Broccoli started in paper towel

Decided to try growing broccoli again this year!  Tried it only once I think, quite a few years ago, with no success.  Oh wait -- thanks to the blog I see I also tried some in 2017, but they were late-season runts from Canadian Tire planted in July (which also didn't come to anything) -- so, doesn't really count.

Have been hesitant to grow it due to caterpillar issue, but will try covering it with row cover. 

So, started seeds in paper towel / bag today.  Might be a bit early, but being a cool-weather crop I figure might not hurt to give them a good head start.

(These are the "Waltham" seeds from the foil pack, which is now 3 years old)

More parsley started in paper towels

In retrospect, I'm not sure why I did this, but started more of both kinds of parsley in paper towels today.  I think it's just in case any of the ones I have so far don't make it, such as due to me waiting too long to pot some of them.

Potted into soil more onions, celery, and parsley

Up to 5 celery potted now if they all take.  No more needed, that's plenty.

Up to 19 onions potted now if they all take.  No more needed, that's plenty.

Up to ... (I can't remember, I think8 or 9) parsley potted now if they all take.

I waited too long to pot these ones -- many roots had grown quite long in the paper towel, several cms.  Hopefully they'll forgive my tardiness.

Yellow-red perennial sprouted! And some celery. Moved into soil.

Cool!  One of the seeds collected from 2019's yellow-red perennial has sprouted (in the paper towel).  It looks like two leafs, but I don't see any actual roots yet.  Moved it into soil.

Celeries have started sprouting too.  Moved into soil as well.  And some more onions and parsley.

Potted into soil 1 parsley and a bunch of onions (no sign of celery yet)

These were from the plastic bag "sowing" last Sunday, February 16th.

The 2018 onions are sprouting, but more of the 2019 onions have sprouted, so far.

The 1 parsley that has sprouted so far is from the Single Hardy Italian variety.

Celery, parsley (two kinds), onions (2019 and 2018), and yellow-red perennial started in paper towel baggies

Today, I started these, using the paper towel baggie method (which for some reason I don't think I've really ever done before):

- celery (same variety as always, from the foil packet)
- parsley (two varieties:  forest green and single Italian)
- onions (2019 collected and 2018 collected)
- yellow-red perennial from in front of the fence (2019 collected)

Still many beets, potatoes, and squash (and a few carrots) from last year

Last year's harvest still here:

- beets (quite a few)
- potatoes
- carrots (only a few left now)
- butternut squash (5, including 2 biggg ones...  slowly getting through them)
- jumbo pink banana squash (the 2 ginormous first harvested ones, and one relatively reasonable size)


The freezer meals are getting eaten, but still lots left.

Shop lights

Picked up some shop light housing and T8 bulbs 2600 lumens, 6500k a few weeks ago.  Made more progress on setting them up today.  This will be quite a bit cheaper than the lights I bought from Lee Valley a few years ago.  Hopefully they all work well.

Tuberous begonias have been started

Started the tuberous begonias today.  This is later than last year, when I started them on January 12th which I felt ended up being too early.

Lighting (reference)

Came across this excellent video to understanding what to look for when buying lights.  Various notes while watching the video are below.

Website link:  https://therustedgarden.blogspot.com/2019/12/starting-seeds-indoors-video-series-how.html

Direct video link:  https://youtu.be/z1pM_JfLWhM

He recommends 6500K, with 2500 to 3000 lumens. "Try to get close to 6500K for daylight and well over 2000 lumens (2500-3000), you'll be good to go."

You want 5000 to 6500K. That's what daylight is.

The higher the lumens (3000, 4000, 5000), the 6500K can move down to 5000, 4000.

Lumens is the intensity/brightness of the light.

Make sure it has at least a 2-ft cord, maybe 4-ft cord (so they can be plugged into outlet).  (Without a cord is meant to be hard-wired into ceiling.)

12, 14, 16 hours of daylight.  Have at least 8 hours of darkness.

Get a fixture too.

