Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Purple basil did all eventually germinate!

 Lo and behold, the purple basil just needed more time.  They did all (or most) germinate!  Yay!  Though they're growing quite green right now, no purple/red to be seen.

Monday, April 26, 2021

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Sunflower batch 1 (Daycare seeds) started in PT

 I don't think these will germinate, based on a test I did last fall.  But figured will try these now, then next weekend when I go to start the rest of the sunflowers I'll know what I'm dealing with for these daycare seeds.

Jasper!!!!!#$%^&*(^& Dug up the lettuce bed north of air conditioner. Salvaged what I could.

This has never happened before!  Jasper dug up a bed!  The lettuce bed north of the air conditioner.  The little stink.  Argh.  I salved what I could, re-planted the little lettucelings that still had their roots attached.  Some back into the same bed, some into the central lettuce bed.

---- I forgot to feed the dogs this morning, wonder if that has to do with it.  And he's been having diarrhea today, so maybe he's feeling out of sorts which caused the digging.

Lights added to dog crate downstairs for the hardening-off plants

Strung up two of the 20 year old lights, in the dog crate in the living room.  This way when the plants being hardened off are inside because it's too cold or whatever, they can still get some light.

Currently under these lights / starting the hardening off cycle are:

- some leftover zinnias

- all hollyhocks

- one tomato (medium)

The 3 main light shelves are maxed out but so far so good

Yowzers!! Lots of plants on the go inside.  So far everything that I'd like to be under lights (rather than outside) is fitting on the 3 main shelves, except for a handful of zinnias which I'll do the inside/outside dance every day.

Zinnias in flats potted-up -- tall ones have amazing root balls!

Wow, so far the zinnias look amazing, especially the tall ones, growing so healthy and vibrantly.

Worried that their roots will get all tangled together being in one big flat together.  So, transplanted them all, into various pots.  The roots of the tall ones are all so healthy and extensive!  The short ones are the opposite -- not a lot of roots to write home about, and those plants are much smaller though I would have thought it's because they're the short variety, but now that I see the difference in roots, hmmm.

So hopefully this transplant goes well and the flat idea didn't harm them the way the communal pot seemed to hurt some of the kales.

Transplanted rest of the peas into the ground

 ^^^

Saturday, April 24, 2021

Hollyhocks being hardened off because neighbour's have been growing for a while

Since the neighbour's hollyhocks emerged a while ago, I'm hoping that means they're somewhat cold hardy so I'm going to start hardening them off today, to free up room under the lights.

Rest of celery transplanted: 2 into container, 1 in ground

Figured why not try celery in container since I couldn't decide on an ideal spot for the remaining celery.

Mixed in lots of kelp meal and pre-soaked alfalfa pellets.

Friday, April 23, 2021

Oh no! Some of today's transplanted kales look almost dead!

No idea what happened, but a couple of the Siberian kales flopped over / got all wilty within an hour or two of being transplanted  Hmmm.  Well if they don't survive I have others in the wings.


--> Ohhhh, actually my guess is the roots were too damaged by me pulling them apart from each other (these were in WS jug).  All of today's kales were from the WS jugs though, so it's good that most of them survived.

Transplanted kales and more broccolis into central bed

 Chose the best of these to put into the central bed:

- Kale:  Premier forge

- Kale:  Siberian

- Broccoli:  Waltham

- Broccoli:  Sprouting Green


Mixed in kelp meal and pre-soaked alfalfa pellets.


There are more of everything still in pots, to either fill in gaps if any of these don't make it, or to put in the west "L" bed eventually.

Moved a few teeny zinnia, holly, and tomato outside during day, to come in at night / when cold

 (Because hardly any room left under the lights.)

They're just in normal pots, no cover.

Winter sowed sprouted ground cherry and tomato seeds

Really running out of room under the lights, so put some of today's newly germinated ground cherry and tomato seeds into proper WS containers (one seed per container).  Will bring them in when chilly but otherwise leave outside to see what happens.

Cold temps / snow impacted the transplanted celery

The cold temps and light snow we had, for which I think the celery wasn't covered because the pots had blown off, seem to have taken a bit of a hit but I think they'll make it.

WS'd germinated tomato, ground cherry, and hollyhock seeds

 As an experiment, after germinating in paper towels I moved 1 tomato (Rainbow Blend), 2 ground cherries, and 1 hollyhock seed into their own individual WS containers and put them outside for 24/7 except I will bring them in for really cold temps.

