beets – Page 2 – Tiny Garden

I’m officially addicted and can’t seem to stop planting things. This weekend I even went over to my dad’s garden (dragging my accommodating hubby along with me) to weed, till, and plant some side beds. Now he’ll have some buckwheat and a blend of wildflowers that will attract bees to pollinate his garden.

Below is an updated shot of the seedlings in my Aerogarden. The butternut squash (at the back) and Swiss chard (in the middle) were planted on Easter Monday night (9 days ago). I need to get larger peat pots because the butternut squash seedlings are quickly outgrowing these small ones. I already see roots poking out the side walls! About 2 days ago, I planted two more pots of swiss chard (1 ‘Bright Lights’ and 1 rhubarb chard) and two pots of baby blue hubbard squash (which will go to my dad’s garden). Those are the pots with the little domes over top to help keep the soil moist. In the close up shot you can see the different colours of the Swiss chard stalks.

The Toy Choy sprouts continue to grow. You can see some smaller seedlings coming up from when I had thrown more seeds into the right-hand side of the planter 2 weeks ago. Yesterday I added some more seeds to the left-hand side of the planter. This is so that I hopefully have some good successive crops because I really do love baby bok choy stirfry!

My peas are really starting to do well. The Oregon Sugar Pod in my hanging basket is doing great! I think I may pop in a couple more seeds to fill in the gaps. It will be a good time to top up the soil too! I also found this great swivel connector that will allow me to spin my hanging planter around to share the sunshine evenly.

I posted a few days ago that I replanted my Little Marvel peas because only one out of about twelve seeds sprouted. That was a little disappointing and I still don’t know what happened. However, just a few days later and I can already see some sprouts beginning to pop out (the white things in the foreground below) in front of the lone seedling from the first round of planting.

I wasn’t supposed to add another container to the patio – this is what I said last week after I bought a 24″ pot for the Swiss chard – but I’ve added another one. But in my defense it is small (8″) and is meant to be a decorative but edible feature that will sit on our patio table. And I had the seeds already from last year, so I couldn’t let them go to waste, could I? I’ve planted a mesclun mix of mustard greens with a few spinach seeds thrown in for good measure. These will be ‘cut-and-come-again’ salad greens for when I have a hankering for fresh salad.

Below are photos of the buckwheat (29 days) and beet & radish (4 days) progress.

Companion planting is when different types of plants are grown together for some mutually beneficial reason. For example, yarrow (Achillea) can be planted with other flowers and vegetables to deter aphids. As well, beans can be planted with corn, as corn provides a pole which the beans can climb up.

I’m not sure if this 100% counts as companion planting, but I will plant fast-growing radishes and slower-growing mini beets together in a container. Because I hate the thought of thinning out perfectly fine vegetable seedlings, planting radishes that grow within 28 days amongst beets that grow in 55-60 days will allow me to harvest the radishes while thinning and loosening the soil for the mini beets.

In my 24″ x 4″ x 6″ pot, I planted Amethyst radishes and Baby Ball beets on April 13th. Both should be planted in cooler weather (direct seed throughout April), and if this works well, I can plant for a winter harvest in August.

I added sand to Sea Soil to lighten the growing medium a bit. I like Sea Soil for the organic matter, but it can get heavy once watered.

Also, because of my experience with my container peas where the soil settled after watering and left an extra inch from the top of the pot, I pre-watered the soil and added more compost before sowing the seeds. Since these are root crops, I wanted to provide as much soil depth as possible.

Some tips and tricks (see below for source):

For quicker germination, soak beet seeds in warm water prior to planting to break through the tough shell.
Cover the seeds with peat moss instead of soil to keep seeds warm and moist, but will be easy for seedlings to break through.

For more info on beets and companion planting:

West Coast Seeds – Companion planting article

How to grow beets – good tips and tricks!