Cardinal Climber

These are the Cardinal Climbers. They are already about 5 inches tall and almost ready to be potted up to the 4" containers!

Today we got a load of compost and I spread it all over half the garden whew. WHAT A FABULOUS DAY!!! sunny and warm aahhh! I put in the supports and planted the snow peas and sugar peas. Noticed self seeding nasturtiums, callendula, and love in a mist. Sure hope we don't get any long freezes between now and spring!

Petunia seeds, where ARE you

I am impatiently awaiting your arrival.

Spent a rejuvenating weekend with Heather pouring over magazines and books like we were cramming for a test (although with a great deal more enthusiasm than I recall from college). Thankfully we had her daughter there to keep us company and make sure we came up for food etc. We narrowed down a few bushes and plants for her amazing yard projects and checked out her new seed growing operation. After meandering through her gardens discovering what had come up overnight and which plants were needed for each location we made a trip in to the feed store in McMinnville, which is adorable. We both bought more seeds as well as the chicken and bird feed we were there for. I came home with a renewed interest in getting the rest of my flower seeds in, which I did while the family was at the Superbowl (oh darn, I missed that).

Plant spacing - this has always been one of my big problems. If you have seen my garden you know that it appears a crazy lady lives within (and perhaps a troll?). The thing I was trying to do was place all my flowers about as if they took root at random. Of course this means I get stuff to close together and forget where half of it is. After spending 3 days with yard and garden books it occurs to me that most lovely gardens have slightly more control. Of course Heather and Jessica have been suggesting this all along but whatever, those two are WAY too structured :) Anyway, this year I am going to attemp more control. I am gonna need help ladies so keep up the prodding! I am going to choose one maaaaaaaaybe 2 places where each type of flower is located and plant them in groups. I figure this is a good way to start. It may end up looking too controlled but I'll take my chances since you cannot control nature once it gets going perhaps if I start out knowing what is going it would help.

Anyone have any experience using a glass bell? You see them in catalogs but they are generally pretty costly. I was thinking perhaps I could find glass containers at the Goodwill and use them. This would contain the area where I germinate seeds that are sowed directly outdoors. Thoughts? I think Huck gave me a mini greenhouse last year that would work for some things - lemme see if I can get Maddie to give it up.

I cannot tell you how great it is to see all the little seeds coming up. My growing center is coming alive each day. A few things even have their fist set of real leaves! i have pictures but they are not up yet sorry.

My first blog

So, Beth tells me I need to blog about our project and of course being me I am like "I don't know what to say" or "I will sound stupid." So I decided enough is enough....I am just going to do it and be proud of it. So here we go!

We planted these the other day: Cardinal climbers, Pansies, and Gaillardia. I know that Beth and Maddie planted some others but I am not sure what those were. We also went to Goodwill and found a lot of interesting pots. It was of course the usual crowd at Goodwill but we survived. Found some cute pots (and more). We planted some cilantro and I put mine in the garden window. I haven't seen any sprouts yet but I know they are coming! It's always exciting to see that first little sprout pop out of the dirt. You are like...it worked...it actually worked! That little, teenie, tiny seed (any some of those seeds are so tiny that you almost need a microscope to see them) produced a living plant. And that plant will grow and grow to who knows how big and give you beautiful blooms and wonderful vegetables.

Also, my husband, Kevin, has started building tomato cages out of cedar. They should last a long time. I will post pics when he is done. They are very sturdy and should work really well. I was just tired of the flimsy wire cages that always seem to fall over at the drop of a hat (Especially with our tomatoes!).

Well, this weekend I plan on planting some more herbs for my garden window and a couple of flowers too. Which reminds me....Kevin went to Fred's yesterday and saw the buy 2 get 1 free deal on seeds. I came home from work and saw the 3 packets sitting on the counter. I thought...hmmmm.....Beth must've brought them over. But why would she? So I asked Kevin and he said he saw the sale and thought they were "cool looking." I never thought my contractor husband would think flowers were "cool looking!"

