Seed Starting Time Again

All of my seeds finally arrived and yet again I bought too many!!! This year I decided to expand into starting more herbs which led me to buying from three different places - Seed Savers Exchange, Southern Exposure and Baker's Creek. Each year it seems that I need more and more space. I am going to go with 6 different types of tomatoes (16 plants), green arrow peas, bush string beans, I am bringing back the squash and zucchini, 1 sweet corn, 1 ornamental corn and 1 sweet corn, 6 type of lettuce, swiss chard, leeks, beets, peppers, cucumbers, butternut squash, 4 types of garlic, asparagus and 3 types of carrots. I am definitely going to regrow Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry as well as a new unusual cousin of the tomato - the Litchi Tomato. Supposedly it will grow in a pod and when the pod opens, it will reveal a small red cherry tomato ready for picking. Whats so unusually is it looks like a tomato plant with long thorns and the fruit has lingering hints of cherry......cannot wait for this one.....

We got hit with another snow storm one week after my last post. It dumped another 18 inches for an overall pretty snowy Feb. With a blanket of snow, it felt sort of weird trying to gear up for starting my seeds. Finally, once the weather hit 50 degrees (1 day after the snow) I realized I had to get going. This year, the kids started to tag along. With Jen being pregnant, I am trying to take the kids as much as possible to give her a break. For seed starting, it means Jackson and Charlotte needing to buy their own seed starting kits, seeds and soil. For my stuff, Jack helped fill the 200 peat starter pots with soil and I laid out the seeds. As always, covered them with the lids and sit back and wait. This year, the salad germinated first, followed by the chard and then beets.

Different this year are the herbs and heirloom perennials I am trying to start from seed. We are trying to start Borage, Lemon Bee Balm, German Chamomile, Peppermint, Lovage, Fennel and Dill. With 90% of the seeds now germinated or about to break the surface, I need to start thinking tomatoes and peppers. From a tomato perspective, I will have about 6 varieties equalling about 50-60 plants. The only varieties that I am sure of are Brandywine, Big Rainbow, Stupice, Dr Wyches, Mexican Midget, Charlies Mortgage Lifter, Wisconsin 55 and Nebraska Wedding. Peppers are a whole different story - I have hod zero, zilch, nada success with peppers here in planifield. If they grow, they produce little and what is produced doesn't last long enough to turn ripe.

Soon, very soon I will start digging outside - the garden is going to be rearranged a little, a pergola will be going up in April, bees are coming in May and I am going to Maui!!!

Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
Seeds Started - Greens, herbs, leeks, ....

Seeds Saved:
None

Preserved/Cooked:
Not too much

Things to Remember:
I can't remember

Winter Again...

I guess I have become dormant poster....once every six months. I need to get a kick in it and start posting more regularly. So many things have happened since September but the most obvious would be the antique brick patio. We decided that we needed to remove the 40 year old wooden deck and in its place, I spent 4 weeks putting in a 480 sq. ft. two tier brick patio. The design enabled me to create 3 more planting beds for perennials and things of the such, added unique stair elements for quick access to my garden and overall just added character. Additionally, I was able to brick the walkway in my garden with the left over material which should help combat the ever loosing weed problem I have been experiencing. All I have left to do in the spring is to patch the foundation of the house, paint what is not exposed, erect a pergola over a portion of the patio and plant!!! Second picture it shows a portion of the overall patio ready for the bricks to be set. Some of the retaining walls that were built and off to the right the lower 12'x13' patio which will be covered with the pergola.

One of the last things planted in October was the garlic. This year I went overboard; 4 varieties, 120 head of garlic in a space that is too small. Last years was a mediocre harvest of 60 bulbs but had more to do with the varieties planted. The softnecks had little flavor and the hardnecks didn't grow to my expectation but characteristic of the variety planted. This year, I opted for the stronger flavored, bigger hardneck varieties that should explode. Now it is only hoping and wishing that they survive the winter

Spring planning is just starting. All of my seed catalogs are starting to come in and I will be making some minor changes this coming year. Nothing is set in stone yet but I will be cutting back from 38 tomato plants to about 16. I will be putting corn (popcorn variety) in somewhere, adding a potato planting plot and re-introducing zucchini to the yard. As always, 98% will be started from seeds this year with the majority of them coming from Seed Savers Exchange. In February I will start the salad greens, April the tomatoes and peppers and May brings the zucchini, sunflowers, squash, watermelon and gourds. I will direct seed peas in March, string beans in May and corn in June. Again, it will be another busy year with nothing but anticipation for what we can eat from the garden!!!


Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
Garlic in October

Seeds Saved:
hulled Radish Seeds and Pole Bean Seeds

Preserved/Cooked:
Home Made Pasta and Roasted Red Pepper Ravioli
Made Mozzarella Cheese

Things to Remember:1. Need to build bew garden gate
2. New Garden Arbor
3. First is the back corner planitng and arrangement
4. Then its building the pergola
5. Then plainting the back patio area...

Salads and Whales

I cannot believe it is March again....in just a matter of weeks, flowers, trees and most importantly, my garden will be moving along. I have been quite busy mostly with seed starting in my basement. Last years success with the small patch of salad greens is being expanded this year. Rather than direct sowing the seeds outdoors, I decided to give them a good head start indoors and at this point, it looks like that will pay off. I had 100% germination of over 128 seeds for 7 varieties of lettuce and Swiss Chard. Although we just had a few inches of snow last weekend, I hope to have the garden ready in the next 2-3 weeks and the lettuces transplanted

The figs scionwood is sitting in my furnace room in moist plastic bags. I am hoping that over the next 2-3 months, I can force some root and leaf growth. As I mentioned in my last post, I have over 15 different scionwood pieces from 5 different varieties of figs. If they all take, I will have to find homes for many of them....I already have a home for one....I also ordered 3 more varieties from University of California-Davis which I am still waiting for as well. Those should be here by end of march.

Trying to figure out where everything is going has not been fully worked out yet. I guess I will take it one planting cycle at a time. The first cycle (lettuce, peas, radishes and possibly beets) have been decided. I am germinating more peppers and tomatoes this week although I don't know where they are all going to go. Carrots and possibly the beets are still up in the air and due to lack of funds, I have no idea if I can afford to get the blueberries and blackberries for this year.

I have purchased the 4x6 lumber for the border of the lower bed. With other plans on financial hold like the deck, basement and various other things, I think I will have enough time to set the lower bed and finally rebuild the arbor-entry into the garden. I keep trying to tell myself a little at a time but it is going against the grain for me. This will stack up to building a new garden bed for carrots and beets, finishing the garlic bed his spring, framing the lower bed with the lumber, building 2 or 3 new trellis', finding a new place to plant the corn/squash and planting the blueberries and blackberries.

On a personal note - this drives Jen crazy because there are at least a dozen project in the house that are 90% complete that I have yet to devote my time to finishing and I am dreaming of diving into yet another garden project. I guess my past actions would support a definite lack of follow-through on my part.....or I just done care on finishing the second coat of paint, final sanding the Spackle and complete the basement demo....personally, I do care...it doesn't always show up in normal ways....

On a completely different note, Jackson and I went to Mystic Connecticut overnight and ended up at the aquarium up there. Jack could not contain himself with the sharks and stingrays but my personal favorite was the 6 Beluga Whales they have. They are incredible graceful, gentle and HUGE!! Although the picture is not that great, they are so white it is almost breathtaking

Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
Started Salads, Peppers and now the first of the tomatoes indoors
Seeds Saved:
None

Preserved/Cooked:
Sauteed Butternut Squash and Onions

Things to Remember:

None

Seeds and Figs and Seeds.....

All of seeds I ordered from SSE came this past week which was perfect timing. At the same time, the SSE yearbook and finally the scionwood for the 5 varieties of fig trees came. It is a bit overwhelming when you long for something garden-like in the middle of January and all of a sudden, in February, all preperation and planning hits the ground at a hundred miles an hour; seed germination, plot planning, new creations, longer to do lists, fixing things that broke last year, etc....
This year, I am going to try to bud 5 types of fig trees which is a relatively straight forward process. Damp paper towel, a zip lock bag and a warm place for about 3-4 weeks. The idea is to force root growth, with or without leaf growth. Once roots form, transplanting into a small pot for a few months and then outside by middle to late summer. I will post some picture on progress later in the month.

With March 17th being my start date for frost tolerant stuff, I needed to start seeds this week. I got all the components finally for the seed starting shelves. The last pieces were the chain to hang the lights and the shelving itself. I opted for a 6-shelf 72" x 48" x 18" chrome wire unit from Home Depot. Although I thought the 18" would be too narrow, once set up with 2 shop lights per shelf, it ended being the perfect size.

