a few more greenhouse pictures

One of my greenhouse goals for 2014 is to set up three more pairs of chains to hang gutter planters in.  I set three more as a goal because of the number of rafters that I have available to use to hang the chains.  Right now I have only enough planters planted for one more pair of chains.  So, yesterday when I was in town I picked up two lengths of chain and today I was able to get them hung and the planters in place.  So one more goal partially accomplished.  Before I need to buy more chains I need to get more planters filled and growing. 

While I was out installing the chains and gutters I took a couple more pictures of greens that are growing in the greenhouse.

spinach

red romaine 

claytonia

all star mix

arugula

The arugula is hanging in the new set of chains, along with the claytonia and all star mix. 

Other updates: the tomatoes continue to do well.  This paste tomato has twelve leaves

And look at the roots in the cup.

Yesterday when I changed the water on the sweet potatoes that I am trying to root, I think I may have seen a few baby roots starting to form.  And today I think that there might be one asparagus seedling starting to poke thru from the first batch that was planted. 

I watched a gardening video today that was about starting grape vines from hardwood cuttings and I was inspired to tromp through the knee deep snow to the arbor in order to prune away a couple of vines from the our established grapes and see if I could get them to root.  It sounds like it might be a long process taking up to a year or more to have transplantable plants.  We have used our grapes for jelly and i have a couple gallon freezer bags of frozen grapes in the freezer (thinking wine someday) Ours are all seeded versions and so far our grapes have been tiny so not too easy to eat.  I have not done much for pruning so the small size might be my fault.  I hope to do more pruning to see if it makes a difference in the size of the bunches.  If these cuttings root I am considering training them on wire to see if they are easier to manage. 

corn is getting silks

Our Johnny corn is getting silks.  According to a source on google it should be 18-22 days until harvest.  And that the corn should be at it's best for five days. 

Here is a picture of a melon that is started.  it is about the size of a baseball.  I have some problems with the vines of one variety mingling with the vines of other varieties.  It may take a little work to sort out which is which.  Or we could just wait until they mature to figure out what it is. 

Here is an overall shot of the cornfield taken from the field approach at the west end.  In this picture you can see the corn in the back section.  The Perry corn is on the left and the Johnny corn is to the right (with tassels).  Between the two corn patches are some watermelon and cantaloupe.  In the front sections are the squashes on the left, them more melons, gourds, tomatoes,. cucumbers, beans potatoes and another row of tomatoes and sweet potatoes.

Here is picture of the Johnny corn.  For comparison you can see a fencepost on the right side of the picture.

It is hard to tell but this is two rows of cherry tomatoes that did not get caged.  They have taken over the walk space between them and the space on either side of them.

This is the lemon cucumbers that are spreading across the walkway towards the beans.

This is two rows of gourds that are taking over a row of bush beans on the right.

Tomato plants.  No red tomatoes yet.

first of the month garden update-tomatoes

This year we planted four different varieties of tomatoes, an heirloom, a paste, a cherry and a beef tomato.  We started them all from seeds in the greenhouse and we planted them all into the corn field on raised rows.

In row 3 are the big beef tomatoes.  They are planted on both sides of a fence in kind of an alternating double row.  The plants are tied to the fence.  When I planted them I took the plants that I had and divided them more or less evenly along the fence.  Not a very scientific method to be sure but we will see if they seem to be too close together as the season progresses.

Next  are the cherry tomatoes.  They are planted in two raised rows.  They so far have not gotten any attention as far as trellising.  My plan was to try a couple of methods of trellising that i had not used before and these tomatoes are awaiting that project.

There is a fair amount of difference in size of the plants as some are considerably larger than the others.  There is a some flowering going on and I even spotted two tiny tomatoes started on one plant.

These next tomatoes are the brandywines. They are the heirlooms.  They are planted in two raised rows and like the cherry tomatoes they are awaiting trellising.

And finally the paste tomatoes.  There are also two raised rows of these tomatoes.  These plants have been caged with small tomato cages.

