The Importance of Companion Planting... and paying attention to it.

One of the things that I love to do, as a gardener, is read.  I know, you expected me to say something like: dig in the dirt, or pull weeds, right?  Sure I love digging, and I weed because I have to, but there's so much knowledge out there, and I just want to learn it all!!!  It makes me a better gardener.  I know that I have a lot of room for improvement.  Each year we grow and expand the garden, and we try new things.

I know about companion planting, I really do.  I know about it...  but I can't say that I've paid much attention to it up til now.  Probably because last year everything was in containers, so I didn't have to worry about what was planted where. 

This year, I have raised garden beds.  Five, to be exact, and then a heck of a lot of containers.  I wish I had acres and acres of beds, but alas, I live in suburbia.  That's a dream for another day.  I have two beds that have beans in them.  One bed thrives, the other bed struggles. 

Seriously, have a look. 

Here are my healthy beans:

 They're lush, they are beautiful!  They have a healthy bright green color, there are flowers, and beans all over them.  (Yes, one has a marigold growing out of it, but that's just an extra bug fighting mechanism...ha ha).

So let's have a look at these other beans.  They are smaller, they don't have flowers, they are yellow!  There are a few beans, but they are misshapen and yellow as well.  The leaves are shriveling up and falling off for crying out loud!

I couldn't figure it out at first, until I started thinking about the two beds. 

The healthy beans were planted in a bed by themselves.  Just beans.  The struggling beans were planted next to onions.  That garden bed was split in half.  Onions on one side, beans on the other. 

Hmmm.... companion planting, I thought.  There are things that compliment each other, like in a Three Sisters Garden.  Are there things that are detrimental to each other when planted together? 

The short answer is Yes.  Yes there are. 

The long answer goes more like this: 
(Compliments of: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/vegetables-should-not-planted-next-other-garden-35394.html)

"Plants release varying amounts of compounds, such as nitrogen and potassium, which can stunt the growth of other plants by altering the pH level of the soil. While cucumbers thrive when planted near bush beans, lettuce and radishes, they choke when planted near potatoes. Beans, beets, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, corn, cucumbers and strawberries make good neighbors -- as long as you plant the onions, garlic, leeks and shallots elsewhere. Peppers do well with carrots, eggplant, onions, parsley and tomatoes, but do not plant kohlrabi anywhere near them. Keep lettuce away from cabbage and keep onions away from asparagus, beans and peas. Spinach gets along with everyone."

This season's major mistake #2 - - don't plant the onions with the beans.  What was major mistake #1, you ask?  Oh, that was the first attempt at making beds in the yard - before The Guy went and bought the rototiller.  I'd still be digging if we stayed with that method.  Missed the post on Grave Digging in the Burbs?  It's here.

There's a happy ending to this sad bean story.  I dug them up.  Yes I did.  I dug up all 20 of those sad, sorry bean plants and I moved them.  The next morning, they still looked about the same.  No shock wilt, no dead plants, so I guess I did an OK job at getting under the roots.  As of yet, they haven't changed color, but I'm hoping that they will grow new leaves that come in healthy and happy. 

More to come on that. 
The moral of the story is: research.  Before you plant.
Green Thumb Out.

The Three Sisters

The Pipsqueak is in Transitional Kindergarten, and one of the things they participated in at school was "Native American Day".  They had different stations, all geared towards learning about Native American culture.  It was an awesome day, and I wish I had pictures to share, but I don't.  I was quite busy at the facepainting station that day.  I, quite literally, had my hands full. 

Besides face painting, they had a fishing station, a dancing station, and a gardening station.  (Why didn't I get put there? Oh well!)  The gardening station had the kids putting together a mini Three Sisters Garden.

In case you're not familiar with the concept, it goes along with companion planting.  Three plants that work well together are planted in the same spot.  Corn, beans and squash.  The corn provides a stable trellis for the pole beans, and the squash vines around the ground, providing ground cover and acting as mulch for the whole bed.  They are also complimentary in that they don't rob each other of the nutrients needed. 

I was trying to figure out what to do with my fifth garden bed.  Nothing was planted in there, and then when I did plant something, my charming doggies dug it up for me.  I'm sure they were just trying to turn the soil for me, right? (Missed that one?  It's here.)

