The Modern Victory Garden

Around the last part of June, we set up a worm box in an area that is too shaded (back side of the house) to grow anything in.           

Since then, we have been putting all of our kitchen compost pail contents into it along with some chicken manure we pick up from walk way areas occassionally and a small part of the garden trimmings.   The rest of the garden debris is partially split to the hens for treats and the majority of it goes to the regular compost piles still.    With this strategy I am keeping the worm box fueled, the hens happy, and the regular compost has continued accumulating nicely.   When the layer of food and garden wastes in the worm box gets to about 4 inches deep evenly across the bin, a covering of thoroughly wetted peat moss is added and the layering process is started over again on top of it.   Once the left side of the bin was substantially full, we began layering on the right side of the bin.   The worms have been busy doing their work and two months later from the set up (end of August), the left side now contains a finished castings and peat mixture, while the right side is getting fairly full with newer accumulated layers of wastes.         

It is now time to begin harvesting the finished worm casting compost from the left bin.   To do that, I raked the surface to expose any worms in the top layer to light and thus encourage them to burrow down deeper into the pile.   I waited ten minutes and then came back and scraped off the topmost portion of the finished pile into a bucket.            

Any larger chunks of items that were not quite finished that I encountered, were just added back into the bin on the right side to continue being worked by the worms.   I stopped with this one full bucket for the time being, because I had a project I needed this for and wanted to get on with it.        

I will finish harvesting the rest of the finished castings over the course of the next two weeks.   About the time that the finished pile is completely removed, the right hand bin should be pretty full up and it will be time to shift the food waste layering back to the then empty left side bin.   The process of accumulating items will then occur on that side while the worms finish working the right side pile.   

 The finished worm casting compost was collected to provide amendments for a new garden bed I constructed on Monday.   It was a holiday and I wanted to tackle this project while the weather was fine and I had time to get it done.   Specifically, the project was to build an 8-foot by 2-foot bed in a corner area of the back garden abutting the fence, which is to become the permanent artichoke bed.   It is possible to grow artichokes as a perennial in my region if they are given some minimal winter protection.   The three artichokes I grew this year were in large black pots, which was not an ideal way to over winter them as the roots close to the sides of a container are subject to freezing without the insulating effect of soil all around them.   If I was going to try and over winter these plants, they really needed to be transplanted into a permanent “in the ground” location.   The spot chosen for them was the place the containers were already situated in.                

I wrestled the container plantings out of the way, and then constructed a framed bed using extra lumber I had on hand in the shop.   I then used a shovel to dig down into the very compacted soil.   Working my way down the bed initially to just loosen and aerate the soil.         

I then dug very large holes and used the worm casting compost along with some organic fertilizer to amend the bottom of the holes thoroughly.   It was really difficult to wrestle those large plants out of their containers and into the prepared planting spots.    I broke off several branches in the process but managed to get them in place and intact (for the most part!).          

I intend to lay a soaker hose down on this bed eventually since it is a permanent planting bed, but I need a shorter length hose than any I happen to have on hand, so it will have to wait until I purchase one.              

Not sure if those plants will survive the transplanting or not, but they were done with production for the year anyways and if I should lose them, I will just start some new ones next year and use this bed to plant them up in right from the start.   Hopefully though, they will survive my manhandling and get firmly rooted and settled in before winter arrives. 

Laura

Kitsapfreedomgardener

Harvest Monday

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what everyone else is harvesting from gardens in so many different regions.   Check it out and join in!                    

Greens are still the only real items available for harvest in the early spring garden.   The variety available though is starting to pick up.   I picked a couple of fresh salads (mix of swiss chard, kale, spinach, and napa cabbage leaves) this week and also harvested some chives as well.   The greens were enough to weigh in at a ½ pound but the chives did not weigh enough to round to a ¼ pound and so they are (once again) not in the tally for this week.                    

