The Modern Victory Garden

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.