Starting Seeds – Take Two

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By Julianne Idleman May 15, 2010

The Mary Washington asparagus crowns never did sprout. It’s been a long, wet, cold spring here. Maybe they are still down there thinking about it. Probably the ground was too cold and wet when I put them in and they have succumbed to rot. I will dig them up when the sweet potato slips arrive from Sand Hill Preservation and see. In the mean time, I am starting asparagus from seed. Italian seed, no less. The packet says, “Asparago Precoce d’Argentuil” which I am pretty sure means early asparagus and leaves a bit to be desired on the descriptive end. For $2.99 I figured it was worth a try. I’ve already lost this year’s growth since the 1-year-old crowns didn’t make it and I really want enough asparagus to pickle some eventually. I broke down and bought asparagus this year, planning to pickle some of it, but we devoured it.

And speaking of things being devoured. Where are my beautiful Appaloosa beans? I know I planted an entire 4′ x 4′ of them! OK, it was mid-April. And that same wet, cold rainy spring that I mentioned earlier. But still, they are in a raised bed against the house in a nice sunny spot. ONE bean came up–and something ate the top of it off. Ugh. Remind me to reseed that planter bed now that it is finally warming up. Where did I just read not to rush to plant your bean seeds because you will just end up wasting a lot of seeds? Sometimes I think I am just gardening to learn patience.

But then I have a week of eating like we just had. I have a big board in the kitchen and last weekend I wrote down everything in or from the garden that was ready for us to eat; shell peas and snap peas, potatoes, salad greens, spinach, chard, beets, green onions, strawberries, oregano, celery, chives, carrots and the last of the kale and parsnips. Then I set about eating or finding a way to preserve all of it. It was actually fun trying to ‘live off the land’ there for a little while. And the vegetable curry I prepared in the middle of the week made it all worth while.

Today I also started some of the Principe Borghese tomatoes that I love for drying. I know, it’s mid-May. But last year, I was wishing I had started a second round of them by the time the first group were finished and the tomatoes were all in the dryer. Assuming it ever warms up this year, I may want them again. I also started Bottle, Dipper and Corsican Hard-shelled gourds. It’s probably warm enough for them to sprout outside, the watermelons and pumpkins are coming up, but I figured, why torture the poor things? They can get started under the grow lights with the last of the peppers and go into the garden when it really is ready for them. Plus, I don’t know where I am going to put them yet. And there’s all those sweet potatoes yet to fit in.

And did I mention that I started 40 or so quinoa plants? I was thinking about experimenting with a quinoa and sunflower version of The Three Sisters. I got some nice looking Hopi sunflowers from Native Seeds to mix in with the quinoa. I started a couple varieties of pumpkins in the bin to shade the soil and keep the weeds down. And I’m wondering if I can grow some pole beans up the quinoa. I think the sunflowers will be strong enough. The quinoa part might be crazy. I’m still reading up on it.

Mom, Can I Have More Kale?

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By Julianne Idleman March 14, 2009

Massaged Kale Salad

Today in Dirt to Dinner the kids made an amazing Massaged Kale Salad with a medley of Roasted Root Vegetables. Delicious! And as you can see, beautifully presented. Can you imagine how satisfying it was for a bunch of parents to stand around and see the kids going for seconds of a salad made with raw kale right from the garden! Not to mention they were also eating roasted turnips, parsnips, potatoes, rutabagas, carrots and more. All in all a very satisfying meal to help consume. You can find a recipe for the salad (not exactly the way we made it–but close) on the “I Love Kale” blog at http://iheartkale.blogspot.com/2009/01/massaged-kale-salad-with-grated-root.html

Team Work

And they had worked up quite an appetite finding garden bugs, playing an elaborate kind of tag that reinforces ideas about predator – prey relationships and food webs at work in a garden. And designing and digging the space for the Dirt to Dinner planting beds.

One thing we can already tell you after just two sessions of Dirt to Dinner is that when you have twelve plus kids on hand and lunch to prepare for 25, three hours goes mighty fast. Because there is so much to do, we are already guessing that the kids likely to get the most of the program will be the ones who are able to be here on Mondays for Open Garden hours when they can move at their own pace.

Dug Up Discovery

Just today while the group was together we had a scavenger hunt to see what kinds of insect life we could find in the garden, met the worms who will inhabit our worm farm, picked kale, celery and lemons and played the predator-prey game about cabbage, cabbage worms, moths and birds.

Then one group prepared and roasted the root vegetables and then planted potatoes outside in flexible bins and the other group prepared the Massaged Kale Salad and did a math and spatial awareness puzzle to try to figure out what shapes the pieces for the garden boxes could be arranged in to maximize the square feet for gardening while still allowing kids to reach all the plants that would be in the beds without putting their weight on the soil.

Mid-Dig

Want to try it? You can cut up sticks, straws, string, strips of paper, etc. into four 4″ lengths and eight 6″ lengths and let us know what shape configuration gives you the most square inches while still allowing easy access to the space inside the sticks. We know of two shapes that will give you 112 square inches. The largest configuration the Dirt to Dinner kids came up with today was a 112 square inch “L.” So that’s the shape that the kids measured and marked out and eventually framed with our 4′ and 6′ lengths of willow hurdles to make a 112′ garden bed.

