Gardening in the 23rd century

When I told my sister-in-law that I was growing mint, she told me:
"Friends don't let friends grow mint".
My mother gave me a clump of mint last year and I brought it home to no avail. It did not take. So this year I bought some mint seed and it has sprouted and the little mint plants are doing ok in their peat pot so far.
We'll see.

All that you can be

Someone smarter than me pointed out that man is the only living thing that chooses not to live to its fullest potential. A tree, that person said, will grow to a hundred feet if it is in his genetic make up to do so given favorable conditions. Man on the other hand, even in a favorable environment, may choose to be less than he can be. Potential is what I was thinking when a few Daffodils grew where none were supposed to. The one here is an example of how a Daffodil will grow to its full potential. I am a poor photographer so this picture does not do justice to the beauty of this flower. Last Fall, my brother and I cleared this spot for my lavender and scleranthus. We thought we moved all the bulbs.

According to the weather people, The first week of March around here will see highs in the 60's. My lettuce is looking a little stressed so I need to transplant it to their appointed raised bed. My plans for the weekend include a trip to gather 5 different types of compost to recharge the beds. I got onions, lettuce, and carrots to plant. I will also sow my first batch of radish. This year I am growing my potatoes in plastic bags. I can't wait to get started

Tesak Pascola

This is one of my favorite stories. I've heard it told different ways. This version has a more contemporary feel to it but it takes nothing from the original story. I got this version from here. Visit the link so you can see the beautiful Watermelon Horse sculpture this person made.

Anyway, it think of it as an accidental gardening story.

Tesak Pascola
In old Sonora lived Tesak Pascola, a Yaqui gentleman rancher. He had an old horse who was his favorite: didn't use him much; just let the old horse wander free on the vast pastures of the rancho. One time, Tesak Pascola decided to visit a friend on a neighboring rancho. Seeing the old favorite grazing close to the hacienda, he decided to saddle him up and ride him the little way to the neighbor's. And so they went. Tesak spent a pleasant afternoon with his friend, and was gifted with a fine watermelon from the friend's garden to take home, as well. When he was ready to return home, Tesak noticed that the trip had caused the old horse to acquire a saddle sore on his back. He felt real bad about this, and decided to leave his saddle and walk the horse home. First he applied a healing pack of mud to the horse's back, then off home they went. Tesak cut into the watermelon and shared it with the old horse as they walked. Munch, munch, they ate the watermelon and tossed the seeds away. When they got home, Tesak applied more mud to the horse and then turned him loose to roam.....Tesak didn't see the old one for quite a while, but he didn't think much about this, as the rancho was such a huge place. Then one day he decided to go in search of the old horse. But he couldn't find him anywhere! Worried, Tesak continued to search and search. What he did find in one field was a huge watermelon vine...and coming from inside a sound: "munch, munch"! Tesak Pascole began tearing thru the vine and at the center found...his old horse! Contentedly munching watermelons! The seeds Tesak had thrown away on that day weeks ago had taken root in the mud on the horse's back and grown with the monsoon rains...rooting the horse to the ground eventually, but he didn't care- he was growing himself an endless supply of delicious watermelons to eat (for you non-horse people: horses LOVE watermelon)! All good things come to an end, however- Tesak cut away the vine, and also harvested many good-sized ripe watermelons the horse hadn't gotten to, yet. And he shared the melons with all the neighbors.....A few years later, the well-loved old horse died. Then the whole community gave a fiesta and mourned the passing of Tesak Pascola's Wonderful Watermelon Horse.

Honesty in gardening and in life

I just read an article by Gayla Trail that made me feel a little bit like a phony. Here I am posting about my "gardening philosophy" while she is writing deeply personal and honest stories about gardening and life.
I think I need to stop thinking about this plant growing thing I do and just do it. I need to just shut my mouth and let the experience itself be.

Ugly for sure

I put my tomatoes out the other day for the first time when the temperature got to 50 degrees and the sun was full out. Although I only left them out for an hour, a couple of them did not do very well. So this time out, I devised a quick "cloche" and put one of the Brandywine tomatoes out for half a day. Ugly yes, but it appears to have worked. The Brandywine did not look bad at all when I brought it in for the night.

Also, most of my seedlings are ready to be transplanted into pots. This year I have committed myself to using peat pots so that's where most of these little guys are going. From there they are going into their final containers.

I have one more set of seeds to sow and that will be the last of them. The next step: fighting weather, bugs, curious children and curious dogs.




Peppers and Tomatoes

My Gardening Style

I started gardening 6 years ago. My initial attempt at gardening consisted of going to the local Mega Gigantico Mart and getting some seeds off a cardboard rack in their gardening section, buying a 72 cell mini disposable greenhouse, dropping the seeds --all peppers, into the now moistened cells and forgetting about the whole thing for a week.
I read none of the seed packets; I read no gardening books; I researched nothing on the Internet. Remembering how my mother just put seeds in discarded soup cans with regular dirt from the garden in them and got EVERYTHING and ANYTHING to grow on the windowsill of her kitchen window, I simply expected the seeds to germinate and become plants without any work on my part.

These days I put a little more effort into the whole exercise and also, I have began to think about my gardening style, my gardening philosophy: What kind of gardener am I? Why do I do this? Do I really need to grow 22 varieties of pepper?
I think the answers to these questions are taking shape every growing season. For example, I am now as concerned about the life under the garden as the life above it. This year, I have postponed turning my garden plot because I am concerned about all the little creatures hibernating under it. Then I read about the no-till gardening method and it seems sensible and appropriate to me.

