Problems in Spinach Land

I planted about 5 of those spinach plants you can buy at Lowes. Today, I officially have 4 of the 5 plants mowed down by a mysterious predator. At first I thought maybe it was rats or some kind of rodent, but today I found this from harvestwizard.com:

Plants are eaten or cut off near soil level. Cutworms are gray grubs ½- to ¾-inch long that can be found curled under the soil. They chew stems, roots, and leaves. Place a 3-inch paper collar around the stem of the plant. Keep the garden free of weeds; sprinkle wood ash around base of plants.

This is what the latest tragedy in spinach-land looks like:

I did find weird worms in this section of the garden when I was planting, but I didn't think anything of it. Turns out, being a gardener is more than just planting stuff, it also involves pest control.

I just Googled the cutworm. Here is is:

Wikipedia article about cutworms

So they are not really worms, but actually caterpillars. I definitely saw these guys in my garden, so now I'm thinking this is what is attacking my spinach plants. Time to learn what gets rid of cutworms. 

I admit, I'm gettting really frustrating with this round of gardening. My summer garden was so easy and fun to grow, and these autumn crops suck ass. The pests are all over the place--we're getting invaded by slugs again. I set out beer traps that are working pretty well, but now I have to re-plant a bunch of stuff. I've got some starters going.

Couple lessons here:

* keep starters constantly starting so I always have something in rotation

* keep said starters protected from predators--set beer traps around them to ensure their safety

* get to the bottom of the spinach predator.  Try methods listed by harvestwizard.

The Pumpkin Harvest

Last year's pumpkin score: 0

This year: 1

Next year: hopefully at least 2-3 good ones.

Just picked today, about the size of a basketball.  Firm, healthy, and a brilliant shade of orange.  This is the lone pumpkin that came to fruit after planting 2 plants that took over a large portion of my garden.  Let me tell you...what a pain!  We had lots of little pumpkins start, only to have the plant drop them off the vine.  Online research indicates that my plants were maybe not getting fertilized.

So, here are my lessons learned:

* plant in June, just like I did.  I may have even planted them too early.  I can't remember if I planted them in late May or June.  Either way, I picked this baby today and we're still over a month away from Halloween...so maybe a little later would be okay.

* plant in one area.  The two plants I had grew in different directions and were separated by corn, yellow squash, and lots of other plants.  I think this may have contributed to the fertilization problem.  I can only assume that by some stroke of luck maybe an insect out there randomly helped fertilize the one pumpkin we got.  At any rate, I think planting them in one area will help.  Also, next year I'm going to do a better job of reining them in, because these plants like to grow everywhere. 

Spinach is Good for You!

I planted spinach plants yesterday.  I cheated a bit and bought the already-grown plants from Lowes.  I also bough seeds to plant when I get some room in the garden.  I figure there are a lot of months left before I can plant summery things, so there is time. 

You're supposed to plant spinach either in the fall or late winter.  If you plant them in the fall, you're supposed to do it 6-7 weeks before the first frost.  If in the late winter, 6 weeks before average last spring frost date, starting seeds indoors or somewhere protected.  The thing is, I live in Southern California near the beach where there is no frost, so I'm thinking this doesn't apply to me.  Moving onwards.

You're also supposed to prepare the soil by loosening it at least up to 10 inches deep, mixing compost and all that kind of good stuff to make the soil rich and humus. 

Thin plants as they grow so the leaves of plants next to each other don't get entangled.  You want to give them space.  I learned this the hard way--good crops need good space. 

More on this later.

Coming up:

~ still dealing with pests
~ succulents
~ transforming a blah winter garden
~ pumpkins

Invasion of the Unknown

So, I had some Japanese raddishes growing (by request of my husband) and lettuce growing.  Oh and some red bells.  The red bell pepper plant was (foreshadowing here...notice the word "was") beautiful.  It was healthy and strong and growing tons of nicely shaped, store quality red bells that hadn't turned color yet. 

Until the day of the invasion. 

