Lots to do....

Since i didn't feel like writing for a couple days, i have some stuff to catch up on.

I need to start taking some pictures too.  I took the cover off all the hoops to do some work under them the other day.  I left off the cover that was over the melon row since the plants have grown quite a bit.
It rained all weekend so the ground is now nicley moist. We even had some tornado warnings yestrerday.  The system that had what was reported to have a funnel cloud actually passed within 5 miles of where we live. So it was a bit surreal for a while watching radar loops and the news station.  We did get some pretty hefty winds and some huge rain drops.  I didn't look under the hoops yet, but the wind only pulled one hoop out of one socket but everything stayed put.

I have a few mail order items to expect in the next week or so. Henry Field's does not have an estimated arrival date with their UPS tracking feature.
My grapes, blueberries and lingonberries are on their way from Stark's, that should b here by Wednesday
Burpee has shipped my weed barrier, but not my grapes yet. But the weed barrier is expected to arrive tomorrow.

My Big Hip roses came in on Friday and they look good. The ebay auction was for 5 plants but it looks like i got 7. Yay!

I did get the corn planted on Friday as planned. Three types.
Incredible,
Stowell's Evergreen
and
Golden Bantam

I planted them in the last half of my Tomato row and it rained shortly after they were planted, so i should see them come up fairly soon.

I need to try and get my stakes in the ground soon, for the grapes.  I don't know if i should dig up the Suffolk Red.  I need to take down the little trellis i made for it to put up my new stuff....  its not going to survive a winter up here.  I think even if i go to heroic lengths to shelter it, it won't ever recover enough to fruit. I might try to keep it in a pot if i can't find a home for it.

I tried to Round up the grass and stuff under the electric fence, but it rained less than 3 hours after i sprayed it.  So i might have to do it all over again today.
I think i'll put the cardboard down too.  I think i will lay that out, plug in the posts and then put the weed barrier right over the cardboard and then plant the grapes.  I hope the cardboard will attract the worms as it breaks down. The area that i plan to put the grapes in looks pretty barren right now so it needs some compost too.  I don't know if i can get the Mantis into it, but i'd like to.

I spent some time trying to decide what trelising method i want to use on the grapes. I'd kind of like to be systematic about it. Make a real plan instead of just plant them and watch them take over everything. My first thought was to do what turns out to be similar to what is called  Four Arm Kniffen.  It looked like the simplest plan, but i guess it is better for some grape types and not so much for others.  I'm having a hard time finding the info on which method is best for which of the grapes i have.  Its been a bit confusing trying to research this.
I have gotten a lot of use out of the charts at Double A Vineyard's site.  The chart recommends Top Wire Cordon for 3 of the four grapes that i am getting. The last wants a Modified Munson. After much research, i know what those are and in finding that i also read that those styles may not be the greatest for cold areas like mine.  These training methods carry the cordons on the topmost wires- and in the winter they are very exposed to cold.  I do not have any desire to lay down these plants each fall, which is why i chose Zone 3-4 hardy vines. Except for Reliance. Hopefully the extra padding of a lower zone will make up for lack of extensive winter protection.  The most i would intend to do is wrap them in burlap or sandwich them with straw bales.

ANyway, the most asthetically pleasing trellis method i have seen is the Low or Mid Wire Cordon. The main part of the vines take on a candelabra shape.  I have read that it is an acceptable method for cold regions since the snow cover will help protect the cordons and in the summer the heat radiating back from the ground is helpful for ripening.

Good thing is that it will take a few years to establish this shape and as long as i don't lose the vines to a harsh winter, i have plenty of time to decide before i am committed to one method.

You Tube has actually been quite helpful in picking up the vocabulary of the world of grapes and also lets me get  an idea of what to look for as the plants grow.

