Friday, April 27, 2012

Healthy Milk Jug Covered Root Vegetables

The root vegetables that I had planted in the raised garden in the backyard have done quite well, for the most part.  I had a bit of an upset when I looked under their plastic milk jug environment and discovered that one full section of carrots didn't sprout at all, but I shrugged it off and planted some radishes in that area.  Those radishes have taken off like crazy!

I removed the halved milk jugs a few days ago, and they're all still doing well.


The very top of this picture is unnecessary in this post.  It's merely a large amount of catnip resting beside a halved milk jug covering some dill that I transplanted in a frenzy.  I'm hoping the transfer into the ground will keep the weak sprouts from dying off.

So pretend those don't exist - I'll get back to them later.

What you're seeing in the top row (from left to right) is a section of carrots, one of radishes, and then another of carrots.  Below that I have two sections of onions, which basically look like grass because the shoots are so thin.  The long strip of wood sits between them as a separator.

The stuff that looks like grass below those sections is, well, grass.  I'm not sure why it's there, exactly, but it was definitely planted in the raised garden for some strange reason.  Aesthetics, maybe?

So far, it appears that using halved milk jugs to plant prior to the last frost is a workable idea.  The plants are healthy, and they seem pretty strong.  They've even managed to survive a frost after the milk jug halves had been removed!  I've had better luck with this method than I have with starting seeds inside the house, on a window sill.

Removing the milk jug halves at the proper time, however, seems to be a key ingredient for success.  My onions had started looking a bit sickly, but upon removal of the milk jug environment, they bounced back to health.  Had I removed the milk jugs from their position a week earlier, I believe they would be much larger by now.

It's a learning process!  This is one way to reuse milk jugs that I'll definitely do again.

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