My seeds have come, now let's talk about onions. the

I was so happy to open the mailbox yesterday and find seeds there for me.  They were not for the greenhouses as have been all the shipments for the past two months.  These are mine.  I am so happy to think that the gardening season gets to begin.

First come the onions.  These are the earliest seeds I put in.  I like seed onions.  They are the first year of growth for an onion.  Onions are biennials which means that it takes two years to complete the life cycle.  The first year you get a plant with a completely formed bulb.  If you would leave that in the ground during a mild winter and mulch it over, it would sprout again from the bulb the next spring.  This is what you are growing when you buy onion sets.  This is the second year growth.  The second year and onion grows, it will put up growth again and it will form a bulb.  The difference in the second year is that the plant wants to send up a flower head and complete the life cycle for which it was meant...reproduction of its species.  By growing onion seeds, my plants spend their time just growing with no energy or size lost to pursuit of reproduction.

Buying onion seeds is also a bit of science.  Where in the world are you growing them and in what season?  Here in the upper Midwest we grow onions during the long summer months.  We grow LONG DAY onions here.  I like Ailsa Craig, Walla Walla, Sweet Spanish, and Copra.  I usually only grow one or two types of onions.  I also like to grow keepers which will dry their skins and hold for much of the winter with no additional preparation.  They just need it cool, dry, and dark.  Now if I lived in the South and grew a crop of onions during the winter months (onions are good cool season crops) or maybe in the Mediterranean countries also during winter months, I would choose SHORT DAY onions.  These are breed to grow and bulb up during short day periods when the light is not at its best.  I do not know if they grow short day onions in a greenhouse setting in the north during the winter.  Why in the world would we when you can grow them in the summer and keep them in the winter?  I am still using the onions I harvested last fall.  If they start sprouting, I use those onions first.  I also break off the green tops to slow the process when I can't use them fast enough.

I also grow bunching onions which most people would call green onions when they go to shop in the produce section.  They don't really bulb out and you pull and use them...green!   Both types can be put in when the ground is cold but workable.  I typically shoot for mid-April in our neck of the woods.  I am able to put the plants in the ground as well as put in the bunching onion seeds.  Both will put up with the weather that our Wisconsin springs tend to dish out with wild variety and extremes.  It seems to be an awful thing to put out seedling, but you are rewarded with early onions with good bulb set.

If you haven't ordered your onion seeds yet, you may find some on a rack at one of your better garden centers if you are not up to waiting for shipment.  Seeds started in January and February will reward you with a wonderful crop of onions long into winter.

A different sort of spring, a bigger sort of greenhouse

Everything about this spring and the preparations I have been making will be a little bigger and and a little different than my past spring posts and updates.  This year I have a staff to help me get the job done, and then some when the work load gets even bigger.
I won't be washing pots and flats in my basement wash tub and lining them up to dry on the basement floor.  In fact, I probably won't have much to do with it at all.  Considering that I did this job for 19 plus years before I left for my last job, it is not like I didn't do my time.  Now I have to decide when and what gets done.

It is a lot more fun doing it with a great group of workers than it is alone.  I am going to take this to a different level than past years in that I want to maximize the greenhouse space with rotations of plants to the out-of-doors during the late spring time to harden some things off and get a little more bench space to expand our crop offerings.  I do not have a crystal ball to predict the weather, so it is a bit of a guessing game and a gamble all at once.

We are propagating on a much larger level than I did in my basement greenhouse as well.  We experimented with perlite over heat cables and found that although it was good, heat mats with flats of media are better.  We also tried some different rooting hormone.  The powder was good, but the gel was better.  The staff has been working and researching different methods and it is paying off in better results.

The workforce has taken a change and we now have the men out-numbering the women this time around.  It reminds me of the times when I first got into this industry and I was often the only female on staff.  I remember working for a large insurance company on the ground maintenance staff and saw only one other female on the other side of operations with 75 men in between.  I got so used to being solo that now I often don't notice the numbers of male vs female.  I do notice how much younger they all look now...

The days are getting longer and we are looking forward to a promising spring.  It will not be without its problems, as it never is when you are dealing with living things.  We have over 200,000 plants that have to find their place in the greenhouse so they can grow their best.  I am so excited to be heading into spring with a plan and people that are going to get through it with me.

Seed catalog morning

It is a cold, snowy morning.  The sun isn't even close to coming up.  For the first time this season the Christmas lights are shining off of snow.  It is the perfect day to look over seed catalogs.

