Garden Field Notes v.1
When a friend of mine (Hi, Sophie!) mentioned she'd been keeping a notebook of garden observations, I jumped up and grabbed one for myself. And while my mini notebook from Small Batch Journal Co. has been useful for quickly jotting down observations while my hands are covered in soil, I'm no artist. I traded sketching the plants' progress for taking pictures, which I think will be useful when I read back and reference these notes next year.
What's working:
Plants from Oakland Nursery are thriving, especially David's pepper plants: banana peppers and jalapenos.
The banana peppers are ~4 inches each. They got a bit burnt at one point, but as they grew out they recovered well. Except for the one that I prematurely took a bite out of, which David is still unhappy about.
David's jalapeno plant is INCREDIBLE. He bought it as a preteen, and now it's got 8-12 peppers hanging under its umbrella of leaves.
The jalapeno seeds we planted are finally producing too, which is so rewarding! They're a bit small still, but such cuties. We have our first pepper growing on the stem and I'm excited to see how large it grows, especially compared to the plant we bought.
My green onions are incredible! They shoot upwards constantly, and they've gotten to tall they're bending over. I cut a bunch off to use in salsa and hummus this week. They're all regrown from 2 bunches at the store, and they're definitely the easiest thing I've got in the garden. The only thing I'd change is where I plant them next year; right now they're getting pushed around by kale.
Kale! It's leafy and large. Next year I need to give it more space since the leaves branch out and cover so much space/block the sun. The leaves have a ton of little holes too, so I think there's a bug/insect/worm issue happening, but I need to look into it some more. For now, I'm going to spread some of my Garden Pest Powder to see if it helps.
David's habaneros are doing well. We made a mistake early on by planting 3 of the plants together and one on its own. The 3 were stunted and look sad. They're not producing much of anything. The one that was on its own is a darker green, leafier, and has ~6-7 peppers growing now!
The mojito mint is getting bigger, but it wilts often. I think that's just how mint can be, but he's moody. My sweet mint is a champ. He's been fluffy and vibrant since day one, and he JUST grew some tall sprouts this week.
Lemon Balm is a big fave this year. I had a small plant from Oakland that *ahem* took a sad tumble. I revived him with a bigger pot and fresh soil and datum he's leafy and bright green and so, so lemony. I've made tea from the leaves that was delicious and it's the one I'm always picking leaves off while I'm out on the porch. I started a bunch of seeds late May (after the basil wasn't growing) and they took forever to sprout. Like so long I thought the squirrels had eaten them all up. They finally came up and they're so cute even when they're little! Next year I want to plant a bunch in the front yard so I can make MORE tea.
I'm not sure if rosemary is just a slow bloomer, but mine has been the same teenage size for what feels like months. She's healthy and cute and smells/tastes delicious, but it just isn't becoming the tree I thought it would. Maybe next year I'll put it in-ground and see if that's more successful.
What's not working:
I couldn't (and still can't) get the cilantro won't grow. I started a packet of seeds in April, but when they finally popped up they grew flowers quickly. Most seeds failed to actually grow. David's was luscious for a while but there were so many flowers. We cut it back halfway thinking it'd be best to give him a big haircut and he'd grow better again. However, he got roasty toasty and crumbled up instead (with tons of flowers, ugh!).
Parsely. I blame this on the spider that lived in the single parsley pot. He dug a hole as his own little cave and the parsley is STILL like an inch tall (maybe even less). Last year my parsley was HUGE, but I bought it instead of using seeds. I'm thinking that might be the way to go since starting from seed was difficult for so many of my favorite (and often used) herbs.
My basil grew moderately. I only have 3 stems after planting many, many seeds. The squirrels kept getting into the pots I had seeds in, but I'm guessing that was because of the compost mix I used. The two basil plants David and I have are doing fantastic. David's is a bit leggy and mine has leaves growing closer together and they also appear darker.
The celery plants(both from Findlay Farmer's Market and from regrowing in the kitchen) are going to seed quickly. I don't know if I'm over/under watering, but I've pulled most stalks out of the garden since they're donezo. Sad, but it gave me more room for basil!
SQUIRRELS. They've been digging for months. I keep finding peanut shells in the garden. I realized they were likely digging for the compost that I'd mixed in with the soil. However, it ruined the first batch of basil and cilantro plants. Womp womp.
At first the spinach looked awesome. That was late May/early June. It was leafy and growing quickly, but it went to seed SO fast. I never even harvested it. I pulled it all from the garden a few weeks ago to make more room. [Note: I also fell in the garden and smushed some, which probably didn't help...]
I don't know why I bought orange mint a few months ago. I don't really like the taste, and I don't know many dishes I would like it in. It's growing okay, but since I split it into two plants it's less happy. One of the pots has some spider web-type fuzz thing going on, and I don't think I'll end up doing much with either one. If you want a pot, hit me up!
Our chives are healthy, but they seemed to stop growing any taller. I'm tempted to chop them in half and see if they grow back the way green onions do. We upgraded their pot ~3 weeks ago, so I thought we'd see some progress by now.