Greenhouse: Transplanting

Last time I posted, I left you with all the panel problems we were trying to deal with. Well, I'm glad to report that we're (slowly) getting those kinks worked out. I'm hoping that we'll have them all worked out by the time the October storms start to settle in. :P 

So when I'm not taping down greenhouse panels when it's windy, what have I been up to? Well, for a few weeks it was non-stop transplanting. 

I kid you not. I brought home 75% of the starts from work, and they all needed to be up-potted. They had outgrown their 6-packs and it was time for the 4" pots. Why did they have to all need it all at the same time though? 

My babies came home!

So I would transplant all the babies at work (sometimes for most of the day) and then come home and transplant some more. I'm very grateful that the wi-fi reaches the garden because I could just turn on Pandora on my phone, plug it into the outdoor radio, and have my tunes while working and not be subjected to whatever was on the airwaves. I had enough of that while I was commuting to school.  

Completely in my element

And just like that, the greenhouse was full. 

And this isn't even all the flower I have. o.O

Since then, I've moved most of the flowers outside to harden off so that we can get them in the ground as soon as it's ready so now there is more space inside. Just in time to start thinking about what I want to seed for the fall and winter garden! :P 

Until next time!

SG

The Gardener's Garden

Happy New Year!

And I can't think of a better time to dust off the old blog a bit. Actually, a lot. 

Long time, no blog; and I have some updating to do. I'll give you the cliff notes version. 

I finished school in June. Yay! 

Started working full time at the chef's garden that I had my internship at. Yay!

My social life saw a revival. Yay!

Sewed like crazy because I had markets, bazaars, and fairs for my booth. :gasp: Yes, I was a vendor at multiple events this past season. Yay!

Psst, you can keep up with those adventures on my sewing blog. ;) 

And I have a legitimate excuse for ignoring this little digital space.

You know the saying, "The cobbler's children are barefoot"? 

I'd like to add to it. "The gardener's garden is abandoned." 

I went to school to learn how to farm and garden. My garden should be :amazing:

Well, the garden that I work at is well cared for.

Mine, on the other hand, gets very little time dedicated to it. It's weedy, in desperate need of regular watering, and in need of just getting actually finished. I know, a garden is never 'finished,' but I would like to have the basic design and parameters of the space established, and I could just put in plants and garden around it. That would be kind of nice. 

In the summer of '16, we finally bit the dust and built raised beds. We put down weed block because we started finding baby MORNING GLORY. Not cool. At all. I was mad, and upset, and frustrated that I spend all my precious little time digging those things out. So we built the beds. 

It wasn't in time for the summer garden that year, but it was just in time for the fall garden. We took some wire and cut it to the width of the beds, and bought some frost blanket. That was also just in time for one of our snowier, colder winters. 

And that was the first time we had broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, carrots, parsnips, and garlic. Actually, it was my first overwintered garden at home. I call that a success. 

By next the next spring, the overwintered things were all done, and summer plants put in. I loved the minimal effort in getting the beds ready, and the timed drip irrigation, and the noticeable lack of weeding that needed to be done. Compared to everywhere else on the property, it was nice to not have to worry about the vegetable garden for once.

By the end of this summer, I quickly realized that the summer veggies weren't going to be done in time to get the fall/winter crops in, so we made a few more boxes to expand the area. Slowly we will build the full garden plan. Baby steps. :nods:

One of my goals for this year is to set up better infrastructure the areas that we've developed to make our daily routines easier. The blueberries, strawberries, herb garden, orchard, etc.. This year we could get a better handle on the weed pressure, be better about mulching and suppression, installing timed irrigation so we don't have to water everything by hand, etc... We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we'll just keep chipping away at it.  

I have some more fun and exciting things and developments to share with you this year, so hopefully I can get around to updating more often. :D 

Until next time!

SG

Somber Thanks

In Flanders Fields 

By Lietenant Colonel John McCrae

May 3, 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place: and in the sky

The larks still bravely singing fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved: and now we lie

In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe

To you, from failing hands, we throw

The torch: be yours to hold it high

If ye break faith with us who die,

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields

Source

Red Legion Poppies in the garden that started blooming on Memorial Day weekend

Many thanks to those that gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedom.

Until next time, 

SG

A Garden in Bloom

My peony is blooming!!! Peony flowers are short-lived, but what a glorious bloom.

Marionberry

Elderberry

Oma's heirloom rose

What everything else looks like

Until next time!

SG

Weekend Warrior

207 herb starts.

That's how many baby plants I was able to transplant over the weekend after converting the porch to a makeshift gardening shed. :P

And now the porch has been taken over by baby plants.

The next step? Let these little guys get some size on them, and then it's time for them to be transplanted into the herb garden! 

Yay for slug-eaten Johnny Jump-Ups... 

