First Week of May, Planting Seeds

My wife spent her spare time planting the garden seeds while I worked on a playset for the kiddies. Following is a list of the seeds she put in the ground this past weekend.
May 2:
Marigolds
Radish -"Cherry Belle" Ferry-Morse (FM) Organic -"Icicle, Short Top" Radish (FM)
Carrots - Scarlet Nantjes and Danvers
Lettuce - Mesclun (Sweet Salad Mix) Burpee Signature -"Bibb" (FM - Organic) -Gourmet Blend (Burpee Signature) -"Black Seeded Simpson (FM - Organic)
Spinach - Bloomsdale, Long Standing (FM - Organic)

May 3:
Beets - "Detroit Supreme" (Burpee Signature)
White Onion Sets - 3 in apart and some 1/2" apart for greens
Yellow Onion Sets - all 3 in apart
Peas - "Pea Progress" & Pea Mammoth Melting (both Burpee Organic)

We also took the tomato plants I started out into the garage to acclimate them for the colder weather outside and purchased a bunch of peppers, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower plants from the green house. Still have more garden to put in.

Homesteading 101

In the interest of full record keeping. I also spent time this weekend planting trees around the farm and pasture. I put a couple Weeping Willows in down by the river. I hope the deer or other critters don't get them. Those will be very cool if they are allowed to grow up unmolested. Little H.B. and I put in six hybrid poplars on some high ground in the pasture. Three blue spruce were planted to stabilize a steep bank in the pasture as well. I also put one Bald Cypress in on the yard. It is questionably hardy in this zone, but, if it makes it, it should be very dramatic. All the trees are tiny little twigs at this point, but, if they take hold, I'm looking forward to seeing them grow big and strong. Who says there are no trees in Iowa?

Gathering My Garden Seeds

It is Monday the 20th of April. It was another great weekend weather wise, so, I tried to spend as much time outside as possible. I got a chance to till the garden, and start another long-time-coming project, a play set/swing set for the kids. I'm pretty excited about both the garden and the play set. My Wife has signed on for helping with the garden, she's excited about the prospect of organic vegetables. I'm on my own when it comes to the play set. I'll post some pictures and plans of the play set when I'm finished with it.

We also took some time this weekend, to purchase some of the seeds we will be planting. We bought mostly organic, with the exception of a few plants that are either ornamental, or, I'm just not totally convinced we'd find them easily in an organic format. My next post will be a complete list of the plant variety, brand and whether they are organic or not. Maybe not all that interesting to you, but, I'm sure it will be very handy for me going forward. My started tomatoes are coming along nicely in their little growing setup, though, they are getting a bit spindly. I thought using the combo natural window light and CFL would keep them from getting that way, but, I guess that isn't the right mix of light. Nonetheless, they are growing like crazy. I'm sure they will fill out once I get them in the ground.

I'm coming up with a pretty extensive "To-Do" list as I'm typing here. 1. Finish purchasing the rest of my seeds. 2. Purchase greenhouse started plants. 3. Do a garden layout! (I'm sort of waiting to do this until I know what seeds I'm going to be planting.) 4. Till more garden space. I tilled up the 30' x 50' space that was a garden last year. My Wife took one look at it and said, "We aren't going to have enough room." She's right, so, I'll be tilling more space. We are putting in a lot of plants. It is going to be a HUGE garden!

Starting Raspberries Too Early? I'll Find Out.

It is April 11 and today was a gorgeous day. The temperatures reached into the 60's, so, I decided to work outside as much as possible today. It has been roughly a month (1 week shy) since I last posted, and I had started tomato seeds then. Well, those seeds are now little seedlings, up and growing strong under the bulb and light from the window. I had one pot that didn't have a single seed start, but all of the other ones had both seeds planted come up, so, I carefully transplanted one seedling from another pot into the pot that flopped. I'll see how that goes. I touched the leaves of the plant only, hoping to minimize the chance that I killed it by moving it.

Last week, my raspberries from Gurney's came. There were six bare root plants. They arrived looking healthy, and, even though, technically, we are not past the last date for potential frost, I plunked them in the ground today. I picked a spot behind an old livestock building on the property that gets full southern exposure to the sun, and, I'm assuming has seen it's share of "organic" fertilizer. If they don't freeze off, they ought to do well there. I'll watch the weather, and if it looks like we are going to get to freezing temps again, I'll cover the plants with a tent of plastic.

