Tag Archives: swiss chard
Getting Ready for Planting…
I’ve been slowly getting ready for this season’s planting.
I’ve already pulled up some old (and bolting) Bok Choy, Daikon and Swiss Chard to make room for Tomatoes, Peppers and Eggplant.
I’ve been looking for tomato cages, but can’t seem to find the big ones; I’ve only seen the dinky 3 foot ones which are not tall enough. I did some searching online and found tomato cages made of PVC. That was an idea, but I found a welded wire mesh called Tomato Guard at OSH and thought I would try it. It rolls out to 5 x 20 feet and is enough to make 4 or 5 cages.
I’m going to use my old short Tomato Cages for Eggplants and Pepper.
While reading some forums online, I read about those water retaining crystals. I’ve known about these and seen them, but haven’t thought of getting them to the garden. They seem to be pricey, but I found a company that sells them in large quantities for a good price. I ordered 2 lbs. of medium polymers for $17.95 (includes shipping). I’m going to add these to my veggie beds and Coleus pots, because they then to dry out quickly.
Weekend Gardening
I thought I would be doing a lot of gardening this weekend, but there was actually not much to do. Surprisingly, the weather was warm… even after the rains we got mid-week.
I transfered about 18 Spinach seedlings from 2 six-packs into 3 inch pots.
The Bok Choy and Lettuce that I planted to replace the ones that were eaten are sprouting… and the Swiss Chard that were spared are getting bigger now.
Hopefully, we’ll have a lot of greens for the Fall, Winter and Spring.
The Sweet Peas and Snap Peas are also sprouting, but I won’t plat them in the bed until they get a little bigger, since they seems to be favorites of the birds and slugs.
I potted up a succulent (I think it’s some type of Kalanchoe) that has been growing from a leaf. I’ll have to post photos later, to see if anyone can identify it.
On Sunday, I took my mom to do some grocery shopping at the Filipino store, then we stopped by the 99ยข store and I found 2 more Cactus (actually one is a Euphorbia, so technically, 1 cactus)… I’ll post photos later.
Oh, I also forgot that on Friday afternoon, I took a late lunch and walked up Filbert Steps again to shot a few photos.
Murderous!
When I got home from work, it was almost dark, but I wanted to just put the Elephant Garlic into the ground to start growing. Before I started, with flashlight in hand, I checked the Swiss Chard, Lettuce and Boy Choy I repotted yesterday…
AHHHHRRRGGGG! Something ate them!!!
All the Lettuce were completely gone. All the Bok Choy were gone with the exception of a few decapitated ones. Luckily, most of Swiss Chard were fine, but it looked like a few were pecked at or nibbled on. (I guess birds–or whatever ate the seedling–don’t like Swiss Chard that much)
I’m suspecting that the birds ate them, because I’ve noticed them in various parts of the garden, when I have been gardening. I also found these marks on one of my Snow Pea leaves:
I resowed Lettuce and Bok Choy seeds and hope they grow quickly to replace the ones I lost. I placed the plastic cover from my large Jiffy Greenhouse Trays… Luckily it’s the perfect size for these trays.
Weekend Gardening…
I did quite a lot of gardening this weekend.
The weather is getting cooler and it was overcast pretty much the whole weekend. Leaves are changing colors and the summer vegetables are slowing down. There was a lot of leaves from the Pears and Apples to sweep up and I cut off more of the dying leaves on the Tomatoes and Cucumbers.
The Lettuce, Swiss Chard and Bok Choy that I planted about 2 weeks ago are getting crowded in the six packs, so I divided them up and planted 3-4 seedlings into 3 inch pots. (I have to remember that one Swiss Chard seed actually comprise of many seeds) I’ll let these grow a bit until I have space to plant them in the vegetable beds.
