Pictures on a gray day

We had a good deal of rain last night.  I don't have my rain gauge hooked up yet,  so i have to guess just under an inch.  It was enough to melt away much of the snow.

I went out earlier on this gray day and snapped some ugly pictures.

I was annoyed to see that one of my beach plums got snapped in half:



I'm sure it will grow back,   but it really has a bad break.  Maybe i'll need to stake them next fall and hopefully prevent this.

Female Seabuckthorn looks good


As does the male



Gojis


One of the Carmine Jewel cherries


I hope it and the other survived and really put on some growth this year.

Blueberries and lingonberries


Closer look at one of the blueberries


The garden looks so gross at this time of year


Stanley prune plum and hydrangea


Here's what is left of the snow in the yard


The apple tree seems ok



And the grapes


The weather is supposed to be warm today,  but expected to get colder in the next few...   Possible snow on Saturday-  i hope it won't last too long.

I'm going to try and get the rest of the early seeds started either today or tomorrow.

Just some thoughts on the blogging experience

I began blogging in 2009 according to my records.  I recently made my 365th post as well...   that means i have posted about every third day for more than 3 years.  When i saw this image:



i knew it was for me.  lol

Most all of my gardening activities and some of my household shenanigans are done with a thought of this blog.  Sometimes i discount the idea as too boring,  other times i don't care if it is and i still share it.  My long-winded ramblings and repetitive thoughts may be boring to some,  but i keep recording thoughts because at the very least,  i find them useful to look back upon.  If anyone else finds the entries useful, or helpful  i am happy,  if not its ok.  I don't expect anyone to be hanging on to my every word.  Tee hee.

I just simply find it fun to blog.  I adore reading the blogs i follow and though i don't always comment,  i read every update as soon as i can.  Blogging has been one of the most enjoyable hobbies i have picked up in a long time.  

I appreciate all my followers and especially love the comments,  i always try to reply.  I don't like the Capcha thing to avoid spammers,  so i don't make repliers have to deal with it.  I weed out the spam myself...and whooo- do i get a lot of it.  My "Carrot and Parsnip Seed Tape" entry seems to be the most popular to spammers for some reason.  Some bot always tries to get through,  i have no idea why.

Well,  thats all i just wanted to say how much fun i have blogging and thank you to all who follow my ramblings.  Your comments encourage me and i'm glad i'm not alone out here in cyberspace talking to thin air.  lol

Finally!

I got some seeds started.  

I planted in pots:

3 Snapper sweet peppers
3 Zsa Zsa sweet peppers
a tray of Italian Flatleaf parsley

...and i thought i was going to plant 3 pots of Raveena eggplant and three Slim Jim eggplant until i realized i was completely out of Slim Jim seeds.  *doh*
In my defense,  eggplant seeds are so thin its hard to tell if a packet is empty until you shake it...
Soooo...
I planted
6 Raveena eggplant.

I had just enough seed to put 3 in each pot.

These seeds all like heat,  so i have them in one flat on top of my new heat mat.

If i finally have good luck with the eggplant and peppers this year i'll have to reorder them.  If not,  perhaps i will try  some new varieties.

Last of the seed orders.

The Cherokee Purple and Green Shiso seeds arrived today.  If i can continue reigning myself in,  this is all the seeds for the year.  The only thing left to arrive will be the Adirondack Blue potato starts that should come in the Spring.

The seeds from the eBay seller look good,  nice and clean seeds, little to no chaff, plenty of them too.

Its been too chaotic so far today to get those pots i set out filled,  so no starting seeds yet.  A few days delay won't hurt since i am on the cusp of the starting dates.

I hope to get it started and completed this weekend at least.

We also got the weather station figured out.  Hubby went out and got a second one from Mardens so we could both have receivers.  It ended up costing us about $9 for the two sets because we had a gift card.
The station shows wind speed, direction, humidity, barometric pressure, indoor and outdoor temps,   forecast icon and calculates windchill.
Its nice to have this information at a glance.