With so much emphasis on being eco-friendly in all of this, I seemed to have mis-lead myself in seeds starting. Working in the Sharing Garden with the Master Gardeners last weekend, we set cool crop seeds in plastic trays. When I asked Larry about being more earth conscious, his response surprised me, the plastic trays were over 7 years old because he re-uses them from year to year. I don't know why I never considered re-use but for seed plugs prior to transplanting into the potmaker pots, it give you great flexibility and control on planting patterns once they go in the garden. This was a problem for me last year....the throw-and-pray direct sowing method I used last year didn't do so well, things were overcrowded.

I ended buying (2) 72-cell seed starting trays for my cool crops. I am still trying to perfect things but I set the seeds on Wed. To keep them warn, I had to put them on top of my fish tank light By Thurs, I had 80% germination, Friday 90% germination and this morning, I would say 98% germination. Tomorrow AM, these seedlings go under the lights for 12-18 hours a day for about 2 weeks at which time I will transplant to potmaker pots.

Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
Oh Boy....7 type of lettuce being sprouted
Budding fig trees

Seeds Saved:
None

Preserved/Cooked:
Chocolate Cake

Things to Remember:
1. More narrow walkway in the garden this year
2. Remove the roses and put more garden there :)

Too Many Seeds

Well....I place my seed order yesterday.....seems that I think I live on 20 acres. I am not sure where it is all going to go so I guess Jen and I will have to be creative. These all should arrive in the next 4-6 days so I should be right on time to start the tomatoes and peppers the 2nd week of Feb in the basement...

Not much in the blogging mood so I will keep this short for now.

Radish, Early Scarlet Globe , Packet 250 seeds
Radish, French Breakfast , Packet 250 seeds
Chard, Five Color Silverbeet OG, 1,000 seeds
Pepper, Nepalese Bell , Packet 25 seeds
Pea, Dwarf Gray Sugar , Packet 100 seeds
Huckleberry, Garden OG, Packet 50 seeds
Beet, Bull's Blood , Packet 100 seeds
Beet, Detroit Dark Red , Packet 100 seeds
Carrot, Dragon , Packet 250 seeds
Carrot, Scarlet Nantes , Packet 250 seeds
Collection, Heirloom Lettuce
Bean, Climbing French , Packet 50 seeds
Corn, Blue Jade/Blue Baby , Packet 25 seeds
Prairie, Butterflyweed , Packet 50 seeds
Flower, Bee's Friend , Packet 1,000 seeds
Flower, Bunny Tails , Packet 250 seeds
Flower, Job's Tears OG, Packet 25 seeds
Flower, Great Quaking Grass , Packet 250 seeds
Sunberry OG, Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Riesentraube , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Red Fig OG, Packet 25 seeds
Tomato, Opalka , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Purple Russian , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Hartman's Yellow Gooseberry OG, Packet 25 seeds
Tomato, Green Sausage , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Giant Syrian , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Dr. Wyche's Yellow , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Crnkovic Yugoslavian , Packet 25 seeds
Squash, Thelma Sanders OG, Packet 25 seeds
Flower, Platinum Blue , Packet 25 seeds
Tomato, Italian Heirloom , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Silvery Fir Tree OG, Packet 25 seeds

Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
None

Seeds Saved:
None

Preserved/Cooked:
Mustard Encrusted Leg of Lamb

Things to Remember:
To Keep Warm

Origami and Seed Starting and a Cold Winter....

I guess it has to do with the weather, thinking about smoking (or not smoking in my case) and the fact that I do like it but I have become a little obsessed with folding paper as of lately. I picked up a book on Polyhedron Origami which outlined how to make over 70 different shapes. Although these shapes seem complicated and are borderline overwhelming, they are actually made up of a single folded flat shape.....50, 60 or 70 of them, but one flat shape none the less. This one was 60 shapes which took about 4 nights to fold and then almost 4 hours to put it all together. The putting together part was not easy but was fun and satisfying once together. If this is a sign of getting bored, I don't mind it, it is very focusing and relaxing....time seems to move quickly.

Trying to get ready for the spring has started to become a bit overwhelming. Not that any of the tasks with the garden are particularly large or hard to manage, it is the time and money that is making me a little crazed. Seeds need to be bought in the next 2 weeks, the sowing set-up built and running in 3 weeks, tomatoes, peppers and everything else germinating in 4 weeks, etc.... This combined with the 30 projects we have planned for outside it is easy to either become frozen with the overwhelmingness of everything or so disjointed that nothing gets started. I do know that the removal of the deck is the #1 thing for the spring closely followed by lots of fruit trees/shrubs and the garden. At this point, I cannot be any more specific or I will be frozen.

