I have a triploid tomato seedling. It has three cotyledon leaves - the tomato is a dicot, so most tomatoes have two cotyledon leaves - but it appears to be vigorous and healthy. I am almost entirely certain that the third leaf is an additional cotyledon leaf, and not a true leaf; all three leaves are of similar size, and the seedling really isn't old enough to have any true leaves opening up yet.
I'm not sure what the consequences of not culling this plant would be. If we're saving seeds, I'd have to mark the plant so we didn't try and grow any seeds from it next year - in general, seeds from triploid plants are sterile, because they have an extra set of chromosomes, which makes fertilization of their egg cells difficult. In fact, seedless watermelons are seedless because they are triploid. So this tomato plant's fruits might not have any real seeds at all. On the flip side, if we did just mark the plant and keep it as an experimental gig, we would probably have to isolate it from the other tomatoes so that its (possibly viable) pollen wouldn't fertilize any of the other plants' eggs. But then there's the chance that it would produce a whole bunch of really delicious tomatoes! Oh, decisions, decisions.
So, I went to that grand vault of information, the Internet. Turns out tomatoes have been known to produce triploid progeny, and that they often do rather well. I suppose what I'll do for now is to leave the plant alone and see how it does.
The rest of the tomatoes are coming up in earnest! There are many seedlings in both the slicing section and the paste section of the tomato flat. And there are lots of jalapenos coming up, as well as a few Sweet Bullnose bell peppers (still no signs of life from the Gourmet bell peppers, but they shouldn't be far behind). The eggplant, not to be outdone, are stretching sleepily out of the soil. I'm so excited for all of these little babies! All of them are a tad etiolated, because there's really nowhere in the apartment that gets great direct sunlight, but I think/hope they'll all do great anyway.
Yesterday, I went over to Westmore to check on the progress of the plants that aren't in my immediate proximity. Most of the strawberries look swell, but some of them haven't perked up all the way yet. However, they should do so soon - they've been getting plenty of water, thanks to Anne Marie, me, and the surprising amount of rain we've been getting recently. All five transplanted raspberries look great, as do the remaining onions. No sign of the peas, beets, or carrots yet, but hopefully they'll poke their little leafy heads out soon.
Well, those are all the updates I have for now. Stay tuned - this is the busy season! Hopefully there will be a lot more happening soon.
WOG out.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Seedlings!!
The last time I posted, there wasn't any evidence of life from the tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers that I seeded. On Monday the 18th, I brought the three flats that I'd seeded to the apartment so they'd stay warm.
On Monday, there were two tomato seedlings. Now - as you may already know if you read our Facebook page - they're popping up left and right! Every day since then, there have been new sprouts. As of this morning, we are the proud parents of no fewer than eleven cherry tomato seedlings, three paste tomato seedlings, one jalapeo pepper seedling, and one eggplant seedling. Very exciting! I sure hope more come up soon. It would be a bummer to only have one eggplant and one pepper - I want some bell peppers, too! So hopefully they will be along in the near future.
The raspberries are looking great! I think they've been loving all the rain we've been getting recently, supplemented by my frequent watering. The strawberries look happy as well, although they haven't quite perked up yet. But they will! I have faith.
As far as I can tell, it was just that one onion that was infected with Fusarium, or whatever it was. I'm keeping a close watch on the others, but hopefully the fungus was isolated and will remain so.
The peas still haven't sprouted yet! I spoke with our friend Karen yesterday - Karen co-manages the student organic garden on campus, SusDev (short for sustainable development), so she knows a great deal about growing veggies. I asked her what she thought about our pea predicament, and she said that because some of them have been uncovered, they might have dried out too much to germinate. She said it's very hard for peas to do without water for any period of time, really - so we need to do a better job of keeping them consistently moist. To help our poor little peas, I used a little of the soil that was left over even after the herb garden was piled up, and covered the exposed pea seeds so they wouldn't dry out as quickly. Then I watered them well and left them to it.
That's all the updating to be done for now! All good news, I might add - always a plus :) We're headed in the right direction! As always, thanks for reading.
WOG out.
On Monday, there were two tomato seedlings. Now - as you may already know if you read our Facebook page - they're popping up left and right! Every day since then, there have been new sprouts. As of this morning, we are the proud parents of no fewer than eleven cherry tomato seedlings, three paste tomato seedlings, one jalapeo pepper seedling, and one eggplant seedling. Very exciting! I sure hope more come up soon. It would be a bummer to only have one eggplant and one pepper - I want some bell peppers, too! So hopefully they will be along in the near future.
The raspberries are looking great! I think they've been loving all the rain we've been getting recently, supplemented by my frequent watering. The strawberries look happy as well, although they haven't quite perked up yet. But they will! I have faith.
As far as I can tell, it was just that one onion that was infected with Fusarium, or whatever it was. I'm keeping a close watch on the others, but hopefully the fungus was isolated and will remain so.
The peas still haven't sprouted yet! I spoke with our friend Karen yesterday - Karen co-manages the student organic garden on campus, SusDev (short for sustainable development), so she knows a great deal about growing veggies. I asked her what she thought about our pea predicament, and she said that because some of them have been uncovered, they might have dried out too much to germinate. She said it's very hard for peas to do without water for any period of time, really - so we need to do a better job of keeping them consistently moist. To help our poor little peas, I used a little of the soil that was left over even after the herb garden was piled up, and covered the exposed pea seeds so they wouldn't dry out as quickly. Then I watered them well and left them to it.
