Hello, friendly readers! I apologize for my absence of late. It's been pretty hectic around here - I got a job, and they've kept me working almost every day, so it's all I can do to keep up with the garden, let alone write about it! But I have some time on my hands at the moment, so you're in luck.
My last post covered the trellising of the peas, which involved their (and the onions') de-nettification. Not long before that, I had planted all of the cucurbits, with the exception of the pumpkins. Since cucurbits spread so much when they grow, I gave them plenty of room to frolic and vine as they would. This means that they covered an awful lot of ground in the garden - too much, in fact, to cover with netting. We had enough netting to do so, but we lacked the tubing to make enough hoops. So I just left them all uncovered, with the exception of the cucumbers - they were close enough to the rest of the netting that it was no big deal to extend it over them.
Exactly one week after planting the cucurbit seeds, they began to sprout! I was ecstatic, as the zucchini and squashes sent up huge, healthy leaves, and the cucumbers poked their little heads up. The melons came up more slowly, but were still looking swell. The peas were starting to bloom, and the strawberries were flowering, too. Based on what happened soon after, though, I guess Mother Nature was just having a good laugh.
We got hail. Not a few tiny balls of ice, like we sometimes get in the winter when it sleets. We got real hail. At the apartment, each ball was about the diameter of a quarter. I'm not sure how large it was at the garden, but Anne Marie said it was really bad. This I saw quite clearly when I went over to the garden the following day.
The first thing I checked was the pea patch. Since they're climbers, their stems are a little more fragile, and each hail ball can do a lot of damage as it plummets through the peas' foliage. Most of the peas had been hit pretty hard - broken stems, tattered leaves - and many had been torn from the trellises and plastered to the soggy ground. The blossoms were still there, barely opened, and drooping forlornly. I wondered if they would open at all, now. The good news was that the peas were still early in the flowering stage; they had not been carrying any pods. If they had, it would have been disastrous. It is hard enough to recover from losing flowers and having to take energy from the blossoms and put it into repairing stems and regrowing leaves - it is much worse to redirect energy from seeds to regrowth. I think most of the peas will still recover and bear fruit.
From the peas, I went to the onions. All of the plants had some damage, in the form of broken leaves, and some only had a few undamaged leaves. A few were bolting, though that was probably a result of the recent hot weather.
Next, I checked the cucurbit seedlings. The cucumbers were fine, having been under the netting. The zucchini looked mostly okay. The four yellow squash seedlings that had emerged were pretty much decimated - it was hard for me to tell where a couple of them were, because they were so ripped up and mud-splattered. The butternut squash were in a similar state. The melons were okay, except for the one cantaloupe that had come up - both of its poor little cotyledon leaves had been ripped off, leaving only the stub of a stem.
The kale was pretty badly damaged. Each plant had only a few leaves before the hail, and some of them had been completely torn off. The cabbage fared somewhat better than the kale, perhaps because it was larger and had sturdier stems. The two broccoli plants didn't look good; one was very badly damaged (and would soon die).
The strawberries did all right. There was damage, yes, and some plants would soon be reduced to only a couple of leaves each. But for the most part, the strawberries looked only slightly the worse for wear.
The heroes of the night were the potatoes. I'm not sure whether the house had somehow protected them, or if their foliage was dense enough that the damage was less stark, but they actually didn't look all that different from the previous day. They would rebound within a couple of days, and would soon be overflowing their trainer tires.
Now, on to the other updates. The day after the hail, I planted the remaining solanaceae, in addition to a few varieties of fabaceae, and two pumpkin seeds. First, I put in the beans. I planned to use a three-legged trellis (similar to the ones we're using for the peas) for the one pole variety we have, so I planted those seeds in three groups of six, each group in a circle around a stick to mark where a leg of the trellis would go. I planted ten seeds of each of the two bush varieties.
Next to the beans, I planted the tomatoes. Although I had plenty of seedlings, I only planted five cherry plants, four slicing plants, and five paste plants. The remainder of the seedlings will go to ReSource - apparently their garden didn't do so well with the hail. Unfortunately, the leftover seedlings aren't doing very well in the coldframe (which is where I put them after transplanting their brethren). I think it must be too hot in there. I shall take them to ReSource soon.
