Flats to the Cold Frames

      With all of the sprouts coming along from the recent paper towel seed starting, I have quickly run out of room for flats on the porch.  This morning I was forced to start moving some flats out to cold frames to free up some porch room for newer flats.  In the Trex cold frame out back, the pak choi had not fared so well, whereas the tatsoi did wonderfully.

      I pulled all of the pak choi from the top right corner, and weeded some of the dead leaves of the minutina in the bottom right corner.  A flat of Walla Walla onion starts and chinese cabbage starts was put into the frame.  Should have enough room to get a second flat in there, as well as maybe planting a couple of lettuce.

      A couple of years ago I moved a large fish tank (5 feet long) out of the basement by myself.  All sorts of physics involved.  Used ladders, ramps, and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.  Pushed and pulled it up the basement stairs.  Got it up onto a wheeled butcher block table, through the garage, and out to the driveway.  When trying to shift from the driveway to the grass, my good luck physics ran out.  I had one end, and the other rested on the wheeled table.  The wheeled table then decided to roll out from under the tank, and in slow motion, I watched the far end of the tank fall to the driveway.  Was thankful not to be hurt, embarrassed to be so dumb, and amazed that only a piece of about 1/3 of the bottom broke out.  The tank has since been waiting for a new duty out in the garden.  That new duty started this morning.   

     

      All of the plants above went in the tank with the exception of the onions that went previously into the cold frame.  These little lettuce and cabbage starts should do fine in the tank.  And now I can pot up some more seedlings to go out to my new found room on the porch.

Paper Towel Germination Problem

      When I was reading about paper towel germination on the internet, nobody mentioned the problem that it might be too successful.  That when you wet about 100 of those little lettuce seeds, because there were so many in the packet, you just might get 99 little lettuce plants.  And every seed of cayenne pepper started from one of my dried peppers provided maybe 30 little starts.  That's a lotta hot.  In some cases, as I have been transplanting, I have also been snacking on the sprouts to cut down the work load.
      Then you have the problem of trying to grow these little seedlings.  That takes time and space.  I was hoping to cut back on my porch nursery this year.  Ha, who was I kidding!  Here is where I am at the moment with the porch.  And there is still so, so much stuff that I want to plant, that I have to plant.  What is an out of control gardening geek to do?

On the table, 2/10/2012

And on the shelf, 2/10/2012

I even resorted to planting things two per cell

Bright lights swiss chard in lower left corner

      One way to solve this problem is to build more cold frames :-)     Hmm, might work.

Dill on the Porch

      This past fall I had a several beautiful dill volunteers growing in my cold frame boxes.  I knew they could not stay there, since any vegetation growing against the glass will freeze on contact on cold nights.  So I dug up some of the plants, potted them in four inch pots, and took them home to the porch.  It was only later that I read that expert opinion says that dill does not like to be transplanted.  And I have to agree with that theory, as very often the dill plants I put into the garden as transplants fair very poorly.  Yet should any survive and produce seed, you will have healthy little volunteers everywhere.  So how did my transplants fare?

Dill, 2/6/2012

      We had some chopped dill with potato skins last night.  Yummy.  And we have also had it a couple of times with salmon.  The flavor is not as strong and deep as summer dill, but all flavors seem more intense under the summer sun.
      But don't let your dill dry out and go limp.  The stems that collapse will not recover.  The other problem I had was that the dill plants brought inside developed aphids.  The plants on the porch are clean.  And green and happy.  And staying right where they are.

Getting the Porch Ready

      With so many seeds sprouting due to the moist paper towel germination success, I need to find more room for plant flats to get adequate light.  Yesterday I was forced to clean up and rearrange the porch to find more spots to put trays.

1/24/2012 before new plan

1/24/2012 before new plan

Shelf rotated to face due south

Table added to take some flats

Full view of western exposure, 1/24/2012

      With this new arrangement, I can fit in about 5 flats.  So in just a little while, I will be full and looking for more space.  Just what gardening is all about.

      The porch has single pane glass, and would maintain a temperature of about 10 degrees warmer than outside temps.  We have an electric heater set to come on at 42 degrees to protect the non hardy plants on the porch. I drop the shades on cold nights for a little more protection. I believe the cooler temperatures on the porch are beneficial to many of the seedlings, as it prevents them from getting "leggy" by growing too quickly.

Still Going

     My wife and I just got back on Sunday morning from a week's vacation to Panama.  Day temperatures around 90, some quite unusual rain for the dry season, and beautiful beach walks.  What a change to come home to a dreary two inches of rain on Sunday.  But home looked good, as I had missed my new veg starts and gardening activities.

Porch 3-8-11

     Many thanks to my next door neighbor, Darla Smith, who watered all of my little charges while I was gone.  Nary a single loss!  They look as though I could have stayed another week without dire results.

Porch 3-8-11

      The flat above has Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce on the left, with Red Sails Lettuce next.  Then Mizuna Mustard and Arugula on the right.  The Red Sails and Arugula are from my own seed gathered last year, quite exciting for me.  These seedlings were started on 1/30 or 1/31, and are nearly ready to go into some cold frame in the ground.

Bellevue Community Gardens 3-8-11

 

     The gardens out at Bellevue are still pretty desolate.  And muddy.  Really muddy.  But the cold frames protected my stuff over the winter, even yielding the second salad of the season on Sunday, 3/6.

My Cold Frames 3-8-11

 

Flats in Cold Frame 3-8-11

     I took some flats from the porch over to the park to put them in a cold frame.  They will get much more sun over at the park.