Getting ready to start and final Garden Plan

I finalized my garden plan on Grow Veg:

Garden 2013

Got it printed out and ready.  I tucked it into my 3-ring  folder where i keep all previous garden plans.

I was going to try starting some seeds last night while the kids were away but didn't end up doing it.  I'm not certain i'll get to it tonight either.  I did count all the pots i'll need and have them lined up in their flats.

(For my notes on flat capacity):

Jiffy 3 (3" peat pots)
One flat can hold 18 of these pots
Or 12 pots and one tray



According to the Grow Veg planner's custom settings,  i can begin planting:

Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Eggplant
Parsley
Peppers
and
Ground Cherries

Since they have no entry for Leonotis or Tea Hibiscus,  i'm going to go along with my plan to start them, along with all the above, in the next few hours or days as time allows.

I'll label each peat pot with a grease pencil that should last until planting time.

Hope i'll have time soon!

Parsley, hibiscus and leonotis.

I think i can get away with starting flat-leaf parsley right about now.  They can take a long time to germinate and can be difficult. To be sure to get sizable plants it won't hurt to get going on them.  I have a heat mat this year and that will help in a big way.  My parsley seeds are a few years old,  but Richters sends a lot of seed.  There is probably about a tablespoon of seed still in that packet. I'll sow on the thick side and see what i get.

The tea hibiscus will need as much time as i can give them,  same for the leonotis .  Hopefully they won't get leggy on me.  They need warm soil to thrive like peppers do,  so i will plant them early and set them out later than most of the rest of the plants.



According to eBay,  my green shiso and Cherokee purple tomato seeds are on their way.  They are coming from Ohio,  so it shouldn't be too long until they arrive.

Tonight my parents are taking the kids to their house to hang out. They usually do this on Thursdays.  I will have some time to plant the seeds and put everything together in peace.

Almost ready to go

It will be about another 2 weeks before i should start anything so one of my last prep projects was to get my seed shelves together. Hubby took me out to Home Depot and bought me two more shoplights and enough bulbs to load them up.  I also got a surge protector so i could plug all the lights into the power strip and then into my light timer.  We went to Paris Farmer's Union and got more soil.  Then we went to Marden's and he found me a nice wireless weather station to replace the old one that quit working after just about a year. We only paid $19.99 for it and its a $99 regular price.  It is giving us some trouble in setting it up,  but hubby will figure it out i'm sure. 

At all of those places,  i managed to leave the seed packets alone.  I glanced at a few,  but i did not touch.  Hubby even noticed that i behaved so well.  ;o)

Anyway,  this is what my revamped light setup looks like:



I'm not sure how well the light chains will work,  where the shelves are wider than the lights the higher the chains are pulled,  the more the two greenhouses are pinched together.  My other light setup was not as wide so the chains hung straight down,  but i could only fit 2 flats per level.  If this setup works i'll be able to have 4 flats per level.  I also have an oscillating fan to use to make sure the seedlings make strong stems.

Two more weeks of waiting!

More seeds...*sigh*

Ok.  I really wanted to get a hold of myself this year.  I wasn't really naughty though....   i only bought two more types of seed.   Green shiso and Cherokee purple tomato.  I already have red shiso,  but i wanted to try the green.  I also had a disappointment with Cherokee purple last year...  i think it was last year.  I had one seed left and it sprouted,  but i killed it before it got its first set of true leaves.  That seed was from years ago,  when we were living in an apartment and i unsuccessfully tried patio gardening.  Something like 10 years ago.

That is all i bought,  honest!

I got them from a seller on eBay,  cheap shipping, etc.  The two seed packs were less than $5 with shipping.  Hopefully i will get to taste the elusive (to me) Cherokee purple tomato...

Preparation of grains and legumes (YouTube video)

Schizandra from seed part 2

The seeds have soaked for 5 days,  so now on to the next step: Cold stratifying.

After a couple of days most of the floating seeds began to sink.  All but one did this.



The seeds were rinsed at least once a day for 5 days.



The instructions on the back of the seed packet suggested using moist cotton,  so that is what i used:



I spaced them just so none are touching and covered them with a piece of damp paper towel.


