How did I get so busy!

It's been pretty hectic in the garden recently. I have been planting my transplants into the garden directly and seeding in some beds while I tend to my plants in the greenhouse. So much to do and so worth it in the long run. Where to start is the real question I am perplexed by right now.
I planted sets of potatoes in the garden and in two grow bags about a month ago. I was a little apprehensive as I was trying a new technique and the potatoes I bought from a local source seemed dubious. Last year was my first foray into potatoes and they turned out okay. They were a tad bit small for my liking but it was, my first attempt.
The local potatoes had very few tubers but I planted them anyways. The red potatoes had numerous tubers which made me feel okay. Well after a month, here is how they are looking in the garden.

The ones on the left are Yukon Golds and the taters of the right are Red Potatoes.
The grow bag potatoes which are more of the Yukon Gold potatoes have taken off rapidly. I would venture a guess that their growth has been faster than the ones in the ground at this time. Here is a side by side shot of their present state after I mounded them up.

Hoping for larger sized potatoes this year as I feel I just might know what I am actually doing.
I also have been seeding in successive green bean plantings. My first planting was almost totally destroyed by what I presume were the neighborhood squirrels.
I replanted the first batch and then planted another set of 9. I always plant them in sets of 9 as that is what fits in a square foot. Green Beans are prolific so I space the plantings about a week apart. We'll share any excess with the in-laws. And, if there are even more, we'll find someone in the neighborhood who I am sure would take them.

I do have tomatoes and cucumber plants that I'm holding in the greenhouse. How much longer is anyone's guess. They can't stay much longer as that will affect the plants output. Here in my region, Mother's Day is the prescribed date to plant the summer season plants. But, the weather isn't exactly following the script. We are looking at highs into the next week or so of only the mid 60's. That means the lows will be at or near 40. And, another factor is most of the days will be partly to mostly cloudy. I will transplant them under cover by mid-week next week if the weather isn't to straighten out. Here is a picture I took about 4 days ago of 5 of my tomato plants. They are healthy at this point so there is hope.

The onions are doing great in the garden but the ones I planted in the container in the greenhouse are having some issues. Not sure what exactly but I believe it's just too hot in there. Even if I open the vent fully and leave the door open with a screen, it's getting into the 80's in there. Next year, I will plant my complete set of onions in the garden under cover.
I am growing plants this year that I am not that entirely familiar with. The change in weather (for whatever reason) is not helping with growing the plants either. Most of the gardeners I know are noticing the weather more than usual. It definitely is a bigger factor than normal.
Well, this is all for now. I will loop back and will try to be more consistent. Until next time, Happy Gardening Everyone.

Sown and growing

 The weather here has turned backed to normal. It is seasonably cool here now. We got a bit complacent last week as we hit the 70's for three days straight. But, that hasn't stopped the clock either. There is much to do as I say and time keeps on ticking. I hear it loud and clear.

I line with that, I have been seeding in the various Spring vegetables that I need this year. I especially like to grow my own plants to allow me to have varieties of plants that I want. Choice is a wonderful thing in most cases. One other point is that seedlings from the various stores are amazingly expensive as I have seen tomato plants at about $4.00 each. You could spend a small fortune if you have a garden of any size and not get best tasting veggies.
So, here is one set of what I call my "mix". It is made up of Parsley, Cabbage, Broccoli and Onions. They are about 2 weeks old as of today.

Then I have another planter of spinach which is also about 2 weeks old too.

I have also planted Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Peppers in another planter. Since this was done about 3 days ago, there aren't any seedling yet. I have them on a heat mat and covered with a plastic dome. I did see one cucumber seedling poking through so it should be anytime now for the rest of the plants to pop up - or not. I plant more seeds than I need plants because there are failures in every seeding.

Right now, this is about all I can do until the soils outside warm up a bit. And, if the forecasts are to be believed, it may get even colder towards the end of this month. The seasons are changing as we go through what I have heard of as a solar minimum sun cycle. Whatever is happening, our weather has been different in many ways so one has to adapt to them.
I did get out yesterday to stake out my onion beds which should be planted very shortly. I have structures to cover the area so that probably will be what I do. Here is how I staked the area. I will plant the onion sets I have at 9 per square foot. If that ends up in overcrowding, I will pull some of the onions to allow more space. But, if I get 9 per square foot, that will result in 288 onions. This is my first year with onions and I bought a pound of yellow onions. I may not have 288 but I will plant as many as I can/need. I am also considering planting one block and see where that takes me. I have some decisions to make so that will be a moment of planting situation.