I think we have decided to let the big apple tree go. It looks pretty sad this year. The leaves are small, it has no apples, and its such a mess. I was advised that i could just lop it off at the point where it bends over and it might re-branch itself.  I'd like to try that, but it dosen't solve the issue of the trees being within 4' of eachother.  If the big tree wasn't so thin this year, the little tree wouldn't be getting half the light it is getting now.  If we get the big tree healthy, the little tree will decline.  The little tree is in decent shape so far, so it would be a real shame to let a declining tree ruin a good one.
I think there is a chance if we cut the big one down to a tall stub, i could send it to my parents.  They have an apple tree there that is about to go, this might make a fair replacement once it recovers.  At the very least,  this tree can be stripped of bark and chipped up for smoking meats. It won't go to waste.
I don't know for certain, but with all the wild apples around here, i might not need a second apple as a polinator. I'm not 100% sure-  but i did learn a bit from a Chuck Ingals video i came across that if you don't have a polinator tree, the next best thing is to find another apple tree that is in bloom, pick a few stems and bring them home to your own tree.  It was kind of funny because in the example picture he used (it was a filmed power-point lecture) he had used a vase to hold the bunch of blossoms and had to carefully balance the vase in the branches of the tree. He had laughed at himself because he was asked at a previous lecture why he didn't use a bag of water and just tie it to a branch....  it was amusing.  I'm not exactly sure where someone might get fresh apple blossoms from a distant place, but i could get them from my parents' and maybe a nearby orchard won't object if i ask to carefully pick a few small twigs.  Anyway, it is an option at least until i could get another apple  to blooming size if i discover next year that the wild apples weren't enough.

After a few days of rain, its nice to see the sun out.  We are getting some stiff breezes but the air is warm.
I'm also going to try and get the Grapefruit tree outside. I usually get its summer vacation started a few days earlier than this and the rainy days would have been perfect, but i kept putting it off.  The plant is upstairs in a window and though its not really heavy, the pot and stand is awkward and Grapefruit trees have thorns!

Oh, did i mention that on Friday i also got all my little marigold seedlings planted out in the garden, most of the basil, all the rosemary, the sage, nasturtiums, and all those little odd herb and veggie seedlings from the re-sown onion flat (the ones that had blown over in the greenhouse). I put out the chives too and most of the Welsh onions.  They are perennials like chives, but thicker, white-flowered and more like garlic in flavor. I'm giving some to my parents as well.
I'm also giving my mom most of the perennial seedlings i sowed. I hadn't decided for sure what i was going to do with the front and side flowerbeds at the time i planted the seeds, but by the time we dig out the flowerbeds this fall, it will be too late for the seedlings to get a good grip before winter.  So i hope to plant some at my mom's within the next handful of weeks.  They are gaillardia and ornamental rudbeckia and a couple of the rose root plants.  I might keep the pleurisy root since its more of a wildflower and though i love the half-wild look in most plants, my mom prefers the more refined looking things, so it might not be as welcome in her garden. The rudbeckia would be pushing it if she didn't like the wild ones as much as she does.

I really want to just start ripping the messy flower beds out right now, but i need a more reliable babysitter and stronger pain medicine for that.

My niece, who is now expecting her first baby, helped me dig it out the first time.  I sure wish she was here to play in he dirt with me right now. lol

I have to coordinate prepping the fenceline for the blueberries.  I don't think my soil is quite acidic enough. It seems to be close to neutral, so i want to try and take a few large Rubbermaid type totes to my parents' and load up on fallen pine needles. I could till them in before planting or i could mulch the plants with it.  It shouldn't take much i imagine. I'll have to watch for ticks though!

I still haven't harvested castings from the worm bin yet.
...and i think it might be too late to plant annual seeds and expect much.
I can't say i don't have enough things to do!


****

i just checked my email and i got a note from Stark's.  I won't be getting my Lingonberry this year, they ran out. *sniffle*

They are going to refund me the difference.  I hope i don't get another email telling me they are out of something else i ordered. I can accept the lingonberry, but i can't accept the grapes or blueberries not being available. I may be downright angry if anything else is out of stock, especially after they already told me everything was sent.  I'm bracing myself for more frustration. Grapes take 4 years to bear, i don't need any setbacks.

Of course, the refund of about $10 will allow me to buy a book on grapes through Amazon for Kindle for PC.
 I may order lingonberries again next year if i have enough room, i tend to fill up spaces quickly.  Nature abhors a vacuum, and i have a lot of goji seedlings....and 2 beach plums...

