There are only 18 days until Spring has officially sprung.  My seedlings seem to be well aware of this fact and are busy outgrowing their designated space in my kitchen.  This year I started out my seeds in a mini-greenhouse which was amazing.  I did not have any idea seeds could germinate that fast.  Next year, I plan on waiting until later February to start my seeds since I have now had the problem of them outgrowing being inside, but it is still too cold for them outside.  Due to this, I have had to transplant them to larger containers and then will have to do it again when the weather is warmer.  Transplanting is tough on your plants and a delicate process, so the fewer times you do this, the better.  

I keep all of our soil outside in the shed so when I am going to transplant into a pot, I fill a ceramic planter with the dirt I need.  Although from what I have read ceramic planters aren’t the best for long term use (they absorb the water out of the soil), they were only 99 cents at the local feed store.  Since both the soil and the pot are very cold from being outside, I place them in the oven for about 15 minutes on the warm setting.  Make sure you don’t overheat the soil, hot soil wouldn’t be good for the young roots either.  After the soil is warmed, I dig down until there is only a few layers of soil between the pot and where the roots will be.  Removing the seedling from the original pot is a very gentle process. You want to make sure you don’t disturb the roots or break off any part of the seedling to ensure successful transplanting.

As you can see from the picture, this has more than outgrown it’s little piece of soil sponge (they are what came with the particular brand of greenhouse I purchased).  I very carefully pushed up on the sponge from the bottom to remove it from the container.  I then carefully place it in the ceramic pot and cover with the warm soil.  I then water thoroughly.  The ceramic pots I bought have drainage holes, so the roots won’t get rotten from too much water.  So far this method has been very successful.  As you can see, I am running out of room for all these seedlings!

I use leftover wine corks as markers for which seedlings are what so I don’t get them confused.  I also made a legend for the greenhouse to keep those organized as well.

The next steps are to place the lettuce in the hanger planter I have since they will live on the front porch, but I am hoping the weather will warm up before I have to do that.  I also have started the majority of my seeds indoors (including ones that recommended starting outside, not inside) just to see what would happen (don’t press the little red button never worked well for me).  I am interested to see if they will survive the final transplanting to outside.

Happy transplanting!  Until next time…

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The seedlings are experiencing their first day out today. They were sown at the end of January and germinated in just a few days. Alas, as so often happens indoors, the seedlings got rather tall and leggy which is not good. The weather outside was still cold so they needed protection from an icy wind even though there was some sunshine. Yes, a greenhouse would be wonderful but that is not going to help when we are in a temporary apartment, so I looked around for something to help them. As it happened someone had just emptied a box of water bottles - they are shrunk wrapped in plastic and have a cardboard base. Not a perfect greenhouse but there was enough clear plastic for the seedlings to get some much needed sunshine without the wind.

The seedlings were still leggy but some new seeds were also germinating and these were sturdier. Enter nail scissors to prune out all the leggy lettuce and kale seedlings so that the little guys could get some light. The clippings made a great topping for a sandwich too!

So today it is cloudy and breezy with damp drizzle and the little guys are on their first few hours of unprotected weather. I am not sure how long I will let them stay out there, but there is some benefit to seedlings getting a little bit of wind to make them a little sturdier. 

June marks the beginning of our sixth month in urban gardening and general homesteading shenanigans. Happy half-birthday to us! Hubs and I have learned some hard lessons (watermelons will overtake everythingif you’re not careful; without thinning, peach trees drop their fruit; and the dogs will poop in the garden boxes given the slightest opportunity), and I don’t doubt the next six months will continue keeping our egos in check.

Some of the lessons have been absolutely necessary, namely: patience. Though we both have country in our background, we’re city folk these days. And although our particular city prides itself on a laid-back, casual lifestyle (we named a downtown street after Willie Nelson, my friends) we are guilty of getting swept away in the flurry of work, volunteer obligations, birthdays, baby showers, and everything in between. Growing our own food has required –demanded– us to slow down. We pay attention to the details: the weather patterns, the birds and insects on our property, and does that Ancho Gigantea look a little droopy? And we wait, wait, wait, until just the right time to plant those seeds or thin that row. Nowhere has anticipation been more painful than waiting for harvest, as my mouth practically waters everyday I see our tomatoes on the vine. I’m this close to pulling them off, green, and frying them in a pan.

But not all lessons have been so difficult. One in particular has been delightful: sharing. In our excitement to garden Hubs and I maybe –okay, absolutely– overdid it with our summer vegetable sowing. Hear me now, believe me later: no two people need four watermelon plants, six okra, eight squash, or seven cucumber (I believe wholeheartedly we need four tomato plants). While I’m giddy at the prospect of learning to can, our pantry space might not support my new hobby. So. Giving away it is.

