Kevin Harbin, Gardener

The lettuce is coming in, but the celery did not. The carrots are coming in, but the spinach is not. The Sugar Snaps are doing great but neither the tomato nor the pepper plant came up. The lettuce came in really well so I thinned by transplanting a dozen or so to where I had planted the celery. I bought a few tomato and pepper plants a week ago and planted them. They are doing well and I look forward to eating them. The watermelons have sprouted.

I weeded my gardens today. It’s so much easier to do when the dirt has never been stepped on.

While weeding I found this egg. It was inside the fence and near the edge.

I have taken to a strange practice with my rain barrel. I grow catnip in it. Maybe none of the reasons I do it are any good but here they are anyway. First, because I can. Catnip grows very easily and quickly puts out roots in water. Secondly, I have found the water, if left to it’s self, will start to smell bad. With a plant growing in it that usually goes away. I suspect that the catnip feeds off bird droppings and other dead plant life such as algae that sometimes grows.. Thirdly, I found that catnip is a pretty good deterrent to ants. If I can water with a natural ant deterrent then I will. I’ll never forget the nightmare of stepping onto the walkway of my garden to find that it woke up the colony. I’ve since planted some catnip in that spot and I haven’t had trouble since, but spreading the love around is OK with me.

Maybe I’m just crazy but I feel like this helps.

Since a rabbit decided to eat all of the tomato and pepper plants that I planted I purchased replacements this weekend. I took the opportunity to also do a few up-keeping things I meant to do already.

I purchased four more landscape timbers to increase the depth that I’m capable of in Garden #2. To keep rabbits out I used 48″ rebar rods to anchor each corner, sinking each 12″ into the ground. Attached to the rods I have surrounded the plot with the same metal fencing I used to build the compost bin.

I transplanted the apple tree last week. It has obviously outgrown it’s tiny pot. I probably should have moved it earlier, but I don’t think it will have any problems going forward.

The apple tree had been kept indoors at a southerly facing window and was well acclimated to it. I’m attempting to harden it off by keeping it out doors in a place with mostly shade all day. I’ll gradually move it to more and more sunlight.

The pot is filled with a mix of compost, seed starter mix and top soil. Once in the pot I watered it thoroughly.

This probably doesn’t really fall under my gardening theme as clearly as some things might, but I wanted to mention it anyway.

This week a friend from work gave me his old electric Lawn Mower, at my favorite price, free. According to him the batteries aren’t holding their charge very well anymore. If I have to I’ll replace the batteries, other than that the lawn mower is in good condition.

Now if only I could make it remote controlled…

Whenever you are preparing to do any digging in your yard you should always call to have utility lines marked. When beginning my lawn work I called my local utility and set up an appointment to have my lines marked. The call was simple and I was able to make an appointment for the next day. It’s a free service which can save you hassle and serious injury.

When my lines were marked I found that my electrical service goes all the way around the back of the house to get to the panel. If I had only been working in the backyard I might not have had the lines marked, and this would have lead to trouble. Even if you think you know where your utilities are burried, stay safe and dial 811 before digging.

Practice Smart Digging.

The seed tray has worked out very well for me. My attempts with using uncovered cups did not. I purchased another 25 spot tray, with a package of refills.

The beans and corn quickly grew to three times the height of the cover and I had to remove them. Also, I didn’t keep careful record of it and now I don’t know which beans are Cranberry and which are the Blackeyed.

I drew more detailed versions of each garden plot so now I have a better idea of how many seeds to plant. It appears that I might have some room for broccoli. Looking over the layout, I’m going to have a busy season.

While I was doing some yard work this weekend a good friend of mine called to inform me that he found a good sized grape vine growing in his garden.  Oddly enough I spent a good portion of that day preparing a place to put a grape vine if I were to get one. I rushed over to dig it out and I’m very pleased with it. It’s about a half an inch thick at the base. Given what we know about where it was growing it’s probably one to one and a half years old. We were able to save good portions of all four tap roots. The various branches are roughly 8 feet long.

When I got it home I dug a shallow hole the size of the root area. Then, inside, I dug three deeper holes with the post hole digger to extened the tap roots into. I filled back in with a mixture of top soil and dirt from the hole and water it all in. I threaded some of the branches through the lattice.