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What’s NOT growing in the garden? (Part 2) »

What’s NOT growing in the garden? (Part 1)

Posted on June 27th, 2006 – 10:51 PM
By Jaime Chismar

Last year, when I was new to gardening, anything that sprouted in the soil knocked my socks off. I through caution (and seeds) to the wind, then waited impatiently for my very first seedlings.

Without experience, without expectations, each new sprig of green was cause for giddy delight and little victory dances around the back yard. Who knew I’d be singing (or rather, butchering) James Brown in celebration of spinach at seven in the morning? Certainly not my neighbors.

This year, I still cheer for my green friends, but just as often, I scratch my head and wonder about the no-shows to my garden party. It’s not just the cool kids who be dissin’ my hospitality, some of the nerdier veggies don’t even R.S.V.P. (I know peppers and herbs can be kinda picky, but beets? C’mon, who can’t grow beets?)

Stranger still, most of my no-shows were planted, and in some cases replanted, in the same bed. After two months of disappointing attendance, I now call this part of the garden the “Bummer Bed” (even though MIDDLE-FINGER-TO-YOU-GREENGIRL BED seems more appropriate).

Though the Bummer Bed gets the most sunlight, it gives me nothing.

Troubled (and testy) Thai basil: Four weeks ago, this half of the bed was green with spinach. Then it angrily bolted during our unseasonably hot and humid Memorial Day weekend. I couldn’t even salvage a decent spinach salad so I composted the wasted greens, planted my pepper plants, then seeded some parsley, cilantro and Thai basil in between. After three weeks of watering and waiting, this one little sprout is the only Thai basil sprout. At this rate, I’ll be eating take-out pad thai and spring rolls all summer.

The super picky peppers: To be honest, none of the peppers I started from seed this year are doing very well. I planted them with matches. I fed them fish meal. I gave them pepper pep talks, yet they are no taller than the day I planted them. Well, except for this picky pepper who seems to get shorter and shorter with each attempt at photosynthesis. Is there anyway I can transform my party-pooper peppers into perky, productive producers?

Coming Thursday… What’s not growing in the garden? (part 2): Beets the heck outta me

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 10:51 pm and is filed under Herbs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

8 Responses to "What’s NOT growing in the garden? (Part 1)"

Cecilia says:

June 28th, 2006 at 6:48 am

Hi, GreenGirl, et al….left this tip on the tomatoes blog but I will repeat it here:
Basil loves tomatoes, when planted side-by-side in the ground. Tomatoes also love basil “next door.” Read somewhere it was something about substances the roots of both plants give off in the soil. I alternate two tomato plants with three basil plants, and both my basil and tomatoes are doing GREAT (although I did put a fertilizer spike in the ground near each tomato at planting time). Anyway, I have tons and tons of tomatoes and the basil is tall, green, and very prolific.

Maybe re-plant your basil so it sits near your tomatoes?

Good luck! Cecilia

Greengirl says: Hey Cecilia, I *did* plant some basil between my tomatoes and it’s doing great. Since tomatoes, peppers and eggplant are all in the same family, I assumed that the Thai basil and heirloom peppers would be BFF. Obviously, that’s not the case.

debw says:

June 28th, 2006 at 7:40 am

I am not sure about the Thai Basil but the pepper is showing some signs of stress. Somebody chewed on it and it has been planted in an area where the dying rootlets of the spinach are still screaming.

My sugggestion: try some compost tea to give it a boost of good bacteria. The leaves seem a little yellow ( but that may be the variety it is) so some epsom salt around the root zone and buried a 1/2″ or so may put some zest for living in it too.

Greengirl says: Epsom salts, eh? I’ll do a little more research. There could be screamin roots in the Bummer Bed. Does the bed need to rest a week or so between uprooting and replanting?

geri says:

June 28th, 2006 at 10:09 am

How about playing some nice music for the Bummer Bed? I remember seeing something on the Discovery Channel about music making plants happy. How about some Sleater-Kinney?

Greengirl says: These heirloom peppers are old school, waaay old school. Maybe some Josephine Baker or Edith Piaf will do the trick.

Tracy says:

June 28th, 2006 at 4:09 pm

You’re not alone in not being able to grow beets. Mine are about 3″ tall right now, and I planted them on April 16th! I’m looking forward to your Thursday post . . . .

As for the Thai Basil, I’ve never had good luck with it. I think some things do better in pots than in the ground, and that might be one of them.

Laurie says:

June 28th, 2006 at 5:31 pm

Basil and peppers really like very hot weather. The hotter the better. I don’t think it’s been hot enough lately to keep the little guys happy.

Also, if the soil was cool (below 65) when they were planted, the plants might be permanently stunted. If they don’t shape up soon, plan on composting them and planting new ones, before the garden centers run out of the good choices.

You mentioned Mother Earth Gardens a previous time. They have a good selection of heirloom plants.

The only time I’ve had success with direct seeding basil was in a very hot, dry garden with sandy soil. They were seeded late, not watered very often, and grew like crazy. Sometimes lots of TLC isn’t the answer.

On second thought, maybe there’s some kind of nasty infestation in your bummer bed. Try mixing diatomaceous earth into the soil. It’s basicly ground up chalk, and kills crawling insects without being toxic.

Doug says:

July 6th, 2006 at 2:06 pm

Ditto on the Epsom Salts (Magnesium Sulfate) for peppers AND tomatoes. Sometimes it is just sulfur that is the issue and in fact I have planted match heads with starts in the past. Its much easier I think to use Epsom Salts though…a good tablespoon per plant dry or you could inject a solution into the roots at this stage. You will notice if you have had black leaf spots in the past that they will disappear also. Good luck! Doug…Minnesotan in exile in New Mexico

Doug says:

July 6th, 2006 at 2:08 pm

One other thought…it is possible to overwater peppers especially this time of year in Minnesota. If you haven’t already done so you might cut back to every 3-4 days.

Chris says:

July 6th, 2006 at 4:00 pm

Dearest Greengirl,

I myself was concerned for certain peppers and tomatoes grown from seedlings and bequeathed to us. They seemed sad, and sunburnt and I thought I must have planted them in the wrong place and was all ready to dig them up and just make friends with the folks at the Mill City farmer’s market.

But due to a persuasive Missus, they remained out of the compost bin and what’s this? Some weeks later they are taking over! There are little peppers, dear Greengirl! There are many little tomato flowers all demanding attention! The tomato plants are now encroaching and leering at my purple-leaf sand cherries and magnolia bushes. I saw one heirloom (I think it was the Bulgarian–always the Bulgarian) smack around a rabbit who got too close. Bruiser. The dog is afraid of that side of the house.

Anyway, they all jettisoned their sunburnt leaves and are growing big and tall. The Swiss Chard, on the other hand looks as though it’s coming off of a three-day heroin bender. But that’s another story.

The moral, I guess, is that we’re going to have these things coming out of our ears so you’re welcome to some if yours die off. Basil, too. We’re now charging the basil rent, especially since it doesn’t clean its cereal bowls.

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