Cover on and labeled, ready for a few weeks in the fridge.

Presents

So,  hubby is really helping quite willingly this year.   He went out and bought me 100, 3" Jiffy peat pots and 15' of jack chain to suspend my shoplights over my seedlings. (I'm gonna need more seed starting soil.)
My 14 year daughter even said she'd really like to help me garden this year!  That would be awesome since i could really use the help.
Hopefully i can keep the weeding down by using black plastic mulch.  
If i can work out a soaker hose DIY,  we will be particularly golden.  If not,  i'll have to do the "find a puddle and poke a hole" method.

Maybe i'll eventually succeed in being that great stay-at-home housewife i have always wanted to be. :)

Seeds came in

Order from Pinetree is in:



and for the heck of it,  here's the hibiscus from Renee's



Right now i'm boiling some water to saturate my seed starting mix.  I have used Miracle Grow's brand of seed starter for a few years and my only issue with it is that it is so dry right from the bag that it is impossible to water.  The peat just floats and it takes days before the water seeps in.  So,  i'm going to pour very hot water straight into the bags and see if it helps.  I have done this before with very dry peat moss and sphagnum moss.  This should also help sterilize the soil better.  It will take ages to cool,  which is no big deal because i'm not quite ready to plant yet.

This weekend i may plant the hibiscus and leonotis if i get my lights hooked up to my mini greenhouses.  I'm having a hard time deciding how to do this simply and still allow me to raise the lights as the time goes.  I don't have enough chain to keep the lights low.

I'm almost tempted to buy more seeds,  but i really need to stop.  I have enough!  Really!

I did get my seedling heat mat.  I found a nice one on Amazon for about $26.00.  It should be here by Thursday since we have Prime with free 2 day shipping.

Snowy February

January was fairly dry,  but we are more than making up for it in February.  We had the big storm 2 weeks ago,  got well over two feet of snow from that.  We had some cold rain last week.  Saturday through last night,  we had another storm that left us with another foot of snow.  As of now,  the weather forecast is telling us that more may be on the way this Wednesday through Friday.  This storm is expected to be mixed with rain and we may have snow accumulations of at least 6 inches.

This was yesterday morning when we had about 4 inches:

I wonder how long this stuff will take to melt this spring?

I'm hoping to order my seedling heat mat today so i can start my pepper seeds as soon as the time comes.

Schizandra from seed

Chinese magnolia vine is another name for Schisandra Chinensis.

It is a medicinal plant with red berries that grow in clusters a little like grapes and a little like currants. Its also called the "5 flavor berry" as the berry has the tastes of sweet, sour, bitter, salty and pungent. The berry is basically supposed to be good for just about everything and contains antioxidants, trace vit/min and other goodnesses that i can't think of off the top of my head.  Basically,  its considered another of the "Superfruits".

Ok,  that said,  i'm going to try growing it from seed.  I bought a packet of seeds from Bountiful Gardens the year before last and just never got to do anything with them.  The price was around $2.00.





I looked around online to get more ideas on how to germinate the seeds,  they are considered difficult.  Apparently it can take over a year with some seeds,  but can be just a few weeks in others.  Hopefully i have good luck.  The other thing with this plant is that there are 2 sexes and both are needed for berries.  I need enough to germinate so i have a chance at getting at least one male or at least one female.  They grow well from cuttings i understand,  so if i get one of each,  i'll be fine.  I tried searching online to see how to tell the sexes apart visually (before berries, of course) but i didn't find anything,  so i'm working blind.

Dried berries:



Soaking the dried berries.





I'm using one of my seed sprouting jar toppers.



Berries after about 12 hours of soaking in room temp water.



Seeds removed from the pulp.


Some of the berries had 2 seeds and others had one.  I ended up with 26 seeds to work with.

I'm also following some directions given here:  How to grow Schizandra from seed.  They say to soak the seeds for about 5 days,  changing the water daily. 
Back in the jar they go. 


