New things emerging

2009-03-18T16:06:00.000-07:00

Its mid March and still cold, grey and dreary outside. My starts from February are getting bigger and competing for light under my two grow bulbs and limited south facing windows. I want to go ahead and put the brassicas out in the bed, but I am worried about these surprise snows we keep getting. There is no forecast for freeze or frost at this time, but I don't want to risk it. I need a cloche!

crowded house

Meanwhile, the seeds I planted last week are sprouting!!! Almost 100% success on marigolds (10 out of 12). Basil is showing, and the pumpkins are busting out!

pumpkins

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marigolds

basil

As for the bell peppers, I know they are reported to be slow and erratic germinators. My jalapenos popped out when I had all but given up on them. I stirred the dirt a little over one of my bell pepper seeds, and saw it was in fact germinating. I hate to disturb them, but I couldn't help myself!

april dreaming on a dreary march day

2009-03-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

sitting by my kitchen window on a dreary rainy march day with a hot homemade cinnamon mocha latte is a perfect setting for dreaming about my garden. i started my garden over a month ago, and now i am starting this blog, so i can share the joy.

apple blossoms blooming in my kitchen window.

i have never planted my own vegetable garden before, nor do i know much about gardening. after we dug the turf and added compost, we let it sit for awhile, then added agricultural lime and a little epsom salt and tilled it all in. it was a dryish winter here in tacoma, wa, so we were able to till early without clodding.

the ag lime is supposed to bring up the pH of our soil, which is a little acidic. we did a chem strip test, but also the prolific presence of dandelions is a good indicator of acidity. i have not been saving coffee grounds as a fertilizer for this reason. the ag lime also adds calcium.

the epsom salts add a little magnesium. we were going to use dolomite lime, but the people at our TOTALLY AWESOME garden store, GardenSphere, told us that many residential lawns were heavily limed with dolomite lime for so long that there is a chance we could add too much magnesium with dolomite lime, and suggested we sprinkle a very small amount of epsom salt, or magnesium sulfate, instead.

garden beds

meanwhile, i started seeds indoors. i am gleaning information as i go, but my main sources so far have been these books, (which i listed earlier, but here they are with links):

steve solomon, "growing vegetables west of the cascades"

gayla trail, "you grow girl"

seattle tilth, "maritime northwest gardening guide"

john jeavons, "how to grow more vegetables"

and internet searches when i need more information or to check out an idea. i got the pea trellis design off the internet.

pea trellis and beds

on feb 8th, i started seeds. this is pretty early, but i had a bunch of seeds given to me by someone who purchased them 10 YEARS AGO from territorial seed company and never grew them. she kept them in a water tight military ammo can in her basement with a big bag of desiccant.

i didn't know what to expect, if anything, from these old seeds, so i started some just to see if they would grow. i gave myself enough time to get new seeds if these didn't turn out, and try again.

i had almost 100% germination success. yay, territorial seed!

in the first batch, i started tomatoes, peas, lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli. i used paper egg crates and some organic potting soil. i put them in a big plastic container in the sunniest south facing window of my house, aimed a ceramic cube space heater under the container to warm the soil from underneath and kept a thermometer in the soil. i maintained the temperature at 65 degrees F. we hung a fluorescent light fixture above with two grow light tubes, and i watered regularly.

germination station

after a week or so, i started seeing green! the seedling grew quickly. it was so exciting!

tomato seedlings, first planting

the tomato varieties are oregon spring and early cascade.

after a few weeks, i transplanted most of the seedlings into 4 inch pots. i put the peas in the ground.

tomatoes and broccoli, at about six weeks

lettuces and cauliflower, at about six weeks

broccoli, at about six weeks

peas

around here, in the maritime pacific northwest, they say "plant your peas by president's day". The idea is to plant your peas early, so they have time to bust out some pods before they get killed by a virus called pea enation. I planted my peas in early february, and transplanted them to the pea bed a few days after president's day. the varieties i have are supposed to be enation resistant too - oregon sugar pod, oregon giant, and cascadia.

baby peas in pots, emerging

peas in ground

pea bed and trellis

i have put some other early things in the beds. we put in onion sets last week (second week of march), and i planted seeds for radishes, parsnips, spinach, and turnips.

onions

these are a white onion variety called Copra. they are supposed to store well. we planted 96 onions and packed them a little thick, but we will thin them as we eat them. we eat lots of onions here!

onion sets

onion bed

so far, the seeds i have successfully germinated are tomato (oregon spring, early cascade), lettuce (buttercrunch, gourmet blend), pea (oregon sugar pod, oregon giant, cascadia), broccoli (gourmet hybrid blend), cabbage (derby day) cauliflower (snow crown) jalapeno peppers, eggplant (hybrid millionaire), and marigold, the first of which popped up last night! i am currently germinating marigold, bell pepper, nasturtium, pumpkin, parsley, basil, and cilantro.

i had a failed attempt with old cucumber seeds (amira) but will try again with a new pack of grand slam.

also failed with catnip, but will try again. how hard can it be?

My first garden - veggies and herbs

2009-02-09T23:27:00.000-08:00

I am starting my first garden this year and I'm excited . Not sure if I am doing it right, but of course one is bound to make mistakes. That's how we humans learn right?

First I got some books and started learning. I borrowed Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon and some books by John Jeavons. I got the Seattle Tilth Garden Guide and a You Grow Girl by Gayla Trail. These books helped me make a game plan.

I live in Tacoma, Washington. I just moved here last summer, and although I have helped build terraces for raised beds and water the veggies in shared gardens at communal houses I have lived in, I have never planted my own garden.

The Pacific Maritime climate is interesting. It almost never freezes here. One can grow year round. It is supposed to rain alot, but its raining less and less with global climate change, it seems. Its February and my soil is dry enough to till.

My partner and I dug some beds and discovered that the soil in our yard is not bad at all. Its on the sandy side and seems uncompacted and pretty rich, actually. We turned the sod over in chunks so the grass would start dying, and left it like that for a month or so. Then today, we got a pickup load of mushroom compost and spread about three inches onto the tops of the beds. In a week or so we will till it all in.

Kay's Tacoma Garden

New things emerging

april dreaming on a dreary march day

My first garden - veggies and herbs