The planting season is getting underway pretty quickly. There is a lot to do and I have been getting steadily busier as each week passes. There may be a few time lapses in my writing but rest assured, I will write. So, until the next opportunity, Happy Gardening Everyone!

Spring planting is about to begin!!!!

 Well, if you need proof that Spring is about to burst forward, I will be happy to oblige. I emailed three of the companies with whom I do most of my business. I inquired regarding the availability of onion and potato starts. Two of the three responded within an hour or so. Both had onion starts and one had potatoes while the other was expecting them this coming week. The third company never responded.

Given that it is getting real close for plantings, I decided to check the progress of my various composters to get a gauge of where I stand when I distribute the soil over my beds. All looks good as can be seen in the pictures here.

I took my rototiller and ran over the beds to cut down the rye. Once I completed that, I waited two days and ran the tiller through the beds again to cut the remaining live rye further. Now fun will begin. I will mix the various bags of manure and manure/compost mixes I have accumulated in with the leaf mold and compost I have processed over winter. One point to mention here is that I will sift my leafmold and compost to remove the big pieces. I will take those big pieces and put them in one of my composters to allow them to continue to decay. My plants in the greenhouse are doing very well despite the warm temps we have been having. I am keeping the vent window open which seems to help with the temps both in the day and overnight.
I went out today to water the plants given all the unusually warmer temps. Seems I will be needing to cut some lettuce and spinach soon. Here is one of my planters of lettuce that shows one batch of lettuce.

I have many other pots of spinach and lettuce which I need to cut also. There will be many more salads to come in the near future.
During this past week, I set to the task of getting the bamboo poles in for my fence. After two days, I was able to get the poles completed. I will have to now get the fencing bought and installed. Here is a snap of what the garden now looks like.

So, progress is being made on many fronts. I have seedlings growing in the basement, plants continuing to grow in the greenhouse and many "to do" items on my list. One by one, I will hopefully get these finished. There definitely won't be any lack of work to complete nor blogs to write.
So, until next time, Happy Gardening Everyone.

Spring prepping has begun....

After a cold beginning, the temps rose quite rapidly yesterday once the sun rose into the beautiful blue sky. That's been a rare occurence around here lately. And, wanting to take advantage of this event, I decided to go out and get a head start on the many things I need to do. It will be time to start planting soon enough and one cannot waste a day like this.

So, my first decision was to move my veritical support poles to accomodate the cucumbers and tomatoes. I will once again employ the spring loaded string system I used last year. I had to move the poles about a foot in order to get them centrally located so I can plant a row of cukes and maters alternately down the row. This will allow me to use the rest of the bed for other plants. Haven't quite decided but I am thinking in terms of cooler weather crops. Maybe even carrots. I am hoping this will create a wall of green. I think it would look beautiful. Here are a couple pics of the supports.

The holes were 2 feet deep as they will need to carry a lot of weight. I can only hope it will work as envisioned.
After setting the poles in place, I decided to begin the process of cutting down the winter rye down so it can begin to break down into the soil. I used a grass trimmer to do this as I only wanted to cut the rye halfway down. It didn't take long and wow, the scent of freshly cut grass permeated the whole garden and beyond. I can probably say I was the first to cut grass in my community. My neighbors might say something different. It was a really nice scent that furthered my desire for spring to pop.
Here is a before and after comparison.


Again, I did not want to cut it down to the soil as that would result in both bleaching and a runoff (during rains) of the nutrients out of the soil. I want to feed it a little at a time. I will probably turn the rye totally under towards the third week of March. There are many ways to use rye as some gardeners/farmers cut the rye and use it as composting materials. Others let it decompose where it lays. Farmers, from what I can tell, cut the rye and leave the cuttings in place and allow the roots to breakdown in the ground. I use a spade or fork to just dig them up but not move them. I just lift up a little to allow air in to dry the roots. It seems to work so I will probably do that this year.
After doing these tasks, I cleaned up the garden area as winter has taken its' usual toll. I worked in the greenhouse for a bit to just get it ready for the seedlings which will need to be transferred to it in the coming weeks. I did check on my water container since it rained buckets over the weekend clear into Monday morning. Seems it was heavier than I thought.