A bunch of them  are floating though.  I hope that is not a bad sign.  Usually floating seed is bad seed...  who knows?   A packet only costs $2.50 now,  i could always try again if this does not work...  but it will set me back in the time it will take to get berries.

We'll see how it goes!

All ready

Seed orders are complete.  I'm 99% sure i have everything i need for this year.

Product #: 3201-BOLTARDY BEET (46 days)
Price: $1.25
Quantity: 1
Subtotal: $1.25

Product #: 35-RUBY QUEEN BEET (60 days)
Price: $0.95
Quantity: 1
Subtotal: $0.95

Product #: 48-MAJOR BROCCOLI (F1 hybrid 43 d
Price: $1.50
Quantity: 1
Subtotal: $1.50

Product #: 13201-GENERAL LEE CUKE (F1 hybrid 66
Price: $1.35
Quantity: 1
Subtotal: $1.35

Product #: 136-NATIONAL PICKLING CUCUMBER (52
Price: $0.95
Quantity: 1
Subtotal: $0.95

Product #: 139-DIVA CUCUMBER (58 days)
Price: $2.25
Quantity: 1
Subtotal: $2.25

Product #: 146-BOSTON PICKLING CUKE (heirloom
Price: $0.95
Quantity: 1
Subtotal: $0.95

Product #: W482-MINOWASE RADISH (55 days heirl
Price: $1.25
Quantity: 1
Subtotal: $1.25

Product #: 371-EARLY BUTTERNUT (F1 hybrid 82
Price: $1.50
Quantity: 2
Subtotal: $3.00

Product #: 41602-MORTGAGE LIFTER TOMATO (77 day
Price: $1.35
Quantity: 1
Subtotal: $1.35

Product #: 41204-MATTS WILD CHERRY TOMATO (55 d
Price: $1.65
Quantity: 1
Subtotal: $1.65

Product #: 428-MARTINOS ROMA TOMATO (heirloom
Price: $1.35
Quantity: 1
Subtotal: $1.35

Product Total: $17.80
Discounts Applied: $0.00
Tax: $0.89
Shipping: $3.95
Special_Handling: $0.00
Order_Total: $22.64

I have my seed starting soil, plenty of plastic pots from last year,  though i might get some square peat pots for the cukes and squashes later on. I would like a seedling heat mat,  but i don't have the $20-$40 to spare right now.  I will need something to warm my pepper seeds.
 I'm going to try one more year (did i say that last year?) to grow peppers at home,  this will use up the rest of the seeds i have this way.  I don't have much luck with them,  germination or growing. If they do germinate well,  they don't produce much in the summer or the earwigs get to them.  Same with eggplant.  But....  i am planning to use black plastic mulch this year.  It might be just the thing.


Oh,  boy.  I got some serious sticker shock the other day. 
I get tons of catalogs every spring and i will flip through some of them if i have time.  The last 3 years or so,  i really haven't done much browsing in other catalogs.  Well,  the nice, shiny Burpee catalog caught my eye and i started paging through.

Holy. Moly.
There are some insane prices in there.  Average packet price seems to be about $5.  See above prices from Pinetree and why i almost choked.
Ok,  in Burpee's defense,  i'm sure there are more seeds in their packets than in Pinetree's....  30 from Pinetree to Burpee's 50....  but if i only need  5-10 seeds each year and can save my own seeds,  that is just crazy.
I'm ok with buying the occasional $4 packet of seeds for something unusual or unique or perennial but at those prices i could not fill my garden. 

There.  That is pretty much it for buying,  just have to wait on things to arrive.  Meanwhile i'll find the time to clear off my seed starting spaces, sort through things and get organized.

Maybe i'll actually get some pictures to post instead of these pure text entries.

Order up!

Started ordering things this weekend.
Went to Renee's Garden Seeds and got my hibiscus seeds,  then over to Pinetree and ordered a couple pounds of Adirondack Blue seed potatoes.  The picture at their website is not very good,  i don't think they are trying to be shady,  but the example photo is extremely blue, lol.  Anyway. I also bought some bush bean seeds for Dragon Langerie and Carson Yellow.  Oh and a nice sunflower mix.

