Seed Starting with Little M

So last week Little M and I got the final components of our seed starting mix, combined the mix materials, left it to sit overnight to give the peat moss enough time to soak up water, and then the following night we started planting our garden seeds for 2013. That first night we just planted 2 types of onion seeds - Walla Walla & Cipollini, and a six pack of sunflowers for Little M. It kept us nice and occupied, filling our little pots, patting the soil in with the potting spoon, then carefully placing and covering the seeds. Then we covered them with a bit of plastic or a clear tub, and set them on the seed starting shelf unit, not yet under the light until they actually sprout. Little M has been back out to the sunporch several times since to check on her little seeds, ever the watchful mother, that one! Here are some pictures of her process, and some better daylight shots of the seed trays themselves.

New seeds for 2013

So Friday afternoon I called and spoke with the owner of our local garden store, to see when she would be around for Little M and I to drop by and pick up some seeds. As luck would have it, she was available the very next day, and Little M and I already had plans in town and would be driving right by her store. Saturday rolled around and we stopped in and picked up all the seeds on our needed list, as well as a few on the potential list.

Here is what we picked up:

Walla Walla Onion
Cipollini Onion
Dark Green Zucchini
Arugula
Romain Lettuce
Carrot Mix
Basil
Yellow Pepper

The only brand of seeds this store carries is Irish Eyes Garden Seeds, a relatively local (aka eastern WA) seed company. I was crazy happy with the seeds we got of theirs last year - our Walla Walla onions that we harvested last fall are just nearing the end of their lifespan, at about the same time as we are running out of them, and we really haven't started eating the more storage-type Cipollini onions. We did get a bumper crop though, and the onions are actually the one plant that I feel we nailed the right number to plant to harvest enough to get us through the winter & it looks promising to keep us in onions until the next crop is ready.

Other seeds we purchased from them last year included a packet of mixed hot pepper seeds. The peppers were great, although getting a hot mix resulted in Little M learning her first lesson of - no, don't eat that, its hot.... no.... okay lets run up and guzzle some milk there little one...We had one plant of what I think were long slim cayenne peppers (which Little M learned not to sample), and two plants that I think were both hungarian hot wax peppers, which were really great in stir fries for a bit of extra kick (although leaving them to grow too big equaled a bit too much kick on one occasion!). Although we don't have room in the main garden to grow the hot pepper mix again this year, since pepper seed lasts several years, and we still have lots of the hot mix packet left, I'm going to start a bunch and plan room for them in the new area. I want to see if there are any other types in the mix than the 2 we had last year. After all, if they don't make it over there, they are just extras!

We also got a couple of other packets of seeds from them last year - sacred basil (which my husband hated the smell of, which is why we're trying a different basil variety this year!), a lettuce blend that we really liked and will grow again this year, cilantro which we loved and let some go to seed and will grow those seeds this year, and kale.

As I look back at our 2012 seed list, I'm not really adding any new plants, just changing the variety in some cases, and changing the quantities - mostly in an upwards direction. We're hoping to use the new garden space for some of the less important (to us) food - the dry beans that we don't use too much and the peppers that my husband isn't too fond of, as well as adding extra plants of some of the food we want to grow more of that we think might do ok over there right away - including raspberries and perhaps green beans.

Little M and I started our seeds the other night, but I'm still waiting on the camera & my laptop to talk nicely to each other to show you the photos! I guess that post will have to wait until Monday :) Happy Weekend Folks!

New seed list for 2013

So after some quality time spent on the couch last night with my seed bin of past years seed packets and last years saved seeds, I've got my seed list ready, including the new seeds I will need for this gardening season. For new seeds, I've got:

• Arugula (at the misters request
• Romain Lettuce (also at the misters request)
• carrots
• walla walla onions
• cipollini onions (or another storage onion depending on the selection at the garden store)
• basil (specifically not sacred basil as the mister hated that variety last year!)
• Potatoes - yukon gold, russet, red pontiac, fingerlings? (depending on what the store has later in the season)

There is also a list of potentials, if I want to spend the money, and/or if I see a neat new variety:

• cucumber (still looking for an heirloom variety that does really great here)
• zucchini (same as for the cucumbers)
• green/yellow peppers
• tomato (my seed might be getting a bit old)
• brocolli (if I'm feeling ambitious!)

