Okay, back to trying to post here to keep track of what I'm doing in the garden, when. No market this year so hopefully the pressure will be less.
We spend a week in PA/MD the first of the month so I made sure I planted my brassica and lettuce before we left. Just potting the seedlings up this week. And celery.
Today I planted shelling peas and potatoes. I also started some flower seeds in vermiculite and a few in starting mix.
My tomatoes and peppers got planted on Monday, Feb. 13 and a few tomatoes are popping up already. Didn't realize I don't have any Nardello pepper seeds though. I will try and buy some plants from friends. Trying to find someone with a few extra Limbaugh's Legacy Potato top tomato seeds. I can order from Tomato Fest but there is a minimum $15 order. If I have to, I will find something else to order but hopefully someone will have a few extra seeds.
It has been raining for three days. Yesterday and last night, pretty steady and hard. We have a small stream running through our backyard from the property line where the water collects. Bad news for the plants and shrubs planted there. Especially with three nights of freezing temps coming starting tonight.
We haven't been to the farm but Ira sent an email confirming what we thought, the rains have again been washing out the rows. There hasn't been time to put in a ditch/furrow to divert the rain yet so it was to be expected. I am not happy, but I am not going to get upset about it. I wonder if it is sign that we aren't supposed to be doing market this year?
I continue to plant more seeds, mainly flowers. I have so many varieties I got through the Piggy Seed Swap that I feel compelled to try and grow at least a few of everything. I am having damping off/mold issues this year, something I rarely have. Cinnamon and peroxide have been added to the routine. Most all the brassicas have germianted, as well as artichokes. No rhubarb yet and I used all my seeds so I may be out of luck this year because I am not going to order more seeds!
I need to start my peppers this week. And maybe a few tomatoes. I was trying to hold off on tomatoes for a bit longer this year. Why do I always get the feeling of being behind?
Today I will transplant some of the seedlings that have germinated in vermiculite. I want to try and stay ahead of the game there, but there are probably 1,000 or more snapdragons, so staying ahead may never be possible!
My seed starting continued, but slowly. I did do 15 containers of WS seeds. We don't usually get consistent cold temps here so I never know if I should WS or not. Usually, if it's something I really want that does better germinating that way, I ask my daughter in MI to start it for me. She does a lot of winter sowing. And I start other seeds for her and we take a visit to MI in the spring. It's sort of a regular thing we do every year.
This year I am really trying to cut down on how many seeds I plant. Not necessarily varieties, just the number of each variety. Okay, petunias and snapdragons and lobelias don't count!
I have a hard time with Scabiosas. They just seem to mold/rot when started in vermiculite. I did do some in the winter sowing batch so hopefully I'll get a few. The broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are starting to germinate finally. The room where I am doing the seeds this year is colder than my dining room, where I usually start them and that may be slowing things down. But, I vowed to not take up all the space in the dining room. I should say, "dining space" since it's really just enough room for a table and four chairs . I have two flats on heat mats but the rest are on their own.
I just got a new order from Berlin Seeds in Ohio. It's a small, Amish family run business. Someone at our garden club told me about them and gave me last year's catalog. Their prices are pretty good so of course I didn't have any trouble finding seeds I needed. Also, I ordered this thing called Q-Plug kit but I'm not sure if I'll like it or not. I think what caught my eye is that it can be used for cuttings as well as seeds. It's little sponges in plug trays basically. I will give it a try with both seeds and cutting. I want to take some cuttings of my Knock Out roses but so far I have never been successful in getting them to take. I need to do a few more geraniums to sell at market as well.
I am getting pulled about doing seeds or cleaning the house, which takes a back seat during growing season. If I had more stamina I would clean in the morning and do seeds in the afternoon. When I get started doing seeds I seem to end up working on them all day so I have been trying to avoid them and do the much needed cleaning. One thing is, this cold weather does put a damper on the gardening chores. But it won't be long and spring will be here and if I don't do the seeds, I'll be behind! See what I mean!
While we were gone for the holidays, our area got heavy rains that washed a huge gulley in my garden and washed away a lot of soil. Thankfully there was nothing planted there, but there were a few other places it washed quite a bit of soil off the garlic and a few onions were washed away.
My son suggested we plow a strip at the top of the garden and fill with stone. It should work as long as we direct the flow into the center aisle instead of down through the rows. We will have to wait until the ground dries out a bit since we continue to get more rain.
We finally got the 55 gal. drum sunk into the ground in the greenhouse for the geo-thermal heating, if it works. The huge tree pot we planned on using for the top doesn't want to stretch over it now, even though it did before. We'll play around with heating it a bit/cutting to get it to work. We also got the solar cover (pool cover, bubble wrap) put on the main frame yesterday, just before this cold snap. We still have to cover the ends and hopefully we can get that done in the next couple of days. I know there is heat loss from the doors at both ends. This morning the temperature was 47 in the GH with an outside temp of 25. Even with the heater, that's good compared to what it usually is. So at least something is working.
I started my first seeds (flowers) on the 7th and by the 10th there were already some that had germinated, Eryisum (wallflower) and Bird's Foot Trefoil. David got the lights going but I ordered a pully/rachet system to hang them so adjusting will be easier. I have one set we won at the garden club as a door prize and really like them so we ordered more.
Today we are making soil blocks. I like to use them for the cauliflower and broccoli so I can take them directly to the ground without having to pot them up further. I will also start some artichokes, rhubarb, stevia and some more early blooming flowers. So, I had better get to work if I'm going to get all that done!
I really just want to post so I can look back and remember this unusually warm spell.
We are taking full advantage and preparing the rows for next spring. First time I have ever been able to do that. Usually Matt plants clover or some other green manure and then in the spring I am late planting because either too wet or the green manure isn't ready to be tilled under. I asked him last year to leave some rows for me to have ready and he did, but this year, he is so preoccupied he left the entire garden with no cover crop.
So, we have prepared six or eight rows already. Putting a heavy layer of compost, then newspaper and topping with leaves/straw. I am hoping there are not a lot of wheat seeds in the straw but if there is, that they will not be able to push their roots through the newspaper.
It is raining today so we are not able to finish up the last of the straw, which would do about three more rows. We are working like crazy to take advantage of the warm weather because I'm sure that after the first of the year the cold will probably settle in.
I had a small packet of winter wheat and rye from the seed swap that Matt forgot to plant so I planted it in plug trays and am hoping it comes up before we leave so I can plant it in the garden. If not, I will probably take it over to Matt's so he can keep an eye on it until I can plant it.
