The Modern "Victory Garden"

The primary group of tomatoes for the 2010 growing season were started February 13th.   They are now 4 weeks old and ready to move up to larger containers to give them more root room and fresh soil.   Tomatoes are one plant that I try to re pot at least once before planting them out in their permanent bed in the garden - because each time they are planted you can place them more deeply into the soil and additional roots will form along the buried stem area.   I started 144 tomatoes on February 13th and with some germination failures, I am now at about 132 seedlings and of those, most are now ready for potting up.   Yesterday I re potted 36 of them and this morning I tackled another 15 before we headed off for the afternoon to go see a movie (Alice in Wonderland in 3-D).   If I can manage to do 15 to 20 plants each evening all through this coming week then I should have them all re potted by next weekend.                                             

When I am doing some potting up, I like to assemble all the items I need prior to getting started.                                                                 

I use a simple dishpan (purchased from a dollar store a number of years ago) and fill it with my potting soil mix.   I also set out two stacked solid seedling trays.   I stack them because the larger pots filled with damp soil are very heavy and one tray is just too flimsy to safely hold them.   I use solid trays because I want to bottom water the pots while working on the others.   I fill the tray with warmish water deep enough that the bottom holes in the pots will be completely submerged when set into the tray.   The plants, pots, permanent marker pen, and plant tags are also set out.                         

I reuse plant marker tags for varieties I routinely grow, but in these pictures I am potting up some Market Miracle tomatoes that I grew from seed provided by Daphne from Daphne’s Dandelions.    Since these are new to me this year, I need to create tags for them.   I use just one tag for each 6-pack initially, so when I pot up to individual larger containers I have to add more tags so each pot can have it’s own.                              

Each pot is dipped into the soil mix to just fill the bottom area.                    

A tomato seedling is then gently popped out of the growing cell and placed in the center of the pot.   Soil mix is placed around the sides of the root ball and gently pressed firm to hold the seedling upright.                            

The rest of the pot is then filled with the soil mix and gently firmed in around the tomato.                                                                                      

The pot is then placed in the waiting tray of warm water and allowed to begin hydrating from the bottom.                                                                

The last step is to add the individual plant tags.                                    

Here’s the tray of 15 seedlings I finished up this morning.                         

As you can see, I recycle pots.   A lot of my friends and co-workers know that I reuse pots and save them for me, which saves money and is better environmentally.    In addition to bottom watering, I also water the pots gently just at the soil surface to ensure they are fully hydrated before draining off the water from the tray.   These tomatoes are a little stressed from the potting up process so they were placed on the heat mat and under the grow lights to recuperate.   The two trays of seedlings I repotted yesterday were moved out to the greenhouse this morning – joining the 5 older super early Siletz tomatoes.

These young plants were just as stressed after potting up as the ones I did today but are now quite rebounded.  

They will be brought into the shop at night but will reside in the greenhouse during the day.   The super early Siletz plants (in the back of the last picture) continue to receive extra TLC and actually come into the house at night, which is much warmer.   The Siletz plants were potted up three weeks ago and are almost ready for another potting up.   Hopefully I will get that attended to next weekend.

I have experienced an 8% loss from germination failures for the February 13th tomato planting.   It will be interesting to see how many more I lose to transplanting shock, accident, and/or just failure to thrive or disease.   I plant way more than I need because inevitably some losses will occur - some years much more so than others.   So far, things are progressing well and the potted up plants are bouncing back from the transplanting experience. 

Lots more tomatoes to be re potted.  I will be spending my evenings in the shop this week to get them all attended to.   

Laura

aka kitsapfreedomgardener or kitsapFG

The small additional grow light and heat mat that I ordered arrived on Friday.   I assembled it and got it set up in the shop – placing it up on top of the small over flow light set up I already had.   With this all in place, I was ready to get the peppers and basil started.                                

There were several chores to take care of in the outdoor garden area too, which was a good thing because the weather was beautiful today and it was nice to have an excuse to be outside!   I removed the plastic sheeting from the onions and the spinach bed.   Both are hardy crops and the longer-term forecast is not calling for any more really cold conditions.   I also completely reseeded the pea patch this afternoon.   The birds had gotten to the sprouting seeds when I pulled the plastic cover off to stop the rainwater puddling damage from continuing to the support trellis.    As soon as I reseeded the bed, I recovered it with Remay.   Hopefully that will keep the birds out of the bed and away from my sprouting seeds.                 

The rhubarb is just about ready for the first harvest of the year.                   

