Three Sisters - Part 3 (and another thing or two)

As it's nearly the end of April, I decided it's time to do the final seeding for the Three Sisters Garden.  The squash component of the garden has already been seeded and a couple of zucchini are thrusting through the soil of their pots.

Black Beauty Zucchini Seedling

Today I planted the corn and bean components of the garden.  35 Peaches and Cream Corn seeds were planted in a tray of small pots.  Since corn develops strong roots quickly, they won't be living in their pots for long.  I'm aiming for 30 plants, so 5 extras should allow me to choose the strongest plants.  The beans will mainly be the Italian heritage beans (of no name!) from a friend of my husband's with a few extra Fortex beans to take care of any that fail to sprout.

Corn and Beans Seeded

The Three Sisters Garden bed is prepared and I rake it from time to time to eliminate any weeds.  I won't be planting it until the 24th of May weekend unless my impatience gets the better of me.  Once the seedlings are planted, they'll be protected by remay cloth until the weather's reliably warm and the plants are well established.

The first harvest of radishes

Three Sisters taken care of, what else is going on in the garden?  We've already had one meal of asparagus and I'll have to pick more today.  Radishes are ready to start picking as well and along with arugula they'll go into the salad for tomorrow night's dinner.

Wild Arugula

The mescalun mix I planted is proving to be a disappointment.  It's mostly arugula and is already starting to bolt.  I grew a variety of arugula last year with the same results.  I won't be planting it again.  I much prefer the wild arugula a friend gave me a few years ago.  It's a perennial in the garden, doesn't take up nearly the space these other ones need and is good at seeding itself if I need more.  We live and learn!  However, the snow peas the mescalun mix is planted with are doing wonderfully as is the lettuce.

Too much arugula, but the snow peas are great

Japanese maples around the pond are leafing out

Iris Caesar's Brother

Three Sisters - Part 2 (and a few other things!)

Now that the Three Sisters bed has been prepared, I've been waiting patiently until I could take the next step.  Today I seeded the squash.  I've decided to plant Early Butternut Squash in the Three Sisters bed and zucchini in the tires at the back of the bed.  I seeded three pots with the squash and two pots of zucchini - one is Zucchini Black Beauty and the other Corgette Primula F1.  I put two seeds in each pot and will pinch off the weaker seedling.

The squash component of Three Sisters Garden is started.

Then I decided to try my hand at melons.  I purchased the seeds (Cantaloupe Tirreno) from West Coast Seeds a couple of years ago but hadn't been organized enough to try it, so I now planted three seeds in each of two pots.  I will grow the melons in one side of my compost bin.  This will give them a sheltered spot with rich soil.  I've tried this twice before; the first time with a tomato and the second with squash.  The results were incredible!  I have no doubt it will work again.

My saggy compost bin

A word or two about my compost bin.  My husband built the compost bin a number of years ago.  It has two sides so I can toss the compost from one side to the other and always have some ready to use.  It's on a concrete base so the cedar roots can't invade it and as you'll see from the photo, is starting to sag a bit.  For now it's just propped up but I imagine we'll have to replace it in the near future.  Many years ago when we moved to Thetis Island, a horsey friend gave me a small container of red wiggler worms.  My compost box is inhabited by a seething mass of them!  I also have a black plastic compost bin which I use for kitchen waste.  What with the two-sided bin and the plastic composter, I always have red wigglers to add to a new start - and some to give away to friends!  The side that the melons will go into has lots of uncomposted material but the red wigglers with their voracious appetites will make short work of that.

Red wigglers - the best composters ever!

Squashes planted, there was time to check on how the rest of the garden is doing.

A forest of tomato seedlings in the potting shed

Snow peas sprouting at the base of the zig zag fence, lettuces, mescalun

The garlic is right on schedule.

Asparagus is up - start the water boiling!

Wood Bugs!

Wood bug, wood louse, pill bug, sow bug - these are a few of the common names for my number one garden pest!  Like every living creature, they have a beneficial side.  They help break down material in the soil which eventually enriches it.  I have scads in my compost bins and I'm happy to have them there helping the red wiggler worms turn my kitchen and garden refuse into fine compost.  I'm not happy, however, to have them nibbling away at tiny seedlings in the garden.

Common Wood Bug

Today when I checked on the garden, I noticed that my Lacinato kale seedlings are being attacked by wood bugs and I've lost 3.  Since we live in a wooded area, there are lots of these little creatures around.  They aren't actually insects, but crustaceans - like lobsters!  I've stopped seeding carrots, spinach, beans and other tender plants directly into the soil as the wood bugs will eat them as fast as they come up.  As a result, I've developed a number of strategies to avoid problems.

Lettuces, kale, etc. are started in the potting shed and transplanted in the garden when they can withstand the wood bug predations.  I guess I should have waited a bit longer with the kale!

I now grow carrots in 6" pots, 9 seeds to the pot.  I start them in the potting shed and when the plants have feathered out, I transplant the whole pot in the ground - minus the pot of course!  This is an excellent way to grow carrots, because there's no thinning and you can tuck in a carrot bunch wherever you find extra space.  Harvesting is a breeze because you just dig up the whole clump!

Beans I sow in separate little containers in my potting shed.  When they're big enough to put outside, I plant them in the ground and protect them with a topless, bottomless water bottle.  The clear sides allow sunshine in, but the wood bugs don't climb the sides to get at the plant.  By the time the beans have outgrown the bottle sides, they're big enough to fend for themselves.

I have a wooden rack that I've grown beans on in the past.  It has a wooden frame wide enough to sit sideways on one of my raised beds and it's 8' tall with fencing wire inside the frame.  A bit taller than I asked for, but then I didn't make it so I can't complain!  I'd start the beans as described above and then transplant them on either side of the rack.  The problem was that when the beans reached out for the frame and started to twine around the wire, wood bugs would suddenly appear.  They were hiding under the wooden feet where they sat on the raised bed sides!  To take care of this situation, I liberally sprinkled diatomaceous earth under the feet.  Diatomaceous earth is composed of tiny skeletons whose sharp edges pierce the wood bug exoskeletons.  Before you know it - no more wood bugs under the frame's feet.

There's a lot of organic matter in my garden beds - from not fully degraded compost to wood chips in the SeaSoil.  I'll plant more Lacinato kale, but this time I'll protect the seedlings with water bottles until they're big enough to handle the attacks.  I expect problems with wood bugs, but I'm armed and ready to deal with it.  Wood bugs beware!