2:40 in the afternoon on a beautiful very early spring day. It's actually a false spring -- we're still in for some cooler weather, and the Weather Channel on my desktop says rain all next week.
The weather can do what it will, at this point -- we have a greenhouse full of young carrots, kale, peas, kohlrabi, spinach... More are settled into the cold frames -- some transplants, some just up, and some still working hard to send their tiny roots down and their little cotyledons up. Before I got all of this set up, I would have been impatient for Spring -- itching to get my hands in the earth and some seedlings into the ground.
It's always an act of faith, planting seeds. Those tiny things could be dirt, for as much as you can see. I'm always intrigued by the fact that seeds virtually never resemble (even faintly) the plants they will become. Yet hidden within those tiny bits is almost unbelievable potential. What a masterful design -- exquisitely practical, and each utterly unique -- another witness to the creative Genius at work in the calling into being of all things.
And if planting is an act of faith, waiting for them to emerge, once planted, is an exercise in patience. We do all we can, to provide conditions that will give them the best chance to be all they were meant to be. And how lovely, when finally we see the tender green shoots, poking tenuously through the rich, dark earth!
Read more!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Tomatoes, Peppers, and Die-hard Redbor Kale!
Huge storms headed our way, so we spent the weekend frantically getting our cold frames set up, and the transplants settled into it. We made it -- barely. By the time I was finished watering, I was soaked, too. Most of the transplants went into the cold frame, and the rest into the greenhouse. I want to see which ones are likely to do best, where...
That's part of what I'm trying to accomplish -- to learn which plants do best under what conditions. I planted several cool weather things last weekend, and noticed today that a single Redbor Kale plant has pushed its little cotelydons up into the (greenhouse) world. The sight of that tiny purple stalk gave me such a thrill, I had to restrain myself from dashing in to order more seeds!! I planted the last 2 seeds as part of last weekend's efforts, and was pleasantly surprised when this one made its appearance today. I planted most of the packet last Fall, but it must have been the wrong time -- not one plant came up. Or maybe something ate them as they emerged, before I saw them. In any case, I was glad to see this little one!
Planted several kinds of tomatoes and peppers in our new Bio Dome starter today. Put the heat mat under them, to really get them going. It's a bit early for the tomatoes, but I want to try growing them in the greenhouse. One of my goals is to see if we can harvest tomatoes, and possibly peppers, for much of the year.
10/16/10
The tomatoes and peppers came zooming into the world, and we ended up enjoying them weeks earlier than would otherwise have been possible. I will definitely do that again this year!!
And who would've believed it -- that redbor kale is still going strong!! It sort of hung on, until we moved the planter it was in out of the greenhouse. Turns out the greenhouse didn't get enough light where we had it. So we moved it in early spring, and because the plants looked ok (maybe a little stunted), we left them. They sort of hunkered down & didn't do much over the summer, but now that it's starting to cool off again, they're going to town!!
Read more!
That's part of what I'm trying to accomplish -- to learn which plants do best under what conditions. I planted several cool weather things last weekend, and noticed today that a single Redbor Kale plant has pushed its little cotelydons up into the (greenhouse) world. The sight of that tiny purple stalk gave me such a thrill, I had to restrain myself from dashing in to order more seeds!! I planted the last 2 seeds as part of last weekend's efforts, and was pleasantly surprised when this one made its appearance today. I planted most of the packet last Fall, but it must have been the wrong time -- not one plant came up. Or maybe something ate them as they emerged, before I saw them. In any case, I was glad to see this little one!
Planted several kinds of tomatoes and peppers in our new Bio Dome starter today. Put the heat mat under them, to really get them going. It's a bit early for the tomatoes, but I want to try growing them in the greenhouse. One of my goals is to see if we can harvest tomatoes, and possibly peppers, for much of the year.
10/16/10
The tomatoes and peppers came zooming into the world, and we ended up enjoying them weeks earlier than would otherwise have been possible. I will definitely do that again this year!!
And who would've believed it -- that redbor kale is still going strong!! It sort of hung on, until we moved the planter it was in out of the greenhouse. Turns out the greenhouse didn't get enough light where we had it. So we moved it in early spring, and because the plants looked ok (maybe a little stunted), we left them. They sort of hunkered down & didn't do much over the summer, but now that it's starting to cool off again, they're going to town!!
