The Modern "Victory Garden"

It was really beautiful out today.   No rain, some sunshine, and warm enough that a simple sweatshirt was all that was needed to be comfortable working outside.   Had to do some grocery shopping this morning but once I got home and put everything away, I went straight outside to enjoy the nice weather and get some early season garden tasks taken care of that had been on hold due to too much rain lately.                                

I wrote in my blog entry last night how much the garlic had grown in the past few days.   Since I was out in the garden in the dark last night I could not share pictures, but today I took a few photos of them.   This is the elephant garlic.   

And this is the patch of regular garlic (Inchelium Red).                        

Today, I did some weeding in the asparagus, cranberry, onion/garlic, strawberry, and the rhubarb & bush pie cherry beds.   After these beds were weeded, I side dressed the plantings with some general-purpose organic fertilizer and lightly scratched it into the soil.   I also fertilized the container plantings of blueberries.   While I was weeding I noticed that the rhubarb crowns have new growth emerging.   They don't look like much right now, but it will not be long before we can start enjoying some fresh rhubarb once again.              

I also did the annual strawberry patch "tidy up" today as well.   This involves removing a lot of the spent vegetation that overwintered from last year as well as the vegetation that had actually died back.   I try to generally clear out the area surrounding the crowns of the plants - leaving a good growing point and the young emerging vegetation intact.   After the bed was all cut back and tidied up, I fertilized it with a good all-purpose organic fertilizer.   Here's what one of the beds looked like before I cleaned it up.    

And here it is afterwards.                                                     

It may seem counter intuitive to remove what appears to be green vegetation from these plants, but removing older vegetation and decaying material opens up the plants to better air circulation and makes room for the new growth.   

I also bottom watered all of the seedling trays today too. Took them outside on the lawn to make the job easier.                                         

While I was in the shop, I planted up two 6-packs of Merlot lettuce and put them on the heat mat to germinate.                                        

The primary task I want to get done this weekend, is to turn over the green manure crop of crimson clover in the large 40'X4' bed.   I did half of the bed today and plan to do the other half tomorrow.   It only took a half hour of work to do half the bed, but after a winter of relative inactivity I am playing it safe and breaking the work into two sessions so as not to strain my back.   I made a short video to show how I do this simple annual early spring task.   

                

Here's the bed after I wrapped up this afternoon.                              

The sunshine and fresh air are like a tonic.   Seeing the emerging new growth on the rhubarb, strawberries, garlic, onions, and the bud swell on the bush pie cherries definitely makes me feel quite invigorated.   Hopefully my back will not give me a reality check tomorrow from my exertions today!

For the past few nights it has really been noticeably lighter out when I leave work to head home.   Similarly in the morning it has been lighter out earlier.   I even heard a songbird calling this morning as I was heading out the door.   When the birds start migrating back and getting all "twitterpated" - you know spring is just around the corner!                    

 I did a quick nighttime garden inspection this evening after dinner.   Not ideal for taking pictures (flash pictures on my camera tend to look washed out) so I don't have photos to share tonight, but I must tell you that the garlic (both elephant and regular) and onions have really taken off this week.   Unlike other parts of the country, we have been enjoying a particularly mild January and early February this year.   Nighttime temps in the 40's and the daytime temps have been in the low 50's.   The combination of really mild weather we have been experiencing and a break (at last) in the constant overcast rainy weather has apparently worked some magic on the allium bed crops.   The onions in the containers in the green house put on some serious growth this week too.   The mache in the greenhouse is also progressing - but it is a pokey grower and the new growth is not nearly as impressive as the onions and garlic.   What I could not judge well in the darkness, was whether the overwintered spinach in the grow tunnel cover was doing anything significant.   I will have to wait until tomorrow morning to check it out.   

I have some onion sets that I ordered that have not been delivered yet.   I sure wish I had them this weekend, because the conditions are ideal for getting them into the ground.   It was mostly dry today and is supposed to stay that way on through the weekend.   This bodes well for me to finally get that big bed of crimson clover cover crop turned over this weekend.   I also plan to start some Merlot lettuce on Saturday.   These are seeds I received from Dan at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog.   I am really looking forward to growing them this year.    

If I had my way I would spend all day for both days of the weekend puttering outside in the garden.   I am in real need of some fresh air, exercise, and sunshine.   Unfortunately, I do have some errands to take care of on Saturday, but luckily they are not so much as to take up the entire day.   