A couple of specific examples from the video:

Hyper Tough, 4-foot led shop light, with pull chain switch, 250, 45, daylight, 5000 lumens, 45 years of life.  This one doesn't give the kelvin, but it says daylight, which will be ~5000-6500.

Philips Deluxe Daylight High Color Rendering Lamps, 32 watts, 48 inch, T8, 2600 lumens, color temperature 6500k.  Other Ts work too, but when you buy the bulbs, make sure you buy a T8 fixture.

Peas self-sprouting

Noticed a bunch of peas have sprouted near where the peas were this summer.  I wonder if they'll survive winter and grow fully next spring?

First frost was last night

Or at least, there was heavy frost on the grass and everything around.  I pulled almost all the zinnias etc. already, so I don't know for sure but pretty sure.

Planted garlic

Planted the garlic today.  (Was a little late due to being busy with many OT hours at work)

Two kinds:

- German White.  These cloves were nice and big, so I wonder if they'll produce nice big cloves.  13 cloves planted in total.  All are along the front edge of the north wall.

- Duganski.  These cloves were on the smaller size.  ~19 cloves planted in total.  They're in a few places:  Most are along the back edge of the north wall; 2 behind the air conditioner; 1 in in the broken pot; and 3 in each of the terra cotta planters.


Also -- while doing this I found two cloves in the soil that appear (smell) to be garlic too.  I split them apart and put then in the NW corner of the north wall, right next to the compost bin.  They'll get zero sun, nothing else growing there so figured it could be a little experiment to see if they do anything.

Malabar put away and didn't eat any of it :-(

The Malabar spinach grew very well but I never got around to eating any of it, and the leaves had those rusty specks all over them which was a bit off-putting.  So, I removed it, to get ready to dig in the horse manure soon.

Just too much harvest of everything combined with not enough time to cook things due to working 25 hours a day, 8 days a week since late August.

Still has not been frost yet (again) -- and saw praying mantis again today

More cold nights, but the zinnias are still intact so I know it hasn't been frost here yet.

Saw the praying mantis again today, still in that corner.  By later in the afternoon she was hiding / out of sight again.

Also, my hopes are pretty guarded about her eggs hatching.  It seems they lay eggs regardless whether they were fertilized or not.  I would be surprised if she had run into a male to mate with.

Harvested all remaining beets and carrots

Harvested all the remaining beets and carrots, because I want to empty the beds so I can do this once-per-5-or-10-years injection of horse manure + grounded up dried leaves.

Carrots are usually a disappointing harvest, same as this year -- a lot of very short/stubby carrots.  Some nice ones too though.

Beets were good, some huge ones, a lot of nice size and some teeny ones.

Pot potatoes = success!

Emptied out one of the container potatoes today (the experiment started August 4th with a mega-sprouted grocery store potato).

Wow!  More potatoes than I thought!  I nice double handful.  I will definitely try this again next year, with an earlier start / longer season.

This might have been the one in which I put two potatoes.   So, I won't be surprised if the remaining container produces fewer potatoes.

It's nice to not be poking holes into potatoes digging them out with a fork.

I found the praying mantis AND her egg sac!!!!

While starting to put the garden to bed today, wonder of wonders, I found the praying mantis AND her egg sac!!!

First I spotted her, at the very top of the bamboo stake at the sorrel (NE corner).  A few minutes later, I looked downward along the stake, and ------ voila!!!!  The egg sac!

So cool.

I had been worried that in my cleaning up I would have accidentally removed her and/or her sac.

Now, I know exactly where the eggs are so can keep an eye on them next spring! Woo!

Still has not been frost yet

Some cold nights right down to around 0 degrees, but no frost yet.  Zinnias, Malabar, etc., everything still un-touched by frost.

Has been warm fall; now some cold nights, but no frost yet

September was really nice, warm and sunny.

Lately we've had some cooler nights, single digits.  And the forecast now is more seasonal, cooler.

No frost yet...