The Modern Victory Garden

Since the garden is delayed from the normal time frames this year (due to the cool summer we have been having) it means that it is the first week of August and I am not into the big harvest and preserving push that typically starts in late July and keeps going well into September.   It feels quite odd really, but I can see that things are coming along and that soon I will indeed have some big harvests to make and preserve.   I guess my window of time to do all that work and get the preserving done is just going to be more abbreviated this year.   With my daughter recently moving away, I am also going to be doing this without my usual extra help.   This could get interesting!   In the meantime, the workload in the garden is actually pretty low at the moment – mainly watering, light daily harvesting, and a little weeding, and filling in planting.   That will all change when the bean patch gets serious about producing but for the moment it is kind of quiet in the garden.   I am taking advantage of this lull before the big harvest and preserving storm, and getting the last of my fall plantings attended to.                          

You may recall that I have been fussing about the asparagus patch off and on  for well on to two years now.   It just has not been performing like it should and has been a continued disappointment  . It has not been a failure mind you, just an under achiever.   Attempts at rejuvenating it have not been successful and I recently came to the conclusion that I need to just cut my losses and remove the plants and use the bed for something more productive.   So, last Sunday I took a pitchfork and removed/lifted out the large asparagus crowns/roots from the bed, amended it, and then planted it up with the fall crop of spinach.   It is covered with wire mesh panels to protect the seed bed from birds and my cat until the seeds can germinate and get firmly established.                    

I am not really sure what I will do with this bed long term.   It is a good candidate for a perennial planting area and I may end up planting more blueberries or some other fruiting crop in it.   For now though, I will use it as a regular garden bed and continue adding amendments to it to replenish the soil.

The other thing I did Sunday was to plant another succession crop of lettuces in an open 2-foot by 2-foot area of the garden bed.   The spinach and lettuce that I direct seeded joins the long list of items that I already have growing in the garden for the fall and winter.   A short time ago I planted out the fall crops of broccoli and swiss chard and they are already zooming along with growth.       

I also recently planted a big bed of kale, which has also settled right in and started growing well.                      

These crops are in addition to the multiple plantings of carrots, parsnips, turnips, and green onions that have been growing in the garden for a while now.   Together these form the basis of the fall/winter fresh eating harvests that supplement the food we put by from the summer garden.           

While things may be a bit quiet in the garden at the moment, there is lots of action happening in the chicken department. . One of our young hens has produced her first eggs for us this week!   This is about a month ahead of what I was expecting so we were pleasantly surprised.   Her first effort produced two shell less eggs, but they were immediately followed by two average sized and perfectly formed eggs – one a day for the past two days.   She has used the chicken coop nest boxes for both of the “good eggs” and seems to be getting into good production habits right from the start.   Hopefully the other girls will follow her example and similarly figure it out quickly.   My husband ate the first one today and said it was delicious and I will be enjoying the other tomorrow for breakfast.               

The harvest and preserving storm is brewing on the horizon, and I am anxious for it to arrive so I can get going with the annual process of preserving foods for later use - getting the full benefit of the summer garden before the cold fall rains arrive and put an end to the warm weather crops.   In the meantime, I will continue nursing my newly planted fall crops along and try to enjoy the short lull before getting back into the "too much to do at one time" mode.          

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Friday night, I made the first exploration dig into the potato patch.   The Yukon Gold potato plants have begun to flop over and are starting to show signs they want to die back soon so I expected that the Yukon Gold potatoes were further along than probably the rest of the varieties were.   With the exception of the Yukon Golds (which are in the very front portion of this next picture), the potato patch is lush and still standing upright despite the very tall vegetation on these plants.          

And here is what I harvested from one plant of the Yukon Gold.   I think this is a good harvest considering it was only one plant. I diced these up, drizzled  them with olive oil and sprinkled on some herbs and salt – tossed them to coat evenly and then roasted them until tender and just crisped.   Nice to have potatoes back on the menu again.                              

Today I tackled several garden tasks including:

• Planting some carrots (Bolero) and kale (Fizz) in beds recently opened up with the harvest of lettuces and some cabbages
• Thinned the short rows of turnips
• Thinned the trays of seedlings down to a single plant per cell
• Watered the strawberries, several seedbeds, lettuces, cucumbers, and the bed with zucchini and paste tomatoes
• Pastured the chickens for several hours and kept an eye on them while I worked in the garden
• Layered on finished compost as mulch on the kale patch and the cranberries
• Pulled all the garlic up and laid it out to dry on the side deck area

Here’s the tray of seedlings before I thinned them down to one plant per cell using a small pair of sharp scissors to cut away the extra plants.               

