Monday, May 30, 2011

Transplanted Peppers Today

Sunburnt basil.

I am wondering if the chives flowering is an indicator that the soil is warm enough to plant other plants. I'll try to pay attention to this in the future.

Peas.

Peas.

East side of vegetable garden. My six peppers are planted here.

From far to near:
Bella hot
Carnival mix
Carnival mix
Bella hot
Thai dragon
Thai dragon

I deliberately planted them in this order for two reasons: to keep the bell peppers away from human pests and to allow people to enjoy the beauty of the Thai Dragons.

West side of vegetable garden.


Greenhouse. The big leaves in the foreground are turnips (which thrived in the greenhouse last year).

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Tomato Lesson Learned

I always get eager to start planting seeds. This year, I did not heed the warnings that I had read about NOT planting tomatoes too early. My tomato seedlings were leggy with small leaves.

According to my March 26th blog entry, I planted my tomato seeds 6w4d before last frost. Next year I will plant them later. Perhaps more toward the four-weeks-before-last-frost end of things.

So I bought a tomato plant from the greenhouse. It is a variety that I have not tried.
Bonny Best. An heirloom tomato.

Sweet pea in greenhouse.

First garlic scape.

Zinnia.

Before a quick rain shower.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Catching Up

Yesterday we bought and planted:
Tomato - Bonny Best
Cauliflower - Graffiti

Today we transplanted:
Tomato - Beefsteak
Celeriac
Sage
Basil - Spicy Globe & Sweet
Gazania - Gazoo
Gladiolus - four more
Zinnia

We harvested:
Spinach - from outside, healthy & delicious
Garlic - one head that we left in last fall to see what would happen
Radishes - from outside
Lettuce - from greenhouse
Miner's Lettuce - from greenhouse
Mizuna - from greenhouse

I made a trellis with stakes and strings for the peas.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Hardening Off

Day 1: 1.5hr - evening
Day 2: 2hr - evening
Day 3: 0hr - between work/social activities, I didn't get to it
Day 4: 3.5hr - afternoon, partly sunny, calm
Day 5: 6hr - afternoon, cloudy, light rain, light breeze, 65F
Day 6: 8hr - midday to evening, cloudy, light breeze, 60F
Day 7: 8.5hr - midday to evening, sunny, 85F+ (plants got pretty wilted)
Day 8: 0hr - they were predicting hail (which didn't happen)
Day 9: 13hr - morning to overnight, highs in lower 60Fs, lows in high 40Fs
Day 10: 24hr - all day and night, highs in 50Fs, lows in 40Fs
Day 11: 11hr - night to morning, highs in 40s, rainy all day
Day 12: 12hr - day, sunny, windy, highs in 60s, possible frost (brought in at night)
Day 13: 11hr - day, sunny, windy, highs in 60s, lows in 40Fs (brought in at night)
Day 14: 15hr - day, sunny, windy, highs in 60s, lows in 40Fs (brought in at night)
Day 15: 19.5hr - day, sunny, windy, highs in 60Fs. Now, I plan to leave everything outside until planting. The 10 day weather forecast doesn't have any lows below 50F. Most of the highs are in the low 7oFs.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Frost Advisory

There is a frost advisory in effect tonight. We will most likely be spared due to the heat island effect of the Twin Cities.

Trees


Saturday, May 14, 2011

Planted Cabbage and Onions Today

I planted one cauliflower, four cabbages, and a bunch of onion seedlings today. I hadn't planned to plant them, but I was outside and so where they. And the weather was beautiful for transplanting: grey and rainy. So, in they went.

From south to north along the east side of the flower bed:
Cauliflower
Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage
Red Acre Cabbage
Earliana Cabbage
Premium Flat Dutch Late Cabbage

I put one of three zinnia plants in my flower bed. I think I would have put them all in, except the other two were hiding in the flat between the other plants and I didn't see them. I don't think that's a bad thing. I suspect that the zinnias would prefer to go in when it's a little warmer anyway.

I planted the marigold and cosmos seedlings in the border area. I think I would have waited to plant them, but there were big footprints in that area of the border, where I had already planted marigold, cosmos, and sunflower seeds. The seedlings are already blooming and will (hopefully!) mark the area as planted.

My tomato seedlings look terrible. They are leggy, bent over, with small leaves and weak stems. I think I started the seeds too early. I also think they'll grow just fine outside when they get a little more room.

Mid-May in the Garden

These tulips just started blooming this week. I don't remember seeing them before. I don't remember when I planted them!

Tulips, garlic, plants hardening off, and spring greens.

In a community garden, not all hazards are weather-related. I really have no idea how this happened, but this is how I found this cabbage this morning.

And this is how I left that same cabbage.

I had no idea forget-me-nots bloomed this early. I planted these last year and this is the first time they have bloomed.

In the greenhouse, greens are ready for harvest. Yum.

Morning Gory

I decided Monday night to soak morning glory seeds for starting on Tuesday. Then I discovered that I had no potting soil. So the morning glory seeds soaked from Monday night to Saturday morning. That, it turns out, is a little too long. They were stinky.

So I potted them in some old soil from some seedlings that didn't germinate...just in case an ambitious one survived the soak.

Then, two hours later, I discovered the bag of potting soil. On the bottom of the grow rack. In plain sight.

Groan.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

More Storms

It stormed a little yesterday because of the warm temperature. It looks like more storms today. They're predicting hail this afternoon. I think I'll hold off on hardening off today because I'll be at work and won't be able to rescue plants from hail.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Soil Temperature Map

I just found a soil temperature map. I don't know if it's reliable though or where the data comes from. But at least it gives me an idea of what the soil temps are without having to go outside and measure it.

http://www.greencastonline.com/SoilTempMaps.aspx

Spring Greens

The greenhouse plants are thriving. I harvested radishes and mizuna a couple of days ago, but it was time for more harvesting today. I harvested one row of spinach and bunches of mizuna today. The spinach was almost starting to bolt. The mizuna was shading my other plants.

Spinach (mizuna below).

Both the radishes and mizuna are volunteers from a greenhouse plot that went to seed last year.
Easter eggs and spring greens.

Some of my greenhouse peas are almost 10 inches tall now. Time to get a little fence panel for them to climb.

Beautiful Weather for Hardening Off

Today is day number four or five of hardening off.

So far:
Day 1: 1.5hr - evening
Day 2: 2hr - evening
Day 3: 0hr - between work/social activities, I didn't get to it
Day 4: 3.5hr - afternoon, partly sunny, calm
Day 5: 6hr - afternoon, cloudy, light rain, light breeze

The weather forecast for the coming week predicts highs in the 60-70Fs and lows in the 50Fs with a good chance of rain every day.


Saturday, May 7, 2011

Seed Starting Calendar

I'm really excited about this seed-starting calendar/calculator from Johnny's Seeds:

New Camera, Beautiful Spring Day




Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Today in the Garden

Daffodils, Tulips, and Cottonwood

Hyacinth

Opening Tulip

Sprouting Lily

Miner's Lettuce

Corn Salad

Lettuce & Mizuna