For the many readers of my blog who are in locations currently gripped by the icy hand of winter, please stay safe and warm and remember that it will not be all that much longer before you too will be enjoying the sound of returning songbirds and green shoots sprouting in the garden!

There really is nothing quite like soup when you are feeling a little worn out or under the weather.   Even better - soup that starts with good chicken stock and builds upon that base with an abundance of great tasting vegetables!   I really slept badly last night and was headachy and tired all day today as a result.   I decided some comfort food was in order for dinner tonight but did not want to spend much time in the kitchen to get it accomplished.   Inspired by the culinary efforts of a friend and colleague, I decided to make some tomato and roasted pepper soup with crusty toasted cheese sandwiches.   I modified the soup recipe to fit with what I have on hand and since I did not write down the recipe I was pretty much winging it – despite all that it turned out really delicious.              

Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper Soup

• ½ cup of chopped onion
• 2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
• Olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of the pan)
• 1-quart jar of diced tomatoes (drained)
• 1 cup of roasted red peppers, diced
• ½ box of organic free-range chicken stock (box is 32 ounces)
• Dried basil (not sure how much I added really)
• Pinch of sugar (to taste as needed to cut the acid of the tomatoes a bit)
• Dried red pepper flakes (hot!) – as much or as little as you like

In a large heavy bottomed stockpot, sauté onion and garlic in the oil until it starts to become translucent.   Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a low boil.   As soon as the peppers are generally softened, use a stick (immersion) blender and blend the soup until it reaches a nice chunky puree consistency.   Continue to simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes or until the flavors are well blended.   Adjust seasonings as needed.   That's it!

I used up the last of the storage onions last weekend, so I am using diced frozen onions currently.    Hopefully the freezer supply will last me until the green onions are ready to start being harvested.   The roasted peppers are also from my freezer supplies and while many of them were red and yellow, I also used some roasted jalepeno peppers too.  So this was actually a "Tomato & Roasted Multi-Colored Pepper" soup!    The home canned tomatoes are from the pantry.   I am afraid I did not think to take pictures of this soup because my head is fuzzy this evening and my focus was just on cooking, eating, and getting to bed early.    I have managed two out of the three objectives so far!                 

The seedlings in the shop under lights are doing splendidly. I watered them last evening and checked on them after dinner tonight.   The cabbages and pac choi started last Saturday are substantially emerged.   I am going to leave the humidity dome cover on them for one more day and then pull it off.   The Chinese cabbages and kale I started in mid December are continuing to really size up.            

These will be planted up in the unheated greenhouse in less than two weeks.

I hope you are having a good week and enjoying some of the bounty of your garden in your daily meals too.

The weather has been very uncooperative all weekend.   Basically too wet to do much of anything outside.   Yesterday I did the seed starting and a couple of minor chores that needed to be done and before coming inside for the afternoon I harvested a small head of January King cabbage and some carrots.

The carrots were scrubbed and grated and the cabbage was cut into small pieces.   All of it was mixed together and dressed with my favorite slaw dressing to make a fresh and colorful coleslaw to go with Saturday’s dinner menu of roasted pork chops in sweet and tangy barbeque sauce and Boston baked beans.                

Today was just as wet so I dedicated some time for baking.   Along with bread baking, I decided to use some double dark chocolate cocoa I received as a Christmas present - to make a triple layer sour cream and chocolate cake.     

My cakes are not very beautiful to look at, but they sure are moist and good tasting!

I was hoping to be able to make significant progress on turning over the large 40-foot long by 4-foot wide bed of crimson clover green manure/cover crop this weekend.   Unfortunately, the weather is not being very cooperative.   Woke up to a drizzling rain that is leaving everything too wet to mess with.    Hopefully, I will get a break either today or tomorrow that is long enough and dry enough to allow me to make at least some progress on this task before the weekend is out.    

Spent some time in the shop this morning bottom watering the trays of seedlings I have going under lights, used scissors to snip away extra seedling sprouts from each cell pack to allow the stronger plant in each cell to grow on, and I did a little rearranging under the lights to make room for the next round of starts that I was scheduled to get started today.    I have two trays each of Candy and Walla Walla onion seedlings.   Strangely, one tray of each variety is sprouting beautifully and the other is looking rather spotty in germination.    Here’s a tray of the Candy onion seedlings which are doing quite well.  You can see a tray of Walla Walla onions behind it that are doing less than spectacularly in emerging.                     

