In Hope of Spring

Making soil blocks

My schedule says on January 20th I should seed the parsley. I decided to do it today. A day or two, or even a week won't matter much to such a slow growing plant. And smelling the wet warm soil is so therapeutic on a cold day.

Seeded and covered in plastic to germinate

Last year I did the celery and celeriac very late comparatively. But they tend to be slow growing just like parsley. And like parsley they tend to be planted in mid April. I'm not sure the planting date will hold up with the cold weather we have had, but maybe the pattern will change before then. And maybe the snow will melt sooner than I think.

Labeled

Because of the possible late spring I planted some lettuce, bok choy, and mizuna early. That may seem counterintuitive, but I'm guessing I'll be chomping at the bit in spring and I might want to plant up some easy to grow greens in pots so that I can put them on the back steps to grow. I can bring them in easily at night if it gets cold and I would still get some early greens. I'm still not sure if I'm going to or not, but it gives me the option. If the weather changes radically and we get the warm temperatures the western part of the country has seen, they will just go into the ground in a month. But I really doubt it.

Shallots

The shallots and bunching onions are up. The onions germinated a couple of days ahead of the shallots. And the onions have a lot more plants in their container. So I won't have a ton of shallots this year, but it will make a good trial to see how they grow and store here.

Harvest Monday, 12 January 2015

Harvest Monday is going to be a bit different for me today. Though technically it isn't about tallying up how much you spend and how much you get, I do that every year. I put the results in my sidebar. Last Harvest Monday I had the last squash tallied in for last year. So last week I got my new 2015 side bar tally sheet up. Last year's results get put on the bottom and this years gets started. There are no harvest yet as everything is frozen solid for quite some time, but I do have expenses.

The first expenses that go in are my amortized costs for the garden. I just make a guess at how long a large purchase will last and use that has how long to amortize over. A lot of the short term ones have expired, but I still have things like the soil that made up the garden (7.44/year), my plastic composter (5/year), tomato cages (if only I had known that I couldn't eat tomatoes a couple years earlier they wouldn't have gotten bought 18.01/year), some bricks(0.81/year), and the materials like wood and corner braces that make up the raised beds (106.22/year).

The amortized bill is remarkably low this year at $137.49. Last year it was $321. The difference is in two things. One is my fertilizers. I typically amortize a bulk buy of fertilizers over two years. However I still have tons of fertlizer and that time has expired. The second is that the large bamboo purchase I made at the beginning of the garden has expired. The bamboo is still going strong. The short 4' ones are starting to get brittle and might need replacing soon, but the big ones show no signs of rotting out yet. They are much sturdier. I might even cut some in half and use them for the four foot ones.

Other things will get added to the spent tally over the year, but the major thing that gets added in January is the seed bill.

Usually I get my seed orders in at the end of December. I'm a bit late this year as I finished ordering yesterday. Not that it really matters. Usually I like to get the order in early to get my onions seeds in time to start them at the end of January. But this year I've gotten lazy. Onions take a long time from seed to transplant stage. So I'm ordering from Dixondale this year. I'll see how it goes.

Dixondale $19.83

Copra

Walla Walla

Red Zeppelin

I always buy new seed of carrots, onions (not this year though except for bunching onions), spinach, celery, and corn every year. I can't count on the seed surviving to the next year. The other exception this year is corn. Fedco has packet sizes. The A size is the typical. B size is usually twice as much. Last year I knew I needed two packets of corn as one wasn't enough. So I ordered the B packet without really looking. Well it turns out the corn B packet is four times the size. When it came it was obvious. I should look closer. So I immediately put half of the corn into the freezer in a sealed container. Last week I did a germination test. I put 15 seeds into a ziplock with a wet paper towel. I put it near my heat and waited two days. 15 out of 15 of those seeds germinated. This year I won't need to buy corn.

I always order from Fedco which is a cooperative of growers and buyers of seed. I like their philosophy. And they tell you the generalities about where the seed come from, be it a multinational corporation or a small farmer. They are located and specialize in seed for the Northeast where I live. And they are pretty inexpensive and have no shipping costs if you order enough. Which I do. This year I spent $58.50 for an equivalent of 36 packets of seed (the C packet is 8 times the amount of seed of an A packet - I use a lot of bok choy seed as I often direct seed it and the seed last for years).

Fedco $58.50

Golden Gate Pole Bean

Blizzard Snowpea

Diplomat Melon

Sensation Melon

Lemon Cucumber

Scarlet Keeper Carrot

Mokum Carrot (B)

Nelson Carrot

Andover Parsnip

Gold Ball Turnip

Evergreen Hardy White Onion

Camelot Shallot

Space Spinach (B)

Summer Lettuce Mix

Krausa Parsley

Hon Tsai Tai Purple Choy Sum

Shuko Bok Choy (C)

Arcadia Broccoli (B)

Diablo Brussels Sprouts

Winterbor Kale (B)

Winner Kohlrabi (B)

Tango Celery

Brilliant Celeriac

Sweet Basil

Fedco doesn't sell everything I want. My next stop is Pinetree which is also a New England company. I like them because I can get small amounts and their shipping is cheap. So I can fill in my needs usually.

