Carrots at 7 weeks

At 7 weeks after sowing, the nantes carrots are a dense forest. I thinned them this weekend. The carrots themselves are about the size of a toothpick. It will still be several more weeks before they're ready for eating!

How much does a vegetable garden cost?

Costs to date are $208 which includes all the soil amendments, seeds, fertilizer and the seedlings (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and a few perennial herbs). I won't need to spend as much next year on soil amendments.

• Costs for seeds, seedlings and fertilizer: $107 (recurring annually)
• Costs for soil amendments (compost and spaghum moss) and tools: $101

I hope to have more homemade compost for next year's garden, but will probably still spend about $50 on soil amendments.

Will we get $208 worth of produce out of our little patch (about 150SF)? Stay tuned...

Check it out, we got mentioned over at Public Radio Kitchen.

How much water do vegetables need?

Vegetables need a lot of water. I know this should go without saying, but I always think it just rained yesterday. You definitely need to water your Boston-area vegetable garden.

Vegetables need about 1-2" of water per week - more when it's hot and dry! Average monthly rainfall in Boston in the growing season is only about 3". You can provide the additional water in 2-3 watering per week, preferrably in the early morning and directly to the roots.

When the temps top 90, it's time for daily watering.

What's happening in the vegetable garden

After nearly 2 weeks, I resowed the corn last Thursday (May 21), and covered the whole section with clear plastic. I've been taking up the plastic every other day to water. If I leave the plastic up for 5 minutes, the birds get right into the bed.

The peas are doing well. The carrots are doing well. The second seeding is starting to emerge.

A little bit from the second sowing of mache, but not much.

The lettuces are coming in well now. Looking forward to a garden salad one night soon.

The cucumbers are suddenly ailing. The seed leaves have mostly fallen off, and the second leaves are emerging, but the stalks are weak. Several of the plants have fallen over. I think we may have lost about half, and those remaining do not look strong.

The beans are doing a little bit better, but they don't seem to really be thriving. The seedlings haven't grown much since being planted out. Some of the leaves are getting brown and papery. No sign yet of the beans directed sown.

I fed everything this weekend. Did I mention the $40 spent on fish gut fertilizer? It stinks, but I've had success with it in the past. Vegetables need a lot of nutrients, especially in a densly planted urban garden. The leeks, especially, should benefit from some additional nutrients.

Sunlight is looking good this time of year. The tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and basil get 10 hours of sunlight. The lettuces, leeks, carrots and peas get 8 hours. The strawberries and herbs get 8. The cucumbers get 6.

Grubs in the Chard part 2

Many grubs have died under the blade of my trowel. I've dug up the wilting chard and picked them off. Dug them out of the soil around the chard too. The chard seems to be recovering!

The outer leaves are wilted and dead, but there is new growth!

What's eating the mustard?

After further investigation and consultation, it seems very unlikely that ants would be devouring the roots of my mustard green. (Not sure what the ants would be doing swarming in and out of the roots.) But the root damage combined with the little holes in the leaves of the mustard point to flea beetles as the culprit.
These can be a big problem and may get into other plants (like the eggplant) once they're done with the mustard.
There are options for controlling them, including diatomaceous earth, which absorbs lipids from the exoskeleton causing the critters to dehydrate. (It's also useful for removing DNA). That link there is about all I know about diatomaceous earth.
Will see how this infestation progresses before taking chemical intervention.

Frost damage

So we had a minor frost here two nights ago. I thought I was OK as long as temperatures stayed above 32, but apparently anything in the 30s is too much for the heating-loving plants. The eggplants looked wilted, the basil was burned black. The good news is that both seem to be doing fine after temperatures rebounded.

Pictured: Frost damaged on basil

C brought home some beans from school, so I planted those into the mix on the bean teepee.

The peas that I started inside are no bigger than the peas I planted directly in the garden. It seems there is no advantage to starting peas indoors.

Still no sign of corn. (Damn turkeys!)

When I plant the lettuce again in the fall, I will plant much more thickly so I get a blanket of lettuce coming up. When it comes time to thin, I can just eat what I thin. It should give me a few nights of salads of baby greens and allow a few heads to develop to full size.