Things to do...

So, today i need to take a close look at what got frosted the other night and assess what might pull through and eliminate what most certainly won't.  Then i need to restart seeds of what i still have left.

Where i was trying to use up some very old seed (8+ years), i might not have enough left.... once i figure out what i do have, i will have to re-plot my planting plan.  I may end up with some empty spaces...

I also have to get the parsnips planted, before i do that i need to get the spade fork in there and try and loosen the soil deeper than where it was tilled. It just needs a few more inches.

I ran out of hoop pipes, i should have plenty for sockets, but i need 14 more of the 1/2".

Good thing is that it is all reusable next year.

I need hubby to help me spread the Remay over the hoops, hopefully this weekend so i can get the broccoli, pak choi, onion and other hardy stuff set in and get my radishes protected before they sprout and attract bugs.

I also need to tag my tulips, daffs and other perennials so when my mom helps me dig out the flower beds this fall i will have some idea of what is what so it can be put together again nicely.  I'm giving her all my Iris.  They are just too big for my front gardens. Their fans are too large and they are too tall and the slugs love them because they are in shade for a good part of the morning.  There are three colors going on, but the colors are scattered. 
When we bought the house, my first project was to pull everything out of these gardens and get rid of all the weeds. I put back all the good stuff and planted a few of my own things.  But the iris colors are all random in there.  But i think my mom would like to have them all grouped by color, so i will try to tag those as well.
I have not gotten to the decorative plant tag project yet. For that i will actually have to get my husband to watch the little one for a whole day and do my daily chores for me. 

I also need to separate out some of the seed flats. I keep calling them 6packs but they are actually 9 cells. But anyway, i have some things in the flats that either didn't come up or have not come up or were frost bitten. I need to cut out the cell packs that have plants in them and put them all in new flats so i am not wasting space.  Also i can replant in the empty ones.

I have way more things to do than i have time to do it in, but isn't that the way of things :0)

I wonder if i am going to have enough PVC for the number of hoops i need.  I wonder if hubby is going to have a cow if i decide i need more.  He just might if i can't make do with what i've got.
I am pretty sure i won't have enough for the anchor sockets...  I can cut those and find out pretty fast since hubby bought a PVC cutter a while back.  I had forgotten this and planned to use the shoelace saw trick. It works (i have done it many times before) but it makes a mess.  The PVC cutter works just like a pruning shears.  It is much faster too.

I may need sand bags to hold down the Reemay edges, but i won't be sure until i get it all set up.

I  think i decided what to do about hoop clips.  I'm going to get some of the thinner walled PVC and split them up one side, then to protect the Reemay from rough edges, i can cut scraps of polar type fleece into pads to go between the clip and the Reemay covered hoop.   If i leave plenty of extra material around the edges it should cushion any rubbing that the wind will cause.   I have plenty of fleece fabric.

As soon as the little  one gets settled down for her late morning nap i will be out there, trying to finish up the walking rows.  After that, the hard labor will be mostly over. I am very sore from yesterday, but the idea is that i can get this hard stuff done, then rest a few whole days.  I can get some frost resistant things planted this weekend. Like radishes and salsify, kale and onions.  The rest of the rows, like where the corn is going, can be covered in black plastic to speed up the soil heating.

 Some things will need row cover as soon as they are planted.  I keep seeing cabbage butterflies in the yard and while i don't mind picking a few caterpillars out of my broccoli as i am cleaning it for the table, i don't want an infestation.

I also have to decide how i want to measure out the garden in the opposite direction. I where i am trialing so many plants this year and using up old seeds before they go bad, i need to measure carefully to fit them all in but still let them have the right amount of room. But i don't want to go through the tedium of laying the string out in the opposite direction and i know that i will trip over it all anyway.
Maybe i will just make a giant ruler out of a scrap of plywood and use the 100' tape measure. Since i will have the hoops spaced 4' apart that will also be a measurement guide.



I think i will end up with extra space in the melon/squash patch since i charted it out for one plant per hill, but i plan to plant 2 to 3 per hill and won't need half the space i charted. I might be able to put the popping sorghum in there, but that needs as much room as corn....


