I'm way behind, as far as outdoor planting, due to the excessive rain I've had in the last several months. It is still raining (over 3" forecast for this week, until Friday), and it is much cooler than it normally is at this time, after the 70+ days I had a couple of weeks ago. During that time, when I had some decent weather, I pressure washed my deck, and a bunch of other things, and stained the deck up to about 90% of it; rain and cold weather forecast, until about 3 weeks later, so I'll finish it then, or after I finish planting.
Since my friends that I was going to have Easter dinner with got sick, I started doing some other things, though I didn't have much to do in the garden. The weather was nice out Friday, except for the fact that it was VERY windy, so I couldn't really do the stuff I was hoping to. So instead, I did some cleaning up on the back porch, then later I went down in my workshop, and made 2 more of those SIPs, using those inexpensive 18 gal tubs I got at Ollie's. I made 2 of them last year, but still had one I hadn't started using, because one of the old and cracking SIPs made it through one more season. I used that as the pattern, and it only took about 3 hours to make 2 of those, though I already had the columns from two that I took apart, before throwing away cracked containers. Those re-used support and wicking columns save a lot of time, and I still have enough of those for 2 more SIPs.
Made 2 more Sub-irrigated planters, using the bottom one I made a while ago as the pattern. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Almost finished SIP, just needing the screens cut. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Finished SIP, with the screens in place. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Saturday, the weather got a little better, at least not too windy early on, and no rain (fortunately, it didn't rain until late), so I did something today that I was going to to Friday, that I put off to Saturday, because of that wind - re-potted my curry tree, which was starting to get some bad branches, plus that stickiness on some of the leaves, otherwise, I would have waited until May, when I could leave it out, once re-potted (has to stay over 50°). The bay laurel seems to get that at this time of year, maybe because of the increased daylight? Whatever it is, I just took it out and rinsed the leaves off, and let it dry, then started re-potting. I got a laugh out of a neighbor, who was watching me when I was starting out, and later she came over and said she "had to ask" why I was beating the pot the plant was in. I explained to her that the pot was fiber, and the root ball was almost solid roots, which is why I was re-potting it, and I had to remove the "pot". This was really the only way to do it - after a few times, I'll just cut it off, but this pot is relatively new, and I'm relatively cheap! And the plant must enjoy this, as I think it's at least 13 years old now.
I cut most of the root ball off, leaving about a 3 qt sized ball left, and that is a 12 gallon pot it's in, so at least 10 gallons of soil! I made it almost like I make seedling mix, but added some organic potting soil I got cheap, that has some worm castings in it, and added a bunch of perlite and granular DE, and a little of that micorrhyzae, and watered the top with some Bt israelensis, like I always do. I also "painted" the cut stems, and the large cut roots with that "liquid electric tape" I get at Harbor Freight - faster drying, and longer lasting, in my experience, than the stuff made for plants, which separates, and doesn't work as well. Amazingly, that plant has several areas of new growth when I looked at it around 3 pm Monday.
Something I'm doing this year with pepper seeds, to see how it works out, as well as save myself some time and energy, is something I did a few years ago with eggplant seeds, after which they grew so fast that they were ready to go out before the weather was ready! I have to re-pot them in larger pots, but time will tell if the peppers grow too fast. But I used to start all the seeds in that strip tray of vermiculite, and, while they started quickly, I had to transfer every one of them to the pots, and this was good, when growing as many peppers as I used to, as I had no other way to keep seeds for so many varieties warm! I "only" have 12 varieties this year, and with the eggplants growing so well the last several years in those Jiffy pellets, and I can fit them all in one tray, I figured that I'd try this. I have a heat mat, that 2 trays fit on, but I'll start them in my kitchen (on 4-1, after overnight soaking in KNO3 solution), in the same spot - on that warm griddle, with the pilot lights under it, keeping it warm all the time. I'll test the temp beforehand, as always, and tweak the temp, to get the tray ready for the seeds. When they start appearing, I'll move it to the heatmat in the plant room, under the lights.
Trays with Jiffy pellets, for planting eggplant and pepper seeds in. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
That tray with the space for the 18 pellets, is a tray I bought chicken thighs in! lol I knew it would be good for some gardening job! This year I'll be planting the eggplant seeds even a little later - the first year, starting in the pellets to save space, the plants were ready much earlier than the weather was, and each season I've been planting them a few days later, and last season, on 4-1, they were still slightly too early, so I'll try 4-3 this year. And same with my tomatoes, planting on 4-6, as they have also been almost too large too soon, since the early May has been quite cool the last few years, after hot Aprils! Better to be slightly too small, than to be ready too soon, and flowering.
I soaked the pepper seeds Sunday night, then planted them today in these pellets. Tomorrow night eggplant seeds get soaked, then planted Wednesday, and Friday night tomato seeds (22 varieties this year) get soaked, and planted Saturday. It's that time again!
