Let The Madness Begin

Special thanks to Dan over at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog for the HTML tutorial!

Garden update

Today I planted the last 3 bags from Tom Wagner's potato sampler, a little late I know, but I had to find space. Also got 10 stalks of Maize Morado into the ground which were started in cells about a month ago, and I transplanted 8 varieties of lettuce, among them were several red leaf types, a red romaine, Australian yellow leaf and Forellenschluss. Also got a 6 pack of sunberries I started from seed into the ground. These past few days have been a gardener's dream weatherwise. Tomorrow I hope to turn over the rest of the corn beds and get those cucurbits into the ground.

Busy Outside

It got up to 82 degrees today! and only 4 days ago things were freezing outside. That's Michigan for ya. Today after the older 4 kids left for school, my youngest and I got busy in the garden. We planted seven kinds of beans: Dragon's tongue, purple queen, golden wax (all bush varieties), and purple podded pole, roma pole, kentucky wonder pole, and a special one called Soisson pole beans, which came from a Canadian seed trader. Soissons are a dry bean that is hard to come by (I only obtained seven seeds) and are supposed to have exceptional flavor and and are exclusive to a particular region of France. Can't wait to see how these do. My little helper kept dumping whole buckets of water onto the newly sown seeds, washing them out of their carefully laid out pattern and driving me a little cuckoo. I also planted some silver queen and burgundy okra. In the cool of the evening, I replanted some of the tomato plants. I still had some green zebras, one brandywine (yay!), one hilbilly, two fantom du laos, a kelloggs breakfast with regular leaves and a kelloggs breakfast with potato leaves, both from the same seed pack (c/o wintersown.org), so we'll see what kind of crosses we ended up with. It got dark before I could plant out the rest but since tomorrow is supposed to be clear and in the 80's, I probably won't get to them until the cool of the evening. Oh- and I also put down clear plastic on some of the beds, to heat them up in preparation for corn and cucurbits. Gardening is fun!

It's a Harden-Off Life...

..for us!

Graduation Day

These occasions are so bittersweet, aren't they... I mean, you spend your whole life preparing for this day, so you'd think when it finally happens you'd be ready for it, but no...The emotion is so....raw......The first of my seedling six-packs graduated to empty frosting tubs, foam can cozee's, and old slurpee cups today and I'm beside myself! One six pack of mixed sweet bell peppers planted way back in January, and one six pack of "tree-type" tomatoes, from Val and Dan. Actually got seven tomato plants, because one was sharing. I never grew tree-type tomatoes before. They are not really "tree-like", but they're supposed to have a compact growth habit like a determinate variety, but instead of bearing all fruit at once like the determinates, they bear fruit continuously throughout the season like the indeterminates. Sounds perfect for patio containers, perhaps to give to friends and/or relatives. That's why I started them so early. By the way, I sowed the rest of my garden tomatoes yesterday, 40 cells worth. That's 20 different varieties, NOT including the 4 trial varieties I have promised for Dave, or the elusive Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge that I ordered from Baker Creek last week but when I checked the website the next day a "out of stock" message appeared. OUT OF STOCK! crap. Maybe I'll have to shell out $9 for 5 seeds on ebay after all. Because 20 varieties is not nearly enough tomatoes is it?

Seed Starting Frenzy

YAY! We're officially in Countdown Mode...It is now 12 weeks BLF (Before Last Frost) 'round these parts, so according to several different and sometimes conflicting recommended planting time-lines, it is now time to sow the onions, celery, celeriac, selected brassicas, peppers and eggplants, and possibly early tomatoes indoors. Which is exactly what I did this weekend. Well, actually, the pepper and eggplant seeds were put in ziploc baggies and left to simmer in my fancy high-tech seed-germinating cabinet, shown below. I checked them this morning, and after only 3 days I am ecstatic to report that some of the peppers are showing signs of life! Which means I'm going to have to move them to cells pretty quick, which in turn means a trip to Lowe's in the near future to buy a couple more shoplites and a laser level, because God knows nobody in their right mind would attempt to hang a temporary grow-light shelf without a laser level (at least that is what I have lead Pakman to believe.) In my house, the colder it is outside, the faster seeds in the fancy high-tech seed-germinating cabinet sprout. I believe it is because during frigid weather the furnace kicks on more often and for longer periods of time, which provides the nice constant warmth to the underside of that cabinet where the air vent is located.

