In and Out

 I have been hardening off my seedlings rather than just throwing them out in the cold frame.  I'm working around the house each day so it isn't too inconvenient.  They can be out for several hours each day now and by the weekend they will be fine in the cold frame all day.

The Coleus and Marigolds are out there already.

I am warming the soil for my Dahlias.  The regular soil temperature here is 50F but under the panels I have it up to 64F.

I finally got the Caesar's Brother Siberian Iris planted.  

We decided to remove the brick border.

We got our new mulch and finished mulching.

I am enjoying some of the new to me perennials.

This is Penstemon Onyx and Pearls.  The foliage stayed "green" all winter.

This is Amsonia Storm Cloud

I've had this several years, but it is the first year it has significant blooms.  
It is Lemony Lace Elderberry

The Bartlett branch of the pear tree is blooming.

Both Northern Spy apple trees are full of buds

The later blooming daffodils are opening and there are new variations every day

And the strawberry plants are blooming.  These are first year plants.  I snipped the runners from the neighbor's plants last year.

Spring is under way.

Seedlings

 Today I transplanted the indeterminant tomato varieties.

Below, the micro tomatoes, dwarfs, eggplants and ornamental peppers are doing very well.

The broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages are fine.  Their cotyledon leaves have yellowed as normal and need to be snipped off.  In a couple of weeks they will go outside.

Just in case you think that everything always goes well for me, below is a tray that is struggling.  There are Vinca, which I have never grown before, and some Celosia which are always finicky.  Celosia can be difficult to start and transplant just because their root systems are small and delicate.  In this case, the soil was retaining too much moisture.  I lost about eight of the Celosia seedlings.  They didn't damp off, they just withered and died.  When I pulled them, they had very little root system.  It had probably rotted.  I let the survivors dry out and today I transplanted them into fresh soil with a lot of perlite and sand added for better drainage.  I will have to continue to watch the amount of water I give them.

Next to transplant will be a tray of marigolds.  I can no longer count on buying my favorite Burpee Vanilla hybrid marigolds at local nurseries and I cannot find the F1 seeds at any reputable seed store.  I tried Burpee's Snowball variety two years ago and they were not as good.  I tried saving seeds from my Vanillas, but being F1 hybrids, they produced very weird offspring.  This year I am trying three other nearly white varieties: Moonlight, Creamy White and Vanilla Cream.  We'll see if any of them are what I want.

Besides the three white marigolds I have some Durango marigolds, Figaro dahlia seeds and my own saved single dahlia seeds.  In the background are two more varieties of Celosia.

Spring Property Maintenance

 We have gotten a a lot of rain from these storms sweeping across the country.  I can't really walk across the back lawn.  The rest of the lawns are OK, but it stopped us from tackling any edging and mulching. The next early spring project on my To Do list is to remove the light blue Siberian irises from the well head...

Not a good day for digging.  But an excellent spot for Siberian Irises

... and replace them with some dark Caesar's Brother irises from the sidewalk area we are reworking. 

This nice clump of Irises are no longer where I want them

That project is going to have to wait, but in spring there is always another project to do.  We brought in a few yards of topsoil for repairing spots in the lawn.  We had it dumped up in the area where we took down all those trees and where we are gradually adding grass.  Rather than spend a lot of money on topsoil and grass seed we opted for the farmer's version of lawn repair.  We put down four bales of hay.  There is a lot of orchard grass seed in this hay and we are quite happy to have orchard grass up here.  After we get done using the pile of topsoil for other areas, whatever is left can be spread right there on the gravel and clay spot we dumped it on and covered with hay.

The first part of lawn repair will be filling in these holes.  Its time again for regular maintenance pumping out of the septic tank.  We uncovered the lids for the pumper and will fill the holes back in with fresh soil and plant grass seed.  They are just a little too big and deep to gracefully remove the sod in any way that we could piece it back together, but we could do that too.

Another post winter project - At the entrance to the big garage, we had a paver walkway that was crumbling.  We were tracking all kinds of grit and cement dust into the garage.  When we began to lift them, they completely disintegrated.

Then we had to decide on the easiest way to reconfigure the three that are still in good shape.  These pavers weigh 280 pounds each.  We use a lifter that the neighbor built for us so we can lift three foot pavers with the tractor.  There is a design quirk that makes it difficult to set pavers side by side, but without it there would be no way we could move them at all.

We decided on three in a row instead of a triangular configuration.

And then we started on the big project of the spring...

...removing the orange daylilies from the fence line.

This is hard work, but we need to do it while we still can to reduce the overall amount of work that these daylilies cause over the course of each year.  We got six sections dug out yesterday leaving nine more to go.  Then we will use the remainder of last year's mulch pile to fill in and level off the holes we leave.

