Day 4: The First Feeding

This post represents DAY 4 of the day-by-day documentary of the gardening adventures of a newly-wed first-time gardening couple. They are not only first-time bucket gardeners but first-time any kind of gardeners. The details of their successes and failures will be communicated here so you can follow along with your garden - if you wish. To see links to each of the "days" click here.

Day 4: The First Feeding

My alarm woke me up and I immediately ran to our plants to check on them. Yay! They looked well hydrated and ready for their first feeding. I put them out in the sun - YES - a sunny day - and got ready for work while I read the assembly instructions for our sprayer. Got a little frustrated - put it together a few times to seal all the right places but finally got it working. I tested the sprayer with water before I used the nutrient to make sure I had it figured out. Phew - it worked on my third try! Mmmm I'm probably going to be late to work - oh well - they'll understand - I was feeding.

Because I didn't have very many plants to spray I mixed a minimal amount of nutrient. I used 32 oz (1/4 gallon) of water and should have used 1/4 Tbsp of nutrient. I'm sitting here recording this and realizing that I fed my plants too strongly but this is a place to share successes and failures right? So I'm not very good at conversions first thing in the morning and I used 1/2 Tbsp of nutrient instead of 1/4. Forgive me please! Ah! Bah! I'm frustrated! Luckily my plants looked great this evening so I think they will survive. I will make sure never to make this mistake again and it would make me feel much better if you make sure not to make my mistake. Thanks! {IMPORTANT EDIT AS OF 5/27/2010 - THESE PLANTS WERE NOT OVERFED HOORAY! HOWEVER I HAVE LEFT THIS DOCUMENTARY HERE BECAUSE IT ILLUSTRATES AN IMPORTANT POINT - enough of the capital letters already sheesh - ok so TRANSPLANTS should be fed with a 2 Tbsp per 1 gallon of water ratio but SEEDLINGS should be fed with a 1 Tbsp per 1 gallon of water ratio. Just follow Ted's nutrient application carefully ok!}

This picture is not quite correct because I have shown a 1/2 Tbsp measure - IT SHOULD BE 1/4 for 32 oz of water... {NO IT SHOULDN'T - 1/2 Tbsp is correct for TRANSPLANTS!}

 

Here is what my water looked like after everything was mixed. Yours should look a lot lighter because once again I doubled the nutrient..... grrrrrrrr.... {NOPE - YOURS SHOULD LOOK EXACTLY LIKE THIS IF YOU ARE FEEDING TRANSPLANTS!}

Using this kitchen measurer was genius {just soap it really really good afterward because it stinks - I think I will buy one to use just for the garden so I don't have to worry about cross contamination}. It made it so super easy to mix and to transfer into my sprayer. Once the nutrient was inside the sprayer and the sprayer was pressurized it was feeding time! I sprayed the tops and bottoms of the leaves on my plants. I don't think this is an exact science. The sprayer does a great job spraying the nutrient everywhere. Hooray for the sprayer!

I used about 1 cup of nutrient to spray all of my plants. Here is what was left when I was done.

AND


Here are my forgiving {NOT} over-nutriented plants after their first feeding.

I also spent some time today pondering my secondary planting desires and the rest of the primary plants I want... I started designing my garden schematic and will be super relieved when it is finished and I can share it with ya'll. I also did a bunch of research online about companion plants and plants that ward of bad insects and attract beneficial insects. It was fun! Seriously!

Oh, and when I got home from work I watered my plants again in the kitchen sink. If I could do today over, I would have watered them in the morning as well as in the evening... Oh well - you can't get everything perfect the first time.