Carrots and Onions (and Shallot) 2010

Wow, the carrots really did well.  I got lots of them. I don't remember if i did weigh them. I can't imagine that i didn't- but i don't remember doing it.
They were sweet and crispy, the roots were thick and a bit on the short side- but i think the varieties i had weren't supposed to be the ultra long and thin type- so they may have been as perfect as they could be- which was great. I only had 4 or 5 that were bifurcated, cracked or shaped oddly, the rest were straight, smooth and not 'hairy'.  The color of both types was hard to differentiate, the skin on both was a vibrant garnet red. The cores were small, one type more tinged with green than the other, but otherwise the inside color was the usual carrot shade of orange.  They pulled up easily- a few broke from their stems but the soil had stayed so nice and loose they were easily pulled out.

I love how light my soil stayed in the planting rows. Even now, this late in the year after all the watering and recent rain, if i step into a bare spot in any planting row, my foot will sink at least an inch or two. I'm used to soil with a higher clay content so this is recognisably different than the garden soil i traipsed through as a kid.

Now the onions-  I decided at the beginning of the year that if i got one or two onions the size of a regulation baseball, i'd be happy enough.  I got my wish and then some,  i got at least a half dozen that were of good size and plenty of sizes close.  I got plenty of little tinkers too- and i like the range in sizes actually.  The little golf ball ones are great for the morning omelet.

I got plenty of white onions, and the red onions did catch up in size-  they seem to grow at a noticeably different pace than the white ones. I probably could have waited to harvest the red ones until the tops were more dried than they are, but we were getting so much rain for a while there i was afraid they'd just rot in the ground. So i pulled them.  They will get diced and frozen for convenient use through the winter soon anyway, they don't need to store well whole after all.   I never did get to the root cellar yet. Hubby has been working on the basement now and then but there was a lot going on down there and he isn't finished yet.   So not having a root cellar for storage this fall isn't a problem since i don't have a big need for it yet anyway.

Oh, and the Shallot...s....  Well, i don't know what was up with those things, the variety was named "Mirage" and i'm thinking that they were that very thing! lol.  I planted a number of seedlings, but it looks like i only pulled one or two up. The seedlings may have gotten slugged,  and the other thing that i think contributed was the volunteer pumpkin plant that hubby asked me to keep.  It was self-seeded in the center of one of my walking rows and it vined in the direction of my shallots. I think it shaded them too much despite my trying to keep those leaves down to a minimum and the vines out of the planting row.  So whatever it was, it probably wasn't all the fault of the variety of shallot.  I have them green-lighted for next year.

Onions, shallots and.....tomatoes.

Yes, i planted the tomatoes out today. Wisely or foolish, we shall see.  These are the tomatoes that survived that recent frost.  I am glad i kept the Romas because two of them began to generate new leaves and almost looked normal if small.  I figure, these plants have been outside since i wintersowed them in February...  c'est la vie.   If i have to visit my favorite small garden nursery to replace plants there is nothing i can do now that will change it. If the plants have been stunted, it already has occurred.

I even that some pattypan squash seedlings that survived and are throwing out fresh leaves. These are the seed from Johnny's that are somewhere around 10 years old. The seeds that as of the last in the package have still given me close to 85% germination.  I never knew squash seed was that tough... so that is also a good example of the high quality seed that i got from Johnny's.

It the seedlings of tomatoes do well, it looks like the replacement plants that have sprouted may end up  being donated to my parent's garden.

The replacement squashes, and melons are also resprouting so reliably, i may have to split those as well.

I got all the seedling onions set out and the shallots. Those will be safe if the weather turns,  so that was perfect to do.

It was tricky planting those since they were planted in the seed flats that got spilled in the Great Flying Greenhouse Escapade.  I had just planted two flats of assorted herbs and veggies, the wind knocked it over, mixed it all up...  it was all the soil i had left so i put it back in and replanted something totally distinguishable from any herbs and other veggies in there. Onions are perfect. Nothing else that i have for seeds looks like the onion family.
But this is what the cell packs looked like:

There were also 2 nice red Swiss Chard (Bright Lights) in there and i think a basil, both sharing their cells with a nice stocky Ailsa Craig onion seedling.  There is still a Point One cabbage and a tiny Borage (i think) in the last cell on the right.
I saved  all  of the non-onion seedlings,  some were basil and parsley- and i lost a lot of my basils in the frost,  so i kept all i could. Some of them were growing a bit too close so a few of the onions have a little Chervil sidekick in their planting hole.
I put the extra seedlings into new cell packs for planting later.