I also will need to pick up some more vermiculite and perlite if I decide to mix seed starting soil again this year. I might just get lazy and mix dirt and peat moss together and call it good, will likely depend on availability and my budget after my main seeds are purchased! One other thing on my list to add to my seed starting set up is a heat mat or two, but I suspect that might be a later addition.

Other than the additions above, I'm just growing my usual - beans, squash, corn, peas, garlic, etc. I know what I normally grow, and what seeds I have, so once I add the few additions necessary, I should be good to go. At some point in the next week or two I'm going to sit down and work out my seed starting/planting schedule, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.

Right around this weekend in past years is when I've planted my peppers, and shortly thereafter my onions, but until I make it in to the garden store that won't be possible (and since they don't have regular hours for another month I will have to call and set up a time to stop by). I'm not worried though, this year will be a laid back year in the garden, and if I don't get around to any of the above tasks, I'm really not too worried! Our second little girl will be born & grow this summer and that is the highest priority item on my horizon!

What about you? Started any seeds in your neck of the woods? Figured out what seeds you need to add to your seed stash this spring? Made a list of what plants you will grow in your garden this year?

Balancing gardening & pregnancy

I'm just itching to start planning this summer's garden. I can't wait to look through my seed bins and see what is left over from past years & will still be usable, what seed was saved from last summer's garden, and what seed I will need to buy. I've got a tentative list floating around my head of what I want to change from last year's garden, and a couple of new plants I want to try growing.

The problem is, this here baby, just starting to be kicking up a storm in my belly, is due in mid-June. Now most of my more tender plants get planted out in the first week or two of June most years, depending on the weather. So regardless of whether this baby is early or late, I don't know how much gardening I'll be getting done about that time of the season this year...

I've told myself that one year of not having a huge garden is perfectly acceptable, and I know that with a newborn I won't have a lot of time to be keeping up on weeds, but I'm just still not sure what level of gardening I want to aim for this summer... There are some things that it seems like a no-brainer to grow based on planting time (for example to not-so-tender crops & the crops I just sow as seeds), however some of those crops need a fair amount of weeding throughout the season to grow optimally (onions anyone?!).

So in the meantime I'm trying to put off even looking at my seeds, much less making a list of plants to grow or putting a garden plot plan down on paper until it is a little closer to go time when I need to decide whether I'll start onion seeds or how many I'll start... Since last year we had an amazing onion crop, and I started my onion seeds sometime in March, I've been trying to put off thinking of gardening until February at the earliest. Maybe even mid-February. I figure as long as I've decided on at least the onions by planting time in early March, I should be ok. And really, I've grown onions from seed planted once the ground was workable in the spring too. Not huge onions, not a bumper crop like this past year, but a crop nonetheless. So we'll see. And in the meantime I'll try not to fall asleep thinking about the garden... :)

Planting seeds (with Little M)

Over the past week and a half I've planted peppers (March 1st), and onions (March 6th). The peppers I got started on a beautiful sunny Wednesday afternoon after work and right before picking M up from daycare. I started 3 varieties I grew last year - Golden Treasure, Chocolate Beauty, both from Seed Savers, and Marconi Rosso from a friend at work. Unable to resist the pull of new seed packets, I also started one new one, a combo packet - Hot Pepper Combo, from Irish Eyes.

Like last year, I have them sitting up on top of the fridge & freezer, centered over the warmest spot. I can see a couple that look like they have germinated, but nothing definitive popping up fresh green leaves.

The onions weren't so easily started. It was after supper on a night the mister worked, and Little M and I decided we needed something exciting to do. I'm not sure if she really realized what we were about to do, but to her, doing something on the sunporch sounded fun. Whew. Prepping seed starting mix, repotting a couple of houseplants that were rather potbound, and planting onion seeds was a challenge for her and I! Luckily we made it through, and got 4 containers of onions started - Cipollini and Walla Walla, both new packets from Irish Eyes.

I set them up on the new grow unit out of the reach of small fingers, and started getting some reused plastic containers set up over them to keep the moisture in. Then I noticed what I at first thought was a bat fly out over the eaves and towards the tree row between our property and the field next door. Mid-flight I realized that it was far too large to be a bat, it was an owl!

It was a great horned owl, sitting in one of our trees, listening for mice! I got a couple of tolerably clear shots, but it was basically dark, so it was hardly more than a silhouette. It didn't stay on the tree very long (can you see how it obviously grabbed onto a thin branch to sit on, and bent it over with its weight?) but it stayed there long enough for me to run and get my hoot flute, which of course Little M then wanted to play with.

