Team Stacy

This morning I got a little company for my seed starting. Sarah and I rose at 5:20 and worked together on our little project. She did flowers. I did veggies. I even invited Aimee Mann and Norah Jones into my Pandora music mix to make her stay:) Here is what we did...

1. 40 black plum romas (shumway 2008 seeds)
2. 18 bell pepper carnival mix (burpee 2007 seeds) - don't save these - likely hybrid
3. 12 grape tomatoes (origin unknown) These are seeds we saved from last year
4. 6 brocolli (shumway 2009)
5. 12 serano chili peppers (2007 ferry morse) - don't save these - likely hybrid. I think these are the ones that made our wonderful pickled hot peppers last year.
6. 12 california sweet bell peppers (shumway 2008) - these are our main pepper crop. The ones that are supposed to get huge and red, but always end up green and small.

I also covered the entire cold frame to prep it for a weekend of seed planting and hardening off of various seedlings. I just ended up doing something pretty low tech - stretching plastic over the whole thing and holding it down with weights at one end and wood lath and screws at the other end. I reassembled a little seed starting shelf for one of our south facing windows to accomodate our expanded flats. The one that I had orginally built used termite infested wood scraps from our now defunct carport. Termites in the house - nice job Chad!

Sarah started...

1. 25 coleus (target 2009)
2. 6 strawflower (shumway 2009)
3. 6 sweet basil (burpee 2007)
4. 12 cilantro (saved from last year - origin unknown)
5. 2 cleome (saved from Ryan and Kate - origin unknown)
   

still surviving

Quinn and Sarah checked the temp inside the sq foot garden frame for me today while I was at work. The outside temp never got above 20 today but it was sunny. The temps inside the frame at various times throughout the day were 32, 40, and 52. After work I bought a thick canvas painter's drop cloth and another thermometer. Quinn and I removed one of the ends of the frame and looked inside at the plants. It was fun to see some steam escape when we opened up the little greenhouse. This is the first time I have seen the seedlings since the temp dropped so drastically. They all appear to still be alive. The cabbage, onions, and spinach look just fine. The romaine lettuce is not so spry, but they still appear to be alive. They are just kind of laying down a little. Then Quinn and I spread a thin layer of leaves over the seedlings. The thought here is that they will provide a little extra frost protection and possibly soak up some heat during the day and release it at night. Then we sealed everything back up and laid the canvas drop cloth over the whole thing. The way the wind was howling - that drop cloth has to help.

Cold frame #2 looked pretty good as well. Nothing dead. We followed the same precautions here as we did in #1. Supposed to go down to 8 degrees tonight and 12 tomorrow. Not sure whether the seedlings will survive this extended cold snap. I'll keep you posted.

Inside seeds - First pepper sprout noted today. Nothing major to report - everything seems to be coming along fine - which is a huge improvement over last year. Photo: Alphalpha sprouts for those "winter salads".

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.