And here it is after I finished the thinning process.   They will perk up and grow much stronger without the crowding and competition.               

I did the garlic pull today because the leaves were yellowing and the elephant garlic was lying over.   I have not weighed these yet as I want to wait until the tops dry down and are removed before I do.                              

The weather is warming up a bit and the three sisters planting seems to be doing better this past week as a result.                         

The pumpkins are running and are even setting fruit now.           

The pea patch is loaded with pods - many of which are almost ready for harvest.                                              

The sugar snap peas are producing well now too.                  

The bush beans (Royal Burgundy) look like they are half runner beans to me.   Behind them are the real pole beans (Blue Lake) but the bush beans are putting out just as strong a central climbing vine as the pole beans?   This is a new variety for me so I am not sure what to expect.                   

The broccoli patch is so dense with foliage that I have been stripping some of the lower leaves and feeding them to the chickens and yet it still has a thick bunch of vegetation.   They are producing some good heads now and lots of side shoots.   Planning to make my first broccoli harvest of the year tomorrow. 

The zucchini patch is thriving and is producing harvestable sized zukes.    

I harvested two of them this afternoon and used them (thinly sliced) as part of the toppings of a homemade pizza for dinner.                        

Since it is a long holiday weekend, I have two more days to putter around in the garden, which makes me quite happy!   The garden is getting busier now and I could use the extra time to get caught up on routine tasks.   I will not be spending all of my time in the garden though, as we will be doing a traditional barbeque dinner tomorrow and watching fireworks with much of the rest of the nation to celebrate Independence Day.    Happy Fourth of July!              

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

It’s mid June and the summer garden season is not even really started for me, and yet I am thinking ahead to the coming fall and winter season.   Gardeners who want to do fall and winter gardening have to come to terms with the fact that we always have to be thinking about 2 to 3 months ahead of our current situation - putting in motion the necessary actions to make that future expectation happen.     

In the early spring, thinking ahead is easier because there are no distractions of a summer garden requiring attention and providing significant harvests, and in mid winter to early spring most of us are suffering from cabin fever and are itching to start planting something!   But thinking ahead in early summer to prepare for a fall and winter harvest is harder because life is busy in the summer, the garden prolific (even overwhelming at times), and the timing of growth to harvest is very different for late season crops because the day length and sun strength is declining rather than increasing.   That last consideration is something a lot of folks get tripped up on when planting fall and winter garden items.   They use the seed packet days to maturity as gospel and then are disappointed when the items they planted for fall/winter harvest do not make it to maturity before essentially stopping growth altogether due to the cold and short days of winter.                                        

The days to maturity on seed packets are for spring/summer season planting when day length and sun intensity is increasing.   The goal is to have your fall/winter crops completely mature before they go into the winter dormancy period or holding pattern of growth.   In addition, because the plants will not bounce back and provide cut and come again harvests (like many do in spring and summer) it is important to grow enough of each item to provide the harvests you want without the benefit of replenishment from new (or at least not very fast!) growth.   When I am planning my fall/winter crops I want them to be mature by no later than September 30th or I risk not getting a harvestable crop from them.   That applies to both fall and winter harvest items.   With that goal in mind, I work backwards from that date with “days to maturity” under optimal (spring/summer) conditions and then add almost three weeks to that number.   Yes, you read that correctly, three weeks.   The reason is that when the plant is getting into the critical final maturity stage of growth the sun strength will have become greatly diminished, the night time temperatures colder, and the fall cold and heavy rains will have started up which translates into overcast and gloomy skies which means even less sun strength and cold wet soil.   For those in more sunny and drier locations two weeks would probably be sufficient to add.                      

So, it is now mid June and 3 months from now (90 days) it will be September 15th. Typical fall and winter crops for me include carrots, parsnips, brussel sprouts, leeks, cabbages, broccoli, kale, swiss chard, lettuces, various hardy greens, and spinach.   Very long growing items (120 days or more) such as some varieties of carrots, parsnips, leeks, and brussel sprouts are actually started in late spring in order to be ready for a fall/winter harvest.   I am not growing either leeks or brussel sprouts this year but do have my patch of parsnips and several patches of carrots already planted up.   Here is a list of typical fall/winter crops that I grow with days from planting to maturity under optimal (spring/summer) and less optimal (late summer/fall) growing conditions.

