JAP69's Blog

I thought this morning on what to do with those two six packs of marigolds I purchased the other day. I already had one 2 1/2 gallon pail with one marigold plant in the center of the pail. I decided to add four more marigolds to that one pail. Two of one color and two of the other color. Wanted to set the pail up with a lot of bloom to have ready for the one hook on the shepherds pole in the front yard that contains a viola plant that I expect to die off after this bloom.

The remaining eight plants I took and planted in the four wooden containers containing the tomato plants. Two plants in each container.

I also read awhile ago about planting flowers in the vegetable garden for pest control. I looked up marigolds this morning and found this article.
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Using Marigolds Around Plants – Do Marigolds Keep Bugs Away

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/marigold/using-marigolds-to-keep-bugs-away.htm

I had a couple 2 1/2 gallon pails available with potting mix in them.  A viola plant died off and the bunching onions did not come up in the other bucket. I decided to go and get a couple pepper plants today at Home Depot garden center and spotted these peppers. I do not ever remember seeing purple peppers. These should go very nicely in my 2 1/2 gallon pails.
I just pulled up the info on them and I am quite excited about the random purchase. Especially the size of the plant to fit the pails and thrives in southern climates.

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https://bonnieplants.com/product/purple-bell-sweet-pepper/

Purple Bell Sweet Pepper
"Plant size: 18 to 24 inches tall, 18 to 20 inches wide"
"This pepper tolerates high heat and humidity and thrives in Southern gardens."

Done some work today on finishing my transplanting, straight eight cukes in one container I talked about, sweet million tomato plant replacement I talked about last post, one curly parsley I purchased that had about 4 or 5 plants in it [ I like fresh parsley in my stirabouts]. Looked for an oregano plant today while at Lowes and did not see any.

Picked up two six packs of marigolds today while out. Figure out something for those tomorrow.

Around five PM I got my snips out and harvested a few aragula leaves, a few spinach leaves, and a few red leaf lettuce leaves. Took them in and washed them up and added a couple green lettuce leaves from the bunch in the frig I purchased. Chopped that up and added some Parmesan cheese mixing in some zesty Italian. Delicious.

Went to Loews and purchased one tomato plant that bears yellow regular size fruit and one sweet cherry tomato plant plus one container of yellow straight neck squash plus one container of parsley plants. Made up one bucket containing five gallons and one bucket that contains 4 1/4 gallons. planted my maters in those and when I was done transplanting the tomatoes I noticed the sweet cherry plants main stem was bent over and half broke. SOaB. Now I will need to go tomorrow and buy a replacement sweet cherry plant. Plus I am going to purchase a container of straight eight cukes. Not satisfied with the cuke box I put seeds in. Get R Done.

Took the container of straight neck squash out back to the ground boxes and split the container in half making two hills of straight neck squash.
The melon box seeds did not show. I had purchased a six pack of tomato big boy plants and only used two plants in my deck containers. So rather than throw the extra away I transplanted three of the tomato plants in the melon ground box and tossed the remaining plants over my shoulder into the drainage ditch that is near the ground boxes. If those maters produce anything will be a plus. Only have a strip of lawn back there about eight feet wide which we keep mowed to keep wild critters from living in the tall grass if we did not mow it. Seen a turtle in the drainage ditch one time. Did not check to see if it was a snapper or not.

Used up all my potting mix and all the vermiculite. Have enough containers now. That sh!t costs money, I have spent enough back there. I have all my receipts from when I started last year and will tally them up.

I do not smoke anymore [quit ten years ago] or drink alcohol [quit that 20 years ago]. So no big loss of money for a hobby back there.

But I sure do like my Stokers long cut tobacco. I use more than a pinch i will tell you. Reminds me when I quit smoking I was trying different types of chew tobacco and that canned stuff. Leaf tobacco was not that bad as I chewed it before but that snuff type tobacco is a different story. I put some of that snuff type tobacco between my cheek and gum and I will tell you that stuff knocked me on my ass. Things started spinning around. got dizzy and sick to my stomach.  Took me a few days to get used to that stuff. Take a gob of that now between my cheek and gum is like candy to a kid.

Been working on purchasing flower and vegetable plants and transplanting them. The seeds in the ground boxes are not sprouting except for two soyas that sprouted in one ground box. Those ground boxes dry out quick too. Purchased zucchini and straight neck squash plants and transplanted the straight necks in two ground boxes by separating the plants in the one container. They had about six plants in one container. I thought six was a bit much for one hill [ground box]. Planted the zucchini in a five gallon bucket as I ran out of deck containers. I also made up two five gallon buckets with an eggplant in each one. Put the three five gallon buckets on the deck sitting on a pallet I modified for the bucket sizes.

Going out today and purchasing one more zucchini and put that in a ground box. Also going to pick up some herb plants. I already purchased a rosemary plant and put that in one of my vacant 2 1/2 gallon pails.

See what else they have for the extra ground boxes that are not sprouting.

Should be done with the transplanting this week. Except maybe over the summer I may need a flower replacement now and then. The violas I planted last year have/are reaching the end of their cycle and dying off. I am not going to play nurse maid to plants. Just replace with new plants.

Heading on over to Home Depot sometime today. Going to pick up a garden meter for checking moisture level and what not. Use it to check on whether I have the right mixture on perlite and vermiculite for proper drainage in top and bottom portion.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hydro-Crunch-Soil-Moisture-Light-pH-Meter-3-in-1-Soil-Tester-Kit-for-Garden-D940010500/302974472?cm_mmc=ola|criteo|28O-28-9-7|22037|D28O&dclid=CLuNwdWB39kCFZQNgQodHP0HLA

Also going to pick up the bolt cutters to cut the concrete wire mesh to make the plant chimneys [cages]

https://www.homedepot.com/p/TEKTON-8-in-Bolt-Cutter-3386/205585550

Needed to order both items online for delivery to the store as they were not in stock at the store.

