Gardening! - Page 5 « Back to Group Discussions

[LunaLady]

Thought I'd share this link here!

http://www.occupymonsanto360.org/2012/03/06/monsanto-free-seed-companies/

[Jaimee]

Yes, I bought from Territorial Seeds.  Here is a helpful article about this situation...

http://www.nwedible.com/2012/12/a-brief-history-of-monsanto-and-seed-houses-who-got-screwed.html

And about GMO vs. hybrid seeds:

http://www.nwedible.com/2013/01/plant-sex-open-pollinated-hybrid-and-gmo-seeds.html

[Jaimee]

Trellises made of rebar and CRW....

 

 

 

 

Tomato cages made with the rest of the CRW...

 

First of the indoor seedlings are up!  Broccoli!

 

 

 

 

[Abraisme]

Looks awesome Jaimee, I'm jealous.

[LunaLady]

I think I'm a little behind, but I just ordered all my seeds today. Hopefully they get here fast! They are just coming from Oregon, so shouldn't be too long. Then I plan to start them inside in egg cartons. I need to look in my farmer's almanac and see when the last frost is this year. 

[Jaimee]

Thanks!  :)

[Abraisme]

There is an empty abandoned field across the street from the house in WI where we are staying this summer. I'm thinking about cutting a little garden plot over there guerrilla style!

[LunaLady]

That sounds great, Abra! Haha!

[Jaimee]

That would be awesome!  Illegal gardening... hahaha!

[LunaLady]

So my seeds finally came in the mail today and I'm in super planning mode. This weekend we are doing our starts in egg cartons to keep inside and take outside during the day.

We will be building five new beds and in total we will have 192 square feet to work with. I feel like that's a lot and I hope we are not too in over our head! Last year we did kale. That was it. Just kale! This year we are doing:

Carrot Cosmic Purple (Daucus carota) packet of 200 seeds organic
Broccoli Green Sprouting De Cicco (Brassica oleracea) packet of 300 seeds organic
Marigold African Tururu (Tagates erecta) packet of 100 seeds organic
Cabbage Red Head (Brassica oleracea capitata) packet of 200 seeds organic
Lettuce Green Towers Romaine (Lactuca sativa) packet of 200 seeds organic
Kale Dinosaur (Brassica oleracea) packet of 100 seeds organic
Onions Walla Walla Sweet (Allium cepa) packet of 100 seeds organic
Tomato Amish Paste (Lycopersicon esculentum) packet of 30 seeds organic
Watermelon Moon and Stars (Citrullus lanatus) packet of 20 seeds organic
Squash Blue Hubbard (Cucurbita maxima) packet of 10 Seeds Organic
Squash Red Kuri (Cucurbita maxima) packet of 15 Seeds Organic
Zucchini Midnight Lightning (Cucurbita pepo) packet of 15 seeds organic
Leek Bandit (Allium porum) packet of 100 seeds organic
Pepper Pimento Sweet (Capsicum annuum) packet of 50 seeds organic
Nasturtium Empress of India (Tropaeolum nanum) packet of 15 seeds

The marigold and Nasturtium are for 'helpers'.

I am planning to get the seeds started until they are about 3 inches high and then I will be transplanting them to the outdoor beds according to the moon planting chart in my farmer's almanac. Then I plan to do the pvc pipe cloches over things that need it.

I'm most worried about tomatoes. I've only got my notes and research done on carrots, broccoli and tomatoes, though. So I'm sure I'll be worried about something else, too!

Do any of you do any sort of treatments to your dirt? We'll be getting a compost/vegetable mix delivered but I'm not sure if I should be adding anything, or...?

Anyway... any tips would be appreciated! Especially from PNW gardeners (or previous PNW gardeners! Jaimee! Abra!)

[LunaLady]

Here was our kale bed from last year! We are basically just building more beds out from here. I will share our drawing once I am done planning where everything should go.

[Abraisme]

My only real issues I had were SLUGS, silver aphids (these like the cole plants) and powdery mildew (squash). Nothing ever bothered my tomatoes. I always used slug death around the outside oft garden, which works way better than any other method. I used Neem Oil for the powdery mildew and tried to stay on top of it and remove sick leaves. And I used peppermint Castile soap diluted in water for the aphids, which works ok, but you have to use it often and WASH your veggies well or they taste like soap.

[LunaLady]

Thank you, Abra!

I got my plan all done! We are headed to the store now to get a few supplies then I will be planting the starts.I will share my plans and drawings once we get back! Need to utilize this gorgeous sunny day! :)

[Jaimee]

Compost and a lot of it should really help.  After that you could consider planting a cover crop and going the no-till method using mulches.  Your kale bed is beautiful!  I can't wait to see your plans!

My starts are sitting out on my deck right now getting a dose of real air and sunshine.  One hour today, a little more tomorrow and so on until I plant them out, hopefully next weekend if the weather holds up.  I really should cloche almost everything with these chilly nights (40-50's during the day now and 30's at night), but I don't have enough to cover everything.  So it'll be an experiment of what can survive!

Here's a pic of one of my starting shelves.  I made newspaper pots to up pot lettuce and borage.  In the back you might be able to see kale, chard, onions, leeks, kohlrabi, broccoli, etc. (and behind that, Monsters, Inc.  LOL!)

[Abraisme]

Jaimee, your starts look good. I always failed at growing starts inside.
Edited by Abraisme - 3/9/13 at 6:19pm

[LunaLady]

Okay! Lots done today! I finished our plans:

The outside beds are 3x16 and the inside beds are 3x8.

And got all the starts tucked up for the night. It's a dark, bad picture - but there are 8 tomatoes, 6 peppers, 12 leek, 24 onion, 24 broccoli, 12 cabbage, a tray of herbs, marigold, 24 romaine, 12 kale... I think that's it!

Squash, zucchini, and carrots will all be sowed directly at the end of this month or beginning of April (depending on the planting for the moon). Watermelon will be sowed in pots tomorrow. I ran out of time today!

And then I'm planting culinary herbs in containers on the porch for easy access to the kitchen. Dill, basil, oregano. Rosemary is in it's own bed, existing. With lavender.

[Abraisme]

Nice Christina! 12 kale plants is a lot! I've often grown around 8 and been overwhelmed with kale.

[LunaLady]

It's Dino kale, so the leaves are much smaller. :)

[seraf]

I'm overwhelmed with 3 tomatoes and 3 kale. Maybe not this year, but when my family was smaller. I usually plant a lot of beets and chard. We like those greens a lot.

[Jaimee]

Thanks, Abra!  I've got them out in the air right now.  It's in the high 50's today!!!!

Christina, that looks great!  I'm so excited to see how our gardens turn out!!    One thing I might've recommended is to start your broccoli, kale, and lettuce in waves.  Instead of all 24 broccoli now, why not half now and half a month from now so that you're not harvesting all at once?  Same with kale, you could start some now and direct sow some later to have multiple harvests including overwintering your last sowing.  Lettuce can be sown every 2 weeks throughout the growing season if you selected heat tolerant varieties.  You may only want 4 or so heads maturing at once, then another 4 in 2 weeks, another 4 in  2 weeks, etc.  If you let lettuce sit too long it will get bitter and then bolt.  I only started 3 cabbages for spring and will start more for summer and fall later on.   I know you've already started them, but that doesn't mean you have to transplant them all so that you have room for additional waves.  Just a thought!  :)