Life: It's what you make of it.

This week has been especially good for the Queensland blue pumpkin as it's grown several inches each day and now has two runners that stretch halfway across my garden. The plan is to allow it to intermingle with the other plants, once they are large enough, to help suppress weeds and grass between the pepper and tomato plants. Unfortunately the leaves are quite large and the stems are long which means the plants must be at least 16 inches tall or they will likely be crowded out.

In other news the Roma tomato hybrids are doing well and have quite a few green fruits which will mature in a week or two. The remaining Mountain Spring tomatoes are beginning to flower and the green bell pepper has small fruits as well. The pole limas are vining like crazy and seem to really enjoy the plastic garden fence I staked up for them. The straw bale tomatoes are adapting nicely as well however they may need more sun which means I'll have to move them.

The liquid plant food I applied last week was only a stopgap, what I really needed to do was apply organic material and more importantly test my soil. Saturday I purchased a do-it-yourself kit from Lowe's and established a few things. First, and no surprise, I was in dire need to Nitrogen. I also suspected that my soil pH may be off since some plants weren't growing as quickly as they should and I hadn't tested when I originally broke ground.

To my surprise my pH was very Alkaline (8.0)! While I'm committed to organic gardening and making slow moves with soil conditioning I realized that this would not be good for ANY of the plants in my garden and that immediate action was needed. I ran back to Lowe's and picked up a 5lbs sack of elemental sulfur which will acidify the soil. I spread about 2lbs on the surface along with coated, slow release Urea for nitrogen. I'll work this in later when I do my weekly hoe.

The remaining two tests showed that my Phosphorous was High and that I was low on Potash. Given this dramatic difference I'm going to try a fall planting of Phosphorous loving plants, possibly potatoes, to try to draw down the levels. I was unable to find an organic Potash source at the local garden center so I may have to punt and apply a combination fertilizer.

The last task I accomplished was to "mulch" the existing plants with a large bag of organic "soil conditioner" which in my area is a moist, slightly aged and pulverized sack of bark and wood chips. Looks like mulch, smells like mulch, but breaks down faster.

So how did my soil become so Alkaline so quickly? Folks around here complain about how acidic the clay soil is and regularly spread pelletized lime on their lawns when fertilizing. Heck, I spread lime also and the Bermuda sod loves it. So what gives? Well for starters I applied garden lime to the soil when I tilled, without testing it which is a major no-no. The high soluble phosphorus level is probably a result of my gypsum application and while it shouldn't hurt the garden it will cause runoff of any phosphorous I apply as part of another fertilizer since the soil is already saturated.

Anyway, that's the quick update. The straw bale tomatoes are doing quite well and haven't required water since the bales are still pretty moist and we've received a few inches of rain over the past week.

I mistakenly planted by pole beans thinking they were bush beans. I searched the local Lowe’s and found several options for support. I ended up with 2×2 mesh garden fence, a pack of approx 4 ft bamboo poles and a spool of garden twine. I interwove the bamboo between the fence mesh and drove the poles in the ground near the sprouts. I then secured the fence with the twine. Everything is green so maybe I can keep the HOA off my case. :)

Sorry no pictures as it was getting dark by the time I was finished. The fence is shorter than it would otherwise be if I’d left more space between the rows. I also noticed a few buds on the green bell plants and lots of new leaves on the pumpkin which really liked the urea nitrogen.

My recently germinated Genovese basil and Sweet Basil are looking quite good. Hopefully they’ll supplement the harvest from the single sweet basil I bought at the local greenhouse.

If bugs can eat your plants they will. I just applied a fine mist of Murphy Oil Soap to my plants. The aphids were particularly attacking my lima bean plants and hearty hibiscus. I used a small spray bottle and had enough left over to put a nice coat on my shrubbery which was under attack earlier in the year.

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