July 24, 2011

Ah, what a beautiful summer day! Weather's in the upper 70s and the boys and I had a blast.  We rode our bikes til the tires fell off and got to spend time with a really nice neighborhood couple and their two girls that are the same ages as my boys.  After we all got tired riding, we were treated to Otter Pops and watermelon in their back yard.  Can you say yard envy!?  They had at least 100 feet by 50 feet of southern exposure flat back yard.  I just couldn't resist drooling over it and telling them that I could do wonders with their yard. 

I then proceeded to suggest what they could do with their side garden areas.  They were growing a bit of stuff, though mostly weeds (aren't we all).  Of course, they were growing great flowers.  We ended up taking about three beds that could be used to grow food. I explained how they could grow tons in those beds.  I wasn't about to go all Mel on them, but I did talk of intensive gardening and succession planting.  They seemed impressed. I even offered to help how I could. Man, if only I could make money doing this, hehe.

We sure had fun, but talking lettuce to them was a bit of an issue.  The husband is Asian, so I had to change my tune to bok choy and the like.  Came home and looked it up in the "book", only to find Mel's not big on Asian greens.  Best I could find on the internet was 9/SF, which makes sense as they harvest baby bok choy.  They seemed happy that after the initial work outlay, there wouldn't be much work, and also that they could grow tons of fresh veggies.  Best of all the ability to save tons of money on produce costs was a big hit. 

Our last topic of course was compost.  They've got a great spot for it.  Anyone have any good ideas to cheaply keep dogs out of your compost? I don't have that problem.  I thought of a pallet to block it, and of course chicken wire, but what else?

Alas, sorry for yet another post without pictures.  I just don't have the camera with me these days.  What would you grow if you had 150 SF?

Enjoy your garden!

500th POST! - June 13, 2011

Wow, I can't believe it.  I didn't believe it when my Google dashboard said I'd published 499 posts. I know I've been posting for a few years now, and I used to post every day, but yikes, what a milestone!  I know I should bake a cake or something like the TV industry does for a show's 100th episode or something, but somehow that just doesn't seem appropriate for the topic of this post. 

Now I'd asked (rather poorly I may add), for topic ideas and batted around a few of my own in my mind over the last few days, but it wasn't until this morning that I stumbled upon something I'm very interested in.  It even has more to do with my garden as it sits now than I would have ever dreamed when I first read about it in Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food after taking my son to the bus this morning.

No clues, well, I didn't have one either.  In short it's Omega 3s. That's right, something everyone knows a very little about, but if you're like me, most are misinformed at best.  Now I'm not going to get into tons of detail here because there is a bunch of great reading material out on the net and in various books, but I will share what I've learned in a few hours and how it's given me a new respect for my crappy spring garden.

First off, a very brief background of what I've learned from years of "hearing" of Omega 3s and a morning of reading my book and a few web sites.  By now everyone knows that Omega 3s are good for you and that eating ocean fish is a great way to get those 3s.  Most also know that if you CAN'T get access to fresh fish, then flax seed is an alternative.  Lastly, what I knew about them is that freshly laid chicken eggs are higher in 3s than store bought ones, and that food scientists are trying like mad to throw Omega 3s into anything they can because it's the new buzz word in nutrition.

So when I read in Michael Pollan's book today about the Western Diet's ratio of Omega 6s to Omega 3s running between 10 to 20:1 and that Omega 6s lead to bad things in the body like heart disease, diabetes and strokes, I became more curious.  So curious that I was upset that Mr. Pollan didn't simply have a list of what I should eat to get more Omega 3s in my diet. 

As some of you know by now, I don't like fish much, despite growing up on the PNW coast my entire life, which means we've got more fish than beef here.  You can imagine my delight when I read in Mr. Pollan's book that fish aren't that great for Omega 3s anyway.  Fish only get Omega 3s from THEIR diet of algae. If I think about it, it makes me mad that I didn't know this already.  It's like fish had a monopoly on Omega 3s when they were just smart enough to eat stuff that's good for them. Why can't we go straight to the source also?

So, impassioned by this new found shred of knowledge and frustrated by Michael Pollan's total lack of compassion for my zeal as to provide a detailed list for me, I put down the book and went to the Internet.  A quick search that literally went like this... "which organic vegetables contain the highest levels of omega 3s compared to omega 6s?" I quickly found a decent reiteration of Pollan's argument, siting the same sources, specifically Susan Allport's Queen of Fats.  While this article lacked the list of foods to eat other than fish, it did have a few sentences that Mr. Pollan left out (probably because it is the topic of his book).  It was those sentences that made me write this post. "Fortunately, omega-3 is widely available in all greens, especially in spinach, romaine, and arugula."  The one downside of Omega 3s are that they become rancid very quickly (yes, Omega 3s are a fat, despite that fatty acid label).  In fact, removing Omega 3s from standard oils is what kept them from going bad and thus increasing shelf life.  Joy, oh joy! Omega 3s can even go rancid in your digestive tract, leading to the development of bad free radicals.  It's suggested "to combat this problem, make sure to include a large variety of fresh fruit and vegetables in your meals that are rich in antioxidants, such as blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, plums, oranges, grapes cherries, beets, red cabbage, colored bell peppers, kale, and others." 

Reading that made me think of the times when we've secretly added spinach to our smoothies.  No, not the "green" smoothies such as are promoted on that site I was reading, but rather adding minor amounts of green leafy vegetables to be masked by the fruitie goodness the family loves.  We've experimented with various veggies to add to our smoothies over the years and found broccoli stands out too much but nothing in small quantities shows in the final blend.  We've used spinach extensively, but now I know I can use lettuce with equal abandon!  I'm looking forward to using much more of this in the near future...

Doesn't that salad green bed look healthy? You can just make out in the top right corner my failed carrot bed (first year carrots have failed me).  I can see using most of this on either salads or smoothies and I'm definitely going to plant more greens for fall, and more for winter harvest.  My brother's growing Mache and Arugula so I'm excited to try them to make sure I want to grow them this winter.

Oh, and I can't leave out my smoothie staple.  My spinach bed is finally growing, though I'm fearful that the succession planting failed.

Anyways, I'm excited again at all that salad bed has to offer.  We just don't eat salads every night like some friends of ours do, so much of my spring lettuce harvest is given away or composted.  Now of course the left overs will be given to the girls, but that, my friends, is another post!

Enjoy your garden, and go eat some more Omega 3s!

April 6, 2011

Quick post for now. I need help!

What's eating my broccoli seedlings?