TTFN,
Jessica

Finally

I got a new camera for x-mas/birthday and every other holiday coming up this year. Unfortunately it turns out my computer is not fast enough to handle the high speed USB so all my carefully crafted pictures were stuck on my camera. I finally realized I could just take out the memory card and use Miles' camera to upload them. Which explains why you now have pictures to view.

Yesterday Maddie and I planted a bunch of flowers. I am sure that some have been started too soon but oh well. I could not hold off any longer. We planted every one of my favorites and a few that were favorites of friends. We spent the afternoon in there discussing the shape and size of each seed some she called "too tiny to see" and others were "big and clumsy".

Today I bought $38 dollars (including shipping) of petunia seeds. I know that some of you think my "petunia habit" is a problem but what is not to love about that plant? It comes in lotsa colors, it grows like a champ, it will allow you to transplant as many times as you fancy, it blooms all season long, AND it is scented!! Really now, tell me another flower that will do as well as this? So this year I bought a bunch.... One double petaled, one hybrid with pink and white called "tie dye" (please who could resist that?) and one pink with a yellow center called "sunshine". And then to even it all out I bought a yellow petunia and Rose wave - which is really short and intense with color. Oooh and I also bought pansy seeds, ones that are supposed to be good in hanging baskets. So that should be fun. They are blue and white. speak up if you want any of these.

Brian has been sick with a flu thing all week and that has kept me from writing you. In addition I have been attempting to keep my house clean and the laundry done. Sooooo this leaves me with about 15 seconds of time to myself which I generally use to floss my teeth since I have serious dental problems right now.

I am planning to go and visit my very good friend, Heather, this weekend and we are going to pour over the scads of garden design books I got from the library and also plant all her seeds. I cannot wait. What joy!

Now Hiring: potting soil expert

Deputy of Dirt
Senator of Soil
Monarch of Mud
Preacher of Peat
Compost Czar

I had to contract out my soil making adventure. It is just to hard for me. I have hired my husband and he is bouncing-off-the-walls excited about his new assignment. His old job, shelf hanger, has been eliminated due to lack of work so he was officially unemployed anyway.

Aaaaah, it is so nice to get that off my mind now I can focus on the planting.

Three days ago Maddie and I put our new seeds in wet paper towels to sprout. I thought she might appreciate seeing the seed break open and grow the roots. I certainly love seeing it. No matter how many times I witness a seed becoming a plant it never ceases to blow me away. How does all that fit in the seed you can hardly even see? I seems like magic. Anyway we pulled out our plastic baggies and investigated each seed. She has always loved how they all have different shapes and sizes and colors but was even more excited to see them sprouting roots. We put them under Miles' microscope to see the tiny, spider web-thin roots growing off the main root.

I planted the sprouted seeds in potting soil in hopes that they will be ready to move into 4" pots by the time it's tomato-planting time. This is what we have so far:

Painted Daisy
Pansy
Gaillardia
Yellow Primroses
some climbing plant (I will have to check on the name)

I went through my seeds from last year. This year I am trying to use up all left over seeds before they go bad. I chose a bunch of other flowers to start. Hope to get this done over the weekend!

Please let me know if there are any of these flowers that you want - I am certainly not going to have room to give them all homes.

Bioassays

‘Bioassays’ are also a great way to test the quality of a potting mix. All you have to do is sow some fast-growing crops in the mix several weeks before you plan to use it. Cress, oats, beans are just a few to consider. Some growers also like to test their mixes with slower-growing crops. Onions can be useful for bioassays as they seem to require a very high quality mix for good germination and growth. It makes sense to include any key crops that you grow as part of your bioassa

So- I need to get this going now so that I can start my Bioassa - what shall I use to test my new soil? Another question: what if it does not work? How will I know how to proceed?

I think I'll start something fast like beans and then also I'll throw in some perennials that I have starting in paper towels right now. I can do the same in regular potting soil right next to it. Pictures to follow -

Alright, last year we started seeds in a ½ sand and ½ peat mixture. I was not a fan of this because those little plants had nothing at all to eat after they sprouted so it was important to get them moved up to the next pot asap. Not to mention the formula was heavy and itchy. We then transplanted the little seeds into a regular potting soil and watered with fish emulsion every week.