I checked on the garden beds and noticed there was a suspiciously empty patch in one of the areas.  I looked a bit closer and yep--all my lettuce was gone.  Completely full on gone.  The Japanese raddishes were gone too.  Totally gone.  I immediately thought maybe snails, but they usually just nibble and stuff.  And I couldn't find any tracks or evidence of them.

I then started thinking maybe a bird.  After all, I did have some entire strawberries go missing.

I found a tiny slug nesting in my bell plant.  Again, I didn't think anything of it.  I simply picked it out (with gloves and a shovel) and got rid of it. 

After another frustrating day of things mysteriously disappearing, I decided to try one more thing.  I've already used crushed egg shells to no avail.  It could be a bird, it could be slugs.  I didn't know.  So in a last ditch attempt to keep things organic, I filled pie tins with cheap beer and put them in different locations.

The next morning, my husband excitedly called me outside before work. 

7 slugs.  7 little damn slugs terrorizing my garden. 

Oh yeah.  We mean business around here. 

Growing Better Sweet Corn

We planted our corn something in late April.  The year before we planted it too late and learned our lesson the hard way when our corn never got higher than our knees and didn't produce any corn to eat. 

So this year we got our timing right.  Great.

Other things I did right:

*watering was appropriate.

*picked them just at the right time...and the ones that were big and full were so good and sweet.

*planted them in a block, which helped with fertilization.


But....I made some mistakes.  Here it is in a nutshell:

* Overcrowding.  I grew them from seeds and grew too many.  Then, I didn't have the heart to get rid of any, so I planted too many next to each other.

* Didn't fertilize or mulch or add anything else.  I'm wondering if that would have produced bigger corn to eat. 

So I did a little research.  Next year I want to do better.  I want to be able to eat nice juicy corn from every plant.  Here it goes:

* work the soil before planting.  Help the soil get it as humus as possible.  Work in some multi-purpose compost before planting seedlings.

*plant legumes in the area where I want to plant corn next year.  Legumes (like beans and peas) help enrich the soil by contributing nitrogen.  Sweet corn needs plenty of nitrogen. 

*crop rotation--so plant my corn in a different area next year. 

Gardening Vocab Lesson: Building Rich Soil

I’m learning as I’m doing, so I wanted to document things I’ve learned in the world of gardening.

First, some vocabulary.

My gardening books keep talking about “humus.”  Humus?  Like hummus the food?  I was thoroughly confused, so thanks to the good ‘ole Internet, I looked it up.

Humus:  organic matter.  It apparently is super excellent natural stuff in your soil that helps things grow out of control (in a good way.)  You apparently can help your soil be more “humus” by composting, building lasagna gardens, and mulching.  That brings me to more gardening jargon to look up.

Composting: decomposed recycled gunk you throw in your garden for nutrients the soil needs to stay rich and healthy. 

Now, we’ve tried to make our own compost.  We’ve put in the right scraps and used milk cartons.  It just never happens for us.  So, recently we bought some organic mulch from Lowe’s.

Lasagna Garden: a method of organic gardening that involves layering (just like you would make lasagna, hence the name).  Here is an easy to follow tutorial of how to make one. 

Mulch: sprinkled on top of your soil.  It retains moisture in the soil, suppresses weeds, and makes the soil more attractive.  Organic mulch improves soil fertility too. 

So hopefully you see (as I have learned) that maintaining healthy soil is a work in progress.  It's a continuous process.  Serious gardeners are mindful of their soil quality, so this is an area you'll be seeing me post about frequently in the posts to come. 

The Start of My CA Garden

When we had a new fence installed, we found out it had to be done at an angle because of some stupid rule due to the proximity of my neighbor's garage (stupid beach community--houses built on top of each other!).  So, that left us with a piece of land that was rightfully ours that I wanted to do something with.  I thought it was a good opportunity for me to do what I've been wanting to do--a "California Garden."

What is that, for all of you non-Californians?

It's a garden that utilizes plants native to California, which are considered more environmentally sound since they use less water, generally speaking.  Here's a nice list of plants. 

I plan to extend this California Garden to the side of my house too, once I find the right inspiration for such pursuits.