Today’s garden check in!
I harvested 2 of my adult kale plants for a hominy based green chili soup today. The kales stunted out because of the heat so I had to pull them before they fried. I also grabbed the baby kales that I had densely planted in a planter box and some chives for an omelette this morning.
The potato plants are thriving so hard that one is setting flowers. I also moved one of my basil baby pots to the potato side to see if they’d like that spot better. The arugula in the pots behind the potatoes finally sprouted and are popping up with some fervor. Those pots went from seeing only dirt to seeing a ton of sprouts in a day.
The side that is almost entering shaded by the tree. My hollyhocks are blooming and the babies seeded last fall are growing steadily against the right side fence despite never seeing the sun over there.
I transplanted some bush bean starts from pots to the ground and they had a rough time adapting but are starting to push out new leaves now. And the bush bean pods I direct planted a couple of weeks ago just start coming up! So let’s see if we get any bean production from over here.
Aside from the green, I laid down a layer of kitchen veggie waste and shredded junk mail then topped with wood chips to help amend this side before trying to plant again once the leaves drop from the tree in fall. I’m debating building protective hoops to try to extend the growing season so I can grow on this side when it sees the sun again in fall. The mustard greens and spinach LOVED this spot in spring when the tree was still bare.
The salad greens are almost ready! And the arugula I set in the little green planters and in ground are finally sprouting. Everything takes much longer to grow back here since I get only a few hours of sun, but I’m excited that stuff is coming up! I start everything from seed so it’s less of a waste if things don’t grow and the seeds that can tolerate germinating in low sun tend to have a good success rate staying in low sun.
The chives are still going strong, the basil and cilantro are doing ok given that they get maybe 2 hours a day, and the beans are all just hanging out. Even if I don’t get a harvest from the in ground beans, they’re helping to amend and aerate this packed, clay soil. I have succession planted salad greens, as well.
This is the hollyhock on the back fence’s first year blooming and it’s having a rough go of it but it does have little tiny baby hollyhocks coming up around it so even if it doesn’t come back heartier next year, we have fresh ones that might thrive a little better already lined up. The hollyhocks that are going wild on the other side also had a rough first year of blooming so we’ll see that happens with this one.
We’ve been trying to figure out watering cadence back here. I put down a bunch of seeds after mulching so we’re sprinkling those areas twice a day but trying to not overwater (or underwater) the rest. Some of the pots drain better than others, so the basil and cilantro pots hold a ton of water while the bean pots need their twice daily sprinkles. We carry around a hydrometer every morning and evening to help guide us but are finding what each plant/pot likes and doesn’t like in real time.
And, finally, here is me showing off my kale bouquet because I love kale and am proud of how large these got despite their growing conditions.