Trying to create a seed sowing station as sustainably as possible is hard in terms of thinking out of the box. Jen is much better with ideas like this which much of the time I quickly (and wrongly) dismiss. Trying to build something that is either re-usable from year to year or prevents something from going to a landfill is easier to talk about than to implement. The set-up is a 4' storage shelf (still have to find this), eight 4' 2-bulb T12 fluorescent lights (this was from Craigslist, $70 used instead of $500 new) and seed starting pots (picture to right, $12). The Potmaker is a cool tool that uses recycled newspaper to make the pots that you can sow seeds or put transplants in. The 3 pots pictured took me all of 1 minute to make in total...I picked this up from Seeds of Change for about $12. The trays to hold the pots will probably be the same nursery trays that you get with flats of flowers. These all usually go into the garbage when you plant your annuals and I will be able to reuse these from year to year. I figure the whole set-up will come together in the next two weeks (I hope).

It is cold here.....as predicted, we are in an extreme cold spell for New Jersey. For the last few days, it has been in the high teens and much lower with the wind-chill. This morning my thermometer read below zero. Everywhere I read about Garlic, it tells you not to worry, cold or no-cold, the garlic will be fine - I am not so calmed by this. Jack and Charlotte don't seem to mind the cold, I guess I didn't either as a kid. They have a whole routine in bundling up and play just as hard, I think it is Jen and I whom are getting old as we keep asking them "are you sure you want to go out....its REALLY cold out".

Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
None

Seeds Saved:
Red Crepe Myrtle (Jen actually saved these)

Marigold (Orange)

Preserved/Cooked:
Lentil Soup (which Jen did not like)

Things to Remember:
1. Order the seeds in Feb to start sowing by Valentine's Day
2. Have to get 3 sturdy logs for Trellis into Garden.
3. Need 3 4x6's to finish lower bed border
4. Have to move Apple Tree to pot until Deck is done.

Maggie's Garden

When Jen and I got our first pets, Maggie was a timid, scared Shepard/Collie mix who was scared of her own shadow and didn't know how to bark. Since we lived in an apartment, walks included cars backfiring, people hitting their horns, kids screaming, etc... everything to make Maggie shiver from first step to last. Over the next few years, Maggie worked her way into our hearts, heads and souls in such a way that when she became sick last month, we were devastated. We both just sit and cry thinking of how different, how hollow our house is without her. Although there are other dogs and people have different relationships with their animals, Maggie was our first girl...now and forever.... Jen and I, unconsciously, agreed that if we ever owned a homestead, it would be Maggie's Farm; what I realize now is that my garden always has been and will always be Maggie's Garden.
_________________________________________________________________

I am having a hard time switching topics....I hope the line above helps....

Seed Catalogs are in full swing as I now get about 10-15 different catalogs to look through. Some of my favorites are the organic catalogs. There are a few others but these seem to be where I concentrate my time. There is good diversity of varieties and each have unique offerings which at a minimum make it an interesting read. Some of the best catalogs so far are

• Seed Savers Exchange
• Southern Exposure
• Territorial Seed Company
• Baker's Creek Seeds

As we are making choices on different varieties, I am trying to figure out an inexpensive way to set up a seed starting "station" in our basement. With money a big factor, I am looking into simple fluorescent (T12 or T8 preferable) from Home Depot or Lowes. These would not provide optimal light but would suffice with time spent adjusting light heights as the seedlings grow. A solution like this would run about $100 for every 4 feet.

More preferable would be a horticulture specific light (T5) from Sunlight Supply for instance The spectrum and intensity can be varied so much so that I would load up more seedlings under the lights, not be as concerned with light heights and they run more cool/efficient. These would run about $350 for every 4 feet but I would almost double the width of plants that I could stack in the 4 feet.

As a tentative plan, I am going to have the light station set up my mid to late January to start Peppers and Tomatoes by the 1st week of Feb. I will add a few annuals in the beginning of march. I still plan on winter sow'ing probable 30 containers (10" homemade greenhouses) worth of perennials like I did last year.

Cream of Curried Chicken Soup

• 2 lbs of Chicken Breast (on the bone)
• 2 Cups cooked rice (preferable brown)
• 1/2 Gallon Chicken Stock
• 2 Medium Size Onions (chopped)
• 2 Cloves Garlic (minced)
• 2 Carrots (chopped)
• 2 Stalks of Celery (chopped)
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp Curry
• 1 Tbsp Paprika
• 2 tsp Cumin Seeds
• 2 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1 tsp Ginger Powder
• 1 dash Cayenne Pepper
• 2 Tbsp Flour

Start by cooking the chicken in the oven until done. Cool to room temperature and with your hands, pick the meat off the bone creating small pieces to be added to the soup later. While the chicken is cooking, cook the rice according to the directions on the package on the stove top. In a small bowl or cup, add all spices and mix together.

