in yesterday including an "upside down" planting that I'm trying for funsies. Put in 6 tomatoes (4 in box, i1upside-down and one in a straw bale- more about that later). I forget the variety but they're a big tomato, not a cherry. Today I went to Shell-Ross, bought red-tip lettuce, red bell pepper, burpless cucumber, yellow squash and sweet basil plants, and purple beauty eggplant and beet seeds. Planted all that except the squash, pepper and cukes which i intend to put in the straw bales. I have watered the bales down for 3 days and today I put a half-cup of 32-0-0 on each and watered it in well. I'm going by the recipe found here http://www.carolinacountry.com/cgardens/thismonth/march06guide/straw.html for straw gardening, so I have several more days of prep before I can plant the final veggies. The basil went in a pot on the front porch. The picture above was taken after planting today.

First entry - garden set-up

Blogging!

Who would have thunk it.

I'm going to use this in lieu of a paper and pen notebook to record garden data.

First, dug up some turf and weed about 10 x 8 feet with a spade shovel. Harder than it sounds!. Built a box around that with scrap lumber on the west side of the house. It will get morning sun and partial afternoon sun with some shade - might be a good thing in the summer. The first photo shows the rough box, 9' x 7' after about a cubic yard of topsoil and with 3 bales of straw on the sides. I bought the topsoil in bulk from a nursery in White Hall (Amanda's) and the straw from Jones Feed and Garden, also in White Hall. I hauled another half-yard of topsoil and followed that with a half- yard of black "super soil" also from Amanda's. The topsoil cost about $9 a half-yard and the super soil $18 so I spent quite a bit on dirt!