Portable strawberry bed

Today I put together a new container using a rubbermaid bin (about 14"x20", 10" deep?) I pulled off the street some time ago. First I drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom.

Using a 1/2" bit, because that's what was on hand.

Then mixed up some potting mix using coco coir

The coir before water was added. Next to the watering can you can see the "Premium Cow Manure" from Agway. No ordinary manure for me!

and compost, or rather composted cow manure.

This is what premium quality looks like, apparently.

I ended up with a mix that was around 60-70% coco coir, just mixing until it looked and felt right to me.

Partially mixed, I added more coir after this.

I'll see how it works out over the next few days, hopefully it'll hold the right amount of water. I used the white bucket above to mix them at first but I think the next time I'll just add a thin layer of each to the container and then mix it up with a garden fork, repeating until it's full.

Before I filled the bin I placed in some broken pots and plates, and then a bit of plain coir, just to be sure any clumps of compost I missed didn't block the drainage holes.

Then the container was filled, though not to the top. I didn't think it needed that much depth and I didn't want it to be too heavy to lift. As it is, it's still pretty heavy.

With two baby strawberries. In front is my leaf lettuce and current arugula.

In my head this is a portable strawberry bed, but I have to admit it could be difficult getting it down the ladder, or out to the front steps, if I did want to move it to get more sun. For now it'll stay here, with some netting on top.

While I was out back I photographed one of the dragonflies that have shown up this week.

Resting on a mix of cables and dried vine parts.

I spent some time watching a giant one fly around down in the backyard. It seems the damp and shade that make our yard so attractive to mosquitoes is also nice for them.

I also snapped the seed pods forming on the flower stems of my winter arugula.

 I hadn't realized they grew like that, as I've never harvested the seeds before; it's a relief to see them because earlier on I'd torn open a dried flower and was worried there was nothing in there looking like it could form into seeds. Another crisis averted!

Total garden update

Out front I've been picking one or two strawberries from time to time. I only have six plants and four of them I pinched back the flowers on so the roots could get more established. The other main crops out there are basil and dill. Below is this spring and summer's basil compared with the much yellower and smaller basil that I've had going inside all winter.

Also pictured: fig tree, flowering lemon basil, strawberry.

There's also been some poppies flowering and a lone cosmos (not pictured) although the plants themselves are huge. Too much nitrogen? I have to admit I don't pay much attention to that pot, even though I'd love to have more flowers. And there are ground cherries forming! This plant has been pretty chewed up by, I think, flea beetles, you can see a lot of holes in the leaves below.

On the back deck the baby lettuces and arugula are chugging along, big enough to munch on. I also moved the flooded drawer and put my winter parsley and some burnt up pansies in it. The pansies have flowered but the got really damaged by the sun and heat when they were out front so I doubt they're long for this world.

Lettuce on left, arugula to the right. 

Parsley and pansies.

The winter arugula I moved from inside has flowered, which I've never had happen before. Maybe I'll be able to collect seed?

Hard to see with all that green in the background.

Then downstairs things are really happening. First I ended up throwing all my leftover starts into one of the landlords' beds (after clearing it with them first) since they never got around to planting anything in them.

It's also pretty shady so I don't have high hopes but there's a ton more tomatoes (sun gold cherries and black krim), eggplants, cucumbers, potato, and sweet potato. Then in my beds there's finally some fruits!

Baby tomatoes, sun gold cherries.

In the center of the photo, shaded, a baby cucumber.

And along the right side the clover and wildflowers I seeded have germinated.

There's a piece of metal fencing laid over the smaller seedlings to prevent animals digging. I've already found that the dog loves messing around with my branch/twig mulch, but not so much after rotting leaves are laid over.

The brassicas

So I planted brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage this spring. I know these are fall crops, but I had some year old seeds (broccoli, cabbage) and seeds I collected last summer (brussels sprouts) I was curious to test. And also the wait for last frost can feel so long sometimes, so it's nice to have something to plant out in March. Anyway, so far this is the fruit of my labors:

The head is about an inch in diameter. I guess this is what happens when you don't get the recommended amount of sunlight. On the bright side I've always loved the stalk best and there's plenty of that to go round.

So far the brussels sprouts and cabbage, which have a longer period until maturity, have done nothing, but I'm waiting a bit to pull them out since I can't think of anything to replace them with. This all makes me sad because brussels sprouts and broccoli are some of my favorite veggies.

In other news, here's some baby lettuce and arugula sprouts, at least the shade is good for them.

Planted one week ago.

