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!

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!

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!

Garden preps and other musings

It's March and you know what that means - Spring is here - almost. I'm generally not an optimist so I do not get too excited but after today, one can hope. It was a beautiful day and I got to enjoy it immensely. After a visit to the doctor for a routine appointment, I came home and indulged myself. I decided it was time to mark the beds and get things moving.
So, after checking the measurements and verifying all was right, I roped off the front beds. It didn't take a lot of time but I wanted to be sure everything was aligned. My goal, after all, is to maximize the spaces I have. So here are the beds that I'm establishing. They run northish to southish. My yard, like most yards, does not run true north and south. 



This bed is 18" wide and 21' long. It will be the first year that I have gardened in this area so I will obviously have to amend the soil heavily this year. I have lots of compost but that will have to augmented with other materials. I don't look for this to be a big producing bed but with the right mix of amendments, it may be enough to get some production. Anything I do add will be certified organic. I generally look for the OMRI certification on anything I purchase.
The second bed shown below is 2.5' wide and 21' long. This area is a long existing plot of my garden. Naturally, it should be a productive plot but will need a treatment of compost and maybe another ingredient.


My third and fourth beds are a blend of two previous beds. They are 2.5" wide and 12' long. The third bed (on the right) is about 50% new area and 50% existing bed. The fourth bed is heavily an existing bed. In fact, I will be moving some of the dirt from it to bed 3. And again, bed 3 will need amendments and compost.



The fifth bed is about 18" wide and 21' long. It is also a new bed so I will follow the same protocols as to the other new beds. 


Having completed the outlining of the beds, I then cut the beds to fit the sizes of them and transferred the excess dirt to the beds. This was done to establish the walking paths between the various garden plots. Once I was finished with the edging of the beds, I raked each walk path. This was the final step to firm up the beds and walkways.

I think the garden is starting to come together. Shortly, I will have to work on the other two smaller plots on the other side of the main walkway and them run my hand tiller through the beds to get them ready for planting in early April. Much to do, so little time as usual.
I am always amazed by the rare things I find at stores I had no idea carried the items. For instance, I had no idea that TJ Maxx carried this



Or this



I did get this work light very cheap at Sears due to the store being closed. Sad end to an American icon. 



Well, that's all there is for now. It's time for me to get the seedlings started. I am excited to see if there is any difference in them by starting them in my greenhouse. And, as always, until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!

Winter's doldrums and the Spring garden

While winter hasn't hit quite yet in the Mid-Atlantic, the temperatures sure took a nose dive this past weekend.  Frigid air, much like most of the US, has taken hold.  And, that has resulted in a hold on activities in the garden.  The winter rye is hanging in there and has actually grown a bit since the cold air descended on the region.
At this time of the year, I like to begin the preps for the early spring crops.  I do that by looking in the various catalogs and determining which plants I want to grow in the upcoming year.  As I usually grow way too many tomatoes and peppers, I have begun to rethink that.  I had 16 tomato plants and 16 Pepper plants last year.  That was way too many for our family and I ended up giving away most of them to neighbors, friends and family.  While I was in the process of doing that, it occurred to me that while it was nice to give my crops away, there certainly could be more efficient use of the space I had taken up with excess crop plantings.
There are an abundance of crops that could replace them and give us more yield for our family.  After all, that's the central point of a backyard garden.  I know I could grow plants like broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage to name a few.  I grew spaghetti squash one year and it was very good as a replacement for actual spaghetti.
I have to really look at it this time as there are other crops I know I have grown that we ate as a family. Timing is everything and it is fast approaching the period to begin starting my plants from seed.  Yes, it seems like only last month we were shutting down the garden and now we begin the whole process over again.    
I checked the progress of my small winter garden and it seems to still be moving along albeit very slowly.  From my research, that is to be expected.  It is supposed to get very cold this weekend so that will give further insight into just how successful I may be.  I am contemplating putting another layer of the heavy duty plastic over the structure to give it more insulation.  But, I have to weigh the benefit of that over the reduction of light getting to the plants.  The winter sun is much less intense and therefore you have to balance the amount of reduction of sunlight the extra layer will result in with the amount of coverage you are implementing.  I am also thinking of laying down a layer of compost around the plants as an alternative to the extra plastic.  I will have to research that in the next couple of days.
Well, that's all that is happening at this moment.  Until next time, Happy gardening everyone.    

Are you really growing organically?

That is a very hard question to answer with just a simple yes or no. There are many reasons to grow vegetables in your own backyard. Most people speak of the superior freshness and taste of the produce. Some point to the rampant use of GMO seed stock and the use of herbecides and such on the produce you get in most stores. Not to mention the carbon footprint of some of the foods we eat that travel over 1,000 miles or more. But, a fair portion of the gardening world will answer that they garden in order to have "organic" vegetables and fruit. But, if you have a garden, the question remains - are you truly organic? I always thought that I was truly organic. I have my three composters, 4 rain barrels and I don't generally use any herbecides on my plants. I tolerate some destruction in my garden as the natural course of events. If the infestation is intolerable with the risk of total loss being high, I then us a BT based powder to combat the issue at hand. BT is a targeted insecticide that does not kill beneficial insects. It is considered to be organic as it is a naturally occurring bacterium found in the soil. I recently watched a gardening show where I discovered that while I practice generally organic principles, I have been acutely unaware of one area I hadn't given much thought to - seeds! Yes, seeds. I mean, who knew? As pointed out by the guest on the show, if you are using GMO produced seeds or hybrid seeds, then you are truly not growing organic. As a person with a multitude of such seeds, that was quite an eye opener. I guess I need to be careful where I buy my seeds. That's a topic for another post. I hope this was an eye opener for you too. Well, till next time, happy gardening everyone!