That worked fine for me, she blew on the hoot flute and I finished setting up the light unit over the new seeds to get everything adjusted to the right level. I also put new batteries in the temperature sensor we have on the sunporch, since I hadn't bothered replacing them last time they ran out. This way we can monitor the temperature over night to make sure it isn't too cold for them out there. In fact, the next morning I wasn't very happy with a low of 48, so I might see about getting a heating pad. Or bring them inside for a little bit until they germinate. We'll see. What about you, getting any seeds started? Seen any owls lately? Have a little one running around underfoot who likes to 'help' sprinkle onion seeds & call in owls?

2012 Seed List

Ok, so now that I've figured out basically all of the seeds I'll be using this year in my garden, I thought I would share my list with you. You can check out my 2011 list here if you want to also. I haven't started any of my seeds yet, but seeing as last year I started my peppers on March 3rd, Little M and I might be spending some quality time out on the sunporch this weekend!

2012 Vegetable Seed List

• Hubbard Squash (saved from a couple years ago, will need to save more this year)
• Butternut Squash (also saved from a couple years ago, need to save more this year)
• Black Beauty Zucchini (unless I can find a heirloom yellow one for our climate)
• Pumpkin (still need to find one, preferably C. mixta so it doesn't cross with my other squash!)
• Bushy Cucumber (unless I can find another one that might do better here)
• Double Standard Corn (thanks to local friends for passing this seed on to us this year!) 
• Amish Paste Tomato (same as last year)
• Italian Heirloom Tomato (same as last year)
• Cherry Roma Tomato (for Little M, same as last year)
• Walla Walla Onion (new Irish Eyes seeds from Local)
• Cipollini Onion (new Irish Eyes seeds from Local)
• St Valery Carrot (unless I can find another one that might do better here)
• Sutton's Harbinger Pea (mix of saved and leftover seed from last year)
• Snow Pea (saved from last year - they did amazing last year, hopefully these saved ones will too)
• Bush Blue Lake Beans (leftovers from last year)
• Kentucky Wonder Bush Beans (leftovers from last year)
• Kennearly Yellow Eye Beans (mix of saved and leftover from last year)
• Dragon's Tongue Beans (saved from year before last, if they sprout)
• Garlic (planted already, saved from last year)
• Yukon Gold Potatoes (need to pick some up once it comes in at Local)
• Fingerling Potatoes (hopefully the few I've been holding off from eating will work)
• Peppers (I've got a bunch, mostly from last year - Chocolate Beauty, Golden Treasure, Marconi Rosso, and a hot pepper combo. Not sure how many will germinate, time will tell!)
• Cilantro (new Irish Eyes seeds from Local)
• Sacred Basil (new Irish Eyes seeds from Local)
• Chives (from some local friends last summer, looking forward to adding this to our herb area)
• Dill (from last years seed)

I still need to pick up a couple more seeds in the above list, and there are a couple other herbs that I likely will end up trying. The last couple years I've been pretty busy with just the veggies and haven't done more than have some Basil, Oregano, Thyme, and Rosemary in pots, but hopefully this year I'll be able to focus a bit more on the veggies that really do well here and instead of attempting any melons I'll put some effort into having a little herb plot in the corner. Oh, and I'm sure the mister will convince me that we need to grow Russet Potatoes again. They are ok, but personally I prefer my potatoes to have more taste like the Yukon's do!

Here are a couple more, some of my dream list:

• Rhubarb
• Scarlet/Sunset Runner Bean
• Kale
• Ailsa Craig Onion
• Sage
• Asparagus

Obviously I'd love to have more garden space, particularly those raised beds between the house and the chicken coop that I've been dreaming of for over a year now, but until we save up enough money to put in a serious deer/dog fence around at least a section of the property, house, and orchard, that's not going to happen, and that's why most of these will likely stay on the dream list!

What about you? Have all your garden seeds purchased and your 2012 garden plan drawn up? Started any seeds yet? I'm hoping to start some seeds this weekend in between hanging out with some visiting family, I'll let you know how it goes next week :)

Seeds Seeds Seeds

I'm having a bit of a seed dilemma.

Last year I ordered from Seed Saver International. I was overall pleased with my order - good selection, timely delivery, decent prices. But some of the plant varieties I chose didn't do as well as I hoped. Our corn, for example, just didn't produce as much or as early as other varieties I have grown in the past. I selected a variety that I thought should have done well, at least in terms of being a short growing season variety, but it just didn't all mature early enough to harvest before we got frost.