I had it under a milk jug cloche that was fairly well seated in the soil.  I wonder if it's not the same thing that's continuing to eat and eat again my butter crunch lettuce head in a different bed?

I couldn't log onto Gardenweb for some reason, so I'm pleading to you all for advice.  What is it and what do I do about it? 

I tried to look it up on the net and found only cabbage moths, which I know I have problems with, but have not seen any moths yet this year.  Also, remember that my beds are 16 inches tall and surrounded by inhospitable gravel for paths.  I thought of slugs, but haven't seen any and have no idea how they'd have gotten in with those obstacles to overcome.  Unless they came in in the compost?

Thoughts?  Thanks for any and all comments!!

Enjoying the sudden snow storm here in the PNWet?

April 4, 2011

Man, I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. I have no idea what I should talk about, so many little things have been going on, each could result in a short post that I should have made if I had been thinking about it instead of watching for comments. Hehe.

I guess this will be a chicken post and tomorrow I'll throw together a garden one.

First off, I just realized I've taken a few videos of the girls and hadn't posted them here.  Shame on me.  I figure to get them both in, I'll use the old ruse of "Look how much they've grown!"... think it will work on you?  Well, here's one of the first three chicks on the second day.



And now for the second video taken a few days ago. My how they've grown!



Now that that's done, I can move on to more trivia about my birds.  The first bit I'm happy to say is that Summer (our Welsummer) lost her outtie belly button yesterday. I was cleaning the brooder and she was sitting on her roost, showing me her tail, and presto, it was gone.  I'm very happy about this as the risk of a pecking accident that could result in an infection was high.  Now it's gone and she can be safe around the little brute of a Buff Orpington.  Anyway, here is a picture I took with my phone while she was being cooperative for a change.  She still likes to jump from heights.

To show them in their new digs, with a configuration of the brooder that still is in effect today, here are the girls in their freshly de-papered home.  Funny that they must have gotten their dust baths out of their system in the transfer brooder, because they really haven't tossed the pine shavings all over their brooder.

Speaking of the transfer brooder, it's much shorter than the regular one.  So much shorter, that Summer can see over the side when she jumps, trying to get to her flock.  Note to self, don't move her first, but second so she has company.  Maybe she remembers her day of isolation in that bin.  She really hated that.

The next shot below is one I took zoomed in from outside the bathroom.  I rarely get to see them sleeping because they jump up and hide when they see me. Notice how Summer is on the roost with her #2 while the others are lower? Classic pecking order stuff.  Fascinating!  Oh, I don't worry about Buffy the baby Buff Orpington being lower than the Barred Rock, she probably was cold so wanted to sleep under the heat lamp, while the others want to sleep as far from it as possible. 

I've since raised the heat lamp a bit early.  I figure Buffy can sleep on the corner of the roost under the light if she's cold.  The others had their mouths open (panting) a bit much for my liking.  Yet another reason not to get chicks too far apart in age.

The last picture is my failed attempt at showing them standing straight up.  They are getting so tall when they want to extend their necks up!



So, we've got names for three of them, and having kids that are 7 and 4, none of the names are profound... The Welsummer is Summer; the Buff Orpington is Buffy; and the Golden Laced Wyndotte is Dot, though Jinny says it's short for Dorothy.  My eldest is trying to name the Barred Rock, though he's only come up with Shamrock so far... we're hoping for something different. Hehe.

Oh yeah, lastly, I posted these questions on BYC, but in case any chicken owners have thoughts out there, I'm all ears.

What kind of pooper scooper do you use with shavings?

I recently took them off paper towels and have them just on pine shavings.  The trouble is, I don't want to dump all the pine shavings every day.  Do you folks simply use a litter box scoop like for cats? 

I've heard folks say they use one designed for reptiles, not sure what one of those is or where to get one?  I can see having the ability to attach a long handle to reach into the coop later, but for now, something short will do.

This morning I just cleaned off the board they use as a step ladder to peck down into the feed tray and to drink from (need to find a good scraper for that too). 

Seems I've got a bunch of supply questions.  What do you folks suggest that works for you?

Enjoy!

March 26, 2011

Chicken update:

Well the folks at Backyard Chickens came through for me, but not before my jumpy girl tried for hours to jump out of the isolation bin.

It seems that what I was seeing was not a disease, but an outie... that's right, all birds have some sort of belly button where the umbilical cord connected to them in the egg, but some have these bloated parts.  Apparently they fall off in a few days. The main concern is that the area is pecked and becomes infected, which can happen during the pecking order ritual.

So, when I had the Welsummer in isolation, she and the other two were very unhappy.  The two "healthy" chicks braved the brunt of the heat lamp to sit shoulder to shoulder up against the wall closest to the quarantine bin, while the Welsummer was inches away in the her bin.  The chicks were VERY vocal that day, and very unhappy.  Seems even after a short time together, they didn't like having their flock separated. 

Oh, did you notice how much shorter the make-shift bin is than the brooder box?  Well, the "sick" girl showed just how healthy she was by jumping repeatedly to try to get to her friends.  She came within a few inches of peeking over the edge! Man that girl has hops!

So, after reading all about the situation from the folks at BYC, I had to decide if I wanted to risk putting them together.  One comment suggested putting one other hen in with her for company, but that would leave my remaining chick alone.  Having three is not a good situation right now. Hehe.  So, cautiously I put her back in the brooder.

The odd thing is that after just one day alone, she seemed significantly smaller than her sisters. 

And then the pecking order ritual resumed.  This time however, she had to work extra hard to prove she was boss.  And at one point, the Barred Rock even started pecking her from behind.  I was nervous so I shooed her away.  Maybe I shouldn't have done that, but I'd hate to lose her to an infection because I put her back in the brooder too soon.

All of my concern, all seemed well this morning.  They seem happy together, though it's unclear if there's been a winner in the pecking order contest. 

One thing I've noticed in my few days as a chicken wrangler, is that they don't seem to like to eat out of their tray.  They much prefer to hunt and peck.  So I've taken to sprinkling a bit of food on the ground, which is 50% scratch. They seem to like eating that way better.

So, all is well in chickenland again!

March 25, 2011

I've read about it, skimmed over those sections of the books, but today I had to quarantine my Welsummer. 

Yesterday morning when I was changing their paper towels, I had them next to the brooder in the shoe box I brought them home in.  As I was transferring them back to the brooder, she jumped out of my hand, landed on the edge of the counter and fell about 3 feet total to the ground.  She seemed fine afterwards, but was "in bed" earlier than her sisters.  I just had to take this picture of her last night. I don't think it's a bad thing, but she was VERY cute.