I didn't get a picture, but those brassica and family plants i set out the other day are looking great. It looks like they have grown quite a bit already.

I hope tomorrow i can finish the squash & melon hills.
After that it is mostly herbs that will need to be planted.

Then i can play with some berry seeds, keep up with weeding, count days until succession plantings, then some harvesting, putting by, green manuring...

That is if it goes well!
Alternatives are:
Cursing the existence of groundhogs
Praying for rain; alternately:
Praying for sunshine
Praying for the weeds to drop dead
Bemoaning the existence of tomato hornworms
Finding a pile of cat poo next to my cucumbers
Finding earwigs setting up house inside my sweet pepper fruits
Battling a slug and snail plague

Hopefully it won't be like that,, but i am steeling myself for it just in case.


The airlock on the Lilac Wine is chugging away most encouragingly.
I sure hope its pleasant, i don't want something more akin to flower scented lighter fluid!

I need to remember to spray the apple trees again, the petals appear to be blown.

The irises are blooming, and my orange poppy has even more buds on it this year.


So i'm going to rest now. I keep thinking i can finish "Root Cellaring" but its a longer book than i thought :o)

Just some reference pictures...

In a few blogs i read there are pictures of seedlings. Those who have a higher zone number than i do, their seedlings are giant. Some of those gardeners still have a couple weeks before their planting date still....  i think mine is about 35 days away at the least....  my seedlings sure look puny compared to those early planters.  This year is an experiment to see if Wintersowing actually gives me a boost on a short season or if i break even.  I hope it won't delay...  but if it breaks even, i have to say that having the seed flats outside is a relief, since the inside of the house isn't severely cluttered from it. I only have a light shelf for the houseplant type seedlings.

Anyway, here's the pics:

Burgundy Okra

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Point One Cabbage

I half hope this is the Strawberry. Out of 27 seeds its the only one up so far... :-/

Shiso, also spelled "Shisho"...

Should be a poppy. Out of most of a packet of seeds, only a few are showing up...  i sowed a whole flat.

Assorted melons, squashes and cucumbers

French Marigolds...  i let them get too dry by mistake, lost a few. But i have more seeds.

Gypsy Broccoli

Buttercrunch Lettuce

Polfast tomato

Purple tomatillo

Pruden's Purple tomato

Yellow Pear tomatoes

Collards and Pak Choi

Welsh Onions and Mirage Shallots

Chives all the way back, second from front on the left is the Burdock, left front is purple kohlrabi and then Red Russian kale on the right.  The other things are being slow to germinate.

Peppers, eggplant, a melon or two  and some very old tomato seeds that i am almost shocked to see them germinate at all, much less be numerous!

Sweet basil

Sweet marjoram

no less sweet itself.....Genovese basil...

And little grape is doing well.

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.

Seed flats... and cost calculations.

I have not been visited by the sprout fairy yet... which i understand is a good thing. If stuff sprouts too early any hard freezes might wipe things out.
But i took some pictures:

This is what i have gotten done so far, the tray on the bottom with no condensation in it is the Mary Washington asparagus i finally got planted.  Just before i was about to plant them i read on the package that they needed soaking...  so i put them in a quart jar full of water.  Then i remembered the cool thing about wintersowing... it bypasses all steps like soaking, knicking, stratifying, cold treating and other time consuming steps. Duh.  But after i started them soaking, i could not find the time to plant them.

 This is where most of  the tomatoes live. I started them in the black plastic meat trays that 2 1/2 pounds of hamburger comes in if you buy it at Walmart.  They are only a little larger in dimension as the cardboard trays i have bought tomato seedlings in at the nursery. They also fit perfectly in the fruit and vegetable bags from the grocery store. The yellow tray is lettuce, Buttercrunch.

This row has two flats of mixed seeds. I have 5 of each planted, 10 different seeds per tray. So, 20 different things in total. They are a tomato or two, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, melons, cucumbers, etc.  The little deli tray on the top is Striped German tomato... very old seed. So old that the company i got them from went out of business more than 5 years ago!  And they tiny white meat tray behind the Striped Germans has 5 peat pellets of Siberia Tomato.