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Snow! (just a bit) I covered-up most things to protect them.

Cold weather and some dustings of snow.  Have covered up most things with pots or plastic, except carrots and garlic not covered.


--> Update a couple of days later (Friday April 23rd):  Almost everything still looks fine, the one exception being one of the smaller transplanted broccolis which is floppy but might still have hope.

--> Update #2:  I moved the floppy broccoli out of the prime central bed to put a healthy broccoli in its place.  Moved the floppy one to the north bed against the wall.

Monday, April 19, 2021

Bolero carrots doing way better than Nantes and Touchon -- using Bolero to fill in gaps

Wow!  The Bolero carrots (new to me this year) have not only had much higher germination than Nantes and Touchon, their itty bitty seedlings look much bigger and stronger.

So, while thinning the Bolero I used the thinnings to fill in some of the gaps in the Nantes and Touchon.  Worth a try I figure.

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Purple basil (collected in 2018) = zero germination

Zero germination from the purple basil.  The Genovese had great germination; and the thai had 3.

Perhaps should toss these purple basil seeds.  ---- Oh, actually I used them all up, none left.  That's good.

Peas half into ground; pried open peat pots and removed some entirely

 Hopefully I wasn't too rough with the peat pot prying.

Put lots of kelp meal and pre-soaked alfalfa pellets.

Saturday, April 17, 2021

Asparagus harvested (first batch)

Decided I'm going to harvest pretty much anything and everything I can this year, since with the aphids last year who knows if the patches will survive.  Most spears so far as quite thin still, I imagine weakened from the aphid battle.  But, even the thin ones were delicious!

(The asparagus were started from seed in Feb 2018).

Floating row cover placed over garlic in hydro meter bed

Definitely can't say I like the look of it, but, if it means one less thing to inspect (leek moth eggs/larvae), could be a good trade-off.  Not sure if this is the quality cover or the dollar store cover that disintegrates but if it falls to pieces I'll just replace it.

Uncovered garlic remains:  all along the north wall bed, and, a few plants in the meter bed that weren't in a good spot to be under the cover.

Broccoli #5 transplanted into the garden

 The one that was in the opaque WS container.  Gorgeous plant despite its rough start (it was one of the round 1 or 2s that were not happy inside).

Celery x 3 transplanted into garden

 Will keep the other three in pots a little while longer.

Lettuce central bed has large gaps, so scattered more seeds

Terrible germination in the central bed, especially the north bit (which was Ruby Leaf from 2020 collected seed), but also the east part of the south bit (which was Black Seeded Simpson from the foil packet i.e. not my collected seed).

So, scattered more throughout, using the Black Seeded Simpson from the foil packet again for both of the areas.

Friday, April 16, 2021

Tomatoes and ground cherry started in PT

Exciting!

- Ground cherry (collected in 2020 from the volunteer that grew in a little crack in the patio stones by the gate -- figure those must be good vegetable-genes, growing so well in such pathetic conditions)

- Tomato
    - Cherry tomato (collected 2018)
    - Medium tomato (collected 2018)
    - Rainbow blend (bought 2021 -- mix of heirloom varieties -- I have no idea which seeds in the packet are which specific variety but tried to select a variety of seeds that looked kind of different from each other, including one darker seed, wonder what that one is)

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Short zinnia orange and yellow - Round 2 started in PT

 Short orange zinnias have hardly germinated at all, so started a bunch more.

Short yellow zinnias have germinated a bit more, but still not very much, so started a bunch more of those, too.

Something dug up the new pea seeds even though raised up on chair!

 Hmmm!   I wonder if it was the rodent who climbed up the compost bin and jumped over the chair from there or something...  Interestingly, s/he doesn't seem to find the newly-sprouted peas appetizing, just dug up those and left them on top of the soil.

I feel like it's not the birds, but, who knows.

Potted-up the forget-me-nots (they were looking sad, turns out their roots are all bound up in the small pots)

 ^^^

Beets round 2 started in PT (to fill in gaps -- something nibbled/killed ~50% of them!!)

 Hmm, a lot of gaps in the beet bed, ~40-50% flopped, no idea why.  So, started some replacements.


Edited:  A-ha, I'm positive something came along and had a meal of a bunch of the new beet sprouts!  Sigh!

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Hollyhock round 2 started in PT

 Due to very low germination in round 1 (3 of 15 so far, and 1 of those seems to have died in the pot), started round 2 of hollyhocks.

