Oddly Romantic Date Night

We were in desperate need of a date night: work stress, family tension, travel planning, and other such nonsense slammed down on us midweek. The rainy evening wasn't ideal for going anywhere but we were determined to get out of our routine and spend some time together.

When Alejandro arrived home, he hopped out of his car and immediately grabbed a shovel from the garage. Since we live at the bottom of a hill, we have drainage systems in place to keep our front and back yards from turning into lakes. When there is a deluge, the drain boxes get clogged with mud so he has to clear them out.

He came back with his dress pants soaked and rolled up to his knees. "Let me show you something so you know what to do if it happens again."

Unclog drains? I know how to use a shovel. I casually followed him to the side of the house. He wasn't talking about the drains.

Our raised beds had turned into muddy swimming pools. The tops of the plants reached their little branches up just above the water line like they were waving for help. My heart sank. We spent so much time getting the garden ready, finding a good soil mix that promoted drainage, and then we get another deluge and our little plants were at risk of drowning. 

At first, Alejandro pulled out a few plastic tubes and taught me how to siphon the water out of the boxes by placing one end of the hose in the garden box and sucking on the other end like a straw. Just as the water reached our lips, we inverted the tube towards the ground and let the water drain out. 

The little siphons were working but as the rain kept coming we realized that we would be there sucking on tubes until our retirement. My husband suggested buying a hand pump (like the kind used to pump water out of boats). I hurried off to Home Depot.

"So much for date night," I thought.

Our little heroes

About 20 minutes and $30 later, I got back with the water pump. First we pumped out as much as we could. As the water became too shallow and dispersed, we dug holes, maybe 6"-8" deep, in the corner of the boxes and gently scraped little channels into the mud leading to the holes. The water followed the channels and filled the holes which made using the pump easier. The pump efficiently sucked water out of the raised beds. 

The next morning, you can see the channels and holes

Soon, the plants were no longer swaying in a current of water but rather standing up tall and proud on their own. Most of them. A few pepper plants needed to be supported but we could tell they'd be alright after the leaves dried off. 

By the time that we finished it was 11pm and most restaurants in our town were closed. Our only choices were Waffle House, Taco Mac, and Wild Wing Cafe so we chose the later. It's not my ideal location for a date night but the food and the company were good so I have no complaints. The date night was oddly romantic in the end. What builds a relationship better than overcoming adversity with teamwork?

We have sunny forecasts for the next few days and our garden is already bouncing back. We're even getting a few flowers on the tomato plants!

More updates to come!

Drop the Bass and Do the Florida Weave, Y'all!

Everyone says the same thing about the Florida Weave when they first hear it: "Is that some sort of dance?" or "That's a hair style, right?" It's not either. It's a method of supporting tomato plants that is cost efficient and more aesthetically pleasing than alternatives.

Last year, we bought several cages for our determinate variety tomatoes. The bottoms of the cages bent as we pushed them into the hard Georgia clay. Over the course of the season, the thin metal frames warped and lost their shine. Buying stronger, vinyl-coated cages for this year would have been an option but at $8 a pop we would've spent nearly $150 and the cages still might not be tall enough to fully support the plants.

I set the cages aside to support my pepper plants (which need less support anyway because the center stalk is so strong) and turned my attention to different support methods for tomatoes. After pricing out a variety of supports, my husband and I opted for the Florida Weave. 

We first constructed 10' tall support posts that are built into the raised beds and buried 2' deep. (The visible support is 8' above the ground.) That sort of support post is not necessary but we felt they would be sturdier, longer lasting, and prettier since they were made of the same pressure treated pine wood as the raised beds. Some gardeners use metal T posts or U posts as supports. Those are strong and work fine but as the soil settles, thin metal posts can lean and look a bit messy.

We then drilled 1/2" holes into the posts.

In areas where we needed to make adjustments, we just drilled a few pilot holes and added 1/4" hooks. Doing this was safer than trying to bore 1/2" holes into the 4"x4" posts with the little plants around. If your measurements are right the first time and your posts line up perfectly, you won't need this step. But we aren't perfect!

