Seed Starting Basics

It's nearly spring and everybody I know has Spring Fever. We ALL want to get outside and dig in the dirt. Lucky for us, we've had a lot of moisture, but digging in mud isn't good for the garden or the gardener.

How about starting a few plants from seed this year? It's really not as hard as you might think. Let me share a few tips that I've learned over the past few years.

Step 1: Choose your seeds. I realize this could be an entire blog post and I may write up something. What you need to know is: your growing zone and what you want to grow. I prefer growing Heirloom seeds (i.e. not genetically modified) because I can save seeds from this year's crop and grow them again next year, and eventually, it will be a zero-cost garden.

Most seed packages will tell you if you should direct sow or start indoors. Finding the last frost date for your area is a simple check of google. Count backwards the # of weeks indicated and then you'll know when to start your seeds indoors. Suffice to say, don't wait until May to decide to grow tomatoes from seed - there's just not enough warm season left to do this (well, it CAN be done, but it takes more work!)

Step 2: Now that you've gotten your seed, what do you grow it in? A few years ago, I stopped at the seed store and picked up several flats: sealed bottom, perforated bottom, divided and clear dome lids. Now, you don't need to go to this expense. Prior to that, I started seeds in leftover plastic containers (think salad bar to go boxes) and plastic wrap. ANYTHING that will hold soil will be fine to grow seeds in. I just upgraded so I'd have the uniform flats to re-use. All I need to do is wash them with a bleach/water solution prior to using. For growing medium, I use a mixture of Peat Moss and Vermiculite. You can see that I buy the X-LARGE bags of each. I use a lot of growing medium as we start over 600 plants each year. You may be fine to get the smaller bags, but for savings, get big bags and share w/ other gardeners. I mix at a 50/50 ratio in a large rubbermaid tote and wet it down as I go. TIP: mix outdoors! It's a very dusty!

Depending on the seed, I will use different inserts. For tomatoes and peppers, I prefer the 9-holes. For onions, I prefer an undivided tray. My son prefers the peat pots (we also were intrigued by the cow manure pots - but that's for another year.) After you fill your pot/flat with the peat/vermiculite mix, tuck the seeds in. Spray until the surface is dampened and cover it. I do not use heat mats of any kind as we have a large picture window that is south facing. It heats up quite nicely and I've not needed heat mats.

TIP: Leave one spot open in the middle - it'll be very helpful for watering later on. You can also leave a corner spot open. It's just easier to water this way vs. lifting the edge of the tray. (The growing tray is inserted into a sealed bottom tray to contain the water overflow.)

TIP: Use old mini-blinds for plant markers. Just cut to fit inside the lids and mark with a sharpie.

Step 3: As soon as the seeds sprout, REMOVE THE LID and water from the bottom only! Let the surface dry out. If you don't, damping off can occur. See above plant - the roots are literally growing above the soil line. There isn't much hope of saving plants when this has occurred. It's best to chuck them and start a new batch of seeds. Watering from the bottom will encourage plant roots to grow down. A lot of seed growers use oscillating fans to help keep the surface dry. Fans also strengthen the plant as it gets blown around (similar to outdoor conditions.)

Step 4: Once the plant has it's leaves formed, it's time to get them under a grow light. You CAN grow in window light, but you'll have more spindly plants and you'll want to turn the trays daily to avoid the hard lean that develops.

TIP: You can make your own grow station. I have this wire rack shelf I got from Target for around $35. It hold 6 flats on the 3 shelves with lights hooked to underneath shelf above via S-hooks and tiny chains. I can raise/lower the lights as needed. I set my lights to about 2" above the plants and move them up as needed. I purchased the lights from Walmart and have grow bulbs in them - not florescent bulbs.

In a few weeks, I'll share updated photos as this is not the only grow station we'll have. Our living room gets so stuffed with plants that by April, I'm stir crazy to get them outside. I do have a mini-greenhouse plus a cold frame where they all hang out until it's time to plant.

