Weekly Garden Journal Week 3

We finally have some exciting stuff going on in the garden! I have been gradually hardening off our kale and lettuce seedlings and they will get planted outside after Easter. The weather has been warming up a bit, which is SO nice!! The seedlings are looking pretty good.

I think they need out of those cups though;). I was originally going to put them in our cold frame, but today I really wanted to plant some seeds so I planted chard, lettuce, and carrot seeds in the cold frame.  There is a little space left for some of these guys, but most of them will go right out into the garden, in a raised bed with milk bottle cloches if needed. Hopefully I will not kill them!

But even more exciting, we have stuff coming up in the garden!

Rhubarb in the mud! This rhubarb is old, old, old. It was planted by the people who lived here before us. I have new rhubarb plants on order. When they come in, these guys and the new ones will move into a dedicated rhubarb bed. Because I really love rhubarb.

Also, we have garlic coming up! I have been pulling back the straw every few days to check.  Today there were a few little shoots!

At least, I am hoping this is the garlic. There are a few of these little shoots poking up. This is my first year growing garlic, so I really have no clue what it should look like!

That's the garden update for this week. I hope next week I will be able to say I have planted peas, but that will depend on how quickly the soil can dry out!

Living Easter Baskets

I cannot believe it is almost Easter! And right now we have snow falling, adding to my disbelief. Over the weekend, the kids started their living Easter baskets, which we traditionally plant up two weeks before Easter.

We found these metal tubs at Target last year and, while not traditional baskets, they are the easiest to clean up after Easter. We just fill each pail with damp potting soil and sprinkle quick-growing grass seed on top.  I have found it is best to be pretty liberal with the grass seed in order to get a nice, lush basket.The Easter Bunny fits his gifts in around the growing grass. After Easter we transplant the grass outside, on top of a few of the bare patches that form every winter. Although last year, I must admit, the chickens dug it up and ate it.


Linking up with Down Home Blog Hop & Farm Girl Friday

Weekly Garden Journal Week 2

I really wish these flowers were from MY garden, but sadly they are not. They are in a wonderful little flower show that takes place every year and which we faithfully attend. We really need to see the flowers this time of year in New England because the weather and the outside scenery can be downright depressing! We are still dealing with cold, raw wind and temps are going down to 11 degrees F tonight....ugh. I am pretty well sick of it.

Over the weekend I had hoped against hope that I would be able to plant peas or put a few things out in the cold frame...nope. Too cold! And the soil is nowhere near workable yet. Instead, we thinned and transplanted some of our little seedlings.

Just one in each cup now! I am curious (and sort of nervous) to see how they will fare. We used a hint from Mother Earth News and used a plastic fork with the outer tines broken off to gently dig them up and transplant them to their own little paper cup full of damp potting soil. Digging them up was a bit tricky because they have some pretty strong roots and really didn't feel like being transplanted, but we managed! Then we carefully watered them and set them back under the lights.

The other garden news of note is our new cold frame, which is finished and ready to go! We built it out of Trex with a hinged lid made from a wooden frame surrounding a piece of Lexan (kind of a like a sheet of Plexiglass-we found ours at Home Depot). I do not think this is the cheapest way to build a cold-frame but we wanted to build it to last. Glass was our first thought, but due to the amount of snowfall we get, it didn't seem like a good option.

I think this week I will need to pick up some good soil to put inside (or I may try the suggestion in this article about mixing dog food with compost) and then I will try to plant lettuce seeds and perhaps a couple of the larger seedlings out there.

Of course, we are due to get another winter storm this Tuesday! One day before the first day of spring.....life in New England, I guess!

Weekly Garden Journal

I like the idea of keeping a weekly garden journal since so much changes in just a week! So even though there isn't very much to report yet, I'm going to start now...

 We got another four inches of snow the other day. Sigh. But the seeds we planted indoors are doing great! It's amazing how much they have grown just since last week!

