tinfoilgarden

[tinfoilgarden]

along the lines of the 2025 fruit-filled summer garden goal, I have been so sad about the maypop seeds not succeeding and one of the two tropical passion fruit plants I got last year dying. after realizing that the strawberries are probably done until september, I tried to reconcile with myself that the melon plants would be enough of a variety of fruit for us for the summer. and that's all fine and good and everything. we very well may get lemons this year from our walmart lemon tree. but what about something cool?

I think it's about the dopamine hit of a new plant or picking whatever is growing. we've enjoyed using lettuce from the garden lately, as well as cilantro and swiss chard, but there's nothing like picking things more in bulk, like carrots and potatoes. I want to start more sweet potatoes than the ones that are struggling and the six slips I ordered, but we really don't need anything else and I genuinely don't have the space. we already decided to also grow corn this summer and Dave will already be asking the neighbor to borrow their tiller. 🫠

I feel better about being able to grow what we eat, and I want to make sure that I can keep up with everything, so I'm glad that we have limited space, but man: if I could grow and preserve all of the things, I would.

edit: I ended up getting two maypop plants from Etsy, which I'll be planting in containers because frankly we don't have the space for them to spread and not get into our neighbors' yards. I just really like passion fruit flavored things and am not looking to accept defeat.

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cross posting from my main.

I was pretty surprised today how dull the garden was-- there's not a whole lot to do! I'm waiting at least until June to truly start picking carrots, which is a weird bummer, but glad that maybe the garlic will be done by then, so I'll be able to plant more beans, edamame, melons, or pumpkins-- I haven't decided. I know that the determinate tomatoes only grow for so long until they're done for the summer and technically we can get two rounds of those here, so I have to decide soon if I'm going to start another round of tomatoes, likely indeterminate, based on what we currently have seeds for-- Amish paste is the most likely contender, though others may very well happen nonetheless. my main goal is to get as many tomatoes as humanly possible to make sauce and salsa. 🥰

there's just something I really like about growing something you can eat-- like, usually the strawberries wouldn't be THAT ripe, and they wouldn't taste THAT good; you'd have to drive a ways away to get ones that would.

we made strawberry ice cream using a bunch of the strawberries from the garden. 🥰

after some consideration and a literal dream last night about it, we're going to see if we can borrow the neighbor's tiller tomorrow to grow corn this year. will we get 70 ears of corn? probably not, but I sure hope I can grow other things around it too, in order to maximize the space.

I am loving the frogs this year. they're not as present as they were last year just yet, but they'll get there.

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you have to find small pockets of joy to survive in a world where there is a constant news cycle of bad things happening

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We talked more about moving up north again today, after Dave spent most of the past week in PA. Realistically, we will both be heavily involved in caring for both sets of parents as they age, so it is probably the "best" option.

I am so anxious about it. We have a lot to do, and I really hope that we can kickstart a larger garden and orchard whenever we do move.

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2 years ago, I scattered cucumber seeds alongside the house in one little area in January, because I was impatient and didn't know a whole lot about when things could grow here, but I knew it had been really warm for a while at the time and figured I would give it a shot to see what happened. I ended up having a relatively successful cucumber plant where I got several cucumbers.

Last year, I decided not to plant anything other than strawberry runners that I was relocating over in that area, because I worried that it looked ugly. I think the main thing that was ugly was just that I had multiple tomato plants growing over there alongside the cucumber plant the previous year and they were fine, they produced; they just weren't particularly attractive.

This year, having moved those strawberry plants, I've since put Boston pickling cucumber seeds in multiple places alongside the house between the fig trees, as I want to be able to make pickles this year in some way, shape, or form. I don't really know how many of the plants you need to get enough to pickle ANY, but I'd be happy with even just refrigerator pickles at this point.

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52 pepper plants, both sweet and hot. the walnut tree from our neighbors' yard is shading out more of the backyard than it did last year, but hopefully this area will get enough morning and midday sun nonetheless. it's supposed to be 85 today-- random for several days of 70s--, and will get back up to the 80s on Friday for a while, so I'm glad the peppers will have some semblance of a chance.

