Blunders with shoots, blossoms 'n roots

All good things must come to and end

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Sun, 12 May 2013 05:08:00 +0000

And that includes my time on this blog. I started this blog back in 2008 so family and friends that couldn't come see what I was experimenting on in the garden could still see what was going on. I've learned so much in my almost 20 years (yikes!) of gardening and now the name doesn't fit anymore...not that I still don't kill things, mind you!

I've made many garden blogging friends along the way- and still read their blogs regularly- so some things won't change, but it was time to move on.

In late 2009 we moved to a cold, dry climate- zone 5. So different than what I've been growing in (zone 8, moist). I grow year round, in an unheated high tunnel and greenhouse- they're small, but I produce a lot with them. I'm working towards getting a 20x40 high tunnel on the just under a 1/4 acre area next door- some of it is ours, but some is not- the owner (who we are purchasing our home from) has given me permission to do what I please. I'm working to grow enough for my community- including the food banks, homeless, etc. In time.

Also, I've been working as a garden coach this year- seed starting classes for the public and smaller groups, etc. So things have changed- and it was time to change my blog.

So here you go- out with the old and in with the new.

Dirt Candy will serve a different purpose than this blog did. Not just for family and friends far away, this blog will go along with any coaching I'm doing- any classes I teach will be covered. Basically, it's an extension or another way to help the community do what I do every year- which is grow our own food, in as simple and as low tech way as possible. I get so many questions every year that I thought that I'd cover those too- so anyone can have access to the information. It's time to take back our food- and it starts in our own backs yards, I want to help others do that too.

My current yard is a challenge- all the work will be included, so others can be inspired to not give up in this climate. It can be done here.

So head on over and drop me a note! And thanks so much for reading my blog.

Happy growing!

Tessa

It's almost time!

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:19:00 +0000

I've moved the seed starting setup inside the house now. It was just too cold in the garage. It took a while for me to do it as it seemed so final to change my daughter's room. And with one change after another it's time to move on.

So before we are even close to seed starting time-indoors at least, more on that later, it's onward and upward time!

Happy gardening,

Tessa

Accidental potato

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:42:00 +0000

Found this while moving a compost bed around-couldn't have grown better if I'd planned it!

Happy gardening,

Tessa

Winter harvesting

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:40:00 +0000

Just a quick update on what's going on in between family emergencies!

More yummy salad- this is just this week.

Happy New Year and happy harvesting!

Tessa

An Interesting Visitor

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:58:00 +0000

This little guy crawled on my daughter’s back while sitting on the couch- freaked her out, but not too much that she forgot to get a shot of him!

His tail is truly an electric blue. He is a type of lizard called a Skink- isn’t he cute?

Happy gardening,

Tessa

Busy, busy, busy!

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:00:00 +0000

So much to do, so little time. We all try to get as much done in a day as possible- often times it’s less than we’d like. It all takes time to establish a new yard and getting a foothold is a challenge. But little by little it’s all coming together.

The weather has finally started warming up- late this year (thanks a lot La Nina) and it just happened to be my first year growing anything. It is time to start moving the cool weather crops out and moving the warm ones in. Since I had an unexpected absence recently, I was a bit behind with sowing warm weather lettuce. I did get some sown as soon as I returned only to find that something had found them quite tasty in the nursery- which is, at present, in the garage.

These were sown in a 200 cell plug flat. Instead of tossing them I set the survivors in a bed far away from my crop area and hoped for the best- just in case the offenders were hiding in the soil, I didn’t want them finding everything else. So far there are some that are doing okay. So, back to the drawing board for the lettuce.

On the warm weather crop front I’ve sown some melon (2 kinds), squash (2 kinds), more chard and some other things like sunflowers, etc. I’ve purchased some lemon cukes to try this year and I’ll be sowing my green beans in long paper pots (or what I like to call my version of root trainers). I’ve decided to grow bush varieties of beans with all the wind we’ve had this year and I don’t expect that to change (thanks again La Nina). I didn’t really feel the need to have to run out there and save my trellis from being blown away- there has been quite enough of that with tunnel plastic and shade cloth!

A few of my tomatoes have buds on them- very surprising considering they were horribly neglected in my absence. They have really bounced back nicely. I gave them some extra TLC as they had purple leaf undersides- a phosphorus deficiency, no doubt. Now they look great. I’ve planted one out in the greenhouse bed. The labels were messed up too- but luckily I have 3 positive ids and 2 of them were the bigger tomatoes, so I could choose which ones should go in the greenhouse ground beds.

This tomato was given to me by my neighbor. This is one I started from seed.

Peas are doing nicely-

Compost bin #1 is built, but not finished. I have to do the front and add some hardware cloth on the sides.

I worked on adding some more small in ground greenhouse beds-

The new grass area is looking very nice- Here is a before shot.

And after…

I really love what we’ve done so far…

Spring crops are continuing and starting to finish up- I’ll have a gap as I lost some replacements, but It’ll all work out.

I hope your days have been sunny and your harvests yummy!

Happy gardening,

Tessa

Chicken Coop Tour!

