a little progress on the to-do list

Back on January 19 I created a list of goals for the garden.  You can see the list here.  I am pleased to report a little progress on a couple of the items on the list. 

On the weekend we had a bit of sun and some warmth so it was a good day to work outside.  I always like to reuse items if I can and last year Nikole and Brad shared some fencing that they had purchased for their yard hoping to deter their large number of bunny visitors to their garden.  They did not feel that the wire was successful and brought their excess to the farm.  There was a lot of fencing and last year I cut a bunch of it to make a trellis for the pole beans and a second one for the peas.  I used some of it to make a few tomato cages from this plan.  I wanted to see if I liked them and if they worked as well as advertized (they did) I would make more.  I also had spotted a couple of wooden rectangles constructed of 2z4s in the machine shed that at one time had belonged to my dad and he was willing to share so I topped each of the frames with fencing to make racks for curing/drying vegetables after harvest.  This was not on the to-do list and would not be needed until harvest but since they required a bigger section of the fencing it made since to cut those bigger pieces first and then the smaller pieces for the tomatoes from what was left.  I was able to get fencing cut and attached to the 2x2 posts to make six tomato stakes.  I have a bunch more to do but was glad to have gotten a start.  The next warm day I hope to knock out a few more. 

Also on the list were several items in the greenhouse. I am always looking to make better use of the limited growing space in the greenhouse.  Note to anyone thinking of building a winter growing space: if you can, build it bigger than you think you want!  Back in December I added a shelf for germinating seeds.  I was able to find a coated wire shelf at Menards that fit my seedling heat mat and mounted it on the wall.  This freed up table space for another couple of tubs of lettuces.  Not long after that Caitlin and I were back at Menards and bought 10 metal L shaped shelf brackets to put on the East and West end walls for more shelving.  This shelving would hold flats of seedlings that come off the heat mat and trays of shoots and cresses that are grown right in the black trays.  I put up four of the brackets and scrounged up two 48 inch long pieces of plywood for two four foot long shelves on the west wall.  For a few days the boards rested on top of the shelf brackets without being fastened as I wanted to make sure that I had it right before committing to it permanently.  I was kind of glad that I waited to fasten as I decided that I would put longer boards and more brackets onthe west wall and move the shorter boards to the east wall. I left that arrangement for a couple of days to make sure that it was right and then fastened it all down.  Number of square feet of growing space added: east wall 8, west wall 16.

east wall

west wall

I did something similar to create suspended shelves over the row of tables in the center of the room.  I wanted a way to use the space above the tables without too much shading of the plants on the tables.  I picked up a couple of coated wire shelves and temporarily hung them with bale twine to see if I liked it.  Once I determined that it would work we purchased more shelving and used hardware and chain that dad had to permanently hang the shelves.  Number of square feet of growing space added above tables: 20.

temporary suspended shelves

new chain supports replace the twine

I am thinking that those spaces will become vital once we get started with growing the summer transplants.

Right now I start my winter greens seeds in the greenhouse but I am starting my tender summer plants in the house where the temperature is consistently warm.  When I have guessed that we are done with below zero temps I will move the seed starting out to the greenhouse but for now, when it drops to way below zero even with supplemental heat it still may drop down to 25° in the greenhouse overnight.  25° degrees is tolerated by the greens but most of the others would be goners.  It is kind of early yet for starting most things but the asparagus seedlings are up and flourishing.  On my to-do list is an item to plant the remaining asparagus.  I am planning four 16 foot long rows of asparagus in my big garden. One went in two years ago and another two went in last year and the last will go in this spring.  We have started all of our asparagus from seed and had good success. 

asparagus seedlings

 Because the asparagus seed packet did not fill my tray I planted some herbs thinking that even though it was too early to start seeds for transplant to the outdoor garden these could be potted up as houseplants until spring.  So I planted some of two kinds of basil, some sage and some thyme.  Below is a basil seedling.  It is so darn cute but also pretty amazing.  It is less than two inches tall and has four leaves but even when it was only two leaves it already had that wonderful basil aroma.  One little whiff has me dreaming of caprese with homemade mozzarella and ripened-on-the-vine-and-warm-from-the-garden tomatoes.

baby basil plant

Think spring!




   

a few notes on what we have learned so far

This was the first year that we have started a lot of seeds for the garden start to finish in the greenhouse.  We had some successes and some failures.  Some things didn't germinate at all.  Some germinated but did not grow.  I don't know all the reasons but I have a few observations.

1. Seed Starting. 

A few of the first seeds planted I filled the cells with the seed mix without wetting it first and then watered it.  I am not sure that the dry mix took up the water the same as if I had mixed it in.  After the first seeds were planted I was watching some seed starting videos and one of the video hosts was talking about seed starting mix needing to be wet when the seed goes in.  After that I wet all of the seed starting mix before using it.  I think there is room for more knowledge with the seed mats

2. Potting Up.

When reading the planting instructions for the vine crops--the melon's, pumpkins and squashes--there were directions for planting as hills and in rows.  I decided to do some of each as an experiment and compare the productivity to see which is a better use of space.  I started some seeds singly per cell to plant out as a row and some of the seeds with three seeds to a cell to plant out as a hill.  They all germinated and I was concerned about the hill groups being crowded so I transferred them to a bigger container fairly quickly after the were up.  They quickly grew tall with large leaves.  About that same time I was gone for a couple days and had lots to catch up when i returned so the singles did not get transplanted to a bigger cup.  The size difference was amazing.  The same thing happened with the tomatoes.  A few of them I potted up into large pots for Nikole to take back to the city and those in the pots grew at a faster rate than the others.  All of the tomatoes had been potted up once from a cell to a 9 oz cup but they never really changed much in the 9 oz cup.  I think that if i had moved them up to a red solo cup or a four inch pot they might have gotten a little bigger before transplanting outside.

