Sprouts

Most of the seeds that I sowed indoors last weekend have sprouted. I need to adjust the lamp and heat mat to keep everything happy.

Outside has been wet and soggy all week. The peas still haven't germinated yet, but some of the radishes that I put in between them are up. I will be starting another few rows or radishes as soon as I have time. I have collected enough paper towel tubes to make more seed starting pots, so that will be a second round of lettuce starts later this week.  If you are looking for a cheap way of starting seeds, I really recommend using paper towel tubes. I first saw them over on gardenfork.tv. I've been watching the Garden Fork series for years now, and it is a nice down to earth gardening and cooking show. Highly recommended.

This weeks Todo List:

• Potatoes
• Onion sets
• Thin Strawberries
• Second sowing of radish and lettuce
• Gather some used coffee grounds from the local shops

New year. Ground is broken.

I failed to follow threw with keeping a log in the 2010 growing season. The weather all spring and summer was pretty foul, and we didn't get very good results. Our corn ended up getting to much shade, along with the tomatoes. Mistakes that are easy enough to fix this year. I fell short on sowing new plantings of greens as the summer progressed. Also a lot of the things I direct sowed outdoors just failed to sprout at all. An entire bed of swiss chard and spinach did nothing at all.

It is April and we finally got our first good weekend weather wise. The whole family spent the day in the back yard this weekend, and we got a lot done. Two and a half of the vegetable beds have been cleared of weeds. I got a simple trelis setup and some peas and radishes in the ground. Also I've started the first round of greens, along with a few tomatoes, herbs, and peppers. I want to get another heat pad and a better grow light. As it is now I am going to need to get the seedlings outdoors as much as possible.

The next big items on the todo list are clearing a bed for the potatoes, and clearing the old strawberry patch out.

Hopefully I keep this log going so I can learn from my past experiences a little more.

Seeds have arrived! Now the real planning begins.

My seed order arrived a few days ago. I had a bit of an issue when my mail carrier delivered the package to the house across the street, and I thought someone had stolen the envelope off my porch or something. Thankfully the mail lady got it all straightened out the next day, and now I am pouring over little packets like a crack dealer.

Picked up some Black Gold seedling mix today, and my Dad should be giving me an old light fixture he had lying around. With luck I will be setup in a week or two and get some of the earlier items sprouting. I am considering starting some letuces right away without the final setup, just to see if I can get some early season salad greens. The weather has been really forgiving this year. Thank you El Nino I guess. I need to pick up some frost protection for the early starts though. We do tend to get the random April freeze around here, and last year there was a freak May snow storm.

I think Territorial has be pinned as a good customer, because just today I got yet another seed catalog from them. I haven't leafed threw it yet, but it boasts "210 New Items!". I don't think I am going to be purchasing anything else from them this year, unless it is some over wintering items later in the summer.

I started entering my seeds into the myfolia.com seed stash, but I just couldn't stick with it. It feels to much like work. I've always hated data entry. The more I poke around that site the more I think this blog is a better place for me to keep track of things. MyFolia is cool and all. There is a neat social aspect of it, but I don't know anyone else who uses it. Talking with random people around the world about gardening never really interested me. The conditions from town to town can totally different, let alone across oceans.

I do like lurking around the Permaculture Forums over at Permies.com, but a lot of that doesn't apply because I am not in a farm setting.

Seed order is done!

I got my seeds ordered today! My wonderful mother ordered my seeds for me today as a late Christmas gift. I still have a some seeds left over from last year as well, and I hope to catalog them here soon. But for now, here is a list of everything ordered today.

This comes form Territorial Seed Company in Cottage Grove, OR. If you want to geek out on plant stuff I recommend requesting one of their catalogs. It is an amazing resource of information, and some crazy looking plants. I didn't get them this year, but next year I hope to try out the Red Noodle Beans, which have 18 inch long pods. So fun.

SKU Name Qty Price PP702/S Ascent Pepper 1 $3.15 ON538/S Camelot Shallot Seed 1 $4.85 HR1127/S Coriander-Santo (Cilantro) 1 $2.05 LT433/L Crisp Mint Lettuce Organic 1 $2.95 PL641/S Dark Green Italian Plain Parsley 1 $2.10 PP683/S Early Jalapeño Pepper 1 $2.25 MS477/S Garden Purslane 1 $1.95 LT419/L Green Deer Tongue Lettuce Organic 1 $2.95 ON557/S Guardsman Onion 1 $2.30 BN021/S Jade Bean 1 $2.20 CR264/S Parano Carrots 1 $2.95 SW850/S Perpetual Swiss Chard 1 $2.70 CU293/S Raider Cucumbers 1 $2.60 ON543/S Red Bull Onion 1 $3.15 SP783/S Regatta Spinach Organic 1 $3.05 PE636/S Super Sugar Snap Peas 1 $2.20 ON563/S Talon Onion 1 $2.85 BR107/L Thompson Broccoli Organic 1 $3.25

Getting an early start this year

I am going to keep a garden log online this year. I kept a record on myfolia.com a few years ago, but it ended up being to much work entering in every plant and updating harvest dates and such. I might play around with it some again this year, but I will primarily be doing simple updates on what I have been doing in the garden instead of micro-managing everything.

At this moment, being late January, there isn't a lot of stuff going on in the garden. I have a list of seeds that I plan on ordering from Territorial Seed Company. Right now I have 18 items on my list, totaling just under $50. That doesn't even take into account the seeds I already have, and the items I will probably be buying starts for (tomatoes, etc.) I will probably post the full list of seeds I am ordering once I bite the bullet and hit submit.

What I am thinking about most right now is seed starting. I need some sort of light for my seedlings. I have a heat mat that my Mom got me for Christmas, but I don't have any sunny windows I can setup in. I went to the local hydroponic shop, and they didn't really have anything that was small enough scale for what I am doing. He recommended finding a compact florescent light that was rated at 6500 kelvin, but I have never seen light bulbs labeled in kelvin. I've done a bit of searching online and everything leads to way to expensive grow light kits. I guys I need to head to the hardware store and see what they have on hand.