Post-vacation

Most everything did alright while we were gone, except the lettuce and spinach which bolted. So it's been replaced with sweet potatoes and a few yellow and red potatoes that had sprouted. The curlier leaves below, that aren't cabbages, are kale that's remained tiny but not bolted and one white potato I planted maybe a month ago.

I don't expect much from those guys though, because of the total lack of sunlight in that bed. From the photo above you can see the trunk of the mulberry tree that shades it out, and a tiny bit of the rose which also cuts out a fair bit of sun.

The remaining two unstaked tomatoes flopped over

One of the black krims.

so they got flimsy metal cages put on them. The first picture also shows some of the string I've woven around the row of cherry tomatoes. They shot up a bit this last week so I added a couple more lines.

And on the back "deck" area I set up a couple of drawers I picked up on trash day as planters. I drilled copious holes in the bottom and then filled them with potting soil.

Also pictured, Agway "Premium" Cow Manure picked up on the drive back to the city.

Then it rained like crazy and I realized that the gutters at the back of the house leak, like, a lot. The drawer on the left was totally flooded and all the lighter bits in the potting soil were washed over. These were planted with some more spinach and lettuce on the left, and mesclun mix and arugula on the right. I should probably do a comprehensive post about the back deck, but it's always a mess and not much grows due to the extreme shade. These drawers are kind of the whole thing.

Back garden update

Both back beds are nearly all planted!

Shadier bed.

The shadier bed has spinach, kale, and lettuce up at the top. Then the cabbage, broccoli, and brussels sprouts, last seen up close here. At the bottom of the photo are the beans and peas. Unlike out front, the peas back here have barely grown at all, they get the least sunlight of anything here, poor things.

Sunnier bed.

The sunnier bed has some (tiny) herbs up top, followed by ground cherries and cherry tomatos. Closer to the bottom (and with more space in between) are the larger tomatoes, and then along the bottom are eggplant, cucumber, and a lone pepper plant.

Much of both beds are half-assedly mulched with newspaper weighted down with twigs and other garden detritus. Both beds are also caged in with wildlife netting stretched over 1x2s and held taut by nails at each corner, which can be easily unhooked from the nails so the beds are accessible. I'm not sure what happens when the tomatoes get too tall.

For contrast, here's a view of the back from a month ago, when only the shadier bed was planted. This was when the forsythia was in bloom (also the magnolias in other yards), and the trees were mercifully bare.

April 15th.

All of business towards the front of the garden is the landlord's projects. They've put out grass seeds, but that doesn't do so well when it gets really shady back here, which it will.

Front garden introduction

I say garden, but it's actually just the front steps with some containers. If it were feasible this is where I'd grow almost everything, as it's south-facing and gets a lot of sunlight, unlike the back yard. As it is I'm planning to have some cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and eggplant here, as well as herbs since it's much easier to get to then the beds in back.

Right now there's a lot of little plants that will be set out back, but the large pot at the bottom has some cosmos and poppies planted and will stay put. Then going up there's the fig tree, some dill seedlings, strawberries, rue, more seedlings, and parsley that I've actually had growing in the window since January.

Close up of strawberries and the rue.

The rue is also an indoor window plant, which I picked up last year at the Union Square farmer's market. I've never grown it before and don't cook with it but I love the leaves and the weird scent. According to the internets dried rue is good for repelling insects, so maybe I'll harvest some for that. I'd actually like to get seeds and grow some more since a couple of the plants out back were the only non-shrubs to survive winter (plus the dog and other wildlife), but I suspect they'll need to be mail ordered since it's not very popular.

Closer to the top are scallions, dwarf sugar snap peas, and lettuce with a couple of baby herbs (rosemary and sage).

I've got a couple of 16" pots to bring out front, whenever I get it together to pick up some potting soil to fill them, and plans for two planters. We'll see how much actually gets done.

Indoor plant starting

This year I finally went out and bought a fluorescent light to start seedlings with. It's just the cheapest hardware store model and only has cool bulbs, which isn't ideal but it's what was available. Below is the set-up right now.

On the left is my desk and on the right my bookshelf; the light is wider than the shelf so it's hung over the bottom shelf and then extends under the desk whe it hangs from a hook I added. I turn it on when I wake up in the morning and off an hour or two before I go to bed.

Because the fluorescent light doesn't get hot it doesn't matter if the plants actually touch the bulb, which helps when you have seedlings of wildly different heights. All of the trays and such are left over from former roommates or buying starts at the farmer's market, with whatever potting soil I had on hand. So far it's definitely working better than putting the plants in the window, even though the window I use is south-facing with shelves directly in it for plants.