In all, I have planted approximately 800 onion seeds into saved freezer-entree containers. There were about 600 Yellow Valencia seeds in a pack for $1.35 from Peters Seed and Research, and about 200 Long Red Florence in a pack for $1.75 from Tradewinds Fruit. Also I planted 3 flats each (actually cut off gallon plastic milk jug bottoms) of Redventure Celery and an unnamed Celeriac variety, also from Peters Seed. I have never planted onions or celery/celeriac from seed, so we'll keep our fingers crossed. Believe it or not, I did not broadcast-sow the onions, I actually sat there and poked 600 holes in the soil and meticulously placed a single seed in each. I hate waste. For the celery/celeriac, I sprinkled a pinch or 2 of the microscopic seed over the soil and pressed them in with the back of a spoon. Keeping the soil moist with a mister and whispering sweet nothings to them at regular intervals is the recommended procedure, which I am so far following without fail.

Some of the peppers, eggplants, lettuce and brassicas are from seed I obtained for seed trials for this guy who I became aware of through the miracle of internet forums. I'll be posting with regular updates on the Seed Trials, as this was part of the deal—in exchange for free seeds and the resulting veggies, I'm supposed to keep records, notes and impressions and pics of what grows, all raw data for his new seed company venture. I'm glad to be a part of this interesting project. Also I plan to save lots and lots of seed. Stay tuned for plenty more on that.

And finally, the first round of tomatoes are: An old early variety, Wayahead Red, obtained for free from wintersown.org's SASE tomato offer, and Stupice, another early variety that sets fruit in colder weather, as well as three “dwarf” or “rugose” tomatoes destined for porch containers named Matchless (red), Coastal Pride (orange) and Bushy Charbarovsky (fuzzy red), with seed obtained from these fine folks. Val and Dan have an amazing garden with many rare and unusual tomato varieties, some developed from their own breeding operation and available nowhere else! Their garden is also featured on page 196 in the 2009 Farmers' Almanac. Besides all that they are also the nicest people you'd ever care to know. I also santitzed the starting mix using hydrogen peroxide per their instructions, so hopefully this will greatly reduce damping-off, a fungal disease that can plague seedlings, especially slow-germinating ones like celery. I'm so excited that the countdown has begun! Bring on spring!

Peppers!

So every time I do my weekly shopping at the small corner meat market/ethnic grocery, I pick up a handful of these tiny green chilis. They might be a Thai type, that's what the grocer has written on the cardboard box. I like them because they are so tiny I don't need to slice them, I just add a couple of them whole near the end of cooking down a spicy curry. I let them fry just enough to release that pungent pepper smell, and if I don't let them fall apart, it gives the dish just enough kick without being unbearably overpowering.
Occasionally there is a ripe red one in with the greens, as last time. So, I cut it open and emptied it of many little seeds. I put those seeds in a baggie with a damp paper towel, and left it in a warm place for about a week. Almost 100% germination. Cool.

And look what happened. Where am I going to put them all? Maybe I'll take a lesson from Ottowa Gardener, and keep them permanently in containers, so I can bring them in every winter, like a tropical house plant. Now I must go shop for some functional and attractive pots.

I did the same thing last November with pepper seeds picked out of a jar of pickling spice. Only got 3 viable plants though, and have no idea what type they are, but aren't they just adorable?

Okay, Okay, yes, that is a flat of garlic (loose cloves recently discovered in the bottom of the fridge), and you can also see the 2 sprigs of mint I rooted that now threaten to take over the dining room. As God is my witness, I shall never pay for condiments again!

New Nursery: Before and After

That's $11 for the shoplite, $14 for 2 "plant spectrum" bulbs, $2 for the little socket-plug converter thingy (so I can plug the shoplite into the ceiling fixture cause the washer and dryer take up the ONLY outlet) and $12 for the 2 flats w/domes and 8 qt. of starter mix. Of course I plan to save and re-use the little 6 packs for the next 20 years to justify the initial expense. I know this setup is not very imaginitive, but hey, it sure beats eggcartons on the windowsill. Now I just need to find the space around the house to put in about 15 more of these shoplite grow-units and I estimate I'll have almost enough space to start the seeds for all the crap I plan to grow this year.