Park Cold Frame 3-8-11

     The onions in this frame should be Egyptian Walking Onions.  They were lucky to be in this spot when I put the frame over them.  They are much more lush and enticing than onions that had to fight for their lives in the open garden.  The onion like plant in the lower left corner appears to be one of two Leek plants that have volunteered from last year.  And I never have grown Leeks at this garden!  Should I eat these, or let them go to seed for next year?  I think I will eat them, as there are new Leek seedlings started on the porch.

Artichokes or cardoon?

     These two plants are either Artichokes or Cardoon that have overwintered on the porch.  They will probably go outside in another month.  I have seedlings of both started.  That will make the ID easy as the season progresses.
     It was fun to be away, but it is fun to be home.  And there is really, really a lot to do!   George

Pushin it on the Porch

      My porch / mud room / green house is like a life preserver to me during the dull, cold winter months.  Covered with only single pane glass, it does cost me a bit to heat.  But the oasis in the middle of the winter is worth it to keep some of my tender plants alive, and get a jump on spring with young starts you can't find at garden centers.  Several years ago my wife gave me an electric heater by DeLonghi, equipped with a thermostat.  I have it set at the lowest possible setting of 42 degrees, so the heat kicks on at that level.  Just don't bump the heater.  Knocks it off cycle.  Don't have a power outage.  Knocks it off cycle.  Other than those two potential freeze ups, everything is fine.  The porch usually stays 10 - 15 degrees warmer than ambient temperatures from the solar gain during the day.  So I will bear the cost of heating the porch to keep stuff alive.

        The two glass panels to the left are almost a direct southern exposure, with the ones to the right being western.  In December, we were lucky to top out the day temps of just over 40 on cold days.  A couple of days ago with it 30 outside but the sun bright, we hit 53 on the porch.  Heat wave!  I put the bamboo shades down at night, though that helps insulate just a tiny bit.  Also at night, I turn the paddle fan on at low speed to distribute the heat, figuring the cost of the fan to be lower than the cost of wasted heat rising to the ceiling.

     This shot is a flat with garlic starts in the front and 1/2 flat of arugula in the back.  Darn, now I will have to lock the door to keep daughter Barb from snitchin the arugula.  Grand son Wesley is known to eat his unfair share also.  The garlic cloves were from some plants thrown away on the communal compost heap.  They were too small to plant in the fall for a summer crop, so I figured I would try them inside.  Maybe eat them as green garlic.  Waste not.  There are little tiny garlic starts in the back ground cell pak that were from the teeny tiny bulblets at the top of one of the garlic scapes.  The literature says it will take 2 - 3 years for those plants to produce edible garlic.  I can wait.  Right now my time is cheaper than my money.  Those little seeds cost me absolutely nothing, but will yield the joy of watching them develop.  This particular arugula is "Ice Bred" from Fedco Seeds, though I just planted some more arugula from seed I saved from last year.

The flats on the upper shelf are mainly from the cole family, possibly kale, kohlrabi or broccoli.  Yes they are labeled, I just can't read them in this picture.  I start them in the basement where it is warmer, but then move them to the porch as soon as they get a couple of little leaves.  The cold temperatures on the porch seem to slow the rate of growth so the little plants don't get leggy.  At least that's my story and I am sticking to it.  There are two six packs of Giant Winter Spinach started.  Some time I am going to hit the 15 minute spinach window just right where it is not too early or too late to plant.  So far I am still waiting to hit that perfect time.  Spinach for me is a tough crop.  Maybe a couple of good days before Murphy appears in the garden to steal away the beautiful spinach before I get my merit badge.  On the lower shelf are a couple of flats of Walla Walla onions and red burgundy onions, both from seed.  This is the first year I have actually started onions by seed.  I think the packets were on clearance for 8 cents per pack at the Christmas Tree Shops.  A bargain if just a few come up.

      This container is filled with "round about" lettuce.  Round about in that Lou Gallo gave some extra Black Seeded Simpson plants to Bob King at the park.  Bob had a nice stand of lettuce in December before the predicted sub freezing weather, so I asked Bob if I could dig some for my cold frames.  Sure, no problem.  I actually intended to give them to daughters Barb and Em for their cold frames, but that was before the weather got "too".  Too cold, too wet, too snowy.  You got it, just plain "too" something or other.  They have sat quite happily on the porch for a month and a half.  I'm about ready to have a salad.  Barb and Em, it is much "too" snowy to worry about the lettuce now.  Maybe in a week or so.  Maybe not.  Maybe "too" bad. Next year there may be multiple tubs of lettuce on the porch.  For that matter, they could probably make it as mini cold frames, burying them a few inches in the garden, and just putting the lid on.

To the left is a Jade plant on the bottom of the picture, and artichokes at the top.  The Jade is a pretty tough customer, having survived on the porch over winter in prior years without heat or water.  Please don't send the plant police after me.  He revived just fine in the spring.  The artichokes though are trying my patience.  I have tried them several times.  I have given plants to other folks to try.  I WANT to taste a home grown artichoke.  They are supposed to, maybe are supposed to, or just maybe will over winter if you are very, very lucky.  I have not been so lucky.  They sulk, they rot, they die.  So this year a couple are being pampered on the porch.  And look great.  No problem, right?  Well maybe there is a problem.  I planted artichokes and a near relative called cardoon.  Labeled both, somehow lost the labels.  Does anyone on this side of the Atlantic even know what cardoon looks like?  Or how to cook it.  I have started both again from seed, and have a new labeling system.  If I don't lose the labels.  If the labels don't smudge.  If the birds don't take a liking to the labels.  If the fox babies don't like new shiny toys.  Cardoon anyone?
      Till next time, dreaming of spring  -  George