A few weeks ago, we were hosting a cookout and after a couple glasses of wine, I gave a giggly tour of our newest garden addition– the front yard rows. Star of David okra, Lebanese squash, Yellow Crookneck squash, and Pencil Pod beans were barely peeking out of the soil. I beamed with pride as our friends oohed and aahed. Exactly seven days later, they had more than quadrupled in size and were becoming proper young plants. I was thrilled. We again had friends over for dinner. One in particular praised the new veggies and wished she had her own. While everyone finished dessert I snuck out to the front yard, gently dug up a few plants and put them in small pots with soil. I loaded them into her arms on her way out.

Okra seedlings turn out to be a great gift.  

I prized those veggies. I carefully nurtured them to life, protected them from the elements and helped them grow. I couldn’t wait to eat the fruits of my labor. But more than that, I realized, I wanted someone else to feel the same quiet satisfaction of growing something good. That day, our rows were a little bit thinner but our hearts a little bit lighter. The cherry on top? Getting a message the next week from our friend, glowing about her new plants and how much they perked up her backyard. She, too, is excited for the harvest. 

The ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, tells us “kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”

I have a feeling our garden will be creating a lot of love in the coming months.  

If you wou’d have Guests merry with your cheer, Be so your self, or so at least appear. – Ben Franklin  (Poor Richard’s Almanack)  

Broadway, Virginia; 29 degrees; 7:30 pm

The combination of light snow and a nearly full moon set the Schoolhouse on edge yesterday. (To clarify my connection with the Schoolhouse, allow me to insert the fact that since theoretical farming tends to pay in theoretical dollars, I am obliged to find supplemental income in the form of true, hard cash. In order to earn the money to nurture my theories, I spend roughly 180 days pontificating on the joys of the English Language to a captive audience with a median age of 12.)  But back to the subject at hand … normally sedate young teens were teetering on the edges of their seats, trying hard to conjugate verbs while surreptitiously ripping notebook paper into tiny shreds for part of an ancient snow dance ritual. Moon phases and barometric pressure definitely have their effects on mood and personality.

  
The "last rose of summer" pushing through the dusting of snow. 

And speaking of moods, Edna is rather distracted today as well. In fact, she’s in such a kerfuffle she refused a second helping of Santa Fe Tiramisu and had only one cup of Earl Grey this morning. Poor woman just found out that cousin Effie from Culpeper is planning to visit next week. Now cousin Effie is a trial to contend with on her own, (not to mention her miniature poodle, Sir Winston), but blue-haired snobbishness and gourmet kibbles are not what is bothering Edna. Nah, what has Edna’s bloomers in a bunch is that fact that when Effie visits, she demands the south-facing bedroom; the one Edna uses to house her seedlings until late spring.  With the southern room occupied, the only place she has left to raise her fledgling plants is the little study on the north end of the house — a dank, dark, chilly place not at all conducive to photosynthesis. But anyone who has ever had the dubious honor of meeting the redoubtable Miss Effie knows that she is not one to contend with. I would offer Edna some window space at my place, but I really don’t have any room to spare… Oh well, I’m sure she’ll figure something out.  If not, maybe I’ll have a chance at the prize-winning tomato at the county fair this year.

We’re into June already and I’m lagging even farther behind in my garden chores because of supply problems. But I've finally gotten the peat pellets I needed to start the next round of plantings. They are the wrong size; the diameter of the compressed “pucks” is 1/4” too large to fit into the grippers in the tray but I’ll work with them anyway. One advantage of these larger “pucks” is that when they are wetted and expand, they end up with a hole down the middle (think doughnut) that makes it a simple job to drop the seed right down inside. This would not be good for small seeds, but today I’m planting beans and chard. I set up 18 pinto beans, 18 black beans, and 12 Swiss chard. The chard is for Mom. Marie doesn't care for chard but Mom does. I've never had it, so I don't know... but I will try it when it's ripe. I set the clear cover on top and set it in the window to make a small greenhouse that will speed germination of the seeds.

When the seeds sprout, I remove the peat pellets and their seedlings and put them in small planters with potting soil. Here I gradually acclimate them to full sunshine while the first (baby) leaves are replaced by the plant’s initial mature leaves. Once the small plant has been “hardened off” (or made able to stand full sunshine without withering up and dying), I’ll take them out to the garden and plant them in the designated squares. The beans will go into the ground on the inside of the fence line, with the corn/cucumber row outside the fence. These three play well together, but crop rotation will require doing something else next year as beans can be planted in the same place only once in every three years. Maybe the beans will go outside the fence and the corn/cucumbers inside next year.

