New gardeners need help!

Just labelled and in a plastic freeze bag then in the freezer will keep them for years !
I would save any small containers like pimiento jars or even washed medicine bottles to hold the seed ! Then in a freezer bag and in the freezer ! Small seed gets lost and is hard to handle in just the freezer bag ! If you want to save space you can even put the seed in a plain white envelope,, labeled, and dated,,, then the freezer bag can hold several types of seed !

 

Thanks for the seed saving tips @Odif and @mart ! The more I think about this topic, the more important I realize it is. Having a good stockpile and source of seeds seems critical to being successful in self-sufficiency and gardening.

 

This week's video is posted:

For this one we decided to do an overview of everything that is growing so far. Please let us know if you see any issues starting that we can fix now before they become big problems that hurt our garden.
Thanks everyone!!

 

Personally I try not to constantly touch my plants, only if I have too. I don’t know if touching them is a problem, but my reasoning is that I can stress the plants out which may interfere with their growth. I am not saying that you are not allowed to touch your plants. The purple on the leaves is normal, often caused by cold nights. The onions will not be ready for a few months yet. The plants will fall over and start to go yellow. You will notice a bulb growing too most likely. The insects making the holes are tiny, I have similar things sometimes. It is likely that their predators will be around too and you will be able to live with them without too much trouble as the season progresses. Identifying the beasts will give you more info and options.

The squash should establish soon. The lower leaves often die and are not a problem as they continuously make new ones. Water only when the soil surface starts to dry. One of the benefits of mulch is moisture retention and the consequent reduction in having to water. Roots need air and water. Leafy greens like their leaves being watered. Squash, beans, tomatoes and potatoes do not like this at all and can become diseased. Water the roots. I plant garlic between November and February so see what happens. Weed when you want to. Carrots are very small and delicate at first and they may have problems to push through the mulch. I would carefully pull the mulch back an inch either side of the row if possible.

 

Thank you @Odif ! Really appreciate all the good advice!!

 

My pleasure, wait till you start learning about mycorizae and soil bacteria.

 

Pull the grass out as soon as you identify it, or else it will rob your soil of useful nutrients, (which should be dedicated for the plants). Yes, straw is the case of it, as that's where the seeds of it came from. So this is something you don't want growing in your patch.

Onions are doing great, but I think they aren't even half way there to be harvested... Let them first give you seeds for next reason. Then take them out and eat.

Tomato leaves turning a bit yellowish could be that your soil is low on iron... But don't worry too much over that. Just let the soil you placed in your bed breakdown. And also let the earthworms do their magic too. In time everything should stabilize - If however you try to fix it now, you will keep the growing bed from finding it's own natural equilibrium. So best thing to do is just wait a month and see if the plant recovers on it's own... I am of the opinion that everything will be fine. But if not, we can always correct it later. So nothing to worry about right now. Just let the environment settle down. As what we shouldn't be doing is overcompensating.

Marigolds are looking great, but aren't enough - You should have about 3 to 5 times are many to effectively keep the pests away, (in a bed which is as big as yours). Otherwise they are right now only functioning as decorative plants.

Mystery plant probably isn't a potato. I say this because I can't understand how it got started there - Usually potatoes are grown from spuds, not seeds. So it doesn't make sense to me, how could a potato spud have randomly made it's way to your garden?

Only explanation I can think up of is ,that maybe a bird pulled it out of the ground from somewhere a potato crop must be growing. And accidentally dropped it in your garden - Yes, it can happen, as that's how Sunflowers too spread. So not a very unlikely theory. But I still have my doubts. However soon it will become clear what it is. So again, nothing to worry about.

Trellises for peas should be erected now, the sooner the better. Plants don't have eyes to see, but I swear, I sometimes feel that they do - So the sooner you give these types of climbers something to cling to. The less energy they spend growing uselessly in other directions.

No they really don't have eyes, so can't see. But they can sense their environment, (they have an electrostatic field sensing radar from nature) - Many might disagree with what I have just said, but I will stand by what I believe is the case.

So the sooner you put up the trellises for your peas, they better! Also make sure to hang a useless CD or DVD from the trellises. To keep the birds from pulling out your seedlings.

Now would also be a good time to invest in a few soil testing meters, (we had talked about it before in some detail).

As for the insects which are making holes in your young plants - Could be ants. Or some other creature which probably isn't seen, as it no doubt cones out at night. I can't say, as I am not familiar with North American insects. It could also be something which arrived with the dry straw...

So here is what you need to do, to catch the culprit... Because if we need to come up with a strategy, we first need to correctly identify what they are.

Apply a little scotch tape to the stems of a few plants which are being attacked. Then coat a little petroleum jelly (Vaseline) over the scotch tape... 1 of 2 things will happen. Either you will trap the culprits in the layer of Vaseline, after which we can decide on how to control them. Or whatever insects they might be - Will now leave your plants alone, (as the layer of Vaseline will keep them from climbing up and eating).

If they are ants, then this problem will end here and now, forever, (as long as you keep doing this Vaseline barrier trick). If they are flying insects or jumpers, then obviously, we will need to rethink our strategy. But in either case, we need to try this petroleum jelly barrier first.

OK, just got a better idea! Take some 2 or 3 inch diameter PVC pipe, and cut it into 3 inch segments. Place that PVC ring around your plants, and coat Vaseline over this, (not harming your plants with scotch tape either)!

Another thing by the way, from which direction does the sun rise and set over your vegetable bed? I ask because it really matters a lot, then planting vegetables in rows. Pests too can sometimes be controlled this way, (believe it or not).

Your composting is fine. And as I always say, there is no correct or wrong way to do gardening. Just follow nature. So in the wild, how compost is naturally made, (as the leaves fall, then it rains over them, after which the seasons and temperatures change, along with humidity). So just follow how nature does it automatically in your geographical location. You shouldn't have to worry about much.

Garlic and sweet potato will for sure make an amazing addition to your bed! And they will surprise you in the most pleasant way regarding yields!

Really excellent video, and great work!

 

I stand by my observation it looks like a potato. Obviously @S-H has never heard of garden elves. They come out at night when we are sleeping and do crazy things in the garden.

 

Thank you @S-H !
As always, great information and very helpful!

 

When we brought the soil into the garden we did use some soil from an area of the yard that used to be an old garden/compost area. So maybe there was some potatoes in there.
But honestly, the idea of garden elves is much more exciting and I prefer to put my faith in that notion

 

True, I don't know anything about garden elves, as no such thing exists in my culture, (thankfully). But this just reminded of that movie from the late 80 - Honey I shrunk the kids.

Those who are new to gardening, must watch it again.

 

LOL Love that movie!!

 

All of your plants need some serious fertilizing ! Onions are planted way too deep but will do for now ! next week r two you need to remove the soil from the top of the onions if you intend for them to make large heads ! You only want about half the bulb exposed and mainly just the root in the ground ! After mine set roots I just take my finger and circle the bulb to loosen and remove some soil !
Plants I aw were about third smaller than what they should be ! Leaves should not be limp as they looked ! If you are using any type of potting soil,, it does not hold water unless you let it soak !

 

Thank you for pointing out the things we need to work on @mart !
Based on some other comments we've received, we actually just bought some organic fertilizer. We are going to apply it soon, hopefully it'll help!
We are truly realizing how much we have to learn with all this ( kind of overwhelming honestly ).
Thanks again!

 

That's why I keeping saying, that in order to avoid experiencing information overload - Always follow nature...

You really can't go wrong. As nature has it's way set since millions of years. So whenever in any doubt, be it anything. Just see how nature deals with it.

This way things don't become too overcomplicated - And we also don't suffer from an information overload...