Basil - Genovese moved from PT into potting mix

 Wow, great germination from the Genovese basil!  Almost all have germinated.  On the other hand, no germination yet from the thai nor purple, though they've got that weird translucent bubble thing going on, so hopefully soon.

First zinnias moved from PT into potting mix -- in a big flat/tray

 The first zinnias have germinated (tall misc, tall lemon cupcake, short yellow, and short orange).   Hoping to have a ton of them this year, so took a chance for space-saving and put them into flats/trays (tall in one, short in the other).  I've never done this and am concerned that the trays are too short and that roots will get all tangled, but I'll give it a try.

Very limited germination from the shorts so far; talls doing much better.

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Basil started in PTs: Genovese, Thai, and Purple

 Genovese:  30 from the OSC 2018 packet.

Thai: ~12 (collected 2018)

Purple:  ~12 (collected 2018)


Hollyhocks: 2 (out of 15) have sprouted so far, put into potting mix (inside)

Zinnias started in paper towels

 - Lemon Cupcake x~30 (store bought this year) 

- Tall misc collected (the three baggies) x ~90

- Short yellow collected 2020 x ~20? or x30?

- Short orange collected 2020 x ~20? or x30?

Used newly-collected mown leaves to mulch the chard/parsley/onion/broccoli

Would be fantastic to not buy any cedar mulch, well at least for the backyard, and use leaves instead as mulch for water retention.  Saves money, and doesn't leave behind those big chunks of wood.

Peas started hardening off; added pre-soaked peas to fill gaps, WHICH SOMEONE ATE WITHIN HOURS!

Hardening off:  Placed them in mostly-shade behind the chairs, on the ground.

Pre-soaked peas:  Soaked them overnight, put them into the gaps this morning before setting out to harden.  Wow!  Someone found and ate the seeds within hours of me putting the trays out to harden!  The potting mix was clearly dug in those gaps, and the seeds gone.  Whoever it was didn't bother the sprouted ones / seedlings, even the teency ones.  So, I'm pre-soaking replacements and will try again, but keeping the pea trays raised up off the ground.  My first guess is it's the mole/vole/mouse rodent thing I see occasionally; second guess would be birds but I don't think so.

Transplanted chard, parsley, onions, and wimpy broccoli

 General approach was to mix in these:

- kelp meal

- alfalfa pellets pre-"dissolved" in hot water (they dissolve really quickly, 10 minutes is plenty) (this is my first time ever using alfalfa pellets, bought them from Ritchie's yesterday)

- some of the leftover horse manure went under the parsley, onions, and broccoli (not the chard bec I forgot)


Used pencil crayons as cutworm defense for a few of them "just because", though I haven't seen any cutworms or grubs or anything in the central bed.  I always worry I'm piercing key roots when poking the crayons into place.

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

No-dig: Garlic bed, which was mulched thickly with leaves, soil nice and soft!

Wow!  The soil in the garlic bed by the kitchen door, which I mulched thickly with mown leaves last fall, is nice and soft, very easy to put my hand in.  (Discovered this this spring while moving a few garlics to fill in gaps.)

This makes me really want to try some no-dig beds, starting this coming fall by doing a thick mown-leaf mulch.  It's a lot of work to collect the leaves especially since they mow down to nothing, so it takes a LOT of leaves and mowing, but, if it means not maiming worms etc. next spring, it will be worth it. 

I'm thinking next year the entire kitchen window bed, the air conditioner beds, and at least part of the west bed would be good candidates.  

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Indoor-sown kale are all dying

Oh dear.  Brassicas seem to not exactly be my forte.  The indoor-sown kale have all been dying.  At first it was just a few, now it looks like it will be all of them.  I had started to put them out during the day for cooler temperatures than inside, but even before then two of them were clearly dying; and now, they'll all on the way out, though I wonder if I went too fast with having them outside for too long.

Oh well, hopefully at least some of the WS ones will make it -- so far they look ok, just slow to grow.

Monday, April 5, 2021

WS: All jugs have germinated except the lupins

 No sign of the lupins, but all other WS jugs have had germination now.  (with variable rates)

More lettuce sowed, with kelp meal

 Central bed, where the zukes/rondes will go later.  A generous sprinkling of kelp meal into the lower part of the soil.