I went through my stash and found that i am in the market for new tomato, cucumber, beet and broccoli seeds.
I only have 5 Beit Alpha cucumber seeds left and 5 Boston Pickling as well as 5 Spacemaster (which i think i'll skip this year).  I have plenty of Specialty White, but all these seeds are getting old and i expect maybe 2 plants out of the 5 seeds.

I have plenty of seed for the two varieties of San Marzano tomatoes (Lampadina and the ones i got from Providence Acres). I also have plenty of German Orange Strawberry. I don't think i grew those again last year.  The year before, they got horrible blossom end rot,  not a one was edible.  I also have plenty of Banana Legs left,  but we really didn't like them all that much. Too acidic, not very flavorful. The Sweet Chelsea cherry tomatoes crack and split like crazy...  not impressed.   I'm not sure if i will plant Pruden's Purple again this year.  Absolutely delicious tomato,  but last year the stem end scars and radial cracking were so big and deep, half the fruit was useless for slices.  It was annoying in years past,  but 2012 was unacceptable.

I only have a few beet seeds left,  not enough for even a small block of them,  so i will need to get a new packet of something.

I only have Waltham broccoli seeds left, though i have plenty.

There was something else i was sure i wanted...  but it has totally slipped my mind at the moment!
Well, on to studying the catalogs.

I may get some seeds for Starbor kale....  i honestly don't remember what became of the seeds.  There seems to be no evidence that i ever grew it.  I think i started some last year,  but they were no-shows...  its a mystery.

I'm itching..

...to get going starting seeds.  However,  its still too soon.  I could go ahead and Wintersow i guess,  but the way these last few springs have gone,  i'm not sure how well it will work out. Wild temperature swings are not helpful.  Also,  i don't really have an open surface outside to put anything on. I do still have those two, tall greenhouses,  but i have nothing to strap them to when the wind blows.

I do need to go through my seed stash again, begin to plot my garden and clear off that pathetic excuse for a seedling shelf that gets cluttered up with all sorts of things in the off season. lol  I wish i could use my greenhouses for shelves instead.  Maybe if my mental state (which has been on a low for a few weeks) perks up i'll be able to come up with something.   The good Lord knows i have plenty of odds and ends to work with!

I know i'll have to mail order a few packets of seeds this year.  Those hibiscus seeds i want can be found at Renee's Garden Seeds for $2.99 a pack currently.

I'm going to try and start the leonotis leonuris early.  I was going to try and direct seed them,  but i have the worst luck with direct sowing and weeding.  Another reason i don't like to grow carrots. The leonotis take time to flower and we are just on the low end of being hot enough for them to really take off.  I intend to get a big head start on them. My concern with starting too early is keeping them from getting leggy before i can plant them out.

I'd like to try growing a half or whole row of sunflowers perhaps. The wild birds enjoy the seeds from my Jerusalem artichokes very much,  so maybe they'd like big sunflower discs?  I'm going to see if our oldest daughter (now 14) would like to help me select the varieties.

Ground cherries are a definite "go" for this year.  Interestingly enough, i found canned ground cherries at Reny's a few weeks ago. They were labeled as "Golden Berries". They were packed in a heavy syrup.  I picked up a couple cans for $2.99 each.  They were ok, wouldn't buy them again really  but i would consider trying to can them myself if i could find some recipe guidelines.  I have also seen them sold on the interwebz in dried form.  Quite expensive. I do have a dehydrator.  Lots of the berries went to waste last year simply because i couldn't keep up and they can be somewhat tedious to harvest.

We're planning to use plastic mulch in the rows this year to keep down on those cursed weeds.  It seems that every year the worst thing that happens is that the weeds take over so quickly. I just can't seem to keep up.
I'm considering the possibility that the plastic mulch might make the ground cherries easier to harvest.

I'll also have to do something about tomato blight.  It took my plants down so quickly i didn't have a chance.

Since today is Friday (it took me three days to pick this entry into existence), i'll plan on making use of any uninterrupted time on Saturday to look through seeds.  I especially need to get my garden mapped out and printed off before my GrowVeg subscription runs out.