Now we did have a strange year last year, but I had neighbors who had no problem with their corn maturing well before our first frost. The year before we grew corn from a friend who has sinced moved away, but as far as I can remember it was a variety he had been growing for years. We had good luck with it, but had planted 2 varieties that year and so couldn't keep seeds. Last year I was looking to test a variety to save seeds from, but obviously I didn't bother since so few cobs were ready to harvest when we had to bring them all in.

At first this year I thought I would just ask around and see what others in my area used, but in my initial asking, people are using hybrids. Since I'm ultimately looking to be self sufficent with at least some of my seeds year to year (and corn heads the list this year to add to my collection of seeds I maintain myself), a hybrid variety is just not what I am looking for. I guess what I will try to do is match the characteristics advertised for these couple hybrid varieties with heirloom varieties and order that way. But likely that means trying a couple different types until finding the perfect one for where we are. Shucks!

Basically this post is me trying to convince myself to get down to the perhaps difficult work of picking seeds from a seed company that I think will be a better match for our region and that I think will do well. I'm positive that at this time last year I had already made my order, and likely even had my seeds in hand. Boo...

Harvest tally - 2011 edition

Although some of the quantities harvested weren't as good as last year, or weren't as plentiful as I would have hoped for, the harvest of other things far surpassed my expectations, so overall I can say I am pretty pleased with our 2011 garden!

Lets see how things tallied up, shall we? I don't have accurate counts from last year although I do remember approximate numbers and have included some of them for comparison...

3 baggies of Corn
This was really disappointing. We planted half as much corn as last year, and it just didn't do as well. I think I need to go back to the variety I grew the year before, because it did much better. Also I need to grow twice as much next year!

2 cups of Popping Corn
We got a fair number of harvestable heads of popping corn, but since we don't really eat pop corn I'm now wondering why I thought growing it would be so cool. Hmmm... mama fail there. At least at work we have a popcorn popper so I can donate the kernels to my coworkers!

4 Gallon bags of Tomatoes
(plus lots of cherry tomatoes eaten throughout the season - mostly by Little M!) This was encouraging. Last year we had more plants, but they weren't caged or supported at all so it was a disaster trying to harvest them. This year, with 4 cages, it was much better. The two extras that I planted without cages were still a disaster, but at least they only sprawled onto the potatoes! I think in the future I'll try to pick an earlier ripening variety so that we get more from each plant. Most of the tomatoes ripened on the sunporch, very few were ripe before the first frost. I also really need to get around to getting these canned!

0 Watermelons
I think in order to get more usable & profitable space in the garden, I need to postpone my quest for a ripe watermelon from my very own garden... Sad, but likely true! :)

1/4 cup of Dry Beans
This was fairly disappointing - even less than the dismal 1/2 cup I harvested last year! I tried a different variety, and I think that was a mistake. I likely need to try again next year and try picking a shorter growing season bean.

5 baggies worth of Green Beans
We had several meals worth, and froze several more, but just didn't have the production that we had last year. And last year's 10-15 baggies frozen didn't make it until spring, so I need to improve here!

LOTS of Peas
We had SO many peas this year! the sugarsnap peas kept producing almost until frost, which was amazing. We had weird weather - a much cooler summer than normal, and although it affected most of my plants negatively, it sure was great for the peas. Little M loved the peas, and we had so many sugarsnaps initially that I was giving bowl after bowl away at work! I need to figure out something to do with them other than eat them fresh. Frozen and used in stirfries? Hmmm... the normal peas were great too, although I let them get a bit past early on and that slowed most of them right down. We had one delicious meal of them with some friends, but other than that I didn't shell and cook them. Next summer I really need to get my act together better and blanch and freeze them so that we can eat them throughout the winter. Frozen peas get used in lots of dishes here, and being able to use our own would be great!

4+ cups of Raspberries
We ate most of the raspberries straight off the vine. I do however have a tub saved in the freezer for a smoothy in the depths of winter (don't tell my husband where they are though!). I think next summer we will have more, and hopefully I will be able to put up more.

4+ cups of Strawberries
We ate WAY more than this. This is just what I have saved in the freezer to make jam with (any day now!). Next summer I will try to save more, but they are just so delicious its hard to put them in a bowl let alone the freezer!