Last month, my Seeds of the Month Club* shipment included corn and squash.  I already have some beans, so I figured it was just meant to be. (The photo up top has bush beans in it - - I didn't have a pretty package for my polies.) I planted the corn this week, and once it's about knee high, I will add the beans and the squash in.  In Pennsylvania, where I lived for seven years, they had a saying about corn:  "Knee high by the fourth of July".  Not sure if that's going to be true here in Southern California, because the climate is so very different.  We'll see.  This last bed is going to be a true experiment. 

Since there's nothing to show you in my own garden, at least not yet, I thought I'd pull a photo from somewhere on the web.  I really don't feel like a blog post is a blog post without pictures.  So here:

This image can be found at: http://viettes.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/threesistersgarden.jpg
It's from the blog Viette's Views, where they had a successful 3 sisters garden in 2011. 

I'm so excited!  I'll follow up with pictures of my own once there's something to show!!!

Green thumb out!

*Doesn't the Seeds of the Month Club sound like a great idea? It's THREE BUCKS A MONTH!!!  Three bucks!  Where can you get four packets of seeds for three bucks?  If you decide to go for it, don't forget to tell them I sent you!  You do that by entering my number: CAU4IB0AZ3 into the referral code box when you sign up.  If you sign up for 6 months, I get six months free!  By spreading the word to your friends after you sign up, you'll get freebies too! 

Earth, Wind & Fire! (not the band... the elements)

Last week was a doozy here in Southern California.  We had temperatures in the upper 90's, and winds with gusts of 70-80 mph depending on where you were.  Here in the Inland Empire, we were in the 80 mph gusts for sure. 

It's hard to convey the strength of the wind in a video.  The trees behind our house were blowing around a lot, and the wind was howling, but the video just doesn't do it justice.  Once you see the Pipsqueak's hair blowing around you can tell how hard it was gusting.

 

It took us the entire weekend to set everything right again. The Guy and the neighbor's grandson had to fix the fence.  They set the new support posts in concrete, so that sucker's not going anywhere.  Then on Sunday, we had to clean up all of the branches and pine needles, fix up all of the broken veggie branches, and re-stake everything that came down.  It was really a mess. 

 

We were about fifteen miles from the  Etiwanda fire that claimed 2000 acres.  We were close enough to have terrible air quality and ash raining down, but we were far enough to be out of harms way.  Kudos to all of the firefighters who worked so valiantly to save the homes of the residents in the fire zone!

Here's a look at our yard during second day of the winds:

 

The berries just fell, and I intended to leave them down for the three days of predicted wind.  Well, The Guy was trying to be helpful, because he's that kind of guy, and he hooked them up to the fence after the first day.  Unfortunately, the wind kept on blowing and blowing, and it snapped much of the new growth off.  Pretty sure the wind has just ended my dreams of a bumper crop this year.  <sigh>
 

In this photo, you can see the berries laying down, and what's that?  Yeah, it's a shattered glass table.  Oh joy.  Glass shattered amongst dirt and rocks.  How the heck we're ever going to get it all up is beyond me.   We've blocked off this side yard so the doggies can't get glass in their paws.

 

 

 This is where The Trampler hung out for most of the three days that the wind was kicking.  He didn't want any part of it. We lost a good section of our fence between our house and the neighbor's yard, too (which I didn't get a picture of), so then I couldn't let them out even if I wanted to. 

The wind took our swing, which weighs A LOT, and tossed it into the yard.

 

 

 

Green Thumb Out.

Pixie Perspective: Garden Close ups

Imagine being three inches tall and wandering through a vegetable garden.  Well, today you can.  I took my camera into the garden this morning for a bunch of gardening close ups. 

I love to get down on my hands and knees in the morning and look through my plants to see what's growing and what's blooming.

 

There's a lot of hope in this garden, and that's the whole idea.

Green Thumb Out

They're cute, they're furry...

