Wow, another week has gone by. The Garden has had plenty of help from the sky this week. Thunderstorms have swept across much of the South East. I’m happy for that because I just got my water bill.
I realized my first major mistake with the square foot garden. You are supposed to put seeds down in a little patch of vermiculite when you plant them. This magical material seems to be hard to find at the hardware store. I opted to just put seeds into the soil and now I see the problem. Several seeds failed because they didn’t have that space to “explode out” in. I think the vermiculite provides a nice moist basket and room for the sprout to shoot out. There are some cases where the sprout has shot out a half foot down the garden bed, having traveled underground for days, looking for the light. Today I put down some more seeds for the spots with no obvious activity.
Marigolds to shoo away pests: My wife is convinced that marigolds bring some kind of bad luck. Ask any gardener and they’ll say it’s a good flower keep pests away. I also have some vinca planted as well.
Basil: Of the 8 basil seeds I put down, only 4 came up. I put down some new seed in the dead spots. I absolutely love basil. You can tell a proper Italian restaurant because they put fresh basil on the pizza and pasta.
Carrots: The vegetables that grow underground give me a lot of anxiety because it’s hard to tell how well they are doing at first. The carrots have finally started to show some nice tops this week. I planted three squares worth so I can eat like a bunny.
Big Boy Tomatoes: It looks like this has a slight case of blurry, but otherwise the plant is coming up OK. Tomatoes seem so fragile at first.
