Flushed pot on front patio

On 10/14/18 we did a deep soak and repeated flushes with water to the potted plant on the front patio that I mentioned in the last journal.  It has been struggling.  A kind and helpful blog reader (thank you!) suggested flushing the pot as salts from regular watering may accumulate.  Why didn't I think of that!?  I use Reverse Osmosis water for exactly this reason on our houseplants, but I do not do this on the outside pots.  This is the only one on a hard surface and, therefore, in a saucer.  Fingers crossed... let's hope this helps.

Spring Update

Spring is here!

Community Garden: I've continued to rip out the broccoli at the community garden.  The bean seeds are sprout well.  Some tomato starts are struggling.  The cucumber and carrots are sprouting minimally.  Likely the seed is too old.  I dug out some cosmos from the garden box and brought it home to enjoy here.

Around home: The Mr. says he wants more flowers in our yard, which we've done very little with since moving in.  So I bought a dahlia this week and added that with cosmos to a prominently placed pot in the backyard.  Also, there was this old, scraggly and sad poinsettia plant in a pot in a fake well decoration that I was sick of looking at.  The location is tough due to water issues.  Now I'm trying some succulents in there.  We'll see how that works.





















I'm loving the apple tree blossoms in the front yard that we walk past multiple times daily.



These little freesia are blooming in a spot we see out our back windows.

Many of our potted plants I topped off with finished compost.  Some I planted seeds in, including some Super Snow White Cherry seeds I'd saved from 2012.  It was an incredibly sweet and flavorful cherry.  I doubt those old seeds will sprout, but its worth a try.

I also put Basil in a pot and some flowers, including these Bachelor Buttons, Carnations and a Black Eyed Susan, which I'm hoping will vine up a tomato cage.









We've had a heck of a time this winter with first DS, then DD, then DH getting pneumonia.  I'm grateful to say that no one currently has pneumonia or is on antibiotics.  Everyone is on probiotics, though!

Planted and Fertilized at home

Ah!  Spring is definitely here, and I've go the bug!  I spent almost the whole day in the garden, after starting the morning at Zumba.  I pulled out some old veggies and gathered fennel and basil seeds before planting.  I put in basil, dill, and chive seeds.  Plus I had starts of Celebrity Tomatoes that I planted, which are VFNT resistant.  If anything can survive my diseased home garden beds, they seem the most likely candidates.  They went in the North and West beds.  I hope they at least taste decent.  Also, I planted marigolds (for looks and to discourage nematodes), snapdragons, and celosia.  The latter I've never grown before.  The flowers went in North, West and South beds, plus pots.  DH harvested the worm bin and put the castings in the North and West beds.  Finally I gave a very thorough fish fertilizing to the Carrotwood tree and the hedge on the North side of the house that I'm hoping will pep them up, along with the deep watering they've been getting.

Fertilized

Did Gro-Power inn the front and on roses plus some ornamental pots.

Did Dr. Earth's Citrus Fertilizer on the citrus.

Did some Miracle Grow Organic (until gone - yea!) and some Dr. Earth's Vegetable fertilizer on N, S, and W beds, plus the vegetable pots.

Also, used worm tea in the N bed.

Trip to the Nursery, VFN tomatoes, Marigolds, and Compost

After the bad news of my infestation, I wanted to know more about VFN varieties.  Interestingly, the Territorial Seed Company seed catalog that I had at home did not seem to comment on VFN status.  I wonder if I missed it or if the info really isn't there.

Friday afternoon, we went to the nursery.  There we found only a few hybrid seed packets labeled with VFN information in small italic, light font.  The tags on actually plants weren't very helpful either - the most informative said "disease resistant" but didn't specify which diseases.  The customer service desk did have some helpful printouts regarding VFN status of some varieties they carried.

To test the theory that my tomatoes' big issues at home are the wilt and nematodes, I bought a 6 pack of Champion hybrid tomatoes.

Reading more on the root knot nematodes online, I saw information about using marigolds to help control them.  So, I bought 24 French Marigolds to plant at home.

I also read that using compost may help, as it may up the beneficials populations such that they can prey upon the parasitic nematodes.  I need to also read further about whether it is worthwhile to purchase predatory nematodes.

Saturday, I put our entire supply of finished compost into the North and West beds, which gave several inches of new compost to each.  I removed dead plants, cut diseased ones, planted the new tomatoes and the 20 or the 24 marigolds.  (The other 4 I'm saving for the community garden bed.)

Here are the beds as I'm cleaning them out and adding compost:

And here they are when I was done:

I also supported the tomatoes in the front bed with an approximation of a Florida weave.  Despite the fact that all of those plants are heirlooms, some of them are doing okay.  I haven't grown any vegetables in that soil before.  It isn't the best soil, but it also isn't too infested apparently.

Here is the weave in progress:

Here is the finished photo:

Lastly, here are some of my garden helpers.  They supervised some of the gardening from up in the Carrotwood tree:

Fertilized with Fish Emulsion at home

Used the Fish Emulsion on the North, South and West Beds, plus pots, front and roses.

Fertilizer GroPower

Used the GroPower on the Roses, Citrus, and Front (continuing the error from last time.)

Amending Soil to Fix the Zero Nitrogen Issue

I am aware that some organic vegetable gardens may have very low water soluble nitrogen levels, but ZERO seems a bit low to me.  I'm hoping this is the issue with my North and West beds, because it is one that I can fix.  Just to be sure, I dug up a few of my pathetic tomato plants to take them back to the nursery for show and tell, along with my soil test results.

I came back with some new tricks.

The first is blood meal.  I've heard that it is easy to burn plants with this as it can be too nitrogen-hot, but really, with ZERO, is that going to be an issue?  (Were those famous last words?)  One of the nursery guys told me to use it in 2-5x quantities on the label and he wasn't concerned.  Another just said he's had trouble with it attracting animals, so he recommended I scratch it in.  I don't want to attract the raccoon pair that's recently been sited in the neighborhood.

I used the blood meal in the North Bed: 4 1/6  cups total.
Blood meal in the West Bed: 1 5/6 cups total

I clawed it in for both locations.

The second photo shows what I'm hoping will be my new best friends: Dial N Spray and Fish Fertilizer.  Today I used the Sprayer for the first time and it was super easy.  We had something like this about 12 years ago that wasn't nearly as intuitive.  I used the fish emulsion on the North Bed, West Bed, South Bed, Pots, and Front.  (Plus the camellias were in my way, so I foliar sprayed them, too.)

I hope to see some improvement in the sorry state of some plants.  I hope I'm on the right track.

Fertilized GroPower

I try to use all Organic fertilizers now, but I do have some non-Organic from the bad old days that I'm still using up.

I use Gro-Power on landscape plants (not today), the roses and the citrus.  Unfortunately, I also messed up and used it on the front veggies.  I guess I'll just continue with that until this stuff is gone, then convert.