But just one over from it is another tray of Walla Walla’s that are doing just fine and are giving me reasonably good emergence.                                  

They are from the same seed packs so it is not seed issue, same germinating soil mix, same bottom watering regimen, and I have been rotating them around to ensure varied exposure to the overhead lights.   Regardless, I am getting more than enough of both varieties to sprout and grow that it really is inconsequential… just a bit of a puzzler.                

Started 6 six-packs of seeds this morning - following my seed starting schedule.   Planted 2 six-packs of kale (Improved Siberian), 2 six-packs of cabbage (Tronchuda), 1 six-pack of pac choi (Ching Chiang), and 1 six-pack of cabbage (Savoy Ace).   There were covered with a humidity dome cover and put on the heat mat to germinate.                    

The kale and Chinese cabbages I started in December are coming along nicely.   I took them outside to give them a thorough watering and took this picture to show how much they have continued to grow.                             

In about two weeks, I will move them out to the greenhouse and plant them up in one of the large containers.   By mid February the sun strength and day length will decidedly be on the upswing and they should be able to grow on in the protected environment of the greenhouse without the aid of lights.     

Ground hog day is coming up on February 2nd and Punxsutawney Phil will once again make his appearance to predict if we are in for six more weeks of winter.   I don’t take much stock in the weather forecasting skills of a giant rodent, but Groundhog day does have some significance for the vegetable gardener.   February 2nd is not only “Groundhog Day” but also marks the mid-point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox – a point in time also known as Imbolc.    By the time February 2 arrives, we have completed the most difficult portion of our ascent out of winters darkest point (December 21st – winter solstice), and are heading towards the longed for beginning of spring (March 21st – spring equinox). It’s a time of optimism because the low point of winter is behind us and we can feel, taste, and see the promise of spring just around the corner.   It’s also the point in time where items that I have overwintered in the garden or the green house begin to respond to the increasing sun strength and day length by putting on a more substantial amount of growth.   It’s truly the turning point of winter and I look forward to it each year.

I live a busy life.   I don’t think I am unique in that regard.   The technology and work ethic that makes us efficient and productive as a nation, means that the responsibilities of work and family often become interwoven into every waking hour of every day.   I embrace the technology that we have at our disposal.   It allows me to share images and thoughts with all of you about something I feel quite passionate about (home food production gardening), and it allows me to be a high performer in my professional life.   Those are good things.   It does come with a burden though, and some risks.          

The intensity of a typical modern day life can result in a serious erosion of time for just being “still”.    Ironically, it is my belief that the value of such time is inversely important in relation to the time available to devote to it.    The less you have of it - the more we need it.   My own experience is that I am most honest with myself and am more likely to find the hard answers to problems that are troubling me – when I step away from the constant noise and demands on my attention and allow something quite foreign in our society to occur – being alone for a while and savoring a moment of relative silence.   I say “relative” because even if all technology were to magically disappear and the cars, planes, and other mechanical noises that are in the background of all but the most remote locations were to disappear, there would still be lots of sounds that are occurring in our natural world.   They are just hard to hear sometimes because the other noises and demands on our attention, drown them out.   Sometimes our own inner voice of reason and truth are similarly drowned out.                                             

People often ask me (with genuine incredulity I might add) -  how I can possibly fit food production gardening (and related tasks that typically come with such an undertaking such as preserving and cooking from scratch) into a life that is demanding professionally and with it’s share of family demands as well?    To this I must respond, “my success in all the daily roles I fulfill can only come if my body and my mind are well nourished and periodically refreshed.”     It is the very act of physically working in a non-technology based effort; producing something tangible for my efforts; and having regular periods of time spent outside (away from the phone, the television, the radio, the computer, and the mobile phone) – it is those very things that make my effectiveness greater when I then step back into them again.   My attention is greater, my mental state more steady, and I bring greater energy to bear on whatever is currently in need of attention.   In addition, my family eats an abundance of quality, nutritious food, and I believe my general good health must be largely attributed to that fact, because it certainly cannot be attributed to any adherence to a regular exercise regimen!     In short, choosing to have a food production garden be a daily part of my life is an investment that I think pays many dividends. 

