Note the larger leaves emerging in the top and right bunches, with some leaf stagnation occurring in the more crowded bunches at bottom and left:
The lessons from Project: Thinner Arugula are now being applied to the carrots, beets, and spring onions. Although traumatic to pull these seedlings out, we now realize that we far over-seeded them. A few of the rogue carrot and beet seeds which strayed from the designated rows are growing taller and producing more foliage than the ones in the overcrowded rows, so we felt confident that some thinning would help. The one victim of our thinning that we can eat is spring onion - these baby spring onions could pass for chives and smell delicious.
Baby spring onions, who sacrificed themselves so that other spring onions could be big, tall, and tasty:
More photos to follow - our camera has really bit the dust so the few photos we have today were the exceptions in a 40-photo shoot of mostly overexposed digital waste. I even tried watering the camera (inadvertently) but it didn't seem to help.
We also spent a lot of time today on our ornamentals. Our cosmos and yarrow, purchased to attract friendly insects, have been sitting in a cardboard box all week. Our irises (turns out they are lilies, oops) were crammed into 10" pots like 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag. Today we took the time to brave IKEA and Home Depot to get new pots and some fresh potting soil. You can see the results below, and more photos to follow.
Lilies, given room to be all that they can be as individuals, hanging from our front balcony:
Finally, you won't see much of the gardeners on this blog but after completing most of our major milestones for the garden this spring, we thought we'd show our faces briefly. But we know you're not here to see us, and that's okay.
With new pots, giving some basil a new home:
Looking satisfied at the progress with potted yarrow and cosmos near the beds:
Completely exhausted. This gardening stuff is a real workout! Very happy with how the farm is coming along.
Your SF arugula is kicking my SF arugula's butt!
ReplyDeleteI have 4 plants that look very similar to yours in size, but they were planted in early February - inside and then transplanted outside.
This is probably due to one or more factors.
1) Lousy sun where the arugula is - our backyard is mostly shaded and where it's not is my landlords precious lawn.
2) Soil quality. I didn't do any prep or amending to the soil before or after transplanting, though I did put some fertilizer on it.
3) Sporadic watering. The arugula is way out in the back yard, the herbs are on the front porch and get more attention.
The plants in Healdsburg were on a drip system and are in full sun in a raised bed with known good soil.
I'll be interested to see how your basil does. I was of the opinion that it's just not sunny/hot enough in Noe - at least on the upper slopes - to suceed with basil. That's why I've stuck with Cilantro and Dill which are growing very well.
I have put in some basil starts (in soil brought from Healdsburg) that I am growing here - bringing them out during the day and back in at night, but my general plan was to transplant them up North.
Bonne route - Murph
Funny you should mention that Murph - we planted basil seeds and nothing came up. It was a little hard to tell because we have a few weeds that can look a bit like basil sprouts, but so far we don't think they've taken.
ReplyDeleteWe bought some basil starts instead and planted them in 2 spots with lots of sun so we'll see how they do. We had good success with basil last summer but as soon as we stopped watering frequently they died off. The sage, on the other hand, just won't stop growing.
Keep us posted on yours!