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Sat, 14 May 2011 15:35:00 +0000

So a friend of mine invited me to go enjoy the local Chicken Coop Tour here in Bend/Redmond and I almost didn’t go! Boy am I glad I did!

We managed to see 8 different setups, all of different sizes, with a 3-year-old in tow. I have now got so many ideas of how our chicken set-up should be that my head is swimming! We had a lot of fun and learned a lot about chicken breeds and their care- very nice! Here are a few highlights-

This coop was built with old hot rod parts- very creative. The little girl there was the creator’s daughter who was running around with turkey poults in her coat pocket- their little necks looking like they’d break any minute! She said they were ‘pocket perfect’…and indeed they were.

We loved these…

There were a lot of recycling examples. I have plenty limbs around my home to make this cool roost.

Interesting chicken tractor- I could make this. It would get the job done, moving the chickens onto my beds, but I’m not sure I like how they look. I’m sure they could be prettied up!

Tractor inside- nesting box and roost
Below- food tube

Recycled 2 liter bottle for water- nice.

Chickens weren’t the only thing we saw- this animal was so funny! The guy, I mean! He was a big guy and that pig was taking him for a walk :)

And all kidding aside…

Cute little tail!

And finally…the deal of the day! I found a watering can. It’s not a haws, but an old French design from the 1800s and I like it! It has a wonderful fine rose.

We saw so much more- and some small, nice backyard setups, but this post would end up being way too long to list them! I’m inspired now to get our chickens, but it will have to wait a while- say a year or two. I have all my ideas on paper now and we’ll have done all the research by then. In the meantime I can enjoy my friend’s chickens as she’ll be getting them soon! Maybe someday she and I will be in the annual Chicken Coop Tour…

Happy gardening,

Tessa

Amazed…again!

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:25:00 +0000

It’s been almost a month since my last post- sorry about that! So much has happened in the last few weeks it’s hard to know where to start. I’m just now getting a chance to get some things done- including a post.

I’ll start off with how grateful I am to the Lord for His grace! To explain, my dad had a stroke recently, and he also has an aneurism in his brain that has been there for probably 30 years. The amazing thing is that his brain did a work around and created tributaries to get blood to the rest of his brain…all this time! The veins on one side of his neck have no flow and haven’t for years, apparently! How the docs missed this, all this time, is beyond me as my dad is faithful to get his checkups regularly and do what the docs tell him- he wants to be around a long time and healthy- so he does what he needs to do- He’s very responsible and practical that way. When I stayed with my parents for the first week dad was home he was walking around with a cane and talking with a scratchy throat- almost as if it had not happened! And he’s almost 80! We purchased him some superman underwear to go home in! So you can see why I am so grateful! I’m grateful that, for whatever reason He has, God wanted my dad around a bit longer…after all, one of the best things to be in the whole world is a daddy’s girl!

On the garden front, I’m amazed again. The day my mom called me, I was right in the middle of potting up some tomato babies- everything stopped at that point. I came home expecting total death in the greenhouse and tunnels as I’d told my daughter not to worry about it. The tunnels were left up so the plants in it had quite a range of weather while I was gone. Cold, hot, very windy, no water, even some snow- thankfully, they were at least mulched. It’s very interesting what plants do to survive.

When I returned, the first days I just wandered around and watered. I noticed the peas were up; I’d just planted some pre-sprouted seeds before I had to leave and they hadn’t been watered at all.

The wonderful ‘Marvel of Four Seasons’ lettuce had turned a beautiful burgundy in response to the weather extremes- interesting. I just removed the outer leaves and gave them a really good soaking.

I did lose a few, but this is how well they bounced back- They were really dark burgundy, but as they bounced back, I started seeing some green in there. Below is how they looked after I transplanted them originally-

I’ve harvested some and they taste great!

The other things planted looked haggard, but survived too, with the exception of the chard. This shot below was taken a few days after I’d arrived home- weeded and watered and thinned- not too bad! Everything in the first tunnel, which was the first planting, survived really well (spinach, beets and a few lettuce.)

The story is a bit different in the nursery- the lupine, beets, broccoli, and all the chard that I hadn’t transplanted are compost. The tomatoes I had potted up survived thanks to Patrick getting home before me to water them. They looked sad yesterday as I again potted them on to the next and final size pot before they’ll go in the garden- I think they are suffering from a phosphorus deficiency, as the undersides of the leaves are purple-ish.

Not all of what I started is there; I never finished transplanting the micro-blocks the day mom called- so I’ll be sowing some more soon.

Some of the flowers I’d sown a while back have survived too- Yarrow and Foxglove. I’ve also started quite a bit- Lettuce, Columbine, Bellflower, Jacob’s Ladder and more…

More to start as we’re finally getting some warmer weather- hopefully soon we’ll have some nice tomatoes to go in our salads! This was picked fresh this week- it has Lettuce, Mizuna, Tatsoi, Radish, Mache, Spinach and Beet greens.

Happy Gardening to you, and I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Tessa

Have I mentioned how much I love my widger?

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:25:00 +0000

It’s the simple things that make life wonderful- I could make this post just about that- but instead, I’ll just tell you about my widger.

