March 2012

Date    03/06/12    Time:    10:00 AM
Observations:  Very windy.

• Planted the following from transplants in bed I:
• Cherry and indeterminate tomatoes along north side; 1 each of:
• Black Krim
• Sweet Million
• Snow White
• Black Cherry
• Riesentraube
• Cherokee Purple
• Tomatoes in middle row; 1 each of:
• BHN589VFFT
• Aunt Ruby’s German Green
• Celebrity
• Cream Sausage
• Chico III
• Sweet Gold
• Japanese Black Trifele
• Planted one transplant of African Blue basil in middle row to draw pollinators.
• Planted 1 each of the following in the the south row:
• Pineapple tomatillo
• Verde Puebla tomatillo
• Costeno Amarillo pepper
• Golden Wonder pepper
• California Wonder pepper
• Holy Mole pepper
• Planted the following herbs from transplants in the west half of bed E:
• Scented geraniums
• Citronella
• Coconut
• Peppermint
• Lime
• Lemon
• Ginger
• Robert’s Lemon Rose
• Atomic Rose
• Curry plant
• Lemon Balm
• Penneyroyal
• Peppermint
• Green Santolina
• Pineapple sage
• Caraway
• Planted the following herbs from transplants in bed A:
• Stevia
• Cilantro
• Curly parsley
• Lemon thyme
• Leaf celery
• Salad burnet
• Onion chives
• Italian parsley
• Planted the following in the east half of bed E:
• 1 each of the following eggplants from transplants:
• Green Goddess
• Prosperosa
• Pingtung Long
• Listada De Gandia
• Two hills of each of the following summer squash from seeds:
• Renee’s Garden Summer Scallop Trio
• Renee’s Garden tri-Color Zucchini
• Planted “three sister” in bed K; all from seed:
• Sweet corn
• Kentucky Wonder pole beans
• Yellow Crookneck squash
• Planted the following in bed M:
• 1 each of the following eggplants from transplants:
• Rosita
• White Lightning
• 2 hills of each of the following from seeds:
• Spicemaster bush cucumbers
• Early Butternut winter squash
• Delicata winter squash
• Pulled greens that had bolted from beds C and G.
• The wind was so strong that we had to use row cover and pots with the bottoms cut out to shelter the transplants from the wind.
• We fed all of the transplants with Azomite, Revitalizer compost and Sea Tea.
• Weeded the row garden and tilled up a new row.
• Cut weeds in the compost bin area.

Date:    03/09/12    Time:    12:30 PM
Observations: Rainy and very windy

• Closed the row cover over the ends in bed I and jury-rigged another row cover over the plants on one end which had been left uncovered earlier in the week because the strong wind was whipping the ends of the row cover around and had damaged several plants.
• Covered bed M and the east end of bed E with row cover because the wind was heeling the transplants over.

Date:    03/11/12    Time:    1:00 PM
Observations: Sunny and calm

• Removed row covers from bed I and assessed wind damage:
• At least three tomatoes are gone or damaged.
• The Verde Puebla tomatillo is dead
• Put “wall of water” around several tomatoes in west end of bed I.

Date:    03/13/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Planted the following tomato transplants in the row garden:
• Juane Flamme
• Cherokee Purple
• Sun Gold (2)
• Celebrity
• Champion II (2)
• Juliet
• Momotero (2)
• Viva Italia
• Persimmon
• Made cages for tomatoes in row garden from 5-foot remesh.
• Harvested asparagus.
• Replaced the damaged plants in bed I:
• Replaced Verde Puebla tomatillo with a Purple tomatillo transplant.
• Replaced the Cream Sausage tomato that had suffered severe insect damage with a Green Sausage transplant.  These sausage tomato plants are very droopy and trail on the ground.  So we put a collar around this one to try to stop the insect damage.
• Replaced the Chico III tomato, which appeared to suffer insect damage, with a Black Krim transplant.  Tried to determine what insects had damaged the Chico II but couldn’t see anything on it except for pill bugs and fire ants.
• Treated many fire ant mounds within and without the raised beds with Green Light Fire Ant Killer with spinosad on a grain bait.
• Planted Armenian cucumber at east end of bed E.
• Replanted radishes in bed D.
• Painted planting table and moved it to south of bed D near driveway.
• Made planting medium from:
• Gardenville dirt
• Natural Gardener Revitalizer compost
• Our homemade compost
• Gardenville Vulcanite
• Expanded shale
• Positioned seven large containers at east end of beds E and I and filled them with our homemade planting medium.  Put the excess in the planting table.
• Planted transplants in five containers:
• TAM jalapeno peppers
• Hungarian Wax peppers
• Better Bush tomato
• BHN589VFFT tomato
• Fairytale eggplant
• Planted two containers with seeds:
• Romanesque zucchini
• Spicemaster Bush cucumbers
• Planted 2 tomatoes in a bag of Black Kow composted cow manure using 1 tablespoon of Epspm salts per transplant:
• Sprite
• New Big Dwarf