Not much has changed since last post on container garden. Still cold and most of the seeds planted have not sprouted.

Went out today and watered the plants and watered the boxes with seed planted in them.
Have a tomato plant sprouted in one of the three inch pots with the test starting mix [ 1/3 garden sand, 1/3 mushroom compost, 1/3 vermiculite ].
Planted about 12 or 13 seeds in one pail with radishes and one pail with bunching onions. Two of the pails that had dead flower plants in them. Might as well get something to eat out of the pail containers.
My radishes I planted earlier have radish bulbs forming. Have maybe twelve radish plants that came up on that side of the 3 x 6 elevated bin. I tore the other side out for the six red leaf lettuce.

Finished another good book last night. Oregon Country by T J Hanson, the story of the 1843 Oregon trail migration. Mostly all factual with maybe four fictional characters to give an accounting of actual facts. Quite an interesting book.

Just went out and checked the container mix soil temp and it is at 60 degrees. Scratched up the Bush Crop cuke seeds yesterday that is in the wooden deck container and found one seed that had not germinated yet but did not look like it was starting to rot. Probably when the soil temp gets up to germination temp they may sprout. The seeds in my ground boxes behind the fence could also germinate when they get the signal from mother nature. Probably seeds in their natural environment that has dropped from the previous year stay dormant without damage to the seeds until the next year when the soil temp sends the signal to germinate for the next growing season. That sounds reasonable as we see new growth every spring in the natural environment from previous years seed drop.

The plants my daughter gave me, lettuce, kale and spinach I transplanted are doing fine. My radishes I planted are doing fine. Tore up half of my radishes in the 3x4 elevated bin to make room for the six lettuce plants. Figured I can buy radishes at the market for something like $0.90 cents a bunch. Get more value wise by having the six lettuce plants. Figure my growing space according to dollar value of what can be produced with my vegetable selection and preference.

Thinking of putting a ground box next to the deck to plant some Japanese eggplant. We like eggplant parm once in awhile. Japanese eggplant is touted to have nice flavor and stands up to hot weather.

When I was at the store I picked up a 4 pound package of boneless chicken thighs on special. Saved $4.00 and change on that deal. Also got two large containers of unsalted chicken broth plus one large white onion. Had some veggies at home, carrots and celery.

Got home and dumped the chicken broth in a big pot, added spices of various varieties, couple tbsp of minced garlic, big splash of lemon juice. Some salt as the broth was unsalted variety. Chopped up the chicken into bite size chunks along with the onion and veggies. Added about four cups water and  Simmered for about an hour. Taste tested and it was delicious.

Have about twelve two cup servings.

Low carb lunch.

I also switched from apple juice to Old Orchard pineapple orange drink. Apple juice has 28 grams of carbs in eight ounces compared to 5 grams of carbs in eight ounces of pineapple orange drink.

Pineapple orange drink and a splash of vinegar tops it off. Delicious

Still get some carbs and added salt in the stirabout when I add six or eight Ritz cracker to the bowl. That is why I buy unsalted broth. I like to control my salt intake.

Must have froze pretty hard last night. Lost all the vegetable transplants and most all the new flower transplants I done recently.

Even froze through the buckets [hot caps] on the vegetable plants.

Wait awhile now before I do any more.

Cold snap came in. Been down in the low thirties with frost some nights. been covering my tomatoes and peppers with buckets [hot caps] to keep the frost off of them. The night time cold from the extended forecast will be here for a bit yet.

Lost some flowers due to the cold snap. The more tender plants like inpatients and some of the young tender flowers I just recently purchased. Will wait for warmer weather before I replace them with flowers or herbs.

Have one soya cuke plant come up in a ground box a day or two ago. May re seed when warm weather is here to stay. See what comes up in next couple weeks.

Re potted the two viola plants I mentioned that were not doing well. When I removed them from  the flower pail they looked like they were still root bound to the original purchase container size with very little root expansion growth. Took them down to the bare roots like I did the other ones and replanted them. See how they do. More flower plants at the garden center.

Like they say in gardening have a garbage can handy.

Not much going on this week. Been down near freezing at night this week so I have been covering my tomato and pepper plants every night with pails I have on hand.

I have two viola plants in flower pails from last year that appeared to be taking a downhill turn. Other viola plants are doing fine but those two. They were bushed out quite a bit and looked droopy and wilted. Gave them spring ferlizer a short while ago when I done transplanting. I also keep them watered.

Soooo, I figured I would kill or cure the problem with what I did to them. Took my big metal snips and trimmed them back to just a couple inches in length. Thought that would put the plants energy back to the primary source of growth. I did not unbind the roots very well last year when I transplanted them from their purchase container. Thinking about doing the same to those two plants I did with the other viola plant I re potted. Remove the plant from the container by tipping the pail and removing the potting mix down to the root system unbinding the roots from the original purchase container mix and then re potting.

The other viola plant I took down to the bare roots I mentioned in a previous post appears to be doing just fine. Has not died yet.

I think I was a little early putting the seeds in for the melons, cukes and squashes. Nothing shows in another week or so when it warms up I will re seed again.  Soil temp was fine when I first seeded but spring temps are up and down. No big loss if the original seeding does not show. Long growing season down here.

I will let off some steam. I am

We purchase bottled water in 16.9 oz plastic bottles by the case. You grab the plastic bottle to open it squeezing it enough to get the sealed cap off and when the cap breaks free stinkin water comes out the top.

s me off every time.

I sure do miss glass bottles.