I hope to be able to garden until the day that I am planted into the soil myself.    I wish for others the same oasis of calm and nourishment in their lives as well.   I think it is missing in too many lives today.   That is just one (of many) reasons why I share my garden and part of my life with all of you through this site.   In the hope that perhaps others might be encouraged in their pursuit of food production gardening and that they too may discover how truly wonderful it is to simply be “still” in the garden and allow our mind as well as our bodies to be well nourished and refreshed. 

It was drizzling rain this morning, so I spent several hours in the shop making progress on the planting jig construction project.    Last week, I completed the 2-inch planting jig, which was the prototype of the design.   Today, I completed most of the assembly of the 3-inch, 4-inch, and 6-inch planting jigs.   They need to sit over night now to let the glue dry and set before I can complete them by attaching the handles on the back.   I did change one thing with these 3 planting jigs from the first one I constructed.   I went up to a 5/16th inch dowel pin, which is a little bigger and should make a larger hole impression in the soil.   I used a 5/16th drill bit to widen the holes in the pegboard where the dowel pins would fit.   That worked very well.   Easy to drill and the pegs fit in quite snugly.   Here’s the 6-inch planting jig - fully assembled with the exception of the handle attachment.  

By the time I wrapped up with the project work in the shop, the rain had stopped and the sun was making a partial appearance.   Took advantage of the break in the weather and got a start on some early spring bed prep work.   There are several beds with a green manure crop of crimson clover growing in them that need to be turned over in the next few weeks, in order that the plant material can sufficiently decompose prior to planting up the beds.   I like to get this done at least six weeks before I expect to be planting up a bed.   Most of the early crops are scheduled to be planted in mid March, so the green manure crop needs to be turned over by the end of January.   It’s not that hard to turn over crimson clover, but I have enough area planted up in it that I try to break it up over a period of several sessions to avoid over doing and hurting my back in the process.   I have one big 40 foot long by 4 foot wide bed that will need to be turned over.  

And I have a 12 foot by 4 foot wide bed that needs to be turned over as well.   The back most portion of the bed has compost on it instead of the green manure crop, because it had cabbages growing in it until very late in the fall and missed being planted with crimson clover as a result.   I decided this bed was the better one to get started with today.       

I use a garden fork and just turn a fork full of the clover and soil over on itself – such that the roots and soil are facing up and the vegetation is turned down into the dirt.   I work my way down one side of the bed.      

And then I work down the other side until it is completed.                      

In about two weeks, I will need to come back to this bed and use a hoe on it to cultivate the top few inches and chop up the few clover plants that will manage to get roothold and attempt to grow again.   Using a green manure crop reduces the amount of compost I have to use each year to add organic matter to the soil.   Given the number and size of beds that I have in the garden, if I were to use strictly compost I would have to have a huge compost making operation to keep up with it.   By using a combination of compost and green manure crops, I keep my garden sufficiently replenished with organic matter without having a monumental sized compost system set up. 

While I was out in the garden, I also did bed prep on the adjacent bed to the one I just turned the cover crop over in.   I added a thin layer of finished compost and then emptied out old potting soil from containers into the bed and raked it smooth.                                                           

I use potting soil in containers for at least two years, rejuvenating it with the addition of compost and organic fertilizers.   However, after several years of use, I recycle it into the garden beds and replace the container soil with a fresh mix.   I had several containers that had old soil mix in them that I have been holding through the winter with the intention of adding to the garden beds this spring.   Both the 12 foot by 4 foot beds are now initially prepped for spring.     

Before they are planted up, I will use the broad fork to aerate them and will also broadcast a general-purpose organic fertilizer over the beds.   For now though, they are basically prepped for the season.   I have lots more to go over the course of the next several weeks.   First priority will be to turn over that large 40-foot bed of crimson clover.   I will need to break that up into several work sessions.   If it does not rain tomorrow, I will try and get one part completed then.               

Have a dinner engagement to attend this evening; so no harvesting was done today.   Well, I should say that I did not “intentionally” harvest anything today.   During the course of turning over the crimson clover, I unearthed over 3 lbs of Butte potatoes!   This was one of the potato patch beds last year and (as usual) I managed to miss quite a few spuds when I harvested them last fall.   They overwintered in the soil nicely and are really good looking potatoes.   Probably have them for dinner tomorrow night.