Read more!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Planting Spring in the Greenhouse
Planted some early Spring things in the greenhouse today -- beets, carrots, kale, peas, spinach. Didn't plant lettuce, as we still have a row of it. Being new at this year-round thing, I didn't plant enough last Fall, so we've had to supplement it with store-bought, to make it last the Winter. Three to six inches of rain forecast in the next couple of weeks, so, though I'm itching to put something in the garden too, I will wait.
There's been a flurry of activity around here, lately. I wanted a light shelf (for peppers and tomatoes, mostly), but didn't want to spend the $250 or more for the one in the catalog. So I spent the weekend engineering and wiring, learning about light output and T5 vs T8 or T12... Finally, my little seedlings are basking in the glow of 2 grow lights. It was obvious that I needed to give them more light, as they were all leaning in toward the center, to soak up all they could get from the original single-light fixture.
My ever-patient husband has spent the last couple of weeks fiddling with the (inexpensive -- flimsy) greenhouse, trying to make sure it can withstand the gale-force winds we get, here on the edge of the valley. With the storm that's coming, it's about to be tested...
I was struck, as I was tucking in the little specks that will, hopefully, one day soon provide us with a shot of color and vitamins for our dinner table, by the idiosyncracies of time. An investment of less than two hours of my time, and a larger investment on the part of the sun and the little seeds, will, with any luck, yield food that will nourish our bodies -- just as the growing and harvesting of it has nourished my mind.
I've been thinking about my motivation for all of this. It began as an outgrowth of my interest in food storage -- which has ultimately translated to taking more control over the foods we eat. When I discovered Eliot Coleman's excellent book, "Four-Season Harvest", I realized that we could eat from our own backyard all year. That, in turn, led to the idea of growing things we've never tried before -- kohlrabi and sorrel, for a start.
I had already set up a vermicompost system in our laundry room (if it's properly managed, there really isn't any smell, to speak of), because it just didn't make sense to me to throw away kitchen scraps and then drive to the store to buy compost. Living as we do in the city, a compost pile isn't really all that practical -- although we have made some excellent compost just by burying things in the soil. But the worms do it a lot faster -- they can handle a half-pound of food a day! In fact, I've just added another tray, so in a few months, they'll need even more than that.
There are so many benefits to this year-round gardening thing: The freshest food possible; a wealth of nutrients not available in commercially grown produce (we're doing this as organically as possible, so there should be a nutrients available to what we grow that just aren't there for commercial produce, plus we're growing things in a multitude of colors -- red kale, purple brussel sprouts, blue kohlrabi -- providing us with phytonutrients both discovered and otherwise...)
I can't help but reflect on the fact that we were designed to be hunter-gatherers, spending our time looking for food and consuming it very soon after obtaining it. Produce at the supermarket has rarely been picked the same day it is purchased.
There are many benefits of year-round gardening, and one that I'm particularly happy about is that planting a little at a time, once the area has been prepared, hardly feels like work! We've also expanded our culinary horizons, by growing and consuming things that aren't necessarily found in the produce section of the local supermarket.
I have discovered, though, that there's not much information available on year-round gardening, even though I live in Zone 9 (one of the easiest zones in which to grow things to eat all year), so I'm making notes as we go along. I did, however, get a useful planting guide table from the Cooperative Extension, and am using it to help plan our planting schedule.
Read more!
There's been a flurry of activity around here, lately. I wanted a light shelf (for peppers and tomatoes, mostly), but didn't want to spend the $250 or more for the one in the catalog. So I spent the weekend engineering and wiring, learning about light output and T5 vs T8 or T12... Finally, my little seedlings are basking in the glow of 2 grow lights. It was obvious that I needed to give them more light, as they were all leaning in toward the center, to soak up all they could get from the original single-light fixture.
My ever-patient husband has spent the last couple of weeks fiddling with the (inexpensive -- flimsy) greenhouse, trying to make sure it can withstand the gale-force winds we get, here on the edge of the valley. With the storm that's coming, it's about to be tested...
I was struck, as I was tucking in the little specks that will, hopefully, one day soon provide us with a shot of color and vitamins for our dinner table, by the idiosyncracies of time. An investment of less than two hours of my time, and a larger investment on the part of the sun and the little seeds, will, with any luck, yield food that will nourish our bodies -- just as the growing and harvesting of it has nourished my mind.
I've been thinking about my motivation for all of this. It began as an outgrowth of my interest in food storage -- which has ultimately translated to taking more control over the foods we eat. When I discovered Eliot Coleman's excellent book, "Four-Season Harvest", I realized that we could eat from our own backyard all year. That, in turn, led to the idea of growing things we've never tried before -- kohlrabi and sorrel, for a start.
