The Modern Victory Garden

Blog

« Back to Blog « Older Entry | Newer Entry »

Christmas 2009

Posted on December 25, 2009 at 4:13 PM

The living room is a jumble of treasures and surplus wrapping paper at the moment.   Several of the gifts I received were related to cooking and baking, but I did get a couple of gardening related gifts too - an amaryllis bulb planting kit, another pair of my favorite gardening gloves (Atlas Glove / Nitrile Touch), and a Flip digital video camera!         

  

  

  

I promise not to inundate you with too many videos, but I do plan to add an occasional video to the mix of items I post on the website in the coming year.   It’s going to take me a while to learn how to use it reasonably well before I will be ready to launch the first one.   Not much happening in the garden at the moment to capture on video anyways.   In fact, the most exciting thing at the moment is that the Mache (corn salad) has not only germinated in the half-barrel containers in the unheated greenhouse, but is progressing along nicely enough that you can see the sheen of green now.    

  

  

  

The kale and Chinese cabbage seedlings (in the shop under grow lights) are forming their first true leaves.   I will be giving these their first drink of very diluted kelp emulsion tea tomorrow.                        

                            

     

 

Arriving before Christmas were some other treasures from two garden blog friends.                                                                        

       

  

 

Daphne of Daphne’s Dandelions sent me a packet of Market Miracle tomato seeds saved from her garden, and Dan from the Urban Veggie Garden Blog sent me several packages of seeds including; Double Yield cucumbers, Merlot lettuce, Red celery, and Cherokee Purple tomatoes.   I can hardly wait to get these started and grow them in the coming garden season.

  

I wish for everyone a Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with health, happiness, garden bounty, and daily doses of love and laughter.

Categories: Just For Fun, Seed Starting, Vegetables

Post a Comment

Oops!

Oops, you forgot something.

Oops!

The words you entered did not match the given text. Please try again.

Already a member? Sign In

10 Comments

Reply hsheather
10:11 AM on December 26, 2009 
It sounds like a wonderful day! Enjoy your family.
Reply Thomas
06:33 AM on December 27, 2009 
Such wonderful gifts! I can't wait to read about how these seeds turn out next summer!
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
11:49 AM on December 27, 2009 
hsheather - We really did have a nice day together.

Thomas - I am pretty excited to grow these seeds out too.
Reply Sandy
04:14 PM on December 28, 2009 
The Flip is awesome! I sadly lost my Flip (I think my 6-year-old was involved in the situation) and just had to get another one. Enjoy! I look forward to watching your videos.
Reply Dan
08:43 PM on December 28, 2009 
Sounds like great garden gifts! Nice to see the mache sprouting too. I still have yet to eat any of mine, been a lazy gardener lately. Thanks for the linky!
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
10:00 PM on December 28, 2009 
Sandy - It was your recommendation that got me thinking about the Flip! I have been building up interest in it ever since you shared with me that you had done your videos using a Flip camera. Hopefully you found you way to the blog entry after this one - the first video efforts are located there.

Dan - Mache takes a long time to germinate and grow on - but I honestly think it is one of the tastier greens you can grow. My husband in particular really like corn salad.
Reply Kimberly
12:44 AM on December 29, 2009 
Merry Christmas! Those are the garden gloves we use, too, and I love 'em.

Looking forward to seeing your garden video clips this year!

Kim
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
09:18 AM on December 29, 2009 
vfd - Aren't those gloves just great!? This makes the fourth pair that I have and I use them regularly. In our wet climate the nitrile rubber is almost a necessity.
Reply Sandy
02:42 PM on December 31, 2009 
If you could plant one variety of cabbage and one variety of broccoli, what would they be? I did not have great luck with these crops last year - mostly I found they pest prone. This year, I want to focus my efforts on growing one variety of each.
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
10:29 PM on December 31, 2009 
Sandy - Both broccoli and cabbages are susceptible to cabbage worms and slug damage. I use the copper collars around the stalk of these plants to protect them from slugs and I use a periodic spray of bt solution on them as well for the cabbage worms. If you do not want to use the bt spray, using a very light reemay cover will do the trick too - because the moths that lay the eggs that create the catepillars cannot reach the plants to lay their eggs. It does require keeping the plants under cover through the growing season - which is why I prefer to use bt solution spray. As for varieties, if I really had to only choose one to grow - I would grow Mokum carrots because they are the best fresh eating carrots bar none. For broccoli I have to be alot more hesitant. I have been growing Umpqua for the past several years and before that I used to grow Packman. I am going to be trying Premium crop this year. Generally, I love the side shoot production of Umpqua but the head size of the main head is not that good. Packman has a fairly good sized head but only moderate side shoot production. According to the sales pitches in the catalogs - Premium Crop has very large main head and decent side shoot production. Both Umpqua and Packman are good varieties ... I just want it all and am still looking for that "perfect" broccoli variety.