Geranium Revival & Cuttings. 1.8.22

I have a couple of geranium plants that I want to grow next year.  One was a 2 year old plant that was stuck in a back row last year and didn't have much chance to shine, but did survive.  The other was a ten year old, variegated leaf variety that I dug up and left bare root.  

Here's the first.   I left it bare root on top of the dahlia tubers in peat moss. I planted it in a flower pot, in some potting soil.

Then I trimmed off everything that looked obviously dead. Here's what remains.

That's all it needs or can handle for now. I watered and placed it out of too-bright sunshine. We'll see if it recovers. It's sad looking, might or might not recover. Here are cuttings I took from the dried out variegated geranium plant.

I cut off everything that looked dead. The cuttings are in water. We'll see how they do. This is a heirloom variety, "Mrs. Pollock", grown in the 1850s. Not a typo - before the civil war. The leaves are pale green because it was in the dark, in the garage, dried out.

I think they'll probably grow. Earlier this year I stuck prunings into the ground and did nothing, and they grew. I might clean up some more and grow a row of them next year. Geraniums are highly heat and dry tolerant, and deer don't touch them. Neither do rabbits. To think about cost savings, if each grows to a $3 size, and we start ten from cuttings (free), then that's $30 saved. I wouldn't spend that much on geraniums in the first place, so it's really having an opportunity to have a row of nice plants and create them myself.

Seed Starting 2022. Onions, Shallots, Rudbeckia. 1.8.22

 I've been setting up my seed starting stand.  One of the warming mats is cleaned up, I wShed plastic pots, soaked some seed starting medium, and today planted seeds.

Onion Sweet Spanish.  Heirloom Variety.   Baker Creek Seeds 2021.  

Red Wethersfield Onion.  Heirloom variety.  Fedco Seeds 2022.

New York Early Onion.  Heirloom Variety.  Fedco Seeds.  2022.

Grocery Store Shallot.  I planted them last winter.  Some bloomed.  I saved seeds Fall 2021.

Camelot Red Shallot hybrid.  Fedco Seeds.  2022.

Heishiko Japanese Bunching Onion.  Heirloom Variety.  Victory Seeds.  2022.

Rudbeckia hirta "Marmalade".  Outside Pride Seeds.  Undated, maybe last year.

Rudbeckia hirta "Prairie Sun".  Park Seeds.  2021 or 2022 growing year.  These are labeled "Origin Germany".

Most sources state that onion, shallot, chive seeds only keep a year.  We'll see if the year-old Spanish Onion seeds grow.  If no germination in 2 weeks, I'll plant more of the others.

The grocery shallots might be F1 hybrids.  That would make my seeds F2 and they might (1) not grow at all or (2) might be all sorts of sizes and shapes or (3) might turn out similar to their parent.  It is an experiment.  Plus, I didn't cover the flowers so they might have cross pollinated with onion flowers.  That's fine with me.  I also don't know if that is possible.  

In my garden, NY Early and Sweet Spanish grow very well, the onions are excellent, store a long time, but might be a little too large.  This year I want to compare those and Red Wethersfield.  All three are open pollinated.  Whichever ones I like, can set aside bulbs to make seeds in their second year.

The Rudbeckias are for the flower beds.   I'm not clear on whether they will bloom in their first year.  If my memory is correct, I started Rudbeckias early, many years ago, and got nice flowers during their first year.   I can interplant them with French marigolds so the area will bloom either way.

Using Black Plastic to Kill Sod For Flower Bed. 1.8.22

 This only works if you are not in a hurry.  Grass and weeds won't survive under a sheet of black plastic.  Depending on the season, that requires several months.  I started vegetable beds in 2016 using that method.  The ground was ready by late April.  That link here.

This area will be annual flowers, mainly zinnias, marigolds, cosmos.  I might stick in somecdahlias and sunflowers as experiments to see if deer eat them.   At the back, by the fence, are the forsythias I started for a hedge.  

Adding Eggshell and Coffee Ground Supplements to Raised Bed Soil. 1.6.22

Now that the last raised bed has its full amount of topsoil, I want to enrich it with available amendments. I generally use compost (garden and kitchen source), coffee grounds, eggshells, wood ash, and leaves. The other raised beds have had all of those added already, either through the year last year or in the fall and winter. This last one, just completed, has only some wood ash at a somewhat deeper level (1 foot deep), and the new supplement of biochar mixed in to the top few inches. 