Once rice and chicken are done, melt the butter in a large soup pot. once hot, add all dry spices and stir for a few moments to allow the oils to be released. Add the garlic and onion and saute for 2 minutes. Add carrots and celery and saute for an additional 5-7 minutes or until everything starts to caramelize and the onions are translucent. Add the flour and stir for another 2 minutes. Add the stock, bring to a rapid boil and then reduce heat to simmer for approximately 20 minutes. With an emulsion blender, blend 80% of the stock, enough to leave little pieces of carrots, onions and celery but not enough to purify. Add chicken and rice and bring back to a slow boil for 2 minutes. Serve hot or is great the next day.

NOTE: The rice will absorb water the next time reheated so it will become chowder-like


Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
None

Seeds Saved:
Sweet Shrub
More Daylilies
More Chaste Tree

Preserved/Cooked:
Cream of Curried Chicken Soup
Healthy Mac and Cheese

Things to Remember:
1. Get as many containers as possible to pot up plants
2. Look into Wolf berries as well for the spring
3. If we do the arbor, put up to grape vines with it....

Oh the Weather Outside is Delightful....

In celebrating Christmas this past Sunday with my family, Jack and Charlotte got two very cool sleds from their grandmother (mi madre). They are large enough for two people per sled and seemed to be very streamlined, so much so, Jen was itching for an excuse to go try them. When a 2 and 4 year old ask to go sledding now, how can you say no? Well, I could have but Jen said yes so started the 20 minute process of bundling up like an overstuffed turkey and across the street to the park we went. The little hill right into the park is not steep at all in our terms but huge for the kids....Jen went by herself first and laughed the entire way down......to our surprise, everything was a sheet of ice and these sleds just kept going and going and going.

After about 20 minutes and a few runs each, Jen spied a larger hill and set off on a test of her will :) Not really waiting for the camera or us, she jumped on solo, screamed all the way down and traveled for almost 2 full minutes before the sled came to a stop about 200 yards away. With the sounds of giggling, the kids wanted to try it as well.

With Christmas Eve coming up in 2 days and the festivities of the next two weeks, not much has happened with the garden. Weather is not conducive and time is not available. What I can and have been doing is looking through the new seed catalogs that started arriving. SSE and Baker's Creek are two of my favorite catalogs and I am making seed lists like I am planting 10 acres. Here are some things I do know about my garden planning:

10-15 varieties of Tomatoes:
I am going to have to crowd them into the upper garden area. I know I can get 10 or so in there....15 may pose a challenge....I will have to come up with a different idea than cages to keep them at bay.

Garlic and Potatoes:
The garlic is already in the side bed and will be ready come June. Behind it and to the left of the chaste tree, I will plant 3 or 4 varieties of potatoes.

Squash and Watermelon:
I have Butternut seeds that I will put in the ivy along the driveway, I will also probably put a pumpkin or two in there as well. I will try the watermelon in the back corner of the yard where the grasses are now and possibly up with the garlic and potatoes training it to be a bed border. I am going to try 2 varieties of watermelon I think. The yellow squash will go where the apple tree is right now once the tree is moved.

Peppers:
Jen likes some of the hotter varieties that are ornamental. We will probably plant those in the front bed to accent the house. I would also like to plant poblanos there as well. I will try the bell and sweet chocolate again, just not sure where to put then

Peas and String Beans:
I am going to build two trellis' between us and Barbara where I planted the watermelon last year. A ten foot trellis should be enough for both.

Lettuce, Asparagus, Spinach and Swiss Chard:
All of these are going to go into the smaller side bed. This will all be new to me in terms of growing but should be fun. Asparagus will take 3 years before I harvest so that is nothing more than a lesson in what I don't have; patience.

Beets, Carrots, Radishes and everything else:
I am still trying to figure out the best place for these.....I could use another bed but for now, I think I will find a home in the old watermelon patch. The only problem will be the weeds.


Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
None

Seeds Saved:
Chaste Tree
Sweet Shrub

Preserved/Cooked:
Spicy Mac and Cheese

Things to Remember:
1. build arbor with tree limbs
2. Plant peppers in front bed
3. plant potatoes behind garlic
4. Asparagus and lettuce in along Barbara's fence