The final project for the day was to spend time repotting some of the tomato seedlings.   They are four weeks old now and ready for more root room and fresh soil.   I got about 1/3rd of them done before calling it a day.   I have quite a few tomatoes yet to pot up in larger containers.   The plan is to keep working on this over the next several days to get it wrapped up.   The repotted tomatoes went under the lights for now, but the larger ones will soon be taken out to the greenhouse and will do the daily journey into the shop at night and back out to the greenhouse in the day.   The greenhouse is getting good sun exposure now and is warming up nicely in the daytime.                  

Here’s a few of the repotted tomatoes enjoying an evening of artificial lighting and the warmth of a heat mat to help them recuperate from the transplanting.

I tried to take pictures of the bed of spinach today but the newly emerged seedlings are still so small that they are very hard to see in a photo.   I will have to wait until the bed is further along before sharing pictures of it with you.    

The spring garden season is really underway now. The trays of seedlings are occupying every available space under the grow lights and are starting to move into the greenhouse to make room for more.   As I pot up the tomatoes into larger containers, more and more of them will have to shift to the greenhouse too, as they take up much more room with the larger pots. 

How is your seed starting going?

It was a beautiful sunny day today.   Took advantage of it and spent a fair amount of time out in the garden and greenhouse.   A quick inspection this morning revealed that the spinach I direct seeded on February 14th are up.   I took the grow tunnel cover off of the bed for most of the day to allow the very small plants to enjoy some unfiltered sunshine.   I put it back on around 2:30 pm so that it had time to warm up inside before the sun went down for the day.                

One of the tasks I wanted to get done this weekend is the planting out of the onions.   I have Walla Walla and Candy onion plants I had started back in January that were ready for transplanting.   In addition, my onion sets (red and yellow onions) arrived last week and I wanted to get them into the ground as well.   I prepped the soil and raked it smooth and then used my 4-inch spaced planting jig to mark the planting area.   I got all the onions planted and still had a section about 3 feet by 4 feet left open in the bed that I then planted with a second sowing of spinach (Bloomsdale Savoy).   Here’s a picture of the Walla Walla onions after I transplanted them.        

This same bed has the Elephant garlic and regular garlic (Inchelium Red) growing in it.                                                            

I also wanted to start some more lettuces and the sugar snap peas (Cascadia) this weekend.    However, the bed that the sugar snap peas will go into is still largely in shade much of the day and the soil is quite cool as a result.   Rather than wait, I decided to plant the seeds into cell packs and get them started in the greenhouse.   In a few weeks when they are ready for transplanting, the soil should have warmed up enough in that bed that they will then thrive.   The greenhouse is a great place for plants at the moment as the sun is now high enough on the horizon that it is clearing the tall trees surrounding our property and hitting the greenhouse pretty regularly for a large portion of the day.   The result is a significant increase in temps in the greenhouse.   The plants inside the greenhouse are basking in the sun exposure.   The young pac choi is settling in after transplanting and putting on some growth.         

The mache is almost ready to begin harvesting finally.                              

And, the Chinese cabbages are forming up tall heads.                            

Tomorrow, the weather is not forecasted to be quite as nice but still good.   I am hoping to plant out (under cover) the cabbages (Savoy Ace and Tronchuda), the second round of pac choi (Ching Chiang) and some lettuces (Merlot). 

I hope you are enjoying some time in your garden or among your seedlings this weekend.

Grey wet day today ending a week of grey and wet conditions.   The heavy rains gave me some grief earlier in the week.   I had my horizontal pea support structure covered with clear plastic to help warm the seedbed and keep predators out.   Unfortunately, it had a flat surface area, which collected large amounts of the heavy rainwater - causing breakage and a collapse of several of the support posts.   I pulled the plastic cover off midweek to try and avoid any further damage but unfortunately it left the sprouting pea seeds exposed to bird predation.   I found evidence this morning of empty seed coats scattered about which looks to me like birds enjoyed some nice pea sprouts and left the tough coating behind.   Not sure how much I lost to the birds but it was obvious I needed to do two things 1) fix the trellis supports; and 2) get another cover on the bed – but this time it needed to be one that would not create the problems that the clear plastic did. 

Here’s the bed this morning.   There were three posts that were broken by the weight of the pooled water in the plastic covering.          

I picked up some replacement ¾ inch square 3-foot long pieces of wood doweling during my lunch break on Friday so I would be ready today to make the necessary repairs.   It was a simple matter to remove the hook eyes from the broken posts and place them on the new posts.   The new posts were then inserted into the structure.   Repair completed!                    

