Adventures in gardening: draining, composting and nurturing

My tomato next to some open blossoms.

    Two weeks after the plants have found their new home in my raised bed, Mother Nature has found a way to partially ruin my fun.

     Nearly every day of the first week-and-a-half has featured rain either in the morning or a mass thunderstorm at night. Normally, I wouldn’t be so bothered about the amount of rain. Come to think of it, I would be jumping for joy knowing I didn’t have to venture into the sun in order to water the garden.

The buds on the top of the basil plant. Some of the flowers
along the bottom had already opened when I pinched them off.

     The reason I’m not exactly what you would call happy about the amount of precipitation we’ve received is my raised bed may or may not have a serious flaw. The instructions for the bed tell you to place the boards equally spaced apart and cut a few holes in the plastic lining in order to allow drainage. I noticed the second day that the water wasn’t draining. To solve the problem, I used a utility knife and slid it from one end to the other to open the plastic lining more to see if that would help.

     It hasn’t, or at least I don’t think it has.

The basil buds can be anywhere from a half inch
to two inches when you pinch them off the plant.

     Because of the rain, I haven’t been able to tell if the side-to-side slit in the lining has worked seeing as rain not only makes everything wet but also it has been too steady to make it clear whether or not the garden is draining. I’ve taken matters into my own hands or at least my dad’s. Instead of waiting around to see if the slit worked my dad grabbed a drill and put holes into each board (to be clear I didn’t ask him to do it, he just did it). It’s doing better but still not draining very well.

     Basic conclusion? Next year I won’t be putting a plastic lining down.
     Other than the mishap with the draining situation, the plants are growing better than I thought they would at two weeks. I’ve cut some chives on two separate occasions and I have a tomato the size of a large grape. I’m basically a proud mother of vegetables and herbs.
     I’ve also run into some of my first maintenance duties. Basil plants are great if you know the, as I call it, quirk about them. The tops of the plants will get buds that you must cut or pinch off before they bloom. Why? After they blossom they make the basil leaves turn bitter. On both of my basil plants this passed week I’ve had to remove the ends on nearly every stalk.

     As a final note, I’ve begun composting. Nothing too complicated seeing as I am nurturing a small garden and don’t want to overwhelm the plants. After I use eggs I wash the shells and keep them in a small round cake pan that I have lined with aluminum foil. Once I have enough I bake them at 250 degrees for about 15 minutes. The timing and temperature is nothing scientific and I’m sure anyone can do it differently because the whole purpose is to kill off any harmful bacteria. I crush them up as finely as possible and avoid stabbing myself with the sharp shells (warning: this will happen and this will hurt like a paper cut) then I sprinkle them into the garden.

     The other composting component is coffee grounds. This process would have been so much easier if we were trying this a few years ago seeing as we now only use a Keurig single cup brewer but the good news is there is a surprising amount of grounds in each little cup. Seriously, open one because I know you’re curious now.

     I use the same process with the grounds as I do the eggshells except the reason for baking them is to dry them out. I sprinkled the dried grounds into the garden with the help of my nephew and used the opportunity to teach him about healthy soil.

     Hopefully next week I will have pictures of multiple tomatoes to share.

Adventures in gardening: planted, watered and sunbathed

Phase one: Complete

The raised bed before planting.

     Phase one, as I’m calling it, was getting the raised bed, the dirt, the plants and the planting process. I’ve spent the last few days looking into tips and tricks along with looking at what type of herbs and vegetables grow best in raised beds. The following is a step-by-step process of beginning with choosing the bed and ending with the plants soaking up Miracle Grow and the sun.

Step 1: The raised bed.

     My dad is very passionate about the backyard. I knew going into this that I couldn’t get a box garden that I would need to tear up part of the yard for, even if it were in the corner where he rarely goes, and the best option was a raised bed that could sit on our deck. We found one on Amazon.com and it arrived a few days later. Assembly wasn’t difficult though my dad, being the thinker he is, reinforced the boards that hold up the bottom of the bed. The bed also came with a plastic liner, which I’m sure will make cleanup in the fall so much easier, and I slit holes in the bottom to allow drainage in order to avoid root rot.

