The Great Cucurbita Experiment

Resounding failure! At least in the winter squash department. I covered my squashlings with soda bottles last night, cuz it was kinda breezy and felt like it would probably go into the low 40s by morning. I uncovered them this morning and took a good, hard, honest look at them. They suck ass, bigtime. I'm going to give them another few days to see if they perk up or not, but, when they don't, I have a couple choices:

* Tear them out and plant seed. It's a late start, I know. I'd be gambling against early September frosts like I did the first time I planted them two years ago (I lost, BTW). But they did so well, and were sooo healthy through the summer. But the heartbreak of the early frost cannot compare to the heartbreak I'm feeling now for my little guys. This is a definite "maybe."

* Tear them out and replace them with something from the garden center. I'd really like to try an eggplant, maybe some bell peppers.

These are the squash that are affected: Red Kuri (Hokkaido), Black Futsu, Winter Luxury Pie and Sweet Dumpling. The Black Futsu are the most viable of the bunch, maybe salvageable, maybe not. I tore out the Winter Luxes last night and threw them on the compost heap. Those are the ones that we're eaten by something. The Red Kuri and the Sweet Dumplings are just sad, sad, sad. Weirdly, these are all the plants that I put in on the east side of the garden.

On the other side of the garden, the Table Queens are perky and healthy, and so are the melons. The Yellow Scallops and the Costata Romanescos look kinda baked, but look like they're taking hold and will make some sort of comeback.

List of things to do early Wednesday morning, before the Jakester wakes up (I'll have to work super-fast):

* Get the tomatoes in the ground
* Pot up the lavenders (I decided to plant these in containers, after looking about on the web yesterday, and reading that it is possible to pot these guys. Next year, I'll probably have to put them in the ground, but pots are good for this year)
* Get the sunflowers in the ground
* Get the loofas in the ground
* Pot up the rest of the herbs in the Asian Soup Garden (I found Thai basil plants at Lowe's yesterday! Their cilantro was horrible-looking, so I picked up some oregano and sage, instead. Not very Asian, I know, but will fill in the gaps and will taste great with tomatoes later on.)

I feel so bad about my pumpkins. They were the whole reason I wanted to start this garden this year. I probably will try to start some seeds. I wonder what I did wrong.... Scratch that, in hindsight, I know what I did wrong. I started the squash seeds waaaaaay too early. So in essence, I was transplanting full-grown plants. A definite no-no. Well, live and learn. Next year will be different.

Yeah, not going so well thus far. I hardened my seedlings off for about a week. Okay, maybe not quite a week, but they were doing well, so in the ground they went late Thursday afternoon. All the cucurbits and the four melons. So far, so good. Friday morning I got up to check on everything and water before I went to work. One of the Winter Luxury Pie pumpkins was eaten down to bare stalk. All the leaves were eaten, leaving just the veins. Whatever had eaten it was gone by morning, and (I don't know what I was thinking!) I just left the other Winter Lux, hoping whatever had eaten its mate was satiated and would leave it alone the following night. It did! But last night... it came back and ate the other one. So, goodbye, Winter Lux for this year. No punkin pies. We'll try again next year.

Other than that, still no good news. It was really windy yesterday. REALLY windy. The wind really boffed my plantlets about, and they're looking kinda the worse for wear. AND... the 4x4 foot square where I was supposed to put the loofas, HUGE anthill. Don't tell anybody, but I let Rob "Ortho Ant B Gon" them again yesterday. So I'll probably rip out the Winter Luxes tonight and put the loofas there. Yes, I'll cover them up at night with plastic bottles. In fact, I'll cover *everything* up tonight.

The Thai basil and cilantro that I tried to start from seed is not doing well at all, either. They're under lights in the garage. They keep drying out faster than I can water them. I'm not crazy about trying to start herbs from seed, but its hard to find the herbs that you really really want at the garden center. The mint and chives went into their planters in the Asian Soup Garden yesterday, and (knock knock) they seem to be doing well so far.

I still need to put the tomatoes in the ground, but I'm scared shitless at this point. I have absolutely NO confidence anymore. They look so strong and healthy right now, I'm afraid I'll ruin them. Same with the lavender and the lemon grass that I got in the mail last week.

I read up on how to plant the lavenders, and its going to be a huge project for this coming Wednesday and Thursday: mixing up compost, gravel, sand, native soil and lime, and making six separate mounds. Not to mention weeding and loosening the soil underneath each mound. Yawn.