I hope you are having a good weekend and managing to get some time in on some garden related projects.

Popped out to the shop this evening after dinner and checked in on the Chinese cabbages and kale plants I repotted last Saturday morning, and the seed trays I started Sunday of pac choi, lettuces, and onions.   I took the humidity dome cover off of the seedling trays and raised up the bank of lights, so that I could take this picture of the first seedlings to emerge for 2010.  The pac choi and lettuces are sprouting fast.                                    

There are a few onions germinated as well, but they are just barely getting started with emergence.   I popped the cover back on and will leave it there through tomorrow - probably remove it on Friday if enough seedlings have emerged.   Leaving the plastic tray covers on too long is a common and often fatal mistake.   The high humidity and heat retention created by the dome really helps with speedy germination, but is a breeding ground for fungus and disease.   I try to remove the cover as soon as the majority of the seedlings are emerged to get them into good air circulation quickly.         

The seedlings I started in mid December of kale and Chinese cabbages were four weeks old this past weekend and really needed to be repotted into larger containers.   When I popped them out of the starter cell pots to repot them, the roots were definitely looking crowded.   Typically when you repot seedlings they will suffer a little from transplant shock and languish a few days before getting on with their growing process.  But not these plants!   I was pleasantly surprised at how much they had grown in just the past few days - despite the indignities of having their roots messed with.   The kale looks quite happy…          

 …and the Chinese cabbage is down right giddy with new growth already! 

They obviously needed the fresh soil and additional root room.   These should be ready about mid February for planting up in the containers in the greenhouse.  

Healthy young plants and emerging seedlings always lift my spirits up.   There is nothing quite like a splash of verdant new growth to brighten up a dark winter evening.

It’s a cool and wet weekend so the outside options are pretty limited, however it is a great time to do some shop projects.   One of the tasks I had on my list for this weekend was to repot the Chinese cabbage and kale starts.   They are a month old now and have totally outgrown their starter cell packs.   I want to keep them under lights for another month before permanently planting them up in containers in the greenhouse.   Saturday morning I popped them into sturdy 4 inch pots using organic potting soil I have on hand in the shop.                 

This morning (Sunday), I also planted up 2 six packs of Super Gourmet Salad Blend lettuce, 2 six packs of Ching-Chiang pac choi, 2 large flat packs of Walla Walla onions, and 2 large flat packs of Candy onions.   These were then covered with a plastic dome and placed on the heat mat under the grow lights.   As soon as the seedlings emerge, I will remove the plastic dome and lower the lights down to just a few inches above the plants.                                    

The bigger project I had on my list for this weekend was to construct the first prototype of an idea I have had for a planting jig.   As of this morning, I have completed the first one, which is a 2-inch spaced planting jig.   I intend to make 3 more of these – one with 3-inch spacing, one with 4-inch spacing, and one with 6-inch spacing.   These are the most common within row (in all directions) spacing needed to intensively plant garden beds.   I made the jig a 2 foot by 2 foot size because I rarely plant single squares of any one item, but rather do multiple blocks of a crop and often work my way down a large section of bed.  

This is the list of materials that I used for this project:

• One sheet of pegboard - 2-foot by 4-foot dimension (you will use half of this for one jig)
• One sheet of good quality plywood – 2-foot by 2-foot dimension
• Two packages of Fluted Dowel Pins – ¼ inch diameter, 1 ¼ inch length – 72 count per package (need 144 for a 2'x2' board with 2 inch spacing)
• Package of #8 X ¾ inch wood screws – (get self tapping, I did not and regretted it)
• Carpenters wood glue
• Two 5 ¾ inch door pulls (comes with short screws)

Here is the list of tools I used for this project:

• A power jigsaw (you could use a table saw as well) to rip the 2’X4’ sheet of pegboard in half to make two 2’X2’ pegboard sections
• A power drill with a screwdriver bit attachment
• A rubber headed or plastic headed hammer (you could gently use a regular hammer instead)
• Measuring tape
• Straight edge Carpenters Square
• Pencil
• 2 pieces of scrap wood to use as blocking

Here’s a picture of the plywood and several of the materials and tools used (not all).   You can purchase 2-foot by 2-foot squares of plywood (and 2-foot by 4-foot panels of pegboard) at places like Home Depot or Lowes.                         