Happy Growing!!

Rain followed by Sun

Less than 2 weeks ago, the potato patch was spotty, at best.

Then it rained and rained. Finally, the sun shone. And, now you can practically watch it grow. Sadly, the weeds are growing just as fast.



Emma turned 3. She has discovered Barney so Gma got her 2 Barney videos. She also noticed, for the first time, that we have a Barney beach towel (was Dalton's ~ 12 years ago!). It's hers now. She's the most singy of all the kiddos, so we belt out the ole "I love you, You love me" song at the top of our lungs, and we don't care how much eye rolling occurs ~ secretly, we know they are singing too. :D

Inspired by Paul, I begged, pleaded, asked to have one so Jerry built this trellis system for the yellow squash, butternut squash and loofah. He used scrap lumber and also t-posts for anchors. I've got to tie the string on, and it's good to go. I have to decide if I'm going to want more for the cucumbers and tomatoes. How does one stake 75 tomato plants while on a limited budget?! Suggestions, please!



I can not stop taking pictures of the chix. They make it easy by hurtling towards me where ever I am. LOL That never gets old!!

Speaking of chicks, I have been letting the meat birds free range outside in the afternoons. What does this shot look like to you?! A daisy? Yeah, me too. One week to go til butcher date.

I should do updates to the challenges, but I don't feel like it. LOL So much is going on right now in the garden - doubling it has been a bit of a pain. Grass turf is a bugger to get thru. The ground underneath hasn't seen the light of day for 35+ years (back when it was farmland/tilled fields.) So, we are transplanting the turf, double digging, adding compost to holes, mulching between plants and looking forward to this fall when we can plow it all under.

• Blackberry and blueberry bushes arrived, yet to be planted.
• Lettuce is slow coming up, so are radishes.
• Peas are a total loss thanks to the chickens for scratching them up, twice.
• Rhubarb should be harvested.
• We got asparagus in small spurts, never enough all at once, but I planted 10 more.
• Planted another peach tree ~ Elberta.
• Jerry & I shared the first strawberry of the season.
  

Cole, Braden & Dalton

The boys had a Father/Son fishing trip this past weekend. While they were gone, the girls painted nails, went shopping for coloring books & stickers and had a sleep over in mom's bed.

We have an entire week of balmy, breezy spring-time-in-Kansas weather forecasted (which translates to highs of 80, lows of 60, winds 10-25 mph and low humidity.) Paradise on the prairie!

Indeterminate or Determinate?

Can't wait to pick something!

I am so impatient to plant the rest of my garden that I decided to toss 10 tomato plants in the ground last night. If they don't make it due to this chilly, wet weather, well, I've got hundreds more. At least I feel a little more productive right now.

When I started them from seed, I just wrote the name of tomato on each stake and failed to include any info. It's important to me to have determinate & indeterminate tomatoes planted in specific places in the garden, more for the difference in staking than anything.

What's the difference? Well, Determinate will set fruit all at once and then they're done. So you can pull the plants out and do something else in that spot. Indeterminate will continue fruiting as long as there is favorable conditions (not too hot, not too cold.)

Rather than have to dig thru the seed packets, I turned to Wikipedia and found this table of Tomato Cultivars. It came in pretty handy.

On a side note, I'm glad I didn't plant last Thursday when all my neighbors did. We got hit with penny to nickel sized hail and they've all lost their tomatoes. I haven't had much luck with having tomatoes bounce back after being destroyed by hail. Other plants/vines come back, but not the tomatoes. Now, they're all in a scramble trying to find more. I have plenty to share of certain varieties, thankfully.

When I plant my tomatoes, I put about 1 tablespoon of Epson Salts in the bottom of the hole (our soil test shows we're on the low side for Magnesium). Add a little compost, then set the plant. I actual bury my tomatoes up to their uppermost leaves. A past neighbor of ours actually laid his in the ground horizontal and gently bent the leave up above ground. Either way, it seems to help the plant set out additional roots. More roots = more stability in these winds.