25-ish Potatoes
We dug up maybe 10 russets and about 15 fingerlings, but I didn't weigh them. This was our first success with potatoes, and we were pretty thrilled. We still really need a good storage spot for them, but next year we plan to grow more! (if we can find the space). I want to grow some Yukon Gold potatoes next year - they are my favorite!

3 cups of chopped Peppers
We grew several different varieties of peppers, and typical me, I didn't really let any of them ripen enough before eating them, freezing them, or using them on pizza's. I like green peppers, but my husband likes sweeter peppers, so next year I really need to be more patient and let them ripen more on the plants!

1 (sad) Zuchini
Need more than just one plant. Also need to place them in a better spot! (huh, guess sticking them in the shade of the overgrown raspberries didn't work!)

0 Cucumbers
Picked a poor spot for these guys too. wimpy plant, zero mature cuc's!

5 Butternut SquashThis includes several small ones that likely aren't fully ripened/hardened. Last year we had around 7 butternut, and I recall them all being riper than these seem to be.

7 Hubbard Squash
This also includes a small one that likely really won't have much edible portion inside. There is one huge one, but overall we got much less squash than last year, where I think we had upwards of 15.

3 Pumpkins
Two large & one small. Last year we had 6, but 3 were small and from my husband's wildlife garden, that he didn't have pumpkins in this year. So about the same. Since we just use these for carving at Halloween, 3 was fine :)

20-ish small onions
I was very disappointed with our onion harvest. A lot of the onions just weren't ready to be picked by the late fall - they were still growing leaves and had very little root bulb developed as all their energy was in their leaves. I tried to harvest and dry these as best I could, but I'm not sure whether they sucked because of poor soil conditions or tending, or if it was just a poor year for onions here!

15-ish carrots
The carrots didn't do as well as last year, due to poor germination and then overgrown weeds! Lesson learned - I really need to way overseed and then thin if necessary!! (oh, and be better about staying on top of the weeds!!)

3 beets
These were sort of planted on a whim, none of my family is into beets, but my MIL is, and had these seeds leftover from the previous year. I offered to plant them and give them to her, but didn't bother checking germination, just threw them into the ground alongside radish seeds and hoped for the best. Well, lesson learned! Likely we won't grow beets again for a couple years.

10 radishes
These were rather spicy for us, so next time I need to pick a milder variety, or do something different in growing them. I did let them go to seed though, and so could use those seeds next year if I decide not to buy new ones. I think if I found a different way to eat them, or pick them earlier, or water them more, they might be less spicy? I'm not that familiar with growing radishes; its been awhile, so I'm not sure.

Before next spring I'll have to figure out where we will have the manure pile - right now we have a black plastic compost bin by the house, but no formal compost bins by the garden or coop... I've been dreaming of a three bin system near the garden or coop, but haven't even gotten around to sketching it out or figuring out the board lengths needed, let alone starting to save up for the lumber or deciding on a location... Hopefully by next spring we'll have the location and design down and will just need to purchase lumber and build it!

This past spring I had really hoped to be working on a garden addition by this fall or next spring, but I'm thinking that is likely still at least a year off. I've really been wanting raised beds closer to the house, orchard, and coop, but we just haven't prioritized saving for the building materials. Oh the things we are sacrificing to try to get this house paid off ;)

As far as the garden composition, obviously it will have to change next summer to include more corn, more beans, more tomatoes, and less.... hmmm.... well I'll have to work on that one a bit more over the winter months, because it does seem like I would like to have more to harvest of pretty much everything we harvested this year! I would really love to be growing enough to can and freeze so that we would have food from the garden kept until the next summer. We were nearly there with corn last year but not much else, but this year I think we are a bit further away from that goal on things like corn, because of how many different things we grew even though we had more variety in what we have preserved.

Ah... now the planning for next year's garden can begin :)

Garden Crashing - A Full-Yard Garden

Earlier this week we visited some friends that my husband made sort of through work. Garth & Berri are glass blowers in town, and have this amazing garden that takes up pretty much all of their acre and a half property on the outskirts of town. When we arrived they welcomed us and then toured us through their gardens for over an hour - yup, their gardens are that extensive! We got to try out a cool garden tool they use that apparently makes their weeding lives way easier, we talked with them about their wheat crop, and they showed us how they efficiently water their plants.

They have a low little house that is built into the earth, and just installed a row of solar panels this spring. In front of the house they have a great herb garden with some ornamental plants & grasses in there too. In front of the herb garden, they have row upon row of veggies!

 

Below you can see the peas, onions & celery, peppers, tomatoes, more peppers, potatoes, and then corn.