It’s a simple tool, really. It kind-a resembles a tiny shoe horn. All I know is that the other day I needed it. I was trying to transplant some of the lettuce I started a while back- some of them had to go into a 50 cell plug flat. If any of you have tried to get delicate seedlings out of one of these- you know my frustration! Trying not to hurt the seedlings, and the flat at the same time was tough…and then I remembered the widger!

I’d asked for it for Christmas year before last- I didn’t do much in the garden last year so I’d forgotten all about it until I needed it.

Lettuce variety ‘Focea’

What a simple but so very useful tool- it definitely belongs in my list of favorite gardening tools. You simple slide in around the edges of the plant, loosening it from the plug, and then scoop it out- nice.

So obviously some lettuce got transplanted- If I was sowing from seed there would be 12 rows of lettuce- across the bed, and eating baby lettuce to thin out. But I just planted 5 in the short rows.

The wind is still terrible right now so I had to protect them from both the sun and wind- I used a piece of weed mat for shade, and mulched too. In this group, starting front to back- organic ‘Speckles’, ‘Salad Bowl Blend’, ‘Focea’ and organic ‘Marvel of 4 Seasons’. I have to say that I really love the Marvel of 4 Seasons- it’s a new variety this year and it is really a beautiful lettuce…almost too pretty to eat.

The temperatures dropped again after planting out this lettuce and some prior to these- I was worried I’d lose them with just a single layer of protection- they were frozen in the morning, but bounced back…truly amazing.

Yep, Frozen lettuce. The temperatures under a double cover dropped to 26.4 degrees- so these were exposed to a bit lower than that. I did cover 1/2 of them with pots- not wanting to lose all of them, just in case.

This is the same lettuce later that morning.

Is this a pretty lettuce or what!- my photos really don’t capture it well.

We also managed to get the blueberry planted- now we have 4. The ones from last year weren’t as old as the ones we purchased this year- and I’m not sure how well they survived the winter (not to mention the colder and windier than usual spring!). So, hopefully we’ll have 4!

The smaller one on the right only gets to 30” I think- it has blossoms on it, I hope it will do alright. This is a berry bed- 4 blueberry, 4 raspberry (and we’ll plant more), and along the edges I’ll plant more strawberry.

Speaking of strawberry- The area that the cold frames will eventually go was planted with strawberry ‘Quinault’- all tucked in. It starting hailing lightly while I was planting and the day before I got sunburned…you gotta love spring!

Everything planted out has really gotten a beating by the wind. I’ve protected them the best I could. The next sowing will hopefully have better luck!

Lastly- I sowed 7 different varieties of tomato. This year I’m trying a few heirloom varieties that are unusual. These were sown in micro blocks.

Varieties include: ‘Stupice’, ‘Red Zebra’, ‘Ananas Noire’, ‘Green Grape’, ‘Tess’s Land Race Currant’, ‘New Girl’, ‘Woodle Orange’. I can’t wait to see how they do here and how they taste. Except for ‘New Girl’ and ‘Stupice’ were purchased from Baker Creek Seeds- so if you’re interested you can check them out.

And I found a nice video of Eliot Coleman sowing tomato in these micro blocks- this is from the days when he and his wife did the show Gardening Naturally (anyone remember that show- my favorite, I wish they’d do it again!). Enjoy.

Part two is on there too- all good stuff!

Happy Gardening,

Tessa

Wordless Wednesday- 4/7/2011

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:22:00 +0000

Happy spring! :)

Tessa

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 21:09:00 +0000

Happy gardening,

Tessa

First it Snowed, then we sowed

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000

I know, I can hear you- very corny…but accurate!

Yesterday it was cold and it snowy pretty good in the am, but it didn’t stick. It stopped and we had a break in the weather ,so Patrick reseeded the small patch of lawn we put in last year (more on that in another post)- I know, right? Lawn? You know my thoughts on it- but it’s only a little patch (now), and it will look nice off the deck- giving us a different ‘room’ so to speak. He added some sifted compost in the bald spots along with the seed and then a light spray with VF-11.

I’ll do some more updates on this when I introduce our new yard.

I did some sowing too- in one of the tunnels and greenhouse; just a few rows of Radishes and Tatsoi in the tunnel. And after harvesting a few things in the greenhouse I started some radishes in there too- time to get another ground bed build in the greenhouse I think.

The berries we purchased a while back are growing well-

Can’t wait to get these planted…

And an update on the Beets and Spinach transplanted the other day. The temps inside the greenhouse (single layer) dropped to 24.8 degrees. So I’m assuming it was a little warmer under the twice tempered tunnel- I hope! A couple of beets don’t look happy, but everything else seems okay- I put the temperature gauge in there today so I’ll be able to record the lows.

Today’s weather was unsettled- like spring is usually. Snow, sleet, rain, sun, clouds, sun- yep. that’s spring.

At lastly, all the seeds started in the 200 cell plug flat are potted up and look nice and healthy!

In this group-

Lettuce- organic ‘Marvel of Four Seasons’, organic ‘Speckles’, ‘Focea’, ‘Salad Bowl Blend’, organic ‘Red Orach’ (only 2 germinated!), and chives.

