Winter Gardening, continued

Planted some seeds in the first "Conastoga" bed. That includes spinach, icicicle radish, napa cabbage, bak choy, seeds from garlic chives.  Pic from Bok Choy, ink and color painting on paper by Wu Changshuo (1844-1927)

I found some unplanted sets for egyptian onions.  I don't need more, but not wanting them to go to waste, so planted them.

Also, in unprotected bed, Laburnum seeds collected last week from Laburnum tree. So those seeds were exposed for winter, and stratified in situ. Those are along one edge of iris bed. Along another edge, Chinese chive, my Illinois strain.

Fig cuttings

These are started 2 to 4 weeks ago.  Depends on the cutting.  The Lattarula is covered on 3 sides with the start of roots.  What fig hobbyists call "root initials".  The Marseille black is not there yet.  I check every other day.  If the paper towel is looking moldy, I rinse the cutting and soak a fresh piece of paper towel to replace the fouled one.  Seems to be working.

Here are 4 cuttings in containers.  The Atreano was making top sprouts, so I potted it up.  It has initials but no roots.  It will need careful nurturing. The Sal's fig was a branch below soil level, that had tiny roots before I pruned it off, and when I removed it from seed starting medium I knocked off most of the roots.  Now it has tiny green buds swelling, so I think it is surviving despite my efforts.  The LSU Tiger cutting had roots about 2mm long, so time to plant that one in seed starting medium.

Today I scratched Plant Success (that again) into the top inch of each of these containers.  I don't think it will hurt.  It might help.

Of these, the Atreano, the LSU Tiger, and the Atreano were sent by generous Fig Forum members.  Response to my sending out cuttings last month.  Nice gardener neighborliness, from a distance..

Winter Gardening for Spring Vegetables

This is a start for gardening for the year.  The raised bed is the standard 4ft by 8ft raised bed that I've been building.  This is the 4th one so far.  The difference now is, I wanted a cover, to warm it up a few degrees.  Pus, protection from deer and rabbits once the cover is in place.

The cover consisted of:
6 2ft rebars.
12 copper brackets with nails
3 10ft long vinyl pipes
2 sections of 4 ft wide chicken wire
row cover.

All but the row cover came from the big orange home improvement store.  The row cover is from Johnny's Selected Seeds.  The chicken wire is held in place by plastic bale twine, recycled.

With row cover in place.  It looks like a conastoga wagon without the wheels.  The row cover wasn't quite wide enough, but I'll get some clothes pins to hold it to the chicken wire.

The rebar is easily removed, in case I don't want to keep this arrangement in place.

The tallest portion of the hoops is about 4 feet tall.  That height will be plenty tall enough for most vegetables, including tomatoes and okra.  But those are for May or June planting.  Here, I planted Oregon Giant snow peas, which grow 3  or 3 1/2 feet tall.  The packet states sow as soon as ground can be worked, so here we are.  Before planting, I sprinkled Plant Success mycorrhyzal inoculant on the surface and worked it in.  Probably more important, I used legume Rhizobium inoculant from Territorial Seeds - made a slurry in water, swirled the seeds around in the slurry, let them soak 10 minutes, then planted and watered in with the rest of the slurry.

Also planted, after adding Plant Success as sort of a "good wishes":
Boston Red Beets 1/2 row
Mini Bok Choy, from New Dimension seeds. 1/2 row
German Giant radish, 1/2 row.
French Breakfast radish, 1/2 row.

There is room for a row of spinach and a row of mesclun.  Room fills up fast.  May need to build a second raised bed for more winter vegetables.

As always this is an experiment.  I don't think it's too early.  I planted radishes and other cold tolerant vegetables in late January, 2011, and they grew nicely.

Hardwood Cuttings

No pics today - forgot camera.

This is an almost-all homework weekend.  However, I did a small amount of garden inspection.

Also applied rooting hormone to some hardwood cuttings.  I didn't expect them to root yet, at all.  And they have not.  I carefully removed the cuttings from the ground, and applied rooting hormone, then carefully placed them back into the ground.


Illustration is Laburnum, from commons.wikimedia.org.   The cuttings I'm experimenting with:  Linden "greenspire", Mulberry "Illinois Everbearing".  I also took 3 small hardwood cuttings from unnamed Laburnum, scratched the bark, and applied rooting hormone before placing them in the same raised bed.  Plus one cutting from Brunswick fig.  Because I can.  The fig cutting did not get rooting hormone.

None of these is "needed".  Just seeing what might happen.  I also collected some laburnum seeds.  Might plant those if I don't forget them.

Ukranian Beekeeping Stamps

From wikimedia commons. 2001  Ukranian stamps

Ukranian beekeeping stamp, 1994 and subsequent issues.

Also this one, 1999.

Honey Bees

"Alfred Dürer, 1514: Eros, Venus and the bees. "Eros stung by a bee, when he inhaled the pleasant fragrance of a rose, went crying to take refuge in the arms of Venus," Dear mother, I die, have mercy on me, a flying snake bit me painfully cheek " Anacreontic singing, 6th c. av. AD " from Launceston Beekeepers blog.


