Bullchit!!

I'm pretty sure that's what these potatoes think about the fact that they are hanging around in the greenhouse instead of luxuriating in some nice soft soil....

... but last year I kept records on the progress of the potatoes that I planted early and "encouraged" with a germination heating pad versus the ones that I just popped into wine barrels or big buckets later in the season and found that the later planted potatoes caught up with the early birds.  So this year my "Red Golds" are going to be sitting around chitting for a couple more weeks whether they like it or not ; )

Enjoy!

Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head ....

Well, it's monsoon season in the Pacific Northwest ... we might see the sun again on Saturday.

I've been running out between downpours (and sometimes during them) to work on the newly remodeled raised beds.  As I mentioned a while back we decided to reconfigure the garden and add some mole proofing while we were tearing everything up to put in the new greenhouse.  I have three 4 x 8' beds to work on getting planted now.  Here's a shot from a second floor window of the new configuration with the greenhouse foundation coming along on the left...

The center bed is the deep, heated bed for my root crops.  As usual I forgot to put the heating cable (Charley's Greenhouse) in before we added the soil so I ended up having to dig trenches in the bed to install it ...

Once I got the cord buried I plugged it in and covered the bed with some plastic sheeting to retain the heat and let the bed warm up for a couple of days...

 I used my 16 per square foot seeding jig to space  my carrot seed and a 9 per square foot to space the beets.  I cover the seeds with vermiculite so I know exactly where they are ... anything that comes up outside one of those little circles is a weed and can be safely plucked out.

I watered the bed lightly and covered it with a piece of burlap and then laid another soil warming cable ( a FitzGyvered special) on top of the burlap.

The two cables together brought the soil temperature from 41 degrees up to a toasty 63 degrees and I had my first seed germination in six days.  Once the seedlings started popping up I removed the burlap and replaced the second heating cable.

Once the rest of the seeds have germinated I will unplug the permanently installed cable and remove the temporary one to use on another bed.  It's a lot of work, but with temperature still in the 40's it's the only way to get my direct sown seeds germinated in time to have two crops during the growing season.  Oh, the joys of gardening in the soggy Pacific Northwest :)

Enjoy!

Harvest Monday ... and the First Planting Update

I'm joining other bloggers over at Daphne's Dandelions as we share our weekly harvests...it's fun to see what others are harvesting and what they are cooking up with it...check it out!

I won't have a harvest from the garden for quite a while yet ... my arthritis flare up in the fall kept my fall/winter garden from getting planted (I didn't even get all the fall cleanup done ... it's a mess out there that I am just starting to tackle).  We are still eating from our frozen and canned stores, though.  I made lasagna rolls with some of the Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce Saturday night and (Whoo Hoo!)  my first  homemade ricotta cheese!  It came out great but was unfortunately camera shy (next time, I promise :).

The first of my seedlings are starting to sprout in the potting shed ...

And today the weather was nice enough for me to get the first of the raised beds prepared ...

... and planted my first batch of carrot seeds.  FitzGyver made me some new "Square Foot" planting jigs that I think I am really going to like using.  I have one with nine holes per square foot and another with sixteen.  These are going to be great both for direct seeding and for spacing transplants.

My first 32 carrots were quickly seeded  ...

... and tucked in under a germination mat.  I'll start checking for germination in a few days and remove the mat once the first seedlings appear.

I put the plastic cover back over the bed ...

... and that's one bed started, only 5 more to go!

Enjoy!

New Additions ...

There still isn't very much to blog about garden wise.  I am just about caught up on my seed starting and hope to get more going this weekend, but I'm holding back a bit since there are going to be some changes to my garden layout soon.  If you click on the "Garden Layout" tab above it will take you to a diagram of my 2012 garden ... with space reserved for my new cold frame and greenhouse!  The cold frame is here and just needs to be put together and installed ...

FitzGyver chose the greenhouse.  He wanted one that would be energy efficient and strong enough to stand up to our winter snow.  He chose this one ... it is supposed to arrive sometime in March ...

I will lose one of my raised beds to make room for the greenhouse; I'm sure it will be worth it!  I'll keep you posted ...

Enjoy!

May Garden Chores ..

May 1 was Beltane, the Celtic celebration of the mid-point between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice and the beginning of the summer season. Using my "Five Season Garden Planner" it is the start of my early summer planting of the vegetables that need warm soil and longer days to germinate and thrive.