I hope you spring is going well.

Happy gardening,

Tessa

I Can’t Tell You the Importance of the Right Nail!

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000

You’ve heard the saying “The right tool for the right job”, well how about the right nail for the right job? Yep, that’s what I needed and 4-penny common nail- now where do you suppose I put those when we moved? Lucky me! I didn’t have to look far because I was smart enough to put most of my gardening ‘stuff’ in the same place, even as fast as we packed and moved. A nail, in gardening stuff? Let me explain.

When I sow seeds in the 200 cell plugs there is only one way to get them out- a nice nail just barely smaller than the hole in the bottom. One of my many favorite gardening books I read years ago, written by Mark Freeman called Gardening in Your Greenhouse had this advice, and it has continued to be one of the easiest ways to start seeds to date! Great little book. I really need to get some more of these plug flats as only one came with us in the move- the rest were getting cracked because I’ve had them for years.

So ‘Marvel of Four Seasons’ was potted up yesterday. I was going to put them in paper pots, but I just didn’t have it in me to make them. That and I can fit more under the lights with 6 packs. I have more lettuce to pot-up and I may try to fit them in 9 packs. Lettuce is one crop that does better, in my experience, when it is potted up once or twice before setting out- for whatever reason.

I managed to get spinach and beets in the ground in the new tunnel. Now we’ll see if they live! One of the timings will be the right one- but it is all about experimenting this year and keeping really good records- that and it’s a weird year, so much wind and about 8-10 degrees lower than last March. I still need to buy my snap clamps so making the tunnel into a chenille was my best bet to keeping it from ending up down the street!

I said my usual prayer and that is that…I’m sure you all have read my subtitle ‘Where things either live or die’.

I mulched on the ends for added protection and plan on adding more. I want to mulch after the soil has a chance to get some heat- anyone have a favorite mulch for veggies. I have straw, hay, and a lot of pine needles (they take forever to break down and my soil can use some acidic help anyway.) All of them need to be chopped up I think- that will take some time.

These plants are the multi-plant experiment I started a few weeks back. The roots look really good- we’ll see how it goes.

As usual with early transplants, these have been fertilized with a high phos. fertilizer- to get the roots off to a good start in cool soil- even though they’re under the tunnel and the soil is a little warmer there.

I harvested a little bit today too- yummy!

A local produce store wanted to see my Mache, the owner had never heard of it, including it’s various names, so I took her some today. While I was there I told her that I’d harvested some baby spinach, lettuce, and radish too- she asked me if I’d be able to provide her with small bunches weekly with my small bed in the greenhouse or elsewhere- she had to pay a lot for the ones she had and the green tops had to be cut they looked so ragged. We’ve talked before about the possibility of supplying her with various things, once I’m up and running. And she knows I’m still working on soil quality, and experimenting with timing and varieties. It will be exciting to see what comes of it.

Let’s see what else- Oh, I started the second round of beets, and a few broccoli. And the first round of chard.

Nice sturdy soil blocks and yummy beets and chard on the way…guess I better work on more beds! The micro blocks will be sown with some flowers later.

I need to work on generation 2 soil block flats this year as I want them to have more air- which is why I put more space between them in the above group. The roots just gather at the bottom instead of getting air pruned- These wooden flats are Eliot Coleman’s design, but I’ve since seen special flats for the soil blocks at Johnny’s- probably Coleman’s idea, I’m sure. If they’re transplanted in a timely manner they’d be fine, but holding them off in these is not working as well as I’d like.

I hope your seed starting is going well!

Happy gardening,

Tessa

Beautiful Day

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny and windless day- I finally had a chance to get the G1 tunnel up! Yay!

And that is a smaller tunnel under it- only on one of the 30” beds (another experiment). I can’t get floating row cover just yet so 6 mil plastic will have to do for now, which means venting both on warm days- a pain until I get the Remay.

I ended up making a purlin for this first version- I have a different design in mind that would allow venting to be much easier, but that will be our generation 2- right now I just needed something up, so I used what I had. I also made this big tunnel into a chenille (Coleman books) by adding cat5 wiring in a zig-zag pattern over the plastic- which sandwiches the plastic between the pvc and the wire. This allows me to just push the plastic up along the pvc easily to vent or work. All I need now are some snap clamps and I found a great site to get some from- http://www.snapclamp.com/prices.htm Click on their retail outlets link to find a supplier nearest you. In the meantime the wire is holding it down well when we have wind- which we did today.

I still have to tie down the ends, but I wanted to water in some crustacean meal I put on the beds. The sun was out so it felt like tropical heaven in there! I was so tired by the time I finished that I couldn’t get anything sown.

Today’s weather was nothing like yesterday-snow in the morning (just a tiny bit), cloudy, windy, and cold- toward the evening it calmed enough to get at least something sown- so 5 short rows of Mache went in- not much, but it’s a start! I also took the soil’s temperature under the inner tunnel- 40 degrees already; we’ll see what it is early morning. Now to get a regular temp. gauge in there so I can keep track of that.