That's all the updating to be done for now! All good news, I might add - always a plus :) We're headed in the right direction! As always, thanks for reading.
WOG out.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Mulchberries, Anyone?
Today was a pretty big day in the garden. When I arrived at Westmore this morning, our friend Louis and his family were there. Louis is a PhD candidate at CSU, and he knows a lot about agriculture. We talked about potatoes with him - he suggested growing the potatoes in old tires. Sounds weird, right? But apparently it really works. What you do is lay an old tire down flat in the garden and cover/fill it about halfway with dirt. Then plant four or five seed potatoes in the soil inside the tire. When the potato seedlings are strong, cover them almost entirely with more soil and stack another tire on top of the first one. Repeat once more, so that you wind up with a stack of three tires. This method reportedly produces significantly higher yields than traditional ways of growing potatoes, as well as keeping the tubers in a confined space for a very easy harvest. We have our seed potatoes, but unfortunately, we're fresh out of tires. We would like to call around to local auto bodies and see if we can have any of their old ones - we found two, Hawker Automotive and Alpine Tire Center - but both of them were closed by the time we discovered them this afternoon. So, that will be a project for a different day.
After Louis and company departed, Anne Marie and I drove the pickup to the Fort Collins Recycling Center to shovel some free mulch into the truck. Sadly, they were fresh out of mulch, so we meandered down to Fort Collins' Spring Creek Community Gardens and loaded up some of their free mulch, then lugged it back to Westmore and spread it on the paths in the garden for weed control. We'll have to go back later for more, though, because we didn't quite have enough to cover all the paths.
Meanwhile, Katara and Oatmeal, the younger kitties, continued to find new ways to get under/through the netting that's over the peas, onions, carrots, and beets. I used some of Anne Marie's garden twine (basically a spool of twisty-tie) to mend the feline-formed rips by "sewing" the edges together, and then I stuck some more of her garden stakes through the net into the soil to (hopefully) secure the netting more effectively. I had to remove some of the onions from the soil and replant them, because the cats have been pushing on the net over the onions and chewing on the leaves, thereby not only damaging the plants, but also dislodging them. The good news is that in replanting the onions, I got a very good look at their roots, which appear to be quite healthy. One onion actually had dead-looking roots, and the leaves looked a little wilty. However, that plant did have some new leaves pushing through, and there appeared to be either new roots or a white fungus pushing their way through the onion's basal plate. According to a CSU Extension Factsheet on Soil-Borne Diseases of Onion, this fungus could very likely be Fusarium Basal Rot. I'll have to keep an eye on that one.
Later, I made my way to Sue-of-the-Raspberries's house for some free strawberry transplants. As with the raspberries, the strawberries were very healthy - the reason Sue was giving us strawberries in the first place was that they had reproduced to the point that she and her husband Steve just had too dang many! I wound up with three small cardboard boxfuls of Small Fruit Sue's gorgeous strawberry plants (many of which had buds already - yay!) and drove them back to Westmore to transplant them. I had several extra, because as I planted them, I was giving them plenty of space to spread. It will only take a year or two for them to put out enough stolons/runners to fill up their entire bed. So, I planted probably twenty-five or so strawberry plants, watered them well, and that was that. Sue also told me about an event called the Starter Barter, coming up next weekend in Fort Collins. Thanks again to Sue and Steve for all their help and willingness to share their plants!
In other news, I checked on the babies (a.k.a.: transplants) and the raspberries, and all are doing well. There's still no sign of life from the eggplant, tomatoes, or peppers that I planted, but the broccoli, fennel, kale, peppers, and eggplant that I transplanted (as well as the broccoli I seeded) are all doing swell. The peas, carrots, and beets have not yet sprouted, but hopefully they will soon.
As I've mentioned previously, I have been researching organic methods of cat repellent, to keep those cute little fluffy nuisances out of the garden. The cheapest one we've seen is sprinkling cayenne pepper around the edge of the garden to form a border, a force field if you will. Or if you won't. So there! Hahaha... Well, Anne Marie said she'd give that a shot, so hopefully the cats will respect the cayenne.
In addition, my search for a quick-release organic fertilizer has come to a close. My academic adviser had told me a couple of weeks ago that he recommends alfalfa meal as a sustainable, organic, quick-release fertilizer - that sounded great, only I couldn't find a locally-owned business that sold it. The other day, though, I remembered that at a conference I attended in February, I had picked up a pamphlet from a business called S T Organics, LLC, up in Hereford, CO. I looked them up online, and lo and behold, they sell alfalfa meal for a pretty dang good price! Problem solved.
Updates on the potato tires to be coming soon! Thanks for reading.
WOG out.
After Louis and company departed, Anne Marie and I drove the pickup to the Fort Collins Recycling Center to shovel some free mulch into the truck. Sadly, they were fresh out of mulch, so we meandered down to Fort Collins' Spring Creek Community Gardens and loaded up some of their free mulch, then lugged it back to Westmore and spread it on the paths in the garden for weed control. We'll have to go back later for more, though, because we didn't quite have enough to cover all the paths.