I am listening to the thunder as I type this, thankful that my collector hubby has a large supply of milk crates. All the maters have their milk crate armor on ~ hopefully this will ward off any hail/dogs/chickens/kids. LOL What we gardeners go thru, huh?!

Potato Admiration

I was reading ATW's post about how he and his wife are having an herb contest and I can so relate! My husband and I disagree on just about everything (when they say opposties attract, we took it to the EXTREME). Usually with us, the person with more experience gets his/her way... not so with the garden.






Take the above photo. It is of my good neighbor's potato patch. See how close the rows are? See how close the plants are? SIGH. THAT's how I wanted MY potatoes to be planted. Why? Well, it works for my neighbor and it's space saving.



This photo is of 1/2 of our potato area. See all the missing holes? Complete missing rows ~ okay you don't know what's missing, but I do! I told my husband that we should plant like good neighbor, but noooooooo... we have to do it well spaced out. So, now? Now we get to double the size of our garden because we're out of room. (And, if you're wondering why I didn't plant the potatoes myself, well, we were working "together" that day and I let him have his way.)
It's somewhat hard to see, but Jerry is scalping the lawn about 15 feet out from the current garden. This will give us roughly 35' x 75' plus several raised beds that are in another part of the yard. I had wanted to enlarge it last fall, but it didn't happen - we were debating the merits of enlarging it... suffice to say, he came to my conclusion. *ahem*



Since you're here touring, let me show you what's growing...




See all the greenery in the rows between the raised beds? Can you guess what they are? If you said potatoes, you are the Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner! (what does that mean, anyway? lol) When you don't harvest 100%, the ones left in the ground will grow the next spring. So, we have about 25 bonus plants growing in all kinds of odd places. If they survive the traffic patterns, we'll harvest them too.

Raspberry bushes are looking quite flush. Only 1 failed to sprout so back it goes for an exchange.

Broiler chickens are huddled together in the revised chicken tractor. It's chilly and drizzly today, but they are fully feathered so should be okay. At night, their tractor is covered and stays very warm. I only wish we knew how old they were - we bought them from Atwoods & all they could tell us was they were between 1 - 4 weeks old. So, they are now somewhere between 5 -8 weeks. We plan to butcher around Memorial Day weekend.

Strawberry beds are not as assalted with the poultry netting on, but the Chickens still get in and create havoc. We'll be ordering the electric poultry fencing. We'll either put it around the garden to keep the girls out or create a run to keep them in. It's being debated. :D
Speaking of keeping things out, I don't know if I shared a photo of the rhubarb rescue Jerry built. It has worked great at keeping the horses from eating the stalks to the ground. They keep trying, but they can't quite reach the edge to pull it over. Ha ha ha ~ foiled you!

Tiptoe in my Tulips

Red Tulips now, Red Geraniums to come

My front porch has been converted into a seeding station. I found the mini-greenhouse at Lowe's and it works GREAT! Not all of these flats actually fit in there, some stay indoors at night. Even with yesterday's 50 degree, cloudy day, inside the greenhouse, it was a balmy 62. I do have to keep a close eye on the temp though and unzip it and roll up the one side just about the time the sun starts hitting it - it heats up quick!

Future red raspberry plants hanging out until the ground dries out enough to be planted. Buds are already appearing on them. Oddly, the nursery didn't send the blackberry plants at the same time, but the blueberries have shipped.

Last Friday, Emma and I went to the feed store to check for seed potatoes - we couldn't resist looking at the ducks and chickens. And, wouldn't you know, 10 Cornish Rocks ended up in our shopping cart. These are the trial run birds -the big order shows up next month. Trial run as in: we-don't-know-how-to-butcher-but-heck-we're-gonna-give-it-a-whirl.