In case you can't tell through the frosted plastic bin and in the red lamp light, she's got her body on the water board with her neck draped over the edge toward the heat lamp.  The black lump behind her is the Barred Rock.  The Golden Laced Wyndotte is behind the feeder as far from the heat lamp as possible.  Maybe 95 degrees isn't the right setting for them anymore?

Anyway, later that day I noticed a spot on the Welsummer's tail. I took a picture of the big brownish-red wart on her back end, just below what I believe is her vent.  Sorry you can't see it well through the feathers, I couldn't hold the bird, clear the feathers away and take the picture.  My third hand is in the shop.

So this morning she was a bit slow to get up, at least until the CATS decided to investigate while I was at the other end of the house.  Yep, I found the sickly one on the toilet seat/viewing area and my big boy cat on the counter!  They scattered when I opened the door, but shame on them!  Anyway, I decided it was officially time to quarantine her and ask for help on BackyardChickens.com.

At this point, I had to rig up something for a quarantine bin.  I had always planned on using the brooder as a quarantine area eventually, but I hadn't imagined I'd need to quarantine a chick.  So, I grabbed a currently empty storage bin from the garage (it's new so clean), threw down some paper towels and got a couple of custard cups for food and water, and set it up right next to the bin, over the sink.

It was THEN that I realized I needed a heat lamp for the quarantine space too.  At first I thought of rigging up my old dish lamp with a 100 watt bulb, but then I thought of stretching chain to make the heat lamp cover both bins.

Then, to hold it in place, I grabbed another S-clip, grabbed the very hot chain and hooked it to the medicine cabinet.  Pretty ingenious if I do say so myself.

So, for now at least, the brooder box is looking mighty lonely with just the two chicks in there.  You can tell they're missing their sister.

Of course I'll keep you informed.  In the end, I am already getting another chick next Wednesday, and could easily replace her if she doesn't make it.  I just hope she's ok.

As an update, boy are they loud being separated! They just sit as close to each other as possible looking at one another. The good news is that the temp in both bins is the same, around 95, and the Welsummer is a bit more active. Boy do I want to play with them.

Enjoy your garden!

February 12, 2011

Not much in the way of garden topics tonight.  First off, I wanted to let you know to check out my new page, 4) Hoop Covers.  I've been toying with the page for a year or two, and just decided to finish it, especially since I came to the realization the hoops could be used to tractor my chickens in the beds in Fall.  Also, I just realized that this theme does not allow comments on pages.  I've got hundreds of posts nobody can see because the theme won't allow it.  Grrr

Next, I wanted to apologize if you got yet another message that the site's been suspended.  I've tried to contact the site owner, without success.  Since I don't own the site, or pay for it, I have no say.  My wife thinks I should switch to Google, but I see a few problems with that.  I don't have a clue if or how I could save all my posts and transfer them over.  If I couldn't transfer my blog in its entirety, I wouldn't want to move.  Second, I would likely lose all the traffic I get here, which used to be formidable... And a distant last would be learning a whole new set-up.  Ah well, something to think about.

About the only garden activities I've had of late are the occasional sprouting of tomatoes, which go up to the light system.  Boy are these taking a long time to germinate.  One of the latest to germinate was one of the new varieties.  I am worried because it germinated right at the edge of the cup, not in the middle where I planted it.  I'm afraid it won't root well right near the edge and I'll lose it.  I may pot that one up sooner to give it more dirt on that side. 

I also got from my folks a few of their pill bottles so I can try my hand at building a new soil block maker.  Mine works fine, but I kind of wanted the taller one. I get so many stubby soil blocks that I wanted them to start taller.  Just what I need, more projects!  EG I'm not!

On the chicken front, I've finished Chickens for Dummies and am still bumping around Backyard Chickens.com (see sidebar).  In my research, I'm now concerned that the 4x8 ark I'm planning will be too small for 4 chickens.  At 32 SF, that'll hold a maximum of 3 birds, not 4.  I don't want to make it bigger as it would become awkward to move around daily, especially if I wanted to lift it over the fence to have them hang out in the front yard for a change.

Lastly, my wife's Facebook friend has started a blog.  She's a chef and it's mostly a gardening/self sufficiency blog.  And where I got a boost in 2009 from the Seattle Times, she just got one from CNN... in other words, I'm not in her league.  Hehe.

Well, there are several random thoughts, but that's how my mind's going today.

Enjoy your garden!

January 25, 2011

Well, today was kind of odd.  One reason it was like that is due to a nap I took mid-morning.  It was raining and I had nothing better to do, so I gave in to my tiredness.  I did spend an inordinate amount of time on Backyard Chickens.com researching brooders to make sure I could use an 18 gallon Rubbermaid container for the first month or so.  Thankfully it's been successfully used by many others, so I'm safe.  For the next month I hope to get by with the box our new ottoman came in, if my boys don't destroy it "inventing" something first.  Lastly, if necessary I think I'll bring in the surplus kiddie pool and ring it with chicken wire.  I don't have the Super Gate that my kids used as toddlers. That would have been ideal as it was a large octagon and would have made for a nice mobile paddock later.  Maybe I'll find one on Craigslist.

This evening after the kids went down, I headed over to my brother's to get our seeds ordered.  We had a great conversation about seeds, seed starting, newspaper pots vs. soil blocks, chicken breeds, and chicken coops. It was way past his bedtime when we FINALLY got around to thinking to order our seeds.  Unfortunately he was too tired or didn't have his order ready, so the one thing I went over to do didn't get done.  Grrrr.  My fault for being distracted.  I just don't see my brother enough. I did come away with a tentative plan to postpone the purchase of any chicks until late March, early April.  It will mean my chicks are only 2 weeks apart in age, not a month.  I also got him to consider revisions to our coop plans to make it more portable.  The issue was the eventually toxicity of any static chicken run.

Anyway, the one thing I did for my garden today was my wife's idea. Almost all of my Italianshier and Buttercrunch lettuces have sprouted, while none of my Red Sails or Salad bowl have.  Since my light system is set up in an unheated bedroom, it is too cold up there for germination to occur.  That means I must keep the tray in the kitchen until complete germination is done.  I've got a CFL bulb over the plants, but it was about 1 foot above the tips of the plants, not 1 inch like it's supposed to be.  So I was considering raising the tray when I mentioned my problem to my wife.  She said, "why don't you move it to the top of the TV instead."  It is much higher on that side of the stove.  So, I quickly jury rigged a way to "level" the top of the little TV with the cable box on top.  As you can see below, it's not perfectly level in the slightest, but the light is MUCH closer to the plants. I'll just have to take it down to water it.  No biggie.



