Head to Head Results

I has been a little over 2 weeks since I started the second plot and I thought I would compare growing results between them. For reference the Western plot receives sun from sun up until the late afternoon (currently 16:30), whereas the Southern plot gets sun from late morning (currently 11:00) until sundown.

Southern Plot		Western Plot

Despite my predictions I would say that the original plot is showing much better growth than its counterpart in the south. In particular the Spinach is doing much better on the western side. The Cilantro, Broccoli and Corn are also showing better growth in the west. It is possible that I have not been watering the Southern plot enough but I have been fairly diligent. The ground temperature over there is extremely hot on sunny days so possibly the roots are not staying cool enough. I am really just guessing as I am fairly uneducated in the optimal conditions for growing vegetables.

In other happenings some high winds last week knocked over my cherry tomato basket. A large branch broke off the plant but the rest of it seems fine. The strawberries are really coming in now as you can see above. I gotta get some ice cream.

The Fruits of Labour

Tonight I dug up some of the Bok Choy, as all of it has gone to flower in some stage or another, and made a vegetable stir fry. My sister would be proud of me as there is not a trace of meat in this dish. I marinated some tofu in chili sauce, garlic and soy and threw in a bunch of vegetables. Although the Bok Choy is tasty I can't say it jumps off the plate much more than its store bought equivalent.

In the past week I have not planted anything new but I have utilized the southern plot by putting both hanging baskets down there. They will receive a lot more sun which should equal more fruit from both those plants. I also have a bunch of green onion plants starting in plastic trays down there as well. I have also added some earth back to all my potato plants in an effort to create more tubers. I plan on having my little ditch filled with potatoes come the end of summer.

Vegetable Stir Fry		Southern Plot \w baskets
First two Bok Choy		Earthed up Potatoes

The Second Coming

In the past few days I have accumulated a lot of stuff to plant in the garden thanks to Tony and the Big Barn Garden Centre.

• Strawberries - 1 hanging basket
• Cherry Tomatoes - 1 hanging basket
• Early Girl Tomatoes - 1 plant
• Thyme - 1 plant
• Oregano - 1 plant
• Parsley - 1 plant
• Broccoli - 8 plants (4 in each plot)
• Cilantro - 2 plants (1 in each plot)
• Garlic Chives - 2 plants (1 in each plot)

I already have Cilantro, Chives and Parsley but none of my herbs in the far end of the first patch are growing all that well but I will let them stick around for now. In addition to planting all this new stuff I moved 3 of the corn and 2 spinach from the west plot to the new southern digs. The corn should like the extra sun/heat and I can compare it to the 1 stalk I left behind.

Two of the Bok Choy are flowering now so they will probably come out later this week. Out of all the vegetables so far the Bok Choy has proved to be hearty and quick growing. Time to make some stir fry.

Flowering Bok Choy		Southern Plot

New Digs

In anticipation of tomatoes to plant I have begun to question the placement and preparation of my initial plot. My current location in on the west side of the yard and given that I didn't have a proper shovel I don't think I loosened up the soil as well as I should have. So today I dug out a 4' x 5' plot in the south of the yard which will get a lot more of the hot afternoon sun while sacrificing some of the morning sun to a giant tree in the neighbors yard. I dug about 6-8 inches down and churned over all the dirt well so I am hoping it drains better than the other plot as well. For the sake of curiosity I am going to plant some of the same vegetables in both plots just to see how they react.

The one downfall of my new plot is the hose doesn't reach that far and I don't have a watering can. Necessity being the mother of invention I decide to get creative (and cheap). I saw a milk jug staring me in the eye on top of the recycling and began to get crafty. Poked a few holes in the lid, trimmed them up with a razor blade and behold my 4L watering can. It needs an air intake but it does the trick.

In other news the weather has been in the high teens with pretty much full sun these past few days, finally. The Red Leaf lettuce is showing a lot of improvement as you can see above or below.

 
(left) Red Leaf lettuce                    (right) Milk jug watering can

So Long Jalapeño

This weather sucks to put it lightly. Rainy, windy and generally cold. The cool, damp climate has taken its toll on the pepper plants making them sag and ultimately killing the jalapeño plant. I quickly replaced the jalapeño with something called "The Ring of Fire" which sounds a little discomforting. However, the rest of the garden is doing well with the bok choy, arugula, and buttercrunch lettuce showing lots of growth (pictured above).

On Sunday during a break in the weather I planted a few more things in addition to the replacement pepper plant:

• Ring of Fire peppers - 1 plant
• Spinach - 6 heads
• Zucchini - 2 plants
• Corn - 4 stalks

With any luck the end of summer corn will be great for BBQ's along with the Zucchini. The Spinach I planted was not from seed as I am still waiting on my seeds to sprout. Speaking of which some of my seedling containers got knocked over in the wind so I have no idea which is which due to not labeling them. Oh well, marigold and spinach should be easy enough to distinguish.

Midweek Update

I haven't done much of anything in the garden other than water and weed it over the past few days. I am yet to plant the Scarlet Runner Beans and am debating whether or not they are worth eating. The marigold and spinach seeds are yet to sprout but in a few more days maybe I will see something. Other than that my basil suffered a small tumble when the toddler upstairs was playing on the chair it was sitting on and knocked it over. A little worse for wear but it will be fine.

The rest of what is planted is starting to show some more growth, in particular the potatoes (pictured above) and bok choy are producing a lot of foliage. The peppers also seem to be holding up in what has been some cold and windy weather over the past week, with the exception of the jalapeño plant which is sagging a bit.

The forecast is calling for mainly cloudy with showers through the weekend which will mean less watering for me. There have been a few breaks of sun (like right now) but otherwise it has been fairly grey lately. It's June, bring on the summer!