I'm not grooving on their disposition - if you've ever seen the movie Wall-E, they remind me of those humans - completely uninterested in moving around on their own. They lay by the feed trough and eat, LAYING DOWN. This isn't okay with me! (their bellies are featherless and dirty, ugh!) I'm used to free-ranging, independent beauties that spend all their time foraging, dust bathing and dashing all around the yard. These birds? L A Z Y. I did read a good article about an alternative to Cornish Cross for meat birds. After the next batch comes and goes into the freezer, I think we'll give an alternative a try. Meanwhile, I put the birds in the chicken tractor on nice sunny days in hopes they move around a bit more.

Besides, sunshine is a great boost for whatever ails you, right?!

The free rangers chose one strawberry bed as their own personal dig zone. They ignored the fencing and my hollering and chasing. They waited until my back was turned, and IN they'd go. Now, I know the bed has juicy worms and other yummy bugs, but I'm trying to grow enough berries to actual put some up this year as in jam and P I E. So, I took a great tip from Amy over at Twelve Acres and I put poultry netting out. HaHaHa - foiled the birds. I let my netting float on the main part of the bed and just have it pinned on the corners. I ended up having to do this on all the beds - too tempting for the chooks. As much as I love them and their free ranging ways, I have to have food this year too. They decimated the broccoli and cabbage beds before I got the netting on. Sigh. As an aside, do they make a netting to keep kids out of strawberries?

Here are some of the lovely Ladies in action. Yes, I know they look innocent, but those feet can dig like you wouldn't believe! In the background, you can see the absolute BARE earth that is their run - they took it from luscious grass to bare earth in a mere 3 days. This bit in front of their run is on the thin side, but it's a good fescue blend and should bounce back with enough sunshine and rain.

Rhubarb Pests

This is what one of my Rhubarb plants looks like (by the way, is that a SEED STALK shooting up? If so, what do I do with it?)

This is what my other Rhubarb plant looks like.

This is what is eating my Rhubarb...

time to call their owners and ask that the electric fence be put back up and turned on.

IDC Update #2

1) Plant Something

I planted the broccoli and cabbage out in the new raised beds. There were 24 plants each that I had started from seed. 2 days after planting, we had a hard freeze. They were heavily mulched, but time will tell if they survived. I also planted 180 onion bulbs and hundreds of potatoes (we quit counting after 160). Peas are up and have survived 2 snow days plus a couple of freezes. Lettuce, carrots and spinach are planted but have yet to appear. I did start several new flats of seeds and I'm most excited about the tomato seeds Judy sent me. Thanks Judy!!

2) Harvest Something
We ate the last of the indoor grown lettuce. This was the 5th cutting on it and what's left got sent out to the chickens. We picked and ate the first onions and garlic from the garden. I've got to be patient and let it continue to grow - but boy, is that hard.

3) Preserve Something

I made grape jelly from frozen concentrate. It was so easy! I'm looking forward to having our own grape juice from the bartered vines this summer. Here's a link to the grape jelly recipe I used. I did go ahead and can the jelly. We got 6 jelly jars. Next time, I'll skip the cutie pie jars and just use the pint or even quart. The kids eat jelly and peanut butter like crazy. I also made up the last batch of peanut butter. Find that recipe here. Good neighbor gave us dozens of loaves of bread, some of it ended up as bread crumbs and others as dried bread for stuffing.

4) Prep Something
More work on the canning shelves and the jars themselves. Since I'd bought so many off Craigslist last summer, I didn't get around to washing them all up. I'd rather do a batch a day now then when canning is in high gear. I think I've got about 400 more jars to go. Also, we re-worked the shed so one side is for potting. I re-potted 200+ tomato plants as well as basil.

5) Cook Something

I've been cooking dinner every night. Jerry and I can't remember the last time we ate out! I did find a recipe for Papa Murphy's Garlic Chicken Pizza that we'll try this week. I love cooking and eating at home but every now and then, I miss certain dishes.

