This is my first time doing an entry for Garden Bloggers Death Day. Check out the blog Gardening Without Skills by Kate and Crew for the details of this monthly blog trend :)
Surprisingly with my super black thumbs I don't have too much in my garden actually dying. The problems I DO encounter tends to be more along the lines of not germinating, stunted growth, bolting too early, or the minor pest peckage.
I do, however still have a couple of "on their way" plants that I'm trying to recover that I'll definitely post:
My parsley that is scorching in the heat. I was gone for a day and didn't water my garden. While most everything was fine, my plants in planters didn't enjoy the neglect too much. For now it's only the bottom few leaves of each of my parsley plant that withered away so hopefully a good drink will set them back to normal :)
This is one of my Shiso herb leaves that my mom gave me. I haven't transplanted them and didn't really plan to, but along with the parsley these wilted as well. Most of them perked back up after a quick shower but this guy still looks a little down.
My broccoli are still tiny compared to everyone else's. I haven't had the need to further thin them out yet, but I already know which ones are the ones that are going to get picked out. These eaten and purple looking ones! I don't know if it's from the direct sunlight, but some of my smaller broccoli seedlings are turning purple. D:
My tomato plants I planted back in April. WTH. I'm kind of hoping death would just take it away already. I have 4 of these cherry tomato plants at the same stage. I can't get the nerve to pick them out since they still have a bit of green in them... Being the first time gardener, I don't really know if these are defective or I'm just impatient. Ah well, I'll let them stay for a tad bit longer...
That's pretty much it for the death toll in my garden. Not dead, but dying. Everything else is doing fairly well though. This gardening experience is giving me so much surprises this year. I think I see a tad bit of green in my black thumbs. I guess all I needed to do was bury them and dirt for a while :D
Posts
7 comments:
I really think you need more organic matter in your soil. Some of your plants look like they are suffering from compacted, low-fertility soil. I'll bet if you dug some bagged mushroom compost into the the first coupe of inches, watered well & then mulched over with a couple of layers of straw to keep the moister in, you'd see a marked improvement in growth. A little fish fertilizer now & then after that would keep things perking along. Before next spring, add as much compost as you possible can to your soil. I cannot tell you the difference in my plant growth & yield since I started mulching, as well. Don't give up! Like anything else, it's a learning process. And as much as you might be tempted to because of the expense, you really can't skimp on soil ammendments & mulch. They should have bales of straw at your feed store for pretty cheap. :)
Michelle~
Thank you so much for your awesome advice!!!! It really helps to get guidance cuz to be honest I still don't know much of what I'm doing! I'll definitely try to add more organic matter into the soil. And I'll pick up straw next time I go out to get chicken feed.
My next big project is to get a compost bin going. I know it shouldn't be too hard but I just can't decide where to build it... I'm sure it'll be real beneficial for the long term tho, and I really want to compost all the chicken waste that's building up in my pen :)
Cynthia, You have to get started on the compost. If you're like me, you;ll be totally into it and it helps the plants. I think I have officially given up on those tomatoes. Can you buy a new one at a chain store somewhere. Did a big hole. Mix in some compost or a bag of soil ammendment. Then plant it. :)
SG
I'm glad Kate gave us something to laugh about in our sorrow! Misery loves company.
SG~
I actually have another set of cherry tomato plants that are a different variety that are doing a lot better. Not big in any means but very healthy looking. So hopefully those give me some tomatoes by August or so :D
I started my compost! It's starting out as a pile of compost until I build something lol. I hauled a bunch of dirty soil from the chicken run, piled on grass clippings from mowing the lawn and mixed it up in a pile. Once I get something structurally built, I'll dump it into there. heh heh
~Cynthia
You are hilarious. the WTH tomato comment has still got me giggling. I can't wait to post my own post about death in my garden. Oh don't worry I have a multitude of failures. In fact I don't even need to do a summary post b/c i've been cataloguing them all along, such as the lavender plant i finally dug up and threw away it was just so, uh, embarassing.
This is kind of a fun post, and got me thinking of what i'm going to post.
plus if this is the worst you've got, you are doing pretty good.
I agree that more compost in the garden is very benificial. I'm not sure that you need mushroom compost though (it's more expensive and often sterilized which doesn't really benefit anyone, though some people swear by it) I think just regular 'ol compost does a better job. JMHO.
You could try mulching a bit around the toms to perk them up a bit. (Water around the toms, sprinkle some organic slow release plant food then put a layer of shredded newspaper and grass clippings, water one more time) Maybe it'll keep death at bay. ;^)
Post a Comment