Date:    03/16/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Caged row garden tomatoes using the remesh cages we made on 03/13/12.  Fed them with Gardenville Sea Tea and wrapped the cages with row cover as a windbreak.
• Ran drip irrigation to containers and planting table.
• Checked JMG pizza garden irrigation.  Most of the emitters are clogged with lime.  Need more small diameter drip line to fix.
• Spinosad doesn’t seem to be working on the fire ants.  Sprinkled the hills outside the garden beds with Amdro.  Drenched the hills inside bed I with orange oil.
• Something is attacking the tomatoes in bed I.  It looks like spider mite damage but it is really too cool and early in the season for them.  A close examination of the leaves didn’t reveal the culprits.

Date:    03/18/12    Time:    2:30 PM

• Sprayed liquid spinosad on tomatoes and peppers in bed I and eggplants in beds E and M because of insect damage.
• Replaced dead BHN589VFFT in bed I with a Mortgage Lifter transplant.
• Planted Malabar spinach in east end of bed I.
• Began erecting a cattle panel trellis on the north side of bed I.
• Assisted JMG group with planting of pizza garden.

Date:    03/20/12    Time:    1:00 PM
Observations: 2.6 in of rain fell since the evening of the 18th.

• Yesterday’s storm caused some damage:
• A “wall of water” (WOW) blew over in bed I taking a tomato plant with it.  Removed WOW, staked the tomato plant and the remaining WOWs.
• Six tomato cages blew over in the row garden.  Righted and re-staked as best as possible without tools.  Looks like at least two plants were lost.
• Used orange oil drench on fire ant hill in bed I again.
• Used spinosad bait for fire ants in beds I and D.
• Spread Amdro on ground at base of beds.
• Discovered that there is a popup sprinkler coming up in one section of the pizza garden.

Date:    03/21/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Replaced T-stakes in row garden with longer ones in order to keep cages from blowing over and wiping out more tomato plants.
• Replaced drip hose in pizza garden.
• Removed the rest of the row cover from the raised beds.
• Treated for fire ants again.
• Fed tomatoes, tomatillos and peppers in bed I and eggplant and squash in bed E-east with Ladybug fertilizer.
• Spread mulch in beds I and E-east and between rows in the row garden.
• Finished cattle panel trellises on north side of bed I.
• Planted the planting table with a variety of summer veggies.

Date:    03/23/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Moved mulch from next to rose garden area to row garden and bulk amendment storage area.
• Covered potatoes in row garden with leaves.
• Had to re-do tomato cages in row garden again because the wind was making them pivot on the t-stakes.
• Erected trellis frame at east end of bed I.
• There is still a large fire ant hill in the east end of bed I.  Drenched it with Gardenville Anti-fuego and put Amdro on the ground outside the bed at the end where the hill is.
• Put Amdro on the remains of the mulch pile near the rose garden because it is so full of ants that we can’t move the remaining mulch to the bulk amendments storage area.
• The mulch on the planting table was too close to the plants so they got a lot of insect damage.  We will probably have to replace most of them.

Date:    03/26/12    Time:    1:00 PM

• Assessed damage to plants in planting table: lost eggplants and cukes to what appears to be cutworms.  Will buy replacement transplants and re-plant.

Date:    03/27/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Replaced pickling cukes and Black Beauty eggplant in planting table with new transplants.  Watered in with Sea Tea.
• Erected trellis at east end of bed I for Malabar spinach, which is just beginning to sprout.
• Fed plants in all raised beds.
• Weeded all beds.
• Policed area.

Date:    03/29/12    Time:    1:00 PM

• Placed metal markers on all raised beds for Plant Fair.
• Treated fire ants in northeast corner of bed I with Anti-fuego.

Date:    03/31/12    Time:    7:00 AM

• Garden Fair day.
• Placed signs on posts in row garden and fruit tree areas.
• A three-foot rattlesnake showed up in bed A during the fair.  Called the Sheriff to kill it but it crawled under the sage and could not be found.