Ad now news from the seed starting.  The teeny tiny Portulaca seedlings are putting out their first true leaves.  Portulaca has these weird, pointy, succulent leaves.  In the seedling stage, it takes a camera or a magnifying glass to see them!  They are so small!

And here is the sweet potato slip situation...

Transplanting More Seedlings

 I'm right in the middle of transplanting season.  I had to kick two grow lights off of the counter to give me more room.  Everything is growing very well.

Top:  Pink Celosia and Salmon Vinca
Bottom: Onions, Sage and Coleus

I am trying a new set up with LED strip lights.  I mounted them up under the upper cupboards and since the seedlings are still pretty tiny, I don't want to risk them stretching for the light so I raised them up on these wire shelf organizers.

Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cabbages

These were all transplanted yesterday.  They always look a little confused and disheveled at first so it is nice to come out the next morning and see them all standing up straight and moving on.

Micro Tomatoes and Ornamental Peppers with room for dwarf varieties

Now these tiny little Portulaca were a bit of a challenge.  They could have stayed where they were, but they were the only thing left in their seed tray and I wanted to use it for something else.  I had to put my reading glasses on.  I managed not to drown them with the watering can this time, but I also ordered a large syringe which will deliver their water without risking knocking them down with a flood.

Seeded today were four varieties of Dwarf tomatoes and two varieties of Celosia.

Seedlings

 My cole crops are up, simultaneously and almost instantaneously.  About three or four mornings after seeding them I went to check and where there had been nothing before there was, all of a sudden, an entire garden on the move.

Except for the lazy peppers

And look at these teeny tiny guys.  These are Portulaca or Moss Rose.  I love these.  They reseed themselves with regularity in my garden, but because I always expect volunteers, I rarely buy any.  Starting my own from seed will be more cost effective and I won't have to wait on the volunteers.

Speaking of lazy peppers.  I seeded three ornamental peppers with this tray.  I had thought I had one up.  Peppers take a little longer.  When the actual peppers, in this case a dark leaved variety, began to show up I realized that what I had assumed was a pepper is actually a wayward tomato seedling.  So, thinking I only got one pepper to germinate, I reseeded all of these cells.  Now I will probably end up with twice as many peppers as I planned.

Patience!

Seedling Progress

Celosia and Vinca

Coleus cuttings, Onions and Sage

The onions are growing well.  I have trimmed them back twice to encourage them to stand up straight.  I transplanted them into pots with potting mix with more perlite and sand added to improve drainage because onions prefer well drained soil.  Next year I will sow two dozen seeds straight into one pot only and pick up some Espoma Cactus Potting Mix so I don't have to play mad scientist with my soil components in deep winter.

The dahlia tubers have been relocated from the workshop to the basement bulkhead and the workshop thermostat has been turned up to 60F.

I write generic names on my initial seed tags so I can reuse them year after year.

In the basement I have micro tomatoes and eggplants germinated and the ornamental peppers are beginning to germinate.  I was very surprised by those Little Prince eggplants. Eggplants are one seed that often take up to two weeks or more to germinate for me.  These took three days.  I went down there two days ago and all four were standing there green and growing, and only one tomato was up.

Today I seeded the broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages and one hot pepper.

 

Green Things in the Great White

 We have been living in an arctic tundra.  When we go to town, the roads are melted and the sun is shining but up here on the hill, the temperatures are in single digits and the wind drifts the dry snow until the country roads fill back in.  Our driveway is so thick in ice that we ordered and installed a Bluetooth/WiFi mailbox alarm that lets us know when the mailbox has been opened so we don't waste dangerous trips down the driveway to check.  We are used to being able to hear the mail truck clearly, but this amount of snow absorbs so much sound that the only road noise we hear now is the snow plow barreling along like a freight train shaking the ground.  Indoors it is warm with the south rooms of the house bright and cozy from passive solar heating.  I actually have to dust twice as often or the low winter sun shines through the window at such an angle that we can barely see the image on the TV screen for the reflection and layers of lint.

Preparation for warmer days is already under way.  The first seeds up are the Candy onions.  I have many times grown onions from both plants and sets but this is my first foray into seeding them.  I figured that I could be much more flexible with quantities and save the leftover seeds for several seasons making this route more efficient than either ordering plants or buying sets.  They are in the basement on a heat mat now but in a week or so I will transplant each cell into a larger pot and move them to the workshop with the Coleus cuttings. 

The Coleus cuttings are still doing well with 50F degree air temperature and weekly watering.  Some of the plants on the edges are getting a little pale so I rearranged the pots to see if that helps.  The workshop will have to be raised to 60F when I begin adding warm weather transplants.  Right now I have my tub of Dahlia tubers in there where they keep a steady 48F on the floor under the saw.  When I turn up the heat they need to be moved out, probably to the basement bulkhead, but right now outside temperatures are way too low to make the bulkhead a safe storage spot.