Harvest totals for the week of April 11th through April 17th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Lettuce & Greens 0.50 lbs

Total For Week 0.50 lbs

Total Year To Date 12.50 lbs                  

Eggs harvested this week – 34                         

Hardening Off The Tomatoes           

The weather continues to be much cooler than normal, but Sunday was a halfway nice day with periods of sunshine through the morning and early afternoon.   I took advantage of it and did some more bed prep and planting.   The back garden area has three 4’X24’ foot beds.   The beds are on a sloped area and are terraced to adjust for that.   The top two beds on the slope had a heavy layer of compost put on them last fall, but the bottommost bed has had overwintered crops in it and has not had any compost added to it as a result.   I am fresh out of finished compost so I purchased two 3 cubic foot bales of compost on Saturday and stacked them near the lowest bed so they will be handy when I finally get to prepping that bed.   On Sunday, I used the broadfork and aerated the top and middle beds.   I wanted to plant up half of the middle bed right then, so I went on and used the hoe to cultivate the top several inches and then raked the bed smooth.   Here is the middle bed all prepared and ready to be planted.         

On the left in the picture above, you can see the other bed that has been aerated but not cultivated or raked.   I will wait to do those tasks until right before I am ready to actually plant it.   On the right in the picture above, is the lowest bed that has the overwintered spinach and green onions.   This is destined to be the main tomato bed for 2011 and will need to be planted up in about week.   Until then I am leaving it alone so I can squeeze out as much spinach harvests as I can from the overwintered spinach before I have to pull them all out.   You might notice in the top right portion of the picture that I have all the tomato starts out enjoying some morning sunshine.            

These plants are in the final phase of the hardening off process and are starting to spend a few hours each day outside before being put back into the unheated greenhouse.   The amount of time they spend outside will be gradually increased until they are spending the entirety of the day exposed to the elements.   I cart them back and forth from the greenhouse, which is a bit of a pain but necessary.   Luckily the duration that I have to do that for is not that long.   Behind the tomato plants in three large black containers are my artichoke starts.   I have not grown artichokes before so this is something new for me.   These starts have been outside in the cold for many weeks now; hopefully they have gotten their required “cold period’ that induces the first year plants to produce buds.             

The slanted trellis system was set up in the first 8 feet of the middle bed and in the strip in front of it I planted the sugar snap peas (Cascadia).   Underneath the trellis support, I planted turnips (Purple Top White Globe).   Next to this, I then planted a 4’X4’ section with (mostly) carrots (Mokum) but also included in that spot are some onion sets that I wanted to use up.   I am planting them too late to properly bulb up but they should provide some good green onions for fresh eating.   Here’s the bed after I got it set up and half planted.               

Notice in the picture above that the tomatoes have magically disappeared from the top right portion of the picture!   It was mid to late afternoon and some clouds were coming in and giving threat of wind and rain.   I did not want to take a chance with the tomatoes as they are just starting to harden off so I stopped long enough in my planting work to cart them all back to the greenhouse for the day.   It never did rain or get all that windy but I would rather be safe than sorry.                     

Were you doing bed prep or planting this weekend as well?                 

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Friday gave us some periodic sunshine and the high temperature rose up close to our normal levels for this time of year.   It was a brief break in the series of storm systems that have been pummeling us for weeks on end.   In fact, even though we got some sun on Friday there was still a fair amount of clouds present and so our region continues on its long streak of technically non-sunny days.   It has been 41 days since our area last had what qualifies as an official sunny day, which is defined as 30% or less cloud cover through the day.   The last day that qualified was February 25, which happened to occur at the same time that we had a deep arctic freeze hit our area (winter’s last hurrah!).   Unfortunately, the next week or so forecast does not give any hope that we will break this current non-sunny streak.     Recognizing this, I took advantage of this little break in the weather and took Friday off from work so that I could get the potato patch planted up on Friday and Saturday before the rains returned on Sunday.                    

Last year I used the John Jeavon’s method of planting potatoes, which essentially has you plant potatoes as you double dig a garden bed.   The seed potatoes are placed 9 inches apart on the loosened soil at the bottom of the trenches created.   I made a potato planting board last year that is 4 feet long and has marks on it to help denote where to put the potatoes.  The planting board makes a good standing board for the digging process as well, keeping the soil from becoming deeply compacted while I work my way down the bed double digging.   The potatoes end up being buried about 9 inches or more deep and require no further hilling throughout the growing season.   They have loose amended soil above them, which provides a great growing medium for the tubers to develop.   The seed potatoes are planted 9 inches apart and with less than 12 inches between rows/trenches - so the spuds are densely planted making optimal use of the growing bed.   It produced really good yields for me last year and I ended up with a garden bed that was refreshed by the double dig.   

