Seeding, pricking, and more seeding

Things are getting hot and heavy in my little basement greenhouse.  I had an excellent weekend of outdoor gardening so the indoor seeding waited for another couple days.  I hope I don't regret putting it off with plants too small to transplant later.  I was able to prick out my peppers, Celosia, and Heliotrope.  I had to make decisions about only keeping what I need instead of saving every plant.  Sometimes it is hard to toss some things on the compost pile, but I make myself feel better that I saved the best of them for planting.  My last batch of coleus is also almost fully rooted.  The first batch is ready to be nipped back to promote side shoots.  This makes a better plant over having a single stem heading up.  Try it, you'll like it!  Tomatoes are almost ready to be upgraded, too.

I have also had to make some decisions about what stays in and what goes out.  The violas are small but hardy.  A few of the seeds I am sowing now also like it cooler so outside they go.  I have a rolling rack that can move in and out of the garage for night time protection.  I think the petunias are next as they are also a hardy plant once they get hardened off.  The geraniums, jasmine and potted mandevilla vines are already on their way to complete outdoor happiness.

The garden beds are filling up with early crops as well.  I put in seeds for carrots, beets, chard, kale, radicchio, and pak choy.  I also put in my baby cabbages (an actual variety, not a size descriptor), romaine lettuce, onions, and radicchio plants.  All have been given a row cover to help them acclimate to the conditions.  With temps around 80 today, they are also going to be ready for water.  Time to break out the hoses until the rain barrels get their first fill.  I did not turn them until this weekend as we still had nights in the 30's when we were getting all that rain.

I dug in my asparagus roots on Sunday with compost from last year.  I used some of the soil from the trench to pot up my honey berries and kiwi vines as they came bare root.  The areas that they are to be planted in are in prep stage.  The plants were starting to leaf out, so holding them in pots is better for the health of the plants.  The chicken-in-the-woods mushroom plugs are also going into the same area.  These can wait in the frig for longer.

Plan for next year's spring flowers now

Now is the time to take a walk around the yard and decide where you want the spring flowers next year.  Whether it is to enjoy a little color where you walk in the door or a quiet sunny corner of the yard where you take refuge in the early spring, this is the time to observe the bare spots that are begging for a little color.  Notice spots that will be under the canopy of broad leaf perennials that make ideal locations for the small, early spring bulbs.  Hosta gardens which are shady in the summer, may be nice and sunny in the spring which is perfect for the tiny little bulbs that give us the first colors of spring.

Make up some sturdy sticks or stakes with a bit of color on them and push them into the spots that you want to have flowers next spring.  They should be durable enough to last the whole summer and fall season, because fall is when you will be planting next year's spring bulbs.  I would also recommend that they stand up at least six to eight inches so you can continue to monitor their location through out the summer.  Make a map of where you have placed your stakes and keep it where you can find it in fall.  This will also be your guide for buying bulbs when the catalogs start arriving in early summer for fall planted bulbs.

Watch through the spring where your perennial plants are coming up and adjust your stakes so they are between plants and not in the middle of them.  Plant your annual flowers around the stakes to conceal their location for the summer.  Take care when cleaning out the garden so you keep the markers in place.  Keep in mind that after spring bulbs flower, you have to let the foliage die back naturally.  Cutting off their tops to squeeze in annuals in their place is a no-no.  Bulbs need to re-energize with photosynthesis before going dormant.  Plan on a smaller patch of spring color if you want to put annuals there in the summer.

Another options for a beautiful spring show is to treat the bulbs like annuals.  Some people have the cash to buy new bulbs every year and pull them out after the show to plant the same area with annuals.  With some of the showy, hybrid tulips this is not a bad option as many of the hybrids fade in glory with each passing year.  I planted a bed with 10 different colored tulips for my mother-in-law that became a bed of all pink tulips within three years.

Additional options include potting spring bulbs up into plastic pots which you can sink in the ground in the fall to over winter them (making sure they are at the proper planting depth according to their package) and then move the pots into place as they start to pop up the following spring.  With this method, after flowering, you can move the pots of leaves to a sunny corner to finish off the growing season.  The pots will still need water during this time, but you may be able to salvage them and possibly divide them up into additional spots for the next year.