Pinetree $19.44

Earliglow Strawberries (10 plants)

Golden Acre Cabbage

Point One Cabbage

Green Rocket Michihili Cabbage

Dwarf Blue Curled Kale

German Giant Radish

Sadly I wish those two companies had everything I needed. But they don't. Sigh. I really liked Bolero Carrots. Though I am hoping that the Scarlet Keepers I'm trying this year from Fedco taste as good from storage. I order these from Renee's since they have the cheapest shipping and I'm only ordering one thing. $6.04 for just one packet of seed. Ouch!

Renee's $6.04

Bolero Carrots

I would probably buy more things if shipping weren't so huge for one item. For instance I'd buy some Monument Michihili from Kitazawa seeds or some choy sum (Fedco only had purple, which I got to try, but I know I like the regular kind). I messed up when I ordered from Renee's too. I wanted to try the Romanesco zucchini that Michelle grew last year. They sell the seeds. I was ordering from them. I should have ordered that one too. Maybe next year.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

Winnowing

In my last post I mentioned another chore that I had finally gotten done. I had bags of seeds that needed to be winnowed. Monday while it was too cold to go outside, I was inside stripping seeds off the dill and fennel. I didn't clean up the seeds then as it is a very messy chore. But at least it was part way done. The mustard seed was harder. The seeds aren't out in the open, but in pods. So I waited until Wednesday when it was warm to do that one. I put all those pods into an old pillowcase. Then I stomped on them. I moved it around and stomedp on it some more. Basically it is the easiest way to break up the pods and get the seeds to fall out.

Once the seeds were out, I used a steamer basket I had to sift out the large items. Then a fan to blow away the small things. This is easy with the mustard. But the dill is very light, so I have to turn the fan on to low and take more time. The fennel is even harder as the seed is large enough that most won't go through the holes. I can sift out the small things and pick out the larger ones by hand. If I had a whole series of sifters, my life would be much easier, but I just use what I have.

And there they are, all jarred up. I have two jars of fennel. I collected the fennel green to use as a spice and more ripe to use for seed for later. And that is a lot of seed. I don't think I'll need to let the fennel go to seed again next year. I have enough to put the whole garden into fennel. I wish I knew why fennel seed from the seed store is so expensive. They barely gave me any. But it LOVES to put out seed. And it is open pollinated. The dill is even more seed heavy as I have a quart of seed. What will I do with it all? I tend to only use it two ways. I use it to make pickles. And I use it in rye bread as a substitute for caraway. If you have ever smelled dill seed, you will know it smells almost the same. Of course I don't eat rye anymore, but I'm going to be working on a gluten free mock rye (probably with buckwheat and teff) once my cornbread recipe is complete.

I'm So Behind

Why is it when you go on vacation and come back life is so hectic? It erases all that nice relaxation. Yesterday I had time to read two blog posts. I know I'll catch up, but it will take a while. Those really aren't my priority. Yesterday it was food shopping and cleaning up. I did go out to pick some vegetables for lunch at 12:15. I finally got to eat at 1:45. I should never go out to the garden for the first time right before lunch.

I noticed the broccoli had been knocked over by some storm while I was gone. I propped them all back up, but one head is really leaning sideways at this point. Then I noticed the chard had leaf miners in it. I had to clean all the eggs off the backs and pick off the bad spots. Then the cabbage was all bolting (in October?) so I picked what I could and cleaned that up. Sadly not much. I finally got to picking some carrots and green onions. I was pretty hungry by the time I fed myself.

I was noticing the date on the calendar. Usually the first weekend in November is the best time to pick up leaves to store for the next year. But I didn't have even one empty slot in my compost bins, much less the two that I need. So I finished sifting the compost out. One bin done. Today I've been working on the last leaf bin. There is a lot of good leaf mold in that bin, but it is mixed in with undecomposed leaves that need sifting out. It is a long slow process. I decided as I sifted I would put it on the finished beds. We are getting a freeze or frost on Sunday night so all the tender plants will die. So any tender plants could be removed.

I picked all the butternuts left in the bed. These set in September and might not really be good. I won't add them to the tally unless I can actually eat them. But for now I'll let them cure. They are such tiny little things.

Then I picked all the mustard seed off the plants. It is supposed to rain tonight and they don't need to get wet. They need to dry.

I have three large bags drying and one that I picked earlier in the year. So hopefully I'll have lots of mustard seed once they are all winnowed.

Then I brought a wheelbarrow filled with compost and leaf mold over to cover the bed.

So far I have three beds done with compost on them. Once they are covered with compost, I cover them with bird netting cut to size. This keeps the cats out. I just have five beds to finish and lots of leaf mold to sift through. I need to have it done by Sunday and I ought to be if I do three more tomorrow and two more on Friday.

And not to be forgotten I picked some seed from the zinnia. I like the yellow and red the best from these, so I chose seed from them. I couldn't find a lot of yellow as the plant had fewer flowers. I suppose I shouldn't choose fewer flowers for my seed, but the red one was the most abundant of all the plants, so maybe they will balance out in the end. I can always hope.

Things to get done this week in the garden: clean up five more beds, finish sifting leaf mold, pick all the chard and freeze, pick at least half of the kale and freeze, pick most of the parsley and freeze in cubes, pick and freeze any cilantro that is bolting, take down zinnias by the driveway as they are mostly dead, and collect leaves to fill two bins. Hopefully I won't find anything else that needs doing as that is enough. Oh yeah, and write my Garden Collective end of the month post.