This is about 250 gallons of water. I can't remember having this good of a supply so early in the year. Considering that on February 26th, I had maybe, 90 gallons, this storm gave me about 150-160 gallons. That's a ton of water. I use the water mostly for the garden. But, I have been known to bucket water to clean our cars. It's chemical free so it has to be better than water from the faucet. The only issue is if it gets horribly warm, algae growths occur. I use a shock for pools which burns off in 1-3 days after application. I use the faucet when that occurs.
Well, that's about all I have at this time. Still much to do and I will be reporting on the seedlings that are growing in my basement in a subsequent post. I hope you are all getting back into the rythm of Spring. I think we all need it after everything that has happened. Nothing like working with plants and dirt to connect you to the earth. So, until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!

Growing right along....

 On the 23rd, I started a new set of Spring seedlings of Cabbage and Broccoli. I planted 4 each of Earliana, All Seasons and Early Jersey Wakefield cabbages and 4 each of Green Goliath, Major Hybrid and De Cicco Broccoli in my Hacknixs' seed starting tray. I started them with moistened seed starting mix and made sure not to plant the seed too deep. I then covered each seed set with more seed starting mix and then lightly sprayed the tray with a fine mist. I did turn on the heat mat but unplugged it each night so as not to overheat the medium. I continued to lightly mist the cells each morning while turning on the heat mat.

I went down this past Saturda to mist the tray and discovered that the Major Hybrid Broccoli and Earliana Cabbage had seedlings poking up from all four of their respective cells. At this point, I have to assume that the other plants are also growing which means I will immediately stop using the heat mat. I will also begin to water the tray from below to prevent any mold buildup on the surface and to assure that the plants have a steady supply of water. I will now lower the lights I have to as low as I can get them to the tray to prevent leggyness in the plants. Here are pictures of the tray and the first up plants.


Cabbage Seedlings

Broccoli Seedlings
I did notice after I took these pictures that there are other vegetables that are just starting to come up which I could not get a very good picture of unfortunately. But, they will come in the next couple of days I am sure. My goal is to get them out into the greenhouse before too long. Plants just seem to do so much better in there.
I also went out to the greenhouse Monday between the downpours we were having to check how things were going. And, they are going very well from the looks of it. Here are a couple of pictures for your perusual.

These are the lettuce and spinach plants I have been growing since late November and have taken several cuttings from so far.

And here is a rack of spinach, lettuce and a pot of carrots on the bottom shelf. I have another rack with more plants that are also getting ready for harvesting.
My next thing to do is to seed in probably 20 plants of spinach and an equal mix of lettuce and chard plants. I plan on using my vertical hydroponic system this year so as not to have to take up room in the garden plots. Some of the lettuce and chard seedlings I get from this next planting will be used in that
That's all I have for now. I am hoping for a nice, dry week to allow the garden plots to dry out. It feels like it has been a wet February and my ground kind of bears that out.  We can only hope that this month in my region will begin to hit a stride. I saw a forecast that was indicating a snow storm of some kind on the 7th so we shall see what transpires. Guess we'll take it one day at a time for now.
Please check back for the next updates on the progress of the garden and seedlings. Until next time, Happy Gardening Everyone!

Never heard this before...

 I have seen various Youtube videos on gardening over the past year or so. Lately, several of them have highlighted the spotty to ever increasing widespread lack of seeds for vegetable gardeners. Part of the issue is that with all the Covid madness, more people have taken to gardening. Fair enough. The other part is that the seed producers have experienced dwindling seed production due to weather abnormalities. Most do believe the weather will continue to change and not for the better. But that's a whole different story.