Two types of tomatoes, two types of basil, sage, garlic,
bunching onions and chives.

Step 2: What plants to invest in.

     I knew I wanted a tomato plant, preferably a roma or cherry, and I wanted basil. We already have both in my mother’s garden but as stated before sometimes you get a bad plant and things just fail no matter how much TLC you give it. I did my research and knew carrots would be stunted, cabbage gets too big, cucumbers expand and would have hang off the sides and green beans grow too tall. I made a list of the types of tomato plants I was after, stashed basil in my mind and decided I wanted green onions because I cook with them often.

Step 3: Tips.

While still in the containers, I began with
plotting out where to put each plant.

     I had heard of people using eggshells in their garden and wanted to know if it was worth it and what the possible benefits were. As it turns out, I’ll be saving eggshells to help with calcium and possibly as a slug deterrent. Also, I found out it would be best for larger plants to be planted on the north side of the bed so that they don’t over-shadow the smaller plants.

Step 4: Buy the plants.

Plants in the soil and labeled.

     I went to a local nursery with only three solid plants in mind and the rest I would wing. I grabbed a celebrity tomato plant, then some cinnamon basil and went on a search for roma tomatoes and green onions. I found the onions though they were labeled as bunching onions, found roma tomatoes and then I found what would take up the rest of the space. I grabbed garlic, sage, blue basil and chives. We cook with all of them frequently except the sage and that’s there for me to burn later (yeah, I’m one of those people).

Step 5: Planting.

     Gross will be the first word I would use to describe the planting process and it’s not because of the dirt. I hate the sun with a fiery burning passion. Where I set up my raised bed I was directly in the late morning sun. The upside was I chose to do this before we reached peak sun or else I would have some cherry-red tint to my Irish pale skin.

     The planting itself went well. I set the plants still in their little containers on the top of the soil before planting just so I would have a rough idea of how everything was going to fit. Once I had finished plotting everything out I started at the north end with the tomatoes and worked my way south. I kept a spare bag of soil next to me so I could add more as needed.

Step 6: Watering.

     A few days ago I bought a small container of liquid Miracle Grow. We’ve used it in the past mostly because a family friend who works in a greenhouse asked us if we fed and watered our plants. We had asked what the difference was and she advised we buy some Miracle Grow and mix it with water once a week to feed the plants. That year our plants thrived like never before. I poured the instructed amount into a watering can and filled it with water then poured it all over my new garden.

Step 7: Run out of the sun while the plants bath in it.

     As stated before I hate the sun and as soon as the plants were in the soil and watered I all but ran into the safety of my house and let the little guys in the garden bask in the warmth of the summer sun.

     There we have it. Phase one is done and we shall see what is to come with this garden. I’ll be watering and watching it and waiting for those pesky beetles and weeds to try and defeat me.

     Foreshadowing: They won’t win.

Coming soon: college student versus gardening

     One of the fun things about being on summer vacation is not having to rush to and from school. With all that free time, what should I do?

Spearmint in the herb garden.

     Start a garden!
     I've noticed an increasing interest in home gardening and people seem to get a real kick out of growing there own herbs and vegetables instead of making the trip to a grocery store. For the passed few years, my mother has kept an herb garden on our deck and I've learned some things about gardening.

Lavender in the herb garden.

     First, sometimes you just get a bad plant. Usually our basil plants have thrived to the point of not knowing what to do with all the basil leaves we cut off but last year the basil plant slumped. We hadn't done anything different from previous years either and in the past we've had difficulty with one or two plants out of the bunch. Sometimes it's really isn't you, it's them.
     Second, over/under watering. Feeling the soil is key. If it's too dry then water it but if it stays damp for a few days then you shouldn't drown the poor things.
     Third, beetles. I have come to view beetles the same way an old lady views the pesky neighborhood kids who walk across her lawn; they don't belong and I'm not responsible for the way I act if I see them.
     According to the drawer of certificates and the amount of chords I'll be wearing when I graduate from college, I'm perfectly capable of keeping a garden without killing it. I know this is going to be more difficult than the small herb garden on the deck but I'm mentally prepared for this.
     I think.