The Next Generations

Over the last week I got a few things done around the garden. I took the above beans down. There were lots of overly mature beans on the plant that just got tossed. I really should have been picking them for my townhouse mates, but since I don't eat them, I had just ignored them.

Behind the beans I noticed the fennel seed was ready to pick. I separated it into two bags to dry. One had the dark ripe seeds. The second had the green seeds. I'll eat the green ones and keep the other to plant next year.

On the other side of the same bed is my cabbage patch. I used to have a row cover, but I decided the white butterflies are gone, so they are safe to uncover. I'll get to uncovering the broccoli soon. I might even take off the covers from the carrots too. I can't imagine with the weather cooling down so much that the insects have time hatch any eggs. If there are still carrot flies around. They might be gone too.

The mustard patch is starting to ripen. I picked off any spires that were getting yellow. Hopefully the rest will have time to ripen in the next few weeks. If not I'll pick them green and see what they are like.

Then my husband noticed the preying mantis on our screen door and had to take photos.

I've had so many of these in the garden this year.

Egg Sac

And while I was taking the beans down I found this. It looks like I'll have preying mantises next year too. I attached it to one of the sage plants to overwinter. Hopefully that next generation will keep my garden relatively pest free. I did have few problems with earwigs this year. Maybe the mantises are the reason.

A Gimmer of Hope

Usually the news doesn't make me happy. Just the opposite. But "Plant Breeders Release First 'Open Source Seeds'", put a smile on my face today. I don't think life of any kind should be patentable. A new process to create a GMO should be patentable, but the seed itself shouldn't be. Life is sacred and shouldn't be owned. We may not be there yet, but for now at least some people want create seed that is sharable.

Spring Is Being Slow This Year

Usually in the Boston area we plant our peas on St. Patrick's Day (March 17th). As you can see we are still covered in snow. That isn't all that unusual. What is unusual is that we are getting some single digit temperatures the next couple of nights since we are in the middle of a cold spell. Even the long range temperatures are frigid. We aren't quite hitting record cold temps but usually our normal lows are in the high 20Fs and our highs are around 40F at the end of February. We did have a very short warm spell earlier and it did melt out some of the snow. As you can see the taller of the kale is now sticking out from under. I hope it doesn't mind yet another arctic blast.

One of the garnet sweet potatoes that I started earlier is starting to sprout a bit. And I started two Beauregard and two Purple sweet potatoes.

I went through my seeds now that they have all been delivered and put them in order. You can see I make out a sheet that tells me when to start my seeds indoors. This is not a hard and fast chart. In fact I was supposed to start some seeds this week, but I think I might wait a bit more. I don't think the ground will be unthawed by the solstice. If it were a warm winter I would start hardy spring things a bit early.

I use my sheet to sort my seeds. I take the ones I'm starting indoors and put them in order based on their start date. I have a similar sheet for seeds that get direct sowed. I keep that box upstairs in the plant nursery during the seed starting season. When I'm done with a bunch of them they get put back in the other box based which I sort based on type (like brassicas, cucurbits, and greens).

So for now the only plants I have growing are my onion seedlings. And I'll play it safe and wait another week to start my other seeds. I'm beginning to get impatient for spring.

Seed Order

Saturday night we got about six inches (15cm) of snow. Today we are going to get about that much again. Winter has hit, but at least it only got to about 6F (14C) last night instead of the 0F they were predicting. So things aren't all that bad. I decided a snowy day was a good day to finalize my seed order. Some varieties I've been growing for years and they are always the same. But some I keep trying for better. This year it was a hunt for better carrots to grow.

I've been growing Mokum and SugarSnax for years. I like Mokum for its wonderful taste. SugarSnax is decent but with a much better yield. But it needs a longer growing time and the last two years it just hasn't gotten it. I'm going to try to plant my fall crop earlier next year which will help. I've also decided I want to try two new varieties this year. Yaya was the first. I'm guessing it will be much like Mokum as it is a quick grower and known for its good taste. I'll trial it alongside Mokum next spring. I've decided that SugarSnax just doesn't make a good spring carrot. It gets too bitter.

The second is Bolero. I've been looking for a good fall storage carrot now that I've figured out how to deal with my carrot fly issue (with carrot fly damage I always figured freezing was the best storage solution). UMass Extention did a trial on storage carrots in 2011-2012. Bolero seemed to come out on top as it keeps its quality for a long time. I've read a couple other blogs saying that Bolero is a good late fall carrot which gets nice and sweet late in the fall. Johnny's recommends it as their best storage carrot too. Other catalogs recommend it as their best producing carrot.

My problem came in ordering. I usually order from two companies. Fedco is my mainstay. It isn't the typical seed company. It is a co-op that is geared to seeds that do well in the northeast. It is usually inexpensive (though it depends upon the seed availability from their suppliers) and has no shipping fees as long as your order is large enough. What it doesn't have is a pretty catalog with color photos. Or any photos. Pinetree is the other one I usually order from. It also has low cost packets and even though they do charge shipping they don't charge all that much. I usually just order a few fill in things from them. So I like them both. I can get a large selection of seed that isn't too costly.

Fedco sold Yaya so that was no problem. But neither company sold Bolero. Dang. Today I did a web hunt on the cheapest way to order Bolero seed. It turns out it is from Renee's Garden Seeds. But not through them. They charge $3.95 for shipping. But through Amazon I could get the packet from Renee and shipping was just $1.95. Weird. They were still the most expensive carrot seed bought as I had to pay $4.74 total. But I get to trial them next fall.