We had awesome germination this year, compared to other years. I think it was because I used a heating pad underneath the seed tray for a few hours each day. Not one of those expensive heating mats made for seeds, mind you, just a normal everyday heating pad set on low. So far, I have only started lettuce and kale seeds and I am not yet sure if I will start anything else from seed. Starting tomatoes for this year is out unfortunately;  it just isn't going to work with our time away this spring. When we get back I may start pumpkin and squash seeds indoors, just to get them germinated and give them a little headstart.

The seedlings are easy to take care of and it is a lot of fun to have little green things growing inside when it is still too cold to do any gardening outside.

My Daily Seedling Care Routine

•  Water the seedlings. I like to use a spray bottle because it is easy to control. I  used to use a watering can, but they tended to get swamped.

• Rotate the seedlings. As I water, I rotate the cups around the tray so they are in a different place each day. The cups are fairly well centered under the lights, but I like to give them all a chance to be *right* in the middle.

• Fertilize the seedlings. Once a week, instead of using the spray bottle, I feed them some  fish emulsion from a small watering can. This stuff is kind of pricey, even at the local farm store, but I find a little goes a long way. 

And that's it! The seedlings are under their light 14 hours a day. The lights are set on a simple timer so I don't have to worry about it.  Because believe me, if the seeds depended on me to remember to turn their lights off and on, they would either be totally fried or trying to walk across the room to the window.  I usually take care of my seeds first thing in the morning, right before breakfast. It's a nice start to the day:)

I was hoping it would warm up enough to melt the snow and dry the soil so I could plant my peas on St. Patrick's Day, but that isn't looking likely!

Sprouted

The kale and red lettuce seeds we started indoors last week are up!

 I'm pretty happy with the germination. We planted three seeds per cup and every cup has at least one sprout.  Most have more. I put the seed cups in a plastic bin in the laundry room and covered the bin with loose plastic wrap.

This year, I tried placing a heating pad set on low underneath the bin for a few hours each day. This was easy to do since we have all been home fighting a nasty virus! The seeds seemed to germinate much faster this way, compared to my usual method of sticking the bin on top of the refrigerator.  In fact, one morning I noticed there were four cups that had not sprouted, so I moved them all to one side of the bin, stuck the heating pad under just that side, and left them  for a couple of hours. When I returned, there was a sprout or two in each cup!

So now I am just in spray-and-watch mode. The seedlings are as close to the light as I can get them and the lights are on for 14 hours per day. We use a timer to turn them on and off, because I can never remember. I raised the bin up on a shelf and stacked some books under the bin to get it as close to the light as possible. In another week or so, I plan to start watering them with some diluted fish emulsion.

 I thought about starting tomatoes from seed this year but we have a vacation coming up and I didn't want our animal sitter to have more to deal with. These guys will be out in the garden before then, so they shouldn't cause too much trouble.

I find myself sneaking down to see the sprouts first thing each morning and fuss over them a little before the day really starts. Seedlings are such happy little things:).

Starting From Seed

We started our first seeds indoors yesterday. We have been cooped up for nearly a week now with one or another family member fighting some nasty flu-like virus, so this was a nice little escape for us healthier ones:).

I followed seed starting directions found in a recent issue of Mother Earth News. Basically we:

• Used a pencil to punch three holes in some small paper cups, then filled them to the top with seed germinating mix. 

• Planted each cup with either 3 Red Salad Bowl lettuce seeds or 3 Kale Vates seeds. We left the lettuce uncovered, as per directions. The Kale got covered with 1/4 inch of the germinating mix. 

• Watered the cups and set them in a large plastic container. We used craft sticks to label our varieties.

• Draped the container loosely with plastic wrap to help keep the seeds warm. 

• Set the container in a sunny spot in the laundry room where it will hopefully stay warm enough for germination. 

Now we are just in wait-and-water mode. Once I see some sprouts, they will go under our grow lights until they are ready to move out to the cold frame.