Until next time!
SG

Of Edibles and Finals

After finishing the finals for the term, I got to bring home all these lovelies from my propagation class. Apples, figs, kiwis, herbs, and grapes, oh my! 

And this doesn't even include all the microgreens that I got to bring home as well! 

So I scoured the greenhouse on campus looking for my plants, loaded them up into the backseat of my sedan (yay for rubber floor mats!), and headed home. The skies were blue, the trees are all in bloom, the grass is green again, and the wild mustard covers the hillsides with a blanket of yellow. The classical radio station was playing lively string quartets all the way home (nothing else was on the radio). It was a good way to derazzle from studying for finals. Now onward to spring break and getting these guys into the garden!

Until next time!

SG

How to Propagate Lavender

For one of my projects this term, I have to do a report (and oral presentation) about propagating an edible plant. Lavender counts, right?

So I gathered the necessary supplies for rooting cuttings.

-Rooting hormone of your choice (please read the label to make sure that it is strong enough for what you're trying to root!). They come in powders and liquid. If you use liquid, you're going to have to dilute it out. Again, please read the directions on the bottle. 

- Peat Moss. You can go with peat or coir. The store didn't have any coir though. We'll save the discussion about the no-so-environmental-savvy-ness of peat for another time. For getting cuttings to root, you need something that retains a lot of water.  

Which brings me to the next point. You don't want gigantic pots to start your cuttings in. It will take a ton of water to keep the media moist enough for your baby clones to survive. Use a pot that has plugs just big enough for your cuttings. 

Then you fill you pot with the growing media of choice, and wet the stuff down. You want it wet enough that it clumps, but not so much that water oozes from it when you give it a squeeze.

 

Following the directions on the bottle of glorified auxin (rooting hormone), I diluted it out to the appropriate strength. If you just dip the cutting straight into the bottle you will a)introduce pathogens into the community bottle and b)you just made an herbicide and will now grow your plant to death.

 For my project, I ended up with waaaay more rooting hormone than I needed... You don't need much. Just enough to dip the tips of your cuttings in. 

Next, grab your cuttings. Mine happen to be lavender (Sarah to be precise). You don't need much. Just enough to have about 3 nodes to dip in the rooting hormone and then a few leaves to remind you that they're still there. You don't want many leaves because they will lose water. Not enough water = dead plant.  

So, take your cutting, and strip the leaves to expose the nodes (the spots where the leaves are growing). These zones are where the plant will grow roots from. By removing the leaves, you're telling the plant to grow roots instead.  

To get a better look at the nodes. There are 4 shown here. 

Now dip the exposed nodes into the rooting hormone. If you have a powder, you will have a small cup of water and a small cup of the powder. First dip the cutting into the water, then the powder (it helps the powder to stick). But with my liquid, the cutting just goes for a quick dip.  

And into the prepared pot it goes! Mine is just a re-used veggie pack from last year that was cleaned out to make sure that no pathogens get to the cuttings. 

And voila! You have lavender (or thyme, or rosemary, or or or or or...) cuttings. Keep the babies damp and in place with cooler air and warmer ground. Then your little hopefuls will grow roots. 

No project is complete without a cat hanging around. ;)  

Until next time!

SG

Winter Garden

A long over due post. ;)

Before things got 'colder' in the fall, we were able to get the raised beds into the garden and plant the few herbs that we had. The herbs were then tucked into their beds and now wait for spring to arrive with its warmer temperatures (or now... since we're having a warmer winter).

The 2'x2' beds are actually concrete forms from when we built the deck. All I did was put on a couple layers of paint and a stenciled flourish. To prevent gophers, moles, and voles (oh my!), I stapled a vinyl coated wire mesh to the bottom of the boxes. Now my herbs are safe(r) from root nibbling. Let's hope the mesh holds ;)

As for the longer bed in the middle... it's a crate that was used to transport one of my grandma's clocks across the country. Yeah, they built a crate to haul the clock. It felt like a waste to toss it, so I painted it the same color as the concrete forms, put a chicken wire mesh along the sides and then a weed block behind that. Underneath is the same vinyl coated mesh to keep the burrowing rodents at bay. 

I feel like such a Portlander for not throwing things away and repurposing them. :P

For the stepping stones, I spray painted some pavers a light cream. Once dried, I used a doily as a stencil to paint over. I :love: how they turned out. 

As for the pathway, we just laid down some empty paper feed bags and put bark dust on top. Here's to minimal weeding!

Until next time!

SG

Blustery Day

I haven't been able to do much work in the garden between work, sewing commissions, and homework. But we had a pretty decent wind storm on Saturday afternoon, so I thought that I should make sure that none of my potted plants hadn't tipped over. I go to check on plants, and I end up finding a broken tabletop and a fallen chandelier. Phooey. How am I supposed to clean that up?

Honestly though, I'm surprised that there wasn't more damage to my garden. 