I had already set up a vermicompost system in our laundry room (if it's properly managed, there really isn't any smell, to speak of), because it just didn't make sense to me to throw away kitchen scraps and then drive to the store to buy compost. Living as we do in the city, a compost pile isn't really all that practical -- although we have made some excellent compost just by burying things in the soil. But the worms do it a lot faster -- they can handle a half-pound of food a day! In fact, I've just added another tray, so in a few months, they'll need even more than that.
There are so many benefits to this year-round gardening thing: The freshest food possible; a wealth of nutrients not available in commercially grown produce (we're doing this as organically as possible, so there should be a nutrients available to what we grow that just aren't there for commercial produce, plus we're growing things in a multitude of colors -- red kale, purple brussel sprouts, blue kohlrabi -- providing us with phytonutrients both discovered and otherwise...)
I can't help but reflect on the fact that we were designed to be hunter-gatherers, spending our time looking for food and consuming it very soon after obtaining it. Produce at the supermarket has rarely been picked the same day it is purchased.
There are many benefits of year-round gardening, and one that I'm particularly happy about is that planting a little at a time, once the area has been prepared, hardly feels like work! We've also expanded our culinary horizons, by growing and consuming things that aren't necessarily found in the produce section of the local supermarket.
I have discovered, though, that there's not much information available on year-round gardening, even though I live in Zone 9 (one of the easiest zones in which to grow things to eat all year), so I'm making notes as we go along. I did, however, get a useful planting guide table from the Cooperative Extension, and am using it to help plan our planting schedule.
Read more!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Time (in a Greenhouse)
The concept of time, in its various guises, seems to be a theme lately. Everything, from the hours it takes for the sun to glide across the garden in the backyard, feeding the leaves that feed the plants that will, in turn, feed us, to the days between nestling a seed into the earth and the reward of seeing its tiny cotilydons pushing up toward the light, to the months of infinitesimal increases (or decreases) in the temperature of the soil, is inextricably linked to the passage of time.
And yet, Einstein proved that time is not linear. I can't help thinking about our forebears, and it wasn't all that long ago, to whom the concept of "ownership" of time would have been completely foreign. They were at the mercy of time -- or, rather, someone else's concept of it. Whoever owned the clock, owned time.
Even now, in our cyber world, for all our understanding of it, we are completely and utterly unable to have any impact on it. Except, maybe, in a greenhouse. Actually, we can't really have any impact upon time -- but, by making slight changes to the environment, we can definitely have a very real impact on the length of the time we can grow various things each year. In fact, we can actually produce things to eat, in our own backyards, all year. That, it seems to me, is the purpose of a greenhouse. It can, of course, be used for starting plants earlier than would otherwise be possible. But the real value, for my money, lies in the possibility of extending the time that tomatoes, say, can be grown at home. And in improving the quality of the produce we enjoy.
So we experimented with a greenhouse. It didn't, ultimately, work out very well -- but only because the only part of the yard we could put it in at the time didn't get enough sunlight to support plant life. Still, I consider the experiment a success, in that we learned a great deal in the process, and it helped us along on the journey toward growing our own food.
10/16/10
We've moved the greenhouse (all 4 x 6 of it!!) to the garden. It now resides on a raised bed DH built for it. I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do with it, now that it's in a place that gets adequate light!!
Read more!
And yet, Einstein proved that time is not linear. I can't help thinking about our forebears, and it wasn't all that long ago, to whom the concept of "ownership" of time would have been completely foreign. They were at the mercy of time -- or, rather, someone else's concept of it. Whoever owned the clock, owned time.
Even now, in our cyber world, for all our understanding of it, we are completely and utterly unable to have any impact on it. Except, maybe, in a greenhouse. Actually, we can't really have any impact upon time -- but, by making slight changes to the environment, we can definitely have a very real impact on the length of the time we can grow various things each year. In fact, we can actually produce things to eat, in our own backyards, all year. That, it seems to me, is the purpose of a greenhouse. It can, of course, be used for starting plants earlier than would otherwise be possible. But the real value, for my money, lies in the possibility of extending the time that tomatoes, say, can be grown at home. And in improving the quality of the produce we enjoy.
So we experimented with a greenhouse. It didn't, ultimately, work out very well -- but only because the only part of the yard we could put it in at the time didn't get enough sunlight to support plant life. Still, I consider the experiment a success, in that we learned a great deal in the process, and it helped us along on the journey toward growing our own food.