This makes me wonder if the impatiens would have done more if I had potted them up right away after they germinated.

Similar things happened with the greens.  I planted a lot of kale and some of it went into self-watering pots or planters, some of it went into Nikole's salad bowls and Asha's garden and some of it went into gutters as transplants.  The kale in the gutters never really grew very much.  The kale in the planters got bigger and the kale in the gutters did not keep up.  I transplanted the kale out of the gutters into the potager in raised beds and it has take off.  the lettuces that were in Nikole's salad bowl were much bigger than the same varieties of lettuces in the gutters.  Next year I will experiment with different spacing in the gutters and see if that makes a difference. 

3. Record Keeping.

This is the system that I used.  I bought alphabet and number stickers.  I labeled all of the gutters.  I labeled all of the white tubs.  I labeled all of the black trays that hold the cells.  I was able to record what was planted in each of the gutters.  I was able to record what was transplanted into the white tubs and if a black tray held all of the same seeds I could record what was in that tray.  I created an Excel page for the gutters and a similar page for the tubs and for the trays.  I listed the numbers or letters down the left side with a space for information about what was growing there.

In addition I bought some plastic row markers.  I have had difficulty with the markings coming off the plastic that I have used in the past so I this time I added stickers with numbers and letters.  The row markers come with three colors to a package, yellow, blue and green.  I bought enough packages that I had 30 of each color and labeled them with the 26 letters of the alphabet and the four extras were numbered 1, 2, 3. and 4.  I then created a sheet in Excel for each color marker with all of the letters/numbers listed down the left side and a place for information about what was planted. 

The final step in my system was colored stickers.  I bought a package of multicolored small blank stickers.  I could then write a number or letter on the sticker and attach the sticker to the cups as I potted up into clear cups or solo cups.  Because the stickers were handwritten I could label all of the transplants from a cell pack the same.

What worked well

The labeling of the gutters, tubs and trays worked great.  I didn't have any stickers that come off.  The plastic markers worked nice.  They were a good choice.  The stickers on the cups worked okay as well.  It wasn't a nuisance to have to hand letter them. I think that it could be that if planning ahead I could figure out how many cups would need to be labeled and that could be done ahead of time, perhaps in the house in the evening, instead of labeling them as I filled them.

What could have worked better

My original plan was to have all of the info in the computer.  The first few entries got into the computer and new sheets printed.  I put the sheets in page protectors in a binder.  My plan was to jot down on the sheet any changes, bring the sheet to the compute at the end of a greenhouse session and put the updates into computer and print a new sheet for the binder. As things got more harried this system fell apart.  I started making notes on post its and scrap paper, my papers got shuffled around a lot and  even misplaced.  I pulled the sheets out of the page protectors but rarely got them back in promptly.   I think next season I will use the same system but instead of a binder I will use a series of clipboards and leave the sheets in the greenhouse with their handwritten updates and maybe weekly bring them up to the house to enter the data in the computer.

I think I will also try and come up with a color coding system for the stickers.  This season the cups were labeled without any thought to the color of the stickers.  I think I can do better with that if I just give it a little thought.  This year we grew several different varieties of some fruits and vegetables.  this occurred partly because of conscious choices we made (tomatoes) and partly because we were using up some old seed with new seed (cantaloupe) or saved seeds with new seed (cucumbers and melons).  I think that next season I will try to label things more consistently and with some planning.

a new gadget

I had a chance to do a little shopping at the garden shops and I was looking for a pH meter and was able to find one at Home Depot. 

I haven't had a chance to try it yet but I am hoping that it will help with the blueberries who love acid soil and are just not doing well where I have them planted.  It also measures soil fertility. 

It has been a busy couple of days.  Yesterday dad loaded up the tiller and we went to work on Lisa's spot at the community garden.  Here are a couple of pictures.  My battery died so I don't have an 'after' picture but the ground looked beautiful.

just getting started

Lisa and Dad

discussion in progress

Today I started transplanting seedlings into bigger pots and will do more tomorrow and hopefully will have pictures.  Also yesterday I had a chance to plant some potatoes in the new cornfield.  The potatoes were Lisa's from last year.  So far there are  three 20 foot rows with more potatoes to plant.  Today we had a nice rain, so I am glad that at least some of them are in the ground. 

Tomorrow some of the tomatoes will be going in big pots to eventually make the big trip to the cities.  They will stay in the greenhouse for a while longer.  We are behind schedule.  Last year at this time they were quite a bit bigger and by last frost date they were near flowering.