Unless gravity reversed itself, I don't think that the chandelier is supposed to be on the floor. :Le' sigh:

 

And the glass was pretty darn thick. Not tempered though. Now there's glass shards everywhere. No more barefoot gardening (I guess I could, but that's one trip to the doctor's office that I don't want). 

So I took advantage of the lovely weather that we had today (and it just so happened to be my day off! Love how that all lined up), and I cleaned the pergola. All that's left for glass clean-up is taking a shop vac to the area to get the super teeny tiny pieces that I couldn't pick up by hand. 

Also while I was busy working and homeworking (yes, that's a word now), the weeds decided that it was the prime opportunity to take over. Apparently it's therapy time. Here's how things looked before I got my hands dirty.  

And after: 

The soil is wonderfully moist and soft now, so weed pulling is a breeze! And I used my favorite tool: the hula-hoe. Now my plants don't have to compete with the invaders and can focus on growing. 

Until next time!

SG

Herb Garden: Building the Pergola

Funny how a kink in your back will stop you in your tracks. With all the gardening that I've been doing - rather... dirt moving, rock hauling, sand shuffling, more dirt moving, compost mixing, etc... my back has decided that it's time to see the chiropractor. ;) So, while I'm giving my back a break, I'll catch you up, step by step, of all that we've been doing to the latest addition to the property - the herb garden! 

I've been scheming and planning for years, and all those thoughts and ideas have jumped from paper into the real realm. The herb garden is actually going in! 

But first things first. Gotta get that hardscaping in. Don't want to run over your plants with a tractor. ;) 

So Dad graded the plot with the tractor, then he and Jake built a pergola. And quite the lovely pergola at that. 

Some friends of ours wanted to come out and help on the farm, so we put them to work with the floor. They leveled everything out, put sand down, leveled that out, figured out the brick pattern, and went to town with it all. Honestly though, the most tedious part of paver laying is the prep work. Once you get going though, the pace picks up. Until you run out of bricks. Which happened just a few rows shy of the entire floor. Back to the home improvement store we went!

Where was I in all of this? 

At my job. 

Otherwise I would have been working in the garden. That's where you'll find me these days. ^_^ 

They did a mighty fine job, if I do say so myself. :) 

Next up - Retaining wall!

Until next time!

SG

Garden Harvest: Peas

Even though I got the seeds in the ground very late, I still got enough to have a mini feast.  

Don't worry. I shared. :P  

How does your garden grow?

Until next time!

SG

Strawberries, Veggies, and Spaghetti Squash, Oh My!

The strawberries that we 'planted' are in full swing now! 

I use the word 'planted' in a weird sense... Because of everything else going on at the time that the berries arrived via mail, we weren't able to put them where they're supposed to go. Instead, they landed in the compost pile. They're certainly not complaining about their temporary home though!

Aren't they gorgeous berries! I ate them right after they posed for their picture. 

And our blackberries survived frostbite! They also landed in the compost pile, but then we had some freezing nights. We thought that we had lost them, but they've made quite the comeback! 

We've also gotten the beginnings of a garden started. The peas sprouted beautifully, but the beans... not so much. Granted, we used old seeds. 

And now for something that I'm super stoked about - spaghetti squash! But not just any spaghetti squash, spaghetti squash that some friends of mine had traded with us for chickens. Since the squash was amazing, I saved the seeds and got them in the ground when things were finally warm enough. I can't wait to enjoy these later this year! And yes, I planted mound after mound of these guys. Spaghetti squash is my favorite gourd.  

And of course, Dad needs to have his row of corn. ;) 

Until next time!

SG

Spring Fever

Lots of flower starts!

 Something inside of me rebels whenever it gets cold and wet again after we've had a few days of warm weather. But everyone else in the country is able to get their gardens in! Meanwhile we're still swimming in the swamps. But there is a way to get start curing the gardening bug while it's raining cats and dogs out there - you cheat. You whip out the heating pads and a 'greenhouse light' to get things started in the house.

My sister has also been anxious to get things in the ground also. But she's not that into veggie gardens; green food is something to be avoided, given to the livestock, or snuck onto someone else's plate. She grows flowers. And she's way ahead in the game than I am. Her flowers have already sprouted, and there isn't a veggie start to be seen anywhere.

 But that's about to change. Dad got the bug when going through seed catalogs from local sources and ordered tons of seeds. I'm not exaggerating here. I guess we're going to be serious about our veggie garden this year.  

Well, the seeds came in the mail; now we're just waiting for a good day to get the ground prep done. And we're also needing to get some fencing in since the chickens would have a field day otherwise. I'm sure there's something else that I'm missing on the to-do list that takes priority. 

Soon. Very soon. We'll get those seeds in the ground. Then we hope that there will be veggie sprouts. And a certain someone will 'forget' to water them. ;)