What ever you decide to do to give yourself a little bit of color next spring, it will be worth all the planning when you are enjoying the show after a long winter.

Scilla among Periwinkle ground cover, early spring

Sometimes gardening is hard work

I have been pushing myself to the limits lately.  There are these big jobs that I put off until another day until they just can't wait anymore.  I live adjacent to a county park which is only 13 acres, but the county has been cutting budgets and staff to the point that nothing gets done which isn't an emergency.  For the 15+ years that we have been their neighbor, we have adopted our 140' stretch of "natural" area to keep it free of most invasives.  Trust me, this is what would grow there exclusively if it weren't for human intervention to fight it.

I did the pruning on the sugar maple that was planted there to keep it growing in good form this weekend.  I think it will take a rope and saddle rather than free climbing the next round.  By then it might also be ready to tap for maple syrup.  Time will tell.  I also pulled and pruned off several box elder sprouts that are threatening to make life miserable.  I had one that got away from us and it is too big to cut down without notice now.  That one got pruned up so a mower can pass under it rather than letting the burdock grow under its protection again.  This meant more brush to the pile.  Add to that the dead, cracked, and worn out lilac stems that were creating a tangled mess of nothing pretty to the mix and the pile grew even more.  Fortunately, a former co-worker is able to come by and chip the multiple piles and leave behind a truckload of chips besides.

My husband has one knee replacement and one needing replacement, so shovel work really aggravates the problem.  We have two more deck posts to dig out as well as three shrubs to transplant in the place of the invasives.  In their place, kiwi vines will grow to fruit and screen the backyard.  They arrived in the mail this week, so time is of the essence.  The old deck poles will find a new home as supports for these hardy vines.

Asparagus roots have arrived and the mushroom plugs are waiting for the spruce stumps to sprout their bounty.  Seedlings are needing water in the basement greenhouse and another round of seeds need a home to grow.  When it rains, it pours.

My advice:  Don't come around anytime soon if you don't want a shovel thrust into your hands.  Happy Arbor Day!

Crunch time, tight space

It is coming down to crunch time.  I have more to seed and less space to do it in.  Some of my flower seeds can be direct sown while others need a head start.  With the weather cooler and wet conditions, I would like to get a head start indoors.

My desire to plant more is often hampered by the lack of space to grow it.  I really need to get an outdoor structure, even a small one, that can temperature regulate so I don't have to worry about hot and cold shifts while I am not at home.  Once again, I don't even have a cold frame to fall back on.

Some people never learn.  I am kicking myself once again.

Fair weather, time to catch up

I was really hoping to use a few days of vacation this spring to ease into gardening.  Snow and cold later into the spring followed by weeks of rain and soggy ground have thwarted that plan.  Now that the fair weather is here, work has me too busy to take the days I have.  Weekends are catch up time now.

My plan this morning was to clean up the gardens.  I wanted to get the evergreen boughs up from the sprouting beds and get the leaves out of the corners.  I also was ready with my pruning saw.  Before I knew it, I was up in the sugar maple doing a long awaited clean up, and training prune.  Next was the columnar maple in the backyard.  This one has surpassed the second floor of the house and had two large branches I wasn't liking.  Already tired from climbing the sugar maple, I reluctantly got out the extension ladder and went to work. Branches that are six inches plus in diameter do not come off easily.  To do a proper pruning cut, you have to reduce the weight on the end of the branch, under-cut then over-cut the branch about 18" from the trunk, and then complete the cut with a cut outside the branch bark ridge at about a 45 degree angle.  Essentially you cut it twice through the thickest part of the branch.  I was not using a chain saw.  I am feeling it now or is it my age?

I didn't stop there because I have three bushes to dig and transplant.  To make it easier later, I cut them down six inches from the ground using my long handled lopper.  Digging did not happen today for reasons stated above.  I plan on sleeping well tonight.

On the upside, the job is done and I spent some time puttering in my beds picking up small evergreen boughs for the remainder of the afternoon.  It is so encouraging to see the new life poking up through the mulch.  The color of the new shoots can be so different from the full grown leaves.  The Virginia blue bells are purple rolls of shiny leaves.  The blood root is just starting to send up flowers.  Tiny blue flowers from several spring bulbs are showing in all kinds of areas where they have been planted among the ground covers.  It was a beautiful day to be in the yard.

