Hey y'all remember when I told you that music helps plants grow? Well, I have started my seedlings next to my radio where HJY is on almost 24/7. And eight of my seedlings have sprouted. I know people have done studies as to what type of music is great for plants, they say jazz in classical is the best, but I'm about to prove its classic rock! Again I'm not a gardening expert but let's go on this journey together, and I will share the things I learned with you along the way. My cherry tomatoes were the first ones to pop, followed by broccoli, then the big reds. I'm still waiting for the others, but it looks like my makeshift greenhouse is working well again this year.
Although something did get messed up a little bit, if you look at the picture of my cherry tomatoes it looks like another plant has found their way into that container as well. Judging by the leaves it looks like it's broccoli, I'm not sure how that happened I was very careful with the seeds. But they are hella small, so it makes sense that some of them made their way into places they shouldn't be LOL. No big deal though, I'll wait and separate them when they get a little bit bigger, and it's safer. They're just starting to grow, so I don't want to traumatize the seedling, then it will definitely die.
I ran out of soil last weekend. I have to pick up some more, so I can start my herb seeds. This year I want to grow sage and rosemary again, and also lavender, thyme, and chamomile. That's in addition to the lemon balm and spearmint plants I already have, and of course Kohl's catnip. I think in total between the herbs vegetables and fruit I'm growing over 30 different plants. I'm definitely going to be a busy bee this summer
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I hope your gardening is going just as well and as promised, more tips. Last time I started telling you about plotting your garden, and I want to dive deeper into that. I've got some awesome links to share with you.
Since there is some time before the seedlings are ready to be put outside we should figure out where to put them. If this is your first time gardening you want to consider a couple of things one of those obviously being sun exposure you want to make sure your plant has the right amount of sunlight that it needs. Next you want to also look at companion planting, some plants thrive really well when they're planted next to each other and can even help keep certain pests and insects away. For example tomatoes grow really well with asparagus and Dill, and they help keep crop damaging bugs away from each other, and give each other some nutrients as well. Check out this link I found from Burpee, it's really helpful for companion planting.
Another thing to take into consideration, especially if this isn't your first season gardening, is crop rotation. I have several garden boxes as you've seen and when I was making my garden plot for this year I almost forgot to rotate my crops. It's really self-explanatory you just want to rotate them around in your garden or garden boxes because if they keep growing in the same spot they won't flourish as well, or might not even grow at all. That's because during the previous season the plant took all the nutrients it needed from that soil. They recommend you swapping out heavy feeding plants with lighter feeding plants the following season. Also, certain crops grow really well where others were because of nutrients Left behind from those previous plants. I found this link from Harvest to Table super helpful when I was trying to plot my garden boxes. It broke it down super simple, it had the plants grouped by families making it really easy for planning. So for my 2021 season I'm planting beans, onions, and peas, because they're light feeders; in the boxes where my tomatoes grew last year, because they're heavy feeders. They also say for one season you should just let the soil be and not grow anything there. For this reason I want to make an extra garden box, so I have a spare one to throw into rotation; that way each season I can leave one of them empty.
Here is a picture of my new garden plot.
Happy gardening and rock out with your green thumb out. Haha
Photo: Steph Dansereau