A Seed Starting Disaster

Seedlings on the porch... pre-disaster.

Our property is subject to high winds.  I know this, and yet I did something dumb anyway.  I put all my indoor seedlings on the porch to soak up some sun, but didn't weight down the bin they were in.  One particularly strong gust of wind sent my tender seedlings flying right off the porch.....

Poor little seedlings!  But, all was not lost.  I only lost the herbs and half of the tomatoes.  The herbs can be re-started, and I had started more tomatoes than I needed anyway.  It's still disappointing, but not a complete disaster.

The veggie garden, all tilled under and ready to go.

I've started working on the vegetable garden bed for this year.  It's always a blank slate, as we till it under with the tractor every spring.  So far, all I've done is stake out where the beans and cucumbers will go and put in the raised beds for the lettuce.   It's time to start planting the cool season veggies, but the weather is being less than cooperative.  Some days it's warm and sunny, some cold and rainy.  Not much gets done when it's cold and rainy, and when it's warm and sunny the list of chores is a mile long.  Such is farm life, and I wouldn't give it up for all the sunny days in the world!

The First Step Is Admitting You Have A Problem....

My collection

I'm not really sure what the second step is.  My problem and I are in a good place right now, so I'm not really looking for a solution.  My husband, on the other hand, is getting a little annoyed with my obsessive milk jug and fruit container hoarding.  I've tried to explain to him the it's for the greater good of the garden, but he's still skeptical.  He'll be happier once we can start harvesting the fruits of my trash collection.

We tilled under the veggie garden this past week, but torrential downpours and the resulting mud kept me from planting out there.  But, thanks to my hoard, I was still able to sow seeds outdoors. 

The collection put to good use.

For this week I've started more swiss chard, spinach and lettuce along with some cosmos.  I usually direct sow cosmos, but I thought I'd try containers this year.  Mostly because I have not yet built the garden beds that the cosmos are supposed to go in.

Be sure to stop by The Home Garden for Seed Starting Saturday with Dave!

An Exciting Week

Spring is on its way!  The bulbs are coming up, buds are swelling on the ornamental fruit trees (they always seem to be the first to bloom), the days are getting longer and temps are staying consistently above freezing during the day.  That means it's time to get busy getting the garden ready.  And busy is exactly what I've been this week. 

Out of control Photinia hedge.

Hedges were pruned and ducks were purchased, but those are posts for another day. 

New friends for Lucky the duck!

My seed sowing is getting into full swing!  I started zinnias and marigolds inside and winter sowed some more lettuce, swiss chard and snapdragons.  Although, I'm not sure the lettuce and swiss chard really count as winter sowing, it's getting pretty close to the time I would be sowing it outdoors in the garden, anyway.   The snapdragons were just seed I had leftover from a container I started indoors.  I figured, what the heck?  If it works, I know I won't have to start them indoors next year.

My indoor seedlings are doing great.  Last week's tomato seeds are already sprouting.  The jalapeno and bell peppers are looking great, too.  The poblanos still haven't sprouted, but they were slow to germinate last year, too.  

Tomatoes!

With temperatures consistently in the 40s during the day and sunny weather,  I've been able to take the celery and indoor-sown lettuce outside during the day to harden off.  Taking them outside also frees up space under the grow lights.  I'm starting to run out of room. 

And, to top it all off, when I opened my email this morning I found out I had won a book!  Garden Rant hosted a giveaway of Ellen Ecker Ogden's new book The Complete Kitchen Garden, and I won!  I'm really excited to get my copy.  The book is a collection of garden designs, seasonal recipes and tips on organic gardening.  As soon as I'm done reading it, I'll post a review.

Be sure to check out Seed Sowing Saturday with Dave at The Home Garden!

Tomatoes And Transplants

Tomatoes!

I love tomatoes.  Love them.  There is no experience as divine as biting into a freshly picked, vine ripened tomato still warm from the summer sun.  I wait all year for that experience.  So enamored of that experience am I, that I never buy tomatoes from the store.  It's just not the same, and just not worth it.  The only tomatoes I eat are the ones that come from my backyard!

So, naturally, I was very excited to sow my tomatoes this week.  I started four varieties this year: Rutgers, Super Sweet 100, Fresh Salsa and Cherry Red.

"Rutgers" is my absolute favorite tomato.  I have tried many varieties of slicing tomato over the years, and I just can't find one to outperform "Rutgers".  Although, I will admit I may be biased.  Rutgers University is my Alma Mater and I worked for them for many years.  They're also still holding my pension.  Nepotism aside, "Rutgers" is still a great variety.  It's hardy, disease resistant, prolific and flavorful.  It always has a place in my garden.

"Super Sweet 100" is another variety that has earned its place in my garden with it's hardiness and fecundity.   "100" is actually an understatement, they should really add another zero.  It produces steadily throughout the season, right up 'til frost. And the green tomatoes are perfect for pickling.

"Fresh Salsa" is a variety I just started planting last year.  It's a plum tomato that promises "all meat", and they aren't lying!  The first time I cut into one, I didn't know what to think.  There was no juice, few seeds and the texture was oddly crisp for a tomato.  The raw flavor was good, but I was really put off by the texture.  I didn't care for the pico de gallo I made with it, either.  The texture was just too weird!  I wasn't sure about planting it again.  Then I made a red sauce out of it.  Wow!  Cooking is this tomato's true calling.  I was so impressed, I'm planting more this year.  The only down side, it got blossom end rot mid season.  I'll be adding lime this year, so hopefully we won't have that problem again.