On one video, the presenter said that there are a lot of reports of seed shortages and that the big problem seeds were beans and peas. That is because the bulk of those seeds are produced in a region where there was a huge loss of productioon due to crop damages. I filed this information in the back of my mind and decided to see if there was a local problem. I went to my usual source and asked asked if I could buy 2 lbs of each. They did have them but when I asked if they were experiencing tight seed supplies, the person who I spoke to said they indeed had some actual shortages but not many. Then they told me that their supplies were a little lower than normal. This is before the seed buying season has begun in earnest. I would just advise anyone who is going to buy seeds, to do that now. I have a pretty substantial amount of seeds and varieties so I am not that concerned at this point. I will also add that the prices of seeds have skyrocketed which substantiates the issue. The demand has risen while the supply side has contracted. Hence, higher prices.
If you know of any local seed suppliers in your area, that would be the best place to start. I just got the new catalog from a major seed company and I have to express alarm. I was amazed at the price differential of my local contact to theirs. In some cases, their prices were 3 times as much. I don't mean to disparge them, they certainly are a good company. But, if you can find a good reputable seed company locally, perhaps their prices will be easier on the pocketbook.
Well, just wanted to give a heads up today. Don't want anyone to get caught unawares of the issue at hand. Good luck everyone and Happy Gardening!

Snow? What Snow?

The forecasters are 0-2 in my area. We were supposed to get 3-6 inches of snow but instead were treated to sleet and plenty of it. One of our local TV weather people said that they had no idea this was going to happen. She said that none of their models saw this happening. Well, I would tell her it's time to get some new models. This was very far off the mark. Here is picture of our morning scene below.

But, I digress! During one of the more intense sleeting periods, I decided to check my greenhouse as I knew it would be covered in ice. And, I was correct. When I turned the corner to view my greenhouse, here is what I was confronted with.

I went inside and noticed that the roof panels were bowing from the weight of the icc/sleet. Not a good situation with yet more sleet being forecasted. So, I went back to my house and related the predictament to my wife. I began thinking I would put an electric heater in the unit to raise the temp in the greenhouse which was sitting at 28 degrees. My wife came back and told me about a thing she had seen called a terracotta clay pot heater. Intrigued, I listened to her explain it. When all was said and done, it entailed putting a candle on top of a base and then placing the pot over it - making sure there was allowance for air to get into the area under the pot. One twist was to use a sterno candle instead of a regular candle. This boosts the amount of heat it produces. After gathering all the items I needed, I went out and constructed my first terra cotta heater. Here is the finsihed product.

I used 4 cement path pavers for the base. I made one alteration. Since I had space on each of the 4 pavers, I decided to use 4 small pots I had and put teacup candles under them. So I lit the sterno candle and the 4 teacup candles. When I finished, I closed the greenhouse and began shoveling our walks and steps. After about an hours time, I went back to the greenhouse. I found that the temp had risen to 43 degrees in that hour - a 15 degree increase. I was surprised given the outside temp was 26 degrees. I could hear the ice crackling and melting on the roof of the unit. So, I took an old broom and proceeded to brush the ice off each panel on both sides. It didn't take much effort to get the ice to slide off them. Here is a picture of it after my brushing.

Almost all the ice came off and the panels seemed to be back to normal inside. And, I learned a new technique to use if winter decides to visit us again which we all know it will. These terra cotta heaters can be used in an emergency to heat boats, campers and even rooms in a house in a crunch. One person said they used it to heat an unheated area where there were water pipes during a really cold snap.
Both my wife and I were a little surprised this worked so well. It's always a good thing to have an emergency contingency to fall back on. The other "surprise" was that we had these supplies and never realized they could be used in such a way. You learn something all the time. I am very grateful to have a wife that is so resourceful and full of useful information.
Well, that's all I have today. I am currently seeding in a new set of crops for the early spring. I had a failure of sorts with my last attempt. Seems I may have used my heating pads a little too long. I did have seedlings but they were very leggy which most likely was a result of too warm of soil. Spring crops prefer cooler soils. Lesson learned. Seems gardening always has a lesson to learn regardless of your "expertise".
So, please check back as I start anew with my seedling production. I am hoping that winter will go away and I can get into the garden. I have much to do there and time is ticking. Until next time, Happy Gardening Everyone!

Winter finally arrived!

The Mid-Atlantic was visited by old man winter this past weekend. But, knowing it was definitely heading right for us, I decided to open up my leaf mold composters while it was snowing in order to get a little moisture into them. It was snowing at a pretty good pace when I went out as attested to by this picture.

It was supposed to come down at a very fast and furious pace for several periods throughout the day. So, in the morning, I went out and took off the tops of the various composters and dumped the snow from the lids into each container as seen from the pictures below.

