Life in the Cheese Drawer

i’m really sucking at blogging every day this year. i can’t even bring myself to post-date my blog posts so it looks like i’m blogging every day. 
i had a long weekend last weekend, and the most productive thing i did was plant my pepper seeds. that’s pretty pathetic as far as a three-day weekend goes, but huzzah for spring starting! once these seeds are up and transplanted out of the flat, i’ll start on the tomatoes. hopefully this year my seed starting will fare better than last year. charlie got me a great gardening book for christmas, and it’s already given me some tips, so here’s fingers crossed. 

i need to inventory my seeds so i know what i need to get for planting this spring. i know i have enough bean seeds, and i have some tomato seeds. i also need to figure out how to make tomato seedlings that actually survive outside 🙁 
i’m hoping to have another plot this spring – i haven’t gotten anything from community ed yet, but here’s hoping. $15 was well worth the space. 
this year: tomatoes, cucumbers, beans (not as many this year), pumpkins (big ones!), squash, potatoes, peppers, kohlrabi, broccoli, try onions again, carrots (? maybe), rotating lettuce possibly. i threw in some flower seeds at the end, and that was really nice! it was pretty!
that’ll be a nice thing to get started to get through winter doldrums.

oh, weedy garden. somehow i’ve gotten you back from the brink and you’re producing vegetables!
yesterday, i pulled a ripe cherry tomato from my plants! it was delicious. there are green beans ready to be picked, and my kohlrabi are sprouting up! my squash selections are going nuts, and i’ll have to thin them out eventually. 
it’s raining today, which we needed, so tomorrow if it’s not too muddy, i’ll try to get out and take some photos of the vegs. 

my tomatoes are exploding! the beans are climbing! the gourds and melons are spreading! the weeds are outta control!

because i had to flex my hours from commencement as well as tomorrow’s late work day, i took wednesday off. since it was a decent weather day and i had 1800 square feet to dig up, i went over to my community garden plot and got to work.
after five hours on wednesday and about four yesterday, it’s mostly put in. unfortunately, some of my tomatoes have already kicked the bucket. thank goodness we’re still early in the season and i can get more. 
charlie requested more cucumbers, so i’ve got to put more of those in, and i’m waiting for sweet potatoes (!) to show up in the mail. i also ordered a few more tomatoes in the mail because i want a certain heirloom variety that you can’t find any old place, mostly to replace the ones that died and also to have a few more. 
so, this year we’re going to have copious amounts of:

• tomatoes – big boys, early girls, celebration, cherry, green zebra
• peppers, hot, sweet, and boring
• cucumbers, eating and pickling
• green beans
• leeks
• kohlrabi
• onions
• carrots
• sweet corn
• popcorn (!)
• lettuce
• potatoes
• butternut squash
• summer squash
• another winter squash i can’t remember, heirloom variety
• pie pumpkins
• jackolantern pumpkins
• cinderella pumpkins
• cantaloupe
• watermelon
• loofah squash
• flowers
• more flowers

whew. the hugely unfortunate thing about this community garden is there is no water source, so i have to haul it in. hopefully i’ll be able to mulch it well enough that nothing dies.

last spring i put in gardening boxes at the back of my property, which happened to be under some black walnut trees. my entire crop was pretty much a bust. so, to explain, i’m reposting, with permission, a post on black walnuts and why they don’t play well with other plants. 
Black walnut is a common and useful tree that is native to much of North America. The natural beauty and hardness of its wood makes black walnut an excellent choice for furniture and woodworking projects. Unfortunately, black walnut is also the bane of gardeners because of its toxicity to other plants and the amount of tree care it requires. 
The roots of black walnut trees produce a toxic substance called juglone which adversely affects plants that are sensitive to it. Plants which cannot tolerate juglone will show symptoms such as yellowing and wilting foliage and they will ultimately die from its toxic effects. It is believed that juglone acts as a respiration inhibitor, leaving plants unable to breathe and sapping their energy.  
Juglone is produced in the trees’ roots but is present in all parts of black walnut trees, and is strongest in the buds and nut hulls. The leaves and twigs contain smaller amounts of juglone, but black walnut trees have a habit of continually dropping leaves and nuts from late summer through autumn and this debris only adds to the toxicity problem. Because of the accumulation of leaves and nuts beneath the tree, and also because of rain running off the leaves, the entire drip zone beneath a black walnut tree can be a hazardous environment for juglone-sensitive plants. Some plants that are extremely sensitive to juglone won’t grow within fifty feet of the dripzone of a black walnut tree.  
Cutting down the offending black walnut tree won’t solve the juglone problem either.  The roots will continue to release juglone into the soil and the area can remain toxic for several years after the tree is gone.  A gardener I know removed several scruffy black walnut trees from her backyard to make room for a garden, but even six years later she wasn’t able to grow tomatoes in that area.  
The good news is that not all plants are sensitive to juglone. Many trees, shrubs, flowers and vegetables will grow in close proximity to a black walnut tree, although even some of the juglone-resistant plants will struggle if they are directly beneath the tree.   
Here’s a short list of some of the more popular plants known to tolerate juglone:  
Trees & Shrubs – Eastern redbud, hickories, oaks, most maples, Southern catalpa, red cedar,   peach, cherry, nectarine, some plums and pears, Thuja arborvitae, Euonymous species, and most Viburnums.  
Vegetables – Squash, melons, beets, corn, carrots, onions, parsnips.  
Annual Flowers – Calendula, morning glory, zinnias, fibrous begonias.  
Perennials – Hollyhocks, iris, ferns, most daffodils and narcissus, astilbe, crocus, snowdrops, Jack-in-the-pulpit, cranesbill, coral bells, monarda, spiderwort, some hostas.  
And wouldn’t it just figure:  poison ivy doesn’t mind juglone and will thrive under a black walnut tree.  
Plants which are extremely sensitive to juglone and won’t thrive within fifty feet of the drip line of a black walnut tree include hydrangeas, peonies, rhubarb, silver maple, white birches, apple trees, Norway spruce and Mugo pine, mountain laurels, most azaleas, lilacs, blueberries, cabbage and broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes.  
Juglone-sensitve plants may be grown in containers that are kept near a black walnut tree, so long as they are not directly beneath the tree where leaves and nuts could fall into the pots or rain could drip from the leaves onto the plants.  
If you like to garden, black walnut trees would not be a good choice for your landscape. But if the trees already exist on your property, you can still garden if you take a bit of extra care.  
Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and landscape plants. Kathy recommends http://www.freeplants.com as a great place to learn more about gardening. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com.  If you use this article the above links must be active.

when the sun shines during january and february, i get a little spark of hope, even though the weather and atmosphere look a bit bleak. the sun starts to set a little later in the day, and when i take off for work, it’s a wee bit lighter out. in a couple months i’ll be starting my vegetables for planting, and my list for menards starts to get a little longer.
this year my vegetable garden will be a bit different. since my beds are underneath some black walnut trees, i need to do something about my tomatoes, which are hugely affected by the toxin in the trees. i just got the st. charles community ed flyer, and the city has 20’x50′ garden plots for $15. that might be more than worth it for the tomatoes alone, although i’d probably also put cucumbers in there and some squash so they have a place to sprawl. meanwhile, my beds in back will house some foodstuffs that aren’t so affected by the walnut trees. 
meanwhile, i keep thinking about my bulbs i have planted around my mailbox and in my flower bed and the peonies that are planted on the west side of my house. pretty soon the world will tilt the way i like it to, and the earth will feel it, and the flowers will bloom, and light will be here.