For 2011, I will once again be using the John Jeavon's method.   This year’s bed is right next to last year’s bed and is longer in length by an additional 8 feet – measuring 4’X40’.   At first I was going to do the entire bed in potatoes but after thinking about it more, I determined to keep the potato patch at the same size as last year ( 4’X32’ ) and just use the remaining two 4’X4’ sections for other crops.   Our harvest from the 2010 patch has been just about perfect for us in that we are still using the stored potatoes but should be done with them about the time they start getting too shriveled and sprouted to be usable.   We have been eating on them since last fall and it has been an abundant supply.   Growing a larger amount would likely just result in waste as I do not think we could eat any more then we have been doing.                                      

I prepared the bed by placing a layer of compost and broadcasting a layer of bone meal over the entire surface area.     I then began the double dig process by removing the soil from the first trench and placing it into a wheelbarrow.     This soil is used at the very end to fill in the final trench.     To do the digging you use a good garden spade and stand on a board to distribute your weight – to avoid overly compacting the soil in the bed as you work.   A garden fork is then used to dig into the bottom of the trench and loosen the soil, similar to the process you use when using a broad fork to aerate a bed.   Because these beds have been previously double dug (almost five years ago now!) I skipped adding any amendments in the trench bottom before loosening the soil.  The intent is not to turn over the soil at the bottom of the trench but to loosen and aerate it.   The seed potatoes are then laid out in the bottom of the trench and you begin the process all over with the next trench, placing the soil dug from the next trench into the first one dug to fill it.   You repeat this process all the way to the end of the planting area.                              

I broke this job up into two days (Friday and Saturday) and took lots of breaks as I was working on it.   Double digging is always hard work and this was a very large bed.   Pacing myself with this kind of work avoids overstraining my back.   I must have done it right because as of Sunday I am feeling just fine and am none the worse for wear.                          

The remaining 4’X8’ section of the potato patch bed was aerated with a broadfork and cultivated with a hoe to mix the amendments into the top few inches of soil and then raked smooth.    I then direct seeded a 4’X4’ section in carrots and another 4’X4’ section in beets.   I used my 4-inch planting jig to do those two plantings.   I could have used a smaller spaced jig for the carrots but opted to give these carrots more room than I usually do.         

Saturday was definitely more gloomy and cloudy than Friday but it stayed dry the entire day and I got done what I set out to do for the day.   The older section of garden is now largely planted up.            

I still have the vertical grow bed and the retaining wall bed to plant up, but otherwise this section of the garden is planted for the start of the growing season.   The brief bit of sunshine on Friday woke the pea patch up.   They had germinated but had stalled out for quite a few days due to the colder than normal temperatures but the sunshine and little bit of warmer temperatures on Friday spurred them into emerging fully.   The bed has a definite five o’clock shadow of green sprouts now.                        

I moved most of the tomato plants out to the greenhouse this weekend to begin their gradual hardening off process.   Later this week, I will begin moving them outside for periods of time and gradually increase the amount of time they spend out of doors.   They will be ready to go into the ground (with protective cover) around the 23rd of April or later.                     

I am glad to get the potato patch in for the season. It’s one of the bigger planting chores of the year but vital to our annual food supply.                

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what everyone else is harvesting from gardens in so many different regions.   Check it out and join in!                

On Sunday I spent a few hours in the garden turning over the green manure crop (crimson clover) and then layering on compost in one of the two largest beds ( 4’ x 32’ ) in the garden.  This is in preparation for the early spring crops that will be planted out in mid to late March.             

This bed was the potato patch in 2010.    Consequently, as I was turning over the green manure crop, I turned up a few missed potatoes from the fall potato lift.   They had over wintered quite nicely.   There was just slightly over a pound of potatoes that I harvested in the course of doing this work.                        

