Gardens Started!

I can't believe how quickly the the endless winter season ends in the blink of an eye, and now we've been blessed with an early "hot" spring. It's so nice to feel the sun again and to get outside and set up for the garden. I was happy to set out my "hose hub" just last week, after all I need to get those hoses hooked up for all of the gardens!

Early Tilling

I tilled 2 gardens on Saturday, April 19th - that's the earliest tilling time I've ever been able to accomplish. The weather has been amazing with a full week and a half of sunny, cloud-free brilliant blue skies with weather reports of temperatures as much as 15 to 20 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year. I'll take it!

For the record, we broke the 80 degree mark here on 4/17/08 with 80.8 F @ 3:10 PM.

Rhubarb Report

I have some before/after Rhubarb photos below. What a difference in only 5 days!



Radishes Are Fast

Speaking of 5 days... Radishes are one of my favorite spring seeds to plant because you get such fast germination. These German Giants were planted on 4/19 and are nearly 100% up only five days later.




Seed Dibble


Here's a handy seed planting tool that anyone can use. It's a common split end clothes pin that I marked for planting seeds at accurate depths for best germination. Notice the blue markings I made for the 1& 1/2", 1", and the balled end itself just happens to be a perfect 1/2" depth.

Using the clothes pin upside down is the simplest way I know of to plant seeds quickly.

Mark Seed Packets Ahead

One more tip: in winter when you've nothing better to do, as soon as those seeds arrive in the mail, read them over and hand write the recommended seed planting depth in big numbers on the seed packet. More common than not, the packet won't have that info in the skimpy @#$%! print and you'll find yourself outside, all geared up in the garden, squinting in disgust at the seed packet, then trudging back to the house for your trusty garden book to get a seed depth... I've been gardening most of my life. I'm now forty years old and I went through all of that last weekend...

Seed Planting Data

I planted many other early spring plants, so here's a list of what & when:

Radish - German Giant - 4/19
Radish - Giant Sakurojima - 4/20
Snow pea - Oregon Sugar Pod 2 - 4/19
Turnip - Purple Top White Globe - 4/20
Pac choi - Chinese White Cabage - 4/22
Mesclun - Mild mix - 4/22
Mustard - Tendergreen - 4/22
Spinach - Tyee - 4/22

Most of the 70 ft. X 25 ft. garden is now full with the early spring plantings! I left two rows for beans & tomatoes in late May.

Got Lovage?

I'm glad that I do! I transplanted two Lovage plants into this garden last spring (2007) and they basically sat around as expected that season. This year, I expect large growth and I'm seeing evidence of this right now. Check out the two photos of the same Lovage plant taken only 5 days apart! Talk about a spring explosion!




Indoor Update

I've been transplanting many of the tomatoes, broccoli and cauliflower seedlings into both 4" and 2&1/4 inch peat pots. I'm really impressed with the fluorescent lighting methods this season and expect a huge boost in tomato production this season. most of the 13 varieties will be grown for seed production depending on how each variety reacts to conditions here.


Here we go!

:)

Mid April – inching ever closer to the growing season!

Fog rolled over the east garden on Saturday morning (4/12/08) as the lingering snow pack was losing its grip to 60 and eventually 70 degree temperatures.

In fact, the first break into the 60 degree territory was recorded on 4/08/08 @ 3:10 PM. The 70s were broken on 4/12/08 @ 2:40 PM – with the highest reading of 74.4 occurring @ 3:20 PM. Interesting how 3:10 & 3:20 PM are the reoccurring times for springtime high temperatures around here…

Rhubarb is up! Always nice to see signs of life in the garden this early in the season. I was amazed to see that the onions over-wintered just fine with no mulch (I ran out of straw). This means they will flower and produce seed since it’s their second year.

Daffodils are up as well, another sure sign of warmer days ahead.

One significant note for the extreme winter is the Mole damage to the lawn - and it's not just here. Many other folks in the hilltowns noticed massive mole damage to their lawns. Funny for me because I'm into year three of "less lawn & more tilling for gardens," so the moles actually help me in my endeavors! See all of the mole trails up by my grapes in the orchard?

Update on the indoor seedlings – they are doing very well. The plant stand at the top of the stairs is now fully lit with fluorescent lights; 2 sets of 2 foot long tubes and the central set is of 2, 3 foot tubes. They are turned on each morning at 7 AM and shut off each night around 10 PM.

This is a huge advance for my seedling project. No more spindly, skinny, stretching toward the sunlight, WEAK plants. The photo below was taken of last years seedlings this very same week in 2007. Note that I only had 2 flats, all tomatoes, and see how tiny they were? Wow, what a difference a year can make.

I never would have learned about proper lighting techniques if it weren’t for this book; The New Seed Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel:

Buy The New Seed Starters Handbook on Amazon like I did by clicking here

This book is slightly dated since it was released in 1988 – but don’t let that stop you from buying it! My eyes were opened after 40 years of gardening. Reading is simply the best way to further gardening knowledge and this book is now my number one recommendation.
Speaking of books, I will continue with my 2nd recommended reading; Saving Seeds by Marc Rogers:

Buy Saving Seeds on Amazon like I did by clicking here


Happy reading! I will keep updating the blog as much as I can. It’s going to get very busy, really soon…

:)