From Fedco: Windsor Fava Bean, Windsor Fava Bean, Agate Pinto Bean OG, Honey Select Yellow Sweet Corn, Lincoln Shell Pea, Legume Inoculant, Halona Muskmelon, Alvaro Charentais Melon, Cross Country Pickling Cucumber, Costata Romanesca Zucchini OG, Waltham Butternut Winter Squash OG, Mokum Carrot, Yaya Carrot OG, Sugarsnax Carrot, Evergreen Hardy White Scallion, Copra Onion, Redwing Onion, Space Spinach, Giant Winter Spinach, Arcadia Broccoli, Tango Celery OG, Perfection Fennel OG, Winter Savory.

From Pinetree: YARD LONG BEAN, LARGE PRAGUE CELERIAC, YU CHOI SUM GREEN, OPTIKO CABBAGE, GREEN ROCKET CABBAGE, POINT ONE CABBAGE, DAHLIA FLOWER MIX ZINNIA.

From Renee's: Bolero Carrot.

I'd still love to try the Romanesco F1 zucchini that did so well in Michelle's garden this year. I always struggle with zucchini production as the squash vine borers tend to weaken the plants. But I love the taste of Costata Romanesca. Then again maybe struggling with zucchini production is a good thing. I haven't found a lot of non-tomato based zucchini recipes that I love. And for now I think I've ordered enough.

Dreaming and Cooking

It is that time of the year again. The Pinetree catalog has been here a while, but I only went through it once to see what was there. Once the Fedco catalog came it was time to be serious about it all.

I got my seeds together. The majority of them I keep in the fridge in airtight containers. So I have to let them get to room temperature before I go through them. I don't really take inventory anymore. I go through the catalogs as I look through the seeds. When I look at the kale I see how much seed I have and if I want to try other varieties. I see if the same seed I need from Pinetree is cheaper than Fedco or the other way around. I figure out how much I used last year and how much I might need this year.

I toss old seed as I go through it. Certain seed I always buy every year - spinach, carrots, onions, and corn. Each of these are important crops to me and their seed is often short lived. It would probably germinate the next year, but there is enough of a chance of a germination issue that I don't want to risk it. And especially with the three that I direct seed if it doesn't germinate on the first try it could limit my harvest. Especially with something like carrots. The spring crop is sown early and can take up to three weeks to germinate. If a batch doesn't come up I won't know there is an issue until way too late. I can't wait another couple of weeks as my rotations won't work out anymore. With spinach the earlier it gets up in the spring the better the crop. Because once May 15th hits they start thinking about bolting no matter how long they have been in the ground.

Now I have a sheet of paper - well two sheets - that tells me what I need to order and probably from who. I haven't ordered yet but I'll go over it once more with my garden map out and make sure I've got everything covered. Dreaming about next year is always one of the great pleasures of gardening. All the fun and none of the work. In my mind's eye everything grows well and the earwigs are nonexistent.

I've also been busy freezing things for the winter. I've been playing with new recipes. From squash sauce for pasta (oh how I miss tomato sauce) and lentil loaf instead of meat loaf to try to eat healthier.

I also made up an old favorite. I make a cheddar cheese biscuit pot pie. But when I make the filling I make enough for three meals and then I freeze two. All I have to do next time we eat it is defrost the filling and make some biscuits. I also made up a huge batch of Boston Baked Beans. They too got frozen in meal size batches. I much prefer cooking in large batches and freezing. That way I have faster meals when I need them.

Winnowing

Yesterday was all about getting my seed harvest sorted out. I keep paper bags in the corner of my dining room full of seeds of various kinds. The beans had already been sorted out, but I still had mache (which I forgot to plant this fall), three kinds of lettuce, coriander, dill and mustard seeds to deal with. I got all but the mustard done. Sadly the lettuce seeds I didn't label. So I have three kinds of lettuce seed - Red Sails, Little Gem, and Deer Tongue - in bags, but they just read lettuce. Oh well. I'm going to plant them all next year at the same time anyway. The coriander and dill, which you see above, are also saved for eating. I use a lot of dill seed in my pickles every year. I use some coriander and cook with coriander too, but I won't use nearly half of what I picked. I really should start doing less. Winnowing seeds is hard work. I wonder if my townhouse mates want any.

I have two patches of mustard growing for seed. Both are really experiments to see if they can be grown in another season besides spring. The above patch was planted in early August. I'm not sure it will have time to produce anything. We are going to start getting frosts soon. Typically by the middle of November the ground is frozen. The other patch was planted in late June. I picked some of the seeds on Saturday. I'll let them dry in the paper bag for a week to make sure they are well dry before I try to break open the pods and winnow them out. So the summer sowing was a success. The fall sowing not so much. Next year I've got the rotation set up so they can go in after the garlic which gets pulled about the first of July. I think that will work out well. And I'll have more space than I had this time.

And in other spice news, I finished drying the garlic and ground it up.

Then dried an onion and ground that up too. I love the smell of freshly dried onion. It smells like onion dip.

