Soil Tests

OK, I highly recommend them.

The 20 cubic yards of planters mix that we paid a nice chunk of change for did not allow most plantings to grow worth a darn the first year. We applied a cottonseed meal fertilizer (6-3-3) and things would maybe grow a bit, and get a little greener, and then not much. We figured the mix, which was supposed to be about one-half compost and one-half top soil, must still be a little "green", meaning the compost wasn't fully composted yet.

Anyway, we bagged a sample of the stuff and sent it off to the A&M labs for analysis...and wow, virtually no N at all, and high P. Both of those make it darn tough to grow anything, much less an abundant crop of veggies.

We were at a party a little over a week ago, and were admiring the lush veggies the host had in his garden...beets and turnips side by side just as I had mine...only his were about three times the size of mine and were planted at the same time. In conversation I found out that he had bought planting mix at the same place that I had, and he had the exact same problem in the beginning. He applied a high N fertilizer, like a 21-0-0 and started seeing results.

So, we made a stop at the store and found a 35-0-5 and applied to areas of our beds. Within a couple of days things had perked up remarkably...spinach that was languishing and yellowish now green and growing, beets that were doing nothing now reaching up to do their thing.

Now we are building some additional beds. The mix I am putting in them will get a liberal dose of high N fertilizer from the start, and a fall planting of legumes and hopefully by next year I can have crops that looks like those of the party host.

The Spring Garden Plantings

This springs crops include:

asparagus
broccoli
cabbage
red russian kale
mesclun mix lettuce
turnips (greens and root)
beets
onions
garlic
radishes
Swiss chard
spinach
tat soi
and I put out horseradish roots this spring for harvesting beginning next year.

and already out for summer are:

brussel sprouts
tomatoes
tomatillos
eggplant
pablano peppers
jalapeno pepper
okra
yellow squash
butternut squash
zucchini

and we are still harvesting collards and mustard greens from last falls crops.

Starting veggies from seed

It sounds like it should be easy. I mean, you poke a seed into a little potting soil, a little water and a grow light and BOOM, you have nice starts to put into your garden in a few weeks.

My experience hasn't been as favorable though. I started broccoli, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos and even tried some cabbage and collards. The problem is always the same...they get leggy and spindly in no time, no matter how close to a grow light I put them.

I seemed to get the most favorable results by just sprouting the little guys and giving them just a few days under a grow light and then getting them into the greenhouse under natural light ASAP.

I started putting my spindly broccoli plants out into the garden beginning in mid-February. I planted several of them like you would a leggy tomato, that is, by setting the plants fairly deeply in to the ground partially burying the stem. Seems to have worked OK. I did lose a few plants, but I am not sure if it was because of that or other reasons - like the 50mph winds we seem to be getting more frequently, first from the south for a day then from the north for a day.

I have just set out my eggplants, peppers and tomatillos. They actually came out pretty well. I did get them into the greenhouse pretty soon after germination and kept them close to the heater during the cold spells. The tomatillos still got pretty leggy, and I am assuming that they can be buried to the first set of leaves like a tomato...that is how they got planted anyway. This is the first year we have tried growing tomatillos and are looking forward to the first ripening.