The second step was to get it covered again so that I could stop the bird carnage.   Rather than use plastic this time, I pulled some reemay fabric out of the shop storage area and placed it over the entire structure.   I have a big roll of this stuff but almost never use it.   I am hoping it provides protection and insulation and that with it being porous that it will allow the rainwater to drain through and not puddle.

It sort of looks like a Christmas package all bundled up – but I think this will work fairly well.   The real question now… is how much did I lose to the birds?   If it was too excessive, I may have to reseed the entire bed.   Going to just wait and see what emerges before taking any further action.  

Once the pea patch repairs were completed, I turned my attention to the seed starts.   I was planning to start the peppers and basil this weekend, but despite juggling the seed trays around – I just don’t have room for them right now under the big grow light set up with the heat mat.   After thinking about it for a while, I have decided to go ahead and purchase a tabletop light stand and heat mat to provide for my peak season overflow needs.   I have been doing without for some time now and am ready to give in and purchase a second smaller set up.   I really love my Goliath light stand (my primary set up) and am not interested in replacing it to go much bigger, but by adding a tabletop set up I can augment it for the high season of seed starting.   I placed the order today and hopefully will have my new lights by next weekend.   I will just postpone starting the peppers and basil for one week until it arrives.            

I did do some seedling care this morning.   All of the trays of seedlings were thoroughly bottom watered.   I then used scissors to trim the tops of my onion seedlings and to remove extra seedlings from the seed trays – leaving only the strongest plant in each cell.   I moved the Merlot lettuces, Ching Chiang pac choi, Improved Dwarf Siberian kale, and Tronchuda and Savoy Ace Cabbages from the shop to the greenhouse.  The onions were moved out there last weekend.   I made some temporary staging out of two short saw horses and 2’x2’ plywood board in the greenhouse and placed the trays of seedlings on that.       

The greenhouse is starting to get busy again.                                              

The top left half-barrel planter has the Chinese cabbages and kale that were started back in mid December.   They are quite happy in their permanent home in the greenhouse.   The middle half-barrel has the mache growing in it and the top right half-barrel planter has the pac choi that I planted up last weekend.   In the planters to the right are onions and the lettuces that I planted up last weekend also.   The little planter to the left is my cat Sid’s catnip plant.   It has been over wintering in the green house.   Sid begs to get into the greenhouse so he can go visit his catnip plant!   Out of the picture to the far left is the temporary staging I set up with the seedling trays.  

Despite the grey skies today, we went for a nice hike in the woods mid day.   Frogs croaking, birds declaring their territory, buds swelling, and leaves unfurling – heralds of springs arrival were all around us.   Tomorrow is supposed to be a little nicer weather and I am hoping to finish constructing the raspberry bed supports.   Unfortunately, the raspberry bare root plants did not arrive on Friday as expected so I will probably be planting them in the dark after work next week.  

Keep your fingers crossed for me that the birds did not eat too many of my pea seeds this past week.

It’s Wednesday and time for my customary mid-week blog entry.   Nothing overly exciting to update you on but I do have a few little bits of garden related news to share.

• First, I received an email on Tuesday letting me know that my bare root raspberry plants have shipped and should be here by Friday.
• Second, the lettuces, kale, and pac choi that I planted out in the greenhouse last weekend are all doing fine.
• Third, the horizontal pea trellis support I erected on Sunday suffered some damage earlier this week.   I had placed a plastic cover over the whole structure and we had some heavy rain on Monday night,  which pooled on the flat top of the structure and put a lot of weight on the rather flimsy end supports.   Two of them gave way and broke.   They are easily replaced and I will pick up the wood and take care of it this weekend.   Hoop covers definitely work better in rainy weather as the rounded tops shed the water when we get heavy rains.
• Fourth, the big round of tomato, broccoli, swiss chard, and celery that I started on February 13th is doing really well. Lots of plants have emerged and are growing on.
• Finally, the super early tomatoes (Siletz) that I started on January 22nd and the second round of lettuces (Merlot), kale, cabbages, and pac choi that were started January 30th and February 6th have all moved up to the overflow light area… weaning off of bottom heat. The early tomatoes were repotted last weekend and do not seem to have suffered too much from transplant shock.

Here’s some photos I took tonight of the super early tomatoes, lettuce, kale, cabbages, and pac choi.                                                      

Everything is progressing along.   Hopefully the raspberries will arrive before the weekend, so I can get them planted up in the light of day.   How are things going in your garden and seed starting?