• Beet (optimal - 55 to 70)  (less optimal - 70 to 90) 
• Broccoli (optimal - 90 to 110) (less optimal - 105 to 130)
• Brussel Sprouts (optimal - 90 to 150) (less optimal - 105 to 170)
• Cabbage (optimal - 65 to 120) (less optimal - 80 to 140)
• Carrot (optimal - 70 to 150) (less optimal - 95 to 170)
• Kale (optimal - 50 to 60) (less optimal - 65 to 80)
• Kohlrabi (optimal - 50 to 60) (less optimal - 65 to 80)
• Lettuce, leaf (optimal - 40 to 50) (less optimal - 55 to 70)
• Onion, green (optimal - 50 to 60) (less optimal - 65 to 80)
• Parsnips (optimal - 105 to 130) (less optimal - 120 to 150)
• Radish (optimal - 21 to 30) (less optimal - 35 to 50)
• Spinach (optimal - 40 to 50) (less optimal - 55 to 70)
• Swiss Chard (optimal - 60 to 75) (less optimal - 75 to 95)
• Turnip (optimal - 45 to 75) (less optimal - 60 to 95)

I generally choose faster maturing varieties for my fall/winter crop plantings so that I am on the lower end of the days to maturity spectrum.   As you can see from this list, to meet my target of no later than September 30th maturity items like parsnips and brussel sprouts need to be started in May for a fall/winter crop.   Other items must be started in June or early July (broccoli, carrots, cabbages, green onions, swiss chard), but some items can be planted as late as August and still provide a fall crop (lettuces, radishes, and spinach).           

Sunday I started seeds of broccoli, chinese cabbage, pac choi, swiss chard, and kale.   The pac choi, and kale are for late summer/early fall use but the chinese cabbage, broccoli and swiss chard are fall crops.                     

Soon, I will be direct sowing some green onions, carrots, more kale and other hardy greens (once space opens up in the garden), and in August I will sow the big fall crop of spinach and fall lettuces.                    

Are you thinking ahead for a fall and winter harvest?

Summer gave us a brief one-day visit today, breaking the long streak of rainy days.   Unfortunately, it is not forecasted to stick around tomorrow so I devoted myself to enjoying it today while it lasted!   I started the morning out by doing a quick cleaning of the coop and the chicken yard.   I put the girls in the portable pen and let them graze in an area adjacent to their run.   The pen is covered with bird netting to keep them from flying out and to keep predators from swooping in.      

While they were occupied I scooped and swept out the soiled shavings in the coop and added them to the compost pile.   I also raked up the wet plant debris in the run area and added it to the compost pile as well.   New shavings were added to the coop and the feed and water containers were cleaned thoroughly before being refilled.   I had the coop opened up wide while I was cleaning.    

After the coop was cleaned, I moved into the garden and spent most of the day puttering around there, or just sitting on the deck reading.               

The cucumbers are generally doing good after several efforts on my part to replant and replace ones that had previously died.   However, just when I thought they were settling down and doing really well, I had two more plants die (two of the smaller replanted ones).                                          

It would appear that they died from root rot, likely due to the constant cool and wet conditions we have had.   The remaining plants all look very good and the warm sunny conditions today probably helped them a lot.   Hopefully this will be the last of the cucumber deaths and we can get on with the business of growing some cukes!                                           

On a happier note, the zucchini plants are looking good and even have the first formation of tiny little fruits.   The bright yellow Gold Rush fruit are fairly easy to see even when this small.                                    

I removed the small planting of spinach today as I had harvested the last of it this week and the plants were definitely gone by.   After a quick cultivation of the soil, I used my 3 inch planting jig and did a 2’x2’ planting of Bolero carrots in that area.   The bigger planting of carrots made weeks ago is now forming true leaves and starting to look like a carrot patch.                   