The twine weaves in and out around each plant before circling back to bob and weave in the opposite direction. Overhead, the twine makes figure eights around each plant. Garden Betty put together an excellent overhead image of two spacing options. Ours is most like the first option. The second is recommended for much longer rows.

The horizontal and vertical spacing between the twine is debatable. Garden Betty, for example, opted to have each side of twine nearly parallel, so that the stem is cradled in the little gap. This spacing provides a lot of support for the stem but it will also require more twine. If woven too tightly, this arrangement can slice into the stem.

via Garden Betty

Garden Betty has 8" between each vertical layer.

In our garden, each single line of twine is spaced about 6" apart. The stem is still nestled between the twine but in a but more of a relaxed S shape. As the plants get thicker and stronger, I don't think the spacing will be a problem. 

Some  gardeners, like The Kale Yard, have even more space between each line of twine, though the blogger admits that this isn't the best option. The twine was added after the plants were already quite large.

via The Kale Yard

With any spacing arrangement, some plants will grow faster than others. In our case, one corner of the garden had three short plants among five taller ones. No problem. Just keep an eye on them and gently tuck them through the twine once they're tall enough.

I like the end result and I especially like the price tag! The posts were expensive at $12 each but since they're doubling as Florida Weave posts and emergency row cover posts, I'm pleased. 110' of  twine costs less than $5. Overall, we will need about $15 of twine and we're done!

New Plants + Bad Storms = Rough Start to Gardening

 It's time to place my seedlings in their permanent homes!

All of my veggies were stared from seeds this year. I had an excellent germination rate by combining the forces of the BioDome and Park Seed Co. quality seeds. Germination was so good, in fact, that I was able to plant everything that I wanted and I had a few extra plants to give to my mom.

I also cheated a bit. Many planting guides suggest putting 2-3 seeds in each hole and then thinning the plants when they get bigger. This seems like homicide! So this year I only planted 1-2 seeds per hole and did just fine. When cases allowed it, I preserved the plant I'd normally thin without hurting the plant I intended to keep.

Warning: this is kinda stupid and only recommended in situations where you can clearly see how to save both plants. If your sponge/starter kit looks like the bed below, just thin the plants and cut your loses!

The roots are too intertwined to separate. Just pinch off the plant you don't want!

If your sponge looks like the one below, with a clearly visible, isolated root system then you might give this little cheating method a try.

Don't kill me. Free me!

First, prepare a damp, empty sponge by cutting it open lengthwise. I used a sponge that had a seedling that didn't make it. (Cat problems.) Then gently cut the sponge to release the seedling that you would otherwise terminate. Slowly remove the seedling and its roots.

Insert the seedling into the open sponge, being sure to enclose the roots.

Gently pinch the sponge closed and insert it back into the BioDome with plenty of water. Let it mellow for at least a week to give it change to acclimate to its new home and reap the benefits of the controlled environment.

I waited two weeks and the plants did just fine! They were ready for transplant along with their brothers and sisters. I was only able to do this twice but that's two more food-bearing plants for my garden :)

The other transplants were less eventful, thinning the tomatoes and peppers so that only the strongest remained by the time that they reached their permanent homes in the soil.

I was fortunately enough to have my niece and her friend help me put the plants into the garden. It was nice to have little helpers, even if one little niece of mine was more fascinated with the wind through the trees than the garden.

Hey, that hat is fabulous. You wish you had one!

My fruit were a bit different. I started the strawberry plants from seeds but ordered my blueberries and blackberries as bare root plants. They looked like something out of an Aliens versus Predator movie, all gnarled, twisted and otherworldly. I swear, I walked by them everyday for about two weeks just waiting for them to do something.

In the beginning, the blackberry bare root plants look like measly sticks. 

Then they sprout thick, fuzzy-looking leaves like the red patch at the bottom right.

Then those weird fuzzy leaves turn into something normal looking like the ones above.

My blueberry bush came as a normal looking bush. It has taken well to its new home.

