Atlas's Garden

Let’s get this veg

[gardenatlas]

Pollinators and Pests

As I have stated before, I have added basil to my garden; this is not where I plan on stopping. I have some garlic seeds that I acquired before checking the companion planting chart and finding that they are not good with quite a few of my other plants. You may be thinking, “Atlas, how do you plan on using this garlic in your garden then? I know it has lots of different pests that it keeps away, but is that really worth the possible stress on your other plants?” and you do have a point, but have you ever heard of a plant sock?

So I'm thinking if I plant the garlic, and any other problem herbs that go well with it, in a sock together, well then I can move it where it is needed, and it won’t be fighting with my beans and sunflowers. My aunt is suggesting I add mint, I might get a small pot and plant some and then make sure that it does not escape, the flies may be bad, but mint… mint is terrifying to have to deal with if it gets out, and I am not goint to be the guy who is the reason mint has invaded the neighborhood and is pushing out the native plants.

Now for the pollinators, I have already planted the marigolds(which are starting to sprout, yay!!) and the sunflowers(which are doing great!) And the basil should also help with this, but I am thinking of getting some milkweed to attract monarch butterflies(they are just so pretty and I remember seeing way more of ‘em when I was a kid, and they’re endangered and that's enough of me rambling about them(don’t worry, I don’t count these asides in my word count)) and, while this isn't a flower or herb, I am thinking of making, or getting, a carpenter bee house, or just something to attract them in general. I also plan on making or getting bee cups so that pollinators can come and get a sip of water in my garden.

Now that the planning and other such answering of questions is done, it’s time for the weather and other general garden updates.

Now this week has been a nice one with highs in the low 80’s and lows in the 50-65 range(averages being 82.2°F for the highs and 59°F for the lows). It's been a little cloudy and a little windy this week, but overall quite nice. The moon tonight is a waxing gibbous(tomorrow is the full moon). I saw a single marigold sprout pop up. Everything else looks great, and I think the mystery sprouts are carrot seeds I may have dropped while I was planting them. No pest damage so far, or at least none that I’ve seen. And that's all for that update, I guess. I hope y’all have a good time in your gardens as well.

Now onto the promised(required) pictures!

[gardenatlas]

Water Water Nowhere and Barely a Drop to Drink

So far in my garden I’ve just been using a watering can, I'm probably just going to continue using my watering can, though I have also gotten those glass aqua globes, so that I can have water diffusing into the soil throughout the day and in case I am sick again(I was pretty sick at the end of last week/beginning of this week and it was hard to get out to tend to my plants, I still did it but I felt like death the whole time), don’t want to miss giving the plants water if I’m stuck in bed. I decided to use a watering can because we don’t really have the space for a hose(and if I'm being honest, I enjoy the meditative nature of refilling the watering can and then watering everything with it, sue me). I might try and see if I can set up a small rain collection system, not sure if I’ll be able to at my apartment, but if I am, that will help conserve water.

In the future… I don’t know, I’ll probably try to grow some squash and gourds, maybe a melon, but I'll probably see what the native seed search and the seed library have, to make my decisions. But everything we have done in this class so far has helped me so much, and I can’t wait to plan for the cold-season garden.

Now for the weather:(Take it away Jim.)

(Thank you, Atlas! This week in the garden sure has been a week, let me tell you that.)

The weekly average temperature (lows and highs) 

Average Low: 63.2°F

Average  High: 89°F

The weekly weather conditions

It was windy towards the beginning of the week, but it has been dying down, and it has been getting cloudier throughout the week.

Moon phase

Waxing Crescent

Identify what is growing in the garden (Plants, weeds, flowers, insects, birds.) 

Not much new, everything is going well, I saw a few lizards on the wall, though, so that was fun.

Any changes to the plants (growth of plants, the health of plants, flowering, etc.)

Not much, everything is growing, no weeds, the basil and marigolds still haven’t popped up yet, but they should soon. All in all, it has been a pretty average week(Minus me being sick).

[gardenatlas]

Dirty Dirty Dirt Dirt(aka My Dirt and How to Deal With It)

About my soil:

My soil is a more desaturated brown when it is dry; it has some wood chips in it as well as some smaller rocks, and it is not full of clay or caliche. I think it is 2, maybe 3 years old(the soil from my dad’s garden at least, the stuff from Home Depot is from this year). I have not yet amended it, but I will after I test it and see what it needs. I have not tested it yet, but I will be doing that later tonight(I will make a quick post on my blog about it when I do). If it needs to have a higher acidity I will ask around to see if any of my neighbors have any used coffee grounds and add them, if no one has any(or more likely is weirded out by a random 23 year old asking them for their coffee grounds and just says no), I will probably grab an acidic fertilizer at the nearby ace and add that. I haven’t thought about adding a cover crop, but I might, both for the added nitrogen and helping keep the soil temperature down, probably clover to help bring in more pollinators.