There is a group of four tomatoes that are planted around a 5 gallon bucket submerged in the ground that in the cornfield and three San Marzano paste tomatoes in the potager that are not pictured.  There are a few yellow blossoms so hopefully we will soon have tomatoes.

a greenhouse evening

It was still cloudy and wet out today so there was not much to be done outside.  All of a sudden parts of the lawn are looking shaggy and there soil is too wet for any gardening activities.  It was a good time to put in a little time with the seedlings.  I have a bunch of seeds that were planted late in April, maybe two weeks ago that will be transplanted into the corn field when it is warmer out.  They are only a couple weeks old but already the roots are growing out the bottom of the seed cells so it is time to get them in a bigger pot.  When I seeded the cells for the melons and squashes I seeded some as singles and some with two or three seeds in a pot.  The singles will be planted in rows and the multiples will be planted in hills.  The multiples were the most crowded and so they were transplanted from a 2 inch cell to a red solo cup.  Here are the rows of transplanted cups.  the smaller white cups in the middle are the brandywine and big beef tomatoes.  The acorn squashes are in the front and the Pumpkins are in the back and the squashes--zucchini, yellow and butternut are in the two rows behind the tomatoes.

Here are more tomatoes, Amish paste on the right and Matt's wild cherry on the left.

Here are a few more seedlings the left box is the inpatiens, they are not growing.   The large round and square containers are the asparagus, the small white cups are Swiss chard and the front box is mostly cucumbers.

Here are the marigolds

And another the greens from the sampler:

Some are starting to try to go to seed but I have been picking the seed heads.  They are tasty.  Much of the kale has been moved outside.  I am hoping that is not a mistake,  It seems a little windy.  The kale in the bigger planters are sitting outside.  One of the gutter planters has been transplanted into the garden.  They never got very big in the confined space in the gutters,  I am curious as to whether or not they will get bigger with lots of room for their roots to spread out.

I started an inventory of the seedlings that are doing well and hopefully will be ready for transplanting in two to three weeks into the gardens.  I think we may have some extras to share.

Last year we got an earlier start on tomatoes.  We started them in two batches the earliest ones intended for pots and the later planting intended to go into the ground.  By the time we had gotten to our last frost date the tomatoes were starting to flower.  We are not gong to be nearly that ready this year. I have started planting some of the tomatoes into big pots.  These will make the trip to the twin cities for Nikole's garden and yard.  Two brandywines:

And a big beef:

There will be more to come over the next few days.

an afternoon in the greenhouse

After the past few days of cloudy, snowy weather it was nice to get a little sunshine therapy in the greenhouse.  I had on my to do list for this weekend to transplant the rest of the tomatoes into bigger cups and to get the melon seeds started.

Nikole selected the tomato seeds and this year we are growing an heirloom, a large red indeterminate, a cherry tomato and a paste tomato, so if all goes well we should have a nice selection of tomatoes.  We planted some early and are hoping that they can be in pots and ready to flower by the time it is warm enough to set them outside.  We planted some later that will go into the garden as a transplant.  We have extra seedlings which should allow us to have more tomatoes for canning or for sale as plants or as produce.  Saw an online article about a new way to plant tomatoes and I think i will give it a try as an experiment.  A bucket or waste basket with holes drilled in the bottom and around the sides about 10 inches up is placed in a hole in the garden with the top row of holes just above the soil line.  Five tomato plants are planted around the bucket.  A cylinder of fencing is then placed around the tomato plants as a tomato cage.  In the bucket goes a couple shovelfuls of compost and the bucket is filled up every couple days with water.  I am picturing this as a constant supply of compost tea.  I think I will plant five more of the same variety conventionally and compare the two groups as far as yield, taste, disease resistance.  I think if I have a couple of marked containers for harvest it should be easy to keep records.

Now that we have extra space it will be fun to try our hand at melons.  This year Nikole selected a watermelon and a cantaloupe.  She was thinking that we still had seeds from last year for a honeydew melon that we never used but when I found the seeds it was a muskmelon.  We also had a seed packet that was not dated from Burgess that was for another cantaloupe variety.  I think that might have been a freebie that they sent with something my mom may have ordered.  I planted them all and if they all come we may have lots of cantaloupe seedlings.  The seed packet directions suggest two ways of planting melons and I am going to try them both as an experiment and see which works better and makes better use of the available space.  One method is more of a hill type arrangement and the other is a row arrangement. 