Ready for the Dirt

Spring Obsessed

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By Julianne Idleman March 5, 2009

Raised and Ready

Yesterday I realized that the collards that have wintered over so well have noticed it’s about to be Spring and are getting ready to go to seed. I quickly made them into everything from frittata with onion and bacon to classic Southern-style ‘greens’ to bags to give away to anyone who haplessly stopped by my house while they were still here. Waste not, want not. ;-)

Saying that I am a bit obsessed with gardening at this time of year is polite understatement. The minute the weather breaks, which is four or five times a day this week, I am rushing out to dig compost into soil, turn new planting beds, pot up young tomatoes or check on the peas.

Inside Starts vs. Direct Planting

I gave up the container I was using as a cold frame and decided to test the wisdom of starting bean seeds early. They sprout well, grow fast and are hard to keep from getting leggy, not to mention carrying them back and forth from the house for hardening off. So, I took a six-packs worth of Roc D’or Yellow Wax Bush Beans (55-60 days) and popped them into this cosy bed along with roughly the same amount of seeds planted today. The left over space I filled in with Jewel-Toned Beets (55 days) because the very next planting bed over, a shallowed raised bed build into the patio, I have other beets grown from early transplants to compare them with. The front and back edges I filled in with King Midas carrots (68-75days.) They will take longer than the beans or beets in this bed, but the soil here is so perfect for them–fluffy down at least a foot–that I couldn’t resist.

Onions Waiting

I tucked the first of the onions into their planting bed this afternoon, between rain drops. The soil in my raised beds drains well enough to work even when the weather has been wet for weeks. I planted the Red Long of Tropea (90 -110 days) I grew from seed given to me by the folks at Blue House Farm.

Red Long of Tropea

These beautiful Italian onions have a unique shape that I think will appeal to the kids and they are meant to be eaten fresh when they bulb in the Summer. They are considered Long Day onions. The Red Onion Festival is held in Tropea during the first week of July, and our lattitude is a bit South of them, so here’s hoping.

I started work on two new raised beds today. My husband actually did most of the work for the first bed, a 4’x4′ built with the remains of a Square Foot Gardening kit. It will be in a sunny spot that was part of our lawn until this morning. Tom cut out the sod 6-8″ deep and I’ll fill that with Lyngso Essential Soil Mix when we fill the kids’ Dirt to Dinner willow beds.

Square Foot 3' x 3'

The second bed is in a sunny corner that might be slightly shaded by the artichokes. I guess I could always cut them back if they get in the way. Those guys could survive without a leaf or two. This bed is built out of two 3’x3’s from the Square Foot Gardening kit, for the extra soil depth needed in this spot. It’s up against the fence and I have done what I could with the soil under the bed but it still ain’t pretty. This one I dug some compost into and will fill with potting mix made according to the Square Foot Gardening method, for the most part. My measuring is never too exact. I have had very good luck with their soil mix over the last few years even though the vermiculite it calls for is hard to find in “coarse.” I also don’t like the warning label that comes on the vermiculite bag, so if you can suggest good alternatives, let’s hear them!

Broccoli Raab

Here’s a job I really need smaller hands to help with. I think every last Broccoli Raab seed I planted spouted–twice! And now I need to prick out the plants that are too close together and move them to another spot. You’re supposed to do this before the leaves touch the leaves of the plant next to them, so I’m already very late. I know I could snip some of them at soil level to thin the patch, which I may yet muster the courage to do. But I go to a lot of trouble to sprout these little guys! I hate to go out there with scissors and chop half their heads off just like that! Maybe I can move them into flats for the Dirt to Dinner kids to take home. A lot of them like broccoli…I wonder if I have a flashlight bright enough to work by…

Potting Up

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By Julianne Idleman February 22, 2009

The tomato seeds start out in little pellets, and the irony is not lost on me that I am growing “local” food by starting seeds in a product that has come all the way from Vietnam.

Starting Local Food in Fiber Grow from Vietnam

Digging up peat bogs to dry them and ship them to gardeners everywhere contributes to global warming, so I thought I was doing a good thing by getting Fiber Grow pellets. But once I got home and turned the package over and read the Made in Vietnam sticker, I wasn’t so sure anymore. It takes a lot of resources to ship not-peat moss around the world too.

Tomato Sprouts

Anyway, the tomatoes, for better or worse, begin their lives on the top of the refrigerator in their Vietnamese fiber homes. It takes a week or two sometimes at the right temperature for them to germinate. They like to be warm. The first batch I started, only about half of them ever sprouted at all.

Once they have “true” leaves, the tomatoes and their Vietnamese pots go into the regular 6-packs you might see at the garden store.

First Potting

They will stay in the 6-packs for several weeks until they begin to fill out, develop stronger stems, make more leaves and start to be recognizable as tomato plants.

The next time the plants are potted up, they will be set deep into individual containers with potting soil

Tomato Starts in 6-pack

and a little mature compost to help them grow strong. This may sound nasty, but you bury them deep enough in the new pots that some of the early leaves will be under the soil, so you carefully tear these leaves off. Where the leaves were on the stems, roots will grow in the soil making the plant sturdier when it finally sees the garden soil.

The tomato seeds that I started in early January are just now moving into their own pots for the first time, so this process has taken about 6 weeks. It takes a long time to grow tomatoes from seed but I am really looking forward to all the pasta sauce and sundried tomatoes, salads, catsup…

Tomatoes in Four Sizes

When’s the Last Date of Expected Rain?

From Dirt to Dinner

Learning in the Garden

Tag Archives: gardening

Starting Seeds – Take Two

Mom, Can I Have More Kale?

Spring Obsessed

Potting Up

When’s the Last Date of Expected Rain?