6) Manage Your Reserves

Our canned reserves are nearly gone. Last count we had 4 quarts of pears left and 6 pints of apple butter. I have put together a list of what I'd like to can this year including meats and it's pretty extensive. I better get the core workouts in now for those long days of standing on my feet. LOL If anyone knows where to buy canning lids in bulk, I'd love to have that as a resource. The first batch of meat birds have been ordered and will be here in May. Jerry found out that a neighbor's uncle has a plucker that we can barter for. Yes! Plucking seems to be the hardest part of butchering.

7) Work on Local Food Systems

I attended the Delano Neighborhood meeting last week where they discussed their plans for the community garden behind the Senior Center in conjunction with IGO. I was there to get more info about being a vendor for their Farm & Art Market. It seems they have a lot of good structure in place and I hope they go ahead with the Market. We are now yard sharing nearly 4 acres of garden spaces across the city. Susan with IGO said they have a few spots we could adopt too which I'm very grateful for. I drive around town and see all the spaces and think "Boy could I grow a lot there!". I had contacted The Lord's Diner to see if they had a community garden where I could volunteer, but was told that they were unable to have one or even accept locally grown produce as their status didn't allow for that. I've sent an email to a few places that have food pantries (churches) to see if they'd like a community garden started or if they have one, we could volunteer once a week. No word back yet.

8) Barter

I have discovered how much I enjoy bartering! There are many things I'd like to have, but I just don't want to spend money on them when I've got stuff I could swap. For example, we swap eggs for milk, sourdough bread and cookies. I swapped Irises for some garden pots. I've got a gal who'll buy me canning lids in exchange for the abundance of rings I have. I participated in the seed swaps and I'll be swapping tomato plants for some pepper plants.

9) Misc

When we got the current month's electric bill, I looked at the usage comparison for last year to this year. We are down nearly 100 kwh!!!! This is HUGE! It's amazing that we did that as I now work from home (with a computer on all day long plus printer) which I thought would use more electricity plus we've been running a heat lamp for the chickens most of the winter. We did switch out most of the light bulbs and we quit using the dishwasher in January. We also sealed up the exterior door in kitchen to stop the air loss and installed the new dryer vent. I have hung laundry out several times this winter, but often it was too cold or humid so we opted to use the dryer. I guess all the little changes added up. I wish I could say the same for the gas bill. It was down (thanks in part to the Freeze Yer Buns Challenge) but not as much as the electricity.

However, I'm still annoyed that the water company charges us a minimum use instead of actual use. We could save $ there for sure. Every little bit counts when you've declared war on debt!

Seed Swap

I joined Howling Hill's seed swap because I knew I'd be introduced to new stuff. The envelope arrived yesterday from Mindy and I was NOT disappointed! Before I even opened it, I could smell something delicious - even the mail lady asked what it was.

As it turns out, it was Garlic - several cloves.

As I've never done a seed swap before, I wasn't sure what to expect. Take a close look at the photo - there are dozens and dozens of different seeds in there.

Part of the instructions said "No GM" (genetically modified) which is awesome. Up until very recently, I was completely unaware of the impending status of our seed sources here in the U.S. If we don't do something about it, soon the availability of seed plus the sheer amount of different types of seed is going to be gone.

When I started blog reading, many people said they bought their seeds from one company or another, mostly based off of price or customer service. However, I discovered this list which should help you to find more heirloom, non-hybrid seeds. If you're like me and you have some of the hybrid GM seeds, use them up or give them away. If you do use them, don't bother to harvest the seeds.

I joined the Seed Savers Challenge a while ago and I hope you will to. We all need to do our part to save heirloom, open pollinated, NON GM seeds.

Okay, off my soap box and on to the seeds!

There were so many incredible options to choose from. It was a seed buffet in that overstuffed envelope!

