Ground Breaking March 27, 2009
The first planting of the season occurred today in my garden as I sowed seeds of larkspur, nigella, radishes, and a spicy lettuce mix. The day was warm and the soil perfectly moist as we just has a light misting of rain the day before after what’s been an unusually long dry spell for this time of the year. I began my gardening chores by weeding everything and trimming away any plant material, like dead rosemary branches, that didn’t make it through the winter. From there, I went about pulling the pots of spring bulbs out of their sunken bed. The bulb containers, full of tulip and alliums pushing up their foliage, will go on a rotated display in my ornamental beds as they come into bloom.
The Big Push March 23, 2009
Today I spent several hours in the greenhouse, getting the last of the seeds started and taking care of my new potted crops that came in as plugs last week. My bench is packed now! I actually acquired new greenhouse “real estate” in the back corner on a skinny less-than-ideal bench to help manage the ridiculous amount of plant material I’ve got going in the greenhouse right now. Fortunately, some will soon make a timely exit to the spring garden. One of these early spring crops to be transplanted soon are the peas and in anticipation of that event, I began pinching them today to encourage them to branch above their first three sets of leaves. Now I just have to remember to get around to building these babies some nice sturdy trellises.
Greenhouse Glimpse: 3/16 March 16, 2009
Mondays are proving to be a great day for tackling work in the greenhouse. This afternoon I transplanted my 23 five-week old Dianthus seedlings from their cell packs to individual 3” pots with ProMix. I gave everything on the bench a good drink after the weekend of away and then scouted for any pests (only a few fungus gnats).
The onions are nearly six inches tall now and no doubt are eager for garden soil instead of cell packs. The ‘Jericho’ lettuce germinated in six to seven days and is nearly an inch high now. There was a great success rate with the germination in all three trays. Both gutters of ‘Blue Celeste’ sweet peas and ‘Super Sugar Snap’ peas have germinated and look great – again, nearly 100% germination. Also up and showing nice progress are the ‘Bunny Tail’ grass and globe amaranth. The only seeds “holding back” are the snapdragons. I’m not terribly worried as I see a few just starting and the seed packet indicates germination is usually 7-14 days. It’s just now 7 days. The impatiens that were potted up last week look healthy and one put out a new bloom (which I dutifully pinched off, though I loved its burst of color in the green landscape of my bench).
And So It Begins March 16, 2009
I worked in my garden this afternoon for the first time this year! It felt so good to get back out there. The growing season has officially begun in my mind. I weeded all my vegetable beds with a stirrup hoe and hand weeded my rhubarb and herbs. I watered my winter container planting; it seems to be under stress from lack of moisture. And I took a head count of my bulbs.
Deer damage to the bulbs is minimal thus far (knock on proverbial wood), though they have nipped at the two Eremurus that have just begun to emerge. I covered those with a crate until the deer fence arrives tomorrow. The alliums in the sunken pots in the vegetable plot are up by two inches at least. The tulips that I had in pots in the potting shed over the winter are now in a cold frame (with the light only half way on to ensure the temp in the frame doesn’t rise too much during the day) and are sprouting nicely now that I water them regularly.
Today I also received my ranunculus “bulbs” in the mail. I’m so eager to try growing these excellent cut flowers, though my methods may prove to be rather unconventional. Since ranunculus, which are not hardy here in Zone 6b, need at least 90 days to flower but they fizzle out when temperatures hit 80 F, there’s a very limited window of opportunity to get them to produce cuts. I’ve decided to grow mine in bulb crates lined with paper and filled with a combination of ProMix and 2Mix potting media. I have placed these crates in a cold frame for some protection against late season freezing, and I will later set them out, crates and all, in my cut flower row in the garden. If they seem to dislike the crate, I’ll transplant them into the ground but I’d like to keep them in crates so I can move them out of the garden bed with ease so I can put in another cut flower after them (cosmos probably) while still giving the spent bulbs a home to build up their energy stores for next year. Who knows, maybe it will be possible to leave them in the same crates over the winter and grow them again?? That may be wishful thinking and surely wouldn’t work in large scale production. But as a poor student/flower entrepreneur with limited budget and space, I’m hoping this system will prove productive, if only temporarily.