Earlier in the week, I had also harvested some nice mixed greens from the container plantings in the unheated greenhouse.   It was enough for two very nice sized dinner salads but did not weigh enough to round up to ¼ lb, so they were not included in my harvest tally for the week.              

Harvest totals for the week of February 28th through March 6th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Lettuce & Greens 0.00 lbs (not enough to round to ¼ pound)
• Potatoes 1.00 lbs

Total For Week 1.00 lbs

Total Year To Date 11.00 lbs                    

Eggs harvested this week - 35                       

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Harvest Monday Recap                    

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what everyone else is harvesting from gardens in so many different regions.   Check it out and join in!                            

I am sure all of you are probably just about sick-to-death tired of seeing my minmal and rather repetitive mid winter harvests.   The selection of items available for harvesting is limited to parsnips, carrots, kale, corn salad, and some swiss chard at the moment.  The greens are at the point in the growing season where they are all but stopped in growth - due to the lack of day length and sun strength.   As a result, I have to be extremely restrained in my harvesting of them to avoid depleting them too early in the season.   The greens availability will pick up in late January after we pass the shortest day of the year (December 21st) and start back towards increasing sun strength.   In preparation for that I have greens growing in the unheated greenhouse in containers, over wintering young spinach growing under the protection of a grow tunnel, and in the shop I have various items growing under lights that will be ready for planting in containers in the greenhouse soon.   The seedlings are coming along well.   On Saturday, I brought them outside for a short while to give them a good bottom watering and to let them enjoy some feeble winter sunshine.         

Growing in these flats are two different lettuce blends, day neutral onions, pac choi, bok choy, kale, spinach, and two kinds of cabbages.                

On Sunday I harvested some more parsnips to keep on hand in the fridge for meal preparation during the coming workweek.   It is pitch dark by the time I get home from work each evening and digging root crops in the dark is not my favorite chore on a rainy and cold winter night.   We are in large part using frozen, home canned, and storage produce for meals at the moment, but I like to supplement it with some fresh harvest items as well.                    

Harvest totals for the week of November 29th through December 5th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).        

• Parsnips 1.75 lbs

Total For Week 1.75 lbs

Total Year To Date 444.50 lbs           

Eggs harvested this week - 34                           

Winter Garden Tasks                    

It is definitely wintertime.   Everything is wet and cold and the temperatures are quite chilly.   Garden tasks are minimal but it is a great time to attend to bed maintenance or repairs so that everything is ready to go in early spring.   Last weekend, I began the process of removing the two strawberry beds by tackling the smaller of the two.   Today (Sunday) I removed the second (larger) bed.   Here’s the bed before and after I did the plant removal process.             

Behind this bed is the parsnip patch that I am currently harvesting from.   This bed plus the parsnip patch bed will be used next spring to move my blueberry bushes into with an under story planting of some additional low growing cranberry plants.   The blueberries are currently growing in large pots on the deck but are outgrowing the containers and need to move into a more permanent location.   The new strawberry patch will go in the bed located next to these two.   Late last summer I rooted out a bunch of strawberry runners, which are happily growing in large containers.   They will be used to plant up the new strawberry patch in mid March.                      

One other bed maintenance / repair project I attended to this weekend was the perennial bed at the very back of the garden.  This bed has the bush pie cherries and the rhubarb plants in it.   It is on a sloping piece of ground and was not properly terraced when I built it, such that the framed edging developed gaps underneath the lower side as soil sloughed off downhill.   The result was that the bed was emptying out of soil.   On Saturday, I inserted scrap timbers to hold in the soil. I then recycled soil mix from several large containers into the bed and smoothed it out to fill in the significant holes that had been created.   I finished up by pruning the bush pie cherries and then covering the entire bed with hoops and netting to keep the chickens out.      

You can see the low side that was previously bleeding out soil on the left.   If you look closely you can also see the timbers I inserted which now holds the soil in properly. 

Making good progress on my winter task list.   Soon I will be getting started with this year’s shop project.   Last year I built my planting jigs.   The year before I built my horizontal pea trellis.   My plan for this year is to improve on the horizontal pea trellis – creating the second generation of this very useful garden structure.   I have ideas rattling around in my head and need to finalize the design ideas soon so that I can get the required materials and get it built during the dark and boring days of January.                      

