Saturday, April 28, 2018

Carrots and beets sowed

Sowed half the carrot bed, with ~3 rows of beets on the north end and the rest of the rows with carrots.

Onion sets planted (from sets collected last year)

Onion sets planted (from sets collected last year).  I think they're multiplying onions.

Zinnias potted into soil

The zinnias sprung up after only about 2 days.  Potted many into soil today, but then ran out of soil.

Friday, April 27, 2018

Ground cherries have flower buds

2 or 3 of the 5 ground cherries have flower buds already -- only 1.5" tall.  Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing!

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Zinnias sowed (indoors)

Always exciting to try something new!   3 vermiculite tubs of zinnias.  Unfortunately these are the pom-pom kind, which isn't my favourite look (I prefer more daisy-style), but oh well!

Ground cherries, tomatoes, & kale potted up (some but not all)

Potted up some of the ground cherries and tomatoes (beefsteak and sweeties) into slightly larger pots.

As for the kale, potted up the 3 that were looking more pathetic than the other set of kale, which also don't look all that great.  2 of the 3 had wimpy root systems, but the stronger one had nice roots.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Carrot (1) harvested

Plucked a lovely carrot out of the ground today, from last summer/fall.  Nice and crisp.  Usually my leftovers end up mucky and not edible in spring but this one was great.

Peas in ground, finally!

The weather forecast is finally good enough to get the peas in the ground, so did that today.  They are so in need of support, which they can get started on now. 

Note to self, score the peat flats before sowing.  Scored them today, hope the roots will be ok.

Green onion sets sowed

Green onion sets sowed.  These are the sets that appeared last fall that I saved over the winter.  They look in great shape; looking forward to see if they produce.

Wildflowers sowed

Wildflowers:  scattered various home-collected seeds in wildflower bed and front bed, including the corn poppy seeds.

Lupins sowed outside

Lupins (5 seeds in each of four spots) sowed outside in the front bed, with compost, not presoaked.

(The ones I tried to germinate in baggie a few weeks ago didn't do anything.)

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Peas didn't perish!

Wow, the peas look great!  Almost as good as new.  Will keep inside a few more days... snowing today, sheesh!

Sunday, April 15, 2018

Peas in peril!!!

Yikes, when we got home today around noon, as the freezing rain was just starting, checked on the peas (still under the chair/table) and found them very droopy.  Whisked them inside, put some on the heat mat, let others be, watered all as they were quite dry.

It's now 8:30pm and I'm relieved to say it looks like most of the peas survived, as they have un-drooped and are looking much better.  Put them back upstairs, under lights, because the weather for the next few days is still not great.  Hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday can put them back out.

Some of the individual peas might not make it as their stem bent rather than arc-ed, but I'll let them be and see what happens.

Overall:  Phew!

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Poor peas facing cold spring

Peas have been 24/7 outside last few days, still in their pots.  Been cloudy and cold, very unseasonal, and calling for snow and/or freezing rain the next few days.  Haven't plunked the peat pots into the ground yet, so have them set under the chair/table for protection.  Looking ok so far.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Sowed basil and home-collected bok choy

Sowed basil and bok choy, ~12 seeds each in vermiculite.  The bok choy are all the ones I collected from one of the longish-season-lasting plants last year.

Peas placed outside to start hardening off (but not planted yet)

Plunked all of the peas outside today to harden off.  Cold spring, but have to get this done because they're several inches tall now.  Brought them in tonight.

Monday, April 9, 2018

3 kales not looking good

3 of the kales, in adjacent connected pots, aren't looking so great these days.  Wilty. 

Saturday, April 7, 2018

Asparagus moved to top shelf with old lights

Re-organized the plants/shelves now that have 6 flats of peas to make room for.

Part of this involved moving the asparagus to the top shelf, under the old Cobourg lights.  Hoping they'll be ok with this...

Lupins sowed in fridge baggie

"sowed" the lupin seeds saved from last year's plant, on moist paper towel placed in a baggie in the fridge.  Another experiment...

Peas: sowed more to fill in the gaps

All six pea flats now have germinated, although some gaps.  So, filled in the gaps today with seeds pre-soaked for a few hours.

As for the germination -- notably, the three first trays to germinate were the three on the heat mats.  After I moved them under lights, moved the other trays to the mat, and within a day or two they had also appeared.

Malabar spinach sowed

~8 seeds in vermiculite, pre-soaked for a few hours.  Have never tried Malabar spinach before.

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Ground cherries are tiny, slow growing

The ground cherry plants are tiny, seem to be slow growing compared to the tomato plants.  Hope they pick up speed so they'll be ready to go out in ~6 weeks.

Peas have appeared, but only the ones on the heat mat

Some of the peas have appeared, but only the ones on the heat mat, so far.  At first I had the plastic cover on it, but removed that yesterday when noticed a bit of mold forming on the soil, which I 've removed.

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Peas sowed indoors

Pisum sativum "icicle" pea bought from Aster Lane Edibles.

Jiffy pots again this year, 3 of which I found fully intact in the ground from last fall's batch and decided to re-use.  (Decided against sowing outside and trying in vain to keep away whoever has eaten past year's seeds, by trying to cover with wire mesh... way too easy for rodents to dig a little hole under the mesh.)

6 rectangle pots with 11 seeds in most of them.

As for space under lights...  3 of the 4 shelves are almost totally full.  So, for the few days once the peas sprout, will probably have to do 12 hours / 12 hours giving everyone their turn.  At least will only be short term.