Looking across from the house end of their property you can see their garage/shed and attached greenhouse, along with some fruit trees, more ornamentals (lots of flowers for cutting). Their raspberries, strawberries, and wheat are down at that end too.

They have numerous areas that are just great mixes of perennial plants. It was shocking just how short of a time they have been there working the gardens - about 3 years, the same length of time we've been at our place. They have accomplished so incredibly much in that time! I can't wait to see how much more function and beauty they accomplish in the next 3 years time.

  They have this neat little garden hoe-type tool that sits behind a wheel and you push it. As you push the wheel along the surface of the soil, the hoe rakes along just under the soil and cuts all the root and slightly disturbs the soil. Weeding without bending over, and without vigorous hoeing - perfect! I got to try it out, and it was easily done even with Little M on my back.

Here is a close up of the tool. They are made & sold by Valley Oak Tool Company, which is based out of California. You can check out their website if you are interested: valleyoaktool.com. They are a bit pricey, but think of the rows upon rows of weeds you could hoe quickly and easily with this thing! I suspect I would have to space my rows a little wee bit further apart to be able to make use of this, but maybe in the future I won't plant everything so close together :)

This is their wheat patch. This year they are just growing one variety, although in previous years they have tried several to see which one did best here and tasted best. I tried to remember which type this is, but I forgot - I'll just have to ask again if we visit again. The wheat variety is neat because it doesn't have the long spines off the seeds, so it is easier to deal with by hand. They use their wheat for baking - this past winter they made pancakes and other things with their home-grown wheat. How is that for self-sufficient living?!

They have irrigation shares in one of the valley ditches, it actually runs right between their land and the road. They have a great setup for watering all of their crops. They have their land divided into 8 zones, and they have a timer set up so that each of the zones gets watered at a certain time for a certain amount of time. Because they get their water off of an open ditch (unlike our piped gravity-fed irrigation water), they have to have an electric pump to pressurize the water. They also have several filters to get sediment and other things (for example we often get crayfish in our pipes...) out of their pipes so that their sprinklers don't clog up.

 Speaking of sprinklers, they have several different types that they use around the gardens, but these were the coolest. They had these jets that you can see, and then the top spun slowly around. but instead of the jets always spraying out water, when they got facing the shrubs on the right, they cut out! This sprinkler only watered in 180 degrees, even while rotating! Awesome, right?!

I definitely got lots of new ideas, both of veggies to try my hand at in the future (they sent us home with some kale and I had forgotten how much I loved it!), and also ideas for garden layout and irrigation set ups. We would have loved to stay longer, because there was still so much to see (including their root cellar!), but the sun was about to set and Little M was starting to get a bit fussy since it was past her bedtime.

Hopefully we will be able to go back and visit them again, and maybe they will be able to come over and visit our garden! I love touring around other people's gardens, seeing what plants they grow, how they organize their space, learning new ways to do things, and seeing what works for their spaces. I always learn a lot and come home feeling so inspired :) Thanks Garth & Berri for being so welcoming and friendly and for sharing all sorts of gardening tidbits!

Surprise pea plant & garlic shoots

I planted my peas - sugar snap & shell peas- last weekend, and was hoping there would be some sign of them by now. You know, some sign that spring is here! But there weren't any little buds poking up through the soil in the rows where I planted the peas.

Near the garden gate I noticed a little bud that already had leaves - a leftover pea from last fall, that must have grown to maturity unnoticed, and when I tore the bushes out in the fall it must have fallen to the ground!

 I also noticed the garlic I planted last fall starting to poke its leaves up through the mulch.

A few of the garlic chives made it through the winter under their mulch too!

I guess I can wait a while longer for the peas given all the other shoots and sprouts coming up around the garden. I'm joining up to the Homestead Barn Hop today, head on over to see what spring is bringing to families all over!

California trees in Washington

A bit over 2 years ago my husband (then boyfriend) and I went on an amazing road trip from our icy, snow-gripped mountain home to the southern deserts. We went through states that I had never been to previously - Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon.

The destination was Vegas, to celebrate my husband's youngest step-sister's 21st birthday. But the destination paled (especially for my rural woodsy taste) compared to the wild marvels we visited. We went to Zion National Park, and viewed an icy, desolate, barren, empty, park that few others see. We went to Yosemite and stayed in an incredible lodge nestled amongst huge old trees. We drove up the windy California coast and played on the beach in bare feet and t-shirts, after being in down jackets just that morning up in the mountains.

