Status

Well, after a wet weekend (mainly Sunday), I decided to check the status of my garden. It appears that my efforts have borne out some decent results. We have received about an inch and three quarters of rain from Thursday through Sunday evening. There were pretty strong winds on Thursday but were calm the rest of the duration. When I ventured out into the garden, the first thing I noticed was that the ground I was walking on was quite saturated. I don't believe this was due to the recent rains but rather from the cumulative effects of the many storms over the past few weeks. There is only so much rain the ground can absorb. And the future forecasts are indicating we should have three rainy days in the next five.
So, I first checked the tomato bed where I put the plastic on an incline to divert the water. When I exposed a portion of the bed, it became immediately apparent as can be seen below that my efforts were worth it. I don't think I will keep the plastic on the bed long term but rather until I transplant the tomatoes probably round mid-May. I might incline the soil in the bed a little to divert some of the water but time will tell. Right now though, I'll keep it covered to prevent weeds from populating the bed.

Next. I checked the row cover and cloches in the bed where I planted Spinach and Bibb Lettuce. The bed underneath the row cover as well as the soil under the cloches were wet from when I watered them Thursday but neither showed any signs of water saturation. Another good sign. I hope that the seeds will germinate and I can get some good crops from them. Here is what I found under the tunnel.

The peas are rolling along although I do have to be aware that even on an overcast day, the cloches have to be vented as the air can get quite warm in them. They all seem to have had a growth spurt and may be ready to come out from under the cloches. I'll keep an eye on them this week and decide when to uncover them.
I have lots going on in the greenhouse presently. Yesterday, while it was raining, I started 36 cantaloupe seeds in my greenhouse. It's always pretty warm in there so I don't mind doing the work. I've been cleaning out some of the old plants as they are past their peak production periods. I'm trying to move more of the plants out in the garden but that will have to wait a little while longer until the weather settles into Spring. It's supposed to hit 75 on Sunday but then take a small dive after that. But again, I only count on about two days out with any forecast. 
Well, that's all I have at this time. I'm going to continue with the coverings and such for the foreseeable future. I will be keeping an eye on everything and begin removing them once the weather settles down. Until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!

Spring Preparations

As I said in my last post, the weather is beginning to affect planting schedules in a serious way. In the region where I live, we are experiencing a very wet and cool Spring. We had a pretty nice March but April has been decidedly different. And that has forced me to take steps that I would never have considered before.
Once again, I took an inventory of what I had stored away and made a plan that would allow me to continue with the necessary plantings that I needed to get accomplished. After all, plants have a window of seasonality where they will grow proficiently. Outside of that, your crops will not perform as they are "wired".
On a side note, my brother called me this past yesterday and we ended up talking about our gardens and the dreadful weather. He related that last Tuesday his area had a hard freeze with a temp of 27. Most of his plants were dead Wednesday morning. He said that he was so frustrated this year with the weather, but questioned what could he do. I could feel and relate to his frustration.
So, with that in mind, I began my quest to adapt to the weather we are getting. I consider it a challenge to say the least. I gathered up my various structures and other implements to decide how I was going to place them in my garden.
I had beans and lettuce already planted in one bed so I had to get those covered. After measuring, I decided to put a Flowerhouse portable mini greenhouse over the beans. It is 5 ft. wide and 9 ft. long. I generally use it to harden off my seedlings but it fit the bill for protection. So I placed it and thankfully, it covered the already seeded area perfectly. After that was completed, I still needed to cover the lettuce seeds. For that, I used a solar logic mini hothouse which I have used to grow carrots in the winter before I had my greenhouse. After measuring that, it fit right between the Flowerhouse unit and my greenhouse. So, that took care of my planted bed as shown in this photo.

Next, I wanted to seed in two rows of lettuce and spinach in the next bed. And, given the forecast called for rains through next Tuesday, it had to be protected or the seeds would otherwise rot in the ground. Too much water is a very bad thing. The only thing worse is a hard freeze or appreciable snow.
After thinking it through, I decided to employ the adjustable fleece tunnel to plant the spinach. Then, I gathered up 4 of the rectangular cloches and my 3 bell cloches. I will use the cloches for my Bibb lettuce planting. I then lined up the tunnel along the one side of the bed and set up the cloches on the other side. I seeded them in Wednesday and watered them down for the next couple of days. Hopefully, these steps will keep the ground dry enough to allow the seeds to grow. Here is a picture of the setup.

When I finished with these set ups, I turned my attentions to my third bed which will be where I will be planting my tomatoes. I came up with a plan to slope the bed to channel the water off the bed. I raked the bed to effect a slope left to right in hopes of diverting the water into the adjacent garden path by topping them off with the garden plastic I used previously. I placed a run of walkway bricks on the high side, then laid the plastic over them and put bricks on top of the placed stones. Then I pulled the plastic taught on the other side of the bed and pinned them down with more bricks. This way, the water will drain off the bed. Or at least that is the hope. Here is a snapshot of the bed as it sat Thursday afternoon..
t shall be seen as to whether I am successful or just wasting my time. As I finish this post, it is beginning to pour outside. This will be the pattern for Thursday night through Friday afternoon. I will eventually wander out to see what the verdict is Friday once the downpours stop. The forecasts call for rain on Saturday then alternating days of showers and or rains through Wednesday. So it continues.
Well, that's all I have to say about my weather travails. Until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!

Will we ever see warm temperatures again?

This is our morning sky today. As you can see, our skies have turned decidedly purple. I am currently listening to Prince on Amazon music. It kind of sets the tone. I went out earlier this morning to tie everything down as the NWS is calling for thunderstorms in the next hour or so. The weather has been rather cool for the past week and that is not good. I seeded in two rows of beans, lettuce seeds and transplanted a pea seedling too Wednesday evening. I used my trusty garden knife for spacing the beans. I crowed them a little bit by spacing them 2" apart. I am hoping they will support each other this way. But, having followed the weather forecasts, I knew I had to devise a way to protect the seeds and the transplant. As seen below, I first planted the two rows of bean seeds, watered them and then covered them with the vented square cloches. I then seeded in the two patches of lettuce and covered them the same method I did with the beans.
 

I placed the lettuce up against the greenhouse in order to prolong the growing season. Being unfamiliar with the new layout I have, I am almost certain that this area will be in the shadows of the greenhouse until probably late June. I am hoping the diffused sun will result in a cooler temperature soil. I'll be keeping an eye out on that. 

Likewise, I planted the one pea plant and covered it with one of my home made cloches given its one plant. As our low Thursday night was very close to freezing, I was grateful I covered them up. I live near a small river so our temps were moderated somewhat by it. Naturally, since we were only 2 degrees away from freezing, we came very close to a frost.

Over the weekend, I went to a local pop up plant, flower and vegetable sale. I found a few tomato plants, and some flowers for our front porch - all at a pretty decent price. The people running and attending the sale all practiced the distancing guidelines. The merchant made sure it wasn't overrun so that was good. The overall message I am hearing from our local greenhouses is that selections will be down as they are just not able to man the greenhouse appropriately. That makes sense as seedling propagation is very labor intensive on the front and back ends of the process. Kind of makes me thankful that I have my greenhouse.

I decided on Sunday to transplant 5 more of my pea plants. So I planted them as the weather was overcast and cooler. The seedlings were getting kind of big and I need the trays for additional seed starting. So, I planted the five and here is the first starts of Peas I have ever done, complete with their cloches. I take the tops off during the day and close them up at night. I have been told peas are almost foolproof. We shall see.

I then planted an additional five plants on the opposite side of the trellis Monday evening in the same manner.

There is a lot going on as I begin to roll out the plants from the greenhouse. Besides erecting my fence, the tomato system and the structure for cucumbers, I have had to contend with the noticeably different weather that we are having. It is not a local thing from everything I am reading. Our farmers are now contending with many more serious issues due to the coronavirus, historically high rain totals and the breakdown of the supply chain in various places. One has to put all this into context though. My response was to up my gardening efforts and to broaden my plantings. I have been a gardener for 5 decades now - yes, I am old(er). And I am not alone in this effort as I believe people are seeing the issues at their grocery stores. It kind of harkens back to what happened in the US and many other countries during WWII. We had the Victory Gardens and Britain had the Wartime Farms. Thanks to a tip from a friend, I watched a very interesting series on YouTube called The Wartime Farms. It's definitely worth a look.

As an example of our weather, as I was writing this, we experienced a horrendous thunderstorm. It's approach was very ominous as seen below.
 
You could hear the thunder and see some lightning. As it approached, there was a very sudden uptake in the winds and rain. The wind was forcing the rain horizontally to the point that both of my rain gauges were dry when I checked after the storm. The storm lasted about 20 minutes and it was pounding everything. Everything, that is, except my plantings. I took some precautions that, if not taken, I would have probably lost the various plants I had. I will outline the precautions I took in my next post. But, my point is this. In the past, I would not have considered taking the unusual efforts I did. But, these storms are getting more ferocious and damaging than in the past. Tonight, there is a large area freeze warning in effect. Again, if my crops weren't covered, many if not all would probably die tonight.
We have to realize that our climate is changing and I, personally, believe it is heading towards cooler, shorter growing seasons. I am convinced of this due to what is happening here and in most countries around the world. Weather is crazy everywhere. And, to wrap this up, the world production of food has fallen precipitously for the last 3 years due to erratic weather. That is why I am gardening not for fun, but for production. I only wish I had 3-4 acres of land to work instead of my backyard. I could do so much more but I will be content to do what I can for my family. And in the final analysis, that's all that matters
So, in my next post, I will go into detail as to my precautions that I had to implement to account for a much cooler than normal spring this year. I will also bring everything up to date as I said earlier, it's been crazy busy. Until next time, stay safe and Happy Gardening everyone!

Garden Activity

The last couple of days have been very busy in the garden. Although the weather has been rainy, given we had over an inch and a half of rain the last few days, it has not deterred me from getting some stuff completed. One of the more pressing items was the pea trellis. Yesterday, I devised the structure from items I had from other years. So I took a very strong glass protector system I acquired many years ago and hung it across two wood poles I had up from last year. It can be seen in the picture below along with how I attached it to the poles.