I also got our strawberry area ready yesterday. We originally wanted to build some cold frames in this spot as it gets sun first during winter and as the suns gets higher in the sky- we’ll get to those cold frames in the fall possibly. Last year I prepared this area with lasagna type layers so it was easy to get it started- I raked the straw off and added some unfinished compost.

I had to do something with this compost because it was in my tumbler and was too full and heavy for me to turn- layer one.

Over this I added newspaper. Then I mixed up 1/2 composted manure and 1/2 peat, greensand, rock phosphate, and a sprinkling of crustacean meal, watering each layer well. Topped it with the straw and in a while we’ll be able to put the strawberries in.

The lettuce is looking wonderful and a lot bigger than yesterday- they grow so fast!

And lastly, our first crocus in our new home! One thing is for sure living in this climate and starting all over has made me appreciate the little things a lot more :)

I hope your crocus are up and smiling-

Happy gardening,

Tessa

Happy Spring Update

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:30:00 +0000

I hope you are all enjoying the first days of spring! I have to say that our weather is very unsettled- just like spring is supposed to be, but with the added bonus of sunshine :).

We have been fighting windy conditions (thanks a lot La Nina!) and it has been a challenge to get my twice-temperedTerm coined by Eliot Coleman- Four Season Harvest pg. 109 'Evaluating the twice-tempered climate' tunnels up and running! I’d better hurry because the spinach, beets, and broccoli have been hardening off and will need to be planted. These are the multi-plant experiment, and so far I think it’s working.

Their true leaves are getting bigger and bigger- so planting time is not too far off.

Things are growing well in the small greenhouse bed- another experiment. I still need to build the 3rd lid for this bed- so far though things bounce back when it gets really cold.

I thinned and ate some of the radishes and lettuce- Mache will not be too far off and I’ve sowed anther 3 rows of it, although that will probably be the last I sow inside as the greenhouse temps are getting higher and higher during the day and they are a cold weather crop. You can’t see them, but they’ve germinated there in the middle (much better this time, I watered better!)

We ate our first baby radish and lettuce on the 18th- they were tender and yummy!

It’s not much- so why do I bother? Well it isn’t much, but the fact that I started these on the 22nd of Jan. in a zone 5, had –8 degree temperatures, high winds, and lots of wet snow and am still able to have fresh food from my small bed in the greenhouse…is huge! Now just imagine if I were to get a larger, longer high tunnel put up with low tunnels inside- we’re talking food year round even here where it’s cold! I love that and now I know from experience that it will work (thank-you Eliot Coleman!). If I started some crops in late summer, early fall and got them to a certain size they’d just sit there waiting for me to harvest all winter. In fact those crops would just now be finishing up and more would be in various stages of growth- about mid February when things take off.

For now I am going to try building mobile boxes to put inside the greenhouse on the benches- these will be used for the winter crops and will be covered with an additional ‘lid’ (twice-tempered) and then as these crops finish up they will be used as a nursery for outdoor transplants.

Other things I managed to get done recently- an additional shelf of lights in the nursery!

Since we moved, I’ve had to set up the nursery in the garage- and it’s cold. I’m not sure it’s made any difference with germination- but I’m keeping records. I also may have discovered new light bulbs to use- I don’t buy the expensive grow lights, I’ve always used one warm and one cool. Pat and I noticed ‘sunshine’ 5,000K bulbs- we’d never seen these before. It seems to me that they’d be a nice combo of cool and warm. After a little research on some forums it seems that others have used them with great success with their seed starting. Next time I have to replace bulbs (or I get another shelf up :) I’ll try them. Anyone have any experience with these?

I’ve also moved the mini greenhouse inside the bigger greenhouse- not sure why I haven’t thought of this before- this would give me twice-tempered conditions for 8 flats so I’ll be able to move things along better under the lights. I left the only 2 remaining pansies in there night before last- the low inside the greenhouse (not double cover temps) was 30.4 and I woke up to pansies that were not frozen- they are in a 6 pack. We’ll see how it works with lower temperatures tonight and with soil blocks that won’t have the plastic surrounding them. The babies in the greenhouse bed were covered and survived, but they are in the ground- I’m just not sure it would work with a flat of seedlings unless they are in a tray with a lid maybe- then they’d be thrice-tempered ;)- too much trouble? Probably. It will still give me a place to put more flats besides under the lights during the day- the seedling shuffle will be greater- that’s all. Ah the lengths we go to…

The lettuce and chives are up in a 200 cell flat I sowed- still waiting for the red orach to germinate.

I’ll be potting these up into paper pots when they get a little better- I remember when I discovered that leaving these plug flats under the lights, but without a tray below them will allow air pruning of the roots, not unlike the soil blocks. What a revelation! You can read about that here.

An update on the winter sown project…something is growing, but it aint the plants I sowed (yes, mom I said aint!)

I can only imagine how wet they’d be if I would have tried this in Portland. I’ve even opened them up to let them dry a bit. I did see one or two pansies and possibly a fescue- and the dianthus is still growing…through the algae :). This may take a bit of tweaking I’m thinking.

I hope your spring is coming along nicely!

Happy Gardening,

Tessa

Waiting for Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 02:29:00 +0000

So today while shopping for food, we found these on sale…

A nice addition to what we planted last year- we’d like to add quite a few berries to our berry area this year.

