Garden Update - June 4, 2013

The weather has finally decided to cooperate, warming up enough to get the overgrown seedlings out of the greenhouse and into the garden!

This past weekend I was able to get all the tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, kale, chard, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, eggplant, tomatillos, basil, and sunflowers planted.

 

The plants were getting completely overgrown spending so much time in the greenhouse, that the cucumber and squash already started to flower!

The basil has also begun to flower due to the extreme heat we have had. Most of the plants will be cut back, but a few will be left to go to seed to be used for next year's planting.

The seedlings are very stocky and hearty this year. I am not sure if it's because most of the crops are heirlooms, or if it's because I was able to get the plants into the greenhouse sooner. Either way it looks like we will have a bountiful year!

I decided to leave the cold-frames in the garden instead of moving them out as I usually do. I removed the hinged panels, planted cucumbers and beans inside and strung up a simple trellis for them to climb on. Hopefully they will engulf the cold frames.

This is the first year I tried my hand at starting flowers. Although I quickly realized I  need more greenhouse space, I still had pretty good luck with the petunias, zinnias, sunflowers and morning glory.

 

 

This is also my first year growing miniature sunflowers. They are compact plants that can be grown in containers or in the garden. They will only get 6" tall in pots, but will grow between 15" - 20" tall if planted in the garden. Sunflowers don't like being transplanted, but starting them in soil block seems to work very well. I started all my sunflowers early and transplanted them into the gardens and they seem to be doing just fine.

The flower heads have already begun to form and I can't wait to see the colors in the garden!

~Rob~

Garden Journal - May 2013

Garden Journal - May, 2013

To Do:

• Turn beds to prepare for planting
• Begin moving transplants to garden
• Finish building the duck house
• Layout and cut in new garden beds
• Design irrigation system for garden
• Construct raised beds, fill with soil and start planting school garden
• Design pergola covered flower bed for school garden

Notes:

It finally feels like spring around here with day time temperatures reaching into the mid 70's. The greenhouse is overflowing with vigorously growing seedlings patiently waiting their move into the garden. The overnight temps have still been dropping into the 40's, so each night I move the seedling into the basement where they sit on heat mats. Once the morning sun heats the greenhouse to 60° I move them back out again. Next week the nights are supposed to be warmer so hopefully I won't have to bring them in anymore.

 My system for starting seed seems to be working very well as each season I get better germination rates and healthier seedlings. This year I have included flowers to my seed starting schedule, starting marigolds, petunias, zinnias, morning glory and lots of sunflowers! We will use most of them around our house and in the school garden but I eventually plan on selling them at the local farmer's market.

The school garden project is moving along rather quickly, thanks to the help of some very generations donations. Ring's End Lumber gave me a discount on the materials for the raised beds, Beach Brook Farm Equine Rescue has agreed to donate compost, Lombardi Gravel & Excavation gave us a donation of FREE screened loam, and Jennifer Burcke of 1840 Farm included her heirloom seed collection in our order of seeds for the garden! We are very grateful to have so many generous people support and help make this project a reality!

 Last night we put up the school garden sign and this weekend we will be having a raised bed building event where the children will be assembling the raised bed systems. There is a lot of excitement at school over the garden so we anticipate a good turnout of helpers!

We have launched the school garden blog and facebook page and are looking to increase interest in this project. I hope you will follow us and be part of this exciting journey!

What is on your garden to-do list for May?

~Rob~

Garden Journal - March 2013

Garden Journal - March, 2013

To Do:

• Start tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, herb and flower seeds
• Transplant (block-up) seedlings started last month and move to greenhouse
• Design and build the duck house
• Layout and cut in new garden beds
• Fence in gardens with temporary fencing
• Design irrigation system for greenhouse and cold frames
• Design gravity feed, drip irrigation system for garden
• Order planting supplies like row covers, hoops, bamboo for trellis, etc.
• Re-submit garden shed plans to town hall to renew building permit
• Create blog and facebook page for the school garden
• Finalize layout of school garden and start building raised bed boxes

Notes:

For the past few years I have been thinking about adding an irrigation system to the greenhouse and cold frames. There are usually over a thousand seedlings in the greenhouse by the end of March and it can get a little tedious watering everything. I would like to have overhead sprayers as well as drip lines and have been looking at the DripWorks catalog and website trying to figure out the proper system.

The garden beds next to the house and garage will be set up with a gravity feed, drip irrigation system. I have been looking for inexpensive rain barrels to use, but haven't had too much luck. I would love to use wooden barrels instead of plastic, but the ones I have found are very expensive.

The garden shed was supposed to be built before winter, but as usual I was too busy with my business and didn't have time to build it. That was probably a good thing because I have decided to put it in a different location which will work better with the new garden layout.

I would still love to build the larger greenhouse that I have been designing, but don't know if there will have time before spring. My current greenhouse is still adequate, but is getting a little cramped for space now that I am trying to grow flowers and plants for the school garden.

The school garden project has finally been approved ~YAY~ and we are really getting excited to start working on that. Last weekend I was supposed to walk the site and measure to finalize the layout. As soon as I do that I can start building the raised bed boxes and hopefully we can raise enough funds to get the fence built fairly quickly. We have a resident artist at the school who has agreed to design a sign for the garden, which should look awesome with the whimsical theme we are trying to create!

What is on your garden to-do list for March?

~Rob~

Garden Journal - February 2013

 I use a garden journal to plan out and track each years' crops.
It is a bound journal that I put together each winter that contains a monthly planner, planned crops, seedling tray layouts, garden layouts, planting and seed starting schedule, plant and harvest notes and other miscellaneous information. 

I also a my garden journal database, which I developed, to keep track of each variety I grow, where I obtained the seeds, growing information, germination rates, starting dates, maturity dates, pest information and yields. I can automatically generate my spring and fall planting and seed starting schedules from my database by entering the last spring frost and first frost dates for my area.



Gardening is a continuous learning process and keeping records has helped me fine-tune methods that work well for me. Having a place to store and easily access this information has been extremely helpful. I can quickly look back at the previous year to see what yields I had, what pest problems, if any, I encountered, what methods I used to deal with them or see what germination rates I was able to obtain using my own starting mix. I plan on growing on a much larger scale some day so setting up this system now will hopefully help me grow more efficiently and successfully in the future.

Each month I am going to post my Garden Journal To-Do lists to help keep me on schedule and to track what projects I am working on. It will also be a nice way to generate new blog posts for the month!

Garden Journal - February, 2013

To Do:

• Clean out greenhouse and set up heat mats to prepare for starting seeds
• Draw new garden layout for this years crops
• Update seed database and order remaining seeds
• Create planting schedule
• Sift compost and create seed starting mix
• Start Beets, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Celery, Collards, Kale, Leeks, Lettuce, Onions, Parsley and Spinach in soil blocks
• Design new greenhouse for starting flowers
• Finish reading "The Flower Farmer, an Organic Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers" by Lynn Byczynski
• Draw up layout for this year's cutting flower beds
• Hold first meeting for the Elementary School Garden

Notes:

 This year my goal is to grow only organic and mostly heirloom varieties. I plan on saving seeds for next year and am working on building my own seed bank. I am also working on growing as much of our own food as possible so it is important to plan the gardens to maximize space.

I grew only vegetables in the past, but this year I am planning on putting in a cutting flower garden. It only makes sense as a natural way to attract bees and other beneficial insects and it will be a start to hopefully selling cut flowers at the local farmer's market.

The other big project we are working on is getting the School Garden up and running. We have hit many road blocks along the way but we finally have some people on board that have some influence so hopefully this will be the year to make it happen!

~Rob~