2013 Has Officially Begun

Doesn't the year always start when you put your first seeds in the ground? Or in my case the first seeds in potting soil. Yesterday I finally made up my planting schedule. It isn't hard. I made a spreadsheet years ago. Whenever I get seeds I put into the spreadsheet how long I want to grow them as transplants and how long before or after the last frost they go in the ground. The spreadsheet automatically calculates the day to plant the seeds be it indoors or out. I don't use the numbers as gospel. I give or take depending on the year or how I think things are going or just if I feel like planting that day. The spreadsheet told me that I should have planted my onions on January 24th. So I looked for my planting trays.

What I found was a pile of dirty trays. Oh ick. So I spent quite a while cleaning them all up. Most people will tell you to use chlorine, but I don't have any. I don't like chlorine so I just use detergent and water. Afterwards I didn't feel like planting anymore. But today was another day and I finally got to it.

I planted up a whole tray of Copra and a half a tray of Redwing and Ailsa Craig. Each tray has room for 72 one and a half inch soil blocks. I know from experience that that number will be more than enough to fill my onion beds. I'll be able to toss out the small and sickly seedlings.

As you can see I grow my plants under lights. Onions are day length sensitive so for now I'll have them on for 12 hours a day. Usually for plants I use a 15 hour daylight cycle, but that would confuse the heck out of my long day onions. They would think it was time to start bulbing up.

I do a couple of things to help along the seedlings. I sprinkle the tops with cinnamon. The hope is that it keeps down the damping off. Occasionally I have trouble with damping off, but very rarely. Also to help with that and to make it easier for the seed, I cover the seeds with vermiculite instead of potting soil. I find that seeds come up much better when covered that way. Once I was done I covered everything with plastic wrap. That will stay on until I see the first little sprout start to come up. I can't wait.

Seeds, Seeds, Seeds

I always placing my first seed order for the year. For some vegetables I save my own seed and for some I still have plenty. But sometimes I neglect to save seed, or like my favorite Kentucky Wonder beans, the seed crossed so isn't pure anymore. Some seed I buy is hybrid like my corn, onions and some brassicas. And some seed takes a lot of space for a over time to save. Onions are one of these types. I'd have to grow the onion the first year then save it over the winter than plant it back the next year. Onions are also plants that have inbreeding depression, so you need to plant a decent amount of them to keep the line going. I don't get to eat anything out of the space. With things like these have have two choices. Give more space to that plant and maintain a line that could over time do very well in my area. Or I could grow more crops to eat locally. My yard is only 9000 sqft and shared by both townhouses. I really don't have space to do both. So I save what I can but my priority is to grow more food.

In fact my choice this year is to take one 4'x'8 vegetable bed out of production in veggies and put in a few more blueberry plants. I could eat pounds and pounds of these every year if I could just grow more of them. We do have some blueberry plantings in the front yard. But most of them are lowbush blueberries as landscaping. The bed that I'm going to plant up as blueberries is the shadiest part of the garden. It always unfreezes late in the spring as the neighboring houses shade it. But blueberries will be just fine with that space.

My favorite place to order seeds from is Fedco. It is a New England cooperative owned by the the consumers and workers. They aren't a company like Park or Burpee that push to sell to anywhere. Their focus is New England and they have seed that works in our climate. The descriptions sometimes will contrast how a seed will grow in Northern versus Southern New England. It isn't that the seed won't grow in other climates, but I know it will work in mine.

So here is my first order. I might or might not place another order. I haven't yet decided.

• Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean
• Serendipity Bicolor Sweet Corn*
• Sensation Melon
• Mokum Carrot
• Sugarsnax Carrot*
• Andover Parsnip OG
• Oasis Turnip*
• Copra Onion
• Ailsa Craig Onion
• Space Spinach*
• Giant Winter Spinach
• Argentata Chard
• Gigante d’Italia Parsley
• Early Mizuna OG
• Ruby Streaks OG
• Shuko Pac Choi
• Purple Pac Choi
• Kolibri Kohlrabi*
• Winner Kohlrabi

* means that I purchased more than one packet or a large packet. I buy carrots and spinach every year because old seed is unreliable for them. I buy a lot of them because I grow so much of it. Things like turnips or kohlrabi have long lasting seeds. I may not grow that much each year, but I'll use the same packet for several years.

My total is $42. I always have to purchase at least $30 or I get hit with a $5 shipping fee, and I like my free shipping. No trouble this year. In fact I ordered a little more since I'm ordering for Granny and those don't go into my totals. This total won't go on this year's tally. I'll be starting next year's tally with it since it is for next year's crops.

Winnowing Seeds

I've had bags of seed heads drying in paper bags for eons now. I'd been putting it off. It really isn't my favorite chore to winnow the seeds. But It is already the end of September and yesterday was a lovely day. I figured I might not get many more days in the 70Fs. So I went outside to separate the seeds from the chaff.

I always put down a piece of cloth or something to catch what blows away. Not because I care about the chaff, but because sometimes when the wind blows (or my fan that was hooked up today), it blows a bit too hard. Sometimes I lose seed and the cloth makes it easy to pick up. The other required piece is an old pillowcase. I put the seed heads in and stomp on them or if the seeds are delicate I use my hands to crush them all up. The mustard seeds can handle the abuse of being stomped on. The yellow mustard was easy to separate as the seed pods just shatter. The brown ones on the other hand were a pain in the butt. The seed heads just didn't want to open. And when they did, there was a thin layer separating the two side that wouldn't come off. So I'd get half the seeds from a pod. In addition the brown pods had some germination inside the pods. The germinated ones don't separate easily from the seed. I wonder if it will affect the quality of the mustard I make later. I hope not.

