seed, sprout, and first true cabbage leaf

sprouting contest winner ...

Tigger melons.  Although I am sure that the watermelons, peppers, and basil will catch up soon, I only took the melon sprouts out from under the dome.  Who wants to encourage fuzz?!

But then I had to figure out what to do with them.  I was wondering if the great distance between my lamp and my sprouts hindered the growth of my last sprouting effort -- and since I really want these to be lush transplants in May and June, I decided to improvise a bit.  I am now using a cardboard box to lift my sprouts to the light.  I can cut the box down to give them space as they grow.  My solution won't be as earth-friendly as using (and reusing) a chain to raise and lower the lights appropriately -- but at least I am repurposing a box.

seed starts, round two

As I mentioned before, my original seeds starts did okay -- but my guess is a 1/3 or more will never make it to ground.  Yet I remain undaunted.  Yesterday my kindergartner was home on a school holiday and we started our second round of seeds in Burpee Eco-Friendly starter kits.

Last time I planted what I should have sowed into the ground (but couldn't because my raised bed wasn't built yet.)  This time we are planning ahead for starts that will go into the ground in May (tigger melons, sweet basil, sugar baby watermelons, and moon & stars watermelon) and in June (fish and anaheim peppers.) 

Last time I put the pellets straight into the ground.  This time I am thinking that I will have to "pot-up" so the seedlings get some size before they go to ground.  But first we get to wait and see what sprouts first....

things looking good in the square foot garden

Well, the weekend is over.  We got more sun than expected and now its time to think of dinner and get ready for the week.  Just a few clean-up tasks left.

It seems that all the plants that I planted yesterday are doing well under their hoop frame/remay cover.  The plants look perky and ready to grow.  It is one of those moments of small success that makes things good.

I am really curious to see where things will go from here.  The regional veggie guru Steve Solomon recommends widely-space, dry gardening for the Pacific Northwest.  And I am really intrigued.  But on 0.17 acres in the suburbs, I feel the need for my little farm plot to look more landscaped.  So here I am on a square foot garden adventure.  Can these dense plantings really not just grow but thrive?  Will all this effort reward us with food we like to eat?  The Osaka Purple Mustard should be the first to answer, baby greens in 20 days....

a good day to buy and plant

Turns out gardeners are not desperate brides.  This morning I headed off to the the Seattle Tilth plant sale with my son.  We got there a few minutes before opening: me towing him in the wagon.  The line was long but there were still 9 am (opening) bracelets available.  Everyone was very friendly.  And my growing boy wanted to start his adventure with a snack.  So the first place we stopped was the Patty Pan Grill booth for a quesadilla.

Once we took care of my son's hunger, we managed to find most of what we were looking for.  As the wagon began to fill, D took over dragging it around himself.  He did a great job -- expertly navigating the crowds while I moved back and forth hunting down our next picks. 

Ok. Maybe not so much.  He is only four.  A few people were bumped and apologies were offered.  Gardeners are very nice people.  

 

We brought our picks home and I started to set them out while D took a nap.  I hope transplanting is not rocket science.  I tried to treat everything gently -- but I was pretty quick about it.  In the end I imagine time will tell -- we will see what is still thriving next weekend.  I hope it all does.  Today I put fennel, rainbow chard, some flowers, two types of cabbage, bull's blood beets, choy sum, and osaka purple mustard into the ground.  The last two are things I have never tried in my life but sound tasty -- so I really hope this experiment works.

My final garden task of the day was to tuck the plants in for the night -- which I did with some remay and clamps.  I hope everything is still looking good in the morning.

should I be intimidated by a plant sale?

Seattle Tilth just sent out an e-mail about their cool weather plant sale coming up this Saturday -- and quite honestly, it sounds a bit like a David's Bridal $99 wedding gown sales event.  There is a pre-sale on Friday night for best selection if you are willing to pay $25 -- and the day of you can pick up a color-coded wristband to secure your 'time of entry' starting an hour before they open.  Oh dear.  Will there be jockeying?  Will there be plant grabbing and trading in the aisles?  Do you need to camp out the night before to get a good colored bracelet?  If you show up 'sometime in the morning' will there be bracelets and plants left?

I know this is silly but the idea of crowds in need of taming brings out the scaredy side of me.  Still, my efforts at seed propagation have been mediocre at best.  Only my peas seem to be flourishing (and that despite the fact that I left them outside under the cold frame last night ... it was above freezing and nothing seems to be dying so I am leaving them out tonight too.)  I figure I am going to have to suck it up, conquer my fears of the unknown, and try out the plant sale if I am going to produce something edible this spring.

Rough and tumble gardeners?  So far everyone I have met has been real nice....

Mother and daughter day

I spent a fun afternoon with my kindergartner in the garden today.  Together we put on a number of finishing touches to our raised veggie bed.  Our first task was to mark off squares for our square foot garden.  I decided to use ground stakes to do this since they were precut and in the lengths I needed.

To get the job done, we laid down two tape measurers and used 2x2 as a guideline to put our 2 foot stakes down.  Here is my daughter making sure things will line up.

Lately she has been really interested in becoming a scientist so she had a great time being technical and exact with her measurements.

After we placed the stakes, we set them into the dirt on their edges to make them more stable.

Afterwards, we placed two 1 foot long stakes perpendicularly to make our one foot square boxes.

Finally, we cut 1/2 inch PVC to length to make hoops for our bed -- my daughter even used the saw herself!  Then we put them in place and added the clamps we will use to hold down our cloth once the plants are in. 

And we were done.  The project turned out much better than my free-standing cold frame -- and my daughter was very pleased with her contribution (and so was I!)  Now we can't wait to plant....