Square Foot Box #2

On May 31, wifey and I dropped a number of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds into 15 containers and established our second Square Foot Box. We're calling it SFB2. We've taken some of the basic tenets of Square Foot Gardening and gone from there. As with SFB1 (that we planted on 3/8/09), we used only one seed per container. SFB1 had a 95% germination rate, and that was using a hodge-podge of seeds gathered over the years. Not bad.

We dish the dirt. Lots of it.


The difference between SFB1 and SFB2 is that, this time, for SFB2, ALL of the seeds are from only one vendor: Baker Creek.

Four of the 15 containers are outside of the box, but close to it. Yes, we are thinking, and planting, outside the box. I like having the 4' by 4' box to serve as a general sense of order out of the chaos. It's a way of grouping things together, and even if the containers that we use to start get scattered, it helps to have a general pattern to follow. That, and the box works very well to anchor down bird netting we have draped over SFB1 to protect our precious tomatoes from the predatory birds.

This time, for SFB2, unlike SFB1, we mixed a portion of compost in with the potting soil at planting time. And we also mixed some tomato food directly into the soil for the three new tomato plants.

SFB2 ready to launch.


We have sown (not in the order you see them above)...

1) Cinnamon Basil
2) Lemon Basil
3) Feverfew
4) Teddy Bear Sunflower
5) He Shi Bunching Onion
6) New Zealand Spinach
7) Golden Zucchini Squash
8) Table Gold Acorn Squash
9) Isis Candy Cherry Tomato
10) Green Sausage Tomato
11) Dr. Carolyn Tomato
12) Sweet Passion Melon
13) Plum Granny Melon
14) D'Alger Melon
15) Katanya Watermelon

We have been wildly successful with the tomato crop this year grown in SFB1. They have been coming in like gangbusters on the Better Bush and Rutgers plants...


...and the Health Kick Hybrid, planted after SFB1, but moved under the netting with the other two tomato plants, has about 40 roma-style fruits developing.

Judging by the number of flowers we see on the Health Kick, we could get upwards of 100 fruits from those two plants sharing one container.

We've also had our share of failures. Witness the carrot fiasco...


...but we're beginning to feel like real urban farmers. We're starting to get cocky and think that we can grow anything on the roof. How absurd! Did I mention the carrots? I will be amazed if we can produce some (any?) of these melons, and the Katanya watermelon. This is our first try with melons, and our first tries don't...uh...turn out so great. I think we'll need to let them roam a bit.

As of today, 6/6/09, 11 of the 15 new plantings have sprouted. I'll bet the rest will sprout soon. We didn't set up a dripper system this time on the new kids in the box. Just relying on the sprinkler coming on at noon, and hand-misting the children each morning before work. We could still set up the drippers if we feel like we need more consistent watering.

Rastafarian?

Some day this nation will finally pull its collective head out of its ass about marijuana. But I think I will dead for a long, long time before that happens. Found the story below via the Universal Life Church website.

Thou Shall Not Use Religion in Defense

A medicinal marijuana farmer in Lake County, California was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Monday, May 18th. Charles “Eddy” Lepp, who is 56 years old, was arrested in 2004 with 32,000 marijuana plants growing on his property.

Lepp was operating within the parameters of California State Law (not Federal Law), and is a practicing member of the Rastafarian Church, using marijuana in accordance with his religious beliefs. The U.S. District Judge presiding over the trial, Justice Marilyn Hall Patel, rejected Lepp's argument for religious freedom.

[Justice Patel] didn't think the defendant had been candid with the court because he didn't display a depth of knowledge about Rastafarianism.

"I was in the Rastafarian church since 1998," Lepp said.

"I'm talking now," Patel answered.

(Law.com)

We take strong objection to the dismissal of Lepp's religious defense. There is no clause in the First Amendment that gives the government the authority revoke Lepp's religious freedom simply because of doubt in authenticity of his religious beliefs. It is not possible for the government to read the mind of a defendant in order ascertain their religious sincerity. So long as an individual’s religious practices are inflicting no harm, where is the crime?

Patel gave Lepp until July 6 to report to prison and said she would reconsider the sentence if Congress changed the law, which requires a 10-year term for growing at least 1,000 marijuana plants.

(SFC)

Admitting that the punishment for Lepp’s crime is “excessive,” Justice Patel explained that she is bound by Federal sentencing guidelines.

-Law.com
-San Francisco Chronicle

Obama in Eqypt

Maybe it's not true, but there seems to be a relative media blackout of Obama's speech in Egypt. Gee, the media couldn't have an interest in fomenting discord and war, could it? Naaah!

KO WTF?!

Keith Olberman has borrowed my tagline! Hey! What the....! More power to ya, Keith! He does it a helluva lot better than I do. Hell, I hardly do it at all! Speaking of which...where are my writers?!

First, let's slap around Texas and that IDIOT of a Governor, Rick Perry. Geez, has it become the LAW that Texas must elect a total doofus for Governor?

Del Castillo free concert

Wow.

The good people at Discovery Green Park in Houston could not have picked a better evening for an outdoor concert. I don't know how they scored Del Castillo for a free concert, but, damn.



Most years, Houston in June, outdoors, can be intolerable. Today, a front blew in (in June!) lowering the humidity a LOT, and with clear weather and temps in the 80's, it was just nuthin' but fine.

The Mrs. and I took in an excellent dinner at The Grove, a restaurant on the southern side of Discovery Green Park, at a table along the windows, with a fine view of the park. A little wine....some great food....is it wrong to feel so good?


After dinner, we wandered over to the concert area and the hill was only half full. I've no doubt that most people were not even aware that this awesome band was playing (for FREE!) downtown this evening. Our good fortune.

We parked our folding chairs and enjoyed the music and the crowd. Dogs and children everywhere, but not being obnoxious. The near-full moon began rising behind George R. Brown. Just an awesome day....


and here's just the tiniest snippet of the show....I was just using my Canon digital camera. Not exactly high fidelity nor definition...you could say this video does not do the band justice. Duh.

Tomatoes!