Once I had that taken care of, I proceeded to attach chicken wire to the bottom part to allow the transplants to begin climbing the trellis. I will add more wire to it once I get my transplants in the ground. I delayed doing the transplanting today (Wednesday) as we are supposed to have low temps at or near freezing or slightly higher tonight. Figured one more day of delay isn't hurting anything given the seedlings are quite healthy in the greenhouse. Here is a picture of the trellis with the chicken wire attached. 

Once I finished that, I decided to drive in more of my bamboo poles to support a chicken wire fence. After yesterdays 3 poles were installed, I now have 7 total poles in place. These are not easy to work with but given the cost of the metal fence posts at around $4-$6 a piece, it is a savings of about $240 dollars. And, I am beginning to like the look of them too. The only input I have is the labor as these were free. As they age, they will take on the traditional look of aged bamboo. They are just now starting to turn yellow as they are very freshly cut. I like that they are sturdy and I am hopeful they will serve the purpose for a long time. Here is a shot of them presently.

One other project that I really hadn't considered was what to do with the pathways between the beds. I had many bags of maple tree wood chips that I overwintered in black bags. My main idea for them was to use them in my composters. I cut one bag open and was shocked to see how nicely they had dried out and their consistency. I immediately thought they would be great in the paths since I would be walking on them which will deter pests and such. I put a bag down the one path and here is what it looked like.

I was hooked at this point. I proceeded to open all of the bags of chips and spread them over all the paths. Amazingly, I had zero left over after this process. Couldn't do that again if I wanted to. I think you may agree that these were a good addition after seeing the finished product below.

There is so much going on in the garden. I will starting transplanting and seeding in some beans and lettuce shortly plus I have to get the peas in the ground. And yes, I have to figure out the cucumber support issue and get a cracking on the tomato system very shortly. It is getting time although one wouldn't know it from the weather we have been having. I have a little to say about that based on my long history of vegetable gardening. So, I will be posting more this week as we continue to stay in place at the present time. Until next time, Happy Gardening everyone.

Seedlings everywhere and that other thing

I have been incredibly busy with my plantings in the greenhouse. I have never had the ability to start plants outside so, I am excited to get as many started as I can. I tend to grow heirloom vegetables as I prefer their taste. I have almost 300 seed packets which I keep in a dorm style refrigerator in my basement. The reason for the plethora of packets is that there were many stories and some proof last year that there would be a shortage of seeds. I therefore bought seeds when I saw a great sale and I also broadened my selection. I have to admit I went overboard on them.

I sent my brother a box of probably 50-70 seed packets earlier this year. He called me and asked if I thought he had a farm in the backyard when he got them. But you know what, he told me recently that he expanded his garden with more beds. Never give a gardener more land or seeds as they will always find a way to use them. 

My seeds seem to last very long in the little refrigerator. I got the idea to store them in it when I saw a show about the seed bank that is in Norway in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It's a huge concrete vault built in the ground and they have 20 M seeds in the vault and are still collecting new seeds. The seeds are kept a 0 degree Fahrenheit. I thought, after seeing this, what if I kept my seeds in a refrigerator. I tell people I have seeds from 2006 that are still producing and am met with mad stares when I tell them that. Even my brother doubted me.
As I said, I have been quite busy with gardening and other goings on. My plants are doing quite well. I have plenty of lettuce mainly of the buttercrunch variety. It makes for a great salad when mixed with spinach and other things.

Here are my lettuce plants, along with the spinach plants I planted along with them. Time to harvest some of each for a nice salad.

Maybe I'll add some of the carrots I harvested yesterday to the salad too. These were from the initial plantings I did in November/December.

I do have additional plantings in the works as shown below. I'll have to replant the container that I just pulled the carrots from with more seeds. I do love carrots.

I am also currently growing seedlings of the early spring crops along with cucumbers. I have various seedlings of cabbage, broccoli, lettuce and spinach as shown.

Given the winter has been quite moderate for the Mid-Atlantic region, I've been able to collect about 135 gallons of water from all the rain we have received in the past month or so. I do treat it with a water treatment for pools that blows off in about a day or so after I add it to the water. I only use it when I see that the water is beginning to turn or if there are abundance of mosquitos. Otherwise, I let it alone. Here is the container as it sits now.

Now, about that other thing. I have witnessed a lot of panic regarding the virus and have, to an extent, given into it myself. It is very hard not to. In order to channel my anxiety, I am expanding my garden further in order to grow what I believe my wife and I will eat and need. I have spoken to numerous people about the need to garden now, more than ever. For the most part, my words have fallen on deaf ears as the saying goes. Most say they just don't have the time. That's all fine and good as far as I am concerned. I have tried. But for those of us who have been gardening, I think it is imperative that we begin to grow what we need, not just what we like.  This virus is impacting our supply chains negatively. I pray that what I am seeing is just a bump in the road. So, I would end this by saying, if you have the time and will, dig further and grow more. 

Well, that's all I have for this post. Stay well and grow, grow and grow! Until next time, Happy Gardening Everyone!