10/16/10
We've moved the greenhouse (all 4 x 6 of it!!) to the garden. It now resides on a raised bed DH built for it. I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do with it, now that it's in a place that gets adequate light!!
Read more!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Surrounded by Life
I suddenly find myself surrounded by a surprising amount of life: A flat of seedlings reaching their tiny cotyledons up to a grow light in the garage, a tray of red wigglers busily making compost in the laundry room, what Laurel Robertson calls “yeast beasties”, frantically transforming freshly ground flour, honey and water into the Staff of Life that sustains…
And what sustenance it is! Following Peter Reinhart’s “Power Bread” recipe, which, though it takes three days to complete, is pretty easy, yielded the best bread I’ve ever made. It’s a lovely combination of whole wheat (I use freshly ground white wheat -- still a whole grain, but lighter in flavor and texture than the traditional hard red) with the sweetness of raisins and honey, and the earthy notes of sunflower and sesame seeds. Although it's quite sweet, it doesn't seem to cause blood sugar issues -- thanks to the combination of proteins in the grain and seeds. And, because the enzymes are given time to do their work over the 3-day process, and the sunflower seeds are ground, it's very easy to digest. I have been on a quest for the perfect bread recipe for some time, and this just might be it -- it has certainly become my new favorite bread recipe...
And the greens and baby carrots we bring in from the garden are vibrant with life. How fortunate we feel, enjoying a fresh salad popping out of the bowl with color -- in the dead of winter! And all it took was a bit of effort last Fall. As Eliot Coleman points out in his wonderful "Four-Season Harvest" book, plant selection, plus timing, really can equal a year-round harvest of fresh food that makes the flavorless (and expensive) produce on the grocery store shelves at this time of year even less appealing. And I can't help but think of all the phytonutrients we're getting -- probably some they haven't even discovered yet, new as that science is.
It's amazing how much more involved with what's real in life we've become.
Our new (portable) greenhouse arrived yesterday. Though I'm itching to put it up (to see what the temperature extremes will be), we're not quite ready. I've taken next Monday off from work to give me time to play with it. The seeds I ordered should be mailed this week (finally -- they were a Christmas gift!!), and the new heating mat, coupled with a second grow light, will allow me to get a jump start on the peppers, tomatoes and other heat-loving things we want to grow... My goal is to be able to harvest fresh food all year, and I'm optimistic that the (relatively inexpensive) equipment we're accumulating will allow us to do just that.
Read more!
And what sustenance it is! Following Peter Reinhart’s “Power Bread” recipe, which, though it takes three days to complete, is pretty easy, yielded the best bread I’ve ever made. It’s a lovely combination of whole wheat (I use freshly ground white wheat -- still a whole grain, but lighter in flavor and texture than the traditional hard red) with the sweetness of raisins and honey, and the earthy notes of sunflower and sesame seeds. Although it's quite sweet, it doesn't seem to cause blood sugar issues -- thanks to the combination of proteins in the grain and seeds. And, because the enzymes are given time to do their work over the 3-day process, and the sunflower seeds are ground, it's very easy to digest. I have been on a quest for the perfect bread recipe for some time, and this just might be it -- it has certainly become my new favorite bread recipe...
And the greens and baby carrots we bring in from the garden are vibrant with life. How fortunate we feel, enjoying a fresh salad popping out of the bowl with color -- in the dead of winter! And all it took was a bit of effort last Fall. As Eliot Coleman points out in his wonderful "Four-Season Harvest" book, plant selection, plus timing, really can equal a year-round harvest of fresh food that makes the flavorless (and expensive) produce on the grocery store shelves at this time of year even less appealing. And I can't help but think of all the phytonutrients we're getting -- probably some they haven't even discovered yet, new as that science is.
It's amazing how much more involved with what's real in life we've become.
Our new (portable) greenhouse arrived yesterday. Though I'm itching to put it up (to see what the temperature extremes will be), we're not quite ready. I've taken next Monday off from work to give me time to play with it. The seeds I ordered should be mailed this week (finally -- they were a Christmas gift!!), and the new heating mat, coupled with a second grow light, will allow me to get a jump start on the peppers, tomatoes and other heat-loving things we want to grow... My goal is to be able to harvest fresh food all year, and I'm optimistic that the (relatively inexpensive) equipment we're accumulating will allow us to do just that.
Read more!
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