In any case, we got the plants in the ground just in time for thunderstorms and tornadoes to threaten everything. Yay! NOT. Many of my plants had been in the ground for two weeks but the most recent additions (some peppers) had only been in the ground for three days before "light showers" turned into thunderstorms and tornado warnings on my weather app.

We hadn't ordered our row covers yet so my husband and I got creative. Alejandro had been taking apart pallets for an upcycled table project. Fortunately, those planks were laying around to help us protect the seeds from heavy rains and winds. We created crossbars over the raised beds and then placed planks over the top to protect the plants from the direct impact of rain and wind. Water would still get through but fortunately it would be dispersed enough to avoid problems. The soil in the raised beds drained well by the next morning and the planks were easy enough to remove.

The planks were placed directly over the rows of new transplants.

See the little guys hiding out under there?

This way, the hard rainfall won't beat them into the ground.

For the raised beds with the Florida Weave frames, we just draped a tarp over those and anchored it with little bungee cords. (My husband and in-laws have some of the most helpful, random stuff around this house.)

Our garden got such a bad beat down last year. I am glad that we were able to spare them this time around.

The photos below were taken few days after the thunderstorms. Everyone is starting to perk up! We've had warm weather (high 70s to low 80s), so I've had to give them plenty of water each morning. I'll soon add mulch to keep the soil moist with less watering.

The chives are back this year! There are three that have returned and in between there are a few newbies popping up. (They're too small to see here.) Not sure how the newbies will do but the older plants are doing well. We also have TONS of wild chives in the backyard.

On the left are cilantro seedlings and to the right are the basil. They were slow to start from the Parks Seed Co herb tape but once they got going, they're doing well.  I think I'll thin them this weekend.They can get 6+ hours of sun on the patio but I sometimes give them shade on 80+ days. They need plenty of water.

Mixed variety lettuce in a container on my balcony. They were started from seeds and I clearly didn't do a good job spacing them, or one patch never grew. The plants are about two weeks old.  I water the container twice a day. They're getting healthier, soon ready to be thinned.

Spinach in container on my balcony, also about three weeks old. It's having a tougher time but doing better than last year. 

Here's a strawberry plant, also started from seed, in a container. This little guy will be less than 1' when fully grown. It's so fragile now! All the plants grown from seeds turned out that way.

This ultra compact cherry tomato plant was crafted for container gardening. It will be about 1' tall fully grown. The seeds I used for this plant and its three siblings were leftover Park Seed from last year and they're doing beautifully! I simply stored the leftover seeds in a Ziploc bag and left it in a cool, dry place over the winter.

These are bell pepper plants that my niece and her friend helped to plant. A few of these were started from seeds that I got last year. I cant' tell the difference between the new and old seeds! These plants have been in the ground for two weeks but were started indoors about six weeks ago. This photo was taken in the early morning but the plants get more sun throughout the day.

My indeterminate tomatoes are loving their home. Like the peppers, they got a head start indoors for six weeks before I planted them in the ground three weeks ago. Most are strong and tall (about 1'+) and are estimated to get four feet tall or taller.

This tomato plant is over 1' tall. He's starting to lean and will definitely need support. I'll start the Florida Weave on this row this weekend.

The plants in these little mounds are the beginnings of three cucumber plants. They're neighbors with the tomatoes. They are only about a week old, though, since I direct sowed them. They got a slow start during the cooler weather right before the storm and they're just now starting to show some spunk.  It's my first time growing cucumbers.

More sweet pepper plants! (The little white strips on the left are where I threw a few pieces of leftover herb tape, basil and cilantro, I think.) That far left row gets the least amount of sunlight, maybe 4-5 hours, so I'm not expecting the plants back there to get very large. 

The peppers grow more slowly than the tomatoes so they're shorter even through they were started indoors at the same time. The stalks are still getting quite strong and tall, 6"-10" now. They've grown several centimeters in the past few days since the storm!

These are extra tomato plants, ones that I didn't think would survive. They're coming up strong! I couldn't toss them out and my mom didn't want them so Alejandro had the idea to plant them in our compost holding cell. I just transplanted them today so we will see how they do!