With the exception of a 3-week deep freeze in December, our winter has been very mild this year.   Because of this, the soil temperatures have warmed up much faster this year and I can legitimately give thought to planting early crops extra early – but only with the added insurance of protective covering to hedge against a sudden reversal of weather fortunes.

I prepared the large 4-foot by 12-foot bed that would hold the pea patch yesterday so that I could take advantage of the forecasted beautiful weather for today (Sunday) to do the actual planting process.   Once again, I used my new planting jigs – this time the 2 inch spaced one.                     

Each square foot has 36 seeds with a 2-inch spacing, so the entire 4-foot by 12-foot bed had a total of 1,728 seeds placed in it!    Normally I would block plant a large area like this, but I want to see if the more carefully spaced seeds produce a more productive crop.   It took longer to seed the bed then it would have with a block planting approach - about 30 minutes to seed the entire bed with the assistance of my daughter.   It would have probably taken about an hour if I had done it all by myself.   I think that extra time invested in the planting will produce better results  - but only time will tell.          

Once the planting was completed, I watered everything thoroughly and then added my horizontal trellis support system (last year’s shop project).  

The final step was to top it all off with a protective covering of plastic sheeting. 

In addition to the pea planting, I did a few other garden related chores today.   First, I laid out all the seed potatoes on flattened cardboard boxes near one of the windows in the shop to encourage them to begin sprouting.   

I counted out 176 spuds and I will need 210 pieces for planting, so the larger potatoes will need to be cut.    Luckily there are more than enough large sized tubers in the mix to allow that to easily happen.     

I also moved the first planting of pac choi and lettuces out to the unheated greenhouse and planted them up. The lettuce was tucked in between the onion plantings and the pac choi took up the third half barrel container.    

The mache has been really dawdling along but is now getting some growth going.   Hopefully, we will be able to start enjoying some in salads before the end of March.                

The Chinese cabbage and the kale plants that I transplanted last weekend are doing really well in their new home in the greenhouse.   Hopefully the pac choi will settle in as nicely too.                                               

The greenhouse greens fill in a void during the early spring when the garden is starting to be planted up but is far from providing harvests and after all of the overwintered crops are depleted and removed.   Behind these greenhouse crops will come the garden rhubarb and not too long after that - asparagus.   In the meantime, we continue to use up the overwintered carrots and parsnips and the last of the overwintered cabbages to supplement our frozen and canned produce.                            

I hope you were able to do some garden related activities this weekend too.

I was previously going to wait until the plants emerged from the seeding process before sharing with you my inaugural use of the new planting jig.   However, that may take quite a while given it is early spring and the soil is cool (which will slow the germination process down considerably) so rather than wait, I have decided that I will just give you an update later on how things progress with the seedlings and give you the initial report now.               

Last Saturday, I gave up on my attempted salvage operation on the bed of overwintered spinach.   I had failed to get it covered with a grow tunnel prior to our deep freeze in December and then (to add insult to significant injury!) the marauding rabbit ate most of what remained of the feeble plants.   My salvage attempt included covering it with a grow tunnel and giving it a drink of fish emulsion tea.   Last weekend, I came to the conclusion that the few plants that had revived were not worth the effort to keep nursing along.   I pulled all of the plants out and composted them.   The grow tunnel cover had definitely warmed up the soil in that particular section of garden though, and it seemed like a great opportunity to just get a very early jump on the sowing of the spring spinach crop.   On Saturday, I did the bed prep necessary to get this 4-foot by 12-foot section of bed ready for direct seeding.   I pulled the grow tunnel cover off long enough to do the re-mineralization (greensand and rock phosphate) and to broadcast the bed area with organic all purpose fertilizer. I used a hoe to cultivate it all into the top six inches of soil - removing any remaining plants and weeds as I went.   Before putting the grow tunnel cover back on, I raked and watered the bed.   Since it has been covered for over a month now, it was getting dried out.   The next day I came back and checked the soil temperature in the bed and it was almost 50 degrees at about 10 am.   I needed it to be at least 45 degrees before I would consider planting it up with spinach.   

So Sunday morning, I did a final smoothing and raking process and used one of my new planting jigs (the four inch spaced one) to plant the spring spinach patch.   It is always important when planting seeds directly in the garden to get the seedbed as smooth and clod free as possible.                                