Looking around online...

I wanted to know more about the type of hibiscus that is often found in herbal teas.  I found that it is a plant often called sorrel, roselle, and even Florida cranberry.

 Here's a website with photos:
Discover the many uses of the Roselle plant.

And a website with a nice video:
Roselle, Plant of the Week

 So...  now that i know what it is called,  i of course want to find out if i can grow it myself...
 Looks possible,  but it needs a lot of room... 3 foot spacing minimum- but it can be container grown.  I think if i decide to try it,  i'll go with the container option.  I have a nice 30 gallon rubber tub that i could fill with soil.
Dave's Garden

Seeds available at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/ROSELLE-HIBISCUS-Sabdariffa-Fruit-Flower/dp/B004Z3HUU6

Just a bit of snow...

For my area at least,  this predictive map was spot on:

]

It was nice to stay in and watch the snow fall,  and blow around.  We were lucky like most and didn't lose power which allowed us to enjoy two days of quiet, enforced relaxation.  School was called off for Friday
When all was said and done we got around 24-28 inches of snow.  its hard to tell really because it blew and drifted so much.


Poor Molly had to go pee in this. It was still blowing and snowing when she had to go out on Saturday morning.  We had a 4 foot drift on the front steps that she and i had to plow through but the wind had blown a clear spot at the end of the drift.


Here's a couple videos of the clearout.

Front part of the house.  I took this leaning out of the living room window.


Backyard from the driveway:


We had a snow drift that covered the kitchen window entirely.


Well,  that's it for the storm update.

January Thaw

Not my favorite time of winter at all.  Things get muddy and slushy,  the snow looks dingy.  The air warms up just enough to tease of spring that is well over another month and a half away.  Our temperature right now is 53 degrees F with bright sun and cloudless skies. Pretty when you look up...icky when you look down.

 However,  the seed catalogs are coming in like mad.  I got my first one before Christmas,  Pinetree Garden Seeds.  I tend to order from them the most.  Their prices are great, lots of variety, good customer service, quick shipping and especially important- they are local here in southern Maine.  So i was happy to get the catalog so soon. Another nice surprise was that Kitazawa seeds sent their catalog early this year.  Normally they are one of the last to arrive.  By then its a little too late to order.  I know i could go online, but i like to plot my orders by catalog and go online to submit my orders.

I don't tend to order flowers anymore since my focus has been on edible landscaping in fruit or berry form.  I know there are a number of perennial herbs,  but after filling all my available space with those dwarf trees and medium shrubs, there really isn't any other spot to put them.  The only non-edible flowering plants i kept are my old fashioned bleeding heart and some stargazer lilies that hubby keeps mowing over.  If he can stop hitting the lilies long enough for me to find them, i'll probably dig them up and give them to my mom.

On another note...   i have been currently noticing a large population of robins lingering in the area.  Where i grew up- less than 15 miles away,  we didn't see robins in the winter.  It was always a big deal to see the "first robin of spring" pecking for worms in the recently thawed earth.  It was taken for granted that they all flew south for the winter.  Experience bore it out.  Since moving into a more towny area i have noted that they apparently  don't all go south. So i looked it up.  Robin Migration .  Seems what i have been seeing is not unusual. Based on what i read on that link,  things make sense.   Our town's streets are lined with trees that produce tiny crabapple-like berries,  a small park about two blocks away is lined with ornamental berry trees.  We have many ash trees as well in the neighborhood. Looks like the robins have plenty of food for the winter over here.  At my youthful home, the pickings must be slim.  Not many ash trees are usual.  Its mostly pine, oak, maple, spruces and other pine trees. The fruit is all in the summer,  blueberries, raspberries, choke cherries, etc., but nothing that lingers through the winter.  Anyway,  i thought that was interesting.

Well i'm signing out for the evening.  Most of my entries take the whole day, picked at a bit at a time.

I have a nice fantasy novel to sit back and read.  We installed new flooring this weekend and i'm sore from the effort.   I'm going to take some valerian, read and call it a night. :o)