I have my seeding schedule mapped out and room for seven trays of seedlings.  Most people in my town are complaining about seven solid weeks of snow and cold with no break, but for me looking out and seeing the great white tundra is easier on my gardening psyche than mud and grass would be.  Come March when the weather is turning I will feel that the work season is imminent and patience will completely desert me.

Bringing in Supplies

 Believe it or not it is time to start thinking about starting seeds.  There are a few things that can be started now and then come March there will be a lot to do.  I have been bringing in my supplies and setting things up.  I keep a list each year and check my quantities in the fall.  Then I can keep an eye out for sales throughout late winter.  

Part of the problem of honing your methods down to a science is that you become dependent on certain products and brands.  I'm not at a stage where I want to experiment with my methods because I have had very good success.  I recently brought in all of my consumable products.  Most of these can be sourced locally if you have a good garden center, but the Pro-mix has to be mail ordered.  Nothing like getting a huge, heavy box of dirt left on your porch in the middle of winter.  Its a bit of a hassle, but sometimes it must be done.

For the initial germination Seed Starting Mix I always use Jiffy Mix.  You can also sift regular potting mix to a fine particle size or use compost. Jiffy Mix has the added advantage of being readily available at Walmart and one bag will last me several seasons.

When I sow my seeds I immediately cover the surface with a sprinkle of ground Cinnamon and Espoma Organic Vermiculite .  The cinnamon is just regular cinnamon you would use in the kitchen but it has anti-fungal properties which prevent fungus and white mold from forming on the damp soil surface.  The Vermiculite helps hold the right amount of moisture on the surface where the seeds are.  Also, if you are sowing tiny seeds which require light to germinate and must be surface sown, a light layer of Vermiculite will surround them with moisture yet not block (too much) light.   Seeds and seedlings should initially be misted with a spray bottle of water or mister.  I use a Mesto Mister which pumps up and will spray in any position, even upside down.  This is my second season with this mister and it is a terrific product.

When the seedlings are ready to be pricked out and planted in cells or pots, I use Pro-Mix Organic Vegetable & Herb Mix as my potting mix.  Pro-Mix also makes a seed starting mix which I use under some circumstances such as winter sowing in plastic jugs.  It is a little more coarse than Jiffy Mix and will support seedlings longer than Jiffy without being bumped up to potting mix.  Jiffy Mix is basically just pH adjusted peat moss while the Pro-Mix Seed Starter has added fertilizer for an NPK ratio of 6-1-2.  You do not want to give newly germinated seedlings much food, that should wait until they have their first true leaves.  Hence the pure peat, coir or compost for germination.  I currently have my onion seeds sown in the Pro-Mix seed starter because I plan to leave the plants in those cells until they are set out the end of April.

The most permanent elements of your seed starting set up will be your grow lights.  I have seen everything from large bakers racks set up permanently in a basement to a more decorative bulb that is geared more towards keeping a house plant in your living space.  I think there is the most variation and personal preference in the grow light set up.  Mine has not changed much over the years but it is in a stage of flux.  Ten years ago I invested in two table top models which have obsolete fluorescent tubes and must be raised and lowered as the plants grow,  Because you can no longer get bulbs for these, I am switching over to LED lighting which frankly, works better.  So if you are shopping for grow lights, you have a million choices to sift through but be sure to get full spectrum LEDs and preferably high output.  They do not have to say "grow light", "shop lights" are the same thing as long as they are full spectrum.

Another must have is a heat mat or two.  I have found that the heat mat is an indispensable tool to get seeds started early.  I do not want to keep any space artificially heated to 70+ degrees in the spring.  Placing a heat mat under the tray will warm the soil and create a microclimate in your seed starting set up that is enough to keep seedlings happy without heating the whole house/basement/shop.  A thermostat control is a nice addition but not necessary.  It will drive the price up but is nice to have around when you really need it.

Finally, these items I also consider to be necessities:  a good timer and a fan.  My favorite timer is a strip that has one side timed and the other side on constantly.  I plug the heat mat in on the constant side, and the lights on the timed side.  I set the lights to come on at 6am and go off at 9pm giving them 15 hours of light.  The fan will encourage your seedlings to stay shorter, to develop stronger stems, and make it easier to harden them off for outside living.  It will also keep the soil a little drier on top and minimize rot and fungal issues.  I have kept the fans on their own timer going on one hour and off one hour all day.  I have also plugged them into the timed outlets with the lights and left them on all day.  I either move the fan around, or if space does not allow that, just turn the trays each day so the seedlings get wind from multiple directions and strengths.  The seedlings closest to the fan will be buffeted more than those on the end further away.