We came home and then we saw this out the window…

I purchased my plastic today for the tunnel…I was going to start some Mache, spinach, and claytonia…we’ll see.

Spring is so close? Happy gardening,

Tessa

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Happy Gardening,

Tessa

Seedlings and progress

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:53:00 +0000

Just an update on the multi-planted seedlings since some of you have asked.

The spinach is making a good showing- germinating slowly but they look good. These seeds are organic purchased locally from Nature’s. It will be interesting to see how they do as spinach normally doesn’t like its roots disturbed and so does better sown directly.

The broccoli, on the other hand, is not doing well. I purchased the seed at a local bi-mart, so no surprise there. I wanted to try a short season variety (even though I try not to use hybrids) since I learned from a friend here that she hasn’t been able to grow it as it goes to seed before she can get a decent harvest. My first thought was my new climate’s short season and so I looked and looked for a short season variety. The only one I could find was a non-organic hybrid called ‘Early Dividend hybrid’- so as a test I thought I’d give it a shot. This variety is harvestable in 45 days. However, 2 experiments in one sowing is not a good idea, so the next sowing will not be sown in multi-plant sets for the broccoli. Maybe they’ll look a little better sown that way…we’ll see.

As you can see the broccoli looks pale, leggy, and germination is spotty. The spinach looks very nice. Live and learn-sometimes you do get what you pay for.

Since this is an experiment, I’ll not be using as much space in the garden as I had planned. And I’ll be off to some seed companies to find an organic, short season, broccoli variety for fall. If anyone has any suggestions for a variety I’d love to hear all about it.

The beets always germinate well. And they should since one seed is actually a few plants- and so with these, I did thin since we only want 4 or 5 in the multi-plant block. ‘Bulls Blood’ is one of my favorites- and the leaves look so nice in a salad. The other variety ‘Ruby Queen’ I received free from Laura over at Modern Victory Gardens- thanks Laura, they’re doing great so far!

Sorry it’s a little blurry. ‘Bulls Blood’ is on the left, I believe. I am considering putting these blocks onto a flat that has holes in the bottom so the roots stop better when the hit the air (air pruning).

Now on to the chitting…

Not sure what I did wrong. I followed some directions online putting them in a bright, but cool location and now the little sprouted thingies are black. It’s been my experience that that is not a good sign, so I moved them out from under the lights and put them where they’ll get natural (not much) light. They did better in my potato drawer in the kitchen! My guess is that they’re compost. I think I’ll go back to the accidental potato way :). If anyone has chitted (sounds funny) and has any advice, I’d love to hear it!

Patrick and I (mostly Pat, I directed!) managed to get 2 30” beds tilled. I used 3 5gal. buckets of 1/2 composted manure and 1/2 peat for 2 30” beds, 5lbs each powdered phos. and greensand and tilled it in- not too deep. This will be the only time we’ll roto these beds as I really believe that disturbing the soil is not a good idea- it disrupts the soil layers killing microbial life. After this i’ll be using a strong garden fork until I can have a broadfork made or can afford one.

At planting time, I’ll sprinkle on the crustacean meal and some compost that I’ve been working on over the winter. The only other amendment I wish I had was vermiculite, which for this dryer climate, would be a good addition to give this soil good moisture holding capabilities. So now we have 2 small beds ready to receive the plants I’ve started-

I also managed to get some crops started: I sowed these in a 200 cell plug flat (need to purchase more of these or the 288 cell plug flats as this is the only one that survived the move!)

Lettuce: Organic ‘Speckles’
Chives
Red Orach
Lettuce: Marvel of Four Seasons- organic
Lettuce: ‘Focea’
Lettuce: ‘Salad Bowl’

And the spring bulb bed is growing beautifully- I just hope the cold temps don’t hurt them…we’ll see.

Happy gardening,

Tessa

Wow, Rain…

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:28:00 +0000

No working the ground today- they said rain was coming, but usually it’s just a sprinkle when they say that…maybe. Well the ground needs it and I’m sick anyway! Things dry out very fast here- so I’m not concerned. And as I write this the rain has stopped.

After all-

God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done. ~Author Unknown

Um…I don’t think so :)

Happy almost spring!

Tessa

Things are growing!

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 22:30:00 +0000

Last week I actually had time to sow a couple things- it always surprises me how fast they come up!

The beets I sowed on 3/4 came up on 3/6.

Broccoli and spinach sown on the 2nd and 3rd, up on 3/6-

The 3rd sowing of pansy- s l o w l y coming up (the second I sowed using the winter sown method and have not come up yet…as far as I know).

I also decided to try chitting potatoes- The only other time I’ve grown them was by accident (read all about it), but I wanted to see how it all worked and if the plants would really be stronger this way. That and I’ve discovered that I LOVE fingerlings, red or yellow, and I’ve also discovered another one called German Butterball- I can get them local and they are grown organically- so I just buy a couple extra and use them for planting.