AND THEY ARE FOR SALE IF THEY DIG UP MY GARDEN AGAIN!!!
(Ok, maybe not really)

THE EVIDENCE:

While drinking my herbal tea this morning, I was gazing out the slider at my garden, as I so often do, and I noticed that something was amiss with my first garden bed.  I also noticed that I left the hose out, which pushes down the plastic fencing, allowing entrance to The Trampler, and the Fuzzy Digger. 

Just yesterday, I planted some squash seeds at the top of this bed.  Nearer to the bottom, were the cantaloupe seedlings.  Were is the important word there. 

Here are the culprits. 

#1:  The Trampler

Previous offenses:

Pepper Garden of 2013, The Trampler was captured within the fencing of the pepper garden, having let himself in and then being unable to turn around, thereby finding himself stuck and requiring assistance. 

 

Please notice the decapitated "Pink Pig" toy belonging not to him, but to the other canine suspect.

#2:  The Fuzzy Digger

Previous offenses:

The Fuzzy Digger has been observed on numerous occasions with her face and front paws in the tomato buckets, digging in or eating the chicken manure.  Ewwwww!!!

 

The Fuzzy Digger's prints were all over the 2014 pepper garden this morning.  What do these dogs have against the peppers? 

So which one was it?

This print says that it was probably The Trampler...

 

...and these feet pretty much prove it. 

But, in case you need a confession, I happen to have one right here:

 

This kind of sing-song happens whenever I go into the yard and start tinkering around.  The Trampler always barks in excitement.  This morning, though, The Fuzzy Digger decided to chime in.

 

In case you're wondering, The Trampler is not, and has never been aggressive toward her.  He pokes at her to get her to play with him.  He has never hurt her intentionally, although he did injure her one when they were running and she stopped and he stepped on her.  They are not snuggly-lovey to each other, but they are great friends.  So, please, don't think that she is afraid in this video.  This girl rules the roost for sure. 

 

Well, after the drama, I straightened the bed back up, and lookie lookie what popped back up!!! 

 

Those are my cantaloupe seedlings, alive and well. 

I have no idea where my squash seeds ended up, I guess I'll just keep watering and see.

 

The dogs are pretty cute, and they make me laugh, so I guess I'll keep them.

 

Green Thumb Out

(Stay tuned for my next post - - it's a bunch of garden close up photos.  I think they came out fantastic!)

 

 



 
 



 

 





 

L is for Ladybug!

 

My dear friend, Liz, is an avid gardener, and she brought me a present last night.  A bunch of ladybugs!!!  Her real job is working as a TK teacher, and she and the kids collect ladybugs from the school field, and place them in the kids' flower garden. My little garden pipsqueak is one of her students. Yesterday's collection made it's way to my house, and I'm so excited to show you some of the pictures I took.  I'm not sure how many ladybugs and ladybug larvae she brought me, but it was A LOT.  Probably about fifty.  I let them go last night just before sunset, and when I came out to check on them this morning, it was like playing hide-and-seek.  It was great finding the little spots of red intermingled with all of the other colors in the garden. 

 

This is my favorite picture.  I found several ladybugs nestled along the row of marigolds in the center of the bean bed. 

 

In case you're wondering why I'm so excited, ladybugs are beneficial garden insects.  They eat aphids, mites, gnats, anything that they can find that's gnawing away at your garden.  I'm hoping they stick around a while, and that the friendly praying mantises that come around leave them alone and find their own meals, instead of making them a meal!!!

 

Here are a few more of the good shots I took. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you like the pictures!

Green Thumb Out.  :)

 

April 18- Step in to my Garden

Hey!  How are you?  Lovely to see you!   What's that?  You'd like a garden tour?  Well, sure! 

Here we are just before Easter. Today is April 18th, and the garden is growing up nicely.  I love having so much more room than last year!!! 

From this angle, you can see all of the raised beds we put in this year.  That's the Fuzzy Digger, in the foreground.  Even though that fence is only about 2 feet tall, she doesn't seem to have any interest in going in there.  This garden runs the width of my yard.  On one side is concrete, on the other side is fence, but it only takes up about 1/5 of the grass area, so there's still plenty of room for the kids to run, for the pool, and for the doggles to bound and play.  I think it's not too bad for a city yard. 