Meanwhile, Katara and Oatmeal, the younger kitties, continued to find new ways to get under/through the netting that's over the peas, onions, carrots, and beets. I used some of Anne Marie's garden twine (basically a spool of twisty-tie) to mend the feline-formed rips by "sewing" the edges together, and then I stuck some more of her garden stakes through the net into the soil to (hopefully) secure the netting more effectively. I had to remove some of the onions from the soil and replant them, because the cats have been pushing on the net over the onions and chewing on the leaves, thereby not only damaging the plants, but also dislodging them. The good news is that in replanting the onions, I got a very good look at their roots, which appear to be quite healthy. One onion actually had dead-looking roots, and the leaves looked a little wilty. However, that plant did have some new leaves pushing through, and there appeared to be either new roots or a white fungus pushing their way through the onion's basal plate. According to a CSU Extension Factsheet on Soil-Borne Diseases of Onion, this fungus could very likely be Fusarium Basal Rot. I'll have to keep an eye on that one.
Later, I made my way to Sue-of-the-Raspberries's house for some free strawberry transplants. As with the raspberries, the strawberries were very healthy - the reason Sue was giving us strawberries in the first place was that they had reproduced to the point that she and her husband Steve just had too dang many! I wound up with three small cardboard boxfuls of Small Fruit Sue's gorgeous strawberry plants (many of which had buds already - yay!) and drove them back to Westmore to transplant them. I had several extra, because as I planted them, I was giving them plenty of space to spread. It will only take a year or two for them to put out enough stolons/runners to fill up their entire bed. So, I planted probably twenty-five or so strawberry plants, watered them well, and that was that. Sue also told me about an event called the Starter Barter, coming up next weekend in Fort Collins. Thanks again to Sue and Steve for all their help and willingness to share their plants!
In other news, I checked on the babies (a.k.a.: transplants) and the raspberries, and all are doing well. There's still no sign of life from the eggplant, tomatoes, or peppers that I planted, but the broccoli, fennel, kale, peppers, and eggplant that I transplanted (as well as the broccoli I seeded) are all doing swell. The peas, carrots, and beets have not yet sprouted, but hopefully they will soon.
As I've mentioned previously, I have been researching organic methods of cat repellent, to keep those cute little fluffy nuisances out of the garden. The cheapest one we've seen is sprinkling cayenne pepper around the edge of the garden to form a border, a force field if you will. Or if you won't. So there! Hahaha... Well, Anne Marie said she'd give that a shot, so hopefully the cats will respect the cayenne.
In addition, my search for a quick-release organic fertilizer has come to a close. My academic adviser had told me a couple of weeks ago that he recommends alfalfa meal as a sustainable, organic, quick-release fertilizer - that sounded great, only I couldn't find a locally-owned business that sold it. The other day, though, I remembered that at a conference I attended in February, I had picked up a pamphlet from a business called S T Organics, LLC, up in Hereford, CO. I looked them up online, and lo and behold, they sell alfalfa meal for a pretty dang good price! Problem solved.
Updates on the potato tires to be coming soon! Thanks for reading.
WOG out.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Weather Woes and General Updates
As those of you in Fort Collins know, today it is snowing. A lot. Actually, it might be done for the day, but we accumulated at least two or three inches. Naturally, my first concern was the coldframe and the poor little babies it contains. Last time we had weather this cold, the pepper and eggplant transplants kicked the bucket! Now we have more peppers and eggplants, and again, cold weather. I needed to get those suckers inside a house. So I rolled out of bed around 8 this morning and headed over to Westmore to grab them and bring them back to my apartment, where they might be threatened by Kaly, Chris' cat, but would probably be fine. When I got there, Anne Marie had just finished taking them as well as the broccoli, kale, and fennel seedlings into her house. I was quite relieved! And proud of her for doing so (I would have called and asked her to take them in, but I didn't want to wake her up). So that was taken care of.
Then her son, Ben, notified me that some of the pea seeds had been displaced from the soil. Ack! I didn't know how this could be possible - just two days ago, I had more firmly secured the netting so that we could be sure the cats couldn't reach the peas, onions, beets, or carrots. Now, to be fair, the peas could have been out of the soil when I was doing that, but I hadn't seen any. But this morning, I took a closer look at the netting and found two sizable tears in it. There's a good chance these have been allowing the kitties access to exactly where we don't want them. I couldn't do anything about the netting just then, because I didn't have the time. Plus, I'm not really sure what I can do - I suppose I can mend the rips, but what if the cats just make the holes bigger? We'll have to keep trying and see.
I also checked on the raspberries, and they seem to be doing fine still. They've gotten plenty of water the past few days, so that's good. I hope they all survive - it would be great to have some extra raspberries this season! And in the following seasons, as well.
In other news, I've been looking for some reliable cat repellents, for obvious reasons. The one I liked the best is a motion-sensing noise-maker, that emits a high-frequency sound when the sensor is triggered. The frequency is too high for humans to hear, which is great. Also, these things would mean a one-time installation and that's it. They're battery-operated, which is quite convenient. The problem is that they're about fifty bucks apiece, and we'd need two to adequately cover the garden. We'll need to discuss them more, but these gadgets probably won't be the method we end up using.