Seed Starting
It's time to start summer and winter squash, pumpkins and cucumbers that will be transplanted to the garden the first week of June.  In a normal year it would be time to be direct sowing pole and bush beans, but because this has been such a cold spring, I have started my beans in the potting shed under lights.  I have also started a dozen corn plants; I'm going to try "Three Sisters" plantings in two of my half wine barrels out in The Garden.  It is also time to start leeks that will be planted in July for Autumn harvest.  The first week of May is also a good time time look at your seed inventory and order any that you will need for mid-Summer and Autumn planting.

Direct Sowing
Carrots and beets can be direct sown (I really recommend using seed mats as demonstrated  here by Annie's Granny) the first week of May.  That is a second crop of  carrots in The Farm as I "pushed" the season with "The Great Carrot Caper" experiment.  Remember those tiny little carrot starts I planted on March 15?

Well, here they are today :)  I'll have to wait until I harvest the carrots before I call the experiment a success, but it's sure looking good (wish I had done the same thing with my early beet crop!)

Under normal conditions bush and pole beans could be direct sown now, but with this cold weather we are having I am starting mine under lights with a germination heating mat.

With our continued cool spring a second crop of brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.) could be direct sown now.  The ones I started back in February and planted in March under cover are looking pretty good ...

Transplant
Tomato and basil starts can be transplanted to raised beds under cover now.

Compost
Lawns are starting to need mowing now (if you haven't ripped them all out for edibles!  We keep a small patch of lawn for our dogs to enjoy).  Hopefully you are composting all those lawn clippings, as well as any portions or your harvests that don't go into a meal.

Enjoy
Carly, Taffy and I take time every day to do a "walkabout".  We tour and enjoy the garden (the dogs are mainly on the lookout for squirrels that could be chased :)  I look for spots that need a little work and think about next year; should I try a different variety?  Plant in a different place?  Please make sure that you take the time to ...

Enjoy!

No Harvest Monday...and FitzGyver again...

I had no harvest this week ...   actually not much gardening or cooking or much else going on.  I did a face plant last week stepping over the threshold from the dining room onto the tile floor in my studio (or actually NOT stepping over, but running my right big toe right into the threshold).  I've been more prone to falling since I had my knee replacement ... the new knee just doesn't react the way the old one did and I feel off balance all the time.  This was the worst fall to date ...I landed right on the new knee .. and in trying not to land on the knee twisted and messed up my back and neck and must have tried to break my fall with my hands because both wrists ache  And then I put on my brave face, took some pain meds and went with my husband to his company dinner the next evening (not particularly bright of me).  So now I am laid low, alternating between pain meds and white wine (I'm convinced the wine works better) to get me through the day and waiting for my poor bruised body to heal....*sigh*

Since I have no harvest to share  with the folks at Daphne's Dandelions this week, I thought I would share a couple of photos I took early last week instead.  I was finishing up my early spring planting and reorganizing my potting shed and greenhouse.  The potting shed is also the pump house for our well.  It was in need of repairs last year so Mike (aka FitzGyver) enlarged it and added extra insulation so it would act as a potting shed for me as well.  I had my FitzGyver'd germination stand in my little pop up greenhouse and had decided to move it to the potting shed for convenience.  As long as I had it out I took some photos...

Here you can see how Mike attached a power strip to the side of the fixture ... the lights are attached to the underside of the shelves which can be adjusted...

...by moving the rods (metal in this case but wood dowels would work as well) from one set of holes to another drilled in the framework (DH does nice work ... I love being married to an engineer : )

Here is the pump house/potting shed...

...I gleaned the trays and pots from a local nursery that went out of business (they were going to take them to the dump!)  The blue tub by the door holds vermiculite, perlite and other soil amendments).

There is a counter with a light fixture for seedlings and for me to do my potting with room underneath for storage...

And room behind the door and beside the pump for my germination stand ... and I don't have to feel bad about keeping it warm in there for my plants ...  it's a pump house ... it has to be kept warm so the pump doesn't freeze (OK...maybe I raised the temperature on the heater just a few degrees  : )

Enjoy!

PS:  The finches are back!  Three days earlier than last year : )  Summer, I hear you singing ...

Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

...I'm having nightmares...they are everywhere...

They need to be repotted...but I'm out of pots...I ordered more...but they haven't come yet....I can hear the plants grumbling ....

