Shallots coming up

I saw the shallots poking through last night. We also harvested more beet leaves, spinach, rosemary, carrot tops, and asparagus for dinner this evening. I am basically out of salad supplies. Only about 6 tiny little spinach seedlings are left. Lettuce is all gone. The "2nd round" of lettuce and spinach is still too small to pillage. I have some sprouts to tide me over and could probably make one more salad out of these 6 spinach seedlings. The asparagus is also coming in pretty well now. I counted over 20 of them this morning.

This year will definately go down as a successfull "test year" for spring season extension. But in order for next year to be a success, I will need much more quantity. I think a good thick fall cold frame planting of spinach, kale, swiss chard, beets etc will be the key. I also plan to improve my cold frame lids (possibly making a double layer of protection), and planting seeds in January. The fall planting of stuff will be my round #1 harvest and the January seeds should be round #2.

Carrots are not doing well in the garden at all so far. I think I planted those teeny, tiny seeds too deep because I was afraid of the cold. I need to start another batch this weekend. The 10 inch pot with carrots is doing quite well. I thinned them yesterday and had some carrot tops on my sandwich for dinner. The carrot roots were still very small, but were running nice and deep and were starting to turn orange.

I woke up at 5:30 - all excited to do some spinach and green onion planting. Yuck - steady, soaking rain. No gardening at all this morning, but at least the rain barrels are all full. Any chance I will need all that rain water? Doesn't seem like it right now in spring - but July and August? I bet we will need it. I pulled another barrel out of the river a couple of days ago and need to get it cleaned out and fixed up with a spigot. It was pretty dirty on the inside. I think I am going to go crazy with detergent and tri-sodium phosphate to get the gunk out. I will let water cycle through it for a couple times before I use this barrel for the garden.

It's Alive

Yesterday we finally had some seeds sprout outside and in the cold frames. The radishes that were planted on 2/27 outside (chimney garden, no cold frame) sprouted. I saw two of them poke above the surface. I also saw one of them sprout inside the sq foot garden cold frame (planted 3/2). Inside the traditional cold frame, we have about 4 spinach sprouts poking up (planted 2/26). As you might imagine, I am very excited for these developments. That is about two weeks from seed to sprout for radishes and spinach. I took a look at last year's book just for comparison. Our fist outdoor planting last year was on 3/20 (no cold frame - peas, spinach and lettuce). It took last year's peas 22 days to poke above the surface. The lettuce and spinach came up a little sooner than that, but I didn't mark the exact day.

One of my garden goals this year was to extend the season. I think I am making strides in that area. Here are some random comparisons 2008 to 2009.

• Peas - Planted 3/20/08 vs 3/2/09

• Spinach - Planted seeds 3/20/08 vs. seedlings (cold frame) 3/1/09 these were started indoors as seeds on 1/24. Direct sowed seeds (cold frame) 2/26/09

• Radishes - Only fall crop last year vs. 2/26

• Lettuce - 3/20/08 vs seedlings (cold frame) 3/1/09 and seeds 3/1/09

• Beets - 4/11/08 vs 1/11/09 - I started beet seeds inside in January, transplanted them to a large planter in mid February, and moved them outside under the traditional cold frame on March 6th. They are absolutely thriving.

• Carrots - same as beets. The only difference is that a little critter played around with them and killed about 1/3 of the pot.

• Green Onions - 4/11/08 vs 3/7/09

• Broccoli - 4/6/08 (lowes nursery stock) vs. 3/6/09

• Cabbage, Pak Choi, onions are all new spring plantings for us. We either didn't grow these in the past of did them only as fall crops.

• Tomatoes, Peppers 4/11/08 (seed starting indoors) vs. 3/9/09 (indoors)

So basically across the board I am one month earlier on average with my plantings. If it all works that is certainly successful season extension - thanks to the cold-frames. Much of the thanks also must go to the fact that we have so many more planting areas ready to go this year. Last year we didn't have any of the soil "shovel ready" to steal a recovery funds phrase.

Another goal this year is successful succession planting to keep the harvest slow and steady. One example of my attempt at this is by looking at my various spinach plantings.