"Anacreontics are verses in a meter used by the Greek poet Anacreon in his poems dealing with love and wine" (wikipedia)


While on the topic of Greek mythology and bees, or honey, "MELISSEUS was the rustic Daimon (Spirit) of honey and the art of beekeeping... closely identified with the Euboian Aristaios, who was also the reputed discoverer of honey...Melisseus may also be related to the Titan-god Astraios (the starry one), for the amber-coloured (êlektron or soukinos) honey-sap (melissa) which bees were believed to collect from flowers and trees was often described as star-fallen (astron). from theoi.com

The herb Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) has a lemon scent which is thought to attract bees. Lemongrass oil is used to attract swarming bees to new hives, and a bee phermone is reminiscent of lemon.  Lemon balm grows like a weed for me.  I've been trying to control it in my yard for a decade.  Now I'll replant some near the beehive, when I get that far. Pic from Wikipedia entry for lemon balm.

Ning and his Chickens

The sex-linked pullets are growing fast. I'm convinced they'll be bigger than Turkeys. Maybe ostriches.

Kitchen Garden / Raised Beds

Today I built a raised bed for late winter seed planting.  Prep for Spring keeps me in a good mood.

It's easier to build the raised bed on a flat surface, in a sheltered location.  So I built it in a shed.  The wood is already cut, I planned ahead.  So it's like putting together a kit.  Except I made the kit.

This time I stapled chicken wire to the bottom to protect the bed from moles, but I did not apply cardboard to the bottom.  I've used cardboard ot prevent growth of perennial weeds up through the bed.  I don't think that's required with this depth.  The lining, to protect the wood a bit / slow degradation due to the enriched organic soil, is made from big woven-plastic dog food bags.  Rugged.  Free. Reused.

Filled a bit more than half way with soil I dug in Nov or Dec, and yard waste compost I bought then as well.  Not too muddy.  Next weekend I can mix a little better, and add soil/compost mix to the top.  Will use better quality leaf compost for the top portion.

I also added 5 pounds of coffee grounds.  Feed the soil.  The soil will feed the plants.

This will have a little time to settle, then  ready for radishes, brassicas, spinach, scallions.  Cold weather vegetables.

The garlic is frozen.  Taking a photo is good for reference for next year.  It always looks dead at this time, then revives in a month or two.

Hard to see here, but this is the Ixia experiment.  I noticed they grew a few inches. The question now:  Will they survive freezing.  Maybe.  Maybe not.

Seed Testing. Progress Report.

Very happy with this project.  I'm learning which seeds to plant when Spring arrives.  Also learning refinements on how to test them.

Batch prepared Jan 8.  So 4 days from starting.  The tomatoes have not sprouted.  Neither has the cilantro.  All, or almost all, of the Butternut Squash, Champion Radish, and Tevera bean have sprouted.

More stated Jan 8.  Nearly all of the seeds have sprouted - Black Seeded Simpson lettuce, Basil, Hailstone radish, Okra North/South, and early Cucumber.  The mesclun is a mix, some have sprouted, some not.

I composted these, to start another batch.  Except I ate the radish sprouts.

I'm very pleased with this method.  It's easy to set up, easy to see what sprouted, and quick.  So I did it again with more seeds.  This is Signet Marigold, 2006; Cayenne Pepper 2008, Tyee Spinach 2009, a Red Chinese Radish from 2003, Hungarian Yellow Wax Pepper 2006, and Red Icicle Radish, date not legible but starting 200 so probably 2009 or 2008.  That 2003 Radish is a long shot.

This is what I'm doing now.  Draw the lines and label the paper towel with ballppoint pen.  Lay on a piece of wax paper the same size.  Add some seeds of each variety.  Moisten the paper towel around the seeds, using a spoon to add water.  That holds the seeds in place.

Then fold over the paper towel, moisten so the entire towel is moist but not dripping wet.  Also fold over the wax paper.  The wax paper makes the paper towel easy to place into zip lock bag.  Place in zip lock bag.

Holding up to light, the seeds are easily viewed.  Sprouts show well, for seeds with vigorous or sturdy sprouts, like radishes, squash, beans, cucumbers.

Now they go onto the heating mat.  When I checked last year, it ran about 80 or 85 degrees F.

Varmint Continues to Chew Fig Trees.

Petite negri.  Chewed bark.  Branches snipped of completely.

The only new damage to any trees or shrubs, is the figs.  And that's every small fig plant.  None was totally spared.

So now I've placed chicken wire screening around each of them.  It won't stop the damage that's already happened, but maybe it'll make life more difficult for the guilty varmint.

Sal's Fig.  Some chewing damage to bark.  Buds chewed off.  I think it will come back OK with minimal damage.  Now covered with chicken wire.  Some side bark is chewed, but I think it will survive.

Petite negri with chicken wire.  Mice could get through it, but I don't think it's mice.  I don't think mice could carry away the twigs that are missing.

King fig.  It's really a clean snip.  No twig nearby.  It was only a foot tall anyway, but dammit.  Lower buds should give a comeback in Spring.

King and Petite negri are duplicates.  I can start more if needed.

I read that animals don't like fig plants due to the toxic latex sap.   So why are they going after the fig plants, and only the fig plants?

Earlier this fall, the flowers were eaten off a Red Twig Dogwood.  They were at about 3 foot height, clean cut as with these King fig plants.  That's why I think it's the damn deer.