Aaron Eaton

aaron

Garden Update: Oct. 15, 2020

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I took some time to inspect the radishes this morning. The French Breakfast radishes are extremely prolific. These are already starting to form.

Speaking of radishes, it was time to thin these out. The plants all have some well-formed true leaves. Here’s a tip for thinning: Instead of throwing the thinned plants in the compost or garbage, just toss them on top of your soil! These will break down in place, recycling the nutrients that they pulled out. I do this with almost all of my trimmings as long as there’s no sign of disease.

Garden Update: Oct. 14, 2020

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Welp. I made my first big-ish mistake. The shade cloth has proven its worth by me forgetting to put it down after watering yesterday morning. Everything was pretty dry and the soil took a lot of water to get hydrated again. I won’t be making that mistake again.

The citrus trees also looked a bit sad after a harsher than expected sun yesterday so I gave them a good soak. They’re looking much happier now.

Garden Update: Oct. 13, 2020

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It’s almost time to thin out some of the remaining transplants. You know it’s time to do so when the first true leaves get close to full size. To thin, choose the strongest looking plant and cut out all the rest at the soil level. Don’t pull or you may risk disturbing the roots of the plant you’re keeping.

Down below we finally have parsley germinating. Turns out it can take up to 30 days for it to germinate which is on the high end of most herbs and vegetables. Along with that and the cilantro, I see some chimmichurri in my future!

Garden Update: Oct. 12, 2020

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This is a momentous day! As I was tending to the shelling peas on the seed rack, I noticed that their roots were beginning to intrude on their neighbors. That meant it was time to get them in the ground!

All in all I ended up with 60 seedlings which is perfect. This means three rows of 20 in the allotted space, 4.5” spacing, 8” between rows. Peas seem to benefit from intensive planting. To transplant, I run a string along the bed to get straight rows the place my tape measure down to get a good idea of spacing. Then I put the trowel about 3” into the soil, pull back and place the transplant in the hole. Spread the dirt around the newly planted seedling and move on to the next.

These are looking great so far! I got them watered in from the top and then gave the whole garden a good soaking from the irrigation system. Now we wait a few weeks for fresh peas!

Garden Update: Oct. 11, 2020

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Not much to update today. The green beans have started to set a good number of pods. These are the healthiest plants I’ve ever had thanks to the 6” of compost.

Over in the root crop bed, the beets seem pretty happy. Some of the bare spots are starting to fill in.

Garden Update: Oct. 10, 2020

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Woke up this morning to a thick fog

The leaves on the shelling peas are unfurling. Their distinctive growth pattern can now be seen.

While I put down cardboard and 6-8” of mulch (sheet mulching), bermudagrass and some annual rhizome weeds don’t really care. I have followed the roots of an annual grass weed for almost 4’ through the mulch. I’m convinced that the people who came up with the idea of sheet mulching aren’t from Texas and don’t have the same weeds to deal with. Saturday’s are weeding days out in the garden. As long as I do this once a week, the weeds never get too bad.