The other direct seeding I did today, was Blue Lake pole beans.   The first seeding was not coming up well and/or has been being eaten as fast as they are emerging.   It is just unacceptable to do without a large planting of pole beans, so last Thursday I started some pole bean seeds in a wet paper towel and by this morning they were just barely sprouted.   I planted these up today in the soil that was feeling nice and warm from the abundant sunshine.     Hopefully this round of pole beans will make it to the finish line.   Oddly enough, the rest of the bean plantings have been doing remarkably well this year.   All of the runner beans are now up; the Pinto beans have been up for some time now and are getting some good size on them; the Kidney Beans are just emerging; and both plantings of the Royal Burgundy bush beans are doing splendidly.   Here’s the larger of the two patches of the Royal Burgundy bush beans.

The peppers are holding their own but would be happier if we had more than just this one sunny day.   I do see flowers forming on some of them, so they cannot be too stressed by the cool and wet weather.                         

The potato bed continues to fill out and grow taller.                         

We have been out of storage potatoes for a while now.   As a result, we are eating more bread, pasta, dried beans, and rice and I am increasingly wishing we had potatoes back on the menu.   It will be a while before we have baby potatoes to steal from the plants, but I expect they will be available around the first part of July.                                               

All in all, it was a perfectly enjoyable day in the garden.   A brief bit of sunshine and warmth does the body and soul a world of good.   Doesn’t hurt the garden much either!                                           

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Thankfully I spent a lot of time in the garden on Sunday getting a lot accomplished and soaking up the beautiful sunshine.   It was fortunate because the weather subsequently has been decidedly wetter, and because I have managed to catch a doozy of a cold this week, which has left me coughing, sneezing, with a sore throat, and generally best described as a walking virus factory!   In fact, I worked from home today in order to spare my coworkers and employees exposure to this stuff.   Large doses of Dayquil during the day and Nyquil at night, Kleenex, and medicated lip balm are keeping me going.   I so rarely get sick that when I eventually do, it seems like I really go down for the count.  This time is no exception.    However, at least for the moment, I am armed with a cup of sweetened hot tea; fresh Kleenex; and a recent dose of cold meds - so let me give you an update on what I did on Sunday before the meds and Kleenex run out on me again.                                    

The main thing I was working to accomplish on Sunday was to finish up the spring/summer direct seeding of crops.   I had planted some of the beans (Pinto beans, Blue Lake pole beans, and a small section of Royal Burgundy bush beans) over the prior two weekends.   On Sunday, I wrapped up planting the Dark Red Kidney beans, more Royal Burgundy bush beans, and some Sunset runner beans.   I planted a large 4’x16’ section of bed in kidney beans.   Some of the seed I used was my own saved seed from 2007 and the rest was purchased seed.   To prep the bed, I broadcasted a little balanced organic fertilizer and then cultivated it in with a sharp hoe.                              

The bed was then raked smooth and I used my 4” planting jig to plant up the beans.                          

I finished it up by using up some used potting soil to cover the seedbed.   I had set aside this potting soil for this very purpose when I recently freshened up the soil in some of the greenhouse containers.   I like to recycle old potting soil into the garden beds this way.                           

In addition to the kidney beans, I also planted up a 4’x8’ section of Royal Burgundy bush beans, and an 8’ row of Sunset runner beans under a grow support structure.   The other items I planted were a 2’x4’ section of Vulgare dill, and a 2’x4’ section of Mokum carrots.   The last items I planted was a 2’x8’ section of garden bed in lettuces (Super Gourmet Blend and Mesclun).   The lettuces went in under the cucumber trellis structure.   They will get plenty of sun for the coming weeks, but will be afforded some shade by the cucumbers later in the summer when the weather starts warming up too much for lettuce.   The trellis structure I am using for the cucumbers is new this year.   I actually purchased it back in 2007 and it has been sitting (unused) in the shop because it is not a super efficient use of a garden bed compared to my other vertical grow structures and (up until last year’s garden expansion was done) I did not have any extra bed space to spare.   However, with the garden expansion completed I could give consideration to pulling this item out of mothballs and giving it a try.   So for this year’s cucumber crop, I am using something new and it gives me a place to grow some later summer lettuces (hopefully) with the shade it will provide.           

The green pepper ladders you see laying on the ground in front of the support are there to protect the small cucumber seedlings.   Up until last  weekend, I had a sheet of plastic draped over the whole thing to add some heat for these tender plants.   Next to this cucumber bed is the spring spinach patch.   I gave it some fish emulsion tea fertilizer on Saturday.      