The basil, thyme and kohlrabi that was planted on the 12th are sprouting.  The parsley, rosemary and dill have not yet.  Next weekend it will be time to start the squashes...

And as an update--the replacement pear tree arrived today.  I have not unwrapped it yet but I did shovel around last years tree and dug it up.  The ground is thawed down at least a foot and it was easy to dig but the soil is pretty wet so I decided to allow the soil to dry out a little bit and plant it tomorrow when it is supposed to be 50 degrees out.  Then tonight I hear that there is a chance of rain or snow during the night.  Keeping my fingers crossed that it holds off until I get the tree in the ground.

flower and veggie seed update

 A while back I started some flower seeds in the greenhouse which are intended to go into the summer gardens both here and at Nikole's.  I planted Marigolds, Bee Balm and Impatiens.  It has now been six weeks since they were planted.  The Bee Balm have not germinated at all.  I planted a second smaller group with the remaining seeds and they have not come up either.  In a little online research it turns out that some Bee Balm seeds benefit from a moist chill so I am back out to the greenhouse to bring in the Bee Balm seeds to refrigerate.  There were a couple tiny seedlings that had started so I transplanted them into cups before sticking the others in the fridge.

The marigolds germinated but not well.  I planted only one seed per cell so some cells did not germinate.Two weeks ago when they were four weeks from the date they were planted I transplanted them into cups.  Here they are today.  They have multiple leaves and sturdy stems.  I think that we have about 24 plants.

These are the Impatiens.  There was a little mishap with the planting of these.  The little dish that I had transferred the seeds into got jostled and the seeds flew, landing on a thin layer of seed starting mix.  I spread the seeds and mix over the filled but not yet planted cells, planning to thin/replant when they came up.  We actually got a fair number of seeds to germinate and when they were still pretty small they were separated to one plant per cell.

 Here is one of the tomato seedlings from the first group planted...

Brandywiue tomato

and the asparagus...

and the kohlrabi...

This weekend I will be starting more seeds for the summer garden and hope to have more updates on seeds that have been started.

in like a lion, out like a lion

After a couple warm days with melting snow and feeling like spring is right around the corner we are back to heating the greenhouse at least for the overnight tonight and probably tomorrow night.  The temperatures are dropping and the wind is howling.  By dawn tomorrow morning they are predicting 0 degree windchills.   

Today was Easter and greenhouse greens made it to Mom and Dad's for the family celebration.  Before leaving for town I harvested some of four or five different crops for a pretty bowl with different textures and colors.  I also delivered Asha's salad bar to town so that Lisa can take it home with her for Asha.  It will be fun to hear if she likes it.  I also sent a pot of kale for Lisa who says she is eating kale everyday.   On Wednesday Nikole's salad bowls will be heading to the big city and Cait has had a salad from her planter of greens that went with to college.  She reports that her greens got their first spring rain. 

I have been spending some time with the seedlings for the spring garden.  The impatiens that had the oops were rearranged so that there were only one seedling in a cell.  The are still pretty tiny and I tried to weigh the effects of moving them when they are tiny and fragile or to let them get bigger with their roots even more intertwined.  They seem to be doing okay, so hopefully I made the right decision.  They are pretty cute--tiny plants maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch tall with two perfectly round leaves. 

The marigolds are about an inch tall with four leaves.  I have been pretty disappointed with the germination but I am thinking that a few more might be coming so perhaps it will be better.  The ones that have come so far are looking pretty good. 

Still nothing with the bee balm.  I have moved it off the propagation mat wondering if it was too warm.  I hate to give up on it too quickly so I guess I will give it a little more time. 

The first tomato seeds that were planted were transplanted to bigger containers today.  These are the tomatoes that are to be in containers to provide the early tomatoes.  The largest seedlings are about two inches tall and are starting to get a little fuzz on the stems.  There are several different varieties.  It will be fun to see how they do.

No new pictures this time.  Here are a couple pictures that were shared on Facebook a couple days ago of Nikole's salad bowl.