End of the season update!

One of my favorite things about gardening in general is the progress that can be seen from week to week.

We are at the end of our growing season which we extended a bit by using water flushes intermittently throughout the fertilizer cycle.

It’s pretty amazing to think that in only a few weeks/months that a garden can go from this:

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to this:

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Over the course of the growing season we have made more notes and developed a new game plan for the 2018/2019 growing season which will be discussed in the reflections page.

We had one real good harvest for the lettuce this year but it seemed as if once they were cut once for the initial harvest, the rest of the crop bolted, but at least we were able to get one good harvest:

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Surprisingly squash grow well; however, because of the real estate one plant takes up in the tent we will probably not do the squash again but it was good for an experiment for sure. We were able to get quite a number of squash from this indoor season; although, some were not viable as they seemed to become waterlogged. I have deduced that their condition may be due to the hydroponic tent as the squash from the soil tent did not seem to have the same problem:

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The peas grew and grew and grew and grew but for some reason they did not throw any pods until almost the end of the fertilizer cycle. The plants were very very happy just like last year but not as fruitful. The same thing happened with the cucumbers.

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The cucumbers did well insofar as growing vines; however, the plant kept throwing off only male flowers. There were very few female flowers and the ones that did bloom seemed to fall off very quickly when fertilized and the small growth would wilt and die which, when trying to harvest fruit does not work too well.

When we needed veggies or fruits we would just pick them from the vines or plants so here are some pictures of our season long bounty from the gardens:

Outdoor Soil Experiment Contd…

You know how there are times when you want something to be really good, but it turns out very disappointing? Kind of like the Ghost Pepper Fries from Wendy’s… well, the outdoor tent itself seems to leave much to be desired.

At first, it fit like a glove and it is the ideal size for our soil beds; however, a few days after installation, we experienced some wind (nothing major, just a normal cold front that came through the area) and the plastic flew off of the frame and, of course, that does nothing good for plants that need a little bit of humidity to grow and need to stay a smidgen warm.

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The plastic is a little thin and rips relatively easily both on the seams and with any type of object.

Because of the problem with the actual tent coming off of the frame so easily, we had to use plastic cap roofing nails to ensure that the tent does not fly off of the frame again:

Because of the tent problems, I feel that the outdoor Winter tent is not doing well and therefore a bust for this season, unless a miracle happens. I will continue with it, but probably wont see much until the spring season when we begin the outdoor soil summer garden.

2018 Winter Outdoor Soil Experiment

The beginnings of our soil “experiment” start with our planter boxes which we had already established a few years ago and installed irrigation set-ups in each box (smartest thing we did in that garden!). For now, just because this is new for us, we are only using one planter box to see how well it works.

We purchased greenhouse domes made by Outsunny which fit our box which measures approximately 8’x4′. Rory and Chewy really wanted to be in the photo. We added a little peat moss in and tilled the soil (yes, I know, gasp… we should be turning it by hand with a shovel, but to be fair, it’s winter and soil tends to be hard.)

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The basic of outdoor plants that we, in our household consume were planted
(in order from left to right):

Peas
Brussels Sprouts
Broccoli
Beets
Acorn Squash
Onion (red and yellow, planted throughout the whole garden).

As the season progresses, updates will be posted.

Winter 2017 Indoor Soil Garden, Day 19

So, Awesome things have been brewing in the indoor garden! Here are my update pictures:

Each of the potters have grown so much. Unfortunately, I am still waiting for my lavender to sprout, but it will soon, I am sure.

The white powder on the top of the potters is diatomaceous earth to keep away the gnats that were in the tent.

The left side is yellow onion, the right side is red onion:

Grand Rapids Lettuce on the left, Radishes on the Right:

Raab Broccoli on the left, Black Opal Basil on the right:

Buttercrunch lettuce:

Turnip on the left, Kohlrabi on the right:

Beets on the left, Carrots on the right:

The Navel Orange has been accruing new growth.

It dropped some of it’s flowers and some of the fruit, but it’s supposed to drop what it does not feel is healthy to flourish.

There are still over a dozen oranges left on the tree.

The potato bucket has flourished! All of the sproutlets have developed very nicely. In a few days I will cover the spoutlets with more soil and wait for them to continue to grow. As the potatoes grow vertically, they will put out more potatoes in the bottom of the bucket horizontally. Within about a month, there will be potatoes to pick and harvest from the bottom of the bucket where I cut the holes.

Winter 2017 Indoor Soil Garden, WHAT THE GNAT!!!

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As much as I love my Orange Tree I have discovered something terrible!

After I put the tree in the tent, it became… comfortable. The temperature was just right and the conditions were very favorable for the eggs from some gnats to hatch that had been previously laid while the tree was at the nursery.

UGH!!! NO GOOD!!!

So, in order to combat the gnats I purchased two products:

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The Gnat Stix are basically Popsicle sticks that attach to a grid that looks and acts like fly paper. The gnats stick to it.

The Diatomaceous Earth basically stops the gnats from reproducing and since gnats have a short life span it works pretty well. Its a white powder that just gets sprinkled over top of the soil. It kind of reminds me of using talc powder, only the plant version.

Winter 2017 Indoor Soil Garden, Day 6

Today I lightly watered all of the plants and put the miniature red potatoes on the top rack so that they can start rooting. Once they start rooting, I will begin a potato bucket. I have never done this before so it will be an experience for sure!

I will be doing this for both miniature red potatoes and russet potatoes.

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The turnip and kohlrabi are flourishing!

I thinned out the sprouts today.

The beets have decided to make an appearance, right on time (germination time between 5 to 10 days) and are doing very well. I thinned them out.

The Buttercrunch lettuce finally made an appearance! Right on time as well (germination time between 5 to 10 days).

The Rapini (or) Raab Broccoli is doing very well, especially for being early! I thinned it out.

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The radishes and Grand Rapids lettuce is doing well and I thinned them both out.

The Winter 2017 Indoor Soil Garden’s Genesis

I began my soil garden on March 11.

It was completely on a whim. I was in HTG Supply picking up some stuff for the garden and decided, well, rooted vegetables sound like a great idea.

The thought was as simple as that.

At this point it is too cold to start the outdoor garden so, it made sense.

The soil tent started to take shape and the first seeds were planted on March 11th. While I was at it, I also purchased a navel orange tree. I wanted to see how it would do in the tent along with the other items. The soil I used was the MiracleGro plant soil.

I used regular tap water to water the plants.

This is the final set up of the tent on March 12th.

Baby Dragon Homesteading

Learning New Things Each and Every Day

Winter