This year, after receiving a question about planting mix from a friend, I think it is time we did a little research on making our own seedling and potting mixes. A quick google search turned up THOUSANDS of recipes and it quickly became VERY complicated indeed.

So I delve in and get up to my ears in info about bone meal and lime, blue sand, chicken manure and worm castings….. ugh. Perhaps I start slow on this project. I found a pretty good recipe that uses pre-made compost and fertilizer. I can get into making my own fertilizer another day. Chemist I am not.

For starting seeds there is no sense in wasting a bunch of time since they just need some kind of light, water holding, air breathing, mix.

I found this:
1 part potting soil mix
1 part vermiculite

I think I will add in
½ sand
½ peat

yeah, no real reason, just for kicks and to make that potting soil go further.

I found this recipe for growing seedlings.
• 6 parts compost -
• 3 parts soil
• 1-2 parts sand-
• 1-2 parts aged manure
• 1 part peat moss, pre-wet and sifted-
• 1-2 parts leaf mold, if available
• 1 6" pot bone meal







I am going to make these adjustments:
• 6 part compost
• 3 parts soil -
o I am going to purchase top soil so I do not have to bake it cause really? I am also going to add the seedling mix to the “soil” after each seedling moves to it’s new home in potting soil.
• 1 part sand (cause the seeding mix will have sand)
• 1 part peat
• 2 parts manure
o chicken manure purchased cause mine is not aged long enough yet 
• pre-made organic fertilizer as directed on packaging

I need to get a cost comparison going – our “new and improved” soil vs just plain ol’ organic potting soil which did work fine last year and did not require mixing…


Frankly this just might be a math problem that is over my head – all this “parts” business and the fact that all of this stuff is sold in cubic feet argh.

To break it in to nice round numbers for calculations I am going to make the following assumptions

1part=1 cubic foot – even though that would be too much potting soil for this operation at least I can figure out costs easily…. Right?

Using that figure each recipe here would make 13 cubic feet of “soil”
Organic Potting soil costs about $5.50 per cubic foot that would be a total of $71.50 spent on dirt. This leads me to believe I would use this much cause last year I SWEAR we spent hundreds on dirt but who knows. My memory is not the best.

So here is my costing as recorded on my little scrap of paper while in Lowes yesterday

• 6 part compost = $5.34
o organic compost bought in bulk
• 3 parts soil = 11.94
• 1 part sand = $2.00 (this is a guess I forgot to check)
• 1 part peat =$2.89
• 2 parts manure = 7.44
• pre-made organic fertilizer as directed on packaging – yeah not sure would have to check this better

Wow – I am fairly surprised that I total only $29.61 so far…. That IS a savings, I had assumed I would break even at best.

Jan 19, 2010

I am just sure spring is right around the corner. J and I are picking thru seed catalogs and taking inventory of the seeds from last year. The two of us decided on a blog for a few reasons; first, we give away our plants to friends and family and thought they may enjoy checking in to see how thier future tomatoes and peppers are coming along. Secondly, I am hoping to make a record of what we did in order to avoid making the same mistakes year after year. Finally, I got a new camera and this seems like a pretty good way to use it.

This year know I need to make a few changes.

• No one needs as many petunias as I tend to start. The first seeds sown are so much fun that I get a little bit carried away. By the time they are in the 4" pots there are so many it is ridiculous.


• I am not going to harden off plants for anyone but me It is just way to difficult. Now, if someone were to donate a greenhouse I would certainly reconsider...


• I am going to reduce the number of plant varieties and of plants generally. Again I get carried away and by mid summer I have a garden that cannot be accessed without heavy machinery. This leaves me feeling overwhelmed and I abandon the place altogether. It is no surprise then that veggies go unharvested and/or never ripen because they end up in full shade due to the surrounding jungle.


• We will start plants a bit later to avoid having to plant spindly plants that take a long time to recover from transplanting.


• Along those same lines I will not rush the transplanting and/or hardening off timing. Last year I drug what seemed like thousands of plants in and out of the garage a few times trying to avoid a few cold spells.

Now that I know what I am NOT going to do this should be a peice of cake. Right?