Not going as well as I had planned

Hmmmm so today my tomatoes were looking a little floppy. Right now they are in a seed starting kit so they have to stay inside, and they are fighting for sunlight with the cucumbers and cantaloupes. They bent pretty much completely flat trying to get the sun and they look really thirsty. I put them outside for a little bit and went around and picked up little twigs so I could start trellising them.

I also had to cut down the weakest ones, so I went from having about 23 plants to having around 15; some of the ones I saved will eventually die off though. The cucumbers are taller then the tomatoes but they are sturdier; I trellised them with twigs though anyway. The cantaloupes took the longest to sprout, but they are also looking the strongest so we'll see.

I decided to do a test run on fertilizer on the tomatoes, and accidentally dumped a lot of it on one of the plants. Hopefully it doesn't get burned from it; oh well, 15 tomato plants is a little excessive.


Tomorrow is Week 3 so I am going to update pictures tomorrow.

Excavation

I think I might have gone a little overboard in my vegetable adventure. I've never had a garden before, except for when my mom planted tomatoes and string beans when I was about 8. I thought you just stuck the seed in the ground and the next day you picked off some vegetables.

Apparently you have to plan out everything. eve-ry-thing. I chose to plant Cucumbers, Cantaloupes, Carrots, Green Beans, Tomatoes, Corn, and mini Pumpkins.

They all need varying amounts of light and water, so they couldn't all be put in the same spot. The tomatoes and green beans are going to go in big planters with some pretty trellises I picked out. Corn and carrots are going to go on the side of the deck, and cucumbers and cantaloupes, with a couple of left over tomato and green bean plants are going to go in the huge box on top of my deck. The cantaloupes and cucumbers need to be planted in huge hills, and then when they get to be a certain height, they have to be transplanted to be twice as far apart. Tomatoes like the most water so I put them on the side of the box that has a little more peat moss.

I had to empty out the planters, which weighed about 70 pounds a piece, and also had to shovel out the boxes which are about 7 feet long by 4 feet wide and about 6 inches deep. I then had to add a mix of peat moss and soil to all of them. I think I have permanent back damage from it. I was cursing myself the whole time I was doing it, but I know the hard part is over.

Luckily, everything gets planted at different times so I don't think I'm going to be up to my ears in vegetables like I first thought.

Here's a link to the photo album on Facebook; I'm starting out with weekly pictures, but once the plants get bigger I'm going to extend it to two weeks.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2158948&id=24208755

Tomatoes got started 2+ weeks ago indoors. Cantaloupes and cucumbers just about a week ago. The tomato plants are only about 4 inches tall but already smell like tomatoes. Cantaloupes haven't sprouted yet but cucumbers sprouted and grew about 6+ inches in 4 days.

100% Certified Organic Garbage

I was delighted to go to CVS a few weeks ago an find that there is a new hair care line called Organix, which touts that their formulas "contain natural active ingredients and are sulfate and paraben free."

Wow how nice, a breath of fresh air.

Wait. Stop it. Natural ACTIVE ingredients...what about it's inactive ingredients? The first few lines of ingredients on the bottle were pretty comforting. I thought to myself "wow, how nice to see a commercial grade product that is actually what it claims to be." My faith in humanity was almost considering hanging up her coat and staying for a while. However, after reading this beaut of an organic ingredient list, she decided to put that coat right back on and steal some silverware and a salt shaker before she walked out the door.

Water, Coconut Milk, Egg White Protein, Coconut Oil, Vitamin E, Jojoba Oil, Cetyl Alcohol, Bethentrimonium, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Glucoside, Glyceryl Stearate, Glycerin, Cyclomethicone, Dimethicone, Panthenol, Silk Amino Complex, Terasodium EDTA, Fragrance, DMDM Hydatoin, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinon.

Listen people, if you have to slow down to learn each syllable before you can muster the strength to even try to pronounce the whole word, it's probably NOT an organic ingredient. Apparently, the USDA only requires a beauty product to have 95 percent organic ingredients. That other 5 percent you're free to stockpile with as much hazardous waste as you want. Have a free-for-all...none of your zombie consumers read ingredient lists anyway.






Whatever, this blog is not about shampoo. It's about my garden. I decided to do an organic garden because I like eating food that I don't have to shop for, unwrap and/or wash before consumption. I might be having a love affair with nature or I might just be lazy.

I bought all "organic" soil (which smelled like cow shit, so it MUST be organic....depending on what they fed those cows), organic fertilizers, organic seeds, and organic pest control. After my encounter with that "organic" shampoo, God only knows if what I'm using is really that pure. Even if I just planted a seed in the ground and did nothing for it, who knows what's in the soil in my backyard. Or in the raindrops. Congratulations human beings, you've managed to cover pretty much every inch of the earth in your grime.

No animosity here, though. I do have to say the ingredients in the organic garden supplies were QUITE impressive. I'm very proud of my veggie babies...Tomatoes are ready to be transplanted in 2 weeks or so. Cucumbers planted on saturday and sprouted tuesday. Cantaloupes planted saturday too but they haven't showed up yet. I can't wait to transplant them outside and bathe them in acid rain.

I promise this was my only anti-humanity post. Everything following will be strictly veggie progress related.