I can tell you that with the heavy rain we have gotten today combined with the shot of fertilizer I gave it last weekend, this patch tonight is about twice as thick with harvestable leaves from that shown in  this photo taken on Sunday!   I can see some signs that it would like to bolt though, so I need to do a hard harvest this weekend and freeze some.   In the meantime, I cut a nice bunch of it tonight to make a fresh spinach salad for dinner.   In the last photo the front section of bed that would appear empty is actually a planting of carrots I did two weeks ago (May 2nd).   The bed has all germinated and emerged and is really looking good – they are just too small yet to show up in photos.                                

The Pinto beans I also planted on May 2nd (with the corn and pumpkins) have almost all emerged now too and I noticed this evening that the bush beans and pole beans planted on May 9th are also just beginning to break ground.          

The big spinach patch, green onions, and container planting of Merlot lettuces have been feeding us really well for the past week or so.   I have also been harvesting a lot of kale and Tronchuda cabbage but not recording it in my harvest weight tally because I have been harvesting regular but small amounts to feed my young chickens!   It adds up, but each day’s picking is so small I have not been bothering with weighing it.   I quit harvesting asparagus about two weeks ago and am now letting it go to frond for the season.                                        

The real star of the garden at the moment is the pea patch. Check it out!     

The peas have latched on to the top most horizontal support  and are now reaching for the sky.   It’s looking like we will have another good pea harvest this year.                                                             

Also coming along is the broccoli patch.                                     

I have yet to see center heads begin to form, but I don’t think I will have to wait very long based on the overall size and health of the plants.   I side dressed the kale, cabbages, lettuces, and broccoli with some alfalfa pellets last weekend.             

Time to wrap this update up.   My meds are running out and I am starting to sneeze violently again and my nose is raw from blowing it.   I hope I am better soon because I got a call today letting me know that our chicken coop kit is going to be delivered tomorrow!   My husband and I are both anxious to get to this project and it would be a lot more fun if I were not sick.   I sincerely hope for all of your sakes that you avoid this crud altogether.

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

It has been down right cold here for the past several days.   Night time lows were right at 35 degrees for two nights in a row, which has not killed anything outright but has all the less hardy items a bit stressed.   It is supposed to warm up (relatively speaking) tomorrow and I hope that everything recovers quickly and resumes growing.   The tomatoes in the greenhouse have been completely unfazed by the cold though.   In fact the super early Siletz tomatoes continue to put on more blossoms.       

One thing that has been totally unaffected by the cold snap is the weeds in the walkways of the garden.   I absolutely must do the first weed whacking of the walkways this coming weekend.   I am in jeopardy of having small children and large cats getting lost in the tall grass along the edge of the beds!   Those of you who have followed my blog for a while will know that I really dislike this chore.   In fact, I  had good intentions of doing something different with the walkway areas this year but recognizing I have already spent quite enough money with the addition of a chicken coop this spring, I am going to have to wait.   So it will be yet another year of doing the monthly weed trimming work.   While I heartily dislike doing this task, I do love how the garden looks immediately afterwards which motivates me to get to it.   I also need to clean the top panes of the greenhouse.   The caked on pollen needs to go so the sunlight can reach the plants inside more effectively.    I am too short to do this job without standing precariously on a step ladder - so this is not my favorite job either.                                                  

The other thing that must be attended to this weekend is planting out the pumpkins, zucchini, and cucumbers.   They are way over due for transplanting but I have been holding back because the weather has been too chilly.               

While the majority of the squash family plants are growing and ready to plant out, I am giving up on growing Early Butternut squash this year.   I definitely am in possession of a package of bad seeds.   After two completely failed attempts to start the Early Butternut seeds in the seed trays of sterilized starting mix, the third attempt was made to germinate the seeds in a damp paper towel in a warm spot.   Absolutely no luck – not a single seed sprouted.   I think it is safe to declare that the package of seeds was a complete dud.   They were bought from a seed company that I don’t generally use and am unlikely to use ever again.   So, I am changing my plans a bit as a result.   I am going to plant the Small Sugar pumpkins in with the corn and pinto beans for the three sister’s plantings and just skip planting winter squash all together this year. Looking at the bright side, this gives me more room in the garden for bush green beans and dried beans.             

