Herban Renewal on TV

Last night I saw this on cable access or one of the Christian stations, I'm not sure which. Her company's name is Herban Renewal, which is the same as the name I used for this blog. She was reading some kind of conversation about human tapeworms, so I'm in good company for using bad puns.

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If you type in your email address to the right, you will get an update any time I post a new entry to this blog. Don't worry, I seem to be averaging less than 1 entry a week, so your inbox will not be overflowing. This is good for those of you who don't use RSS readers, like my mom (a master gardener & inspiration!)

mid-May photos finally uploaded

We have had a few days in the 80s with lots of sun. The plants are loving it, and drinking up lots of water. Here are a few photos from mid May. The radishes have all been eaten up, and I started some new seeds even though it's a little too warm for them. I've added a Flickr link so you can see more photos from the garden. I do not like posting redundantly to every social media network when I could be spending time actually in the garden.

First salad with lettuce and radish from the garden!

These are plants I picked up at the Kilbourn sale: alyssum (the white flowers), 2 tomatillos, amaranth, husk/ground cherries, nasturtium, horseradish, a baby raspberry, and a couple others I'm forgetting at the moment.

hanging pocket planter fails

Just tried to plant some of the seedlings in a hanging shoe holder, as I saw on my friends' (Temporary Services) blog:

http://halfletterpress.tumblr.com/post/541521314/verticalvegetables
http://halfletterpress.tumblr.com/tagged/vertical_garden

However my shoe holders were not sturdy enough for the weight of the soil. I didn't want to get plastic so I opted for the non-woven fiber, the stuff that reusable shopping bags you get from the grocery store are made from. Maybe I should have splurged for better ones made of canvas. The grommets started sagging and popped out right away. I've cut them into individual rows, but that defeats the verticality. I'm disappointed, but I'm not going to re-pot these poor plants again.

In other news, I did have a great salad with radishes and lettuce from the garden. I'll post photos later when I can get my camera's card reader to communicate to my computer again.

shrubs on the east end

Over the weekend, Lucy and Marvin put up some sun-loving shrubs on the east side of the lot. It's so green there now, it may be hard to tell where they sit in this photo. The dandelions have been up and are going to seed faster than expected. I also spotted these white wildflowers. Does anyone know what they are called?

Radishes and greens are coming up in the boxes, and more to come soon!

growth

Yesterday, Negin and I filled a second box with peat moss + vermiculite + compost. I keep forgetting to add bone meal. The new box is filled about 6 inches from the bottom with empty bottles and cans, about 2 deep. The terra cotta style containers are parsley, spinach, arugula that were started March 31. You can see an early version of the setup from my rooftop in the picture below.

The second box is on the south side, it is covered with one of the orange and brown afghans. We planted new Seed Savers Amish snap peas, an old packet of Burpee spinach, Botanical Interest chives from last year and some lettuce seeds I got in a zine that my pal T. sent me from Pittsburgh. The other box on the north side is also covered in the same kind of afghan. It was planted on April 11 with carrots, chard, radish, and lettuce that I had started inside. I have just started to see the chard sprouting up, but I'm not sure if it has been warm enough for the Chiogga beets, that prefer 40 degrees minimum. We had a couple cold nights, one of which I put newspapers on the box, the other I used one of the available pressed board tops.

The collards from last year have bolted. They are ridiculously tall and have some lovely yellow flowers. I'm waiting so I can collect the seeds which I hope to plant.

The sprouts are coming along ok too, but I'm not sure when and where I will put all of them.

paint question

So the aphids have been eliminated, I hope. I washed the baby leaves with soap water started turning the fan on daily. I potted up some plants last weekend but need to do some more today and tomorrow. On the hunt for a kelp/fish fertilizer. No luck at Menards on North & Kostner, and the hose reel I got there had no directions either. Not looking forward to going back out to the store :(

I started making the sign for the front of the garden. I feel hesitant to put the big boxes out on the lot before the sign is ready. But the free paint I got from the paint store is old and lead-based. I don't see a problem using it for the sign, but do you think it would be ok to stencil a few stars and stripes on the sides of the boxes? I'm a bit torn about this. It would not come into direct contact with the soil, but I don't know if there are other issues I should be concerned about. What do you think?