And I have to say, using a fan is so much easier than relying on the wind. The wind gusts so can really blow the seed where you don't want it. Or it stops so the chaff doesn't get blown away. But a fan can be controlled. It is the first time I've used one to winnow my seeds.

Some seed like the mustards and coriander were winnowed so they got very clean. Dill doesn't winnow at all. It will all blow away, so I just picked the worst of it out and don't mind the little bits of small stems. I never notice it when I use it anyway. The stems that get left in are micro thin and very small. I could have done the onion seed better, but the onion seed is the one seed in there that won't be eaten. I'm just going to plant it so it doesn't matter if it is perfect.

And as a side note. The onion seed is from some hybrid plants. So who knows what I'll get. I don't have room to let enough bunching onions go to seed to maintain genetic viability. But the seed from a hybrid is variable enough that it will grow well. I just don't know what I'll get. I figure it is a bunching onion. So who really cares?

Seed Storage

Granny, Robin, and Ed posted on how they store their seeds. So I figured I'd weigh in. Currently I have five containers of seeds. The containers I use are airtight. The two above are stored in the back of the fridge. This tends to keep the seed viable for long periods of time (just make sure to bring the seeds to room temperature before opening). I also have a container in the freezer for seed I might want to use some year, but I'm not this year. Sometimes I find it hard to throw away seed that I've loved but have something else I'm growing now.

These containers are indexed. One has all my big seeds like corn, peas, and beans. The other has everything else. I had these containers for a long time not being used. Then I found out they were the exact size of a seed packet on its side. They are the perfect seed storage containers (2qt ClickClack containers).

The other two are sometimes used. One has seed that will be sown in the garden soon (peas, spinach, lettuce, Asian greens, and fava beans). It is kept by the back door. The other has seed that will be sown indoors soon and is kept upstairs in the plant nursery.

I Swear It Is Spring

Yesterday it was so warm. It hit 57F(13C) and last night's low was 42F(5C). That isn't going to set any records, but the weather has been consistently above normal all winter long. The calendar says that it is February but I just don't believe it. I'm thinking the end of March. So I went out to plant some peas and spinach. I didn't use up any seed that I needed as history says it is way way too early to plant. In fact last year at this time I planted my peas on April 2nd which is 5 1/2 weeks away. I know I'm jumping the gun and the poor little seedlings might not survive. Then I'll replant at the appropriate time. But I just couldn't help myself.

So lets start at the beginning. Tuesday I looked at the long range forecast and it said the lowest temps for the next 10 days would be 26F (-4C). Highs would be in the 40s and 50s (4 to 14C). All the weather sites agreed. So I started to chit my seeds. I was only going to give them one day of a nice warm moist environment before I planted them out. But basically the seed was started and the die was cast.

Then I wake up Wednesday and look at the forecast. One of the sites says we will get into the teens this weekend for a low. Ack. I can protect the seed with row covers at 26F and keep the ground unfrozen pretty easily, but not with weather in the teens (-9C). But I have no choice at this point. The seed had been soaking for a day. It had to go into the ground.

The peas got planted first. First I put in the support poles. Peas hate their roots being disturbed and cutting them off with a T-post would be bad. So I always put the support poles in first. The last pole at the end of the 16' bed couldn't go in as the ground was still frozen as that part still doesn't get any sun. But I was only planting the first 6' of the bed which gets a few hours at this time of the year. I like to plant in two rows 6" (15 cm) apart. With the seed about 2"(5cm) apart. I never thin when they come up. Sometimes they come up thickly and sometimes they have to be reseeded. And since I remembered, I put some inoculant in the furrow. I poked each seed down about an inch under the soil. And last but not least, I put some bird netting over the freshly turned soil to keep out the cats. Good luck little seeds, you are going to need it.

Then it was on to the spinach beds. The first 8' of the bed was already planted with overwintered spinach. But there were a lot of chamomile weeds coming up as it was right next to my chamomile patch last year. I took the time to take out the dying leaves and all the weeds. Basically I cleaned up the bed. If history repeats itself, these plants will be a foot in diameter this spring. So small gaps I ignored, but there were a few huge gaps in the plants. I added some Olympia spinach seed in the gaps.

In addition I turned over and fertilized a 3' section of the bed nearest the fence, i.e. the part that doesn't yet get much sun at all yet. I only did 3' because that is all that was unfrozen. The sun is quickly getting higher, but it still is behind my neighbor's house most of the time. It feels like spring, but the arc of the sun says winter. I planted half in Space spinach and the half near the driveway in Olympia spinach. All this seed was last year's seed. So if it doesn't make it, I've got lots of seed I've bought for this year. In fact I didn't even do a germination test on it before I chitted. I just tossed all of last year seed into the container to moisten. I did bring in the left over seed though and I'll see how much it germinates and see if it has a chance or not.

The last chore I did yesterday was brick off the cats' litter box. I gave the cats the spot under the chimney of my fake fireplace when I created the garden. I have about 6 cats that are regular visitors to the garden. I don't want to discourage them, but I don't want them to poo in the garden either. Well they started encroaching farther and farther out into the bed near the sage plant. So I decided to let them know their limits. Also this way I can plant the front section in something pretty. I'm hoping the sweet alyssum reseeds itself this spring and I can transplant some there.