Overnight, we were hit with an ice storm which is causing major traffic issues and sidewalk problems. Some areas have had power outages. I'm just grateful to be retired and not out in the mess. Here is a picture showing the ice out in our and our neighbors yards this morning.

We are expecting another wave of snow today through early tomorrow. I"m going to have to go out and get my front porch and sidewalks unvovered before that hits.
As of yesterday, the plants in the greenhouse have been hanging in there but I need to get out there to check their status today. Here's hoping they came through.
There is lots to do and report on in the coming couple of days so once the snows/ice are gone, I'll start digging in to them. Please check back periodically for the updates. As always, Happy Gardening Everyone!

   

Garden progress

 Garden progress

Posted on Jan 11, 2021 11:51 AM

Last Thursday was a very beautiful day for winter. The sun was out and the temps were going to be in the low 50's. As I gazed out my back room, I was immediately reminded that I had a bunch of bamboo poles that needed to be cut for the construction of my fence. Knowing I needed at least 44 six and half foot poles, I began to cut the poles with my hacksaw.
Having already sorted them, I began to cut the longer poles that I had determined would give me 2 supports each. Those gave me 28 supports. Then I turned my efforts to the bamboo that would give me 1 pole each being shorter than the other set. At that point, I combined the cut poles and was very happy that I had a total of 58 poles. And, as a bonus, after looking at the remants from the cuttings, I was able to save many more than I originally thought for plant supports. I estimate that I will get probably 15-20 total. They probably couldn't be used for heavier types of plants like tomatoes and cucumbers, but they definitely could be put into service on pepper plants and such. Below is a split picture showing the fence posts along side the plant supports.

The bamboo was free as they were being pulled out of a backyard and the person just wanted to get rid of them. I researched the use of bamboo and found out if you let them age from a green color to brown, they will become more rigid. These have aged in my backyard for about 8 months if memory serves and they are pretty rigid. I couldn't be happier with the outcome.
The cutting took about 2 hours all in all. Now the project can move to actual assembly of the fence when I purchase the fencing. I can't wait as I need to defend the plants from all of the pesky squirrels in our area.
That's all I have at this time. There is still much to do and I will be relating as much as I can. Spring is fast approaching so the pressure will start to mount. Good thing I love gardening so much. Until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!

Cloches

 I have, over the last few years, begun to rely on cloches to get my plants off to healthy and early starts in late winter/early spring. Since the weather was a bit warmer than usual, I decided to take a quick inventory of the various cloches and structures I have at my disposal.

When it comes to cloches, I received these three below for Christmas. They are called Greenhouse Buckets. They look very sturdy and are made of a very durable "plastic" material which the manufacturer claims will resist fading and yellowing. They are tall and give a reasonable amount of space to use them on taller plants. I tried one in a bare spot in my garden this past weekend. It was a sunny day with temps in the low 40's. My thermometer recorded a high temp of 92 and a low of 30 overnight. It was a very non scientific process so I am hopeful about them. They can be found at greenhousebuckets.com.

I also have a set of two different types of cloches which are older and are starting to show their age. They have been through many seasons and have yellowed thanks to the rays of the sun. But, the plants last year did not show any effects from this yellowing so I will use them again this year. I'll continue to use them until there is a failure with the plants. The whole point of these is really to protect the seedlings from frost, heavy rains or even an unexpected late snow shower. And, these all have performed that task quite well.

I also have a couple of structures which I have used for various purposes. I am thinking I will probably plant seedlings in them or maybe do some early direct seeding in them. I think I have had both of these for over 7 years and they have weathered quite well. I will clean the dirt off them with a little bleach solution and will then keep them where they are presently in order to warm up the soil underneath them.
 
I have a collapsible 6 X 8 ft. greenhouse which I am considering placing next to my permanent greenhouse. Not quite sure about that at this time as I have to work out the purpose for it. The question is whether it would add any value to the garden and it's production. I haven't convinced myself one way or another. Time will tell.
That's all all I have to write at this time. Lots going on and it is keeping me pretty busy. I will update when I get the opportunity this week. There are seedlings to start and a whole myriad of garden projects in the works. So until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!

Lettuce abundance

Well, here we are at the beginning of 2021. Having much to be grateful for and to look forward to the New year. Let us all look forward to a more abundant year.

