Veggies! Fruit! Herbs! Oh My!
Gardening season is in high swing around here! It's time to plant, prune, fertilize and foliar feed.
1. Get those citrus trees fertilized. We are all about organic around here so our preference is compost or compost tea. But remember, DO NOT fertilize your citrus for the first year because you chance burning your young trees.
2. Foliar feed every two weeks. I use a mixture of fish emulsion, liquid seaweed and water. Spray the mixture directly onto the foliage of your trees, veggies, herbs and other plants. This mixture makes for happy plants!
3. Pruning....deadhead your roses and prune spring flowering vines, shrubs and trees after they bloom.
4. Our weather is still mild enough to get veggies and herbs in the ground!
Plant by seed or transplant
Tomatoes
Tomatillos
Bush beans
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
All Peppers
All squash
Corn
Artichoke
Eggplant
Cucumbers
Strawberries
Mint
Basil
Parsley
Thyme
Oregano
Sage
Rosemary
Zinnia
Hollyhock
Sunflowers
Marigolds
Salvia
Remember to mulch, mulch, mulch....this helps keep your soil moist. We use alfalfa hay because it keeps soil moist and also breaks down and puts nutrients back into your soil such as nitrogen. Water deeply and infrequently. We have all of our vegetables mulched with about 2 inches of alfalfa hay and water by soaker hose for about 2 hours every 2-3 days. I will try to get some pictures of our garden posted here in the next week or so.
Oh and don't forget those weeds!!!! Get'em out before they go to seed!!!! I know it's laborous and tedious work, but it pays off in the end to get rid of them now!
Happy Gardening!!!!
2 comments:
Christy,
have you planted mint? If so, how does it take to full sun? Or is it a semi-sun plant?
I have heard that mint draws cats, as catnip is very Close to mint, and felines take it where they can get it. With the large number of feral cats in the neighborhood, I am reluctant to draw in more.
Hi JustJoeP! I actually have chocolate mint and apple mint planted around the garden as a beneficial as it repels aphids, moths, ants and whiteflies. The pretty little blooms also attract predaceious insects. However, any type of mint will essentially spread and take over, meanwhile choking out any plants around it. When I plant mint I sink it into the ground in bottomless pots and keep it trimmed regularly so that the runners don't root. If I do find runners that have rooted I dig them up and put them into bottomless pots in another area (new free plants). My mint is all in full sun...the catch to having it grow in full sun is water...it needs to stay damp...I achieve this by mulching around it with alfalfa hay (which is also a good fertilizer). Mint will also grow well in semi-shady or shady areas....in fact, if you keep it watered well and mulched...mint will thrive anywhere!!
Now...on to the cat issue...it depends on the cat unfortunately. About 70% of cats possess the genetic ability to be responsive to the active ingredients in catnip (Terpenoid-based chemicals). Catnip (Nepeta cataria) is of the mint family so some cats are responsive and attracted to some types of mint. However, if you want to have thriving mint say as a ground cover and just let it take over, plant Rue around the area...cats HATE the smell and will avoid the entire area. You may want to try a chocolate mint or pennyroyal (of the mint family) because they don't have the distinct "minty" smell that may attract cats. From my experience with having a cat visitor hanging around in the garden, he seems to have no interest in any of the mint plants (I don't have peppermint or spearamint which may be more of an attraction). Also my indoor only cat that I have cannot stand the smell of any mint...even mint gum (hehe)...however, he loves catnip...so yeah I guess it just depends on the cat.
Ok, so I am going to keep rambling on and also let you know, if you are planting other herbs and plants, keep in mind that natural cat attractants include alyssum, thyme, heather lemongrass and rosemary.
So in essence, if you really desire to have mint and have an area to plant it...surround it with Rue (which is avery pretty plant) and that should help eliminate your cat issue, maybe even deter existing ferals that hang around.
I hope my rambling answers your questions and helps out! Thanks for the questions, I absolutely love to talk about these types of issues, as you can probably tell from my extensively L O N G answers! LOL
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