The Modern Victory Garden

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!                   

The weather this week has been a mixture of heavy rain and periods of high winds – creating an extremely blustery and soggy environment in the outdoor garden area.   It let up for a few hours on Friday morning which was fortunate, as the fencing contractor was out that morning to set the posts for our new cross fencing project.   No sooner had they wrapped up and left for the day then the rain started up again.   The concrete that the posts are set in needs to cure and set for several days, so the fencing will not be completed for at least another week.   Hopefully the weather will lighten up a bit by then.   The greens growing in the greenhouse are doing okay since they have protection from the driving wind and rain.   The napa cabbage growing in the unheated greenhouse are showing signs they would like to bolt, which is likely a result of the hard freeze period we had in February.   I have lots more coming along under the grow lights, so I intend to just harvest these as young leaves and not bother trying to get them to head up properly.   The subsequent plantings will have a better chance of growing to maturity without bolting.   Saturday I harvested quite a lot of the young napa cabbage leaves, plus some young bok choy leaves and kale.            

Harvest totals for the week of March 7th through March 13th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Lettuce & Greens 0.25 lbs

Total For Week 0.25 lbs

Total Year To Date 11.25 lbs                          

Eggs harvested this week – 37                             

Seed Starting Progress Report                  

With the weather as foul as it has been lately, the garden focus has had to remain indoors for the most part.   On Sunday, I pulled the boxes of seed potatoes from the garage where they have been stored through the winter months and brought them inside where it is warmer to encourage sprouting.    Usually I do that at the beginning of March but this year the weather has been so miserable that I am clearly going to have to postpone the potato planting process by at least two weeks.   The soil is just too soggy and cold to consider doing it anytime soon.   There was one large box of Russet Burbank seed potatoes and two smaller boxes of the Caribe and Yukon Gold seed potatoes.   The Caribe potatoes are an earlier maturing variety and consequently are already starting to sprout.   If you look closely at the following picture of the Caribe seed potatoes you can spot some nice sprouts already formed.                                  

The Russet Burbank is a later maturing variety and they are showing little or no sign of sprouting so far.                         

I put all three boxes of seed potatoes in the back office area with the lids open and next to a window that gets indirect sunlight.   The increased warmth and light should encourage more sprout development over the next few weeks.   If all goes well, they will all be ready for planting up around the end of March.        

I did another major round of seedling shuffling Friday to free up space for another large round of seed starting. On Saturday I started:

• Two 6-packs of lettuce - Super Gourmet Blend
• Two 6-packs of lettuce - Valmaine (Cos/Romaine)
• Two 6-packs of lettuce - Bon Vivant Blend
• Two 6-packs of basil - Mammoth Sweet
• One 6-pack - Ssuk Gat
• One 6-pack - Red Shiso
• Two 6-packs - napa cabbage – Tenderheart
• Two 6-packs - Pac Choi
• Two 6-packs - Bok Choy
• Two 6-packs - swiss chard - Bright Lights
• Two 6-packs - savoy cabbage – Alcosa
• Two 6-packs - kale – Beira
• Two 6-packs - kale - Toscano (dinosaur kale)

I also potted up to larger containers the second round of tomato seedlings on Saturday.                 

Part of my seedling reorganization on Friday included my moving the overflow light fixture set up from the shop to the back bedroom in the house so that it would benefit from the greater warmth of our living area. The main bank of lights and heat mat are still in the shop but the secondary light set up is now inside.   Some of the seedlings previously started are located there and some are out in the greenhouse.   On Sunday morning, I bottom watered several flats of seedlings and did a bit of thinning on the celery and a few of the later started tomatoes.   They were all moved to the bench in front of the house while they soaked up water and I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of them.                         

There are in these planting flats - cabbages, swiss chard, kale, young tomatoes, broccoli, pac choi, napa cabbages, lettuces, celery, peppers, and some artichokes that are just poking up out of the soil.   These are only the very youngest of the tomato seedlings.   The vast majority of them are repotted already into bigger containers and are growing in the overflow light set up area.   Here are just a few of them:                     

Everything seems to be coming along well.   I have one more big round of seed starting to do in about two or three weeks, which will be the cucurbit family plants – cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, winter squash, and melons. 

How is your seed starting going?                    

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener