Seedlings and transplants

I've started more transplants from seed this year than ever before. This will be my biggest garden and I plan on filling it up completely, so I have had transplants all over the place!

5/1: Brassicas and lots of tomatoes hardening off outside and in my little cold frame. The brassicas were transplanted a week later.

5/15: Tomatoes were transplanted after about 2 weeks outside. I had to wait until the ground was ready for rototilling. These are by far the best looking transplants I've grown! This year I wanted to grow my early tomatoes and peppers/eggplant under low tunnels. I bought a "Quick Hoops" tube bender (from Johnny's) to make heavy duty 1/2" EMT hoops to cover with greenhouse plastic.

On a cloudy day where we don't even get to 60 degrees (we've had a lot of those lately) it will be a balmy 85 in the tunnel. On sunny days, I lift up one entire side of the plastic for ventilation and it stays around 90 inside. So far the tomatoes are loving it.

5/25: Pepper seedlings will go under a low tunnel as well. I'll cover the soil with black plastic before transplanting in order to trap even more heat. In our mild summers, keeping the soil warm is the most important controllable condition in order to keep hot weather peppers and eggplant growing well.

Eggplant, above, and melons and cukes. This is my first try with melons. Really, they won't grow well up here without a lot of special attention. They'll need black plastic mulch and a low tunnel, plus a good summer, in order to produce much. However, I've heard from many sources that a freshly picked, homegrown melon is just about the sweetest, best tasting this that can come out of the garden, so I have to give it a shot. These will be ready to transplant out (weather permitting) in a week or two.

More planting

The weather the last 2 weeks has been sunny and warmer than normal for the end of May, so I took advantage of that to get in more hot weather veggies a little early.

Transplanted:
- two squash (Bush Delicata)
- two zucchini (Raven)

Sowed:
- 12 potatoes 2' apart (red, blue, russet)
- 4 bush cucumber 2' apart (Bush English slicer)
- 6' bed carrot (Nantes variety)
- 6' double row radicchio (Early Treviso)
- 6' double row summer lettuce (Slobolt, loose leaf)
- 6' double row summer European lettuce mix (Redina, Nevada, Cardinale)

This is my first try at potatoes.Two "Red Pontiac" starts from my mom, and seed potatoes from the feed store down the road. I put the seed potatoes in a sunny window for a week or so and got them sprouted.

Dug a 8" trench down the center of one bed, then hoed in steer manure and fertilizer 6" deeper. I added about 1" of soil to cover the compost (apparently, having seed potatoes touching compost or manure when planted can cause potato scab), then dropped in the potatoes and covered 3" deep. When the shoots emerge I will hill up soil around them continuously about 6" high, so the potatoes can form along the covered growing stem. I hope I get a good crop this year!

Sowing seed in the garden

I have been working on getting more beds made each week, and sowing seed as I go.

This week I put in:
- 12' double row of snap peas (Sugar Snap)
- 4' bed of spinach (Olympia Hybrid)
- 12' triple row bulb onion (Yellow, from sets)
- 12' double row runner beans (Scarlet Emperor)
- 12' double row pole beans (Tri-color mix, Blue Lake, Yellow Pole Wax, Purple Peacock)
- 24' of 3 plant clumps 2' apart of corn (Earlivee Hybrid)

I also transplanted some things I started from seed:
- one row, 7 plants, tomatoes (in walls-o-water)
- 12' double row leeks (unknown variety grown by a friend)

Whew. Lots of seed to keep wet.

More transplants

I dug two more raised beds this week and got the brassica seedlings in. I bought some steer manure/compost mix and an all-purpose organic fertilizer and have been incorporating both into the top 6 inches of each bed as I go. Really need some organic matter in this soil.

Kale, kohlrabi, two kinds of cabbage, and broccoli mix, ready to go in.


I'm using wider spacing this year than I have before. I've always been limited by space, so I've used "intensive planting" to fit as much in as possible. Intensive planting can work well, but more plants per square foot means more frequent watering, heavier fertilizing, and smaller plants due to crowding and competition. Now that I have plenty of room, I'm giving each plant plenty of real estate.