There are also scents that I've read cats don't like, such as certain herbs, as well as citrus peel. There's this one plant that some web sites have suggested, called rue - but it also causes rashes on human skin when touched. Not ideal. We could mix up a powder of flour, cayenne pepper, and some other stuff, but that would require multiple applications, at least until they get the point - kind of a hassle. There are plenty of sprays and things out there, but we're looking for an organic solution. Right now, the cayenne powder method seems the most feasible. Updates on this later.
In addition, we're looking for a sustainable, organic quick-release fertilizer. The best bet so far is alfalfa meal, which clearly doesn't come from animal products, can be produced locally, and is organic. The problem is that I haven't yet found anywhere that sells it. Amazon.com does, I've found, but only in small quantities, and I'd prefer to buy locally anyway. If you know of somewhere in Colorado that sells this stuff, please let me know!
Well, those are all the updates I have for now. Thanks for reading!
WOG out.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Root Crops
Today was somewhat underwhelming after the extensive activity of yesterday – however, this was fine, since I was pretty tired from moving all the soil around.
The most exciting event of today was planting the first rows of beets and carrots, one row of each. These crops are planted in succession, about one batch per week, because each plant only produces one crop, the root. If we planted them all at once, the entire crop would also be ready at once, which would mean we’d be trying to eat a whole lot of carrots and beets at the same time! Thus, we plant in succession.
I had drawn up a sketch of a garden plan, the main purpose of which was to outline where each crop would go. That pretty much went out the window, partly because the beds weren’t quite as I expected, partly because it’s easier to plant near the existing netting row cover so that I can simply stretch the same piece to include the newcomers, and partly because I’m not sure where the garden plan sketch is. But no big deal; if I find it, I can edit it so it’s a more accurate representation.
Anyway, the beet and carrot planting today occurred next to the peas, up on the north side of the garden - I chose here because there was already netting in place over the peas and onions, so I could just unwind the big roll of netting some more and continue what was there. The planting itself was easy enough, in spite of Katara’s persistent desire to be the center of attention and/or play with my hands. But after the seeds were in the soil, the anti-cat netting was more than a little reluctant to stretch over the newly planted section of the garden. After much adjustment, I finally got it over the carrots and beets and the hoop I'd added and secured the whole contraption. I hope the cats will be effectively kept out.
The broccoli is still looking good, as are the kale, the one remaining fennel, the more recent pepper transplants, and the raspberries. The tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers I seeded last weekend still aren’t up, probably because it’s been too chilly for them. Even in the coldframe, the temperatures get fairly low at night and don’t get all that warm during the day – it’ll be at least a week, I think, before they start stirring. However, once they do emerge, they’ll be worth the wait! As always, thanks for reading.
WOG out.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo! SOIL!
The title of this post, by the way, was supposed to read as though someone was blowing the charge call. Don't know if that worked or not. Anyway...
As you may know, depending on whether or not you've been religiously following Westmore's progress, we picked up half a cubic yard of soil from Weitzel's last weekend and spread it in part of the garden to use as a gauge for how much soil we'd need total. And so we could plant peas and onions (see: Peas and Onions and Cats, Oh My!)
So yesterday, 4 more cubic yards of soil were delivered to Westmore's back driveway. For those of you who don't know, 4 cubic yards is a LOT. My job today was to get the soil from the driveway into the garden beds. By myself. Using only a shovel and a wheelbarrow. Hooooooo boy.
Well, I got to Westmore around 8:30 this morning, and gaped at the daunting pile of soil that faced me. It was so daunting, in fact, that I turned around and left. Just kidding. I didn't work on the soil right away, though. First, I transplanted five baby raspberry plants in among the raspberries that are already at Westmore. It wasn't hard work, but it did take some time. They needed to go in the soil right away, according to our helpful friend Sue, from whom we had gotten the babies. Thus, that was priority #1 for the day. I got them tucked in and well-watered before turning to the soil.
I had learned from unloading the first half of a cubic yard of soil last weekend that good soil is pretty dang heavy. Today, it didn't help that the entire pile was at ground level (as opposed to being in the bed of a pickup, as it was last week), so it was extra work to lift each shovelful up and into the wheelbarrow. Of course, I did it anyway. Chris showed up a couple of hours in and helped a lot with moving the soil around. Many wheelbarrowfuls later, the garden beds were complete, and the soil pile was almost gone. Anne Marie and Ben will be using the leftover soil to make an herb garden tomorrow in the front yard.
In other news, the broccoli that I seeded last week sprouted yesterday! The little seedlings are so cute and delicate. I feel like a proud momma! I can't wait for the eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers that I also seeded last week to sprout - that'll be a few more days though, at least. The onions that we planted last Saturday are looking good; some of them got displaced when they got caught in the deer netting, but I took a look at the bases of their little bulbs, and most of them had roots starting! This is an excellent sign. The peas that I planted next to the onions aren't up yet, but they should be soon. I suspect they're not really enthusiastic about germinating, because the cats have been disturbing that bed. To remedy this issue, we bought some deer netting to stretch over the bed and plastic tubing to support the netting. At first, Katara and Oatmeal, the younger cats, were simply more attracted to the netting as a jungle gym (see: Sad Seedlings and Cat Hammocks). Yesterday, I added another hoop to support the net better and keep the kitties off the bed, and so far that seems to be doing the trick.
