Final Seed Order for 2014. Seedsavers.org

Wikimedia commons photo

It's only Dec 1.  I know how much room I have.  There's not much to do in the kitchen garden.  So I planned for late winter / spring.  Might have bitten off more than I can chew.  Seeds are easy to plant.  The raised beds are in place.
The squashes can go into the wild area, with some compost for food.  Worked for 2013 with Butternut and Zucchinis.  This way I can see which squashes work in my climate and yard.  If they all produce it will be some to give away.  The chickens like them and the orange pumpkin types might enrich the egg yolks.

This time from Seedsavers.org.

Herb, Lettuce Leaf Basil

Herb, Flowering Chinese Leek

Swiss Chard, Five Color Silverbeet

Radish, French Breakfast

Radish, Cincinnati Market

Cucumber, Bushy

Cucumber, Japanese Climbing

Carrot, Paris Market

Carrot, Danvers

Melon, Noir des Carmes

Squash, Amish Pie

Squash, Golden Zucchin

Squash, Patisson Panaché Vert et Blanc

Squash, Winter Luxur

Squash, Waltham Butternut

Planting Seeds.

Spring Seed Planting

These are the seeds I planted in the past week.

Alyssum and Bonanza Mix Marigolds in the tomato bed.  They sprouted during the rains of the last week.  Also planted alyssum seeds in the border of the new iris raised bed.

Clemson Spineless Okra - Also in the tomato bed.  Clemson Spineless was introduced by Clemson University in 1939, 50-64 days.  That's in an ideal hot climate - possibly 2 or 3 months here if it bears at all.  After one week of rain, I also saw sprouts.  I read that they require soaking and heat.  So I started some today after soaking with 2 changes of water, for several hours.  I also read Okra doesn't respond well to transplanting.  The seeds I planted today I planted in newspaper-lined containers to reduce transplant shock.

Swiss Chard - in empty squares of the iris bed I set up last weekend.  It will be mid to late summer before I add the irises in those spaces.  I don't want to leave it with bare soil.  Space is at a premium.

Petite Yellow Watermelon ( 65-80 days) and Blacktail Mountain Watermelon (65-75 days) - Haven't tried watermelons here.  Starting in containers, today.  Then into raised bed.  Cleared some space in the raised bed, from winter vegetables.  Some of those didn't do well, others have been harvested - radishes, greens.

Minnesota Midget Canteloupe (60-75 days).  Haven't tried these either.  These are a small melon, 4 inches, and the vines are 3 feet long.  May plant them in containers, not sure yet.  Also starting in containers, today.

Japanese Soyu Burpless Cucumber (65 days).  Starting in containers today.  Will find a place for them.

Asparagus Pea (60-75 days).  Starting in containers.  Will need to fine a place for them too.

Parisian Carrot (55 days) and Red Cored Chantenay Carrot.  (70 Days).  Also in the new iris bed, for the same reason.

Also some cleome seeds for Ning's meadow.

Also the last of the sweet potatoes.  One week ago, I discovered what looked like near dead sweet potato starts in the mailbox.  They were there for the weekend.  I cleaned them up and planted the best looking ones in a half barrel.  These sweet potatoes were described as an early variety, good for the North.  The remaining set I placed in a glass of water, with daily water changes.  They also look better, grew new roots, so I planted them today.

Winter Kitchen Garden Chores.

Nice place to build a nest. Even the most dedicated kitty cat can't get through the mess of rose thorns. The roses will need pruning but that's not urgent yet. The nest will go then - I think they build a new one each year.