This shelf has the mentioned Mary Washington asparagus and the other tray contains Welsh Onions and  Mirage Shallots

Sixty-five days till planting time! My blog gadget ticker stopped working and when i tried to reinstall it, my computer gave me a virus warning. So i have to count on my paper calender,  but 65 days is how long i have until any hope of planting is advised.

I did some pricing of hoop house materials. I was going to go the metal electircal conduit route for the hoops, but the prices online at Lowe's and Home Depot were showing me that that was going to be way more expensive than i had thought. Most of my sources were saying or implying that the metal would be cheaper in the long run because it was supposedly less expensive per length... but if the online prices are correct, it is not true. Lowes had 1/2" conduit for $1.87 per 10' length. Home Depot had the same online price.  Schedule 40 1/2" PVC in 10' lengths  at Lowe's is $1.13,  Home Depot has it for $1.03.
I also had read at first that the PVC would have to be painted for long term outdoor use, but researching it further, it should hold up for more than 3 years of use without any treatment. It is inherently UV resistant due to its makeup.
So, not only is the PVC cheaper, but it needs no treatment.
The metal conduit might be sturdier, but it is more expensive by too much of a margin, and then i'd have to bend it... a bender for 1/2" conduit is around $38-$45.  Then, since i can't shove the conduit into the ground about 18' without it hanging up or kinking the smooth shape, i'll have to construct anchor pegs- i have seen rebar and dowel pegs used. The rebar is worth a couple dollars each and the dowels need cutting and sharpening even though they are cheap...

Now i do plan to do much of my garden. The corn will be mulched simply with black plastic to heat the soil,  so that part won't need hoops, but the rest i do want to at least start the growing season with them.

HOOPS:
*7 rows
*24' per row
*1 hoop per 4' = 7 hoops per row + end hoops
 = 49 hoops (PVC lengths)

AGRIBON: (AG-19)
*7 rows
*30' of Agribon per row (allowing for extra at the end to close)
*Agribon 6' wide
=  210' Agribon

Whether we use metal or PVC, we still need ground anchors. Hubby and i decided that it would be best to use 3/4 inch PVC lengths about 18" long, sunk 12" deep, leaving 6" sockets for the hoops. Each 10' 3/4 PVC will yield at least 5 anchors.  We will need 98.  So we will need 20  of those.

According to HD, the PVC total before tax will be $79.30
If i go with Vesey's 6' wide Agribon-19 i will need to buy 3, 6'x100' lengths and i'd have 50' to spare, the cost would be with shipping $124.80

About $204.00

If i go with the AG-19 from Johnny's, their 83"x250 is only $45 and about $10 shipping.
And i realized that 6' width won't get me enough edging to anchor it to the ground if i my hoops are up to a 6' span.  I could cut the hoops in half and get 2x as many and have them be shorter but i'd really like the taller hoops and the excess Agribon  on the sides will make a mess if the hoops are too low.

The more i think about it, the lower the cost estimate becomes

My original original estimate with the metal conduit was around $225
Then with PVC replacing the metal it was $204
Now with the wider Agribon from Johnny's, it looks like $135. will do it.

I hope my calculations are correct and that Home Depot will give me the online prices if the store price is different. But, if not, Lowe's will price-match HD and i think the Price Protection policy will apply to PVC.   That is the scary part. Hubby said he saw the 1/2 PVC was around $3 a length when he went there the other day. But the online price is very different:

Now i will need clips to hold the Agribon to the hoops, that should only add a couple more lengths of PVC to the order. The instructions i have seen for making PVC clips is as simple as cutting a 1/4 inch strip out of the entire length of the PVC, then cutting the length into 2" pieces. One 10' length of PVC  should yield about 60 clips. Adding another $2.50 to the total.

So if the prices work out this will be great... if not i will be miffed.

Photo Tutorials and odd root veggies:

 I read quite a few blogs. Normally they are gardening or crafting blogs where the author is constructing some fascinating contraption or modifying something in order to repurpose it.  I decided that i am jealous of never having done my own photo tutorial. So, i think today is the day!

So, to set the stage:

I love the seed starting product known as Peat Pellets.  They are very convenient.  They allow me to sow seeds without having to buy anything but them and the seeds.  I can place the Peat Pellets in most every container i want.  What works best for me is to save  styrofoam meat trays and set the PPs on those. The trays take a Sharpie marker very well and there is plenty of room to write.

