seed starting again

My seeds arrived from Territorial and I am back to seed starting again.  I am a bit surprised to be here so soon -- especially given my poor results this spring -- but the seed packet for the brussels sprouts demanded I give it another try.  "Erratic seed germination makes direct sowing difficult?!"**

This time I went with peet pots.  I enjoyed seeding with peat pellets in the spring but I didn't like what I saw at harvest time.

Poor little guy couldn't bust through the pellet (of course, it was probably a bad choice to put a beet in one of these in the first place.)

As for my brussels sprouts, I am going to put some seeds directly into the ground and cross my fingers.  And I am going to do my best to nurture the ones in my peet pots.  But my fingers are crossed for those ones too since I have never gotten a seed start to 4 inches before.  Here's to crossing the 2 inch mark!

**Update**  "A clue, a clue," -- anonymous child on Blues Clues. 
Over at digginfood Willi Galloway explains that warm temperatures during summer make direct seeding iffy because the seeds/sprouts might dry out in a warm spell.

highs and lows in the garden

The kids found some strawberries in the yard.  They were pretty pleased with themselves.  Picked them without asking and then ran inside to show off their treasure.

I also found my own treasures in the yard.  Tonight I made a soup featuring fennel and chard from my raised bed.  It turned out to be rather tasty.  And I was pleased that I made good on my desire to eat more veggies today.

In the harvesting though I ran into one of my arch nemeses: a wireworm (visible on the railing next to the bulb beneath the hole it was creating on the root.)  Wireworms are known to eat roots and stems.  Thank goodness it wasn't interested in the bulb or my dinner would have been blown....   

I wound up bagging it so I can take it to a garden pest talk over the weekend.  I am wondering if the slow growth in my raised beds is due to wireworm damage -- or just a general lack of sun and heat.

drawn in by the winter catalog....

I've been feeling a bit low lately about my gardening prowess.  It is certainly limited.  Something has been foraging for my pea seeds -- and it seems that I have allowed catapillars/cabbage worms/loopers to get the best of my cabbage.  There are now holes that dig into the core of head and plenty of poop to go with it.

According to the Territorial Seed catalog, I should have sprayed with Bacillus thuringienses at the first sighting of a moth near my plants (which I saw weeks ago, but did nothing more than fret about.)  Since I delayed, I can try baiting the cabbage worms with wheat bran soaked in BT solution.  I will probably try that if I can find some time next week -- and see if it makes a difference.  I hate seeing potential food turn to waste but I have a limited tolerance for bugs in my food.

I was griping to my husband about what a failure I am turning out to be as a farmer and he reminded me that I am just starting out and that we would all pay a lot more attention to keeping the crops healthy if we were actually dependent on the food.  Which is true.  And I realized that I got into this adventure because I wanted my family and I to eat more veggies -- and that gardening isn't a great way to eat more veggies.  Eating veggies is a great way to eat more veggies. 

So it is time to separate the veggie eating goal from the garden.  I can address the veggie eating goal by changing what I buy at the food store (and supplement with the few edible suprises I produce as I gain gardening skills.)  And in the meantime, I should admit that I am enjoying the garden in itself because I like learning how the plants grow and what pests to look for and what works where.  And I hope I will feel a lot more successful if I let the garden be just about gardening, learning about nature, and exploring my relationship with it.

So I decided to go ahead with a winter garden and ordered more things from Territorial Seed.  Turns out I am a sucker for things purple and red.  I have been really curious lately about mixing edibles and ornamentals.  I think most of these things (maybe not the carrots) are great candidates for the front yard.  Four things I will be trying this fall are:

• Dragon carrots
• Falstaff brussel sprouts
• January King cabbage
• Walking onions

welcome guest

After weeks of watching aphids and holes emerge and re-emerge in my raised veggie bed, I finally spotted a good sign: a lady beetle.  Help is on its way!  I hear ladybugs are great eaters of aphids.

Ironically, I also saw my first ant in the garden today too.  Ants are known to protect aphids for their honeydew. 

So let the battle begin....  I know which side I am rooting for!

Culprit?

My kindergartener says this mammoth slug looks like a really dirty chocolate kiss.  It was larger than a bouncy ball from a gumball machine -- but not as big as a kiwi. 

Definitely large enough that I was afraid to smoosh it.  It is the largest slug I have ever seen in my yard.

holes, holes, holes

This week I read Louis Sachar's novel Holes.  It is a great read.  I highly recommend it if you are looking for a quick summer splurge book -- even if you don't fit into the teenage boy demographic the book was created for. 

In the book, there were a lot of holes.  Holes to dig, holes to be dug....  

And it turned out that when I returned to my garden, there were a lot of holes there too.

 

I haven't been a vegetable gardener long enough to know if this is okay -- or if my crops have been doomed to failure just as the weather has finally got warm enough for things to start growing fast.

back from camping ...

... to discover that the melons and squashes I planted have sprouted.  I was afraid I was going to have to replant the entire patch -- but most seem to have some growth going (though one sprout was detached from its root -- how and why I don't know....)

Now the little guys just have to grow to fill in the trellis I made for them.

I wanted them to go up rather than out so I made a structure out of premade cedar trellising and steel fence stakes.  As a young woman I used to make fence for the Forest Service (among other things when we weren't fighting fires.)  It was a real pleasure to get one of those fence pounders back into my hands...

apple socks

Turns out I wasn't too late to sock my apples.  I took a look at the Seattle Tree Fruit Society website on maggot barriers and found out that quarter size is the upper end, but still within reasonable, for protecting one's fruit. 

I thought I was pretty smart buying pantyhose to do the job but when I opened the package I realized that they weren't going to look like I had seen in the picture at the STFS website (see figure 4.)

My nylons were way too loose.  Still short on time I decided to work with what I had (no time to either make a legitimate order of maggot barriers or to snag some peds from a department store shoe department.) 

I decided to just knot the pantyhose on -- until I tried it.  There was no way I was going to make a good knot without knocking off the fruit.  And then I realized there is something I am good at (as a parent of young girls): ponytails. 

So into the house for rubberbands it was.  The resulting socks are not pretty but hopefully they will be effective.  Would hate to lose any of the four fruits we have.... 

 

And before next season (and hopefully a bigger harvest of fruit), I am going to head out to a STFS meeting and pick up barriers and some fruit growing knowlege. 

garden life

Spent some time today in the fruit bed weeding.  Found lots of oxalis.  It's a pretty little weed with its dusky purple cast -- but I have been told it is a dangerous one -- to dig out the entire root or this little guy will multiply fast.  And I am being diligent about it since in another corner of my yard clover and vetch has overrun the existing periwinkle and is threating my nandina too.

In more upbeat garden news -- while weeding the fruit bed my son found 4 apples growing on our columnar tree.  This is the first time it has born fruit (it was planted 2 years ago.)

His discovery took me by total surprise.  I heard that stocking covers help prevent apple maggots infestation (which we are prone to in this area.)  I think we were supposed to get the covers on before the fruit reached nickel size and now I have quarters.  Plus I was caught unprepared since we have never had fruit before.  I bought nylons at the foodstore tonight so I can cover up my beauties tomorrow. 

Another surprise in my apple tree was the spiraled dweller below.  With my snail lover nearby, I had to quietly palm him and quickly launch him over the fence into the street.  I didn't go check on his landing...  I can be mean when there are edibles involved.

I also spent some time just enjoying the aesthetics of an abundant garden.  I am so glad I started planting months ago.