Starting Seeds

I realize this post is titled, "Starting Seeds", but I've decided I'm going to buy the majority of my vegetable seedlings for the garden this year. I'll give the seed starting thing a little more of a try next season once I figure out what does, or doesn't do well this year. The one plant, I am going to try to start from seed, indoors, then transplant, is tomatoes. I have to admit, I really don't like them fresh all that much, but, my wife loves fresh tomatoes. I guess, I do like salsa, and it seems like tomatoes are the thing to start early, from seed, so, that's what I've chosen to try.

I'm just going to attempt to start seven plants. Mostly because that is how many containers I happened to have on hand. (Seven is also a lucky number!) My son Henry and I had a great time putting the dirt in the pots... cut off 1/2 gallon milk cartons and a couple of reused plastic nursery pots. We planted the seeds about a 1/4" deep. I put in two seeds per pot, in case one is bad. I'll decide when they come up, which seedling looks like it has the best chance, then pinch off the other one. I believe the last frost is around the first week of May here in Northwest Iowa. The tomato packet says to start the seeds 6 to 8 weeks prior to planting, so, I think I'm pretty close on the time line. I, admittedly, didn't give myself a whole lot of time to compensate for errors or a lack of germination.

In the interest of keeping my little growing operation out of the way, I've put the pots on a window sill in the basement that gets decent light, and I'll supplement the natural light with a compact florescent bulb on a timer. It should be a little better on the electricity usage than a traditional broad spectrum grow bulb. I've read a few places that florescent bulbs are as good as long as you have a warm and cool bulb. I'm hoping the window and a CFL will do the trick. I've also read that if you don't supplement your light with an artificial light of some kind, your seedlings will be tall and spindly. Which, isn't good. You want stout seedlings with relatively thick stems. "The experts" recommend around 12 hours of light a day for starting seedlings. I'll see how this setup goes. Speaking of experts, here are a couple links to Iowa State University pdf files on Home Vegetable Gardening and Starting Garden Transplants at Home, which, is where I got a lot of this info. Consider this a nod to my source.

I purchased Burpee organic tomato seed. Baxter's Bush Cherry Tomato and Beefsteak varieties. I used some regular potting soil that I had around. I don't know if having "seed starting" soil will be an issue or not. Maybe. I think potting soil has less organic matter in it, which doesn't allow the soil to get overly wet for the seedlings. One thing I did notice after the fact, is that the potting soil I used is not "organic", so, technically, it was pointless to spend fifty cents more per packet to buy organic seed. True organic vegetables never touch a chemical or pesticide anywhere in the process. I can't imagine it makes that much of a difference in the long term growth of the plant. Unless my potting soil has been sterilized by using arsenic! Anyway, I'll keep posting on how my little seed starting experiment goes... It's not like I can go weed the garden right now. So, I guess this is what I have to "garden" at the moment.

Here is a picture of my seed starting setup. Yes, it looks a little ghetto, but, I'm experimenting. I'm not going to go crazy with intricate lighting and containers. If I can get seeds started in this manner, think what will happen when I actually put some time into it!

My Vegetable Garden Wish List

This is the list I've compiled of vegetables I would like to try in the garden this summer. Again, I am in Northwest Iowa. I'm considering this list a place to start. Admittedly, I will have to whittle this down into something more manageable as I'm sure I won't have the space, or probably time, to put in, and maintain, everything that is on it. Here it is, in no logical order at all.

Sweet Corn (hey, this is Iowa after all)
Sunflower
Pumpkins
Gourds
Squash
Cucumber
Beans
Tomato
Melons
Lettuce
Raddish
Beets
Carrots
Strawberries
Zucchini
Potatoes
Peppers
Garlic
Onion
Cabbage
Broccoli
Kohlrabi
Peas
Egg Plant
Spinach
Asparagus
Cauliflower

I've already ordered "Heritage Raspberries" from Gurney's. They say they will deliver them when the time is right for planting. I will slowly be working through the rest of the list above, and determining what varieties and how much of each one of the above I will be planting. Check back, hopefully I can post notes on my research for the best plants.

69 Degrees in March

So, it is 69° and it is March! Beautiful day, and since I'm home "parenting" the kids today because the Wife has the flu, I thought I might go outside and measure my garden space while the kids are napping. (My dog Franny was happy to help...)









Obviously, I have room to expand if need be, but one has to wonder if you can make a garden too big? So, I measured, and the space that has been used is 50' long by 30' wide. That's pretty big! I've lived in apartments smaller than that.

Following are a few pics of the garden. Other than being under a mushy mess of mud and slush, it is an exciting thing to see the ground again. Gives me hope that spring might actually come again. Next step will be to draw the space out to scale, and see how the vegetables I want to put in fit.