And this concern about the ground critters is not a fad. I recognize a fad! If you want fads, I got fads!

• Upside down hanging tomato planters. As seen on TV!
• Self-watering containers. Home made because it was cheaper and more fun.
• Water walls. Growing season extenders!

Also, every year I learn about a new thing in gardening and I just have to try it:

Square foot gardening. This one may turn out to be a life-long pursuit.
Ollas. Also may keep this one forever, if I ever get one!
Winter sowing in plastic milk containers. Just learned about this one so I haven't tried it.
Watering spikes. They work but are expensive and plastic.
Soil Blocks. These are growing plugs made only out of compressed dirt. They sell the contraption to make them but you can also find instructions on DIY versions on the Internet (of course!).
Tomato ladders. The coolest thing ever but I am waiting on my brother to weld me some.

These techniques and tools may be replaced by the next big thing but my overall gardening philosophy, the base of it all is something more stable and that's what I am talking about here.

The Chiltepin

Year after year I have put chiltepin seeds, also known as chile tepin or chile pequin, in peat pellets, professional growing medium, dirt, etc. with no results; or if you prefer, with the result that at the end, all I had were empty peat pellets, empty pots of professional growing medium, empty pots of dirt, etc.
This year, I tried it once again and pow! one seed sprouted. I cannot tell you how elated I was. I actually did a little jig the morning I came down to inspect my peat pellets and found this little gem. I have nurtured it since and this is what it looks like today, February 21, 2oo9 (see picture above).
The chiltepin pepper and I have history. We go back all the way to my childhood in the Sonoran desert, where peddlers would come to our street selling wild chiltepins that they had harvested in the Sierra Madre mountains.
The little round peppers can be eaten fresh but we always used them dry and are so hot that we used bits of grocery paper sacks to protect our fingers when we crushed them into soups and stews. Just one was enough to provide any dish with considerable kick.
Experts say that the chiltepin is the precursor of ALL peppers. It is a wild plant and so they tell me, it takes a year or two to fruit, but I have read somewhere that people get fruit out of it the first year. A well-tended chiltepin plant can live for a long time -20 or 30 years! although the oldest plant I have seen was reported to be 5 years old.
It is because of the reported longevity of the plant I intend to plant my baby into a large, regular pot and not into one of my home made self-watering containers, which have to be emptied and cleaned at the end of each growing season. Here in Kansas, I will have to bring it inside during the coldest months of the year.

I am hoping that tomorrow is nice enough for me to put plants into the remaining 4 self-watering buckets that I've made.

By now, I usually have all the seeds I am going to buy for the growing season but today I bought some seeds for stuff I hadn't decided yet if I wanted to grow or not, so I will be sowing stuff tomorrow as well.

Crisis averted

The workers got most of the floor done on their first day which allowed me to get to my plants. Already a couple of them were showing signs of stress. Once I watered them however, they recovered.
The sclerantus biflorus is now germinating as is my lavender, yohoo! now all my flowers are sprouting. I have not planted the sunflowers yet but I will this weekend along with the marygolds. I will sow the wild flowers directly outside.
I really need to get a sowing schedule like good gardeners have.
At least Sunday, it will be on the 50's. My tomato plants need some sun!

Crisis!

I've gotten myself in a bit of a pickle. I have way too many seedlings coming up and not enough space under the lights. To complicate things, I am having a guy come and re-floor the downstairs space and that's where I keep my seedlings, which means that I cannot go downstairs today or tomorrow to water the poor things. I fear I may lose some of them and that would break my heart.
I have lettuce growing now (Tom Tom mini head lettuce and Tin Tin little gem lettuce). I have a bunch of onions now. I have at least two strawberry plants sprouting. The Penstemons are finally germinating. I am going to have to think of something quick if I want to start my garden in March as I planned.
Also, seed potatoes are at the stores, as well as onions, garlic, strawberry roots, and blueberry bushes. It makes me giddy with anticipation!

They're off!

I finally put my Market Miracle tomato plant in one of the home-made self-watering containers (SWC) I made out of 4 gallon plastic buckets.
Although I mounted an intensive campaign with restaurants around town, I could never get any 5 gallon buckets. 4 gallon buckets however, were plentiful. Since I grew a Brandywine tomato plant in a smaller container last year, I figured a 4 gallon bucket would suffice for my Market Miracle.
This is not the only tomato plant I have but it is the first one that germinated.
One nice thing about the 4 gallon bucket is that even when full of wet dirt and water, it is light enough to move. My plan is to put it outside when the temperature gets over 40 and bring it inside when it drops below that, at least until the plant has hardened, and then I will only bring it inside at night when the temperatures drop below freezing.
I put one of my Brandywine tomato plants in another SWC just like the one on the picture yesterday as well. In fact, I have enough 4 gallon buckets for 3 more plants for a total of 5. I have two 5 gallon buckets that I bought last year on sale and they will hold another one of my Russian tomatos. I have a number of 18 gallon totes that will become SWC for my peppers, cucumbers, watermelons, squash, etc.
I am really looking forward to this growing season. Last year was terrible with hail storm after hail storm. Spring in Kansas can be really unpredictable so I am hoping that the movable containers will help.