And more of them...they have to share the space with the basil...and they don't like it...

And more yet...under the light...and they're not sharing...

And even more...the angry ones...the ones out on the deck...in the cold frame...I can hear them plotting...



OH NO!  It's the....






Sorry...I couldn't help myself...; )

And the verdict is...potatoes!

As promised, I have the results of my experiment with one of my potato boxes...

Back on March 7th  I planted four seed potatoes in a potato box with a seed germination warming mat under the box.  I wasn't entirely sure I'd be able to pull the mat back out from under the box....

...no problem!

And then there was the issue of trying to keep the rain from turning the soil in the box into mud soup...

Here's the covered box...and here's how I did it...

.

..a piece of bent wire fencing, some plastic sheeting and a few spring clamps.

And then there was the question of whether it would be worth the effort...would my potatoes sprout sooner?  Last year I planted my potatoes on March 17...and on April 21 I announced that "My Potatoes Are Up!"  This year I planted my experimental potato box on March 7th...and on March 21...

Tah Dah!!  Potato sprouts!!  All four potatoes have sprouted!

That's more than two weeks cut off the time it took for them to sprout last year!  I will be using a germination mat under the rest of my boxes...and I ordered a soil heating cable for my maincrop potato bed...yes, another experiment...(did I mention that my degree...and 30 years of work experience...was in laboratory science?)  It's all about experiments...  :)

Enjoy!

Harvest Monday...and a tale of two hundred onions....

I don't have a harvest this week, but I did use some of my pickled vegetables from last summer as a side dish for last night's Chilaquiles with Chicken and Black Beans.....

I'm joining other bloggers over at Daphne's Dandelions as we share our weekly harvests...it's fun to see what others are harvesting and what they are cooking up with it...check it out!

We had a break from the rain over the weekend and I accomplished a lot in the garden.  My order for leek (Lancelot) and onion (Candy) starts from Territorial Seed arrived on Friday...and then Tammy, my "garden fairy" surprised me with 100 Walla Walla onion starts...ack!  Now I had 200 onions and 100 leeks!!

I had decided to do some companion planting in my allium bed this year so I planted some of the leeks...

...and some of the Candy onions on Saturday...

I got sidetracked working on the "secret project" out by the lake on Sunday, so I finished planting the allium bed this morning.  I wanted to try planteing carrots and beets next to the leeks and onions using Carol's (Annie's Kitchen Garden) seed mat technique.  I glued carrot seeds to the napkins with 2" spacing and set the mats next to the leeks.

I covered the carrot seed mats with a quarter inch of a light potting soil mix and then set the beet seed mats next to the Candy onions...

...and covered them with soil.  I placed sticks to mark the edges of the beet and carrot rows and the used my "dibble" (it's a mop handle) to make depressions in the soil for the Walla Walla onions...

 

...I set the onions into their holes, firmed the soil up around them and gently watered the entire bed. There are about 100 onions and 40 leeks planted...so I still have a lot more to find homes for...

Annie's Granny said that she set a board on top of the carrots until they had germinated...but I had an idea...

I'm sold on using these germination heat mats in my beds after seeing the results of my potato box experiment...but wait...that's tomorrow's post... :)

Enjoy!

The Great Carrot Caper Continued.....

The last time I posted about my carrot experiment was on February 14. I thought it was time for an update. My idea was to go against conventional garden wisdom, which says that carrots should be direct sown into the garden, and try starting the seed in the greenhouse with the aid of a warm soil germination mat.  I planted seeds into 120 mini soil blocks....

 

By the middle of March the carrots had sprouted and the soil blocks looked like this...

My thought was to get the seedlings into the ground as soon as they germinated so there would be very little root development to be affected by transplanting...in this photo you can see that there are no roots showing on the sides or bottoms of the blocks...

 

I made small depressions in the soil in the garden bed in front of the previously planted peas and placed a soil block in each one...

...and gently moved soil to cover the exposed sides of the blocks...

 

I made a change to the raised bed later after reading  posts By Robin (The Gardener of Eden) and Carol (Annie's Kitchen Garden) about using rope lights....

The temperature of the soil in one of my raised beds without the rope light is 46 degrees... the soil under the carrots is a toasty 54 degrees....from the amount that they have grown I'm guessing they are pretty happy about our little experiment...I know I am!!

Enjoy!