Showing posts with label Mittleider. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mittleider. Show all posts
Worked on Fence and Garden
Posted by Mike Silva | 4:58 PM | 0 commentsLabels: asparagus, fence, Mittleider, pepper, pictures, radish, strawberries, tomato
Today we fenced in the back side of the garden. This was the most difficult part because of the slope. I am so happy that it is done. We have also begun killing off the grass in the pathways. We are using a tarp and kiddie pool in two areas of the garden to kill off the grass. Here's a picture of the whole garden with the new section of the fence in the center back:
Now for a quick update. The asparagus have sent up some new spears which is great. We have filled in the container with the last portion of soil, so our asparagus are fully planted!
Our strawberries have been turning red. We now have chicken wire up to prevent the birds from getting the strawberries before we do.
We have had a couple of sunny warm days and so most of the plants in our garden have thrived.
We clipped back the bottom leaves from our tomato vines so they do not touch the ground. We are hoping to minimize the diseases and know this helps.
We have harvested our radishes. We have had rather peculiar radishes. The seem to not have fully developed or something is in the soil eating them. We had quite a few duds too.
We noticed last week that our pepper plants were kinda yellow in the leaves. We decided to conduct a little experiment. We watered the pepper on the left with what we are calling Mittleider water because we have dissolved a tablespoon of Mittleider weekly feed fertilizer into a gallon of water. We did this because the weekly feed was not dissolving when we watered the garden and so we thought about using it like a liquid fertilizer.
We watered the pepper of the left with Mittleider water and the one on the right with regular water. Since doing it the plant on the left has greened up and looks happier than the one on the right.
Here's a closeup. Notice the difference in the greenness of the leaves. The one in the foreground did not get the Mittleider water.
Happy with these results we expanded the experiment and watered half of the bean plants with Mittleider water. We will post the results as we continue this experiment.
Tomatoes, Herbs, and First Harvest
Posted by Mike Silva | 5:24 PM | 0 commentsLabels: asparagus, basil, Mittleider, oregano, rhubarb, strawberries, thyme, tomato
Today we went to the farmers market and purchased tomato starts. We purchased San Marzano, Rutgers, Cherokee Purple, Bellstar, Red Grape, and Isis Candy tomatoes. We have purchased oregano, lemon thyme, and basil.
We applied another helping of Mittleider Weekly Feed to our plants. The asparagus plants have sprouted up from most of our roots. We only had one of the sixteen not take off (which we replaced with some spare roots).
Our strawberries look wonderful. We also harvested some rhubarb. This was our first harvest. A comparable bunch sold for $3.50 at the farmer's market this week.
Working in the Garden
Posted by Mike Silva | 12:50 PM | 0 commentsLabels: Mittleider, preparation
Today we had great weather and so we were out working in our garden. I dumped out and mixed up some more Mittleider pre-plant mix because I think I messed up on the measurements. This time I am sure that the ratios were correct.
I mixed up some Mittleider weekly feed. We purchased some triple phosphate to add to our 16-6-16 fertilizer to bring it up to 16-16-16. We did not purchase 13-13-13 fertilizer however it may be the less expensive route.
We placed 3 containers in their locations, leveled the ground underneath, applied pre-plant mix to the soil, filled the beds with our soil mix, then applied pre-plant and weekly feed to the top and mixed it in.
For our soil mix we used peat moss, vermiculite, and compost. We will have to be attentive to salinity issues with our plants given that there is compost plus Mittleider feed.
I was not very impressed with the Scotts brand compost. The compost had a very strong smell. We purchased manure from Lowe's and that didn't smell. That was a minor issue. The reason why I am not impressed with the product is that it is one dense clump. I had to break it up to try to mix it in with the other components. We have purchased a different type of Scotts compost two years ago and had similar issues with clumping. Their compost always seems like it was damp when it was packaged and has never dried out.
Mixed Mittleider Pre-Plant Mix
Posted by Mike Silva | 10:12 PM | 0 commentsLabels: Mittleider, preparation
Tonight I mixed up two batches of Mittleider Pre-Plant Mix. Our box of Borax was clumped together due to the humidity of our basement. I may have added a little too much to the mix. I am excited to apply it to our garden!
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