Another throwback post, this time to December 7th: Thanks to UCLA Pre-Pharmacy for swinging by the garden and helping us out today! We built a beautiful pea trellis as well as sifted through a good portion of our basil seed stock. We also harvested some more lettuce and kale and did a bit of weeding, as well as mixed in more food scraps (nitrogen) into Alpha, the experimental hot compost bin. See below for bed and barrel updates and some other news of the week.
Bed Updates 12. (Planted Oct 5th - Week 0) We harvested some more of the butter crunch lettuce. As you can see from the image, it’s a very dense patch and we’ve got a lot of open space available throughout the bed.(Transplanted Nov 23rd - 7) You can see the small cluster of sprouts we transplanted just below the field of lettuce. We’re not sure what these are, but they are growing well so we’re going to let them be and see what they turn into. 1. (Planted Oct 19th - 2) Weeded and transplanted a random pea plant (how’d that get there?) to bed 2. The radishes and onions in this bed are generally not doing very well. There’s substantial growth from one radish plant, maybe two others, and it’s hard to tell what the onions are up to. It’s probably a combination of things, maybe it’s been too hot? maybe the soil is too compact? We’ll have to work with it a bit, but the bed is still very much empty. 3. (Planted Oct 19th - 2) The cabbage is doing great. The onions are being slow, as expected, and have shown a teensy bit of progress. 3A. (Planted Oct 19th - 2) The nasturtiums are still going great, no flowers yet but hopefully soon. There’s a bit of insect damage to some of the leaves, but it’s not very extensive. 5. (Planted Oct 26th - 3) We harvested more of our kale today. The bed is still going super strong. 4. (Planted Nov 2nd - 4) The radishes are doing well, they’ll hopefully be ready to harvest soon. The lone pea plant died :( the bed is now just radishes, at varying degrees of development. 8. (Discovered Nov 9th - 5) These nasturtiums are also doing well, no flowers yet. There are also some accidental kale plants starting out in the bed. What a mix. 10. (Planted Nov 9th - 5) There has been next to no progress on the carrots and onions in this bed, it really just did not work out. The tarps are gone, the soil is a tad on the dry side, and no plant action. 7. (Planted Nov 16th - 6) The radishes in this bed are starting off well. We’ve removed the tarps, no real need for them what with all the overcast weather. 9. (Planted Nov 16th - 6) Same as bed #7, the tarp has been removed. The cabbage and pole beans are starting to sprout. 13. (Planted Nov 16th - 6) The sage we seeded still has shown no progress. The basil, rosemary, and existing sage are all going along just fine. 11. (Transplanted Nov 23rd - 7) All 20 of the pea plants we transplanted into this bed from outside the shed have died. It may have been a combination of not enough water and weaker soil. The bed is not empty. 2. (Transplanted Nov 23rd, Dec 7th - 7, 9) We transplanted 8 more peas that have sprouted out from the ground near the shed as well as a pea plant that sprang up mysteriously in bed 1. Each of these transplants are pretty big, so we think they’ll do well. Jonathan led the construction of the new pea trellis with help from some of the Pre-Pharmacy peeps. Thank you Pre-Pharm peeps! (See top photo) 6. Empty | Wine Barrels E. (Planted ?) It has been established that it is a squash plant in this wine barrel. F. (Planted ?) Red malabar spinach is growing in this barrel. Apparently it’s used widely in asian cuisine. It also tastes great raw! A, B, C. (Planted Nov 16th - 6) The peas we sowed in four weeks ago have shown absolutely no progress. We removed the tarps to expose them to some of the rain, but still nothing. D. (Transplanted Nov 23rd - 7) Of the six transplants from the shed, the three on the southern side are doing great; the three northern transplants have all died. This probably means we should’ve given the barrel a little more shade. But the next step it to build a trellis for the three remaining. The cone-shaped idea is still on the drawing board. Compost We had a bunch of sprouts growing in Alpha, but we did not keep them. We mixed them all in with the rest of the compost. We’ve been adding nitrogen continuously but its still not hot. We need more vegetables and a much larger nitrogen source. We’re looking into working with the dining halls, but still waiting on the approval process. We added our food scraps to the pile. Other Jenna brought some Calendula seeds, more commonly known as marigolds, from Lucia Burke, the master gardener at John Adams Middle School. Marigolds are annuals, their spicy leaves and flowers are used in soups, salads and as tea! Yay edible flowers! They prefer cool weather, can tolerate partial shade to full sun, take a week or two to emerge once seeded and attract butterflies! Thanks Lucia! Also thanks to everyone who helped out processing our basil seeds! That was great! |