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.  It’s fun to see what everyone else is harvesting from gardens in so many different regions.   Check it out and join in!    

The harvest this week was composed in large part from the tomatoes ripening off the vine that finished ripening and were then pulled out of the boxes to be weighed and used.   The cucumbers and zucchinis continue to produce despite the cool, overcast, and damp weather.   On Sunday, I got a good start on the fall garden bed clean up.   One bed had a small patch of carrots that were largely overrun by the adjacent patch of dill.   I went ahead and just harvested all of them as part of the garden tidy up work.  Did not manage to get pictures of everything that was harvested, but here is some of it.         

Harvest totals for the week of September 27th through October 3rd (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Carrots 1.75 lbs
• Cucumbers 1.25 lbs
• Herbs (Dill) 0.25 lbs
• Parsnips 0.50 lbs
• Tomatoes 18.50 lbs
• Zucchini 3.50 lbs

Total For Week 25.25 lbs

Total Year To Date 395.00 lbs    

Eggs harvested this week - 39                 

Saturday was spent doing the annual woodstove and chimney pipe sweeping along with clearing out all of the dieing tomato plants from the outside garden beds.   On Sunday morning, after the hens had finished laying their morning batch of eggs, they got busy and did a sweep for bugs in the emptied tomato beds.                  

Our usual fall overcast/rainy weather has pretty much settled in now.   We certainly get bright sunshine filled days now and then but they are not frequent and the general dampness is posing some problems in wrapping up the drying process on the dried beans.   I had previously pulled the plants and had them laid out in the shop drying down, but there was too much dampness and I was losing pods to fungus and molds.   I stripped the remaining good pods from the plants and laid them out on a window screen elevated up from the shop floor to increase air circulation.              

Did a seeding of a crimson clover green manure/cover crop in the big bed that previously held the potato patch.   Covered it with hoops and netting to protect it from the chickens who have free range of the garden and back yard area during the daytime.               

I also cleaned out a 4’x12’ garden bed and layered a full wheel barrow load of finished compost on it.   This will be the 2011 allium bed and I was planning to plant the garlic bulbs on Sunday in it but it began to rain and I decided to just wait until next weekend.            

The garden currently has spinach, kale, broccoli, parsnips, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, swiss chard, runner beans, celery, raspberries, and pumpkins growing in it and ready for harvest.   The broccoli in particular will need to start being harvested in the next week, as the heads are getting quite big.    More fall clean up and bed prep to do in the coming weeks, but I got a good start on it this weekend.

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Originally posted (May 30, 2010) with only Parts 1 & 2 due to connection problems to You Tube.  Problem resolved itself and this blog post was updated (May 31, 2010) to include Parts 3, 4, & 5.  

Spring Garden Tour Part 1                                   

Spring Garden Tour Part 2 

 

Spring Garden Tour Part 3                                       

Spring Garden Tour Part 4                           

Spring Garden Tour part 5 (Final)                        

I got started late yesterday afternoon and wrapped up this morning with prepping the beds in the newest section of the garden.   All the beds not planted up already were loosened and aerated using the broad fork and then lightly cultivated and raked.   Two of the beds are destined to be the 2010 tomato patch and cucumber bed.   I wanted to get these covered with red plastic mulch so that the soil would have a chance to really warm up before I plant them up mid April.   

You might have noticed in the second photo that my cat Sid was performing his usual and customary role of supervising the work being done in the garden!   He is a cherished companion and is always close at hand when I am outside working in the garden.                                               

Lots of things are emerging from the earliest of the spring plantings.   The spinach patch was planted using my planting jig for the first time.   The plants are getting their first true leaves and are getting easier to see in photos now.                    

The planting jig worked beautifully.   The plants are well spaced and there is only a few gaps where some seeds did not germinate.   I also used the planting jig to direct seed the pea patch as well.   The peas are now emerging and look like they too are going to be nicely spaced in the bed.   I think I can safely say that the planting jig design is performing well.         

The Cascadia sugar snap peas I transplanted out a week ago are thriving.   They seemed to particularly enjoy the bright sunshine we had today.