Sure hope the deliver of my seeds happens fast.  I don't want my tomatoes that far off each other.  Again, it was my fault for being distracted tonight.  There was too much to talk about gardening wise.  You could say I've got the winter gardening itch... do you?

January 21, 2011

Today my youngest was off school (3 day preschool week), and cabin fever had set in.  So despite the rain, he wanted to go outside and run.  I joined him after a bit to make sure he didn't get into trouble, and took care of some "fall" cleanup that didn't get done.  Mostly I cut back dead branches off perennial plants.  I'm still not sure if I want to keep the pineapple sage plant I planted last year.  It grew MUCH bigger than I anticipated and is out of place in my strawberry/blueberry bed.  I may move it or just remove it altogether.  Either way, I started by cutting it back to the ground.  There was no sign of the anisette plant that did so poorly from seed last year. I have more seeds so I can try again, but boy was I disappointed.

Anyway, the real reason I went out there was to look over the likely spot for my chicken coop and primary run.



The coop would go about where that toddler play set is located.  I should get rid of that thing as my 4 year old is too big for it.  I digress... The coop would go against the fence there, and the run would come back towards the camera.  On the left there is a huge rhodie and magnolia tree, with other native ground cover plants surrounding them.  The upside is that there is a dirt covered area surrounding the trees that would partially be within any run.  That would give the birds a dirt area to take dirt baths and a grass area to forage.  I don't care about that grass anyway because I can't get anything good to grow there... too much shade.



On the right side of that area is my spent pear tree and my compost bins.  As you can see, fall/winter storms wrecked my cover.  I should really tidy up, but I'm not sure if I won't use the lumber or corrugated plastic for the coop construction.  Sorry for the mess.  Oh, and I should really rake the leaves into next year's compost pile.  Did I mention I don't care about that grass area? hehe. 

Anyway, having the compost pile right next to the chicken coop has many advantages. One, when I clean the coop I can simply put the soiled bedding into the compost pile.  Droppings need to age about 6 months to not burn plants. Yes, they're that high in nitrogen.  Two, the compost pile could be a great foraging spot for the hens, the piles are teaming with bugs and worms.  Yummers!

Tonight I spent a good deal of time on chicken research.  I read more of my book, found Backyard Chickens dot com and researched free coop materials on craigslist.  Much more work needs to be done, but it's a start.  I also went through all of KitsapFG's chicken posts to see how her experience has been this year with new chickens.  From that I found some great tips, like I shouldn't have got rid of our toddler super gate.  It would have made an excellent portable tractor and teenage pen.  Yet another thing to look into on Craigslist.  I'd say ain't Craigslist wonderful, but so far I've struck out on everything I've looked for.  There's still time though.

In other news, I didn't order my seeds. I'm waiting until Monday when my brother will have his order ready.  I figured I wouldn't gain much shipping time over the weekend and I can't start my tomatoes this weekend anyway, so what's the difference. 

Actually I could start some of my tomatoes early, but I'm not sure I have space for all of them to be babied for months inside.  Just not sure.

Well, that's about it for me.  Enjoy your garden!

January 18, 2011

Well, whatever happened to the site, it appears to be back up and running.  Thanks Judy if you had a hand in it.  Anyway, I've been spending this last week's spare moments reading Raising Chickens for Idiots, by Jerome Belanger.   I've been trying to come up with reasons not to get them, if that makes sense.  I realize they are a ton of work, but I want to make sure I can live with them if I commit.  So far, I've come up with the following negatives excluding cost:

1) The new chicks need 4 weeks of mother henning... 5 times a day check ups to check the heat lamp temperature, sanitation, water and feed supply etc.  Sounds like a full time job, and I really hope to be employed by then.

2) After the first 4-5 weeks, they still need to be inside, but are running around and need more space.  I believe I could set something up in our newly created play room in the unheated garage, but still, it would be a bit of a sacrifice for the family.  Of course, it's ony a month or so before they can go outside.

3) As good for the droppings are for the garden when composted, they are a hot fertilizer and burn grass and plants.  The idea of free ranging them in the back yard could destroy our grass area (read children's play area).  Also, my wife would kill me if I tracked presents into the house.

4) Finally, I likely wouldn't be able to free range them in the strictest sense.  Apparently they love to eat plants, any plants, so my food and ornamental gardens would be at risk.  The solution to that is to tractor them.  I had planned on building a tractor for my beds, but using one all the time was not my intention.  I thought maybe tractoring during the strawberry season, or a temporary chicken wire fence for the blueberry beds.  Permanent fences would be ugly.

As you can see, the more I learn about them, the more questions I have.  I'm still not to the point where I'm abandoning the idea, but I need more research for sure.

I am almost done with Chickens for Idiots.  Then I'll move on to Chickens for Dummies.  My brother said to read them both in that order.  Great information there if you're at all interested in raising chickens, now or in the future.  Pretty much everything I was planning on is what he recommended.  At least I know I'm on the right track and not biting off more than I can chew.  For backyard chickens, 3-4 is the gold standard. I am planning on getting four chicks and hoping at least 3 survive.  

I'm also researching Laura's garden planning schedule to make sure I don't miss seed starting.  You'd think I would know better by now, but I really think she has the timing down for the area.  More about that and the breeds of chickens I'm considering later. 

Enjoy your garden!

June 16, 2009

Well, the weather was much cooler today, though muggy. I think we're finally in for some rain tonight.  Of course that didn't stop us from having a great 3-mile walk sans youngin's tonight when we got home from work.  It was great.  The heart rate wasn't racing quite as much as pushing an old jogging stroller with 45 pounds of 5 year old, but it did allow us to spend a relaxing dinner at Subway mid-walk.  Splitting a foot-long ham and cheese loaded with veggies. Ah, the life. hehe

What does that have to do with a gardening blog you ask?  Well, it isn't really a stretch to say that part of the reason I started my garden was to eat better and live healthier so I can play with my grand kids some day.  Besides, the other reason I started the garden was for a stress reliever, and I can tell you I feel nice and relaxed after that evening.  Lastly, it's my blog and I'll ramble if I want to, hehe.

Now on to the garden.  After my walk today, I took the opportunity when we got home to wander around the garden and water.  I can tell you more broccoli is coming on strong all of a sudden, so I should really figure out how to encorporate it into more meals.  That or resign myself to the fact that I'll need to preserve it or give it away.  I'm sure I could give it away, but having freshish broccoli in the heat of the summer or dead of winter sounds pretty good (yeah, there's a good chance I'll have broccoli to harvest mid-winter, but you get my meaning). 