( before photo – after photo )
My brother went to a yard sale and bought a whole box of terra cotta pots (with 3 bags of cactus mix included) for only $3.00… what a deal! ( photo )
I potted the three $1.00 Cactus and Succulents into pots. ( photo )
As I was planting the Cactus, a spider paid a visit and I think it took residence on the Cactus. ( photo )
It seemed to be a spider weekend. I must have seen 4 different spiders, but I guess that’s not too unusual when you are cleaning up around the garden. Here are two of my favorite photos:
Lastly, I harvested the first big batch of Tomatoes… along with Pears and Lemon Cucumber.
Yeay! Good night :)
Amending and Planting in the Newly Prepared Veggie Bed
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
After the mortared veggie bed has dried, I started breaking up the hard clay soil and added compost, steer manure, soil conditioner, potting soil and fertilizer to about a third of the bed. I didn’t have time to do the whole bed, since I had to dig up some Bearded Iris that hasn’t been divided in I-don’t-know-how-many years.
This is the clay I had to break up
Here’s a third of the bed after amending it. I didn’t finish until about 9pm; that’s why the photo looks dark.
Thursday, July 6, 2006
I staked in a trellis and planted Lemon Cucumber and Swiss Chard in the newly prepared veggie bed. Again, I didn’t finish until about 9pm; that’s why the photo looks dark.
My back and muscles now are sore!
Bugs on the Swiss Chard
We’ve been having weird weather. Last weekend was sooooo hot, reaching the low 90s on Sunday. Throughout the week it’s been getting cooler and cooler, then this weekend, we got rain again. It’s actually not bad’ it’s kinda nice not having to water outdoors.
Before it rained today, I was cutting down more of our bolting Swiss Chard (in vegetable bed #1), because I want to fix it up and start my vegetable garden. At the same time, Calli was running around exploring the back yard and my oldest brother came to visit and was pulling out the Peach leaves with Peach Leaf Curl.
As I was pulling up the Swiss Chard, I found a whole bunch of bugs. There was a couple of Ladybird Beetle larvae, which I relocated to our aphid stricken Italian Plum tree.
I think the left photo above is a Soldier Fly, but I’m not sure. If you click the photo and view the large version, you can see the details of its purple and blue eyes. It has an interesting pattern.
As for bug on the right… I don’t know what that bug is, but I’ve seen them in our Persimmon Tree. They are slow moving and very very shy. This one was very good at hiding from the camera. I’m surprised I got a photo of it.
I can’t wait to get the lens I ordered on Friday. I also got myself a 10x Macro Lens which I hope will give me more detail with photo like above.
Busy Weekend…
On Saturday, my oldest brother picked me up so I can get some scalloped bricks from his house that he didn’t need.
We got detoured, when my other brother called his mobile phone and told him someone was getting rid of some bamboo poles. The owner grew them in their backyard and got sick of them, so they ripped it all out. OMG! They were long!
Once we got to my oldest brother’s house, he showed my some of his plants and asked if I knew what this was… and that… etc.
I was surprised to see a couple plants I want… including a yellow Siberian Iris, some Hostas that were growing like weeds… along with the weeds… and some purple velvet-like Salvia. He also had some tadpoles in his inflatable swimming pool and he showed me a nest with two eggs. He said that the parents haven’t come back in a while and he’s wondering if they got injured. We’re unsure if these will hatch.
On Sunday, I cut down the seed stalks of the Swiss Chard in the front yard, they were getting way to tall. We are still harvesting some of the bottom leaves, so I’m leaving those (for now).
My Aunts, Uncle and Grandma came over to take my Mom out, they took some Swiss Chard and took group photos with all the Roses and other flowers. As I was dead heading the spent flowers, I heard my Grandma say that I’m like a woman because I’m good in the garden… I wasn’t offened… I thought that was so funny!… (I think it the way she said it)… If she only knew ;)
It was getting hot so I took a break, but later sorted through all my Coleus and grouped them into groups of 2, 3 or 4… I’m trying to figure how to combine them into a nice combination to plant into pots. I thought that was the hard part… When it came to planting them… Whew!… That took a while… I ended up with at least 12 pots (mostly with three plants). I also mixed in the Plectranthus ‘Zulu Wonder’ and the Taro, here and there.