I took stock of the progress of all my plants.  The weather has been on the mild side lately so I decided to move my plants from my basement into my greenhouse in order to get them out in the sun. They were looking a little anemic so I figured it was time for them to get some good old fashioned sun under protection of the greenhouse. I moved 10 of the most mature plants in order to minimize the shock to them. After watering them down, I left them to soak in the rays.
Here is a picture of one rack of my lettuce and spinach plants. I can see a few salads in my near future which is very exiciting.

Additionally, I will have Giant Ceasar lettuce to add to the cuttings from the above lettuces as seen below.

I also have seedlings that are coming along in the greenhouse that are just starting to put on mature leaves. The container on the left has Iceberg, Bibb and Giant Ceasar. The planter to the right has 8 spinach plants. These were all planted at the same time and seem to be progressing well.

So, everything is moving along. The days are starting to get longer as we'll see our first 12 hour sun day before the end of January. There is much to do and time is approaching for the first planting of seeds for the early Spring crops. I have a long list of tasks that need to be addressed before I can put any plants in the garden. It's going to be a very busy beginning of the new year.
I will be writing about these endeavors as I tackle them so please keep visiting my blog. So, lets move forward in this new year everyone and Happy Gardening!

Summer plants in December

I decided to try an experiment this winter.  I decided that I wanted to grow a cucumber plant in my basement.  The idea sprang to life for me when I found a self pollinating variety of them with my local seed go to supplier.  I had the idea in the summer and it came to me again in late November.  As I relayed in my December 2nd post, I decided to test two other older cucumber seed packs to see if they were viable.  One packet was along with the new seeds as you can see below.  The third pack - not so good.  I'll plant them again by themselves as Spring arrives just to be sure they are dead seeds. 

So, now that I have seedlings and they seem pretty healthy, it was time to set up a support for the plant to grow on.  I will be thinning these down to one plant to grow through the winter.  So, I devised a string support system to allow the plant to grow vertically and enable me to supply enough light for it.  Here is a shot of the system from the perspective of the plants.   

I am supporting the plant with a roller system that I have that is identical to those used in greenhouses.  I strung wire from two eye hooks in the rafter and attached the roller system to it.  I then took the string and ran it down to the bucket and anchored it to into the soil with an earth staple/stake.  Once the plant grows a little more, I will then use clips that attach to the string and encircle the plants vine.  I used these with my tomatoes and I have to say, I didn't have a single issue that I recall.  Here is a picture which shows the roller and how it is supprted/attached to the wires I strung.

   

 

Its a little difficult to see but the clip basically has a loop at the top where you clip it onto the support wire.  And, as the plant grows, I let out the string at the top to allow me to wrap it loosely around the plant and support the vine via the support clips.  It works so easy.  I will be updating the progress on this periodically.  Hopefully, we'll be eating some cukes in teh not too distant future.

That's all I have at this time.  Hope you are doing well.  Until next time,Happy Gardening everyone. 

  

Indoor gardening

Last week was a very busy one for me. During the week, I discovered an infestation of pesky gnats in my cucumber planter. I decided I had to take action as I certainly did not want it to spread and time was of the essence. Given that the cukes hadn't even started to peek through the soil as they were seeded in a few days prior, I decided to do another boiling water treatment. I took the water and poured it over the soil as I strirred the soil with my trowel. I did this to insure the water penetrated further than the 2" where the eggs may be. I got the water super boiling which resulted in it steaming for quite some time. I checked it the next day and there were no signs of the gnats. Thankfully!

I seeded in three varieties of cucumbers about two weeks ago.  My reasoning for this is I had two older packets of cuke seeds and wanted to run a test to see if they would still germinate. I put those on each side of a very recently purchased variety I really want to grow. Figured if I got a plant from either of those, I could always transplant it.  And, much to my amazement, all the seeds germinated.  Guess I don't need to buy any new seeds for this coming year.
Speaking of seeds, I have been watching several Youtube gardening and other similar types of channels. A recurrent theme recently has been that there more than likely will be a seed shortage next year accompanied by pretty steep price increases. Some suppliers have already annouced price increase of upwards of 100% for next year and some even more. Now, I certainly didn't think I needed any seeds but I decided to check my inventory. And, upon further analysis, it turned out I did need a few seed packets. So I went to the local seed supplier I buy from to check out if the rumors were true.