First transplantings

I was finally able to get some starts in the ground this weekend. Took some doing though. I've seen deer here a few times and there is an easily identifiable game trail running along the side of the yard past the garden, so a 6' fence deer/orchard fence was necessary. Finished that on Saturday. Saturday was also the day to begin digging my raised beds. They are 30" wide and 25' long, with a 12" (one shovel's-width) path down the middle. That was hard, tiring work and slow going, so I made it through 5 (out of an eventual 12) beds. Two gates built on Sunday finished off the fortifications. Still have to set the split cedar posts and hang the gates, but staked in place they'll keep most things out until I finish.

Makes me sweat just looking at them. Shovelfuls from the path go right on top of the bed, which get smoothed out with a hard rake. This knocks the bigger clumps into the paths and smooths out the bed top, leaving a level and fine seedbed.

Got in the snap and snow peas started 50 days ago, and pricked out my earliest lettuces started at the same time. I have 3 flats of brassicas ready to go in next weekend, and lots of direct seeding to do to get the second round of cool weather veggies started. The garden will look WAY different in about a month!

Up-potting

Up-potting is moving seedlings from a communal, crowded pot to their own private cell, where they get a little more foot room to grow on without competition for light, water, or nutrients.

Start with a pot of seedlings with at least 2 true leaves. Red russian kale in this case.

Roots have made it throughout the entire pot. The soil should be slightly moist and hold together when the pot is slipped off.


Starting at the bottom of the soil cube and working around the perimeter, gently break apart the root ball. Try to break as few roots as possible, you want to make this process as stress-free as possible for the seedlings.


You can see the potential root growth for one little plant after about a month.


Each separated seedling gets potted into its' own cell.

I up-potted all the brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, and kale). One or two weeks under the lights will help them to recovers and begin growing quickly again, then it's out to the cold-frame to harden off for a week before being transplanted outside.

More fall transplants

Got the last of the fall transplants in today. I had started some Red Russian Kale and Silver Chard for fall, but they didn't make it through my last vacation away from home. A windstorm blew the 3 week old seedlings off the deck to the grass, where slugs ate them up. Oh well.


Lettuce mix called "The redder the better".

I interplanted the lettuce in the cabbage and broccoli rows, basically so I could use only two of the many raised beds in our plots for fall/winter crops and green manure all the others.


Hopefully the close planting here will form a dense canopy of leaves and a deep root system below that will help protect the soil and its' nutrients from leaching away in fall and winter rains, just as the cover crop will do in other beds.


Speaking of cover crops, here is crimson clover germinated and beginning to fill in around kohlrabi transplants from a week ago.

Fall transplants

Got pretty much everything in the ground now. Realistically, I'm a few weeks too late. It's possible that a frost or even a freeze can roll in by the middle of September, or it may be sunny and frost free till mid October. So I'm hoping for a mild fall and planting like crazy. The last lettuce will go in this weekend.

Cabbage in front and Broccoli in the back. This bed was in such bad shape I have not used it this year till now.

Kohlrabi. I sowed crimson clover in this bed as well to see how well kohlrabi can be interplanted.

Monumental Chinese cabbage goes in a bed with other winter tough veggies, leeks and carrots.

I've sown crimson clover as a cover crop and green manure in all bare areas at the garden plots. As soon as the tomatoes and peppers are done (as well as any other lingering crops), they'll be pulled and crimson clover will go in there as well. I'm hoping to have a dense cover over everything as soon as the winter rains start coming in.

Update from 10 days ago...

The peppers and eggplant were finally transplanted outside. I had been waiting until nighttime temperatures were regularly above at least 50 (really 55 is better) until putting them out. No sense in expending all that extra care and attention on those seedlings only to shock them into no growing for 2 weeks because of low temperatures. So the weather finally cooperated and they went in with peppers forming on all plants and eggplants just coming into bloom.

Same as with the tomatoes, I planted these through black plastic mulch under a plastic tunnel to give some extra heat while they adjust to the transplant. I watered them in with an organic, balanced, 4-4-4 liquid fertilizer diluted to half strength.

Tomatoes are growing great and were pushing up against the plastic tunnel, so off came the plastic. All plants have growing fruit and lots of flowers higher up. Many of the maturing tomatoes are "cat-facing". This deformity results in puckered and misshapen fruits and occurs when the flowers get wet while the fruit is forming. The flowers stick to the fruit instead of browning and falling off, and the fruit grows around the attached flower petals. Looks ugly but tastes fine. This probably happened because I am spraying weekly with liquid fertilizer on all the leaf surfaces - pretty much drenching the plant. The flea beetles that have been munching on the tomatoes didn't really cause much damage and seemed to have moved on.