This was Jan 1st before I started cleaning up the rose & fruit bed. I felt bad about letting it become such a mess last year.
Looking at this, I wondered if I could get it cleaned up. What a mess.
Over the past couple of weeks, I've pruned all of the roses (mainly on Jan 1st) and raked out the weeds. Charlie may not approve. He likes messes. But he tolerates my idiosyncrasies. Then this weekend, a layer of bark nuggets except the area around the raspberries.
Behind the apple tree, the " yellow everbearing raspberry "Fallgold" was still a mess. These are great raspberries. They started as a small grocery store bare root start. Now they are starting to take over their neighborhood.
My photo is bad. I trimmed off the tops at about the top of the photo. Removed one clump and moved it to a better spot on the opposite side, more in the direction where I wanted them to grow. Pulled up about half of the canes, concentrating on pulling up the scrawniest ones. These are "ever bearing". They bear early summer on the canes that grew last summer and fall. I shortened these a little because they bore at the tips last summer, an once a node has produced fruit, it's done. Below that level, they'll grow branches at each node, and those branches will bear fruit. Once they have done the second fruiting, they are done. So I also removed all of the spent canes from last year. Much tidier now. Now to head off to the bark mulch place and finish this garden bed, so it's ready for Spring. I feel a bit better now.

More:
I hauled another 3/4 yard of medium bark nuggets, spread them on the rest of the middle mini-orchard/rose bed, one side border, and some under a fig tree that I cleaned underneath first. This is already a better and earlier start than next year. Still lots to do however.

For the container gardens, I cleaned up the surface on 2 additional barrels. I planted seeds, a mini-ball shaped carrot ("Parisian Market"), more mesclun, lettuce mix ("Bon Vivant Blend"), a Chinese greens mix. They may not grow, because the seeds were old (1 to 3 years) and because, after all, it's only January. On the other hand, some seeds can last for years (I've blogged on that before, and tested some last year), and it doesn't matter if they take a month or more to come up. Plus, they may be hardier for being planted in the winter and allowed to grow with the weather. Plenty of weeds are already sprouting, and some greens are just a few steps removed from "weed". If they don't sprout in, say, a month, I'll buy some new seeds and try again.

Super-Early Seed Planting

It's been nice and warm, seems amazing for February. Here is a screenshot from weather.com:

"Tropicals" like tomatoes, chili peppers, eggplants, and basil, can't go into the ground until May, due to the risk for frost and the cool ground. I do need to measure the ground temperature. Cool-weather plants, some of which can even be winter-sown, are another matter, I think.

I've been wanting to do this project for a long time. Ning found a couple of "free-for-the-taking" wine barrels, and scarfed them up for use as planters. They've been sitting for a year or two. Today I got out the Skill-saw and cut them in halves, then drilled multiple 1-inch holes in the bottoms of each. Ning wanted to be able to move them around, so we added casters.

The main incentive was a warmer and more controlled environment for chili peppers and eggplants, which are challenging in the Maritime Pacific Northwest climate. It's still 3 months too early for those, but with unseasonably warm weather, I decided to try greens and radishes. Being above ground, South side of house, on a masonry patio, they should be much warmer. Today is 54F. The past week has been in a similar range. If it freezes, I can cover them as long as I have some warning. Freezing should not harm these plants. Weeds are growing actively, and brassicas are a lot like weeds in hardiness. The onions survived hard freeze down to 15 F in December, without damage.

Here's what we planted:

Some lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson - 40 days
Radish, Daikon Miyashige White - 60 days
Radish, French Breakfast - 28 days
Carrot, Scarlet Nantes - 65 days
Radish, Cherry Belle - 24 days
Cilantro, Slow Bolting - not listed
Mesclun, Asian Salad Greens blend, 21-45 days

Plus, I pulled a couple dozen struggling top-set onions from a garden bed, where they had been neglected, separated them, and planted individually for use as scallions.

It's always an experiment. I'll look for a sheet of plastic to cover them, keep them warmer. This is 2 of 4 half-barrels, so I can plant more in a couple of weeks.

They will probably take longer than listed. That's OK. If they are not fully developed by the time that we plant chilis and eggplants, we can harves them as 'baby vegetables' or feed them to the chickens. But given that we have about 85 days, I suspect that we'll have some garden-fresh greens before that time

I like the "controlled environment" aspect of using a prepared potting soil, raised above ground level. Less liklihood of disease problems, easier to plant, harvest, weed, thin. No getting feet muddy and tramping down the soil. Expense is an issue - it takes a lot of soil to fill the barrels. If they were not free, that is another issue. They should last a long time - I have 10-year old half-barrels that still look great and show no signs of falling apart. Yet.