Before getting underway with the seeding, I brought out the planting jig and my regular 2-foot by 2-foot plywood board that I use for firming in seeds when doing a block planting process.                                            

I used the planting jig to then press out 2-foot by 2-foot sections of 4 inch spaced planting holes down the bed on both sides – 9 spaces per square foot.   Each jig impression provided 36 seeding holes and there were 12 of them to cover the entire surface of the 4-foot by 12-foot section of bed, which calculates out to 432 individual planting holes!                                      

I then just placed a seed (sometimes two) in each hole.   Once the seeds were in the jig holes, I smoothed the surface slightly with my gloved hand to fill in the top of the holes and then used the 2-foot by 2-foot piece of plywood to firm down and ensure good seed contact with the soil.                            

The last step was to water the bed well using warm water and then putting the grow tunnel cover back on.                                                  

It took me just a half hour to plant up this entire bed and the jig worked beautifully.   My only concern is that with smaller seeds (like these spinach seeds) I may be ending up with the seed too deep.   I will have to be particularly light handed with the really small seeds like carrots when making the impressions in the soil.   All in all though, I am very happy with this design. 

So there you have it!   The next candidate planting for the new jigs will be the big pea patch for 2010.   The soil temp is good enough to plant right now, and the forecast is for a really beautiful weekend coming up so I probably get this underway soon too - using the 2 inch spaced planter for that one.   Things are really getting underway now!

Today was a full day of garden related activity.   The weather was not particularly good (off and on rain all day) but I managed to catch the short window of time this morning that it was not raining and got some bed prep work completed that needed to be done.   First, I applied rock minerals (greensand and rock phosphate) at the rate of 6 lbs per 100 square feet to all garden beds except for one - which currently has crops planted in it.   I will use up the last of my rock mineral supply to do this bed just before I plant it up with potatoes (about a month from now).   In addition, I broadcasted plain alfalfa pellets over several beds that previously had a green manure crop but did not have an application of compost.   Alfalfa pellets are a good soil conditioner - adding organic matter plus nitrogen and other nutrients too.   A 50 lb bag is quite inexpensive and can be purchased at most livestock feed supply stores.                              

You may recall that about a month ago (January 10th) I attempted a salvage operation on the bed of overwintered spinach.   I had failed to get it covered with a grow tunnel prior to our deep freeze in December and then to add insult to significant injury - the marauding rabbit ate most of what remained of the feeble plants.   My salvage attempt included covering it with a grow tunnel and giving it a drink of fish emulsion tea.   Well, today my assessment was that the few plants that had revived were not worth the effort to keep nursing along.   I pulled all of the plants out and composted them.  The grow tunnel cover has definitely warmed up the soil in that particular section of garden though and I intend to take advantage of that and do a very early sowing of spring spinach.   Today I did the bed prep necessary to get ready for such a direct seeding.   I pulled the grow tunnel cover off long enough to do the re-mineralization (greensand and rock phosphate) and to broadcast the bed area with organic all purpose fertilizer.   I used a hoe to cultivate it all into the top six inches of soil - removing any remaining plants and weeds as I went.   Before putting the grow tunnel cover back on, I raked and watered the bed.   Since it has been covered with a grow tunnel for over a month now, it was getting dried out.   I will check the soil temperature in the bed tomorrow afternoon and if it looks good (at least 45 degrees) I will plant it up with spinach using one of my new planting jigs (the 4 inch spacing one).                

Before I did the bed amendment process, I removed the remaining over wintered kale plants.   They were still producing fairly well but I have new kale plants that went into the greenhouse today that will soon be harvestable and these were in the way.   The plants provided a nice final harvest and combined with a few fresh harvested carrots made a good addition to tonight's dinner menu.             

While I was working in the garden, I noticed that the blueberries and the bush pie cherries have significant bud and bloom swell occurring.   These are a few branches of the bush pie cherries.                                   

By the time I finished up with the outside chores it was starting to rain pretty hard and I was getting quite wet.   Luckily, the remaining items on my to do list were indoor items.   First up, I needed to plant the kale and Chinese cabbages in one of the half-barrel containers in the greenhouse.             

Moving these out of the shop to their permanent location in the greenhouse - made room in the shop to do the seedling shuffle necessary to get ready for the next big round of seed starting scheduled for today.   The tray of pac choi, lettuces, and onions were moved to the overflow light set up (much smaller and no heat pad) where they will stay for about a week before moving out to the greenhouse to start the hardening off process.   With that move, that left only one full tray of other previously started seedlings under the main light setup.   This left enough room to add the three full trays of seedlings I started today. Here's a run down of what went into those trays.