After shopping and deciding what I needed and wanted, it turned out I needed more than I was aware. Guess I got a gardening bug while I was there. They had a meager supply showing in the shop but they did have everything (and more) that I wanted in their warehouse storage area.
So, I bought 15 various seed packets for a total of $28.00. Not too bad considering I bought quarter pound bags of peas and corn at over $4.50 a bag each. I was quite happy that they have not - at this time - raised their prices. I asked about this upcoming years prices and availability. They have no plans for price increases and are still waiting to hear from their seed supplier on availability. They're assuming it's all good. Which, if it pans out, is good for our area.
So, when I came home, it dawned on me that I needed to organize my seeds in a better way. I decided to bite the bullet and organize the seeds alphabetically. I had them by season but it just wasn't working out. After about an hour or so, I had them all laid out ready to pack. Here is a picture of my seed packs.

I haven't counted them but I would imagine there are about 225-250 packets. I am going to count them and update my spreadsheet in the near future. After loading the seed packets into my container and putting the larger bags into ziplock bags, I put them into my dorm refrigerator for safe keeping. Here is the refrigerator as it now sits.

The top shelf has containers with single type seeds in them. The second shelf has the seeds combined by alphabet. And the bottom bag has Bean seeds and packets from last year. While not ideal, it does make finding a particulat variety a little easier at this time.
I was driving through my neighborhood recently when I came upon a bounty of leaves that were bagged in clear plastic bags. What were these people thinking about? They're gardeners no less. So, I stopped and very matter of factly threw 6 of the bigger bags in the back of my car. I drove to my house, dumped them on my driveway and looped back around. I again piled 5 bags into my car and repeated the unloading. I then thought about what I was going to do with these. Then it struck me.
I took the bags and put them on the ground around my greenhouse. This way, I thought, they would decompose with all the sun that area gets throughout winter. And, they would act as a wind barrier for my greenhouse. Two wins there. Below are pictures of the bags and the bags placed around my greenhouse.
 
I guess I am just a little different. Most people don't understand the value of them. I have 4 composters that are filled with leaves from my tree. I have a 32 gallon garbage can that I perforated with a ton of holes that is also filled with the leaves. And I have the 11 bags I just appropriated with little effort. True story - I used to stop on my way to and from work to snag bags of leaves along the curbs. My wife (and neighbors most likely) probably shook their heads when they saw me unloading those bags. The reason for all this effort is that leaf mold is perhaps as close to the most perfect soil addititve you can find. I am frugal for the most part. Not of out necessity but out of resourcefulness. I can't stand to buy processed soil from anywhere. Paying upwards of $10.00 for a 2 Cu. Ft. bag of soil when I can create my own seems like a waste of money. Last year I spent more on soil than I ever have. And, the reason was that I just retired last fall and lost focus on my composters due to other priorities. That was a lesson learned that will never be forgotten. Here are pictures of my composters and the one garbage can as they sit now. I will need to water them down if it doesn't rain soon to assist with their decompostion.
 
I have lots more to tell so I will be posting again in the near future.  Until then, Happy Gardening everyone.  

Quick Update

 We had our first Drs. appointment yesterday. Much to our delight, the results were very promising and quite frankly, a relief. She has no issue that this Dr. could see that would be a cause for alarm. Yeah! There are more Drs. visits in the near future but to hear good results at this time is wonderful.

Gardening wise, I have to say I am very pleased with the progression of the plants in my basement. Pictured in the left pic is a container with Mixed Colored Swiss Chard nearest the camera and Giant Ceasar in the foreground. The middle picture is the carrot conatainer and the right pic is of my Bibb lettuce plants. The Bibb plants are all putting on their true leaves so that is a very promising. All the plants are doing pretty well so far.
  

I went out to my greenhouse this morning and the few surviving plants seem to still be struggling. The whipsaw weather has not been kind to them so I keep the faith but recognize the reality. I have plenty of seedlings coming along so when they are ready, I will have to replant in the empty containers I have.
That's all I have for now. Thanks for the prayers for our situation, they are much appreciated. Still more hurdles to cross so we will continue to take it one day at a time. Until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!