After watching the video, the spinach in the homemakers’ (?)(not sure, I couldn't exactly tell what he was saying, and the closed captions weren’t much help) compost that was 9 months old was the most robust. Probably because that was the oldest compost and thus the one that, probably, has the most available nutrients.

Now for the other information for this week's garden journal:

The weekly average temperature (lows and highs) 

The average temperatures this week(so far) are 82°F High  and 56.8°F Low

The weekly weather conditions 

It has been overcast and windy this week(my allergies are killing me[I’m only slightly joking, I have been sick all week and was so close to just not posting anything this week, I am so tired]).

Moon phase

New Moon(get ready for dark skies tonight folks, you’ll maybe even get to see some stars in town if you’re lucky.)

Identify what is growing in the garden (Plants, weeds, flowers, insects, birds.) 

Mama is Back!!! Mama is a mourning dove who has made a nest in the carport, which is right next to my garden. She had some babies that hatched, like, right after we moved in and had left the nest like a month and a half ago, but she’s back in her nest! Other than that, in the garden are, of course, my radish sprouts, my spinach, and my carrots, but also, my sunflowers are sprouting, as are my peppers(I think it is my peppers at least, in a different area than where I planted them??? Like, not by much, but enough that it is weird and might just be, like, a seed I dropped and didn’t notice?? It looks like the carrot sprouts, so maybe???)!

Any changes to the plants (growth of plants, the health of plants, flowering, etc.)

Sprouts, sprouts, sprouts, sprouts, sprouts, everybody!!!! (said to the cadence of shots.)

But yeah, lots of sprouts, I can see the starts of more leaves on a few of my spinach plants, and they are looking much bigger. The radish sprouts have gotten taller, and they have red at the base of their stems, so that's cool. As mentioned previously, the sunflowers are sprouting, and maybe my peppers(???). No weeds so far.

And here be the little guy who’s just decided to hug the wall… I swear I didn’t plant anything against the walls of the container, I don’t know why he’s over here.

[gardenatlas]

Garden Update!

I “planned” an outdoor garden(I only put planned in quotes because this doesn’t feel very planned given the quick paced nature of this class). As I mentioned last week I will be making a worm tower, and I will use the castings as compost(I am actually really excited to make it, finally I can do something with more of my kitchen scraps, rather than trying to save them to make stocks and then forgetting about them). I don’t have the space indoors for a garden and all that would entail, so I have had to make an outdoor container garden. And as I am in an apartment, my determinations for the location were, is it a space I have access to; is it a space that can fit containers and plants; and does it get morning sun(because that is the only sun you can be in for prolonged periods of time out here), and that was it.

This week, I need to put together the worm tower, get seeds, and continue tending my garden. This should all be fairly easy. I have a drill, so I will be able to drill into the buckets and put them together this weekend. I will hopefully be getting seeds tomorrow(I was going to do this last week, but I was unable to). Tending the garden is what I have been doing and what I will continue to do. So yeah, I think I will have all of this under control this week.

Also:

The weekly average temperature (lows and highs)- This week, the average temperatures, so far, have been  62.6°F and 87.8°F.

The weekly weather conditions- It has been a bit windy and a touch overcast this week.

Moon phase- The moon phase today is waning gibbous.

Identify what is growing in the garden (plants, weeds, flowers, insects, birds.)- Growing in the garden this week are carrots, radish, spinach, anaheim chillies, sunflowers, will be planting the beans after the sunflowers get a bit of a head start(I have mostly given up on starting seed indoors for now, there were a few… incidents), and I need to procure some basil and dessert marigold seeds. I’ve seen some birds nearby, mostly mourning doves and house sparrows, but they aren’t exactly in my garden. I've seen a few little bugs in the dirt, not sure what they are, haven’t been able to get a good look at them, and some flies, but that makes sense given the location. I will look into what companion plants will work well in my garden to help keep them away.

Any changes to the plants (growth of plants, the health of plants, flowering, etc.)  Not much, but the carrots are sprouting now, and the spinach and radish sprouts are doing well.

[gardenatlas]

The Carrots are sprouting!!!

[gardenatlas]

My spinach!!

IT’S SPROUTING!!!!!!!

Y’ALL!!!! I’M DOING IT!!!

🎉🎉I’M GROWING A GARDEN!!!!🎉🎉

[gardenatlas]

Progress in the Garden.

I have chosen Anaheim pepper, carrots, and blue bush beans. I will be adding sunflowers for pollination preference, and I will be planting them over by the bush beans because, according to the chart you gave us, they like each other. I have not planted or chosen a plant to help with pests, but I will be looking to find one that will work with the other plants I have chosen, according to the companion planting chart you have given us. For my sprouts, as I said last week, I have chosen to grow radish, specifically sparkling radish. As for the spinach I am growing, specifically Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach, because it had the shortest days to harvest, and I wanted to be sure they grew in time during this class.