- northmost mini-bed = Ruby Leaf (from last year's collected seed)

- south to that = Tom Thumb Butterhead to the west (from the foil collection), Black Seeded Simpson to the east (from the foil collection since no more of last year's collected seed left)

WS comparison: Indoor chard WAY more advanced even though sowed a week later

Huge difference so far between the WS chard March 7th, and the indoor-raised chard March 13th.  The WS chard started appearing a week or so ago, still tiny, just starting to get first true leaves.  The indoor-raised chard is lush and thriving with 1"-2" leaves.  I've taken to re-hardening off the indoor-raised chard lately.

Will be interesting to see if the WS chard catches up.

Carrots sowed (direct)

Didn't bother with the corn starch gel this year.  Just direct seeded a few seeds per hole.

- Nantes west-most

- Bolero (new-to-me variety this year) central

- Touchon east-most


Beets sowed outside, with kelp meal

Put a generous sprinkling of kelp meal several inches down.

These are the beet seeds collected last year from the year-two fridge beets, which I started in a paper towel a few days ago.  Once a rootlet appears, I'm putting them in the ground.

Northern-most are spaced 16/foot, will put the southern-most at 9/foot.

Bird sightings -- non-backyard

 Just for fun, I'll start keeping track of birds I see, while out and about etc.  (i.e. this is not a list of birds seen in my yard)

I won't bother listing typical year-round birds like crows and seagulls.


April 2021

- brown creeper (Forest Valley near Innes) (my first time identifying one of these!  April 3rd)

- killdeer (coyote alley south field)

- chickadee

- robin

- cardinal

- Canada Geese

- Snow Geese (my first time seeing/identifying these!  April 5th in flight while at Lavigne)

- Hairy woodpecker


Sunday, April 4, 2021

Bird sightings -- backyard

 Here are birds who I've seen visiting the backyard:

2021:

March

- song sparrow


April

- song sparrow

- dark-eyed junco

Reference: Outdoor killing temperatures

 Handy resource showing the killing temperatures for various uncovered vegetable plants.

https://www.sustainablemarketfarming.com/2020/03/10/winter-kill-temperatures-of-cold-hardy-vegetables-2020/

Asparagus spears appearing

 The first asparagus spears are poking up their heads, specifically in the most neglected bed north of the compost bin.

Kale transplanted from WS into pots

 The Premier Forge kale that was WS'd March 20th has now been potted.  I had sowed them way too thickly, and they were leggy (maybe because of blue plastic container?), some are just starting to get their first true leaf but I decided they needed to be moved now.  

I'll continue to treat them as WS, that is, they'll continue living outside full time except when too cold.

Saturday, April 3, 2021

Broccoli transplanted from semi-WS into pots

 Transplanted the semi-WS broccoli (that had been sprouted on paper towels then moved to WS) into pots (with the Pro-mix mixture).  6 of them are the "round 3" broccoli, which was Sprouting Green, and 6 of them are from the unlabelled salad container, which I believe is Waltham based on my March 7th post.

Their roots looked good, nice development.  They pretty much all have at least one true leaf.

I'll continue to treat them as WS, that is, they'll continue living outside full time except when too cold.

Their WS containers still have some seedlings, I'll leave them to keep doing their thing.  (I chose the best ones to transplant).

Lettuce sowed in ground (collected last year)

On both sides of the air conditioner.  Ruby Leaf and Black-Seeded Simpson (the mature bag), all from seeds collected last year.

Kelp meal worked into the soil of the south-of-a/c, plus fresh dig-in kitchen scraps.

North-of-a/c has some kelp meal in the part closest to the a/c, but not the most north part bec it has last week's dig-in kitchen scraps which I didn't want to dig up.

Beets, hollyhock, ageratum, and other flower started in paper towels

 - Hmm, two bags of collected seeds both from 2019, one called "button flower" (which I know now is ageratum), the other called "purple-headed flower, nice" -- I can't remember what the latter could be, and I wonder if it's also the ageratum, but the seeds look different.  So, started both, and we shall see.

- Hollyhock collected last year from neighbour (my first time trying hollyhock)

- Beets (x~60) collected from last year's biennial beets that went to seed

Friday, April 2, 2021

Peas started in peat pots (inside)

 Pre-soaked them in water for 4-5 hours first.

109 seeds planted, 2 per 2x2 pot but one with 3 in it.

Thursday, April 1, 2021

Song sparrow eating from feeder! (the one with mixed-seed, the long plastic tube feeder)

 Wow!  Actually saw someone eating from my feeder!

I haven't seen anyone eating from the sunflower one -- but, now that I look, the level of that one does seem to be decreasing...