 My attitude is that not a lot is better than too much. For example, everything is growing well already, so the soil it pretty much OK and we want it to stay that way. Too much of alkaline supplements could result in soil too alkaline for good growth. On the other hand, gardening removes some minerals and the action of time, tilling, bacteria and fungi, degrade soil structure and impede drainage and root growth as the soil is used over the years. Rain also leaches calcium and some other minerals. 

 The most deficient mineral is Calcium. My soil tests always confirm Ca deficiency. Steve Solomon in his books about growing vegetables west of the Cascades, also discussed adding a lime agent, especially dolomite lime that also contains magnesium. Either wood ashes or lime will correct soil acidity in the right amounts, and add lime. Wood ashes also add other minerals, especially potassium (Mostly Ca,then K, then Mg, P, S, Fe and Na). Source. Source. UC Davis recommends not more than 5# per 100 sq feet. I use under 1 pound per 4 x 8 foot bed (32 sq feet). 

 The internet is an excellent source for myth and unsupported non-info, and the idea of adding eggshell to garden is a good example. lots of sites claim eggshells will deter slugs (in my experience, they don't), keep deer away (nope), increase soil calcium or dont (they do). They usually miss that along with eggshell there is the membrane, a source of some nitrogen and some sulfur. A lot depends on preparation and how much and other factors. The best research that I've found so far comes from Iowa, which is a farming state and has massive egg production, resulting in massive amounts of eggshells? There, farmers do plow eggshells into their soil, and corrected for calcium carbinate content, they work as well as agricultural lime. source.   There is also some research on eggshell as a detoxifier of heavy metals in soils.  Apparently, the metals bind to the eggshell and become unavailable for plants to take up and leave traces of in food.  I'm not really concerned about that, but the eggshell is porous, and may be a site for ion exchange for other minerals, and a place for soil microbes to proliferate and do their thing, which I think is probably good.

All that considered, I save eggshells and let them dry out. I usually crush the dried eggshells by hand, but lately I use the food processor to grind them more finely. I let coffee grounds dry out too, for easier handling. I'll look for more about them later, but basically I add them as a nitrogen source, secondarily as a potassium source, and a matrix for soil bacteria, fungi, and food for earthworms. 

 I added about a pound of ground eggshells, and 2 pounds of semi-wet coffee grounds. That's all until time for planting in two months. I'll rake them in when it's not raining. There is no hurry, this bed wont be planted with anything for two more months.

The Final Raised Bed Is Filled with Soil. 1.4.22

Today was drizzling but otherwise OK. I become a bit anxious when there is an unfinished project. So, I filled the last raised bed the rest of the way with top soil. Given how much it's rained and snowed this week, I want to think that the lower layers are all settled, so the top level settling might be minimal. Before adding more soil, I dusted the previous layer with wood ash and the cremated remains of chicken femurs. Those came from the chicken thighs I use to make Rufus's dog food. If the uncremated bones are used, they don't degrade all that fast, and can be dug up when planting and digging. So I let them dry out, then throw them into the woodstove whenever I burn some logs. Then the bones become very brittle, crumblng apart with a finger touch, and most are just ash. Bone ash adds Calcium and Phosphorus, and wood ashes add Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, and some other minerals. They are alkaline but not quite as much as lime and I the soil tested acidic anyway. So it's a beneficial amendment or at least no harm done. When I fill, I empty the buckets so he ground is uneven, with mountains and valleys. Well, maybe for a hobbit but it is uneven. That way, after mixing, there is no distinct "lasagna" layer. Then I added biochar all over that - the black appearance is biochar.

Then I used the garden claw hand tiller to mix it in, then I used a shovel to mix some more. Then I used the garden rake to mix and smooth.

Next I'll add about a pound of crushed eggshells to the top and mix those in, and a layer of leaves Then it will settle and mellow and earthworms will purposefully tunnel through all of that, leaving trails and starting to built good soil structure. Then, I'll lay the paths between and around all of the raised beds. I'll discuss eggshells and what university agricultural research says about them with that post. There are lots of people on the internet repeating what others say, positive and negative. Almost none of them report actual research.