Chapter 11 - A Windy Beginning

It has now been 4 days since I planted the garden, and some of the plants are doing better than others. I know many of you are eager to hear what's been happening, so here it goes:

Overall, the biggest concern so far has been the wind. Other than the wind, my roof has great growing conditions, but the wind may pose some problems. Colleen and Maria (the tomatoes) seem to be doing fine. We put them in a protected part of the roof that is blocked by the staircase, and that seems to be helping. They are also pretty sturdy at this point, and it would take a lot of wind to knock them over at this point.

Colleen the epazote seems to be thriving - I think it's actually grown in the past 4 days, and I tasted one of the leaves today and it was good (I guess). I still don't really know what to do with it. Selby (the oregano) is doing only OK. I think it's a bit too buried in the soil still, so some growth will help. All of the Marys are doing pretty well, and Cigarette (who hasn't bloomed yet) looks like she will bloom soon!

Mario the pepper plant is also doing well - standing up to the wind, and hopefully growing stronger. But the lettuce and kale seem to be not as good - the leaves are a bit fragile for the very steady winds, and I'm worried they won't be able to grow as big as I hoped - the lettuce leaves seem like they are starting to wither a bit, and the kale leaves are all stretched out horizontally. So I dunno what's up with that. Meanwhile I've been watering the dino kale 6 packs, so hopefully those will work out!

I started out watering twice a day, but this seems like too much - too much water is leaking out the bottom, and even after not watering for an entire day, the soil beneath the wood chips seems super moist. I think the mulch does a good job of keeping in the moisture. I am a bit worried that I stained my roof w/ dirty water puddles that have now evaporated....not ideal, but there's not much I can do about it at this point, so I might as well just ignore it.

That's about all for now, perhaps there will be more updates this weekend. I might build some wind barriers, and I also might do more planting!