Direct Planted Vegetable Seeds Sprouting

Vegetable seeds were directly planted into the growing medium on 20 April, 2013. These photographs were captured on 4 May, 2013, two weeks after direct planting.

  

In the plastic boxes were planted ... 

 

I don't remember exactly what I planted in those boxes. I didn't write any notes about these boxes as I did for the raised beds.

Between the open packets of seeds and the visual clues, I believe I planted bunching onions, beets, swiss chard and radishes.

In raised bed #2 the lettuce was peeking out of the slits I cut in the red plastic mulch.

The started tomato plants are showing evidence of growth. I have already been thinking about supports/trellis for the tomatoes and cucumbers to be planted in early June.

Carrots are peeking through the plastic mulch.

Close up of some lettuce.

Once the secondary leaves are opened I will begin to thin down to a few plants per slit. A little later the space will go to the strongest single plant.

I purchased two more varieties of tomato plants - Super Sweet 100, a grape tomato, and Cherokee Purple, an heirloom. I planted them in raised bed #1.

I try to keep the producer's plant ID with each plant.

I visit the home center often to look for new arrivals of tomatoes and peppers. If they ever arrive, I will round out my tomato purchases with a Rutgers variety and a Marglobe variety.

The Rutgers is suppose to be close to the taste of Jersey tomatoes, a familiar flavor from my childhood. Jerseys were tomatoes grown in New Jersey when Campbell's Soup had a tomato soup canning facility in Camden, NJ.

Marglobe I will plant for its abundance of fruit production. The grower touts 50lbs/22.7kg of Marglobes per plant per season. I will need to keep up with watering to fill 50lbs of tomatoes.

I can hardly wait to bite into one of these beauties. Teeth snapping through the red skin, juice popping into the air and seeds dribbling down my chin and onto the front of my shirt. I'll swoon from the odor of vine ripened tomato as the acid cuts into my sun parched lips. Is there anything better? Well, maybe there is. This has got to be a really close second, right?

Good gardening!

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Road Construction Oaks

The Oaks Shopping Center, the construction site across Black Rock Road and the Expo Center all have contributed to a need for increased traffic capabilities of the nearby roads. Hopefully, that need is being addressed with the current road construction.

The Norristown bound side of Egypt Road is being widened as it approaches the eastbound US 422 entrance.

The grass has been scraped from quite a bit of the hillside along Egypt Road.

It looks like new storm drains will be installed along the road.

New utility poles were planted to carry the overhead traffic signals at both intersections along Egypt Road - Black Rock and Mill Roads.

Although the entrance ramp will be wider, it is not likely US 422 will be widened much beyond the entrance ramp.

Above is the eastbound exit from US 422 onto Norristown bound Egypt Road. There is a basin that was excavated to the right of the exit ramp. It is full of water. I spoke with an older lifetime Oaks resident who remembers a spring right where that basin is today. I wonder if anyone did their homework before digging that basin?

Below are a few images I created whilst out with a camera. I can be dangerous, at times.

With all this road construction, surely the roads will not be jammed in the future. One can only hope someone knows what they're doing.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all right reserved

Late First Planting New Square Foot Raised Beds

Here in the Philadelphia area, it is customary to plant peas and onions on St. Patrick's Day, 17 March. My two new raised beds were still in the planning stage on that date. I finished constructing, mixing the planting medium and filling the beds 15 April. Too late to plant peas and onions. Not to late for tender plants if they are protected from frost.

Lowe's had these Bonnie tomato plants on sale 20 April. Besides being on sale, they were tomato varieties I wanted to plant. One thing about Bonnie plants I have learned over the last few years is that the variety you want may not be available if you wait to make your purchase later in the season. For those two reasons I purchased the following four tomato plants.

Red Beefsteak-My wife's request

Mortgage Lifter - A huge tomato with great taste

Mr. Stripey - A buttery sandwich size tomato

Tamy G Hybrid Grape Tomato- I have never grown it but will give it a try

In the past I have failed to get the newly purchased plants into the ground before they suffered damage. I tend to procrastinate. Therefore, as soon as I got these plants home from Lowe's, I prepared the grid and started planting the tomatoes.

