Snow!!!!

 

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This is our snow from yesterday.  To some of you, this does not look like a big deal.  However, I live in Maryland.  And, around here, this is a crippling storm for the day.  It was nice to see since it was the first snowfall over an inch in 716 days.  Our snow drought is now officially over.  

The plants in the greenhouse weathered the colder temps quite well.  I watered them down before the storm system arrived so that probably helped.  And, I have a soft plastic greenhouse off to the side where I have been testing it for use over the winter.  I planted a cover crop later in the year and just have let it take its course. I peeked inside today and the cover crop is doing just fine.  

That means I can use it to grow root and spring crops if it maintains this pace.  I am quite impressed.  I'd love to hear how your gardening is coming long and what you are doing.  

Just picked this batch of lettuce from my greenhouse.  I have many more but I generally only pick what I need for the next meal.  Can't wait to eat this bit of organic freshness tonight.  Hope your day is going well and you haven't been too impacted by all the weather systems these past few weeks.  Untilnext time, Happy Gardening!

Progress on seedlings

I spent an hour or so this morning planting new and redundant seedings. I seeded in 44 seed starts with various vegetables that needed to be started plus a round of seconds on some for surety. As seen in the pictures, my seedlings are progressing well. I will be transplant them into larger pots shortly and am hoping that I can put them in my greenhouse from there. Given the weather has been cooler and mainly cloudy, I'm not sure that my seedlings will fare well in the greenhouse at this time. So, I decided to start a few seconds to be ready just in case.


I now have roughly 132 seedlings and seeded cells in my basement. That's much more than I normally start but the prices of the early plants in the stores seem higher than last year. I have more than ample seeds to grow a wide ranging and varied selection of veggies. Having the lights and space to start the seeds and a greenhouse to harden them off in is a small luxury. I decided last fall that I would definitely be much more aggressive given the prices and quality of the vegetables in the stores.

Some of the seedlings you see are from 6-10 year old seeds. I am getting a very good germination rate on most of them which I attribute to how I store and handle my seeds. I recently watched a Youtube video from a well known gardener regarding seed storage. Everything they pointed out was an affirmation of what I was doing. Except, I took it another step further which is what I believe keeps my seeds fresher and longer lasting. I've always believed that seeds could last decades if properly handled.
That subject will be the theme of my next post. I will detail what I do and what my general results have been. So, until the next post, I hope you are growing well. Happy gardening everyone!!

 

March - the two headed monster of gardening

March is an important month in a gardener's world. The days become longer which hopefully will bring warmer and drier days. It can tempt a gardener into a false security at times. One never knows nor can they predict when a rogue snowstorm will come upon them. All of these dynamics combine to make March very challenging.
I have been concentrating on two areas recently. A good portion of the last weeks time has been spent on first getting my soil prepped. This has involved turning over the leaves into each garden bed. I used a 4 tine rake and just gently turned the soil over to help speed the decomposition process. This process seems well underway given the predominance of worms I uncovered.



While I was doing that, I sowed in 60 sets of seeds into a starter tray with various veggies. These were for tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, peas, cilantro, and onion starts. I decided that I am also going to direct seed in onions, lettuce, spinach and various herbs in pots in the greenhouse. Those will have to wait until the weather and temps turn a bit. There are forecasts that say the middle of March will be colder and snowier than we have seen in my area. What else would one expect from March after all?



The start of March is always very busy in many different ways. The days can become chaotic if you let them. Every year at this time, there is so much enthusiasm for what's ahead. Anticipation builds rapidly as we endure winter's last gasps. We can finally get to growing - hopefully. So, all I can say is, Happy Gardening everyone!

Plans for 2023....

So much to tell here.  As last year came to a close and I was working in the garden, my thoughts turned to 2023.  I began to consider how I was going to approach the garden logistically and labor wise.  My biggest successes were from potted plants and greenhouse plants.  

I attribute this to the fact that the weather last year was very unpredictable and at times, wetter than normal. When you have a garden you kind of expect that.  But, at times, the weather was fierce. I tried to prepare the plants for the predicted storms, but it seemed that no matter what I tried, the storms were damaging.  

 So, when I thought about what plants did well, they were either in a pot or a grow bag.  A lot of my in ground plants were either twisted and torn apart or they were snapped in half by gale force winds.  And, if the winds weren't damaging enough, the heavy downpours associated with the storms left the ground soaked and the plants beaten down.  This contributed to a bunch of yellow and dying plants.   

The potted and bagged plants, however, seemed to flourish.  There are many reasons they did.  One was that I put up mini greenhouses which prevented wind damage.  They also negated the soaked ground issue by being potted.  There were 2 or 3 really bad storms where I put my potted plants in my greenhouse, garage and shed to augment the mini greenhouses.  That was surprisingly successful.  

I began to think that this year, I would grow all my plants in pots.  I have more than enough pots to suit our needs.  I have finally gotten to the point that I don't over plant.  Over the last 2 years, I have accumulated around 200 pots of various sizes and materials by purchases, gifts and handouts.  Yeah, I kind of over did it but, for the most part, they were all bargain priced.  I can grow just about any plant I can think of thanks to this.

So, I am committed to a potted garden this year.  This will be my biggest experiment and challenge in gardening.  There is much to do but I have the luxury of being retired.  It will be interesting to say the least.  I hope you will follow as I travel this uncharted (for me) road.  Until next time - Happy Gardening!