Ghetto Gardening 2015
Happy Harvest Season!
09/23/15:
I now have 10 pages of gardening adventures! Wonder how long I'll continue writing on this topic for 2015. Our region does have mild winters, so I could be planting and cultivating for a while.
However, at times it's difficult to motivate myself beyond just watering everything enough that it survives. I hear a lot this harvest season about vegetable plots that're yielding huge crops, and I drive past yards with an array of bountiful roses and other flowers in full bloom. I will need to invest more time and effort to get all the plants in my little container garden to truly thrive.
One easy step I've taken is the purchase of Jobe’s Organics Granular All-Purpose Fertilizer to supplement the seaweed and coffee preparations I'd been using. If I can keep on top of a good watering, feeding, and pest management schedule, I think the rosebushes will bloom again and the smaller herbs (basil, thyme, oregano) might establish thicker bunches of leaves. I also need to remember to remove dead leaves and blooms on everything to encourage new growth. It's likely too late to get the flowering annuals in great condition, but I've treated these with the new fertilizer anyway.
On recent trips to garden stores, I also bought slow-bolting cilantro seeds and a few fall-blooming plants: sweet williams and cyclamen. The pink, purple and red flowers definitely brighten up my containers along the edges of the house. Cilantro has grown best in cool weather when I've planted it before. I love the flavor it adds to many recipes, including this salsa made with some of the recently-ripened tomatoes I have, plus one of the lovely beefsteak-like heirlooms I found at the farmer's market.
Clicking on the small images below will bring up a full-size version.
Nice variety of blooming plants
still available here for fall.
"Laser Rose Flame" cyclamen.
My garden salsa.
I plan to get the tomato seeds started in March next time. Also, I want to test the soil pH and learn when to provide specific nutrients. Out of the over 20 plants I've ended up with this year, most have fruit, even those that never got taller than a foot or two, but far fewer per plant than I'd expected. And none of the ripe Romas that I've picked so far have been bigger than a chicken egg. San Francisco Fog tomatoes are only supposed to grow about golf-ball size, and mine are still a bit smaller than that. I'd like to try larger varieties in the future, so I've saved seeds from farmer's market tomatoes and will ask other local gardeners what they had success with this summer.
Other areas of research include looking into when and how to plant bulbs for spring blooms, and the proper methods of cultivating lettuce-type plants. In previous years I had swiss chard and spinach, but the plants went to seed easily and never got very big and leafy. It seems wise to figure this stuff out prior to purchasing or planting, and before it starts to get winterish around here.