Overall, the garden is doing well considering that I’m new to this. My one major ‘fail’ this year has been the cauliflower and broccoli; Looper worms ate the centers out of the plants, then started chewing holes in the leaves. Once the centers were destroyed any chance of getting edible parts from there was gone so I pulled them out. The gardening sites say to prevent Loopers I must spray both sides of all the leaves with insecticide at least once a week. I wanted to avoid insecticides if I can, Mom has a “natural gardening” book - I think it’s by Jerry Baker, which offers several suggestions. One is to sprinkle corn starch or rye flour on the leaves. The bugs eat this, it swells up inside them and causes them to burst. There’s a visual I don’t want to entertain! Adding a little salt or cayenne pepper helps to repel the bugs. I’ll give this a shot and see if it helps on the second round of these plants.

The lettuce is still prolific. Marie says she has never seen anyone grow lettuce as tall as this. My theory on this is; it’s because instead of waiting for the lettuce plant to get to 12-14 inches tall and cutting it off at the ground, I snip off the lower leaves and leave the plant to continue growing. This seems to encourage the plant to keep putting new leaves out on top and I keep snipping off the lower ones. Eventually I get a lettuce tree! This works great for the leaf lettuce, head lettuce would be entirely different, and the Mesclun mix lettuce has all different shaped plants - some pretty bizarre looking, but they all taste great and make for a very interesting salad.

The squash plants are beginning to bloom and from the number of buds I see waiting to flower out, we will be pushing squash off on the neighbors and co-workers just like we are the lettuce. I've got yellow squash, summer squash and zucchini, but none of the bigger varieties like crook-neck or acorn; those would be just too much for my little garden!

This year I’m growing both red and white radishes. I’m sure you’re familiar with the red (Cherry Bell) radishes, but the white ones are rather unique. They are white on the outside, red on the inside and when sliced look for all the world like hunks of watermelon. 

They taste like a radish except they are more spicy than the red radish – so much so that nibbling on two of these as a snack gave me quite a case of indigestion! A little of these goes a long way. They are good in salads though.

The tomatoes have many blooms and a few green tomatoes the size of marbles. When they get to the size of golf balls I’ll need to fertilize them with some ‘Mater food. I've got a couple of green peppers almost ready to pick and many more in process. I have watermelon seedlings hardening off now what will go in the ground in another week or so. Everything else is coming along pretty well, and plant chomping pests aren't much of a problem, except as noted earlier, so I’m happy.

As the weather gets hotter, lettuce and spinach will have a hard time growing. The chard will grow well in the summer heat, as will peppers, tomatoes and squash. Once we reach mid-August I’ll be ready to start another round of the cool-weather crops as well as Brussels sprouts.

And there you have it. Not exactly ready to set up a canning operation yet, but we are enjoying what we’re harvesting and I’m having fun managing my micro-farm.

We love gardening but I wouldn't say that we are pros.  I'm fascinated by the term "expert gardener" since I think it is an oxymoron similar to the classics: government organization, adult male, affordable housing, cable service, and decaffeinated coffee.  The simple fact that we, as gardeners, are always learning makes even the best gardener an amateur in the face of dramatic weather changes, invasive insect pests, and blights.  When gardening: expect the unexpected.

I love oxymorons.

Each year, we must pull a Tiger Woods and rethink our strategy.  We spend the off-season studying up, aching over plant placement, sunlight, drainage, soil composition, and potential hazards.  We draw from the lessons learned in years past as well.  Let me waltz you through our basic garden start-up pictorally (and with steady commentary from yours truly, after all it is my GRIT.com soapbox):

We plan out where and when we are planting each vegetable (I painted it with watercolors because I have entirely too much time on my hands) and then set up a table in the driveway to fill the minigreenhouses with seed starting soil and seeds.

We start our seeds in minigreenhouses.  These often grace the shelves of large hardware and gardening stores.  We love them.  I use them year after year in my kitchen window.

Shouldn't every window look like this?  Why doesn't Southern Living or Better Homes and Gardens show this stuff?

When we can no longer keep the lids on the minigreeenhouses without bending the seedlings, we transfer them out to the garden and cover them with wide mouth canning jars.  These work as makeshift gardening cloches (which can be read about in the GRIT article, "Get Your Garden Growing Early").  It only makes sense to use canning jars because the produce will ultimately end up in those jars anyway.  Why not?

As the garden grows, I'll be showing you some of our tricks to getting more plants in less space.  In the meantime, I'm offering one lucky commenter a copy of Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression.  How about that?

Want more Lacy? Check out  Razor Family Farms !