Diggin' In - Progress Journal (3/19 - 3/21)

Diggin' In - Progress Journal (3/19 - 3/21)03/21/2012

 

3/19/12. Notes on Gardening

Notes from Edible Landscaping by Creasy, on planning garden:

• Create base plan: measure/draw, make copies to sketch on
• Choose design: take inventory: temp zones, soil type, drainage
• Do bubble drawing: identify, present layout and problem areas (slopes, drainage, roots, sun)
• Soil elements: air (oxygen/nitrogen), water, living organisms (microbacteria, viruses, worms), humus (organic matter - leaves, lawn clipping, compost, manuer), inorganic matter (particles of minerals/rock)
• Mineral components: sand, silt, clay
• Sandy soil - lots of pore space to allow air and h20 to pass (roots don’t get h20 logged), warms in spring quickly and easy to till. Need frequent watering and fertilizer because nutrients and h20 drain through
• Clay soil - retain h20 and nutrients well, but doesn’t drain h20 well. harder to till, doesn’t warm as quick in spring
• BEST - “Loam” contains fairly equal parts of sand, silt, and clay
• Test by balling up soil with some water to see how sticky, clumpy (clay), or crumbly (sand/org matter) it is Show picture
• Most veggies thrive in slight acid -> neutral soil (pH 6-7). We can get a pH test kit, but professors says not to waste money on it. Can send away for soil sample if really want to know.
• Important nutrients plants need: nitrogen, phosophorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur (especially 1st three)

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Notes on seedlings we have (taken from EL book)

• Broccoli and Cauliflower - plant annnual, need moisture/fertilizer, grows 8-36” tall, needs full sun, harvest the main head - let stay in ground for small shoots
• Cabbage (leaf not head) - annual, moist/fertilizer, 6-8” tall, full sun, havest - cut individual leafs from outside when have 8 edible leaves. Don’t take all
• Chives - perennial, 12-24” tall, full sun, harvest by cutting off tops (flowers best when just open)
• Kale - annual, moist/fertilizer, 8-36” tall, full sun, harvest - pick young leaves as soon as large enough to withstand. Cut out as needed, young leaves keep growing
• Lettuce - successive planting annually, 6-12” tall, full sun (tolerates partial shade), harvest - entirely or few outter leaves (transplant seedlings into holes)
• Peas - annually, tendrals 2-8ft tall, full sun, harvest about 3 weeks after blossoms set

Soil depths for our seedlings (taken from EL book)

• 6-10” deep: arugula, beet, chive, cilantro, lettuce, onion
• 10-15” deep: celery, chinese cabbage, leek, lettuce
• 15-18” deep: kale, peas
• 18-25” deep: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower

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3/20/12

Today we transplanted a lettuce cell into a strawberry/h20 container. Also! We planted a whip of an apple tree that was clipped as a demonstration in class on Feb 29. Melinda took it home because it looked like a magic wand, then stuck it in a glass of water. Yesterday it started growing buds/leaves! So we tipped it, to encourage root growth by eliminating the auxin hormone, and transplanted it. We’ll see what happens!

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3/21/12. Snail Coed Mixer

Last night at 10pm-ish we took the advice from our EL book to “hunt” the snails in our backyard. Since we usually only see a few here and there we weren’t expecting much. With a headlamp on and a terra cotta pot in hand, we set out. We figured we’d scan the yard onced over and find maybe 5 or 6...within 10 mins, and ¼ of the yard perimeter, we found 16!! We were unprepared mentally to dispose of so many! Watching them for a few minutes made it very challenging to commit snail genocide. So we covered the pot for the evening, providing a few Ivy leaves inside (We figured we’d encourage Ivy eating over seedlings). Today we intend to relocate them to the river/eucalyptus forest...where they may seriously propogate after their 16 snail mixer last night!


Either that or we will have to commit them to the compost...