I took pinch amounts of seeds except for one package which only had a few seeds and I took them all. So here's a sampling of what I pinched:

Moon & Stars Watermelon

Speckled Limas - okay, confession time - I don't like Limas but the seeds look COOL

Nu Mex Big Jim chili pepper

Green Culinary Sage

Garlic cloves

Gold Nugget Squash

Banana Squash

Parisan Pickling Cucumber

Bushel Gourds

Sweet Fennel

Rhubarb (I had no idea it went to seed!!!)

Lumina White Pumpkin

White tipped scarlet Radish

Coriander (Cilantro before it bolts, right?)

Long Purple Eggplant

Fava Bean - again, NO CLUE why I took 4 beans except they are COOL looking

Dill

Mustard Greens

I put in:

Mortgage Lifter Tomato

Arkansas Traveler Tomato

Super Sioux Tomato

Chives

Stevia

Sweet Majoram

Zinnia

Marigold

The flowers were the only seeds I'd saved from my own garden, the rest came from a reliable source for non-GM seeds.

I was lucky enough to live close to the next participant on the list, Phelan, and I hand delivered the package to her earlier today, although I did offer to mail it :D

Thank you Howling Hill and Mindy and all the other swap participants! This year, when I'm working in the garden, I'll think of you.

If you haven't participated in a seed swap, I highly encourage you to do so!

To Do List is Shrinking

My office is just inside the sliding glass doors off our deck. It used to be the dining room, but whoever built this house must've thought nobody used dining rooms anymore. It was so small that when our family was at the table (every night for dinner) people were trapped until the first person was done. LOL So, we put the table in our family room (hearth room?) and made this into my office. The point being, I work from home and from my desk, I see the patio all day long. The patio is our junk drawer. We have several projects that are being worked on plus stuff being stored and it just becomes a mess. It's depressing to look at a junk heap everyday. This was near the top of the list to be tackled this week. I'm happy to report, the shed got cleaned out & painted, and became my potting shed. So, all the gardening equip is now in the shed! The chicken brooder is completed and awaiting meat birds. The horrid shrubs got pulled out and in their place will be the raspberry bushes. The smoker found a new home. All the other projects got relocated so now we can use our patio for meals and relaxation ~ as it was meant to be!

I've been collecting materials to make more square foot gardens. I like the look of the concrete block beds. You can grow flowers or herbs in the blocks and veggies in the bed. We got these free off Craigslist. Lined with cardboard to kill the grass, filled with top soil mixed with compost and leaves. I tucked in the rest of our seed potatoes and onions around the perimeter. I plan to grow tomatoes inside it and basil in the blocks. You just can't have too much basil!

Here are 4 more new SFG beds. One for green beans, one for carrots (the deeper one in front), one for spinach/lettuce/leeks and the 4th one for cabbace and broccoli. We have enough lumber to make 3 more beds. If we measured correctly, this side of our yard can hold 15 raised beds total.

Also found on CL - 3 water barrels! They appear to be soap barrels, maybe from a carwash? The concrete pad was here already. We found a shed on CL and took it apart, moved it home and put it back up again. It wasn't as big as the concrete pad, so there's about 4' of concrete on the backside of the shed. That's where Jerry is going to install the rain barrels - one for intake, 2 for overflow. These bushes have to go to. We've been slowly removing them and replacing with edible shrubs.

Oh, and can't forget the curb find. A perfectly good double sink with legs that Jerry is going to rig up to be our outdoor sink using rain barrel water. The drain will empty into the garden.

We got the yard picked up and the first mowing of the year done. It's always so nice to have the brown gone and green grass appear. Tonight, we are expecting severe weather - 1" hail, thunder, lightening and wind. Oh the wind! It's been gusting so much it's hard to get anything done outside. Tornadoes are also a possibility - so I'm off to prep our tornado kit. I learned from a good friend who survived her house being blown apart (she was under it at the time) to ALWAYS make sure to have tornado preps in place. Ah, spring in Kansas. Gotta love it.