Sid was enjoying the sun too.   He was sticking close to me in the garden but taking every opportunity to soak up sun himself.                    

The swiss chard I transplanted earlier in the week all seem to be doing quite well too.                                            

Not much work to be done in the garden at the moment because I have now completed all of the spring bed prep and the planting out process will be spread out over the course of many weeks.   It’s a great time to just stroll through the garden and enjoy the new growth and take in the start of the spring bloom cycle.   Our property has quite a few really beautiful specimen sized rhododendron trees and azalea bushes.   Most of them bloom in April and May but we have a few early ones too.   Here’s the first azalea bush to bloom for 2010.                         

The first rhodie to bloom each year is really a beauty - tucked into the edge of my vegetable garden area but largely hidden by other trees and bushes.   

Sid convinced me that the rest of the afternoon should be spent sitting on the deck soaking up sunshine and admiring the blooming rhodie at the gardens edge.   Wise cat!                                 

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!

What a gorgeous day we had today!   It got up to the mid 50’s and everything is breaking dormancy fast.    I had to run some errands this morning, so I did not get out into it until after lunchtime - but the few hours I was outside this afternoon was heavenly.

Because we had late blight hit the garden last year, I did not save any of my potatoes for seed stock and chose instead to buy all new certified seed stock this year.   I ordered my potatoes from Ronniger Potato Farm LLC because they had a good selection, good reputation, and the best prices.   Friday my big box of potatoes arrived; 10 lbs of Yukon Gold; 10 lbs of Caribe; and 25 pounds of Russet Burbank.   

The front bag is the Yukon Gold and the back bag is the Caribe and underneath the two bags you can just glimpse the Russet Burbanks.   I opened the box and checked them today, but tomorrow when I have a little more time I will lay them out to begin chitting and do a count to see if I will need to cut them into smaller pieces.   I am going to use the 4-foot by 32-foot bed for the potatoes this year and will be planting them using the John Jeavon’s method of planting potatoes (done at the same time you double dig a bed) spacing them using a within row spacing of 9 inches and approximately 9 inches deep into the soil.   For a 32-foot long bed, I should end up with 42 rows at 9-inch intervals and 5 seed potato pieces per row if spaced 9 inches apart.   So my calculations come up that I need 210 to 215 potato seed pieces to do this bed in that manner.   These look like really nice seed potatoes and I am anxious to get them set out to begin forming sprouts.

The main task I worked on today was prepping the big 4-foot by 40-foot bed for the beginning of the planting season.   Specifically, I used the U-Bar to aerate the entire bed and then did a light cultivation and raking.   At the end of the bed, I also worked in some general-purpose organic fertilizer into a 4-foot by 12-foot section of the bed. This area will be the 2010 pea patch and I am planning to plant them tomorrow since the soil temperature is more than warm enough.   Here’s the bed after I finished the prep work.   The closest end in the photo below is where the pea patch will be going.   

Today I also took down the grow tunnel cover from the overwintered bed of carrots and parsnips.  You can see it in the photo above.    I intend to finish harvesting what remains of these in the next several weeks to clear out the bed for the coming potato crop that will go in that bed.   I need to similarly use up the last few January King cabbages from this bed to also get them out of the way for the potatoes.    

Other tasks I got to today included taking the U-Bar and gently aerating and fertilizing the raspberry patch – adding a layer of compost on the surface after I was completed.   I also rotated the six packs of seedlings in the trays under the grow lights to ensure that plants on the ends get a chance to be in the middle for a while - where they enjoy a more complete exposure to the grow lights.   I took the opportunity while swapping the packs around to brush the small seedlings lightly with my hands to help them “sturdy up”.                        

In the greenhouse, the kale and Chinese cabbages I planted out last weekend are doing well and the slow growing mache is starting to get a move on and produce more vegetation.   About the time the carrots and parsnips are finished up, these greens should be ready to start harvesting lightly.                          

That is it for today.   Tomorrow I am going to plant the pea patch and put up my horizontal grow support structure.    Forecast is for another gloriously beautiful day so it will be good to have an excuse to be out in it!