Also found this while puttering around, looking at more season extenders:
DIY Wall-o-Water

I happen to have a sudden surplus of 2 liter bottles. And suddenly, while wondering where to store them until next year, I saw The Light !
Take six or seven 2 liter bottles. Group them around one in the center so you have a circle of bottles.
Duct tape the group together at half-way up.
Now pull out the center bottle so you have a kind of 'donut'.
Put in the garden over a new tomato transplant. Fill with water from your hose.
Instant Wall-O-Water.
Cost, 10 cents deposit each in Michigan, plus duct tape.
Plants will get some light from through the 2 liter bottles and eventually grow above them.
The heat of the sun will warm the water in the bottles.
Six bottles times two liters is 12 liters.
That's three gallons, roughly.
One BTU is the heat stored in one gallon of water by one degree Farenheit.
If you can store twenty degrees of warmth during the day, that gets you 60 BTU's of heat stored for the cool nights.
Throwing a cap over this setup would conserve that warmth to deter fr*st.
And it's not unreasonable that you could store more heat in the water than that.
Paint the bottles on the North side of the plant black to store more heat. Add a pinch of salt to the water to push the heat storage a bit.
You might get up to 120 BTUs stored in the bottles, ideally.
Enough to last through a 38 degree night. Maybe.

Oh and i just ordered some more seeds from a small grower: Amishland Seeds
She had this odd eggplant that i have seen called "Pumpkin on a Stick"  they are very bitter though edible, but i want them as an ornamental.  I am also getting a super tiny and very early type of watermelon from her called Golden Midget.  I hope she has a quick mail out system. :o)

Housework time....

Another Monday...

And its raining, which is fine. Its tomorrow that will be the problem, quite a bit of rain is expected. Along with wind.
The mini greenhouse is holding up and so is the makeshift seedling box.  I managed to get the six-pack flat to accept water enough to sow some Oriental Poppies in it. I hope i get many viable plants from it. I love poppies.

My dad's birthday was this Saturday, so he took the day for himself as he should.  But he did tell me that he works with a guy who boards horses and he can get a few loads of old manure for both my garden and his.

So if the ground stays too wet for him to get to the grass and yard waste compost, we will at least get some well-aged horse poo.

Justin went out Friday afternoon and got me my Remay row cover stuff.  It looks good, giant paper towel roll.  The material looks suspiciously like fusible webbing for stitchery, lol. It seems silly that i feel like i am looking at the same material in a totally new light. As long as it works....and by-the-yard, the real fusible webbing is way more expensive!
I expect, from the thickness of it, that it will let a lot of light through, but i don't think it will last more than one season. But that's ok, i would spend way more than its cost for twice what i need if i were using pesticides.
I am going to get a slug and earwig killer though, i need that to keep the bugs out of my flowers at least.

I am doing yet another graph re-do of the garden, i may steal another 3 feet of space along the shorter side (30'x28') just so i can get one more full 4 foot row. If i don't. i will have 4 rows 4 feet wide and the last row will be only 1 foot wide. I don't need another walking row for the edge rows... so if i don't take 4 more feet, i might just relinquish the extra 3 feet of space that is along the back. It depends on when i plot out the Square-Foot method if i have more room than i really need.
I also need to remember to get myself a few bundles of cotton clothesline to run along the tops of the hoops to make a sort of backbone.
Then bricks, i will need at least 30 nice bricks. I hope i can find some with rounded edges so the Remay isn't worn more quickly than necessary.


I am starting to wonder about my wintersown seeds. I think  its newbie jitters i guess. This year was an experiment, so i shouldn't let it get to me.  I tried a few things that i know may not work, but i had to try for myself. This has been such a bizarre spring it just might work out anyway.
I'm most concerned about those darn Imperial Star Artichokes.  I think it was last year, i tried the method that requires chilling the seedlings for a week,  i did something wrong because the chilling simply killed them. So this year i wintersowed them, but i'm not sure if that will just kill the seeds... and the seeds were from 2008 anyway and artichokes do not have the greatest germination rate. I think i sowed 10 of them..? I guess i didn't write that down. Even if they do sprout, i don't think the early start will replace the chill method that is supposed to convince them that they have already lived one full year.
Even if they don't produce the first year, i may be able to save some root cuttings and use something of a forcing method on them. So its not my only shot as long as the seeds sprout and the plants last the summer.
I love artichokes  so much that i don't plan to stop trying until i am sure i am defeated.

Off, to plot some square foot plantings, study succession crop timing and review companion & intercropping ideas.