This week has felt like a lot of minor set backs what with the weather; confirmation that I had a totally bad package of Early Butternut seed; and weeds in the walkways that demand that I do my least favorite garden chore.  I need the sun to come out and make things right with the world - or at least in my garden!

The weather was damp and cool all weekend, but in order to stay on schedule I had some planting to do.   The parsnip patch and another section of carrots needed to be planted.   I used my 2-inch spaced planting jig on a 4-foot by 4-foot section of bed that I planted with carrots (Bolero).   I used my 3-inch spaced planting jig on a 4-foot by 12-foot garden bed that I planted with parsnips (Cobham Improved Marrow).    

The other planting project to be completed was the second of three steps in the three sisters planting process.   Last weekend I transplanted out the corn seedlings - leaving open areas for the squash to be planted later.   Today, I needed to get the pinto beans planted.   These are a half runner dry bean, which will grow up the corn stalks but should not get so tall as to overwhelm the corn.   It is important to let the corn have a head start, then the beans, before the squash plants go in - because the squash vines will quickly smother out the other plants if they have not had a chance to get tall enough to rise above the squash foliage.   I began the bean planting process by reestablishing the grid lines surrounding the 1-foot squares that the corn was planted in.   I used a 4-foot long narrow board for that purpose. 

I  then laid out the pinto bean seeds on a 4-inch spacing along the grid lines. 

I then just pressed the bean seeds into the soil with my finger, smoothed the soil back over the planting area, and watered everything well.   The only task remaining now for the three sisters planting project is to transplant the winter squash into the area of the bed that was left unplanted.                  

The pea patch is thriving in the damp and cool conditions.   The plants have reached the bottom level of the horizontal trellis support and are latching on.  

The cabbage family plants are enjoying the rainy and cool conditions too.     The Savoy Ace cabbages, Tronchuda cabbage, and Dwarf Siberian Kale plants are all thriving.                                

The weather has not harmed the spinach patch either.   Yesterday I harvested a nice bunch of young spinach leaves that were the basis for a salad for dinner.       

I hope the weather improves next weekend.   I really have to transplant out the cucurbit family plants.   I will work on hardening them off this week in preparation.   I am also planning to direct seed the remaining bean family plants – pole beans, runner beans, and bush beans.   Once that is done, all the spring and summer grown crops will have been planted.    How is your spring planting up process progressing?

Each year I start more vegetable seedlings than I ultimately need in order to hedge the risk of plant losses that normally occur.   With tomatoes, I plant even more than that because over the years it has become a tradition to provide tomatoes for my staff and co-workers.                        

It has been almost two weeks since I planted out my own tomatoes and all of the plants are doing splendidly so it is safe to say that I no longer needed to keep spares on hand.   It was time to take my surplus tomato starts into work for the annual tomato plant giveaway.    This morning I packed up all but the plants earmarked for my sister and tucked them into the back of my Honda Fit.     

Had to make two trips with a wheeled cart to get them all transported into the building and set out on the conference room table.

Every single one of the plants was taken in short order; even one that got scrunched a bit in the transporting process!   I still have plants to get to my sister, but for the most part the annual tomato plant giveaway is now history for 2010!

After several days of high winds, driving rains, and substantially colder weather, it was nice that it was at least a little less stormy today.   In fact, this afternoon we had a brief hour where the sun made an appearance.   I took advantage of it and rushed the tomatoes outside to let them drink it in while they could.            

It did not last very long though.   As soon as the sun went back behind dark storm clouds, the temps started dropping fast so they were all quickly shuttled right back into the greenhouse.   Too much time and energy invested in these tomato seedlings to let a moment of inattention take them down!             

There is not a lot to do in the garden at the moment, but I did have one task to get completed this weekend – which was to start the cucurbit family seeds (cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, and winter squash) and the sweet corn.   I was toying with the idea of direct seeding the corn this year, but changed my mind and went back to my usual practice of starting them indoors.   Our soil temperatures do not warm up very fast and corn really needs warmth to germinate properly.   Now that the tomato seedlings are all moved out to the green house, there was plenty of room under the lights for this next big round of seed starting.      

These seed trays were covered with a plastic humidity dome and placed on heat mats and under grow lights in the shop.                                    

Elsewhere in the garden, things are progressing despite the cool and wet conditions.   About a week ago I moved the container of Merlot lettuces out of the greenhouse and out onto the deck area.    It has been cold and really wet ever since but these plants seem to be thriving.   In fact, they finally turned the merlot color that they are named for.                            