While I was watering, I decided to take a few snapshots of the other side of the garden for a change.  First is Judy's Minnesota Midget cantaloupe.



Why do you ask are all the plants bunched into the corner of a big 31 gallon Self Watering Container (SWC)?  Well, the third seed didn't germinate but the fourth that I just threw in did.  Anyone want to tell me if the little guy will transplant a foot away?  I don't want to kill it but it does look kinda runtish next to those big guys.  Anyway, I need to figure out a trellis for this area.  Now that I think the big tomato cages are doing fine to contain the tomatoes I really don't need to waste my big trellis on it, but it does need to be sturdy.  Maybe I'll build one of the sturdy conduit ones that Mel pushes and KitsapFG uses so well.  Who knows, I've got another month or so before these need a trellis.



Speaking of tomatoes, I think I mentioned that I took an idea from EG who pinches his suckers (the stems that grow from the middle of a V on a tomato plant) when they're decent size and plants them for succession or back-up plants.  Well, I decided to experiment myself with a decent sized one that I must have missed.  I planted it in the back of my blueberry bed where I had a ton of room in the corner of two fences.  Well, it seemed to take, but silly me, I forgot to water it well during that 90 degree heat we had last week.  I guess I'm spoiled by my SWCs, hehe.  It died of course, but I decided to water it regularly to see if I could revive it.  Sure enough, it looks like it may just pull through.  Wouldn't that be a resilient tomato plant?



Sorry for the poor quality picture, I didn't want to climb into the bed so I zoomed in.  However, you can clearly see new growth on top of the old dead leaves.  I'll keep checking back with this guy to see if it produces anything.

Hehe, continuing the unintentional segways, speaking of blueberries, the plant right next to this tomato is going to be my best producer by far.  Look at all those berries froming...



They almost look ready don't they?  Maybe this is one of my early producers?  It's a Blueray, which matures in July and August, so maybe... Yum!

The next pic is for my good buddy EG who already has corn growing.  I think I told you that I hit these with a shot of fish emulsion yesterday to help them along, hehe.



Notice that some of those stalks are growing side stems at a 45 degree angle?  I'm not sure what to make of that.  I mean last year the stalks did that but not until they were nearly 6 feet tall and the Vs were 3 feet up the stalk.  I wonder if this means I'll grow short corn stalks with multiple ears... wouldn't that be interesting?  I haven't grown this variety before.

Lastly, I wanted to share a pic of my lone watermelon from EG that germinated in a scrap SWC.  It seems to be doing pretty well, but I'm kind of curious about it.  It doesn't look at all like a cantaloupe or other melon plant.  In fact, it looks a LOT like a tomato plant...



I swear the seeds looked like black watermelon seeds, which matches the name, Blacktail Mountain Watermelon or something like that.  EG, you growing them?  At least I think it was EG that gave them to me, maybe Judy... hmm?  That reminds me that I should really lable the envelopes with who gave them to me, to thank them when I get a great crop or something... hehe.

Enjoy your garden!

May 31, 2009

Man, time flies when you're busy beyond belief, and this weekend was no exception.  We got a ton done over at the folks place, including painting most of two floors of the house, but I got squat done around the homestead.  Par for the course I guess.

I did of course water, since we had tons of sun and temperatures in the low 80s all weekend (horrible weather if your painting clothes happen to be sweats, hehe).  Most of my pics came from when I watered.  My garden has been on autopilot since I haven't had time to do much of anything to it.  However, Mother Nature has done me proud by setting a few broccoli heads growing this weekend.  Here is the farthest along.

 

I should remember to throw in something to give perspective, but I'd say this head is about a quarter diameter size.  I was excited so I looked and counted two more of my 8 or so plants with tiny heads forming.  Not long now and I should have fresh broccoli!

Yesterday after a long day working, we had plans to go over to our friends for a barbeque and Rock Band action.  I decided I should bring a salad, so I snipped 1/100th of my greens and four radishes.  I could do that every day for a month right now.  Judy, do you think it would ship Fed Ex well to you? hehe.

While I was out there my wife came to hurry me along (I always get carried away when I'm out there).  You see, my Aunt was robbing the old house of excess plants that she or we wanted at our homes.  My brother and I each snagged a Spanish Lavender plant.  We both wanted to put them into pots so they could be used to attract bees to our gardens.  Unfortunately I didn't have an ornamental pot to put it in and we were late for the dinner party, so when I got home with a bare root wilting plant, I threw it into the blueberry bed where my dead lavender was.  You should have seen me yanking that monster out of the ground with my bare hands, hehe.  Being later for a party will do wonders for your adrenaline. 

Anyway, after that I was harvestinga salad and my wife and I got to talking about tomatoes so I had to show her (and you) the progress babies.



If these are Bloody Butchers, they'll grow much bigger than that, but they could be some of my cherry varieties.  Not sure.  Regardless, these will have their seeds saved as the first to produce.  I understand that's a good way to get earlier maturing heirlooms.

Today's evening was spent with the whole family over at my folks so the boys wouldn't have to cook after a long hard day working at the old house.  After we got back both by brother and I needed showers to wash the paint off before dinner, and I HAD to get out and hill up my potato bins.  They've grown gangbusters in this great weather.  I swear you could watch them grow.  I didn't have time to take pictures of them, but safe to say I need to add one, maybe two more boards to each bin, I just didn't have time so they're hilled well above the board level.

When we got to my folks house, I took a moment to check in on my brother's garden progress, only to find he had the same idea I did.  Only he needed to plant some peppers and squash.



As you can see, he hadn't changed out of his paint clothes to garden either, you're just going to get dirty again, hehe.  Also, you can see some of his 10 plus tomat plants planted nearly as close as my SWCs.  Then come the newly planted peppers, followed by some really close zuchinni and other squash.  He says he'll thin them later, could you see how badly they take over that bed? 

While I was there I snapped a couple more pics of his garden. 



Here you can see part of his elaborate hoop house that he left up to provide support for his peas.  In the back of the bed he's got tons of cukes in a similar state as mine, so it looks like we may have a pickling party after all. Don't worry Jen, we can have one too.  Behind that bed you can see the explosion of mint that he can't kill. It just keeps coming back with a vengence.  He plans on harvesting it and making mint jelly and tea if his tea plant provides a harvest.  You can't see it well, but the tea plant is currently in a black pot between the cukes and the mint.

