What have you done today in the Garden?

Today is harvesting the last of the indoor greens garden. Woke to a surprised -18 C this morning. It was +8 and sunny yesterday, so I lowered the heat in the bedroom that my seedlings are in. It's a little direct vent propane furnace with no thermostat. When I realized how cool the house was at 5 am, I checked and it was only 12 in the house and 11 n the seedling room. I stoked the main fire, but I'm adjusting the heat for the seedlings and waiting now...little tomatoes are not pleased with me, and I'm not pleased with Mother Nature this morn. Usually cold brings clear sunny days however - that would be a nice exchange but it will be musical fires and heaters for a few days I think. I'm heard of wireless thermometers with alarms? I might look into that.

 

Melody, we are also on a temperature roller coaster. It's a pain, but then gardening was never promised to be easy!
Have you considered an electric heat pad? We have one that I put under a starting tray and it holds a steady temperature 24 hours a day. It might be less expensive than a thermometer.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=heat+pads+for+plants

 

@marlingardener thank you for the link and suggestion. I have heard of heat mats, but never used one. It seems the only worry I have with temperature is with the tomatoes. ( so far...I am branching out a little with new plants this year that I'm not familiar with). That is an excellent suggestion and would definitely solve my issue with keeping their temperature more consistent while they are so little. ( ...pulls out her credit card and has Amazon open on another tab......)

 

Melody, so happy to be of some help! I have used the heat mat to start tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and cucumbers. I hope the plants you are branching out with live and thrive.

 

Today I worked too hard.

A pair of 50-foot cascara trees was leaning more and more, so I cut them down. They are taller than they should be, and at the end of their life span. There is a long row of them, and a few fall every year. I cut two logs to use as mushroom substrate. The rest can be cut for woodstove fuel when I have more energy (hah!).

Surprisingly, they didn't damage anything in their fall. There are more that lean worse, but into a wild area with a ravine, and no one is allowed there (my property) so I don't anticipate injuries when they fall.

I completed the frame for the weathered cedar planter box. It's a similar size as a raised bed but will contain large nonwoven fabric containers. The base is a pair of pallets. This will be a nice way to grow crops that don't need an entire raised bed, and it will be at an accessible height for an old man gardener (me).

So far...


Every part of this planter is upcycled, even the wood screws and brackets. The freshly cut surfaces of the cedar are pink and fragrant. This summer when it is hot and dry, I may add a wood preserving stain, but everything around here is weathered cedar anyway. The frame is pressure treated lumber. None of that comes into contact with plants or soil.

I also planted seeds for blood flower (milkweed) and statice.

 

Today a bit of the mulch was rolled back, the underlying soil was scratched fine and onions were planted. I added some chalk because that area gives me trouble with white rot. I did some schoffeling along the paths and along the fence with the neighbour. The grass paths got aerated and some blood meal broadcast. The chip paths needed to be straightened up because the merels had scratched the chips out of the path and into the plots while looking for food.
There are signs of spring and courtship in the lottie. I love these signs of spring. My bees are flying and bringing back pollen—also a good sign.

 

Sjeord good to hear that spring is coming your way.

 

@Sjoerd that sounds really wonderful. I can smell the dirt and hear the bees from here.

May I ask about the blood meal on your grass paths? It is always an expensive challenge here to fertilize the lawn. (One reason being it is about 4 acres - retired pasture from when I had horses- but must be maintained and kept green due to fire threats). It is actually just mowed natural meadow grass and all of the fun plants besides grass the comes with it. I've done the traditional fertilizers ( too expensive now) , as well as some left over alfalfa pellets from the rabbits one year ( which worked great - but the mice really loved it too. ) Blood meal is relatively inexpensive for me and a little goes a long way. I've only ever used it in the garden. It never occurred to me to use it on grass for some reason. Do you have to be cautious of too much?

 

I potted on 45 tomatoes into solo cups. That should be a good size for the 30 or 40 days until the soil temps are up. Peppers are next.

 

@Dirtmechanic your seedlings are growing fast!

My tomatoes are up. It's interesting to compare the size, Dwarf vs. non-Dwarf. The Dwarf varieties show their smaller trait even at one or two days-



The Sungold is nonDwarf, the other two are dwarf. Behind the dwarf varieties are Bush Early Girl and Early Boy Bush, which are determinate but not dwarf.

I finished the big planter box. Took me all day. Now I can't move or stand up LOL.



Now all it needs is scrub the wood and stain, which will have to wait for a dry month this summer. The wood is weathered but inside it's clean and solid, no rot at all. This will be an experiment - inside the box I'll have ten 25-gallon grow-bags, all on a platform so the top edges are near the top edge of the box. I don't know if that will work. Each bag will have room for slightly fewer plants as a 4 foot row in the other raised beds. This area was too awkward to tend plants last year, so this higher level growing and work space will help a lot.

Next project - expand and renovate the drip irrigation, and to do it right this time . Including that new planter box.

 

I think that is a very classy design for a planter. Of all the types I have seen I believe I enjoy looking at that woodwork style the most. Also your post made me realize just how much I used a sharpy marker pen today as I see you like them too. Who knew a sharpy as such a useful gardening tool?

 

Yes Melody, you should be careful with using blood meal, too much will “burn” your plants.
I do not use blood meal very much and when I do it is for a narrow purpose. That is to say, a very specific purpose and definitely short-term.

 

This grow bag experiment is interesting to read about. It looks like a good system for you.
Have you used grow bags on a regular basis? Is that how you came up with this idea?
I am looking forward to seeing how your project goes.

It looks like your tom seedlings are coming along well it will be time to prick them out before you know it.

 

Today I worked in the rose garden hahaha. This minature rose was a gift from my husband a few weeks ago. It has decided to open. I've potted it up and gave it some supplemental lighting for parts of the day. Such a treat to have a living flower with the white all around ( besides the Pointsettia that seems to want to live forever). I've never had a miniature rose indoors, and I'm hoping that I can keep it healthy until I can have it on the deck for the summer. It's been my sanity plant and gets fussed over daily. It did appear to have some blight, but seems to be recovering. It has grown considerably.

 

Today in the lottie we planted the first sharp seed spinach. It is always such fun to peel the mulch back, rough-up the wormy soil and just look at it. I let it get some sun exposure before planting. That soil is so soft and loose that I can just chuck a plank down and drag a schoffel blade along it to make a shallow furrow.

We gave some corn seeds to the neighbour man that had lost his garden house roof. He seemed happy with them, but looked looked a bit unsure. I think that he doesn't know how to grow it. We shall see how it goes with him.