Things in the greenhouse bed continue to grow and I’ve started some more Mache in there-

I’m hoping to get the outdoor tunnel finished so I can sow more Mache and other direct sow crops as well as the crops I have in the nursery. I did manage to get the rebar in the ground and test out the pvc. I’ll have to remove the pvc to get the soil amendments tilled in, but that’s no problem. This tunnel will cover two 30” wide beds. I plan on weaving the plastic over and under the pvc so I can just slide it up when I need to vent, or work in the beds- we’ll see how it all goes. I wanted them to work similar to the Chenilles (read about them here) I build for smaller tunnels over a single bed, but they had to be sturdier. All I know is here in Central Oregon you need to have a way to protect crops quickly in case a frost hits- this will give me an easy way to do that.

It is so nice that I can actually work outside early in the year here. The day was breezy, but nice as the sun came in and out. I have what I need to amend the soil- greensand, rock phos, some shell meal, peat, and composted manure- now just to get it worked in and let it sit for a couple weeks. And while that’s going on I’ll start another tunnel.

I hope your weather is cooperating as well, and as usual,

Happy gardening,

Tessa

Spring?

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:00:00 +0000

Pat and I were just saying the other day that it’s probably safe to assume it’s spring if we see this little guy and the next day there he was, or she!

and a baby too…

Their little cheek pockets are chuck full! (Taken on the 4th)

I believe these guys are very territorial so the baby will move on somewhere else. We haven’t come up with any names yet, so we need name ideas! I thought about Jiffy, because these guys are fast! My daughter likes Cricket, but nothing has grabbed me yet…makes me miss Momma and Peetree from our yard in Portland, but so far here we have a lot more names to come up with! If anyone has an name ideas I’d love to hear them :)

I just hope these little guys really like those seeds…and not my lettuce, etc!

Momma squirrel enjoying the mister on a hot day!

Peetree (see more images here)

As usual…

Happy gardening,

Tessa

Multi-planting

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 04:25:00 +0000

Today was a beautiful, sunny day. A perfect day to start some seeds, so that’s what I did.

I’m experimenting with a Dutch method I learned about in one of Eliot Coleman’s books called multi-planting. Coleman only uses it on beet, broccoli, cabbage, leek, onion, scallions, and spinach.

I believe he does this in a cold frame, but I wanted to try it in 2” soil blocks to transplant out later. To start, you sow 4 or 5 seeds in one square (for me a soil block) and you won’t be thinning them. You’re growing transplants in groups rather than singles. In Coleman’s book he uses an onion as an example, so I will too. Sow 5 seeds and plan for 4 to germinate. When the onion seedlings are big enough to go into the garden, cut out the blocks and set them out with a spacing of 10 by 12 inches. When you sow singles they are set 3” apart. 4 plants in a clump every 12” gives them the same growing space as when singles are 3” apart. Same total space for each plant and the same yield. The onions just push each other out of the way as they grow and when it’s time to harvest you’ll find them in a little circle instead of a row.

Here is a table of the crops he does this with based on 30” wide beds

CROPS	# OF SEEDS	MULTIPLANT SPACING	# OF ROWS PER BED
Beet	4	6”	3
Broccoli	4	24”	1
Cabbage	3	18”	1
Leek	4	12”	3
Onion	5	12”	3
Scallions	10	6”	3
Spinach	4	6”	3

*Info taken from Four-Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman pg. 101

For my experiment I’m starting with broccoli and spinach. If I was to use it with onions, I’d use the cold frame as they have to grow for quite a while before setting them out and soil blocks might not work. The broccoli variety I’m using is a quick maturing one as some have told me that they haven’t had much luck with it here- it bolts, they said. When you use this method in a cold frame, as Coleman does, you cut out the blocks of plants- so I think the soil blocks will work, we’ll see what happens.

I like the idea of these multi-plants because it’s more efficient to plant 4 or 5 plants in one shot than it is one. Also, I decided to start with broccoli because one of the advantages of growing broccoli this way is that they grow 3 or 4 smaller central heads instead of one big one- I would prefer this as I just cut everything up anyway!

I also used a new organic fertilizer in my soil block mix today. It’s called Jump Start from Happy Frog. It has active soil microbes and is higher in Phosphorus so it’ll give the roots a good start. I’ll be sure to post a product report on this one.

And I purchased some seeds today (surprise, surprise). I just ran to get some more of those broccoli seeds and came back with these too- you know how it goes…they were 50% off…

I just love these colors- The Bellflower ‘peachleaf’ is one of my favorite blues. It is one of the very first plants I grew from seed in the rental we lived in. I think I had the white one too. They are beautiful in a bouquet (remember mom?).

I’ve never grown Foxglove (if you can believe that!) and it was such a pretty pale yellow I couldn’t pass it up…I’m not sure, but I think I actually heard it calling to me in the store! I’ve never grown Jacob’s Ladder either- what a beautiful blue, I just hope it’s true to color. Lupines I’ve grown before, but they were always a mix and never from seed- I really don’t like growing mixes with most things as you can end up with a big mess of mixed color if you keep getting them! They always had problems with mildew in Portland, so I’m hoping it’ll be different here. It seems Lupine takes quite a while to germinate- so if anyone has any tricks or suggestions about starting these, I’m all ears. I guess they’ll have to go into micro-blocks since they take so long. That way they don’t take up too much room.