Also yesterday, Sue-of-the-Raspberries offered to give us some transplants to replace the ones we lost to the cold weather last weekend. I had contacted Drew to see if he had any more extras to give us, but he'd already given them away to someone else. I got to Sue's house yesterday to find that Drew had given his remaining extra seedlings to her! She offered me whatever I wanted of what was left, so I took twelve eggplant seedlings, six broccoli seedlings, and twelve hot pepper seedlings. They're all in the coldframe and they look great so far - if their good health continues, we'll have plenty of babies to stick in the soil when the time comes. Sue also offered us some strawberries, so hopefully we can go get those soon and plant them in the near future. More updates to come soon. As always, thanks for reading!
WOG out.
As you may know, depending on whether or not you've been religiously following Westmore's progress, we picked up half a cubic yard of soil from Weitzel's last weekend and spread it in part of the garden to use as a gauge for how much soil we'd need total. And so we could plant peas and onions (see: Peas and Onions and Cats, Oh My!)
So yesterday, 4 more cubic yards of soil were delivered to Westmore's back driveway. For those of you who don't know, 4 cubic yards is a LOT. My job today was to get the soil from the driveway into the garden beds. By myself. Using only a shovel and a wheelbarrow. Hooooooo boy.
Well, I got to Westmore around 8:30 this morning, and gaped at the daunting pile of soil that faced me. It was so daunting, in fact, that I turned around and left. Just kidding. I didn't work on the soil right away, though. First, I transplanted five baby raspberry plants in among the raspberries that are already at Westmore. It wasn't hard work, but it did take some time. They needed to go in the soil right away, according to our helpful friend Sue, from whom we had gotten the babies. Thus, that was priority #1 for the day. I got them tucked in and well-watered before turning to the soil.
I had learned from unloading the first half of a cubic yard of soil last weekend that good soil is pretty dang heavy. Today, it didn't help that the entire pile was at ground level (as opposed to being in the bed of a pickup, as it was last week), so it was extra work to lift each shovelful up and into the wheelbarrow. Of course, I did it anyway. Chris showed up a couple of hours in and helped a lot with moving the soil around. Many wheelbarrowfuls later, the garden beds were complete, and the soil pile was almost gone. Anne Marie and Ben will be using the leftover soil to make an herb garden tomorrow in the front yard.
In other news, the broccoli that I seeded last week sprouted yesterday! The little seedlings are so cute and delicate. I feel like a proud momma! I can't wait for the eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers that I also seeded last week to sprout - that'll be a few more days though, at least. The onions that we planted last Saturday are looking good; some of them got displaced when they got caught in the deer netting, but I took a look at the bases of their little bulbs, and most of them had roots starting! This is an excellent sign. The peas that I planted next to the onions aren't up yet, but they should be soon. I suspect they're not really enthusiastic about germinating, because the cats have been disturbing that bed. To remedy this issue, we bought some deer netting to stretch over the bed and plastic tubing to support the netting. At first, Katara and Oatmeal, the younger cats, were simply more attracted to the netting as a jungle gym (see: Sad Seedlings and Cat Hammocks). Yesterday, I added another hoop to support the net better and keep the kitties off the bed, and so far that seems to be doing the trick.
Also yesterday, Sue-of-the-Raspberries offered to give us some transplants to replace the ones we lost to the cold weather last weekend. I had contacted Drew to see if he had any more extras to give us, but he'd already given them away to someone else. I got to Sue's house yesterday to find that Drew had given his remaining extra seedlings to her! She offered me whatever I wanted of what was left, so I took twelve eggplant seedlings, six broccoli seedlings, and twelve hot pepper seedlings. They're all in the coldframe and they look great so far - if their good health continues, we'll have plenty of babies to stick in the soil when the time comes. Sue also offered us some strawberries, so hopefully we can go get those soon and plant them in the near future. More updates to come soon. As always, thanks for reading!
WOG out.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Sad Seedlings and Cat Hammocks
Well, my last post was only two days ago, but some significant stuff has happened since then.
On Sunday, Anne Marie's son Ben and I went over to Drew's place. I had spoken with Drew on Saturday, and he mentioned that he had a lot of extra seedlings: eggplants, peppers, kale, and some other things. He was just going to throw them out, so he offered them to us, if we would be willing to come get some. Well, who the heck were we to pass up an offer like that?! Ben and I hopped in my SUV on Sunday, in spite of the nasty, cold weather - rain/snow and temperatures in the 30s - and drove over to Drew's with some small containers, soil, and a camera. We carefully transplanted twelve peppers, twelve eggplants, six broccoli, three kale, and three fennel seedlings of many different varieties and drove them back to Westmore to put them in the coldframe.
Well, that's where I went wrong. I should have realized that it was going to get too darn cold in there for those little guys to make it. I should have taken them inside the house or the garage, or my SUV - something! - to protect them from the chilly weather. The thermometer in the coldframe read barely above 40° Fahrenheit, far too cold for any warm season crop like peppers or eggplant. Ben and I just thought it had dropped sharply when we opened the lid, but apparently not. Of course, it could be that even that low a temperature didn't kill the plants; perhaps it dropped even lower in the night and that's what killed them. Or maybe it wasn't temperature at all, but some egregious transplanting error that I committed. I doubt this, though, not due to arrogance, but because of which plants survived. Brassicas, including broccoli and kale, are cool season crops, and much more tolerant of low temperatures than are warm season crops like the ones that perished. We will never know for sure, but I do know that the next time a day gets that cold, I'm bringing the flats inside! Boy, I really hope the crops I seeded last Friday are still all right. In the span of two days, they experienced temperatures from over 100° to below 50° - that's tough to take. Well, I guess we'll find out soon whether they'll be coming up or not.
On to the good news! On Sunday, after Ben and I had transplanted the doomed seedlings, Anne Marie and Ben and I made our way to Home Depot for anti-deer/anti-cat/anti-hail plastic mesh (not very local, I know, but we didn't know where else to get this deer netting stuff). We also bought some short rebar stakes to hold the supports for the netting in place. While we were at it, we impulsively bought some wax bean seeds (yum!) and a mix of wildflower seeds for one of Anne Marie's flower gardens.
Today, I went to ReSource Fort Collins to get some stiff plastic tubing hoops to use as supports for the mesh - it wouldn't do much good to place it directly on the plants, now would it? I was expecting them to be really cheap, but to my delight, our trusty ReSource pal Nick directed me to a dumpster in the back and said I could have all the tubing I wanted for free! I do love ReSource. There were some sturdy wooden stairs next to the dumpster for the comfort and convenience of dumpster divers, so I hopped on up the stairs and - lo and behold - found yards and yards of tubing right in front of me! I borrowed a saw from some ReSource volunteers and sawed myself six lengths of plastic tubing to use for hoops. I stuffed them into my trusty ol' rusty ol' SUV, Monster, and drove them over to Westmore.
Anne Marie and I then sawed them down more exactly, pounded some rebar stakes into the ground, stuck the hoops on the stakes, stretched the mesh over them, and secured the netting with some garden stakes that Anne Marie had lying around. Not too shabby! And the onions and peas are now much better protected from any playful advances by the kitties. However, Katara the cat quickly discovered that she could clamber up onto the mesh and just float there. We may need to add another hoop and thus prevent such ventures... But it works for now! The onion sets still look spiffy, by the way - I'm sure they and the peas will appreciate the nice drink I gave them this evening.
As always, thanks for reading!
WOG out.
On Sunday, Anne Marie's son Ben and I went over to Drew's place. I had spoken with Drew on Saturday, and he mentioned that he had a lot of extra seedlings: eggplants, peppers, kale, and some other things. He was just going to throw them out, so he offered them to us, if we would be willing to come get some. Well, who the heck were we to pass up an offer like that?! Ben and I hopped in my SUV on Sunday, in spite of the nasty, cold weather - rain/snow and temperatures in the 30s - and drove over to Drew's with some small containers, soil, and a camera. We carefully transplanted twelve peppers, twelve eggplants, six broccoli, three kale, and three fennel seedlings of many different varieties and drove them back to Westmore to put them in the coldframe.
Well, that's where I went wrong. I should have realized that it was going to get too darn cold in there for those little guys to make it. I should have taken them inside the house or the garage, or my SUV - something! - to protect them from the chilly weather. The thermometer in the coldframe read barely above 40° Fahrenheit, far too cold for any warm season crop like peppers or eggplant. Ben and I just thought it had dropped sharply when we opened the lid, but apparently not. Of course, it could be that even that low a temperature didn't kill the plants; perhaps it dropped even lower in the night and that's what killed them. Or maybe it wasn't temperature at all, but some egregious transplanting error that I committed. I doubt this, though, not due to arrogance, but because of which plants survived. Brassicas, including broccoli and kale, are cool season crops, and much more tolerant of low temperatures than are warm season crops like the ones that perished. We will never know for sure, but I do know that the next time a day gets that cold, I'm bringing the flats inside! Boy, I really hope the crops I seeded last Friday are still all right. In the span of two days, they experienced temperatures from over 100° to below 50° - that's tough to take. Well, I guess we'll find out soon whether they'll be coming up or not.
On to the good news! On Sunday, after Ben and I had transplanted the doomed seedlings, Anne Marie and Ben and I made our way to Home Depot for anti-deer/anti-cat/anti-hail plastic mesh (not very local, I know, but we didn't know where else to get this deer netting stuff). We also bought some short rebar stakes to hold the supports for the netting in place. While we were at it, we impulsively bought some wax bean seeds (yum!) and a mix of wildflower seeds for one of Anne Marie's flower gardens.
Today, I went to ReSource Fort Collins to get some stiff plastic tubing hoops to use as supports for the mesh - it wouldn't do much good to place it directly on the plants, now would it? I was expecting them to be really cheap, but to my delight, our trusty ReSource pal Nick directed me to a dumpster in the back and said I could have all the tubing I wanted for free! I do love ReSource. There were some sturdy wooden stairs next to the dumpster for the comfort and convenience of dumpster divers, so I hopped on up the stairs and - lo and behold - found yards and yards of tubing right in front of me! I borrowed a saw from some ReSource volunteers and sawed myself six lengths of plastic tubing to use for hoops. I stuffed them into my trusty ol' rusty ol' SUV, Monster, and drove them over to Westmore.
As always, thanks for reading!
WOG out.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Peas and Onions and Cats, Oh My!