The pea patch is almost fully emerged now too.   I was worried that the soggy and cold conditions would give them problems but it appears that they are unfazed.     Look how nice the spacing is on this planting!   The new planting jig worked really well.                          

The onion sets have also really come alive too.    That is the garlic patch behind the onions.                                                       

The broccoli plants I transplanted a week and half ago are really doing well with the protection of a grow tunnel cover.    Once the weather stabilizes just a bit, I will be removing this cover.                                                      

I have already harvested and used all of the first pac choi planting and the chinese cabbages too.   I am now harvesting asparagus but it is still just small amounts at any given time.   I can see some really fat spears poking up in multiple places in the bed, so I think if the weather got just a bit sunnier and warm we would be in asparagus heaven!   I still have some pac choi plants (second sowing) growing in an outside bed along with lots of kale and lettuces that should keep us going until then.   Coming along behind all of that is the spinach patch.   I am really looking forward to the first baby spinach salads of the season.   Yum!

Just one day before the official first day of spring and we got up to 65 degrees for most of the afternoon!   There was no way I was going to do much of anything else but putter in the garden on such a brilliant and sunny day!   My cat Sid joined me for most of the time and the first order of business was to move his potted catnip out of the greenhouse to the front entry area of the house.   He loves this plant!       

There is a lot of debris in the yard and deck because we had a high wind event last week.   Several large trees come down across our road as a result and the yard, gardens, deck, and driveway are just littered with branches, needles, and leaves.   Going to have to devote some time to sweeping up and clearing away the debris. 

You may recall that the seed potatoes arrived almost exactly a month ago and I put them out next to a window in the shop to encourage the formation of sprouts.   I am planning to plant the potato patch some time in the coming week and they are just perfectly sprouted for that.             

I need to cut about 35 of them in half to have enough seed pieces.   I will probably do that tomorrow because I want the cut portions to have at least 24 hours to dry out before I put these into the damp cool soil.   In preparation for the upcoming potato bed planting, I cleaned out the last of the overwintered parsnips and carrots from that bed.   They both were going to seed and needed to just be composted.   I then applied rock minerals to the bed (rock phosphate and greensand).   I had done all the other beds earlier this spring but did not do this last one because it had crops growing in it.   I also broadcasted some bone meal and organic all purpose fertilizer over the surface of the bed and then layered on some compost.   This bed is now ready for me to tackle the potato planting process.  

The other outdoor project I did today was to aerate the long vertical grow bed, cultivate it, and then rake it smooth.   I then planted up two thirds of the bed, putting Cascadia sugar snap peas under the trellis supports and Mokum carrots in the front portion of the bed.   I used my 2-inch planting jig for the carrot planting and that went very well.   I had started some Cascadia peas a few weeks ago indoors.   The soil mix was not wicking water very well and so the germination rate was not as good as it should have been.   But I still ended up with a good amount of pre-sprouted peas. 

These went into the bed first and then I just direct seeded the rest of the way along the bed.            

The final step is to cover the bed with some wire panels to discourage birds from pecking at the young pea sprouts.

The greenhouse plants are all just taking off and really growing beautifully.   Here’s a view into it looking down from our side deck.  

The pac choi growing in containers in the greenhouse are quickly putting on some size and it should not be long before we can start enjoying some of them.

Over the past week I have been steadily working on re potting the tomato starts.   I did another 15 of them today.   There are 32 more to go and I hope to have them done before too much longer.   More and more of them are shifting out to the greenhouse (out from the lights in the shop) and are now residing in the greenhouse during the day and are then moved into the shop at night to protect them from too much cold at night.                             

The super early Siletz plants are getting really good sized and are hale and hearty.      

They are now four weeks into their current pots and were ready for another re potting to even larger containers.   This was the last task I tackled for the day.   I put them out on the front porch to enjoy a little late afternoon sun while they finished draining off the drink of water I had just given them.   

They are spending their days in the greenhouse and their nights inside the house.   The next time I re pot these it will be in about four more weeks - when they will go into the large black containers that they will grow in for the rest of the season.          

I am glad I spent so much time outside today.   The forecast is for the weather to get cooler and showery for the next several days, so grabbing as much time in the sun while I can was my focus for today.    Spring is definitely here - and I must say it makes me happy!