Wah! Spring Break is almost over!

This year, Jerry took a week of vacation during spring break. It was SO nice to have him home to help wrangle the kids as well as put a major dent in the to-do list. I just wish every week was spring break ~ okay, maybe not, but it sure is nice to have a week off together.

Rhubarb plants have put on a nice new growth. The one on the lower left is in it's 3rd year. This may be the year we actually get to eat some! Neighbor's horses got it all last year. Sigh.

Peas, garlic and onions hanging out in a SFG. I stuck a trellis in that we got last year at the Hayes Company sale. The wire fencing was such an incredible bargain. TSC had it marked for 10 cents a package on clearance last fall. We bought 2 boxes ~ approx 50 packages. I doubt I'll ever be that lucky again! Fencing is a MUST with free rangers - they eat whatever they can find. The missing peas on the left side of the trellis were dug up by the chicks who hop over the fencing. We've got to work on their obediance training.

Potatoes are in - alas, I ran out of garden before I ran out of taters. So, I'm tucking the rest in wherever I can find a spot. The chicks are happy to patrol for bugs and worms... but I think we may have to fence them out once things get growing.

Here's the inside of the cold frame. Jerry re-inforced the top with wire before re-doing the plastic. I've got 3 flats of tomatoes, broccoli and cabbage hanging out. There is room for 30 trays which will be great as long as nothing is too tall.

The chicks have their own water dish that is cleaned and refilled daily. But, for whatever reason, they prefer the dog's water. There is at least 2 or 3 of them having a cluck and a drink whenever I look outside. I love my back patio - it's where I work on new seed flats and is the staging area for all gardening projects. However, I may have to ban the chicks because I found peck holes in several seed potatoes and they discovered a package of seeds and were attempting to peck it open. Helpful they are not, but oh they are so entertaining!

Help a Newbie Gardener

I twitter... or do I tweet? I'm not sure, but I do follow some interesting folks. I try to keep it local (why would I care what someone was eating for lunch on the other side of the world?) However, I do follow gardeners from all over. I find my passion for this hobby is just growing - pun intended. LOL

I enjoy feeding people - I love to cook and I volunteer to make meals for our church all the time. Having a baby? I'm on the way with 5 different casseroles. Put that together with my love for gardening (and helping new folks get started) and this tweet piqued my interest:

hyperlocavoreWe need seed angels! Do you have extra seeds - Get a newbie garden going! http://tinyurl.com/ajh8pj 24 minutes ago from web

Dang it if I only knew how to cut and paste so it'd look like a Tweet. (Karen, I need lessons!)

Anyway, head over to her website and check it out. If you don't feel like joining, maybe there's a newer gardener in your area/church/group of family or friends that would love some seeds. Share some and spread the gardening fever.

Please Share Your Wisdom

I am bartering with a super nice lady. She has 3 flower beds to be maintained and in exchange for the weeding and mulching, I get free use of a garden bed, all the fruit and nuts I want from some trees and bushes plus free horse manure. It's an awesome swap! Found it on Craigslist. :)

She has 2 things that I've never taken care of before. Since wise people keep telling me that I can't learn it all thru just reading about it, I thought I'd ask for advice from the 'net.

The two things are: grape vine and blackberry bushes.

The grape vine is growing on a very sturdy fence and has 2 main branches going each direction. Off of each of these main branches are tons of smaller branches plus, one end has grown so long, it's now sticking up out of the top of a nearby apple tree. I'd estimate that it's about 15' past the end of the fencing structure.

Question: How much do I prune back? Can I take the prunings and dip it in root stimulator thereby propogating new grape vines? Does it need any other care?

The blackberry bushes appear to have been whacked accidentally with a weed whacker, causing some damage.

Question: Should those canes be pruned? If yes, what time of year are they pruned? Before fruiting or after?

I wish I had taken photos when I met with her, but it was an incredibly windy day. I will next time I'm out there. Oh, and there are pecan trees. What do you know about them? Thank you!!

