The Modern Victory Garden

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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