Sharpredpencil’s Weblog

The Great Peanut-Lettuce Incident of 2008

I painstakingly thinned my lettuce sprouts. It was hard to kill off all those thriving sprouts, but I know it was the right thing to do. I just hope I did it right! I went from dozens of sprouts, all with true leaves, to just a few spaced around the round pot. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. However, I have another lettuce story to share…

Peanut was nearby while I was doing this lettuce thinning. She appeared curious several times and sniffed the pots, but I kept telling her to get away. I turned my back for a minute, and when I turned back to face my rectangular lettuce pot, I saw that Peanut had had a heyday sniffing it. Her nose was covered in dirt and my tiny lettuce sprouts were all uprooted. My first reaction was to be upset and I called Junior over. He could tell I was upset, but his first reaction was to laugh. He had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing out loud and he was really trying to be serious, but after a few seconds, I did have to admit the whole situation was pretty funny. It’s a good thing I have more lettuce seeds. I decided to just plant some more and be more mindful of keeping Peanut away from my containers.

Oh man, the things I’m learning…

Spurt of gardening knowledge

The Common Ground Food Coop had a gardening workshop on Saturday, and I attended with a few of my friends from work. It was a great resource! While I know to expect some spectacular failures with my garden, either this summer or in the future, the workshop was so inspiring. It focused on organic vegetable gardening, and it made me more excited to just try gardening.

I realized what my seed-starting problem is. No surprise here, but my herb seedlings aren’t getting enough light. While I’m not giving up, I’m set on buying herb plants at the store and using those. Maybe next year I’ll try starting from seed again. When I do that, I’ll buy a florescent light and place that two inches above the seedlings. I learned it’s important-both when starting seeds and choosing plants-that the seedlings/plants aren’t too stemmy. If the plant is a bit tall and the leaves are all at the top, it means the plant is reaching for the light and isn’t establishing good root and leaf systems. The flourescent light will help this for the seedlings, and now I know what to look for when buying plants.

In terms of growing plants outdoors, I think I have pretty good sun exposure. My plants will get mostly south-western sunlight, and my back porch isn’t shaded, so exposure to those 6-8 hours of daily sunlight will be a breeze. I’ll put taller plants on the north end of my patio (or stoop, or glorified slab of concrete, or whatever it is) so they don’t shade the shorter plants. Shade is nearby, so I can easily move my containers during a heat wave.

I left the workshop armed with information on making my own compost (I don’t see that happening) and organic pesticides. I think my main battles will be with slugs, aphids, rabbits, groundhogs, and maybe some other bugs I haven’t thought about. That’s right, I learned that groundhogs will destroy my garden. How convenient for them, then, that they live in the banks of the creek right in my backyard. Ugh. I’ve been researching ways to deter groundhogs, and I think I’ll try two things: A pinwheel since groundhogs apparently are timid-yeah, right-and will be scared away by the motion, and sprinkling Epsom salts on my plants (and reapplying as necessary after rain). I’ll look into the Epsom salt thing a little bit more to make sure that wouldn’t harm my plants. To battle rabbits, I’ll try bloodmeal around the base of the plants. I’ll use crushed eggshells to deter pests and go from there.

The most exciting news is that I won a savoy cabbage plant as a door prize. I never win things! My little plant is so cute. The book says cabbage container gardening isn’t worth it since one plant only produces one head of cabbage, but the leader of the workshop demonstrated a great technique. We discussed how lettuces are cool weather plants and that this is a good time to plant seeds. I copied her demonstration: I planted my cabbage plant in the center of an 8 1/2 inch pot and sprinkled Amish Deer Tongue lettuce seeds all around the cabbage. I accomplished my very first companion planting! Granted, this weekend is a bit too cold, I think, considering it’s downright wintry out there, but my weather.com homepage tells me this week will be better to keep the plants outside. I learned a lot about lettuce, and I’m excited to add that to my garden this year. I know the lettuce will be done by early summer, but I’ll try to start some more-maybe mesclun mix or a combination of two types of lettuce-for a fall crop.

The first picture shows my gardening supplies. Of course my gloves and spade are purple. The second is my planted cabbage. Hopefully the lettuce seedlings will come up soon!

Peanut is posing by the beginning of my container garden. Junior is holding her because she is always intent on bolting after rabbits.

Finally, there’s a picture of me, Junior, and Peanut. Again, Peanut is honing her rabbit-hunting skills. The area above my head is the bank of the creek, where the groundhogs live.