In the 4x4 bed, he's got 4 more tomato plants growing nicely.  And in case you're wondering, he's not going to do Mel's method and prune heavily.  We just let our tomatoes grow together.  However, he will use the spaces in between to grow carrots when he thins his carrot patch.  Like I try to do, he thins and transplants the rejects.  He's had better luck than I have, but I keep trying it.

The last pic I'll show you of his garden is a progress shot of his expansion beds.



As you can see in this picture, he dumped the rotting railroad ties that you can't buy anymore due to the chemicals used in water proofing them.  I think the bricks will look better myself anyway.  As you can see in the back of this photo, he's got two beds built just to make sure they were going to fit like he expected.  The back one is the 2x2 for the raspberries and the closer one is the first of three 4x4 beds.  He's chomping at the bit to get this project finished so he can plant beans and other summer crops.  Yep, he's a bit behind on planting them, but as you could see how crammed full his other beds are, he needs this space something fierce.  If only we had a weekend to ourselves, hehe.

Lastly, I'll share the cuttest pic I've taken in a long time.  We had corn on the cob and the boys had a blast shucking it (ours is 4 inches high right now).



I hope you had a great weekend and got to enjoy your garden!

May 28, 2009

Boy am I tired.  I'm not as young as I used to be.  Yesterday was the final show of Village Theatre's season.  Much as we enjoyed the evening, it was a very late night, followed by an early morning.  Unfortunately I was so exhausted this evening that I almost didn't head out to mow the lawn despite the calf-high grass.  It must have something to the 75 to 80 degree temperatures we've been having for the last several days.

I actually did get out and mow.  It took just over an hour and a half, which isn't bad, and the kids had fun "helping" me when I did the back yard.  The whole thing took two hours of course because I had to do the compost.  I hadn't aerated and turned it since I mowed last, which is bad, so it was difficult to turn before I added the new grass.  I actuallly had too much new material so I ended up dumping about half a 96 gallon yard waste container on top of the pile at the end.  No pictures were taken this time because it was too dark at the end.  In the end I am excited about the amount of compost that I'm making this year.  It seems like more than last year, though I'm not sure how that's possible.

Mostly this evening I spent my time staring into my rose garden.  I was searching for the bumble/carpenter bees to try to identify them.  You see, my recollection is that they had fuzzy butts which would make them bumble bees. However, EVERYTHING about their behavior screamed carpenter bee.  I've been doing a TON of research and carpenter bees nest in eves and facia, where this hive is.  They create the same size hole as I saw.  The males hang around the entrance "defending" it while the nest is being created, which would explain the bees lounging on my siding the other day.  The interesting thing about carpenter bees is that the very agressive males have no stingers so they're all bluster and no bite.  The other interesting clarification I learned is that bumble bees don't die when they sting you like honey bees, so they can sting you over and over, though you really have to piss them off to get them to attack (like get too close to their nest).  Finally, both types of bees are beneficial to gardeners, so I guess it really doesn't matter for the garden, but it does to my house (carpenter) and kids safety (bumble).

I could go on and on with all I've learned, but what I was really looking for was their torsos.  Carpenter bees have hairless black behinds and bumble bees have colorful furry ones.  When I was out there looking, I saw all sorts of bees.  My attention was first drawn to what looked like three wasps comanding the entire garden to themselves.  You know, the elongated, banded torso of and the long antenna.  Scary fighter planes is what I think of. 



Thankfully they ended up flying away over the top of my house after pawing all over all the plants.  Really odd since wasps don't like plants.  After they left, I did see several bees come and go, but they didn't hang around or go slow enough to see them, and none were lounging around the entrance. 

It wasn't until I was watering the plants in the shade that I saw a ton of bees all over my flowering rosemary plant.  They were definitely bumble bees, I got within a foot of them.  The same went for my flowering rhodie tree. However, I couldn't be sure if these were just traveling bumble bees or if they were the ones from my house.  It wasn't until I found one hanging out on the siding under the nest.  It clearly had a fuzzy behind.  I tried to get a picture of my bumble bee, but the silly bee was in the shade so my picture didn't come out.  You'll have to take my word for the fact that I have bumble bees that act exactly like carpenter bees.  So they're dangerous if the kids disturb them while they dig in the rose garden, but hopefully they'll just do fly bys over their heads until winter when they will abandon the nest and I can plug the hole. 

Of course I planned on painting the house so that would definitely anger them.  Not sure if that'll happen this summer, but if so, that'll take some thinking.

Ok, enough about bees, though that has monopolized my time ouside of work for 48 hours, hehe.  While I was out there I had to snap a shot of my purple/blue irises.



Of course my son likes the yellow the best, but they're not quite in bloom yet.  Arent these pretty?

While I was watering the scraps, I had to make note of the fact that I think I have a volunteer (weed?) in my watermelon bin.  I say this because I planted three seeds and got two different plants sprouting.



I guess I'll let them grow and see what happens.  Odd though.

Lastly, I was downloading pics from my phone, I guess I'd snapped some silly pics that I'd like to share.  First is when I was upstairs putting some things in storage I realized I still had my light setup going.  What I had really forgot is that I had some seedlings growing under those lights.  Unfortuantely I hadn't watered them in a few weeks, so there was no hope for them.



They USED to be Italienshier lettuce.  What I had THOUGHT they were originally was stevia, they were growing so slow.  It's ok that I don't have them to plant, I still have TONS of lettuce to harvest.

Whoever said I didn't have enough space to donate a CSA share of my garden clearly overestimated the amount of salads our family can eat.  Hehe.  I've still got tons of open squares to plant in my garden.

My final pic tonight was taken one morning on the way out the door to work.  I still have tons of sprouting potatoes that I don't have room to plant.  I would compost them but with my luck they'd grow and I don't want plants growing in my constantly shaded compost bins.  But look at these sprouts searching desperately for dirt to grow.



Enjoy your garden!

May 16, 2009

I wasn't planning on posting tonight, as I got hardly anything done in my garden today besides watering.  I was busy all day helping the folks.

That was until I got a few comments on my Monsanto post.  At first I had to laugh that I got someone reading that vehemently opposed my views and opinions.  Then I just HAD to post.  I needed to say that I truly believe that I have an open mind and appreciate a wide variety of opinions. 

I also have a huge respect for the American farmer.  It is a brutally hard life and most unfortunately often a no-win career.  What I take offense to is the farm supply industry's attempts to force farmers to constantly buy new seed, petro-chemicals and fertilizers every year.  I also believe that the verdict is still out on genetically engineered food.  It may be the salvation of a hungry planet.  It also may be damaging to our health.  With Monsanto's track record, I choose to err on the side or caution.