And as a side note, my garden purchases came. I rolled out the row cover and cut it into 15' lengths. This is the right size to cover my 4'x8' half beds. The fabric seemed a bit short for the 45' I bought. I laid the fabric out and stretched it tight. I marked 15'. Each one is a few inches short. I don't think it will matter though. I think there is enough to tack the ends down.

Planning

I go through a lot of planning stages before spring. The first thing I do is go through my seed catalogs and buy seeds. I showed you my Fedco order before. I've since placed an order from Pinetree for seeds that I don't really need, but would be fun to have. I bought the following: Summertime lettuce, Ambrosia melon, Big Red Pepper (got to love that name), Alma Paprika pepper, Early Butternut, Soloist Chinese cabbage, Tetsukabuto winter squash, epazote, Masai bean, Jersey Supreme asparagus.

The last I actually needed. Quite a few of the asparagus I planted last year died. So these are a replacement. Sadly they have changed their shipping policy. It used to be a flat fee for everything. But now it is a flat fee for seeds and another fee for live plants. So sad. The shipping costs as much as the plants.

So my seeds have all been ordered. I hope I didn't miss anything. The next planning stage is getting the list of seeds together that I'm actually going to grow. I have sheet in my garden spreadsheet that can calculate the date that they need to be planted and the date they need to go into the garden. It assumes a last frost date of May 1st. I tell it how many weeks old the transplant should be and how many weeks before or after the last frost date it should be planted. I get it all compiled on another sheet in printable format. I copied it to the web so you could see it in its current state.

The first set of plants are the ones that will be done as transplants. The later ones are ones that are direct seeded out in the garden. I might do more direct seeding of things like Asian greens and lettuce, but I haven't made up my mind yet. At least they are on the sheets. This keeps me from forgetting them if I do want to start them indoors. I find that if I don't have these sheets I never know when to plant. I do not follow the sheets perfectly, but they give me an idea.

My next chore is to lay out the garden and figure out how many transplants of each variety I need. If you notice that information has not yet been added. I usually grow more of everything just in case of seedling failure, but I don't grow many more. So it is time to get out my graph paper and start figuring out where my plants go.

Seeds from Fedco

Usually I do my seed orders at the end of December. This year I'm slow. I was traveling a lot of December then I got a cold that just wiped me out. The last thing I want to do is to try to make up my seed order when my brain isn't working quite right. In November I went through all my seeds and made up a list of what I needed (winter squash, cantaloupe, cucumber, sweet pepper, tall choy, cabbage, late broccoli, spinach, corn, radish, onions, bush dried beans).

I ordered all that I needed from Fedco except the bush dried beans. I'll just buy some beans from the local bean farmer (Baer's Best Beans), and plant those. I've done it in the past and then I have as many as I want and lots of beans to eat. They sell a lot of different kinds of beans, like Vermont Cranberry, Soldier, Boston Roman, Jacob's Cattle, Calypso,Yellow Eye and Black Coco, along with all the "normal" beans. Now the stores (Wilson's Farm and Russo's) never have every kind they grow, but I ought to be able to pick up a couple of heirlooms.

Since I found Fedco years ago I've been a die hard fan of them. They aren't a for profit company, they are a co-op of growers and buyers. So the seeds aren't terribly expensive. In addition they are a co-op for New England farmers, so what I buy will grow here. The seeds aren't southern seeds that need a lot of hot weather to grow. They even sometimes say that the seed will grow better in the southern New England area or visa versa. They tell you where your seed comes from be it a small seed farmer all the way to a big multinational that does genetic engineering. They don't sell Monsanto seeds or seed from any of their subsidiaries. I'm guessing because of this they occasionally have trouble getting seed when things run out, or a supplier has problems. Once I ordered Varsity onion seed from them (in December mind you not late) and it ended up being back ordered. I finally got it around the end of February (too late to plant to get onions here). You can tell them to substitute, but I never do. Oh and I'll end on a positive note. If you order at least $30 of seed from then shipping is free.

My Fedco order for a total of $56 or $55 in the tally for the vegetable garden. I don't count the flower seeds.

298 - Windsor Fava Bean ( B=8oz) 1 x $4.00 = $4.00
582 - Ambrosia Bicolor Sweet Corn ( A=2oz) 2 x $2.40 = $4.80
798 - Legume Inoculant ( A=treats 8lb) 1 x $4.50 = $4.50
1049 - Hannahs Choice Muskmelon ( A=1g) 1 x $2.40 = $2.40
1232 - Calypso Pickling Cucumber ( A=1/16oz) 1 x $1.00 = $1.00
1234 - Cross Country Pickling Cucumber ( A=1/16oz) 1 x $1.40 = $1.40
2086 - Mokum Carrot ( B=3g) 1 x $4.20 = $4.20
2094 - Sugarsnax Carrot ( B=3g) 1 x $3.50 = $3.50
2248 - French Breakfast Radish ( C=1oz) 1 x $2.50 = $2.50
2488 - Varsity Onion ( A=1/16oz) 1 x $1.80 = $1.80
2491 - Redwing Onion ( A=1/16oz) 1 x $2.20 = $2.20
2510 - Space Spinach ( C=1oz) 1 x $3.50 = $3.50
2555 - Giant Winter Spinach ( B=1/2oz) 1 x $2.40 = $2.40
3273 - Joi Choi Pac Choi ( B=2g) 1 x $3.20 = $3.20
3313 - Fiesta Broccoli OG ( A=0.2g) 1 x $2.30 = $2.30
3339 - Gustus Brussels Sprouts ( A=0.5g) 1 x $2.50 = $2.50
3355 - Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage ( A=2g) 1 x $0.80 = $0.80
3392 - Gunma Cabbage ( A=0.2g) 1 x $1.70 = $1.70
3463 - Winterbor Kale ( A=0.5g) 1 x $1.80 = $1.80
3624 - Ventura Celery OG/BD ( A=0.1g) 1 x $2.20 = $2.20
4616 - Sweet Marjoram ( A=1g) 1 x $1.10 = $1.10
4674 - Winter Savory ( A=0.1g) 1 x $1.20 = $1.20
5141 - Sensation Mix Cosmos ( A=1.4g) 1 x $1.00 = $1.00