We brought back many intangible things -  lots of memories, inside jokes, and the surety that we could live with each other, but we also brought back 2 pine cones. One from a Sugar Pine, and the other from another California pine species that I have since forgotten.

I randomly planted seeds that I pulled from those cones, planted them in amongst my kitchen herb pots, in houseplant pots, in herb planters on the sunporch. And 2 years later, we have 3 little trees. 2 of one species, and one of the other. After many many months sharing space with other plants, we decided they needed to be repotted and separated.

2 pine seedlings & a straggly rosemary sharing space

Some day we hope to be able to plant these somewhere on the property, but in the interim, they will grow strong and tall on the sunporch in their planters.

a 3-stemmed pine seedling

Cheap seed starting: egg cartons & a freezer

A bit over a week ago I was feeling a little cooped up in the house, and I decided that I would start some seeds. I began by getting some onion seeds ready to check their germination rates. I had previously cut up some old egg cartons into plant-specific groups and labeled them. The picture shows the cartons cut up for some of my peppers and tomatoes.

Then I put some dirt in old egg cartons and I put one pepper seed in each cup. Last year I had a very hard time thinning my pepper plants, and so to avoid that this year, I planted only one seed in each cup, and just planted more cups than I wanted plants, so that instead of snipping any extra plants later on, I could give extras away, or trade them for different varieties (not that I will have room for them, but...)

I covered the seed, moistened the soil, and put the complete carton in a plastic grocery bag, then I set the wrapped carton on the old carton's lid, which I hadn't cut into plant-specific sections. This way the old lid is a base keeping the cut up carton together, but because it is outside of the bag it doesn't get wet. Cost - free! The soil isn't the greatest, but I decided to spend my money on seeds this year, and use mixed garden soil and sand instead of buying potting or seed starting soil.

 Next I put the egg carton on the top of my freezer, and let the freezer be the gentle bottom heat the pepper seed packets recommended. Yesterday I noticed that some of the seeds are poking their newly germinated heads above ground, so I moved the carton out to the sunporch where I have my grow light set up. I'll keep monitoring them, since it is colder on the sunporch than I would really like, but until I get a heating pad to put under the seeds, that's the best I can do. If I notice them not doing well, I can always start moving them in to the dining room table every night, time consuming as that will be!

Checking germination in older onion seeds

Last spring a friend gave us some onion seeds he had saved from the summer before. I used about half of them last year. I also saved seeds from some onion sets that we had bought and planted last year. So this year I have 2 types of onion seeds to grow, but onion seeds don't last very well, so before I spend my time on them and give them space, I decided to check their germination rates.

This evening after I put Little M down, I got both types of seeds out, and gathered together a tupperware container, some paper towels, and a spray bottle of water. First I put a folded paper towel in the container, then sprayed it to get it damp. I put a dozen or so of the older seeds in the paper towel 'envelope', and then folded the paper towel over top, and sprayed it again. Then I did the same with the seeds I saved from last year. I sat the lid lightly on top of the container to keep the moisture levels up in our dry climate, and set the container at the back of the counter. Now I wait about 5 days or so, and check the percentage of seeds that have germinated. I didn't need to check the newer seeds, but I figured it would give me a control so I knew whether the old ones should be germinated.

Hopefully they will both germinate fine, but if not, this way I will know whether I should seed them denser than normal, or toss the seeds entirely if they don't do well on this germination test. I still haven't decided whether I want to start my onions inside early or direct seed them later...

2011 seed starting schedule & garden planning

I've started seeds indoors for my veggie garden for the past 2 summers, but never made a schedule, I just would decide, hmm, seems like about time to start my seeds, and that would be it. I started them all at the same time regardless of what type of plant they were, and never thought much more of it than that. Last year I even had to restart all of my seeds since they accidentally froze on the sunporch (courtesy of our old leaky sliding glass doors).

Spring 2010 - Little M supervising me re-planting my seeds

This year, since I've been blogging and seeing everyone else talk about their seed starting schedule, I decided to give it a go. First I looked at when the last frost was last year, which was unusually late and hard - May 21st. At that point I had corn and beans just peeking above the ground, and the pile of towels I spread over the sprouts didn't do a very adequate job at keeping the sprouts frost-free. That frost also killed most of our orchard flowers, so we had a very spotty fruit crop last fall!