It is so nice to be gardening again:)

Linking up with Simple Lives Thursday

The Seeds Are Here!

My seed order came in today. I am so excited! A box of seeds is one of the best Valentine's Day presents-not better than chocolate or flowers or the sweet valentines from the kiddos-but still pretty darn good. I checked over the packing list and it seems that everything arrived, except one of the lettuces which is back-ordered.

We also ordered horseradish and seed potatoes from the same company but those will ship a bit later, closer to planting time. We ordered from Harris Seeds this year, because I felt like trying a new place. They offer a free gardening guide when you order, which is actually quite helpful. It has information about spacing, planting depth, thinning, and how to start each plant. I took it with me to the kids' swim class this afternoon and enjoyed flipping through it.

 I also started my garden journal today. I am just using a simple notebook and making a page for each vegetable planted. I have never done this before, but have often wished I had a record of which varieties we have tried in past years. The journal will also be a place to record successes, failures, and planting notes, as well as thoughts about next year's garden. When it comes time to order seeds, my brain turns to mush and I cannot remember how many beans we planted last year or whether we had enough cilantro. So this should help, if I can remember to use it.

 I'm pretty excited about all this! It looks like the first order of business will be to put some sort of cold frame together, hopefully in the next few weeks. Then we can plant up some lettuce and kale!

2013: Year of the Garden

I really tried to make my garden plans realistic this year. I fear I have failed. I blame the fact that we had a two day blizzard going on while I made my seed order. But also, I have decided this should be "The Year of the Garden". I really, really love adding to the homesteading type things we do, but it's hard not to go too far too fast, so in general we have tried to just do one major thing each year.  Looks like this year, the focus is going to be on growing more plants, instead of animals, like the last few years.

2010 was The Year of the Chickens. We built a coop and got a dozen layers. I really consider this year the start of our little farm, though we had always kept a small vegetable garden before that.

2011 was The Year of The Ducks and Guineas (and More Chickens). We got four Cayuga ducklings. We have lost one since then. They are awesome layers and the eggs are great for baking with. We also got 9 more chickens- one of which turned out to be a surprise rooster. Unfortunately, the younger batch do not lay nearly as well as the older batch! We also got four guinea hens, to help control ticks, and because I thought they were neat. Those birds were pretty much a dismal failure at doing anything useful except  making a ton of racket. I no longer find them "neat".  The male was aggressive and had to be gotten rid of. And now we are down to just one guinea! Plus three ducks, 16 chickens, and a rooster.

2012 was The Year of the Goats. We have three. They are not for milking, or eating. The hope is that they will provide some brush control, helping to keep our field clear of wild blackberries. And of course they are just super cute. We love our goats!

2013, then, is going to be The Year of the Garden. We will be planting rhubarb and raspberries, in addition to the blueberries we already have. And then:

Tomatoes & cherry tomatoes
Herbs-parsley, basil, dill, cilantro, chamomile
Horseradish
Garlic
Potatoes
Green Beans
Carrots
Cucumber-slicing & picklers
Lettuce and Microgreens
Kale
Sugar Pod Peas
Radish
Pumpkins-mini & jack o'lantern-sized
Swiss Chard
Zucchini & Summer Squash
Butternut Squash
Pak Choi
Nasturtiums (edible flowers!)

Most of these thing we have tried in the past. The garlic, horseradish, kale, Swiss chard, butternut squash, Pak Choi, and nasturtiums are new to us. We are planning to put in a few more raised beds and might also try a cold-frame for the first time. We may end up starting some seeds indoors, not sure about that yet.  Last year, we had a farm share for most of our vegetables but this year we decided it was just too inconvenient to get to the farm every week since it is a half-hour drive. So that is one reason we are doing a bigger garden this year.  The other reason is- I just feel like it:). I say that now, ask me again in June when I'm up to my knees in weeds!