Our first ripe tomato. From a Stupice started about 100 days ago. Most seed packets give an indication of "days to maturity". This refers to the first harvest after the seedlings have been transplanted outside. For me, that transplant took place on May 18 - which was about 60 days ago - exactly what is stated on the seed packet for this variety!

A good harvest today

It's different to have garden plots across town than to have them right in your backyard. I would probably spend a little time each night checking on things were my plots close to home. Since they are not, I might go twice a week or, usually, just once. Therefore each time we go it means more than a few hours of weeding, planting, intensive watering, bed preparation, and harvesting. That's why I have lots to report on about once a week, rather than every day.

The Rapini (also known as Broccoli Rabe or Raab, Broccoletti, Broccoli di Rape, Cime di Rapa, Rappi, Friarielli , and Grelos) is ready. Although it shares name and outward appearance with broccoli, it is actually closest to the turnip. I let mine go a few days too long (a downside of my cross-town plot) and a few florets flowered. These are edible, however, along with the stems, toothed-leaves, and florets. They have a pungent, slightly bitter, broccoli-like taste. Best steamed or sauteed as you would any normal broccoli.


Radishes are about finished off. They hold for only 10-14 days after maturing, after which they begin to split open or are lost to chewing insects. A few of our biggest are beginning to split. I'll probably sow a small fall patch later on this summer.

Pollination attractors are blooming!

Tomatoes are setting fruit, butter-crunch lettuce can be picked next week, and peas are growing strong. Here's how the garden looks today.

The foremost bed will have pepper and eggplant transplants in a few weeks, with the bed behind soon holding carrots and salad mix. The bed far in the back will get direct seeded cucumber, squash, and ice-box melon maybe by next weekend, if the weather cooperates.

Sowed and transplanted today as well:

- 6 row feet Mesclun Blend salad greens
- transplanted 8 clumps of salad onions from 2" pots (Guardsman, Purplette, and Copra) (sown 03.16.08)
- transplanted about 12 pots annual dahlias (sown 3.06.08)

Tomatoes in.

Spent a few hours Saturday and a few today at the garden plots getting some work done.

8 weeks after sowing, I finally got the tomatoes in (sown 03.16.08). 2 weeks ago, the tomato bed was deeply dug, rototilled, amended with fertilizer, lime, and compost, and covered with black plastic to heat up the soil. Saturday I built my tomato mini-greenhouse.

10' long 1/2" SCH20 PVC for the arches. I pounded 8" long, 1" diameter PVC pieces into the soil and slipped in either end of the 1/2" pipe.


Leftover scraps of 6 mil greenhouse plastic made a solid covering for my 8 transplants.

We also got our dahlias in, cut down the cover crop and covered the bed with more soil, and weeded everything. Starting to look pretty good.

Garden progress

Transplanted my little lettuce seedlings yesterday. Went back today to put up the plastic tunnel cloche - lows for the next 3 nights are about 33 degrees with 50% chance of snow! The plastic won't hold heat but will at least keep off the frost and any snow that might fall.


Also transplanted about 40 leeks around the garden. One row in front of the peas and one row behind where the peppers will go. Most vegetables in the allium family (onions) taste and smell bad to chewing or nibbling pests, so planting them around the garden is a good natural deterrent. Plus they are winter hardy around here, so I can pick what I need this summer and the rest will be usable through the winter.

I turned over some of my winter cover crop to make way for the leeks and was happy to see lots of nodules on the roots. Leguminous plants have a very unique and beneficial ability. In these root nodules, Rhizobium bacteria live and work symbiotically with the pea plant to use nitrogen in the air for growth, instead of the plants using whatever nitrogen may be in the soil. This nitrogen from the air becomes a part of the greens and roots of the pea plant. When the cover crop is turned over in the spring, it decomposes quickly and that nitrogen is released back into the soil. A natural plant fertilizer (or green manure)! Lugumes fix nitrogen at a rate of 50 to 100 lbs per acre, equivalent to 1-2 lbs of 30-0-0 fertilizer for my entire plot. Not a tremendous amount, but that's not all cover crops do! They control soil erosion, stop soil compaction through the heavy winter rains, help dry out the soil earlier in spring, and, after turning over in spring, leave the soil loose and friable due to a deep and vigorous root system. Not bad!