Here's a closer look at some of the stuff growing in there:


Oooh, isn't this exciting?  It's an empty bed!!!!  Ha ha...  if you look closely, you can see that there are some little baby sproutlings in there.  They are cantaloupe seedlings.  I'm pretty excited about trying to grow cantaloupe.  The research I've done said they need lots of sun and heat.  Well, if there's anything that I can guarantee they'll get, it's sun and heat.  The Inland Empire is great for that. 


This bed has several different onion varieties, and lots of beans.  I have the bean rows planted in 3's, but once I see which ones are strongest, I'll have to break down and thin them out.  I might be able to squeeze two in each row, but definitely not three.  They'll just be too crowded, and competing for space and water. 

I had a lot of luck with beans, last year.  (See my post on Fridge Dilly Beans here)  I had about eight plants last year and once we got to July and August, I was pulling about a half pound of beans a week.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to double or triple that this year.  I'm going to make lots of dilly beans, and also stock up the chest freezer.  What chest freezer, you ask?  The one I'm hoping to buy very, very soon.  I'll have to lean on The Guy a little for that.... 

Here is the tomato bed.  It's a little crowded, I know.  I'm going to put in a support system for these few tomatoes in here, so that they don't crowd and take each other over.  I've had them in this tight before, and they did ok, as long as they had good support.  They are still small at this point, but very, very soon, I'm going to have to get on the ball there.




Here are some close up views that I thought were totally nifty.  (Yep, I said nifty!)

 

Lookie, lookie!!!  That's my first "Lady of Shalott" David Austin Rose of the year.  It's this lovely salmon color on the front of the petal, and the back is yellow.  And the smell.... oh man, it's so fragrant it could just knock you over.  Love, love, love!!!  I think I might go pick out another one for Mother's Day this year.

 

 I was so frustrated with my blackberry bushes last year.  They. Did. Nothing.  I got thousands of flowers, and no fruit.  Hopefully they will perk up and produce much more this year.  The strawberries have been producing lots of fruit this year, so hopefully these guys will follow suit. 

 

 I told myself I wasn't going to grow squash this year, because nobody eats it except me, but then the seeds came in my Seeds of The Month Membership package (https://averagepersongardening.com/seedsclub/step_2.php)*, and I planted them anyway.  Squash blossoms are so gorgeous, and they really are (supposedly) so easy to grow, although mine succumbed to blossom rot last year (boo).  What the heck, right?  It's just one pot!!!  So there they are.  There are lots of buds, but no blossoms just yet. 

 Cucumbers.  Didn't I say I wasn't going to grow cucumbers again?  Yeah, I did.  I lost them to powdery mildew last year and I was so frustrated.  But I am a determined gardener.  I'm not going to give up.  I'm also going to try to stay ahead of it, because I know it's coming!!! 

 

 This is a new plant for me.  I've never grown it, but I love to eat it!!! OKRA!!  Roll it in cornmeal and pan fry it... yum!  Add it to soups and stews and it's oh so yummy.  I planted about 20 seeds in this pot, after soaking them all night, as directed, an only this one little sprout came up.  It's okay though, it only takes one!!!  I'm going to be keeping my eye on this one.  I'm very excited.

 

These little babies are in the garden bed next to the tomatoes.  More cucumbers.  I know, I know... but LOOK!  There are already little babies on there.  All the frustration from last year just fades away when I see that.  They are so cute... tiny little babies that are just waiting to grow so I can make them into PICKLES!  Yep, that's the plan. 

Canning is definitely on my agenda this year.  Real canning. 
Wish me luck.  I'm hoping to find someone at church who can help me learn.  Yes, I can learn from a book, but I'd much rather have a teacher. 

Well, that's the update and garden tour for today.  Stay tuned. 

Green Thumb Out.
* If you're interested in purchasing a membership to the Seeds of the Month Club (https://averagepersongardening.com/seedsclub/step_2.php), please use this referral code. CAU4IB0AZ3  If you do, I get a free subscription equal to whatever length of membership you purchase, which will help me keep this blog going next year, at a reduced cost. Then once you become a member, you'll be able to pass these savings along to your gardening friends! Thank you so much!