But, like i said, they aren't very cheap. I usually buy them by the bag - about $15. for 100.
It saves the work of having to individually fill those rotten 6-pack trays, which always give me trouble,  and they are more compact to store than bags of soil.

My mom gave us her Keurig coffee pot a few months ago, the timer on it ceased to function so she was getting a new one. We don't use timers on coffee pots, so it was a good match for us.  Now the one-cup system always sort of bothered me,  i'm not an environmentalist- really.  But the one-use plastic cup just kinda irked me even though i absolutely adore the brewing system.

Being the seed-starter than i am (i'm a better seed-starter than a gardener, big plans, bad luck, little follow-through) i pretty quickly realized that they were about the same size as my peat pellets. And better, by function, they already have a drain hole precision- punched into the bottom. All that needs to be done is to  remove the lid, the grounds and a quick rinse.  This is a project that is well within my skill level.

So i saved the K-cups over a number of months (about 130 saved), disemboweled them and set them aside (much to my hubby's annoyance) until around now.
Here are the Disemboweling instructions for making the Keurig K-Cup into a little pot for seedling propagation.

 This is a K-Cup. Recently used. Its good to clean them out shortly after they cool off or else things get a bit scary in there.

 Perfect seed-starting size.

Break the foil lid and peel it off. It is a little harder to pull off than usual foil tops because these are not really made to be removed.

It dosen't take very long even though it might separate into a few pieces, the cup is tough enough.

Now, dump out the coffee grounds. They stick to the mini filter, but that is ok. Usually i dump the grounds into a bowl (when i do 20 kcups at a time) and feed them to my worms.

 Then i poke my finger through the center of the paper filter, hook it and yank, peeling it away from the edges.

Dismantling complete.

I don't even have to poke a drainage hole.

Just a quick rinse...

Don't even need to use soap.

All clean and ready to be filled with potting soil.

 The white cups are best because they take a label so well. They also come in black plastic, but i only use those if i must.

They fit 50 to a standard flat, just like the Peat Pellets, and if you drink the coffee anyway, they are technically free.


Yay! My first tutorial.  LOL



So, you see, it is pretty simple :)


I spent some time looking up some info on growing a couple of the unusual root vegetables that i want to try this year.
Burdock is one of them.
Apparently it is quite good, shows up on cooking shous occasionally and is said to be loaded in good vitamins and minerals. Its downside is that the roots can grow about 3' long,  can get quite large around and are tenacious- so harvesting them is challenging!
But i came upon an ingenious idea for making the harvest much easier- if not the prep work:

From one of our customers, W. Takahashi:
I have a tip for growing Gobo without the intense digging normally associated with gobo. I start seeds early inside on a hot pad (Zone 5). Garden prep: Cut 4" PVC into 36" Lengths and then in half lengthwise. Bury the PVC starting 2"-3" deep at surface and the deepest end at 12" (at a cant). I plant the seedlings at the top end, positioned to ensure roots will follow PVC, keeping plants watered & fertilized. Once established, I mulch heavily with straw. I normally overlap each PVC with a 15" spacing of the plants requiring harvesting from the last plant first. Harvesting requires minimal efforts.  Source

I think its brilliant.  Hubby just sees it as more work. I'm wondering it it might be worth it, its a great idea but i don't know if it will ever happen, to be honest. But at least i know the best way to do it if ever!

The Salsify seems pretty straightforward, they are like thinner, foot-long carrots. But i learned that the foliage can also be eaten since salsify is related to the dandelion.

So, off to read a couple more gardening books. "Cash from Square Foot Gardening" and "Garden Encyclopedia".  The Cash book is basically the original "Square Foot Gardening" book, but with extra tips for making it a backyard business... not terribly interested in that- though i hope to be getting enough produce to both donate (and not just tomatoes and zucchini) and put away, bit it was the only square foot book we coulf find for free on the internet.

The Garden Encyclopedia is full of info, as it should be. It even has a section to help me decide how much of each item to grow- production estimates. This will keep me from getting carried away and planting too much of one thing and barely enough of another- while allowing for the plans to preserve.

Between the two books, i am being reminded to also stagger the planting of multi-harvest crops, like lettuce, cabbage, radishes and bush beans, so i don't have them all coming to bear in one week, but that we have one or two harvestables at a time.

More reading, graphing, planning, calculating and thinking.   Yay!

During the little one's nap today, i hope to get the onions, shallots and welsh onions (similar to chives) started and set outdoors with the other wintersown flats.