You would think by now I would have had my fill of plant catalogs.  I had a very able assistant who lined up most of our annual orders and took care of setting up our deliveries.  Still, this past couple weeks has found me knee-deep in confirmations, delivery dates, order adjustments and additions to our present level of service to include some hot house vegetable crops.  This has not dimmed my desire to open up my own catalogs and seed box to start planning MY GARDEN!
I am excited about the prospect of having a much larger space to use this year.  Neglect and repeated sowing of weed seeds are going to make this space a challenge.  I am sure that I will not be whizzing through my beds like I was at home in my tidy 4x8 raised beds.  
I will be able to grow some of those crops that I didn't have the room for.  I will be able to put in some squash and pumpkins in hopes of harvesting from my own plot.  I will also be able to rotate my crops to their best advantage, provided the soil doesn't already harbor some of the nasty diseases I am hoping to avoid.  
I am also excited to open up my seed box and take inventory.  I know that I will have some new items to choose from even before opening a catalog.  Our summer trip to Decorah, Iowa and Seed Savers Exchange put more seeds in my box in mid-summer than I would normally consider adding.  First, Seed Savers participated in the Nordic Fest parade in Decorah and handed out packages of their 2014 seeds.  Not a problem as most seeds have viability for several years when stored in a cool, dry environment.  After the fest, we went to visit their facility where I loaded up on some of their 2015 seeds.  These are all heirloom varieties with stories from whence they came.  I highly recommend a trip to Seed Savers when you find yourself in northeast Iowa.  It is beautiful farm country with rolling hills.
I also have my hold overs from my usual crops.  It will take a bit of inventory to decide what still needs to be added to the mix.  I left my herb garden behind with few exceptions, so I guess that is one place to start.
My new garden has another consideration in its design.  I know that I will have to deal with woodchucks, rabbit, rodents, and deer (we have a few still inside our deer-exclusion fence).  There will have to be a lower fence dug in to keep out the small critters and a higher blockade for the larger critters.
I will have to work the soil as it is very hard.  The trailer full of composted cow manure barely made a dent in the area that I needed to cover with some organic matter.  My plan is to rake up raised beds from the ground.  This way I can still square foot garden without putting in a wood-sided raised beds.  This is a temporary place for me after all.  I will save the time and money for a place we can call our own again.  I will mulch the paths heavily to try and keep some of the weeds at bay.  Hopefully, I can plant dense enough to help shade out some of those noxious weeds.  I do plan on putting in a cover crop to add some green manure to soil as well.
So with hopeful heart and seed catalog dreams, I will plan the perfect garden.  If wishing only kept out the weeds.

Christmas Decorating with Natural Materials

I really like a real Christmas tree.  My uncle grew them so they came from there for many years.  I have also cut them from the yard when they were in the way.  This was the case the first year we lived in our house.  The balsam fir was smack dab in the middle of the access point to the back yard.  We knew walking around the tree was not something either of us was going to do, so we made it into our first Christmas tree at the new house.  It was so fresh that it even started to bud out on the window side of the tree.

Such was the case with the exterior tree I have decorated outside the house.  The spruce was growing too close to a planting area and the upper two-thirds of the tree was in great shape.  Being a spruce, it would not make a good interior tree (too much needle loss for as long as we keep ours up).  I had planned ahead on this job and put a t-post into the ground before it froze.  The tree was cut and wired to the post for stability.  I used the lower branches not cut as part of the "tree" and placed them around the base as a ground skirt.  Six string of LED lights and we're in business.
My husband prefers colored lights, I prefer white.  I made a gathering of curly willow, alder branches with "cones" still attached, red-twig dogwood and cedar trimmings.  I even had a white birch log in the yard so that became part of it all.  The upright branches got white lights and the evergreen ground cover is graced with multi-colored sets.  It also gave us a little bit of Christmas in the back of the house.

day time view of garden assembly left to right: alder, red-twig dogwood,
birch log, arborvitae, curly willow

Night lights together

Up close view of alder

Get real, buy real

Cutting the tree is women's work in this family!

I miss my Uncle Bob as he was one of the best uncles around.  He never had kids of his own (biologically) but had his step kids and every one of his nieces and nephews that he treated well.  His wife, Marvel, also opened the door with a smile and treated us to her homemade chocolate chip cookies every "Green Friday" (hey, we didn't go shopping, we got our Christmas tree!).
I paid tribute to my Uncle Bob and every year I think of him and how I miss his tree farm visits.  It was more than just the tree I miss, it is the tradition of getting it.  I have gone with my oldest daughter and her husband to cut a new tree twice now.  I went to a lot sponsored by the Boy Scouts last year and had to go back to the cut your own again this year.  The lot just is not my style...yet.  So here's to all the Wisconsin Christmas Tree Growers out there...thank you for staying in business and keeping my holiday REAL green!

Frasier Fir from Evergreen Acres Christmas Tree Farm in East Troy, WI

Autumn life at the Nursery

A few of the moments that have made autumn a good time at my new "old" job

Trees on the move

Loading in the yard

Breaking new ground

Digging yourself a hole and climbing in

Deer in the oaks

Full moon in autumn

Storing up for winter

Just hanging out

Mud removal with a buddy

Two crew operation to get the job done

Wrapping things up for the trip

A frosty morning with a few of our friends

Sauerkraut season in new digs: a new generation

I have come through another sauerkraut making session in our new home.  I enjoy the presence of the restored kraut cutter in the off-season as I keep it on display in a prominent spot where I see it often.  It reminds me so much of my parents and the times we would make sauerkraut as a family.  I talked more extensively about how to make sauerkraut in a prior blog and encourage you to refer there for that experience.  
I applaud all the younger generation who are coming up and embracing the new-found old methods of food preservation.  I encourage all of you to continue on the quest to find better food sources and providing for yourself in the off season.  You are the next generation to bring food back to the home where it belongs.