Step One - cut the sheet of 2’X4’ pegboard in half to make two sheets of 2’X2’ pegboard.   I held the wood while my husband cut this using a jigsaw.        

Step Two – place some carpenters wood glue over the surface of the 2’X2’ section of plywood.                                     

Step Three – place the 2’X2’ section of pegboard on to the glued surface of the 2’X2’ section of plywood.   The idea is to provide a backing to the pegboard to make it stronger and to put a floor at the base of each pegboard hole opening.                      

Step Four – turn the pegboard and plywood panel over and screw together at each corner using the #8-3/4 inch screws.   This is not the best picture, but it is a close up of one of the screws.   Once completed turn the panel back over so that the pegboard is facing up.                                                            

Step Five – using the spacing you desire for the planting jig, place a big dollop of carpenters wood glue in each pegboard hole and place a ¼ inch fluted dowel pegs, tapping it firmly in using a plastic headed hammer.   I am making a 2-inch spacing planting jig so the pegs are spaced every other hole from one another.   The pegboard holes are spaced 1 inch apart which makes setting up the grid very easy to do.   Once they are all in place, let this sit over night to let the glue set up and dry completely.     

Step Six – the next day, carefully turn the peg board section over and place it on some lengths of scrap lumber (thin enough to fit between the rows of protruding pegs) such that the board is supported without putting pressure directly on the glued in pegs.   The next two pictures show this – including the last picture which shows the clearance maintained between the pegs and the surface of the work table.                   

Step Seven – measure five inches in from each side and make a mark with a pencil.   Do this twice on each side to establish two points from which a straight line can then be drawn.   Similarly, measure nine inches from the top of the panel and make a mark with a pencil – doing it twice to facilitate drawing a straight line from point to point.      

Step Eight – use a carpenter’s straight edge square and line it up with the pencil marks and then draw a straight line using your pencil.   Do this for a vertical line on each side (spaced 5 inches in from the edges), and one horizontal line spaced 9 inches from the top.                              

Step Nine (last one!) – center the door pulls over the vertical lines and abutting the top edge against the horizontal lines and screw them into place.      

That’s all there is to it for the construction.   Here’s how it works. Holding it using the door handles, lower it over a section of prepared garden bed soil and lay it flat on the surface of the soil so that the pegs are facing the soil.   For shallow holes, just set it in place and do not press down – the weight of the board is sufficient for a shallow hole.   For a deeper hole, press down on the board with your hands.      

Works nicely!   Too early to actually plant anything to really try it out, but I think this will make closely spaced planting much quicker and easier to do.   Having a 3 inch, 4 inch, and 6 inch jig as well will give me good options for the coming planting season.  I have all the materials I need to complete the remaining three jigs with the exception that  I need to purchase more dowels.  This is a really fast little project to put together so I should be able to finish them all up very quickly - once I purchase the rest of the dowels that I need.

Three-day weekend coming up for me and I am looking forward to it with more anticipation than normal, because my work schedule has been over full of late.   It also represents a a great opportunity to knock through several garden related tasks and projects that I have on my personal “to do” list.

• Start some onion and lettuce seeds  (Done - started some Pac Choi too)
• Pot up the Chinese cabbage and kale starts into larger containers (Done)
• Purchase materials to make my planting jigs (Done)
• Construct planting jig – attempt to translate the idea in my head into an actual tool  (Done)
• Process the remaining two pumpkins in the storage area into puree (freeze in 2 cup portions)  (Done)
• Do some baking – extra loaves of no knead bread for the freezer for emergency weeks, pumpkin muffins to use up some of my surplus of pumpkin puree
• Weather permitting – turn over the green manure crops of crimson clover and let them start decomposing

The seedlings I started on December 13th are a month old today and are rapidly outgrowing their starter cell pots.                                        

I am going to pot them into some larger containers and keep them under the grow lights for a while longer before eventually transplanting them under the protection of the greenhouse (or a grow tunnel) to grow to maturity.   The weather is still pretty cold and the sun strength and length is still pretty low (albeit increasing!).   I think another month under the lights is probably a good idea but they definitely need to move into more roomy quarters for their roots. 

Hopefully I will have an update soon on how the shop project (planting jigs) worked out to share with you.