Spinach - first seeds started indoors 1/24. Seedlings planted in cold frame 3/1/09. Seeds started in cold frame 3/1/09. Seeds started in sun garden 3/7/09. Another indoor planting started 2/24. Another cold frame row of seeds started 2/26. So this is a lot of spinach planted both as seeds and seedlings, in various places at various times in small little plantings. I'll probably just get in the habit of dropping a few seeds in the ground every weekend throughout the season. As spring turns to summer, I'll make my plantings in the shade of other vegetables or intersperse them with some flower plantings on the north side of the house. My fall plantings will be back in the cold frame to gear up for a winter harvest. Spinach is a great crop to succession plant because it can grow in cold weather, doesn't take up much room, can be eaten when still small, and freezes well.

Garden Goals

Every good project needs some goals. Here are some of mine for the garden season...

1. Don't buy nursery stock. Start everything from seed this year. Last year's seed starting was a complete failure. Not enough light made leggy stuff that I forced outside too early. The fact that anything survived was a complete miracle. This year's seed starting is going much, much better.
2. Better variety - Last year was marked by too many romas, and hot peppers and not enough of everything else. I want Mellons, rhubarb, beans, zukes, onions, potatoes, brussel sprouts - and much much more this year. Although I am not forbidding the Stacy family from buying veggies at Giant Eagle this year - we certainly aspire to grow all our veggies. In order to do this, we need much more variety. I can only eat so much spaghetti.
3. Extend the season - I hope to look back on this season and be able to point to some tangible evidence that I successfully extended the season. Perhaps that means spinach in April or Kale in December, but something to help justify all the lost seedlings and rolls of plastic.
4. Crop rotation/succession planting - Much like the goal around season extension, I want to be able to say at the end of the season (without fibbing) that I had some success with succession planting and crop rotation. I think succession planting will be a key to help me with goals #2 Variety and #3 Extension. Small little rows planted every two weeks will keep us in veggies all season, rather than being overwhelmed with a ton of one type of veggie at "harvest time".
5. Enough Compost - Can you ever have enough compost? I hope so. I don't want to have to skimp on the black gold this year. I have two 25 cubic foot bins of the stuff that I am cooking. I am gathering hair, ash and tree trimmings from the neighborhood. I want to have a surplus!
6. No Hose Watering - There has to be a reason I pulled all those rain barrels out of the river. Fix the leaks, divert the gutters, and make those things useful!
7. Compost Tea - Combine goals 5 and 6 and you get a big burlap sack of compost sitting at the bottom of one of my rain barrels brewing compost tea!
8. Family - Have fun and keep the kids involved.

Yikes

3/2/09

10 degrees outside and 20 inside my sq foot garden cold frame. I didn't have a blanket big enough to cover it last night. I need to get myself a big painting drop cloth to drape over it. I don't have a thermometer inside the other cold frame, but the ground looks slightly frozen in there as well. The seedlings look unhappy, but not completely dead. 20 is definitely the coldest it has gotten inside one of these frames since I planted in them.

Nice applicable quote from Jeff Ashton's The 12-Month Gardener:

"As you experiment with season extension, you'll inevitably lose plants because of freezing. This isn't failure. If you don't lose plants occasionally, it indicates that you're not taking enough risks. Embrace your failure as a personal learning curve. Seeds are cheap, and success is the promise of great veggies from your garden while the neighbors are eating supermarket produce."

Square foot garden

Here is a photo of my son Quinn standing next to my 4 ft by 6 ft square foot garden. I planted this on 2/28 and covered it with plastic to form a mini cold-frame. This is what I planted.

1. Early Garden Peas (soaked and innoculized) 8 squares
2. Spinach seedlings - started indoors mid Jan - one square 9 seedlings
3. Romaine seedlings - started indoors mid Jan - one square 4 seedlings
4. Red cabbage seedlings - 6 squares - 6 seedlings total
5. Onions - started from seed mid jan - two squares - 32 total
6. Carrot seeds - Early Nantes - 16 seeds
7. Buttercrunch lettuce seeds - 2 squares - 5 seeds in each - 10 total
8. Green onion seeds - one square - 16 seeds
9. Spinach seeds - one square - 9 seeds
10. Beet seeds - one square 9 seeds

I know it is way, way early to be starting stuff outside. I know all this stuff will either die or not germinate. But I just couldn't help it. I spent all winter reading books about 4 season harvests, and extending the season, and I just got a little frisky. The great thing about the sq foot garden approach is that it is very easy to turn into a nice little cold frame. Yesterday my sq foot cold frame got up to 70 degrees on a 30 degree day. At night it is getting into the high 20s. Let's see how long this stuff lives.