I think I will close here and take some ibuprofen.  Forgive me for not proof reading.

If you don't like the weather, just wait a few minutes

To say we have been experiencing crazy weather in Wisconsin lately would not be overstating the facts.  Today alone it was cold and wind, cold and snow, cold and sun, cold and graupel  (yeah, look that one up), cold and snow...you get the picture.  This is coming on the heels of almost two weeks of off and on rain which has been pretty heavy at times.  The amazing thing is, we are just coming out of designations of drought and extremely dry...after all the rain.

I have been putting my onions out on the open but covered porch to start hardening them off.  I did have them out most of the day, but called my daughter and asked her to bring them in for the remainder of the afternoon.  They had suffered enough.  I don't think this weekend is going to be time to plant after all the rain we got.

Arbor Day is one week away.  We continue to plan our events in the hopes that the weather will give us a reprieve in time for the outdoor activities.  Monday, April 22nd is Earth Day.  Plan a simple activity that provides a meaningful contribution to the earth as well as your community.  Anyone can pick up trash and make the world just a little bit nicer.

What ever it is you plan for your own celebration, remember that if everyone cared just a little, the world can be a better place for all.

Warmer, sunnier more like spring

What  a beautiful spring day!  After days and days of clouds and rain the sun has broken through and warmed us all up again.  People just seemed happier.

The garden is starting to show signs of life.  The spring bulbs are poking their heads up.  The primrose are starting to bloom in the same garden as the dwarf iris and snow drops.  Tulip and daffodils are up about 6 inches high now.  I pulled the window boxes out of the ground with the alpine strawberry plants in them so they can get a washing by the next batch of rain.  New growth is coming up on these plants as well.

The best thing I did today was to not only walk out into the garden, but sit in the garden.  I took up my spot in the corner of my dormant vegetable patch on my sitting rock.  I listened to and watched the birds and small mammals do their springtime dance.  I soaked up the sun and closed my eyes and did nothing.  Sometimes the best part of gardening is taking the time to be there...and just be there.

Deferred canning

Cherry, raspberry, blackberry, and strawberry jam 4-14-13

Sometimes I do deferred canning.  Summer can be hot and miserable.  Fall can be filled with so many other things that need to be put up.  Fruits are so easy to clean up, freeze, and can in the winter when my schedule is less filled with other things to do.  Winter turned to spring this year before I finally pulled the fruits of summer out of the freezer to turn into homemade jams.

I purchase Door County pitted pie cherries from the local fruit market which are already frozen.  Sometimes they become pies, sometimes jam.  I had no jam on the shelves so it was time.  My raspberries and blackberries came through a barter with friends and family which involved the exchange of homemade salsa in return.  The strawberries were hulled and frozen whole for a later date of jam making.

It was cold and snowy this morning which prompted me to pull out the canning kettle and wash up the half-pint jars.  Once the mess is started, doing four batches is not much worse than doing one.  Another advantage to making the jam all at once.  Three or four hours later all was done and cooling on the racks.  It felt good.

As long as I was going through the freezer, it was also time to take in the frozen venison "scraps".  All together we weighed in 60 pounds of venison to have made into fresh and smoked sausages.  It will be a good summer of grilling.

Spring will come...eventually

Yesterday was hours of basement gardening.  After seeding tomatoes and my earliest flowers, I transplanted.  Petunias and violas had set on sometimes two or three sets of true leaves.  Peppers are not far behind.  The coleus that I had cut was rooted enough to put into potting mix. 

To make room for all the new transplants, I refilled the rooting jars with the rest of the coleus cuttings I allowed to grow on the plants the last time.  The remainder of the coleus stock plants are now compost.  I boosted these shorter plants up towards the light with buckets underneath the flats to optimize the artificial light being received by the leaves of the new transplants.

I am an early riser.  This morning was no exception.  After getting the ingredients for fresh bread in the machine, I settled in with a borrowed copy of the book The Worst Hard Time.  I'm enjoying this lesson on the Dust Bowl of the 1930's and how it impacted lives and the environment.  PBS did a similar two part documentary if you are not into reading.  Both are worth the time spent.