Yesterday, as you may know, the weather was drop-dead gorgeous in Fort Collins. The garden just called to us to get tons done - definitely a good thing, because we still need to play catch-up! Here's what happened:
I got to Westmore around noon, after having grappled with some errands. Unfortunately, Anne Marie had left the glass door lid on our coldframe all morning (my fault; I didn't warn her how hot it would get) and it was at least 100ºF in there. We quickly took off the lid and moved the entire thing into the partial shade of a tree in her front yard, where we hoped the breeze and the shade would cool it down. But then we needed something on top of the coldframe to keep those darn cats out. The best we could do was to unroll some decorative wire garden fences and drape them over the coldframe - but those pesky cats still got in. We just had to hope they would leave the flats and the seeds in them alone.
Next, we borrowed Doug's Ranger pickup truck and drove it down to Weitzel's to get our first batch of garden soil. Mr. Doug Weitzel and his wife, Audrey, run this operation with at least one of their sons, and have for years and years. They are some of the nicest people around, and they have great organic soil to boot. Mr. Weitzel told us in detail about how they cure their cattle manure compost for a minimum of two years, turning it and watering it thoroughly once a month - this process produces enough heat to kill any weed seeds that have been hanging out in the poo - all this before that manure compost ever comes near the soil loading facility! And I certainly believed him; no weeds in sight when we went to get our soil. Granted, it's still early even for weeds, but I'll bet that place is weed-free all season long.
We weren't after the manure, though. Mr. Weitzel has an organic topsoil/compost mix that is great for gardens, and this is what we bought. This stuff is shaken down over a screen of about a square inch to remove rocks, twigs, etc, and it looked, felt, and smelled great. We got a half yard, which is about all the Ranger would handle, and lugged it back to Westmore to unload it. Many wheelbarrowfuls later, all that was left in the bed of the truck was dust - Ben and I swept it out with some brooms onto a tarp to get as much as we possibly could - and the load of soil was in the garden! The good news is that yesterday's soil saga will not be repeated using the truck. It was mostly to gauge how much more soil we'd need, and it looks like we're going to need about 3 1/2 to 4 more yards (according to Chris' calculations). That'll all be delivered in one of Weitzel's dump trucks, and we can work from there. Hopefully, this will happen in the next week or so and we can really get the garden underway.
Then, we made our way to Old Town and ACE Hardware for some real plant tags and a thermometer for the coldframe. We also stopped by ReSource Fort Collins and bought a screen door to put over the coldframe as an anti-cat measure. Anti-cat Tip #1: Cover it up! We later drove by a roadside stand that said there were locally grown onion sets for sale. We had previously thought we wouldn't be able to do onions because we were going to get too late a start, but here was this nice guy with local sets for sale for a REALLY good price! We couldn't pass that up. So we bought 45 sets: 30 yellow and 15 red - all for just $3. It was great. When we got back to Westmore, we were itching to plant something in the soil we had just gotten. So we planted all the onions and both types of peas!
Of course, the cats (Katara and Oatmeal) loved the new soil and wanted to be around people, so it took some extra effort to fend them off while trying to get the sets and seeds into the soil. Then we watered the whole dang garden, and the cats seemed to like the moist soil less than they liked the dry soil. Anti-cat tip #2: Make it wet!
Today, Anne Marie and I are heading to Home Depot for some deer netting, which we'll drape over some hoops above the planted area to keep the cats out even when the soil is dry. Hopefully they won't try to climb on it...yeah right. But the netting provides protection against hail as well, so we were going to use it anyway. If any readers have good anti-cat garden tips, please comment and let me know! Thanks! Don't forget to check out our Facebook Page - you can see pictures there, among other things :) And as always, thanks for reading!
WOG out
I got to Westmore around noon, after having grappled with some errands. Unfortunately, Anne Marie had left the glass door lid on our coldframe all morning (my fault; I didn't warn her how hot it would get) and it was at least 100ºF in there. We quickly took off the lid and moved the entire thing into the partial shade of a tree in her front yard, where we hoped the breeze and the shade would cool it down. But then we needed something on top of the coldframe to keep those darn cats out. The best we could do was to unroll some decorative wire garden fences and drape them over the coldframe - but those pesky cats still got in. We just had to hope they would leave the flats and the seeds in them alone.
Next, we borrowed Doug's Ranger pickup truck and drove it down to Weitzel's to get our first batch of garden soil. Mr. Doug Weitzel and his wife, Audrey, run this operation with at least one of their sons, and have for years and years. They are some of the nicest people around, and they have great organic soil to boot. Mr. Weitzel told us in detail about how they cure their cattle manure compost for a minimum of two years, turning it and watering it thoroughly once a month - this process produces enough heat to kill any weed seeds that have been hanging out in the poo - all this before that manure compost ever comes near the soil loading facility! And I certainly believed him; no weeds in sight when we went to get our soil. Granted, it's still early even for weeds, but I'll bet that place is weed-free all season long.
We weren't after the manure, though. Mr. Weitzel has an organic topsoil/compost mix that is great for gardens, and this is what we bought. This stuff is shaken down over a screen of about a square inch to remove rocks, twigs, etc, and it looked, felt, and smelled great. We got a half yard, which is about all the Ranger would handle, and lugged it back to Westmore to unload it. Many wheelbarrowfuls later, all that was left in the bed of the truck was dust - Ben and I swept it out with some brooms onto a tarp to get as much as we possibly could - and the load of soil was in the garden! The good news is that yesterday's soil saga will not be repeated using the truck. It was mostly to gauge how much more soil we'd need, and it looks like we're going to need about 3 1/2 to 4 more yards (according to Chris' calculations). That'll all be delivered in one of Weitzel's dump trucks, and we can work from there. Hopefully, this will happen in the next week or so and we can really get the garden underway.