Seedlings

So...  what do i do with 20 some-odd Rosemary seedlings?
I don't have 20 some-odd pots or the potting soil for them...  they are rapidly outgrowing their pie tin...
Had i expected a decent germination rate i would not have been unprepared.  Or actually, i would not have used all my seeds.

Got this mossy green algae stuff all over. Looks kinda neat.

I think i'll have to resort to plastic dixie cups and grab another bag of potting soil...

The asparagus seedlings began to come up today. I didn't get a picture, but they are really small anyway. They look just like tiny asparagus spears, lol.

Most everything i have planted has at least one sprout so far.  I'll have to write a list of them so i don't forget.

I got the little citrus plants potted up too.  They look good. No time for pictures again.

Risky business...

Maybe it was early onset Spring Fever...  but i did it.  In early February, i tempted fate and granted the mail-order plant company with one of the worst reputations about $39 of my own money in exchange for some miniature citrus plants. 
According to my account, the plants will begin being shipped within a few days:

I don't like to be skeptical, cause being skeptical insinuates that i should have known better. But i feel i need to plead some sort of insanity...  of course i am also holding out that this company, despite all the evidence against it, will man up and send me something alive and in generally decent health.
I'm not expecting the Rutaceaen version of a mighty sequoia to be shipped to me in a box with fruit ready to be harvested...  but i would like to get more than a scale covered stick that dies within 2 weeks.

I have ordered from them before, with so-so results. I admit, at the time i ordered from them, i was even more a novice then than i am now. Some of he items came bare root and looked like something i fished out of a clogged sink...  but other things looked fine.
If i remember correctly i got some Japanese Toad Lilies, some English daisies, Ranunculus and i ordered some Manchurian Apricots.

The toad lilies did well enough and bloomed the year i got them. I think the bare root daisy may have had a better shot had i known what i was doing.  But it was a bust.

The ranunculus grew but never flowered.

The apricots never arrived. I was told they were backordered, and when it was shipped, i was sent a really nice looking forsythia by mistake.  I was told i could keep it, so i gave it to my parents- but they never planted it. That really bugged me because it was actually pretty nice.

They ended up sending me a store credit for the price of the apricots (about $7) that i never used, because the following spring they had filed for reorganisation bankruptcy or sale - and were shutting down during that time. So i kept the voucher but never used it.  I had planned on buying their multi packs of old fashioned lilacs with that voucher, but in a way i'm glad i did not because when we bought the new yard, i ended up with more lilacs than i could give away!


But i will try to be optimistic that i get the correct items, that  they arrive healthy, if probably smaller than i'd like, and they ship quickly because our weather is a bit odd in this "El Nino" year.

I am eagerly awaiting my Richters order. I want to get some of those seeds started. A number of them are hardy types that can be sown now. I got the ship notification on the 9th, so it should only be a few more days.

I think everything in the greenhouses did ok overnight. Before it got too cold, i put a heavy blanket over each one just to keep in whatever heat the containers had absorbed.

I need to write a list of what has sprouted already, just so i won't forget next year.  Many things have been up for a number of days, but i have been too busy to write down small details like that.

The Buttercrunch lettuce looks like it will be edible quite soon....

I cannot believe that these Tomatillo seeds as old as they are, are sprouted and look pretty good!

  A bit fuzzy, but i think these are the Polfast. The stick is facing the wrong way for me to read the name and i forgot already.

Pruden's Purple tomatoes

Yellow Pear tomatoes

Gypsy broccoli

Welsh onions and Mirage shallots

Collards...  i should have had faith and sown one seed per pellet. Now i have to thin them. Glad i only sowed two seeds each. I have had great luck storing seeds, so i tend to think of every thinned seedling as a whole plant wasted since i can keep my seeds in high germination ratios for many years.

Pak Choi...  I can't wait to grill up a few of these!  I need to do successive sowings of this!

Mixed flat of assorteds...in the front on the left is Burdock, on the right is Kolrabi
in the back i can see the tag for the Oregano, but no sprouts...  on the right, i can't remember what that is and i can't see the tag, but its obviously some sort of cole crop.
See why i need to write everything down? lol

Some brave little  tomatoes are sprouting in there...  both from seed that is over 7 years old.