Never think I have something against farmers.  Without them, we could not sustain ourselves as a nation and world.  The fact that I'm working to provide my family with a bit fresher and healthier fair means nothing in the grand scheme of things.

As for not posting folks comments, if it's not spam, and not simply saying "your site sucks", it gets posted.  I care what readers think, even when they disagree with me (regular occurrence).   I encourage the American Farmer that commented on the one post to read others before jumping to conclusions. 

Other than that, it's a miraculous weekend.  It's in the lower 70s and sunny.  We just got back from a walk and boy is life grand!

Enjoy your garden!

April 24, 2009

Well, I THOUGHT we had our last frost day last week, but the clear skies yesterday resulted in a cold night.  It got down around 35 is my guess, but it was enough to give us a light frost.  And to think it was bed time when I remembered that I hadn't brought in the plants.  Whew!  Sure the tomatoes probably would have been ok, but I'm not sure about the stevia, which is the only other plants I'm hardening off.

Here's a shot from the kitchen window...



In case you're wondering the yellow funnel in the lower left hand corner is the family chipper shredder.  Since I was the last to use it, it resides here til someone else needs it.

Then, as I was leaving for work, I couldn't help but snap this shot of my coldframe covering the peas germinating in bed #4.  I plan on using my string and 2x2 trellis for that bed since the other bed will get my big trellis again this year.



I must say, I'm happy that the coldframe is really working well.  I planted two rows of squares with peas this spring, but only the peas under my coldframe have germinated at all. 

Well, I took a break from posting and went outside to play with the kids with the main purpose of taking a picture of the sprouting peas.  Didn't happen, daddy was outside so I got distracted.  However, between pushing the little guy on the swing forever, and having the kids help pick their toys up off the grass so I could mow tomorrow, I did take some picks of my blueberry beds.  Here they are, starting with the garlic rows shooting up something fierce once the sun came out this spring.



Now, since Sandy commented on my blueberries, I thought I'd share them getting the afternoon sun.  The first is my favorite from my originals.



And here is other one that is an evergreen that grows in small clumps rather than grape-like bunches.



Now for Sandy's blueberries...



I love how this guy has the arm going over it's head.  Not sure if I should tie them up or not, they seem to be doing fine on their own.

Now for my new favorite...



I am really impressed by this little guy.  It didn't look so good a month ago, kinda like I planted it wrong.  Speaking of which, I was watching Gardening with Ciscoe tonight (TiVo recorded it), and he talked a bit about blueberries.  Apparently if I had planted any of these 1/8th inch too deep they would have died.  Thank goodness I got lucky four times, ROFL.  However, he did say in the PNW that April is the time to fertilize your blueberries with Azalea food for acid loving plants.  I also read last night that mulching with coffee grounds helps blueberries.  So at 10:30, I grabbed a flashlight, my fertilizer and a bag of Grounds for your Garden and went out to fertilize and much my blueberries.  Hehe, you should have seen me.  I would have taken pictures, but they would have turned out horrible.  So take my word for it, it was funny.

All I did was sprinkle a bit of fertilizer around the dripline of the plants, then covered with a bunch of coffee grounds.  Then I watered it all in.  I hope they like it.  Oh, and of course I had to hum REM's Gardening at Night. I'm wierd that way.

Enjoy your garden!

March 18, 2009

First off, I must say, I like all the comments I got.  NEXT time I will do a better job labeling, both by not being so cheap with the labels (one on each tray), and maybe even use the great stick-pin idea, but for now, I love the mystery concept.  Most of what I don't know is lettuce and who cares where that goes.  However, the one problem. I think I got 2 or 3 of my 4 stevia starts to germinate.  If so, they look surprisingly like lettuce seedlings at this point.  My stevia however, will be potted rather than put in my beds, so that would be bad to be wrong.  Here's to hoping before I plant out that they distinguish themselves. hehe.  Thanks for all the comments!

Well, I knew this day was coming.  I've known for a long while, but still it is saddening in no small way...  Today marks the end of a 146 year old local paper.  It was almost as old as the city itself, but it was one of the worst run businesses out there.  I grew up with it, it was the paper of choice in my household in a two-paper town.  I will truly miss several of the columnists that I have come to admire, especially in the business, the editorial, and the sports sections.  However, it is a travisty that the better garden paper died while the pittiful one survived!  See for yourself.  Which is better, the P-I, or the Times?  Now you see why I am so saddened...  The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, you will be missed!

Speaking of the garden section, they printed the last Edibles column.  Hopefully not, I sent a message to the Times asking them to pick up all the garden columnists now that they're out of work.  But anyway, they published it today rather than Thursday when it normally comes out.  Good thing too, since there won't be a Thursday paper.  Even better, I learned something from it.  Seems I may be in for a bit of a problem with my tomato crop this year.  I didn't realize that not ALL tomato varieties self pollinate.  Only certain ones do.  And my guess is that heirloom varieties like I'm growing won't.  That means I will need to be visited by pollinators.  That is a major problem in my garden.  There is nothing on that side of the house to attract bees.  Sure I've got the bee triangle over on the other side of the yard with my blueberries, but nothing for my veggie garden.  And nothing I plant will grow fast enough to attract them in time for the early varities of tomatoes I'm growing. Any idea if the varieties I'm growing (Bloody Butcher, Yellow Pear, Ildi, Black Cherry, San Marzano and Sunset Red Horizon) will take to my shaking them to pollinate?  I know my Early Girls and Momoarato did last year.  Let's say I'm a bit concerned. hehe

On a separate note, tonight at the preschool parent meeting, I had the opportunity to trade out some of those sprouted yukon gold potatoes that I couldn't eat for some 1 quart pots to pot up the tomatoes.  Really it wasn't a trade, since our teacher will get back the pots with the tomato seedlings I'm growing for her, but I have plenty of seed potatoes to plant if I find room in my garden for them.  Better if someone uses them!

Lastly, it seems the remaining soil blocks and the yellow pear tomato seeds are being stubborn.  Nothing more is showing any signs of sprouting.  Odd.  I'll give it til the weekend and replant.

Well, enjoy your garden!

March 11, 2009

The big cucumber experiment!

Tina reminded me that I wanted to mention this.  Mel, and pretty much everyone else, says not to plant cucumbers inside. Instead you direct sow them.  However, for some reason, my brother had "plant cukes" in his gardening planner on February 21.  When I asked him why so early, he said he was going to plant them inside.  I thought, ok, I just bought a new pack of seeds, so I had tons of seeds.  Why not try it. 



