Overwintered Kitchen Crops and Buried Treasures. 4.6.2021

 Egyptian Walking Onions are doing very well.  We got some nice scallions today.  There should be scallions for another month or more, as smaller starts mature.  The overwintered Swiss Chard was quite tasty too.

As I was digging the garden bed, I found buried treasure.  I know I didn't plant these last year.  They somehow snuck in a year of growth between snow peas last year.  I must have planted them 2 years ago, or more, and always miss digging them all.  I think these must be russets.  Inside, they are still snowy white.

Forthysia Flowers. 4.6.2021

 I cut some forsythia stems to bring inside.  That way I can enjoy them without going into the yard.

I think I might try to start some of these in water.  I had started one of the bushes that way, 20 years ago and I might have started the other from a cutting too.

Disapearing Nine Patch Quilt. Update 04.06.2021

 I've tried to match the chambray fat quarters with batik quarters, either as contrasting colors and colors that seem to match.  I expect to continue to move them around until time to actually sew them.

 First, I starched and ironed all of the fabric.  That keeps it shaped nicely for cutting and sewing, not stretched and awkward.  I also cut the black (actually a charcoal grey batik on black) into 5 inch squares.  I wondered if the black was too much contrast with the colors.  I don't think so, and those will be smaller when it's all together.

I started cutting the fat quarters into 5 inch squares too.  These are the first few, with the chambray and batik matched in each pile.  There are 12 squares of each, so with the black centers there will be 3 large quilting blocks per pile.  I've actually cut about 13 piles now.  Some don't match as well as these do.  I may need to rearrange them for better color match.

I took a couple day break from cutting, to do some gardening.  Plus I was changing the razor blade wheel in the fabric cutter, and sliced a piece of my finger.  Fortunately, no blood wound up on the fabric.  So I wanted a break for that to heal.

On a side note, I want a quilt for Rufus's bed, which is actually my bed but he takes it over.  I want something more durable than the usual quilt fabric, and also inexpensive.  I bought three somewhat heavy weight 100% cotton, extra large men's shirts at Goodwill, that matched the 50% off labels so they were very cheap.  My wild guess is each can be cut into about a yard or yard and a half of fabric, so this is much cheaper than buying something at the fabric store.  So far, I have plain grey and blue tones, which I will keep to, maybe with some brown or tan, or off white.  We'll see how many I can find.  I think I need a total of about ten old shirts for this to work.   No hurry, and as the weather warms up and the corona goes away with vaccines, yard and estate sales can be an even more inexpensive source of cotton fabric.  I read somewhere that Goodwill throws away a lot of the clothing that is taken there, so I'm thinking this is a good way to recycle with low cost, and the end result will be more durable than if I bought actual quilting fabric which is not as rugged as these.

Kitchen Garden Seedlings.. 4.6.2021

These are seedlings for the tomatoes that I was overthinking.  There are Roma sauce tomatoes, nonhybrid determinate heritage types that I wanted to grow and save the seeds.  I got them growing before April 15th, which is usually my deadline to start tomato seeds.  The dwarf tomato varieties all germinated as well - Brandy Fred, Tanunda Pink, Dwarf CC McGee, Extreme Bush (not a statement about political families, just a tomato), Dwarf Johnson's Cherry, Dwarf Improved Champion, and Alpatieva 905A all germinated.   I usually plant several seeds for each, and most of the cells have more than one seedling.

I planted the cilantro and lettuce seedlings in a raised bed.  Both should be OK even if there is a frost.  Also in both cases, there are seedlings germinating in small rows that I direct seeded a few weeks ago.  Those are smaller.  It's interesting that the latest cilantro had very poor germination inside, but the seeds that I planted directly into garden soil are looking better.

The tomato seedlings  that I started earlier are getting too big to keep indoors, but the weather is not warm enough to plant them.   I knew there was a chance of that when I started them.  However, my mental state needed the optimism of starting tomato seeds, so there you are.   I have a few ideas.  First, planting some of the hardier seedlings in the garden will clear up some space on the plant shelves and reduce my trips taking them outside in the am and inside in the pm.  Second, most will go into larger conatiners soon.

 

 

Third, maybe I can plant a few tomato plants outside with protection.  I've used these "Wall'o'water" covers in previous years.  They do the job.  Awkward to work with but they do work. The sides are plastic that has been bonded so they can be filled with water.  One shelter holds about 4 gallons of water.  The sun shines through the water so the plant grows.  The water absorbs heat during the day, and releases it at night, warming the plant.  It's OK as long as the plant doesn't outgrow the covers.  When the nights are warm enough, I can remove the covers.

 

I set up two, and have a soil thermometer inside so I can see how warm it gets, especially at night.  If the soil is above about 50 inside these in the am, I can plant three of the tomato plants.  I also ordered three more covers, which Amazon states will come in about ten days.

Planting the First of the Seedling Potatoes Outside. 4.6.2021

The "True Botanical Potato Seed" Clancy Potato seedlings are looking large enough to plant outside.   Plus, some of the potatoes that I planted a month or so ago are growing.  Those are tolerating the chilly nights just fine, and have stout stems with dark green leaves.  The Clancy seedlings are more delicate. Maybe by planting them outside, they will toughen up.  I have been leaving the seedlings outside all through the sunny part of the day to acclimate them.

I chose the same trench planting as with using cut up potato tubers.  The difference is those get buried and don't need immediate watering.  For the seedlings, I planted so the leaves are all above ground and then watered them.  I did give them some Osmocote.

Some of these are near where a raised bed was last year.  The edge of that got some Roundup.  I imagine that is all long dissipated and degraded now, but it's something to keep in mind if those don't grow.  Dumb on my part to use that, but there was too much on my plate last year to be as organic as I prefer to be.  Only a few would be expected to be affected, and I think more probably, none.