During this upcoming week I will have a few things to do. I will need to continue tending to what I have already planted, watering them and checking to see if they have sprouted. I will need to plant any of the plants that I am starting inside when they sprout, should any sprout this week. I will need to search for another seed to plant for pest control. I will need to plant a few sunflower seeds; I'm still deciding if I want to start them inside or just plant them outside. I will also be looking for supplies to build a worm tower; I’m doing this for fun and to hopefully get some good compost out of it.

Look my sprouts!!!!

[gardenatlas]

Today I was watering my bois and look.

Can you see it!?!

No?

Look closer.

The radishes are sprouting!!!!

I’ve done it they are growing!!

[gardenatlas]

Starting a Garden

I have chosen to do a container garden due to living in an apartment. The windows do not open so I cannot set up window boxes(though, if I do figure out a way to, I will), however, there is a small space at the back of each apartment that a few others also use for container gardens, so I have begun setting up back there. I don’t have much knowledge on soils or containers, but I did ask for help at the place where I got my soil from(I’d’ve asked my dad for help but he has been busy for most of this week), and they helped me get some soil that they said would be good(and I trust them because they didn’t just immediately rush me over to the most expensive stuff, and in fact helped me get things that would be discounted, yay!) for what I needed to do. I also got a few larger pots to use though I am now realizing that I probably should have chosen a different color, though these containers were not my first choice. I originally wanted to get some fabric containers that are similar to what one of my neighbors uses, but they were out of stock and would not be back in until next week, so c'est la vie. Now let's talk about how and why I chose my plants. I chose my plants based on what the Community Gardens of Tucson planting guide said would be good to plant this month, so I chose radishes for my sprout plant and bush beans, carrots, and peppers(these are technically supposed to be planted next month, so this weekend I will be starting them inside so that they have a head start when I plant them later) for my other three seasonally appropriate plants. I specifically got anaheim chili peppers because my family uses them when we make salsa, and I chose to get radishes for my sprout plant because my mom liked to eat them on bread with butter when I was younger, so I want to be able to grow some for myself and enjoy that as a snack when I can harvest them.

These are the first two pots for my garden, I will add a repost of the, hopefully, fully set up garden tomorrow. My dad has a container for me that I cannot fit into my car, so he will be bringing it over tomorrow and then I will be planting more things in it.

[gardenatlas]

Here are the new pictures of the garden I’m setting up for starting the peppers and bush beans inside(gonna be using egg cartons as a starter container!), sorry for how long it took.

[gardenatlas]

Water for my thorsty bois.

[gardenatlas]

Just made these labels for my radishes and spinach, will make more for the other veggies!

[gardenatlas]

Dirt time!!!

[gardenatlas]

The dirt has beat me, I have lost the battle to the soil.

[gardenatlas]

Dirt time!!!

[gardenatlas]

Mayhaps I shall make a worm tower.

Must think on this further. 🪱🪱🪱

[gardenatlas]

Starting a Garden

I have chosen to do a container garden due to living in an apartment. The windows do not open so I cannot set up window boxes(though, if I do figure out a way to, I will), however, there is a small space at the back of each apartment that a few others also use for container gardens, so I have begun setting up back there. I don’t have much knowledge on soils or containers, but I did ask for help at the place where I got my soil from(I’d’ve asked my dad for help but he has been busy for most of this week), and they helped me get some soil that they said would be good(and I trust them because they didn’t just immediately rush me over to the most expensive stuff, and in fact helped me get things that would be discounted, yay!) for what I needed to do. I also got a few larger pots to use though I am now realizing that I probably should have chosen a different color, though these containers were not my first choice. I originally wanted to get some fabric containers that are similar to what one of my neighbors uses, but they were out of stock and would not be back in until next week, so c'est la vie. Now let's talk about how and why I chose my plants. I chose my plants based on what the Community Gardens of Tucson planting guide said would be good to plant this month, so I chose radishes for my sprout plant and bush beans, carrots, and peppers(these are technically supposed to be planted next month, so this weekend I will be starting them inside so that they have a head start when I plant them later) for my other three seasonally appropriate plants. I specifically got anaheim chili peppers because my family uses them when we make salsa, and I chose to get radishes for my sprout plant because my mom liked to eat them on bread with butter when I was younger, so I want to be able to grow some for myself and enjoy that as a snack when I can harvest them.

These are the first two pots for my garden, I will add a repost of the, hopefully, fully set up garden tomorrow. My dad has a container for me that I cannot fit into my car, so he will be bringing it over tomorrow and then I will be planting more things in it.

[gardenatlas]

These were the smallest adult gloves i could find, and the largest kids size was too small.

They are still a bit too big,

Mostly on the thumb, index, and pinky finger.

[gardenatlas]

We got seeds y’all!!!