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I've been having issues getting the Murasaki sweet potatoes (left and right) to really get moving on their slips, but I realized yesterday that they didn't have any notable roots like the other sweet potato (not sure which variety but it's orange), which is growing a bunch of slips, has a ton of roots, so I added rooting hormone to the water of the Murasaki sweet potatoes in an attempt to get them going-- they've been in water just as long.

the weather is looking like I'll be planting tomatoes next sunday, as well as the various seeds we'll be direct sowing this year. we'll see what happens but I sure hope that's the case, because these guys need to get out of here 🙃 I'm potting up the rest of the peppers and the ground cherries today, all of which are VERY ready to go, so it will be good to get them settled.

I'm over here dreaming of moving at some point so we can grow peanuts and dry beans (like pinto/black beans, but other varieties) in bulk; I would love the opportunity to grow a stupid amount of each in bulk, though I don't know that Dave would ever go for it. That being said, if we could grow a large number of sweet and regular potatoes as well, I feel like he might be on board?

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came across an ad claiming glyphosate isn't unhealthy to consume. glyphosate is roundup. if it kills weeds and can harm animals.. like, come on.

links from studies and articles for how it's likely bad for us to consume:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9101768/

https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/news-media/research-highlights/childhood-exposure-to-common-herbicide-may-increase-the-risk-of-disease-in-young-adulthood#:~:text=New%20research%20from%20the%20UC,cardiovascular%20disease%20later%20in%20life.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weed-whacking-herbicide-p/

https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/4/1416

https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s43032-025-01834-6?sharing_token=JwqI4HfpBmw5QsSwxREYAPe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY5kewps0QiZY_hgNr4RGLCrso0HyjWytM-O7KBrsTc2hFS90jITdtvkgA6d7RYbrS2vv-xzAKOFkjMGAIfMnzsClEr0X94gCMkG0lSBtPZuuAyYGFLnZnC-wTjF4eU0Gwk%3D

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6024999/#:~:text=Glyphosate%2C%20as%20well%20as%20aminomethylphosphonic,on%20mammalian%20reproduction%20%5B2%5D. (specifically sperm motility, mitochondrial functionality and sperm DNA integrity in zebra fish-- just because it says there's no noted affect on human reproduction, how is it truly safe if it negatively affects animals?)

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Easter is such an ambiguous day to decide that it's safe to plant-- Easter has been in March and early April several times over the past few years, though now it's in over three weeks. Our last frost date this year is earlier than last year, on April 2nd.

Tomatoes want the ground to be at least 50°, and I plant some in raised beds, some not. I'm going to try to layer things in order to keep everything as warm as possible this year, because I was able to do that elsewhere and those beds are actively growing tons of volunteers, particularly tomatoes and potatoes.

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Oh I love this information from my Master Gardeners handbook:

'"Flowers pollinated by birds and butterflies tend to be red and yellow and produce lots of nectar, but lack a strong scent. Flowers pollinated in the evening by bats and moths tend to have large pale or white flowers and a strong fragrance.

Bees have vision that is shifted towards the ultraviolet. Flowers pollinated by bees are most often blue, violet, and yellow. Because bees perceive ultraviolet light, they can see color patterns in petals that are not apparent to us. For example, a buttercup looks all yellow to us, but the bee sees a dark center, pointing the way to the nectar. These color patterns are called nectar guides."

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They need to invent a job where I don't have to wake up or go to it

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shazam

so many plants still in soil blocks, but I'm hoping they can STAY in soil blocks until I can put them outside permanently. That being said, I have half a mind to really get them hardened off this week so that I can put them outside over the weekend.

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it begins. there are a bunch of strawberry flowers coming out, so I'm hoping that things warm up a little soon so that we can start really getting strawberries. these are elan strawberries that I started from seed last year, though I also started white pineapple alpine strawberries from seed then as well, which are in a different area.

this year, I really want the garden to be full of things, so I'm decidedly going ham on all of it. I don't know where exactly I'm going to put all EIGHT winter squash varieties, but I'm thinking I'm going to just squeeze things in where and when I can. I was going to put some in a raised bed but after enough doomscrolling, I think the cantaloupe and honeydew will get that bed; pumpkins/winter squash can grow just about anywhere.

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I up-potted my fennel seedlings tonight then realized they were full on plants and are actually cool weather crops that should've gone out already.

I follow Carmen in the Garden on social media and noticed her fennel (allopathic to many plants) acts as a companion plant for both her asparagus and artichoke plants, so I googled why it would be a companion plant for those, and it turns out that fennel attracts ladybugs which will eat the aphids on artichoke plants-- perfect--, so I guess I'm going to be gardening off these plants over the next few days and putting them out with the artichokes.

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