Happy almost spring!

Tessa

Life and Death…

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 05:07:00 +0000

Or maybe accidental homicide…

While looking out the sun room window today, Patrick spotted…life! Just as I had planned :).

Last year Patrick, my husband, did a lot of traveling- we hardly saw him, which was hard as it was our first year in our new home in a new location. As a surprise, I worked on our first bed making it a spring flowering, bulb bed, all in the hopes that he’d be home the following spring to see it out the window as he worked…Then today he was looking at some birds out the window and I hear “Oh, look! Grab your camera there are bulbs coming up!” He couldn’t believe they were there under all that snow we had, happily growing. It was a little overcast, but that wasn’t going to last long looking at the puffy clouds, so he insisted that I wait a few minutes to take some shots.

um…can’t remember ;)

Um…can’t remember what these are either ;)

A little snow is left and we’ll probably get more, but there are other signs of life…

Lilac buds

As happy as I am about the growth, I’m puzzled and a little concerned. I planned that bulb bed for spring flowering blooms- staggered from early spring (crocus), mid spring, and late spring. I’ll also add some perennials that bloom in spring so that the bed, as the bulbs finish blooming, won’t look all dead. I’ve been looking at my sketch and what I put in there and it seems that mid-spring bloomers have a lot of growth- this concerns me because we are probably not done with the cold weather…will we got some lows that will hurt the growth? Time will tell. Is it possible that the snow fooled them and was a little too insulating! As you can see in the pics, I put on a thick layer of straw mulch and was expecting I’d have to move it aside. I might consider adding some loose straw if our temps don’t continue to go up.

Now on to the sadness…I really didn’t mean it, really. The pansies that I left in the greenhouse when the temps were in the teens died. Not all of them, but more than half! I’ll not consider it murder, but accidental homicide…guilty…again.

I don’t mean to disenchant anyone, but I don’t have a green thumb, as some have said- the credit of the miracle of seed to something glorious, strong, nutritious , and beautiful will never belong to me. I continue to be in awe of the one responsible for life, the beauty and creativity that goes into it amazes me every time I enter the garden…for when I do, I leave much better off than when I started down the path…for this I’m grateful to my Lord.

Time to start some more plants and be amazed all over again!

Happy almost spring,

Tessa

Opps!

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 21:38:00 +0000

I woke up yesterday morning and the first thing on my mind was, “Oh no! I left the pansies in the greenhouse…uncovered!”

I went out to check on things- needless to say after a night with 16.5 temps in there, the pansies were not happy. I left them out there to fend for themselves after taking the shot of the watering cans! You would think later on that night I would have remembered to bring them in since they were in that picture! I was lucky they weren’t black- pansies are pretty cold hardy though.

I decided a slow thaw would be best, so I placed a clear dome on them for about an hour. Later when the temp had reached 35 degrees, I brought them in and put them under the lights- without the bottom heat. After a couple hours of that I turned the bottom heat on. A day later here is what they look like…

Some look okay, some don’t- we’ll see what happens. I’m sure I’ll see more damage in the coming weeks- glad I started some more.

The other things I had growing in the greenhouse seemed fine, thankfully. I had these covered with the second layer of protection and then last night was so cold that I added a blanket- when I went to bed it was 9.2 degrees in there!

Upon waking this morning I saw that the low had dipped to 0.3 in the greenhouse. Outside was –6. I waited for the temps to get to 35 degrees and then uncovered the bed-

Everything looks fine after it thaws, just as Eliot Coleman writes about in his books- truly amazing! These tests will come in handy when we put up our big greenhouse some day.

The lids that I had to make quickly for the small greenhouse ground bed worked very well-

I really wanted more of a cold frame like lid with it slanted toward the south, but these are the materials I had on hand- they’ll be nice when the plants get some height to them. I made 3 of them for ease of removal, instead of one long one- it would have been awkward to take them on and off for sure.

The experiments continue- very fun! Which reminds me…I need to check on the winter sown babies to see how they did with this freezing weather!

Happy Gardening,

Tessa

It’s the Little Things…

noreply@blogger.com (Tessa Neill) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:29:00 +0000

I know it’s not much…but it is a huge thing for my seedlings! I’ve been looking for a watering can that is gentle enough for seedlings, but all the watering cans I’ve tried leak and drip- very annoying! I’ve yet to spend the $ for the ultimate watering can- the Haws, beautiful…expensive.

Not long ago, on a clearance rack, I saw one from Good Grips. It looked interesting and sturdy with it’s rubber rose (a better seal is possible with rubber, I thought), but I was so tired of being disappointed with leaky watering cans that I passed it up. The need for a good watering can is great this time of year as using hoses is not possible- so the other day I looked again in the gardening section of Fred Meyer.

There were 3 Good Grips cans on another clearance rack- now another 50% off the lowest marked price! I debated whether I should get them all, but one was missing its rose, so I left with a larger one and a smaller one. Cha-ching, score!- total of $9. This ended up being a great deal because…ta-da…they don’t leak!

I’m hoping to get a much bigger one!

Happy gardening to you,

Tessa