If you notice sometimes I buy a lot of seed. "A" packets are their smallest. I bought a "C" packet of French breakfast radishes. The seed will keep for years and years, so I won't buy this variety again for quite some time. I bought two "B" packets of carrot seed. Carrots keep for about 2-4 years, but I use so much of it and they always do better with seed that isn't more than 2 years old. I'll use up my old carrot seed this year (which I don't have much of) and start on the new seed. I always buy carrot seed every year.

I bought a lot of spinach seed too. I find spinach hard to germinate and keep up in the garden. I have so many rot diseases that it takes the seed down fast. So I often resow. Plus I sow a whole 4'x8' bed in the spring and one in the fall. That takes a lot of seed.

I chose two different pickling cucumbers. I didn't like Little Leaf from last year. I like to trellis my cucumbers and it wasn't much of a climber. It also had very tough skin. So my refrigerator pickles weren't as good. The canned pickles were delicious, but I like the refrigerator ones best. So I'm going to try to more picklers as see how they do. I might have to break down and buy my favorite which neither of the two places I'm ordering seed from have.

I also got two cabbages. One is a spring cabbage and one a good storage cabbage for fall. The Early Jersey Wakefield is a pointy cabbage. And the Gunma is a flat cabbage. So neither are round cabbages. I'll see if they grow. The red savoy I tried growing last year never headed up and just sat there staying tiny all spring and summer.

Last year I grew three kinds of broccoli, but they were all early types. I decided I wanted to try a later one. So I'm trying Fiesta. It is supposed to just keep producing. I hope so. I'll put these plants at the edge of the bed so when I rotate the rest of the brassicas I can cover these with a small section of remay.

And for the first time I'm hoping to get some Brussels sprouts up. I might succeed. I might not. You never know. I've never succeeded before, but I so rarely try to grow them. They take such a long time and so much space. I figure I have space though, so I'm going to give it a try.

I still have a Pinetree order to get in. It will be small as I have all the seeds I need. It is just a few seeds I want that I'm going to get from them. I probably should have crossed checked what each of the companies sold and bought from the cheapest, but I didn't think of that until I'd already placed my Fedco order.

Gifts

I sent out all the seeds today. You all ought to get them in the next week or so. 36 people were sent seeds, though one bag of seed packets was just tossed over my back fence. I caused them to open a second window at the post office. Now I'm done with that for the year. Whoot! I confess to getting sick of sorting seeds and closed my offer of seeds. So that was my gift to you all.

My gift to myself was a garden shed. I had dithered all summer and fall about whether to get a wooden or plastic one. I just got the cheap plastic one. I figured it would be smaller. Small is good.

It doesn't hold much but the shed is perfectly made for a small garden. One side for tools and one side for fertilizer. My old plastic fertilizer boxes fit perfectly side by side on the shelves. Now if I just had one more of them. I really ought to label those boxes too. I had labels on them over a decade ago, but they have long since worn off. I've got to put the Sluggo in there too. The slugs are having a field day in the garden this fall. Luckily there isn't much for them to eat anymore. But I'm sure they are breeding up a storm.

Seed Progress

I've been working to get the seeds all sorted out. I've been using Excel. I made a list of everyone's order and added them all up. Once I knew how many seeds people wanted I put them all into little labeled bags. For the record, so far there are 31 people requesting seeds and 110 little filled bags. Last year it was much smaller. It seems to grow every year. At some point I won't be able to do it anymore, but so far so good.

After I had the seeds in bags. I made up a mailer for everyone. Those that wanted beans got padded envelopes. Those that didn't got cards. In years past I might have written a little note inside wishing them well with their garden, but this year there are just so many and so little time. I'm sure you will know all the seeds are from me. The labels on the seeds clearly mark it as coming from Daphne's Dandelions.

I expect a few more requests over the next week or so, but not a lot. I tend to get the majority of requests within a couple of days of the post. Though some will trickle in even in December (though I mostly won't be here in December so don't expect any fast response). December really is the time to think about seeds. I've already gotten my Pinetree catalog. I can't wait for the Fedco one to come in. I usually order most of my seed from them as they are a very nice not for profit coop. They specialize in seed for New England. I know the seed they sell me will grow here.

Anyway back to my seeds. I think I did OK getting them right, but I think someone might have gotten some Paris Island seed instead of something else. I should have double checked them before sealing up those envelopes. I'll get the majority of them mailed out sometime next week. I want to do them all at once so I won't have to go to the post office too many times. Right now the Tarbais beans won't be out of the freezer until Monday so probably I'll go on Tuesday.