Gardening - Part 4

I learned something about growing plants together these past few week. It is very important to read directions. I said this in a previous post, did I not? Well, it seems that I am not a through reader. I planted my pumpkins, sunflowers and pole beans all at the same time. Well...The pole bean grew up the sunflower, now 3 feet tall, but the bean vine is a foot taller. The end of the vine just waves around in the air laughing at me.

So, not all vines were taller then their supportive sunflower. But for the beans that are out growing their sunflowers I had to unwind their vines and re-wrap them around thin branches I pressed into the grown. Now the vines have a make-shift trellis.

On a separate note I found this site that has some home remedies for garden pest.
Garden Pest

Gardening - Part Two

There is a local gardening store called Urban Roots here in Buffalo, NY that I buy pretty much all my stuff from. They carry everything from seeds, pots and starter peat moss cups to trees, plants, bird and bat houses.

Well, in my efforts to become an Uber Urban Farmer we (spouse and baby) bought: peat moss seed starter cups, seed starter soil (organic and no animal by products), organic seeds, bamboo sticks
(to use as trellises), terracotta pots, organic top soil and twine.

All the food plants we have we started in the peat moss cups with the starter soil. What is great is once the plant has sprung you can dig a hole and pop the whole cup right into the ground. We used our office/storage space as a nursery. Then transferred most of the plants to a raised area of dirt in the back yard. We kept several of the small plants in the house and put them in the terracotta pots with the organic soil. Top photo is combination pumpkin-bean-sunflowers in peat moss cups. Bottom photo is pole beans started in peat moss cups.

The most important notes are: 1. Read instructions on the seeds and peat moss cups. They are easy to understand and to the point. 2. Keep seed soil damp but not dripping wet.

My beans got a little dry but we saved them and my spouse had is celontro drowned in the rain but again they were saved.

I just had a flash back...I remember my mom telling me about how her in laws advised my father to not marry her and to marry the other girl who was an accountant. Until...They found out my mom was a gardener. Her in laws seemed to think that it was more important for my father to marry a woman who could teach the rest of the family how to grow tomatoes. Apparently, growing tomatoes was a more valued skill.