Then, we made our way to Old Town and ACE Hardware for some real plant tags and a thermometer for the coldframe. We also stopped by ReSource Fort Collins and bought a screen door to put over the coldframe as an anti-cat measure. Anti-cat Tip #1: Cover it up! We later drove by a roadside stand that said there were locally grown onion sets for sale. We had previously thought we wouldn't be able to do onions because we were going to get too late a start, but here was this nice guy with local sets for sale for a REALLY good price! We couldn't pass that up. So we bought 45 sets: 30 yellow and 15 red - all for just $3. It was great. When we got back to Westmore, we were itching to plant something in the soil we had just gotten. So we planted all the onions and both types of peas!
Today, Anne Marie and I are heading to Home Depot for some deer netting, which we'll drape over some hoops above the planted area to keep the cats out even when the soil is dry. Hopefully they won't try to climb on it...yeah right. But the netting provides protection against hail as well, so we were going to use it anyway. If any readers have good anti-cat garden tips, please comment and let me know! Thanks! Don't forget to check out our Facebook Page - you can see pictures there, among other things :) And as always, thanks for reading!
WOG out
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Bookcase + Sliding Shower Door = ?
Well, I finally did it. Yesterday, I seeded eight varieties of seven crops into three flats and put them all into a makeshift coldframe.
What is a coldframe? you may ask. Well, it's more or less a tiny greenhouse. A lot of people use them over the winter to grow fresh salad greens and such - it's a basic structure to provide season extension. We're using it to keep it warm enough for the crops I seeded - the soil is not warm enough for them yet, and the nights still get too cold for them to be outside, but they needed to be seeded now or we'd miss the boat! We were going to use some space in the true greenhouse of Anne Marie's friend Drew, but it was so crowded in there already that we didn't want to take up more of his space. Hence, a coldframe.
To build our coldframe for cheap, we went to ReSource Fort Collins and, with the help of our good friend BigFoot, bought a large used Ikea-style bookcase and a sliding glass shower door that fit over the front of the bookcase, in addition to some old moulding trim, which is going to be used to make some trellises for peas, beans, sunflowers, and tomatoes. The bookcase shelves and the accompanying support pegs were removable, except for one shelf. We had to saw that out of there, which proved to be fairly easy. Then we laid the bookcase down on its back (the cats loved that, of course, and had to explore).
Then, the seeding began. One at a time, I filled each of the flats with potting soil and wet it down very well. Then I double-checked which crops needed to be started, and seeded broccoli, eggplant, two varieties of bell peppers, hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, paste tomatoes, and slicing tomatoes. I hadn't really thought ahead very well, so I had to make some crop variety markers out of strips of a corrugated cardboard box. They'll absorb water and rot pretty quickly, so the plan is to buy some real markers today and replace the cardboard ones ASAP.
When everything was seeded, I arranged the flats in the bookcase/coldframe and placed the shower door on top. It was actually a little small...but I used my public school critical thinking and problem solving skills, and grabbed one of the shelves we'd taken out of the bookcase earlier. I stuck the shelf in the bookcase near one of the ends and replaced the shower door...and voilà! A fully functional coldframe. :)
Here's hoping the plants actually grow!
WOG out
What is a coldframe? you may ask. Well, it's more or less a tiny greenhouse. A lot of people use them over the winter to grow fresh salad greens and such - it's a basic structure to provide season extension. We're using it to keep it warm enough for the crops I seeded - the soil is not warm enough for them yet, and the nights still get too cold for them to be outside, but they needed to be seeded now or we'd miss the boat! We were going to use some space in the true greenhouse of Anne Marie's friend Drew, but it was so crowded in there already that we didn't want to take up more of his space. Hence, a coldframe.
To build our coldframe for cheap, we went to ReSource Fort Collins and, with the help of our good friend BigFoot, bought a large used Ikea-style bookcase and a sliding glass shower door that fit over the front of the bookcase, in addition to some old moulding trim, which is going to be used to make some trellises for peas, beans, sunflowers, and tomatoes. The bookcase shelves and the accompanying support pegs were removable, except for one shelf. We had to saw that out of there, which proved to be fairly easy. Then we laid the bookcase down on its back (the cats loved that, of course, and had to explore).
Then, the seeding began. One at a time, I filled each of the flats with potting soil and wet it down very well. Then I double-checked which crops needed to be started, and seeded broccoli, eggplant, two varieties of bell peppers, hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, paste tomatoes, and slicing tomatoes. I hadn't really thought ahead very well, so I had to make some crop variety markers out of strips of a corrugated cardboard box. They'll absorb water and rot pretty quickly, so the plan is to buy some real markers today and replace the cardboard ones ASAP.
When everything was seeded, I arranged the flats in the bookcase/coldframe and placed the shower door on top. It was actually a little small...but I used my public school critical thinking and problem solving skills, and grabbed one of the shelves we'd taken out of the bookcase earlier. I stuck the shelf in the bookcase near one of the ends and replaced the shower door...and voilà! A fully functional coldframe. :)
Here's hoping the plants actually grow!
WOG out
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