So, here's my current list of stuff to do:

* Plant tomatoes, loofa and sunflowers in the ground
* Plant lemongrass and peppers in containers
* Prepare soil for and then plant the lavenders

This is definitely more fun when there's less carnage.

This poem makes me want to plant moonflowers...

Moonflowers
Milly Sorensen, January 16, 1922 - February 19, 2004

It was the moonflowers that surprised us.
Early summer we noticed the soft gray foliage.
She asked for seedpods every year but I never saw them in her garden.
Never knew what she did with them.
Exotic and tropical, not like her other flowers.
I expected her to throw them in the pasture maybe,
a gift to the coyotes. Huge, platterlike white flowers
shining in the night to soften their plaintive howling.
A sound I love; a reminder, even on the darkest night,
that manicured lawns don't surround me.

Midsummer they shot up, filled the small place by the back door,
sprawled over sidewalks, refused to be ignored.
Gaudy and awkward by day,
by night they were huge, soft, luminous.
Only this year, this year of her death
did they break free of their huge, prickly husks
and brighten the darkness she left.

Poem copyright by Karma Larsen.

Well, it's official. I'm growing pumpkins in the garage. The Winter Luxury Pie "seedlings" have itsy-bitsy "pre-pumpkins" on them. All of the squash seedlings are out of control. Reminder for next year, either don't start them so early, or plant them in bigger tubs.

But the forecast this week looks pretty good. High 70s and low 80s for the rest of the week, and low at night in the high 40s. I'm going to start hardening off this week. Today, actually. But dude, you should've seen how hard it was snowing on Monday up at the Lake. Almost total white-out at times. Totally frickin' ridiculous.

In the meantime, I've gone and started more seeds: cilantro, basil and a dozen more sunflowers. And I bought a huge, beautiful new rosemary plant today at Raley's for a mere $4.

In regards to my list of stuff to do in an earlier post, I'm slowly checking things off. I've started my manure tea, for one. Bought a cheap-ass bird bath at Rite-Aid for $7.99, not bad. Jake keeps tumping it over, though, and drinking the run-off. That'll have to stop as soon as birds actually start bathing in it.

Someone previous tenants must've grown herbs at some point. Last year I noticed a random thyme plant coming up in the side yard. I transplanted it to the back yard, and it's now a good-sized bush. Then last week, I noticed a totally random mint plant growing in the grass in the side yard. I forgot until yesterday to dig it out to transplant it somewhere, and raced home after work and got here literally two minutes before the yard guys came to mow. I dug it up and put it in the back yard as well (the yard guys mow the side yard, but not the back yard). Noticed more mint in around the primrose patch, too. Weird.

Speaking of pretty pink primroses, I'm going to take cuttings off of those in the side yard a little later in the summer, and plant them out back. My plan is to overrun the back yard with invasive stuff that I actually like, like mint and primrose, to take the place of all the weedy crap that's back there now.

Okay, here's a rough sketch of how things are supposed to look this year. Don't let the luxurious green background fool you, though. That's all rocks and dirt. My, am I in super-anal mode today or what.

Making lists soothes my soul just about as much as gardening does, and since I need some soul-soothing right about now, I'm going to make some lists.

THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK

• re-weedwhack the backyard
  
• re-pot some of my bigger squash seedlings
  
• re-pot sunflower seedlings
  
• fertilize tomato seedlings with weak fish emulsion
  
• fill up outdoor pots with potting soil
  
• prepare "Asian Soup Garden": drill holes in planter, top up with potting soil, start cilantro and Thai basil seeds inside, arrange concrete planters for mint
  
• prepare 3 more 4x4 planting sites outside
  

THINGS TO DO NEXT WEEK

• prepare 6 spots for incoming lavender plants
  
• start my manure tea
  
• re-locate thyme plant
  

THINGS LEFT TO BUY

• 3 bags manure/compost
  
• 6 bags garden soil amendment
  
• 24 bamboo stakes
  
• 1 cheap-o garbage can for manure tea
  
• over-sized watering can
  
• 4 mint plants
  
• garden twine
  
• (optional) rock mulch for Asian Soup Garden
  
• (optional) bird bath and pump
  
• (optional) garden bench
  

FINALIZED LIST OF THINGS I'M PLANTING THIS YEAR (and where)

• 6 lavender plants (along the north fence)
  
• 4 mint plants (in small concrete planters lining the "Asian Soup Garden")
  
