First Trade of 2008

April 5th

Tomato plants seem to be moving along nicely.


(L to R) Giant Beefsteak, Big Red, Old Virginia.

This afternoon I called in to see my friend Corky to ask if she had any eggs available. Supplies were good so I picked up a dozen. Her husband went down to the coup and selected them himself. How much nicer than getting them from the refrigerator at Wal-mart eh?
On his return he asked me if I liked Duck Eggs and promptly produced two from his pocket.


Mr Corky's Duck Eggs.

I accepted them gladly and in return gave him an Old Virginia tomato plant from my stock.
Hmm, scrambled eggs for Sunday breakfast are worth getting up early for.

Corky also likes turnips so I grow them and trade for her eggs.

Last indoor seed planting, honest

My Assistant Gardeners

March 30th
OK, so after expanding from one overhead lamp to two I found I had a few square inches of space left available on the growing table and decided to fill them.
I dug out 6 old 4 inch pots from the shed, filled them with a soiless growing mixture and stuck in a few seeds:

Yellow Crookneck Squash
Tendergreen Burpless Cucumber
Sugar Baby watermelon

All from heirloom Seeds

That's it. I promise. No more seeds in the house this year.
Any others will be directly sown into the plots

Earth Hour

Sat 29th March
This evening we did our bit for Earth Hour and switched off lights, computers etc.
Earlier in the day I'd been "Instant Messaging" my granddaughter back in England and she got her family and most of her friends to participate too so that was pretty cool.
I know that some critics have shrugged it off as a gimmick but we are keen recyclers in our home and try to be energy conscious all the time. Anything that raises peoples awareness of wastage of any kind is good news to us and we will give it our support.
We ALL need to care.

In the garden I try to be "green" using my home made compost from all that great stuff that would normally get thrown into the landfill. It gives me great pleasure thinking I'm getting all that good stuff back, and for free too. I like free!
I also try different homemade natural bug/beetle/moth/egg-laying/biting/flying/plant munching repellants. Some work and some don't. Hey, I'm prepared to share SOME of my horticultural wealth with the natives but not ALL of it.

That particular evening my wife had prepared a super dinner of Turkey and Leek Crumble which we enjoyed by candlelight. Nothing new about having a candlelit dinner in our house to be honest as we eat that way most evenings by choice.
Kinda adds to the ambiance doesn't it?

Planting Time

March 23rd
After checking the soil and the weather forecast I’ve decided to get something in the ground so here goes............

Bed 1
Along the front I planted a row of yellow onions sets, purchased from Lowes.
Bed 2
Along the front I planted a row of red onions sets from Frisby Garden Center, Grove
Bed 3
Here I planted a row of Cherry Belle Radish along the front and Grandpa Admire’s Lettuce along the center. Both from Heirloom Seeds
Bed 4
Purple Top Turnips along the rear from seed purchased at Fairland Garden Center, Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach in the center and of Cherry Belle Radish along the front, both from Heirloom Seeds
Bed 5
This plot received 2 rows of Russet seed potatoes picked up at our local branch of Lowes

Everything then got a very light watering.

Repotting

March 22nd

Most of the tomato plant seedlings have now developed their first true leaves and so it’s time for them to be repotted. This is also the time that I introduce them to a little garden soil. I like to try to use the soil from the bed in which they will eventually be planted. I make a mixture of equal parts of sphagnum peat moss, compost (my home made stuff) and garden soil. This I mix thoroughly and dampen slightly. I then transfer the seedlings into 4-inch fiber pots. After a light watering I give them a little half strength liquid fertilizer such as fish emulsion which I mix up in a spray bottle. Then they go back under the lamp.

I have around 30 plants going at the moment so I had to go out and purchase another strip light to cover them. I also treated myself to a couple of basil plants from Frisby Garden Center in Grove and repotted those too. Those tiny pots the plants are in when you buy them are far too small and the plants get root bound and stressed. I like to buy early and get them into something bigger as soon as I can.

Soil testing

This morning I tested the pH levels and temperatures in all 6 plots. Here's the results.....


Well, it seems that the adding of lime has done a good job of raising the pH level as it was down around 4.0 before. All I need now is a planting plan. Here's the 1st draft so far.........
Each plot is approx 8ft x 4ft.
Plots 1 and 2
These are alongside the shed and have not been fitted with floating row covers. I intend to plant Sunflowers up against the shed wall, just to add a little brightness to the proceedings. This means I'll probably have to rig up some kind of trellis against the shed. In front of the Sunflowers in Plot 1 maybe Pole Beans at one end and Cucumber or Squash at the other. Both these will be trained up inverted tomato cages which seemed to work OK last year. Also a row of Onions along the front.
In front of the Sunflowers in Plot 2 I was hoping to have a go at growing some Watermelons from heirloom seeds purchased last year.
Plot 3 Is earmarked for Bell and Hot Pepper plants, purchased from our local nursery along with Lettuce seed and Radish/Carrot seeds mixed at front of them.
Plot 4 Here there may well be Turnips (I've some seeds kicking around somewhere) along with Spinach. There could be another row of Radish/Carrot mixed seed planted a little later along the front to spread out the harvest.
Plot 5 is designated Potato land this season and I'm trying 2 methods of cultivation. One row will be in the conventional style by which you plant the tubers 3 inches deep approx 12 inches apart and "hill" the soil around the plants as they (hopefully) get a foot tall. The second row I'm going to try the mulch planting method instead where straw is built up around them as they get over a few inches tall.
Plot 6 finally will be home for the Tomatoes. As I mentioned earlier I have 3 different heirloom varieties at seedling stage at the moment and I'm planning on picking the best 2 plants from each type giving me 6 plants for that bed. The rest of the plants will be given to any friends and neighbors who desire them.

This mass of potential food will be interspersed with Marigolds and Basil because they look nice, smell nice and generally get along with everyone else in the garden, me included. Tomatoes and Basil taste good together too.
There could also be more Radishes where space permits as (a) they get along with most things (except the Pole Beans), (b) they're easy to grow and (c) they taste great in salads.

OK, so that's my plan for 2008.
Come back tomorrow because it may all have changed by then.

Floating row covers

March 16th
I have already constructed 2 floating row covers for the front beds and I’m pretty happy with them. So happy in fact that I went down to the local lumberyard and purchased more wood lath strips to make another 2. The lath strips are not essential but make the covers a whole lot easier to handle and store in winter. You can simply roll them back when you need to access the plot.
I picked up this tip from my favorite book The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Edward C. Smith, which I highly recommend to anyone, novice or expert, who wants to try to improve their seasons yield.




Supports made from old tomato cages


If you are not familiar with floating row covers they let sun and rain through while keeping bugs out. They also give a little frost protection. I had a few old tomato cages hanging around in the shed and decided to put those to use too. I cut them into 4 separate pieces and used them as supports to hold the covers up above the plants making a mini greenhouse. If successful I may use the same idea using clear plastic sheets at the back end of the season and try to get a little more growing time when the temperatures drop.
If I were rich I'd have a greenhouse but I'm not, so I dont.



Easily rolled back to give access for weeding etc.........





......and keep everything snug and bug free hopefully.