Below are links to some of my other seed starting posts.

• 2014 The Waiting Game - Seed Germination

• 2020 Starting Seedlings Indoors

• 2021 Seed Starting - Step #1 

• 2021 Seed Starting - Step #2  

• 2023 Managing Expectations

Winter Projects

 During the winter I keep a list of small projects that never seem to get done so if I have a day when I can't figure out something productive to do, I can refer to the list.  Things that make the list are things like cleaning the oven or cleaning and polishing winter boots... recovering the cushions on the porch rockers.  You know how it is.  There are always tasks both large and small that never seem to be finished.  Some of these things are still garden items.  

I have as many pests in the garden as anyone, particularly those that want to eat my food before I do and I am always brainstorming new ways to out smart them.  A few seasons ago I had trouble with sweet corn and then last spring I had a lot of trouble keeping mice (presumably) from eating my cucumber and summer squash seeds out of my germination tray.  I like to plant the seeds in 4" pots and leave them in the garden under a little hoop house to germinate and I get better results than direct sowing.  Usually.  

Last year I kept finding empty holes where seeds should be each morning. I tried placing a second row cover on top of the trays and then tried hiding it in the cold frame.  I even set mouse traps under the row cloth but they were only interested in fresh seeds.  And once they found the snack tray they kept coming back night after night.  After several rounds of seeds I resorted to bringing the tray indoors every night.  I have thought of something else that might work.

I used my largest tray as a size guide.

I will be able to push the edges into the soil and pin them down with earth staples to keep the thieves from just slipping underneath.

This should add one more layer of defense and be easy to water through.  The cage will also allow me to wrap the tray in a second layer of row cover without crushing the potential seedlings.  One more project checked off the list.

Managing Expectations

 This is the time of year when I can get overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of keeping things alive.  All it takes is one bad day.  One bad decision, one lapse in judgement and you have a situation where you have to make significant changes to your plans and gardening expectations.  For the whole year.  Compound that by making commitments to other people.  Then you have to manage their expectations as well.   

Now don't get me wrong.  There have been no gardening catastrophes.  The people I have made promises to wouldn't be terribly upset if things went wrong.  But it troubles my mind and makes me worry more.  I no sooner thought "I hope I don't have any trouble with damping off" than Elsie's tomato seedlings started keeling over.  It was as if I had summoned the negative energy.   And I adjusted quickly.  And now I have a lot of nice little plants.  But this time of year you have to stay on your toes and pay attention.

It was time to start moving things out to the cold frame.  That mess up there ^ in particular.  On the right is a tray of Celosia and sweet peppers.  Growing well.  Need to get out of the way.  To the left are marigolds.  Those were supposed to be germinating out in the cold frame.  But the weather has been too changeable and they were (wisely) biding their time.  So I brought them in to give them a kick.  Now they need to go out.  Unlike the wimpy tomatoes, the Marigolds all had nice roots.

That's what you want to see.  Nice little green leaves right in the center of a tidy cell.  That's not that easy to achieve.  The tomatoes (below) were too leggy.  I missed the best window for transplanting them as I waited for the weather to break so the Peppers, Celosia and Marigolds could go outside, freeing up enough room for a large tray under its own light.

They transplanted OK.  There were no roots to speak of.  In fact, the upper left cell pack in the tray as pictured below had no roots at all!  As I broke seedlings I set them aside and put them all in one cell so I could watch them.  They wilted that day, but its hard to kill a tomato seedling (unless you damp it off then all bets are off) and by the next day they had adjusted and stood back up.

I also had extra of my father's favorite tomato (the Barlow Jap that my PaPaw developed) and two dozen of Elsie's that I seeded the day their brothers damped off.  We all do it.  We plant too many them we can't bear to kill them.  They may as well go out in the cold frame with the Marigolds.  I can keep an eye on two trays as easily as one tray.

These were at the right stage for transplanting.

These were way past time.  But they had good root systems.

May weather has finally straightened around.  Everyone has been complaining that spring is late and Mother Nature is a kook.  As a gardener, I think I have more realistic expectations of April.  I know that a week of summer weather in April does not mean summer is here and the weather will continue to trend upwards.  Anything can happen.  It can freeze in June.  I would don't mind a wet, gloomy April so things can grow and get a good foothold, but when May arrives I want no funny business. I can tolerate some cold nights, but I'm ready to get going.

I spent all day yesterday tidying up after a week of cool, wet weather.  Today I need to go around and apply slug bait and reapply deer repellent.  My perennials arrived from Bluestone Perennials this week and most of those can go in the ground now.  Then I may see about getting my dahlia tubers out of storage and into some trays in the cold frame.