• 1 crop of cilantro ("Asian Soup Garden")
  
• 1 crop of Thai Basil ("Asian Soup Garden")
  
• 3 lemongrass plants (in pots around "Asian Soup Garden")
  
• 3 Red Cheese peppers (in pots around "Asian Soup Garden")
  
• 6 Black Cherry tomatoes (north end of garden)
  
• 2 Riesenstraube tomatoes (north end of garden)
  
• 2 Green Zebra tomatoes (north end of garden)
  
• 2 Lemon Yellow tomatoes (north end of garden)
  
• 3 loofa plants (along the east fence)
  
• 2 Plum Yellow melons (along the east fence)
  
• 2 Tigger melons (along the east fence)
  
• 2 yellow scallop summer squash (along the east fence)
  
• 2 Costato Romanesca zucchini (along the east fence)
  
• 1 Red Kuri winter squash (along the east fence)
  
• 1 Black Futsu winter squash (along the west fence)
  
• 1 Sweet Dumpling winter squash (along the west fence)
  
• 1 Table Acorn winter squash (along the west fence)
  
• 1 Winter Luxury winter squash (along the west fence)
  
• various sunflowers dotted around the garden
  

Oh dear God. So much to do. So much to plant. And the growing season is getting shorter and shorter the longer this cold weather continues. I'll try and come back to this post and cross off things as they are accomplished.

I can't wait til it's all in the ground and all I have to do is water and weed, and keep my son from pulling it all up.

Addendum: I was worried about the primrose in the side yard, cuz at this time last year, it was pretty well re-established for the season, but so far this year: nothing. But this week it started springing up again in random spots. So no worries there. Welcome back, little guys!

Special Weather Statement - SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL POSSIBLE SUNDAY NIGHT AND MONDAY IN THE HIGH SIERRA... A POTENT STORM SYSTEM SOUTH OF ALASKA WILL MOVE TO THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COAST ON MONDAY AND MONDAY NIGHT. A COLD FRONT ASSOCIATED WITH THE SYSTEM WILL MOVE INTO THE NORTHERN SIERRA SUNDAY EVENING... AND MOVE INTO WESTERN NEVADA MONDAY. SNOW LEVELS WILL START OUT AT AROUND 8000 FEET SUNDAY AFTERNOON...BEFORE FALLING TO AROUND 6000 FEET MONDAY. OVER A FOOT OF SNOWFALL IS POSSIBLE IN THE SIERRA ABOVE 7000 FEET SUNDAY NIGHT AND MONDAY. SOME SNOWFALL ACCUMULATION IS POSSIBLE FOR LAKE TAHOE MONDAY AS SNOW LEVELS FALL BEHIND THE COLD FRONT. IN ADDITION TO SIERRA SNOWFALL...AREAS OF NORTHEAST CALIFORNIA AND NORTHWEST NEVADA SATURATED BY RECENT RAINS COULD RECEIVE ADDITIONAL SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL MONDAY AND MONDAY NIGHT AS THE STORM SYSTEM SLOWLY MOVES INLAND.

Well, last frost date is May 15. Ha! It's May 6, and night-time temps are still hovering just above freezing. I can't see how little more than a week is going to make a difference. I've resigned myself to waiting until June 1 to transplant everything. We'll see.

I've put my heart and soul into this garden this year. It's going to be a HUGE disappointment when September rolls around with its first killing frost, especially if I don't have any decent pumpkins yet.

Anyway, just a handful of 4'x4' squares of earth left to prepare to accomodate all the transplants. Not very pretty out there. Kinda looks like unmarked graves.

I've given up on the White Cushaws. They just don't want to grow. That's okay, apparently they're just pretty, and not good eating at all. Author Amy Goldman categorizes them as "spitters," cuz that's what you do when you taste them.

Other recent impulse purchases: lavender plants from Mountain Valley Growers (the "Learning to Love Lavender" Six-Pack, with 6 different kinds of lavender), and lemon grass plants, cuz the ones that I'm growing from seed are pathetically small and wussy. Mountain Valley Growers emailed me back and said it was too cold where I am to send them, and that they would wait until May 16. Yeah, good luck with that.

Note for next year: order seeds ONCE at the very beginning of the season, then BURN the catalogs and somehow block the seed sites so I can't get to them online. I swear, it's like PORN!

The "little tree that could" that's in the side yard busted out with a bunch of buds a couple of days ago. Like this:



Poor thing. He gets a leeeetle bit bigger every year, bless him.