Seed Starting

I started 12 flats last Thursday. By Sunday, some of them had sprouted. I have broccoli, cabbage, onions and herbs going. A few tomatoes too but I think it's a bit early for them as I tend to wait until May to plant tomatoes and peppers.

What I noticed was a huge difference in the soil-less mixes. On the left is Bacto and on the right is the Miracle Grow Seed starting mix which appears to be just peat moss with vermiculite/perlite in it. Both of these flats are broccoli. As is recommended, I wet the mixes then put it in the flats. I put in seeds and covered with plastic. The Bacto held moisture while the peat moss didn't. I've had to spray the peat moss daily. I've even watered the holding tray hoping that the bottom wicking would help, but I don't see any improvement. It is a little early to tell, but I'm not convinced that the peat moss mix will do anything as it just doesn't retain moisture.

So, I'm going to re-use the peat moss and mix up a batch of Paul's recipe. This peat moss mix was something I had left over from last fall. It was a small bag that has a price of $6 on it. However, the large bags of peat moss are just $9 ~ that's about 3 cubic feet! Yowza! I'm glad I only bought that one small bag.

I found the Bacto at Valley Feed & Seed. They swear it's the best. The 50 pound bag filled 8 trays and I've got enough left to do at least 5 more.

For the basil and onions, I just sowed a tray with seeds. I'll transplant them into bigger pots later.

I've got these all on a 6' table in a south facing window. It's been pretty good so far, but I will either hang lights over them (to keep them from getting too leggy) or move them out to the cold frame when they're bigger. Since it's mostly cold weather stuff, I think it'll do okay outside.

Cold Frame Built

Ignore the bits of lunch clinging to her sweet face.

She was too busy to wash up ~ she wanted to get out into the snow.

Photos to follow: the dear, sweet, 2 year old resident "borrowed" the card reader. Ahem. She isn't sure what she did with it... but she usually remembers. If not, she's heading out to buy momma a new one later.

UPDATE: Big sis found it tucked into the sliding door on the front of the computer tower.

This lovely assistant is showing how the venting portion works.

Reading over at Garden Desk, I was especially eager to get the book Marc recommended, The 12 Month Gardener, Simple Strategies for Extending Your Growing Season by Jeff Ashton, because that's where they got the plans for their wonderful greenhouse. I've wanted a greenhouse for a while, but more so since I started reading Fast Grow The Weeds blog.

I ordered the book and read it cover to cover as soon as it arrived last week. It certainly lives up to the great reviews. When you want to try to grow year 'round, you'll need season extenders. Some of them can be extremely pricey, and when hunting for DIY projects, there's just not a lot out there for sturdy greenhouses. Beyond the greenhouse, the book has plans for using basic floating row covers, constructing tunnels, stoop and hoop houses, plus info on using cloches and of course, building a cold frame. I had been saving old windows, but as the book points out, they might not be safe to use with pets, kids and even adults. We'll repurpose those for smaller cold frame projects (straw bales come to mind) that won't be in use where someone could get hurt.

Building the frame took about 4 hours from start to finish. I was really surprised at how big it turned out to be. For some reason, I have a terrible time picturing a completed size. I guess we could have marked out the frame before we built it but really, the book assures us that had we gone smaller, we'd have regretted it. Thankfully, we have lots of room in the yard. All that's left to do is staple the greenhouse wrap on it and start growing. Now that it's done, I'm not so sure that I need a greenhouse after all. I mostly wanted one to start seeds but this cold frame can do that and more. We laid out every flat we have and we only filled it halfway. That leaves plenty of room for moving plants into larger pots and even just growing directly in it.

The book does suggest painting the interior white, which will help to add extra light bouncing around in there.

I'm really excited to get started... and just in time for the weather to be predicted for mid 60's this weekend! Isn't it still February? That's Kansas weather for you.