May 21 2010 - towels protecting sprouts from a late & hard frost

I did some looking at the calendar, and turns out I still have 13 weeks until what I will consider our last frost date, so I guess I still have a bit of time before I need to start planting. I sat down and looked over the seeds that I bought this year and those that I have leftover and saved from the past couple years. I was surprised at how many different types I have! I planned out my garden layout, although there are some herbs and flower mixes leftover from last year that I really want to grow somewhere - hopefully I can get some sort of garden set up by the chicken coop as I have mentioned previously, so that I can have a bit more space.

Planning for my 2011 garden!

Now that I know I have 13 weeks or more until I start planting my start outdoors, I can relax a couple weeks and wait until at least next month to start planting my first seed starts.  I may start my peppers and some flowers earlier than that though, because last weekend I was working on cutting some trim boards in the garage when I realized that past owners had left a shop light in there that would be a perfect seed starting light! Yippee!! Sometime in the next week I will wrestle it out of the garage and put it up on the sunporch somewhere, and maybe I'll even be able to find an old heating pad somewhere to keep under my plants so they stay nice and warm. I figure with that light, I will be able to grow things like peppers and some flowers to a bigger stage than I would without that extra light, which will be perfect since last year my peppers were pitifully small at the time when I would have planted them out. I say 'would have' since a little mouse got into the sunporch while we were gone for a couple days, and when I came back the peppers were just little snipped off stalks... darn rodents!

Happy seed day, happy seed day!

My seeds have arrived!

Well, actually they arrived a week ago, I just forgot about them until I was downloading pictures off of my camera (oops!). I realized that not only had I forgotten they had arrived, but I had forgotten to post about them, even after I took some fun pictures to show!

I ordered from Seed Savers International, and boy did they come quickly - it was under a week from when I placed my order to when they showed up in my mailbox. I ordered 12 different types of seeds, and don't the packets look beautiful?

I forgot to take a picture of my existing stash of seeds, which takes up a small rubbermaid bin. I'll try and get one up at some point in the future though :) Has anyone else been receiving any new & exciting seed packets in the mail recently?

2011 Seed List

Hurray! I've finished planning my 2011 list of plants to grow!

Its been raining off and on all weekend (so strange for January here!) and on top of the several feet of snow we have on the ground, its not very pleasant outside, although its unseasonably warm! The weather and the remnants of a cold made staying warm and cozy inside on the top of my priority list - which is why I'm planning garden plants so far in advance this year!

I've included the list of plant varieties below, and I even remembered to include plants to grow so I can meet my gardening-related goals! In brackets I've included bits from the catalog write-up that made me want to grow each plant this year. There is an additional section at the bottom of plants I want to try but that may end up being saved for some year in the future, as the first list already looks rather daunting! I'll be ordering my seeds soon from Seed Savers International - I received a book of theirs last year (Seed to Seed) and its absolutely wonderful!

Beans - kenearly yellow eye (look pretty, for dry beans)
Beans - kentucky wonder bush (snap bush bean for freezing and eating fresh)
Peas - sugar snap (seeds from last year)
Peas - sutton's harbinger (not too tall)
Tomatoes - amish paste (for sauces)
Tomatoes - italian heirloom (for eating fresh)
Tomatoes - cherry roma (for salads)
Carrots - st valery (tasty & good for storage)
Corn - smoke signals (colorful popcorn kernels, I've never tried growing popping corn before!)
Corn - golden bantam improved (good for fresh eating and freezing)
Watermelon (from seeds saved from a local farmers watermelons)
Cucumber - bushy (for eating & pickling if I have time)
Zucchini - black beauty (we love zucchini bread!)
Squash - hubbard (from seeds saved from one given to us by family)
Squash - butternut (from seeds given to us by a friend)
Pumpkin - hercules (from seeds saved from last years pumpkin)
Peppers - chocolate beauty (trying something different)
Peppers - golden treasure (sweet banana-type)
Potatoes - yukon gold (1 - yukon/canadian reference, 2 - so tasty!)
Onions (from seeds given by a friend)
Basil (seeds from last year)
Oregano (seeds from last year)
Sage (seeds from last year)
Thyme (seeds from last year)
Hops (from cuttings from old house, for brewing!)
Sunflowers (seeds saved from last years crop)
Garlic - already planted (from starts given by family)

Plants I might try this year or in the future:
Eggplant, Black Raspberries, Rhubarb, Honeydew Melon, Sunset Runner Beans, Hot Peppers, Turnips, Beets, Hyssop