Mixed flat...  the Swiss Chard and Point One cabbage are waking up.

Finally, the Rosemary...  it has been cold, but they have made it very well.  Now that i have the light setup, i might bring them inside.  I will need to pot them up soon or i will damage them too much if their roots get tangled.

The Electric Fence kit i bought from Tractor Supply has come in, i just need to go pick it up. Maybe later today. There is no real rush since i can't install it yet- nothing to guard.... and i don't want to have it too long before installing in case the warrantee is too short.  I have at least 30 days before i will need it and most return policies are "within 30 days".  So i won't get it until we can test it some weekend.  Lay it out and make sure it is sturdy and complete.

I saw my first cabbage butterfly yesterday...  i felt kind of bad giving it the stink eye as it merrily fluttered across the yard.  I covet my future broccoli and cabbage plants, if the electric fence keeps the woodchucks out, i don't want to lose everything else to caterpillars! Even with the row covers, i don't want to have to use a bunch of bug killers to fend off a plague.

Soon i have to clean out the Worm Farm.  The red wigglers have been happily munching away at kitchen scraps all winter. The topmost bin is looking quite full. I am not sure i know how to remove all that black gold without losing half my worms.  Its too cold for them to live up here through winter, so if i lose any to the garden they won't last. I know they are just worms, but they do such a good job :0)

Well i have cleaning to do and if i get it done before nap time is over, i might get to read a little too! Yay.

Quiet day, so far.

Expecting rain today, which means there won't be a lot of outside time. Good thing its not supposed to be heavy rain.

I moved the new plant tower out to the driveway to catch any available sun before the clouds take over completely, and this time i strapped the thing to the post of the basketball hoop with a length of stout airline cable my hubby had for tying down the bicycles when the neighborhood kids were in theft mode.

If that doesn't hold i down i will have to stake it to the ground i guess.


Here's the one that behaves:

I need to move it out to full sun soon as well and then the covers can probably come off when the rain moves on.



Pictures of sprouts:

broccoli

buttercrunch lettuce

shallots and Welsh onions

the rosemary that wasn't expected to do anything

I added my seed stash list yesterday, it is going to take some time to finish it. I am amazed at how many different seeds i have. Total junkie. They aren't all veggies either. But a lot are old and i tried to use those up this year -not expecting much of them.
I also ordered more herb and 'stuff' seeds from Richters...


I have been trying to find one plant for about 16 years.

It was a plant i saw when i was visiting my sister when she lived in San Diego, CA. It was some sort of  silvery colored mint that had a bergamot look to it, had those whorled clumps of flowers... i had picked a single cluster because i liked the smell and i brought it back with me and kept it in the console of my car for a few years before it disintegrated.

  I have tried a few plants that turned out to not be it, from wild monardas and cultivated bee balm, to pennyroyal, jerusalem sage and even leonits leonura....    i think i may have finally found it, maybe. It is a leonotis but it is siberica  (Siberian Motherwort) i am trying it out this year. I'm pretty well anchored by smells and i think if it is the right one i will know right off... the leaves are different from monardas- which is how i was also pretty certain they were not the ones as they were growing from seed...
The smell was a little citrusy, minty and herbal.  I am also trying out monarda citrodora just in case.


So, we will see.  But its been a very long search and it might not be over yet.

I prepped up 3 more flats to re sow my herbs that got bunked yesterday. I ran out to the Miracle Grow seed mix so i had bought some Jiffy.  Big difference in textures. The MG seed stuff is much like regular potting soil, spongy and heavy. The juffy mix is very light and almost pure vermiculite and powdered peat.  I'm used to using peat pellets so i am not very well versed on the pros and cons of different brand mixes. But i really like the fine texture of the Jiffy mix. If it works out well i might use only that from year to year.

It does seem dryer though, and if i were to spray it with a regular spray bottle to water the seeds, it would just blow away. I even bought the bags that felt heaviest to be sure i didn't get mix that had dried out too much. I watered the bottoms of the flats heavily and i am going to see if the mix will draw up the water so i don't have to spray,  if it was sunny out today i'd put the flats on the driveway with the clear domes on top and that would evaporate the water to the top. But they are just sitting on my counter for now....  does not look or feel like the mix is pulling the water in yet.  I need to buy a pump mister anyway, i need it for seedlings, but it could also help with this.