Each tomato plant got its own one foot square. I cut an X in the center of a square. I folded back each triangular flap to form a square. I then dug down to near the bottom of the raised bed, putting the displaced growing medium on the plastic mulch near the hole.

Using my thumbnail I removed branches about 6"/ 15cm up from the bottom of the stem. Why do this? Tomatoes sprout roots along the buried stem. The extra roots add support for the fruit. Plus, the tomato will access moisture deep in the soil that doesn't dry out as readily as soil near the surface.

Next I removed the label and pot from the growing medium and tomato roots.

If the roots are dense and growing in a circular pattern, 

they must be loosened, straightened, freed from that circular pattern. If you don't, the roots will continue to grow in that same circular pattern and not stretch out for support and access to more moisture.

Place the plant into the hole, roots first, of course. The bottom branches of the plant should not touch the plastic mulch when the plant is standing straight. If they do, remove those lower branches.

Return all of the displaced growing medium into the hole around the plant and firm it down a bit. Move on to the next plant and repeat. 

Besides the tender tomatoes I also planted seeds of several varieties of lettuce and several varieties of carrots in the raised bed.

The four squares on the bottom row are each planted with four lettuce each. The two squares on the left side of the next row each has 16 carrots spaced equally.

For a continued supply of lettuce, I will plant more every two weeks until the temperature gets hot when the lettuce tends to bolt to seed. I reserved some squares for peppers and other tender plants to be added at a later date.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Square Foot Raised Bed Delineated

The square foot raised beds were completed, filled and covered with plastic mulch on April 15.  To prepare for planting, it was time to layout the squares of the square foot garden.

The inside of the beds measure 4' x 4' / 1.2m x 1.2m.

The beds will be divided into 16 equal size areas. Each 1'/ 30cm square.

Mark the frame every 1' / 30cm.

Do the same all around the frame.

Using a straightedge, draw lines on the plastic mulch from one side of the frame to the other. Once all the lines are drawn you will have a grid. Each square measuring one foot by one foot.  Thereby the name, square foot garden.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Raised Bed Growing Medium Recipe

Traditionally the growing medium for plants has been soil, dirt, earth, ground, loam or what ever you to call it in your neck of the woods. The composition and structure of soil can vary widely from place to place. To take the guess work out of the composition and structure of your local soil it may be better to create your own growing medium. Start from scratch. Play God a little bit.

According to the original Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, the growing medium consists of: 

1. Sphagnum Peat Moss
2. Mushroom Compost
3. Vermiculite

Also recommended are organic sources of nutrients. Above you see:

1. Blood Meal
2. Bone Meal
3. Wood Ash for which I substituted Green Sand

In the photograph is enough peat, compost and vermiculite to fill two 4' x 4' x 1' / 1.2m x 1.2m x .3 m raised bed. That is 32cu ft/ .9cu m of material.

To start mixing the medium I dumped two bails of sphagnum peat moss onto the patio. The peat is very dry and light in weight. I then added three bags of mushroom compost to the pile. This bagged mushroom compost is almost wet and very heavy. Then it was time to mix the two together.

Using a square mouth shovel, slide the shovel under the close edge of the pile and place the shovelful atop the pile. Continue that action moving the pile away from you. The clumps of compost and peat will fall from the top of the pile and settle at the edge. Smash those clumps with the flat of the shovel to make small pieces of the large.

Be sure to move all the mixture in the pile and not leave any concentrations of components.

Once the medium is homogeneous add one bag of vermiculite. 

Using the same shoveling technique, mix the vermiculite until the medium is again homogeneous.

Add 1gal/ 3.78L of green sand and mix again.

The next step will take some time. Add water to the medium. Shower the pile with water. 

Both the peat and vermiculite will absorb a great amount of water. Use the same shoveling method as before to mix the water into the medium.

The medium will have enough water when squeezed 

it holds together in a clump. The mixing is finished.

It feels good to create.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved