Garden Journal: Peas, Potatoes, Lettuce, Tomatoes

I can't believe it has taken me a whole week to post this. Last Saturday, when we got home from vacation I took inventory on the garden happenings and wrote it all in my paper journal like the old days. I really do like paper records better than digital ones, but journaling on the computer allows one to post photos much easier.

So I think I will be journaling here at Garden Desk. These posts will be a bit different than my others because it will just be a list of how things are going. It may be more for me than for my readers, but you are welcome to read along. Maybe you can help me by commenting on how I could fix my problems or improve things.

So here goes, my first 2008 Garden Journal - 4/5/08:

I already wrote about the new potatoes I bought last week. I have been pretty frustrated with my peas. The germination rate is listed as 7 to 14 days but after 18 days there was still nothing. Finally, they are emerging!

In the pea beds, I transplanted the lettuce plants that I grew inside and hardened off in the cold frame.

I was delighted to find that the beds were teeming with worms! I hope that means that the soil here is healthy.

Now the beds look prettier. I hope the lettuce grows bigger quickly.

Also growing well outside are potato onions and garlic. Inside, the early tomato plants were looking great.

Uh oh - upon closer inspection maybe not. What are these tiny spots on the Orange Blossom tomatoes?

I had no idea, but a gardener is only as good as his gardening book library. I hit the books and found out that I had Septoria Leaf Spot.

I found it in my trusty Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control: A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy Without Chemicals. It has an extremely long title, but it is also extremely helpful! It says that Septoria Leaf Spot is Fungal. The control is simply to remove and destroy infected leaves, so that is what I did. Now, a week later I'm happy to report that there are no new signs of the fungus. I will have to keep a close eye on them. Luckily it was only on three of the four Orange Blossom tomatoes and none of the others. Even if the Septoria leaf spot comes back and damages or destroys the Orange Blossom tomatoes, I have five other early varieties ready and will be raising almost 30 other varieties. I guess I could afford to lose one variety.

Time for Peas!

Around here gardeners like to plan events in the garden according to Holidays. St. Patrick's Day is when they say you should plant peas, so I dutifully built my pea trellises and planted peas last Sunday (the day before St. Patty's Day).

May Dreams Gardens is just a couple hours away from me and she planted peas on Sunday too.

Maybe it's not just around here where gardeners shoot for pea planting on the Irish holiday because peas were planted in Skippy's Vegetable Garden on St. Patrick's day too.

I also noticed that VegMonkey and Sustainable Garden have their peas up and growing already. I'm sure there are other bloggers who planted peas too.

Building the pea trellises are a big deal to me because I haven't been this organized in recent years. I also bought new trellis netting that has the large squares. I used to love it and am excited to have it again. After the peas are harvested I will grow cucumbers on one trellis and pole beans on the other, using the same netting.

I was able to "weave" the wood supports through the netting and I stapled the bottom part. Here is a picture that my wife sneaked of me finishing the first trellis:

The bed behind me also received a trellis but it got dark before we could get a picture of them both.

If you don't want to spend the money on pre-made trellis netting, there is a great post on Backyard Granger about how to make your own with twine. There is another great explanation on how to make a trellis with wood and twine from last year on Compost Bin. Maybe someday I'll use twine but for now I'm content to use the ready-made trellis material.

I'm a bit proud of myself for building the trellis before I planted the peas. Usually I would go in reverse order and then "not have time" to build a trellis, leaving my peas a tangled mess with no support. So now I have built the two trellises and a coldframe. Here they are together:

I love building garden structures. Next up? Something else I didn't manage to build last year - a fence to keep the coons out of my corn!

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring! How exciting!