Some sprouts

I’ve been falling behind on posting (eeeek!), so here it is short and sweet.

Sweet potato?! Still no slips after about two weeks, just mold. I’ve switched out the first one for some purple sweet potatoes from a tianguis rather than the grocery store that I’ve left whole. These seem to be working better.

Radishes are basically rock stars, the ones I’ve planted along with spinach look great and have leaves coming in.

From the seeds I started, I had germination from broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, and a few leeks.

I started more seeds (and some tomato) in another carton in case I drowned these ones or something. No surprise here, only the radish seeds have sprouted.

Lettuce looks great! Beets look good, I decided to thin them a bit for more leaf space.

I finally replanted the dill in a deeper container and it seems to be doing much better.

I also started saving the roots/lower stems from verdolaga/purslane – probably my favorite salad green, and I image pretty easy to grow as it’s generally considered a weed. They’ve regrown leaves and are thriving in the soil. Going to plant many more.

I’ve been looking at some container/rooftop garden blogs for inspiration and found a bunch of cool gardens using plastic bottles for shallow rooting plants like lettuce. 

I'm out of soil again so that's all for now. More soon!!!! 

More seeds planted

Delayed post from October 15, oops!

Some little/big updates: After about a week since planting the spinach has germinated is poking out of the soil (8/9 seeds). Whoohoo!

On Monday night, I picked up some more soil and seeds at the grocery store and planted six seeds of each: poro, col morada, coliflor, zanahorias, calabacita redonda, and pepino in a broad eggcrate we picked up from the taco stand downstairs. I planted nine brocoli seeds in another egg carton today (Wednesday).

I also started… compost! We had bought a tray of wheat grass to put on the porch for the dogs to make them feel more outside and since they like to chew on grass. They decide it was better to scatter it all over the living room rug whenever we went out, so that became the dry grassy base for the compost. I’ll need to switch it to a bigger bin soon (now!) and hopefully can find some worms to get things moving.

Bit of everything, acelga back, new seeds on sides,
compost front and center. :) 

The radishes were looking strong so I filled another crate with soil and planted the nine seedlings. I was surprised by how much their roots had already taken off – many of them were attached to or poking out the bottom of the egg carton after just a week. I also seeded some more radishes into the rows making 15 planted so far in the crate (the other half is still empty), and seeded another five in the spaces in the lettuce pot that seemed deep enough.

Go radish, go!

My poor dill plant is looking even wiltier!! I think I need to get it into some deeper soil fast, but I don’t have any suitable containers at the moment. A yogurt container would be perfect, but maybe I’ll use a soda bottle or a milk carton in the meantime.

The beets and acelga also look like they’re struggling a bit in their new home, but I’m going to give them another week or so before I worry that they’re too cramped or need more/less sun etc. I’m starting a spreadsheet that I’ll attach later on as a google doc to chart the growth times for each plant from seed to harvest.

I set up a sweet potato to start growing slips in a mug by the kitchen window (using this guide). Once these take off, the plan is to put them up on the roof so that the vines can hang down over our terrace. 

Sunny corner behind the boiler

In other news, the pumpkin has become two (cheesecake) pumpkin pies, two batches of pumpkin muffins, and a spicy pumpkin soup. We don’t have a fridge at the moment so I couldn’t freeze any and didn’t want to leave it out too long. Pumpkin pie lasts much longer, and also goes much faster. J

   

Hasta pronto!

Plants (some), re-planted!

On Saturday I replanted the betabel/acelga in a wooden crate lined with a garbage bag and the lechuga, apio, perejil and a few of the smaller acelga in a big rusty bowl.

The resources I found online (on HubPages) suggested that beets are best grown in containers in soil 10” deep spaced about 3” apart to give enough space for the roots to develop. It also recommended growing them from seed rather than transplanting (whoooops), so we’ll see how these take. I did my best not to damage the roots when I separated them (each “plant” had three or four plants in it) so I’m hoping that they survive.  

Based on how the herbs seemed to be fairing after a few days on my porch, I decided to plant the lettuce along with the celery and parsley, both of which still looked green and vibrant. I also stuck in the three smallest acelga that didn’t quite fit into the box with the others.

The thin leafed herbs – manzanilla (chamomile) and eneldo (dill) – both looked a little wilty, not sure why. Maybe not enough drainage? Need deeper soil? Too much sun? I isolated them to try to figure out what’s up… will do a little research as well.

I also reserved the mint and chives (because they’ll take over just about anything.. they’ll go solo), the basil because I forgot about it (!!), and the rosemary and thyme that I’ve read grow best in similar, slightly drier conditions. It’s still been pouring here lately but dry will be no problem in a few weeks when the rains stop. For the next six months the battle will be irrigating.

Other exciting news… the rabanos/radishes have sprouted (unless I forgot which side I planted with which…)! By day three the first had sprouted, and by day six, nine out of nine are poking through. No green news from the spinach yet, but I’m hoping they’ll start poking out their little cotyledon soon.

I didn’t get around to picking up my seeds from the market and I’m all out of soil, so this was all of my garden work for the weekend.

Not quite garden related, but we got a pumpkin. We opened it up (by smashing it with a hammer, naturally) and I roasted half in my tiny toaster oven and steamed/boiled the other half. Seeds still waiting to be toasted (and some planted in the compost). Breads, pies, and more pies coming soon.

Happy planting!

PS. Hello from the garden helpers.

 

Parque Viveros and first plants

Day 1 (Tuesday October 7, 2014)

After hunting around the city for vegetable plants and seeds without too much luck, we wound up at Parque Viveros. I’d been to the park but never the commercial nurseries, and oh what a gem. If you go with a list you’ll find everything you’re looking for, and if you go without one you’ll find yourself with more plants than you know how to get back home, if, like us, you came on foot (pro-tip: find a friend with a truck… still working on that one).

We wanted to buy some espadas (real name: forneos?) but they were too large for us to carry or take in a cab, and none (or very few) of the vendors have their own vehicles for delivery. There are fletes available out front but a short trip will run you an easy 350 pesos.

I ended up buying an assortment of small herbs at 10 pesos (!!!) a pop, some smaller succulents in cute tin cans for about 20, and a larger hanging succulent (Cola de borego) for 100 pesos. We also got a 20 kg bag of soil for 35 pesos. The only vegetables I found were acelga/betabel and lechuga (and got two of each) but I wouldn't be surprised if there were more somewhere where we didn’t make it.

Oh, and a venus fly trap. We’ll probably need about twenty of them working overtime to even make a dent in our mosquito problem. Don’t even get me started on how itchy I am.

I also finally found VEGETABLE SEEDS. Now it seems silly that it was this difficult – the majority of the stands there sell them and I wouldn’t be surprised to find other house plant sellers that do. I only bought two packets of seeds– one of spinach and one of radish, because on our last trip to Mercado Lazaro Cardenas we placed a request for “one of each please!” for any vegetable seeds the plant seller could get us. We’re picking them up this weekend. :)

I planted the seeds in an egg carton to get started and am excited to see how the little buggers take off. The packets say sunny conditions so check-mark for that. I’m still toying with what exactly I’ll use for pots once I start replanting the herbs and once these guys grow.

That’s all for now! Happy planting!

PS. Any tips for mosquitoes? My apartment is swarmed with them and we can’t seem to keep them out or kill them fast enough. Some screens on the windows probably wouldn't hurt.

One of the garden helpers.