I've never planted "Red Cherry" before and don't know anything about it.  In purchasing it, I was the victim of a shameless marketing ploy.  Ferry Morse has cleverly emblazoned the seed packet with Sesame Street's Elmo.  As soon as my 2 year old daughter saw it, we had to have it.  I don't know what it is about that little red Muppet, but he's like toddler crack.  They can't live without him and will beg for any product emblazoned with his bug-eyed mug.  And so I'm planting "Red Cherry" tomato.  I tip my hat to you, Ferry Morse.

Along with my sowing, I realized it was time to transplant my celery.  They were starting to escape their container.  It was like a celery jungle.

Yum, celery jungle.......

I was originally going to put each little seedling in it's own container.  Then I realized that was way too much work.  So, I put them into some big nursery pots where they'll have room to spread.  It won't be long until they go out to the garden, anyway.

Which reminds me: We'll be having warmer weather this week.  It's time for the cool season veggies to start hanging out on the porch to harden off.  Here in zone 6, their transplant time is early March and that's right around the corner.  My babies are growing up!


For more seed starting fun, join Dave at the The Home Garden for Seed Sowing Saturday!

Started The Peppers

I started the peppers this week, along with some spinach and lettuce.  Peppers take forever to grow, last year I didn't get a good crop of fruit until late August.  I wanted to get a jump start this year.  I plant three different varieties : "Ancho" poblano, "California Wonder" bell and some sort of jalapeno whose name escapes me right now.  I'm also trying something new this year, growing seed I collected myself last year.  I've done this before with lettuce, herbs and bok choy, and squash, but not peppers.  I collected the seeds from a ripe "California Wonder" bell, but I'm not sure if the different varieties cross pollinate.  I may get some sort of mutant pepper.  Maybe an "Anchojala Wonder" pepper.   That would be....... interesting.  I started some "California Wonder" seed that I bought, too.  Just in case I end up with "Anchojala Wonders" and they're horrible.

I like to sow as much indoors as I can for two reasons: 1) I cover the garden bed with used bedding (straw) from the horse's stalls after everything dies back in fall.  It stays like that until spring to prevent weeds from growing and enrich the soil. The straw also helps protect anything I'm trying to overwinter. In spring, after I've harvested the overwinter-ers, the bedding gets tilled in with the tractor.  Until the tilling, it's not wise to plant too much out there.  I'd just have to move it, or convince my husband to try to negotiate around it with the tractor.  Fat chance.  2) I have free range chickens.  I can manage to keep them out of the plants, but direct sown seeds don't stand a chance.  I have made some little "seed protectors"  out of scrap lumber and bird netting, but they tend to be a little bulky to store and move.  I only have a few of them, so I use them sparingly for things that I have to direct sow.  Anything that I can start in a flat gets started in a flat. 

"Flat" is a rather loose term.  I'm cheap, so I keep all kinds of little containers from fruit and yogurt to start seeds in.  I also use cheap plastic drink cups.  They last forever, so long as they don't get left outside too long.  My biggest problem isn't finding containers to sow in, it's finding trays to carry all my seedlings around in.  I find big plastic storage tubs to be pretty good for this.  They have lids, too.  So, you can close them up to keep the seeds from drying out until they sprout.  Or, keep the cat out.

I'm contemplating winter sowing a few things, too.  Some spinach, lettuce, maybe some flower seeds.  We'll see how motivated I feel this weekend. 

The celery is coming along quite nicely.  I'm going to need to thin it and transplant it into bigger containers soon.

For more seed starting fun from other bloggers, check out Seed Sowing Saturday , hosted by The Home Garden!

We Have Celery!

Well, the beginnings of celery, anyway.  This is actually the easy part.  Getting seeds to sprout is usually no problem. Keeping them alive until it's time to plant, then protecting them from frost, heat, drought and free range chickens is the hard part. 

"Did you say 'celery'?"

Celery and Basil

I started the celery today.   It's "Tall Utah 52-70 R Improved".  Whatever that means.  I chose it because this variety seemed a little more tolerant of weather and disease than others.  We'll see.

I decided to try it a few different ways, since I've never grown celery before.  I have no idea how it's root system develops, so I wasn't sure what type of container to use.

These are old fruit containers.  They're great for starting small, delicate seeds.  Just scatter the seeds, close the lid and you've got an instant greenhouse.  I usually use the shallow ones for starting shallow rooted seeds like lettuce.  I broadcast the seed over the top, then when it's time to transfer to the garden I break up the seedlings into clumps and plant them that way.  In this case, a shallow container got used for celery just because I didn't have much seed starting mix left.  Since I'm new to celery and everyone says that celery seed is temperamental, I figured I'd start some of it in actual seed starting medium....  just to give it a fighting chance.   The deeper container is compost.

I start most of my seeds in compost.  I'm a rebel like that.  My compost is made from horse and chicken manure and straw.  It gets hot, hot, hot.  I'm pretty confident I don't have much in the way of pathogens or weeds in there.  I've been successfully starting seeds in it for years.  Every once in awhile I have trouble getting something to germinate in the compost, which is why I keep a little seed starting mix on hand.

Once my celery seedlings get big enough, I'll thin them and transfer the ones in the shallow container to their own little pots.  I like to use those little red plastic drinking cups for individual seedlings.  I poke a few holes in the bottom, then put them all in a shallow tray.  They're cheap, easy to work with and infinitely re-usable.  Just don't leave them outside, they disintegrate in the sun.  Ahem, not that I've ever done that or anything.



Along with my celery, I started some basil seeds I collected from last years plants.  They'll stay in the sun room to supply me with fresh basil for the next few months, so they get a pretty pot.  I've found deep pots work best with basil, it gets root bound quickly.



In a few weeks I'll need to start the peppers and maybe some lettuce.