I got up from reading to refill my coffee cup.  The scene out my window changed in 30 minutes.  This is Wisconsin.  What was a gray and cold morning is now a white and cold morning.  The peas that I put in the ground are suffering through the indignation.  I did put a clear plastic tunnel over the row (concerned about excessive rain rotting the seed).  I really am not sure how the peas seeds will handle this.  Only time will tell.  Gambling the old seed to the soil is worth the chance.  There are more pea seeds at the garden center.

Sometimes, as a gardener, you have to make your best guess about what the weather will do.  I gambled on the peas, but left the beet, radishes, and other root vegetable seeds on my kitchen counter waiting for a better day.  Looking out the window, it seems that spring will never come.  It will in its own time.  I will continue to enjoy my book while I wait.

Tomato countdown, seeding day

My journal entries have been less than regular of late.  I have a dental procedure and bad weather to thank for my hiatus from gardening.  Milwaukee has seen nothing but rain day after day.  Rivers are over-flowing their banks and gardens are reduced to mud.  We have been soaking up a slow seepage of water in one corner of our home due to the saturated soil around us.  And, it has been cold.  40's are no temperature to garden in.

Today is T-day.  The day that tomatoes need to be seeded in hopes that the weekend following our Memorial Day the soil will be ready to have them take root.  I have some flowers to seed also.  I am doing a second round of hollyhocks this year in the hope that these biennials will provide me with blooms every year from alternate year crops.Asters, Statice, and Thithonia are also on my seeding calendar to be done 6 weeks before last frost.  Some seeds could be direct sown, but I want to have some plants to have a head start this year.

The onion crop is still in a seed tray.  I started hardening them off and then the cold came with the ceaseless rain.  I gave up and will trim them back, again, in hopes that next week will be warm enough to set them out during the day.  Maybe next weekend I will get them in the ground.

That is the thing about gardeners.  We always have hope for the future to be just a little bit better.  We look forward while learning from the past.  Sometimes plants die and plans go awry, but there is always tomorrow to start again.

Sticking my toes in

I decided to test the waters by getting my toes wet.  The day time temps have only been in the 40's and occasional 50's. This is not text book weather for seeding, but the call has come for me.  I put my pea seeds into dishes of water to soak while I was at work today.  The commitment was made and the peas are in the ground tonight.  I decided against the other items I would like to get in (radishes, beets, parsnips...), but at least I have gotten my toes wet by testing the garden temperature with the peas.  

There is rain predicted for several days next week.  This may make the soil too wet for seeding next weekend.  Gardening in early spring is a gamble.  You can't win if you don't play.  Come on, sunshine!

Arlo and Janis rarely disappoint me in reflecting the mood of my life!

The sun is shining, the birds are singing

It has been a good week to be a gardener.  I got busy indoors last weekend sowing my seeds indoors and the sprouts are coming up.  Cabbage, lettuce, and radicchio have sprouted and as soon as the first set of true leaves pop, I will transplant them into larger cells so I can put plants into the garden later.  The basement greenhouse got a big overhaul also.  I made cuttings and dumped out a number of stock pots to make room for the seeding.  I also put up my shelves and light in my kitchen window for expanded growing space.

 We have had a change in weather in Milwaukee.  The sun has been showing up on a regular basis and the snow is nearly melted even in the shady parts of my yard.  I took a walk around the garden this afternoon and picked up a bit of soil in the garden.  It is a bit wet for working yet, but it has warmed up quite a bit, even in the bed not covered with clear plastic.  I think that I will have to get the garden peas and radishes in this weekend.  If all goes well, the onion plants can make it in soon.  I have to start hardening them off by giving them a few hours of outdoor exposure each day until they are ready to stay out all the time.

Even though I haven't gotten in early plants this year, I have done more indoor gardening.  I bought micro-greens mixes from Pinetree Gardens last year.  The germination is still very good, so I have been sowing 4" pots for fresh cut greens.  I add them to the top of a lettuce salad for a bit of flavor beyond romaine lettuce.  I also brought out the sprouting seeds and have done several batches of mung bean and alfalfa sprouts to salads and sandwiches.  Every little bit of homegrown makes such a difference.  Once you have put out the initial expense of seed, soil, and containers, it becomes more affordable to do yourself.  It is also fun to pop the little extras into the lunchbox for a bit of summer during the cold months.