Strawberries are blooming too.

Fresh soil at the garden plot

Emily and I, along with 6 other plot renters from the Happy Valley Community Gardens, brought in 20 yards (!) of 4-way soil/compost mix to share. We really needed it in some of our beds, which have eroded away as they sat unused for years. I think it will be most useful for lightening our heavy clay soil that has compacted to concrete-like hardpan.

With a generous addition of our new soil, I was able to prepare a spot for our snap and snow peas sown 4 weeks ago. I worked the soil about 8" deep, hoed in fertilizer and lime, and transplanted my healthy peas.

Should begin producing peas first week of June.

We had poly tunnels over some beds to dry them out faster, so today I direct seeded some greens in those beds after turning them over and incorporating new soil.

- 5 row ft Slobolt (loose-leaf lettuce) Lactuca sativa
- 5 row feet Tangy Mesclun Blend (Salad greens)
- 6 row ft Rainbow Radishes (Easter Egg II)

Broccoli and Cabbage starts have been growing strong for 2 weeks under lights. They've formed 2 true leaves, which means out into the cold frame to harden off and grow a bit more. When 3 true leaves are grown out I'll transplant them in the garden.


A few more pictures from today.

Direct sown Bloomsdale spinach seeded March 9. True leaves just emerging. Germinated and started pretty slow because March was so cold. It will pick up as April gets warmer.

Overwintered garlic (front) and leeks (behind). Carrot patch behind in the upper left. The garlic looks pretty bad...good thing I put in about 25 new bulbs a few weeks ago.

I overwintered a patch of Arugula as well. It barely survived and started growing again in February. We cut enough for a salad a few weeks ago and it immediately went into reproduction mode - sent up flower spikes and bloomed! Cool flower.

Tomorrow I'm gonna make Em come with me to the garden plot and we'll move more soil.

Spring Cleaning

Even though the soil was still a bit too wet, today we went ahead and prepared our first bed. Our process for spring bed preparation is as follows (this is for NEW beds - or in our case, an established bed that has not been properly prepared for many years):

- First, weed entire bed.
- Make sure soil is dry enough to work by collecting a handful and squeezing into a ball. The ball should crumble and come apart easily under pressure. If it will not form a ball at all, it is too dry. If it stays together and compresses under pressure without breaking up, it is too wet.
- Using a 12" digging fork, break up soil by plunging fork all the way down and pulling back, moving back 4" each time, across the entire bed.
- For a clay soil, like in most of Bellingham, broadcast about 50 lbs per 1000 sq ft lime and work in deeply. Also work in 1-2 gal per 100 sq ft complete organic fertilizer (around 5-5-1).
- Add 1/4-1/2" well rotted compost and incorporate into the top 3-6".

After this was completed in plot C10, we transplanted all our perennial herbs from elsewhere in the garden. These included:

- 2 x Arp Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Arp')
- 2 x Grappenhall Lavender (Lavandula x intermedia)
- Greek Oregano (Origanum vulgare cv. hirtum)
- Hot and Spicy Oregano (Origanum vulgare cv. hot and spicy)
- Sweet Marjoram (Origanum majorana)
- Garden sage (Salvia officianalis)
- Tri-color sage (Salvia officianalis cv. Tri-color)
- Purple Sage (Salvia dorii)
- English Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)

We also moved over two Alpine Strawberries and one Pineapple Strawberry (Fragaria ananassa), a very sweet (and pine-appley) yellow fruited variety.

- Sowed 5 row ft Bloomsdale Spinach under plastic tunnel cloche

Today Emily transplanted lots of flowers that I held over the winter in pots or around the garden plot. Included were a few varieties each of German Iris, Coneflower (Echinacea), and Blanket flower (Gaillardia).

I also am attempting propagation by softwood cuttings. I took 6 cuttings each from two establish lavender plants. Provence lavender (Lavandula intermedia "Provence") and Blue Start Spanish Lavender (Lavandula stoeches "Blue Star"). These will receive bottom heat for a few months until evidence of root growth.