Inside the tent

I put barrier netting over the lettuce six weeks ago and got a few harvests of lettuce in recent weeks, but in the process of opening and closing the netting some aphids got in there. And once they were inside the tent, they took over. I was going to wait until we got back from our trip to change things over, but the aphid infestation meant there was no reason to wait. Today I tore out the lettuce and formally gave up on the underperforming root vegetables to free up the west bed for tomatoes, peppers, basil and marigolds. Between the beds and grow bags, I have eight pepper plants and six tomato plants.

I left the broccoli and peas in place at the end of the bed. Same as last fall, I have nice looking broccoli leaves and no heads. The peas are doing fine, but the peas in baskets are further along in producing pods. I need to put the cucumber sprouts in the pea baskets when we get back in about 10 days, and I don't know how long they will co-exist. Even with the greenhouse, our short growing season makes it difficult to do succession planting.

This is not a compelling photo, but it is the baseline for my peppers and tomatoes. The area to the left in the south bed was done May 30 and includes one each tomato, pepper, basil and marigold. The planting today was three tomatoes, five peppers, two basil and five marigolds. (I'm all-in on the basil and marigold companion planting.) There are three tomato grow bags; one in the greenhouse and two at the house. There are two pepper grow bags at the house. There are a couple more basil in pots. All of the marigolds have been deployed inside the greenhouse and outside in the flower boxes.

When the broccoli and peas finally give up their space in the west bed, I might just sow a few zinnias. Everything I read and watched about zinnias said to sow them directly after last frost, and everything I did to get a jump on that went nowhere, even inside the greenhouse. They are coming up in the window boxes, just barely. Inside, there is one plant and I need to plant more seeds.

The sunflowers also aren't doing well in the southeast bed, even the new ones in Jiffy pots, but the three in the big grow bag are taking off. I have one Teddy Bear and one giant one in grow bags at the house, and will try to water them when we are gone using wicking. It seems crazy, but I wonder if a 5-gallon bucket of water is big enough to last a week.

With the exception (thankfully) of the one Montana plant, the strawberries are growing better in baskets than in the east bed. Combine that with the difference in sunflowers in a grow bag versus the bed, and I have to wonder if the beds don't drain well enough. The soil gets wet a foot down and stays that way. I want to convert the soil in the southwest bed to a succulent mixture that drains well, but may I need to do something about the soil in the other three beds also. Maybe not pumice like I use in the succulent mixture, but maybe a big dose of coir to loosen things up.