I hope my dad will be able to get the tractor out this weekend to rototill the plot....  we need to get that ryegrass tilled under and decomposing. The weeds need to be disrupted too... later any survivors will meet the Mantis tiller, then planting can happen and then i can get the hoops up... or i'll hoop it first.  Have not decided.  I also wanted to lay down some plastic to get the soil warmer faster...  but i think i have 45 days left and when i can only get help on weekends,  we are running out of them.

Eep! 

It is all very exciting for me cause i love this stuff.

Rosemary pie...?

Before i sowed my rosemary seeds, i tried to read up on how best to go about it. Half of the sites i encountered claimed that rosemary was bordering on impossible to germinate and took forever- better start with cuttings. I even found a paragraph on the garden watchdog site where a person was berating Richter's rosemary seed age and germination rates.

My seeds are from Richter's ... so i was thinking, maybe this was going to have been a disappointing waste of my money, since my Rosemary seed are from last year and not fresh right off the bat.
So i sowed the whole packet, i didn't even squander a precious seed flat on the doomed seeds,  i sacrificed a single pie tin and about 3 handfuls of soil covered with a sheet of clingwrap.  The seeds were planted 3-19-10 and set in the window sill of the bathroom upstairs in anticipation of being forgotten with no regrets and no expectations....

and imagine my surprise when i happened to go to the window and move something...and i saw a few specks of green...

So, since i didn't wintersow them, i have to provide light artificially for now because its too cold to plunk them outside. 

Planting tool....
Ok, so i'd say "i need a hobby" when i get excited enough about a new found tool to blog about it, but its a rainy day and i'm too achy to do much housework and i thought it was such a neat thing i took pictures of it.
 
But this IS my hobby.


Ha-ha....

 Strawberry seeds are tiny... not the tiniest seeds on the planet, but very small!
And there are neat things that can be begged off the nurses at the Pediatrician's office.

I don't  know if they simply call it a probe or if it has a special extractive name, but its a pencil shaped tool for extracting things from kids' ears, noses and who knows where else a small child will stuff any number of foreign objects. They come in a few sizes, but this one looked immediately promising from the second i saw it: 

Handy-dandy tiny seed tool.

See how small they are in their cozy little glassine packet?

When i dredge the stick in the packet, it tends to pick up only one teeny seed at a time, exactly what i want. My fingers are too dull to do this job as they are.  So this is an awesome help!

So i was able to plant 27 seeds into 27 Kcups with little effort and i didn't drop any. No seedlings wasted to thinning.  Strawberries are a little iffy in germinating, so this is probably the best way to go about it.


Apple trees.

Hubby went to Home Depot during his lunch break and i had him pick me up a pint of Bonide Fruit Tree spray.  I don't think it is organic, but this year i'm going to simply attack the apple problem with the biggest guns i can find.  I can go organic once i get other preventative measures in place- like deep fertilization, companion plantings-( the ring of chives and welsh onions i plan to plant at their bases) and i can get the trees pruned correctly and get their trunks straightened.  So the non-organic spray will hopefully beat out anything that might add to their weaknesses...

SFG.

I need to figure out if my soil will be fertile enough to do the square foot gardening system this year. It looks like the method begins with raised beds...which i  am not going to do, and they want you to use a combo of premixed soil, compost and vermiculite.  I need to find a way to make sure that after my large amount of kitchen compost (from the outdoor Darth Vader helmet-like composter) and the worm castings from the indoor worm hotel, plus the horse manure and the tilled-in rye grass will be potent enough to feed my plants in such tight spacing. I also need to look at drainage of the soil....  vermiculite might be a challenge to find in large quantities,  i can get peat moss in large bales though.

I won't know any of this until it is all tilled and mixed together... but i want to be prepared if i have to buy more amendments.

So, those are the things i am thinking of on a rainy Tuesday afternoon.... with 52 days left 'till last frost date.