I figured since they were planted in soil blocks made of essentially the same stuff as are in my beds, I could plant them as soon anything went wrong.  I really would really like to hold out til later in the month when a possible early Last Spring Frost date for our area could be.  So that means they have to hold out for another few weeks.  Thus the experiment. 

Besides, if this doesn't work, I can always replant in soil blocks a week before my LSF and then plant out two weeks later, or about the time they sprout.  That's what Mel suggests.  /shrug.

Oh, and Tina, don't feel like you're being noesy, I would always like to hear questions about what I'm doing.  Right or wrong, I will at least provide my logic and reasons so folks can pick them apart. 

Another thing I noticed when I was taking a picture of my emerging cucumbers, was this spider-web-like substance between a few of the soil blocks that were crammed together to save space.



This isn't the first time I've seen this.  It may be some fungus that was in the compost.  I don't think it really is a spider web.  Any ideas?  I hope it's not harmful to the plants.  I just planted with it last time.

Well, that's it for now.  If you're joining us after reading the article in the Times, thank you for coming back.  Spring is nearly upon us and things will heat up quickly around my garden.  Enjoy!

March 9, 2009

Well, I want to thank the Seattle Times for including me in their article concerning an astonishing and wonderful trend both locally and nationally.  Everyone knows the economy is the worst we've seen since I was a young boy.  Thankfully I was young enough that I don't remember any of the sacrifices my family made for us kids.  We never needed anything.  We may not have always got what we wanted, but what child should? 

What I also remember from that time, is that my mother had a vegetable garden out back.  We had a tiny yard, a postage stamp really.  But tucked up against the deck, just off the kitchen, she had planted a kitchen garden.  Two 4x8 raised beds where she grew onions, tomatoes and cucumbers, to name a few staples.  I also remember tomato and onion salads in summer.  Little did I know it was because the lettuce probably bolted on her. 

I remember that time.  And I plan on passing it along to another generation.  We, like all of you, are cutting back, sacrificing for the long term.  Thankfully I'm still employed, and we can still make ends meet, but if that changes, I plan on being prepared.  Last year I grew a fair amount of vegetables.  We didn't eat anywhere near what we produced.  This year, I don't intend on there being that option.  Every SF of my garden will be planted in succession, and what we don't eat, we will preserve, or pass along to friends and family.  I've learned what not to do.  This season will be full of what TO DO.

Today was a good day for the blaug.  Being linked to the second most read story of the day in the Times has it's advantages.  Close to 2,000 people showed up today, and my Build-As-You-Grow Potato Bin page jumped from 4,000 hits to over 6,000.  Presto, hehe.  I hope everyone that saw it got some inspiration to grow something this year.  Who cares if it's potatoes or if they use the system I got from Greg Lutovsky and the Seattle Times.  What's important is that we save a boat load of money by growing our own produce, and telling the industrial farming complex that we refuse to eat GMO food. 

Oh, and if half of those folks come back tomorrow, that would be good too.  I'd love to get some more readers out of those folks.  This year is going to be exciting.  I hope you'll join me as I continue Sinfonian's Garden Adventure!

Enjoy your garden!

March 8, 2009

Well, I must say I'm very disappointing about not being able to dontate a share of my garden.  I really thought I had enough space to grow enough of what I was already growing to feed 2 families.  This is especially the case because we have never been able to eat all of our produce from our garden last year.  We always had plenty left over.  But bowing to people who's opinions I respect, I will pass on it this year.  Shame that I can't bring a few hundred dollars to the school, and share the bounty with some of our friends.  Thanks all for your words of encouragement and helpful advice.  It appears I did let my enthusiasm get the better of me.  The decision was finalized when my brother agreed that it was too much to handle while we were working on my folks house today.

However, before I went over to help out, I took the opportunity to check out my seedlings and move them around a bit.  The goal was to utilize the angled lights to be roughly 2 inches above the seedlings, so I moved them around from shortest to tallest.  It was pretty fun.



It was actually a nice day out today, so when I got home, I went out to the garden and watered the spinach and weeded.  A few weeds had grown up since I was last out there. Simple to deal with when they were tiny though.  Then I decided it was time to plant some carrots.  I plan on planting a ton of carrots for my kids, and for me.  Last year I hardly got any because I didn't plant enough.  This year I'm planting my standard Mokums and some Purple Haze for color.  The kids think it's cool.

So I dumped a bunch of compost from my bin into the triangular corner of my uncovered bed #4 to make up for some settling.  After working it in a bit with my trowel, I removed about a half inch of dirt from the area.  Then I sprinkled as evenly as possible a bunch of carrot seeds.  Finally I put the dirt back over the seeds and watered it in. 



I used this method rather than the poke a hole and drop a seed in for several reasons.  For one, carrot seeds are so small that they only get burried 1/4 inch or so and I normally poke too deep a hole for them.  Secondly, my son wasn't around to help (it was a PJ day for him).  Thirdly, I don't have a grid here so it would have been difficult to get 16/SF.  This wasn't the best way for sure, but it worked to get some carrots in the ground.  I will plant several more sections like this around the garden, but do it right where I have a grid. 

I wasn't sure when to plant my green onions.  Now, sitting in front of my computer, I looked it up and found I'm late for indoor planting and probably bit early for direct sowing.  That got me thinking, are they perennial enough that I should just leave these alone?



Hehe, yeah, these are HUGE.  They've grown into every nook and cranny in a 4+ foot tall hoop cover.  Mostly I'm curious to know if these are still good.  My wife keeps buying them from the store when we've got a ton out in the garden.

Well, I sure hope you had a productive weekend and that productivity includes something for your garden.  Spring is nearly upon us and now is the time to get ready for it.

Enjoy your garden!

**EDIT**

Thanks to a comment from Shannon, I finally checked the weather forecast for the next few days.  The snow that's still not quite melted should have been an indication of things to come, but the nice weather today was misleading.  Sure enough, lows in the 20s for the next few days.  I'm thinking if I hadn't watered the carrot seeds, they should be fine under some Mel's Mix and fresh compost, but I watered a few hours before dusk, so that's not very good.  Thankfully I have stuff ready to go at a moment's notice.



For occasions just like this, I grabbed the first window I could reach and threw it over the bed.  A little tinkering later, and presto, a make-shift cold frame. 



I know, it won't hold heat in well, but it should keep frost off the bed and provide some heat insulation with the sunshine, assuming we get any over the next fews days.  This is the best I can do on short notice.  This bed isn't set up for hoop covers.  That will be rectified this spring. 

Thanks Shannon!  You may have saved my son's carrots.