• Six 6-packs tomato - Celebrity
• Two 6-packs tomato - Cherokee Purple
• Four 6-packs tomato - Early Girl
• Three 6-packs tomato - Fantastic
• Two 6-packs tomato - Market Miracle
• Seven 6-packs tomato - Oroma
• Four 6-packs broccoli - Premium Crop
• Two 6-packs celery - Red
• Two 6-packs celery - Utah 52-70 Improved
• Four 6 packs swiss chard - Bright Lights

The areas under the lights are completely full right now.   In about two weeks I will need to start the basil and peppers but by then one of the trays will be ready to rotate out to the overflow light set up and I should be good to go.  

I got lots accomplished today and am ready to relax and enjoy an evening of watching the winter Olympics.

This coming weekend is a fairly big one in my seed-starting schedule.   Mid February is when I start my spring crops of broccoli and swiss chard, and the main crops of celery and tomatoes.   The tomatoes are the biggest part of that mix because I am not only starting seedlings for my own garden, but for my sister’s garden as well.   Over the past several year’s it has become a bit of a tradition that I also gift my staff at work with free tomato (and later pepper) starts.   That tradition started because (at a minimum) I start at least twice as many plants as I actually want to go into the garden.   I substantially over plant (particularly tomatoes) because there are so many opportunities for seedling death along the journey from seed to productive plant – poor germination, seedling diseases, repotting shock, and death from problems once the seedlings actually go into the garden proper.   Not to mention the occasional mishap death such as the time I accidentally tripped while carrying a large tray of beautiful seedlings – flipping them over so they landed upside down and crushed the entire lot of them.   It happens.   Some years you lose a lot along the way, other years hardly any.   So I mitigate my risk by planting at least twice as much as I need and then once I am sure all my needs (and my sister’s) have been taken care, I give the rest of the seedlings away to my staff, co-workers and several friends.   This annual spring plant give away has become so popular that I plant even more than the doubled amount, just to be sure I will not disappoint by not having any extras.         

For 2010 I need 36 tomato plants (composed of several varieties) to cover my sister’s needs and my own.   I will be planting a total of 144 plants (or 2 full trays of twelve 6-packs) to provide for our actual needs, loss protection, and the big plant give away.   In addition, I will also be starting 24 broccoli, 24 celery (2 varieties), and 24 swiss chard plants – basically doubling the amount of each that I actually need.   Combined, I will have three full trays of 72 planting cells each.   In preparation for this weekend, I set the trays out and filled them with the empty plastic starter cells.    

I have enough plastic starter cells for this current wave of seed starting, but am getting very low on them.   I reuse them over and over again, but occasionally they just get so worn out or damaged that I have to discard them.   Apparently, there has been enough attrition that I am getting down to a somewhat low supply of them.   I may have to stop by the local nursery center soon and pick up a few to shore up my inventory again.   As for larger sized pots used later for repotting, I have quite a big stash of those due to the generosity of several people who know I use them and bring me their extras - which I then rinse out and reuse (many times!).

Lots of seeds to get started this weekend, but there are also lots of seedlings that are in the shop from the first couple of waves of seed starting.   The kale and Chinese cabbages that I started in mid December will be moved out to the green house this coming weekend where they will permanently take up residence.   The Merlot lettuce that I planted last Saturday from seeds sent to me by Dan at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog – are showing some really good emergence.   As of this evening (Wednesday), all the cells have at least one plant emerging.   

The super early tomato crop (Siletz) planted on January 22nd is coming along nicely.   They are forming their first true leaves.                       

The onions (Walla Walla and Candy) that were planted on January 17th worried me a little because initially the germination was not strong in two out of the four containers.   They seem to have gotten with the program though and all four trays now have a good stand of onion seedlings in them.

The lettuces (Super Gourmet Blend) and pac choi (Ching Chiang) that were planted at the same time as the onions are also coming along well.                      

Not pictured but also doing well – are the kale (Improved Dwarf Siberian) and cabbages (Tronchuda and Savoy Ace) that I started on January 30th. 

Things get a lot busier from here on out.   The shop growlight set up will be full up with seed trays, the greenhouse will start absorbing the overflow as I shuffle older plants out of the way to make room for the next wave of seed starting, and the garden bed prep tasks will ramp up in preparation for the first early crop plantings.                            

For those of you starting your own seedlings this year, how are things progressing for you?

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!