We had a little bit of snow last night, not much really. Its the kind that looks sort of like wet felt lying on the ground. It only stuck to the coldest places. Its supposed to stay cold today.
It will be the right time to sow the strawberry seeds, since they need cold treatment i can bypass using the fridge and enlist the aid of the great outdoors. My main gripe is the six pack seedling flats i let myself buy. They never get moist enough from top to bottom. I try watering from the bottom and expect it to draw up, but the top is always dry, i guess i am too timid with the watering.  If i try and water from the top i end up washing out the soil from the cups. its just a messy ordeal. I much prefer the Peat Pellets because they are evenly moist all round, or they don't expand evenly- cluing me in.
But i'm going to use them anyway, but i'll be picking up more pellets when i go get the Remay at Paris Farmer's Union today.  I hadn't gotten a call telling me it was in yesterday and i was too busy in any case...

nope, strike that, they just called, just now 8:13am.  Yay!

Ok, so either i get to have hubby pick it up for me or i will go out after i get the oldest after school. I can't lug both little one and 13'x300' of Remay into the truck without assistance.  I need more seed flats too.... PFU sells plain ones and all the assorted entrails, like 6, 8 and 4-packs, clear domes... I think they have the pellets too.... they even have things like parsnip seeds in bulk.

Besides the natural foods store it is my favorite place to shop.

..............

I wetted the tops of the filled six-packs and the dry bits of soil shed off the water.

So i gave up on that for now and just went with K-cups.
Pinetree gave me 27 Temptation Strawberry seeds. I think they only promise 20, so that was nice.
Got those planted. Also had a few more of the Mary Washington asparagus seeds, so i finished those off and then there were 4 K-cups left so i put in a few Shisho seeds.

So, 50 more cups of seed planted.

Many things...

Rainy out today.  I was having a hard time getting the Agribon-19 in the dimensions i needed. I must have it at least 12' wide. The Agribon is available in 12' widths, but the  only place i fount it was at Vesey's, and only of 50' lengths.  I expect to have four rows needing 29 feet or so (gotta have extra at the ends to close them off) each.  Tried emailing them to see if they can get me 150' in continuous length, but i doubt they will be able to even if they are willing, often the stores get them precut and packaged and they dole out the pieces.

  But on the way back from visiting my Grampy at the hospital, my sister and i stopped at Paris Farmer's Union to see what they might have, and they looked in their catalog. Found something called Remay (or Reemay, a search for "Remay" bears  results in both spellings). This should be a very similar spun material like Agribon. Internet search results in a number of short mentions of the  Remay material, seems all positive-  for uses such as bug repelling, light frost protection, increased direct-sown seed germination, soil warmer, wind protection, sun protection, & small critter and bird baffler.  Just what i need.  Paris can get me continuous 300' for the same price as 3 packages- equaling 150' from Vesey's --- and no shipping charges.  Yeah it could be way more than may need this year,  but for the same price...  it was going to cost that much no matter what i did anyway.  Might as well get twice the material.

So it should be in today at the earliest.  They will call. I'm  going out with my sister to see our Grampy again today so i will check in after that because i will probably be out when they call the house.

I really hope its the right stuff. All this plotting, planning and obsessing....!

Been too busy hanging out with my sister to get any more seeds started,  but she's only here until Thursday morning and its back to California. And Grampy's operation is tomorrow.  It will be a little scary.



Hubby took me to Lowe's on Saturday and we got the PVC for the hoops.  I poked the ground with a shovel the other day to see how deep the frost was, its still there, so no rototilling yet even if it wasn't raining,  but the rain will soften it a good bit.

The Winter Rye has taken off again, very green out there, not even Easter yet.

Not sure what to do with the apple trees.  I don't dare to prune them myself,  i have a book to read about it though, just need the time and the daring.  But i guess i can't make them any worse.  Next i have to look in on what sort of things i can use to organically control what is bugging them.  Companion planting tells me to grow onion family plants around them... i think a bed of chives will do much for them, and chives are easy. Maybe toss in a few Welsh Onions....

Gave my sister a huge basket of yarn the other day.  I opened up my stash and told her to grab whatever she wanted, don't be shy.  Very glad of it, i have lots of nice yarn but no time. She is a knitter and knitting brings out the best in the yarns i had, crocheting does not do them justice since you get a bulkier result. At least with the stitches i use.  We are going to have to mail it to her in a box because it will be too expensive to send on the plane,  think laundry basket of yarn...lol

So, we will see what today brings.