In the middle bed, next to the onions, I planted the eggplant. I put in nine Black Beauty and two Swallow - the Swallow were all that remained of the many eggplant babies Ben and I got from Drew. I have several Black Beauties left over, as well, which are also going to go to ReSource ASAP.
Next, adjacent to the eggplant, I planted the peppers. First, I put in six Gourmet. Next were six Sweet Bullnose, then six Early Jalapeño. Finally, I put in one Sweet Chocolate, one Santa Fe, and one Thai Hot, all three from Drew. I have some leftovers from the first three varieties, which, again, are going to ReSource.
Finally, I put in about twenty broccoli plants, all Di Cicco. There aren't any healthy-looking leftovers of these, so I don't think ReSource will be getting any, unfortunately.
After all that, I sawed off some more tubing for netting hoops, stuck some rebar along the bed where I'd planted the beans and tomatoes, bent the tubing from one rebar to the next, and stretched the netting over it. Then, I staked it down. If it hails again, the tomatoes, beans, and zucchini will be protected, but the peppers, eggplants, and onions won't be - yet.
I went to ReSource a couple of days ago, and got some more tubing for hoops. One of the next things on my To-Do List will be to make hoops for the section of the garden that has in it the onions, eggplants, peppers, and melons, and then to stretch the net over them. Unfortunately, I think the broccoli, potatoes, strawberries, kale, and cabbage will have to go unprotected the whole season - so hopefully, we won't get any more big hails.
Well, that's all for now. As always, thanks for reading!
WOG out.
Showing posts with label coldframe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coldframe. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Frustrating Fertilizer and the Cucurbit Kickoff
Well, before I get to any updates today, I will share with you the most frustrating garden-related event of recent weeks. On May 17, I posted an update and a To-Do List. On the To-Do List was to order fertilizer, which I did promptly after posting that list. The name of the company from which I ordered my fertilizer will remain undisclosed, for reasons which will soon become apparent. However, this company offered a very reasonably priced 50 lb bag of organic alfalfa meal, which is exactly the stuff I wanted. In addition, this company is a small business fairly close to Fort Collins, which is a big bonus. I ordered a bag of fertilizer without further ado and awaited its arrival.
Ten days later, I received a rather brusque email from one of the company's employees. This email stated several things. First, it said that the company had never received my order, due to a glitch in their ordering technology. For this, the employee apologized sincerely. Next, the email said that the shipping price the site had given me was inaccurate - the upshot was that my total price would be almost twice what it was before. No apologies or offers of discounts for my trouble were attached to this information, although what had happened could be interpreted as false advertising. Finally, the employee offered me the opportunity to refund my order, if I so desired - or I could continue with my previous order, at the real price.
I decided that I would refund my order and went back to the website to see what the real shipping prices were for other products so that I could find a suitable replacement product. Sadly, the prices were still the same as when I had placed my first order! I wondered how many other customers were having the same issues as I. I added to my email a query about the price of a smaller quantity of alfalfa meal and the attached shipping. The employee replied with the prices, and eventually I decided on two 5 lb boxes of alfalfa meal. That's one-fifth of the amount I originally ordered, and it came for a higher price than what I originally ordered. Through this whole process, the employee was less than cordial, and did not approach apologetic, even though what should have been a quick, simple process had now turned into a bit of an ordeal. In light of the employee's lack of courtesy, I am in the process of writing a letter to our local Better Business Bureau.
Now, on to happier news. Yesterday we had gorgeous weather, and it seems as though the weather here has finally turned for the warmer (knock on wood), so I went ahead and planted most of the remaining crops. The first order of business was to extend the netting to cover at least some of the things I planted, but the net would have to turn a corner. The last time we tried that it didn't work well at all, so I cut the net, pulled it over a new hoop, and staked it down. Then I stretched the cut end of the net over the other net, at a 90-degree angle - thus turning the corner - added another hoop, and staked it down again. In the midst of this, I planted another row each of carrots and beets, four cucumber seeds, and two lemon cucumber seeds. Then I staked down the net and continued to plant elsewhere in the garden, according to the garden plan I created on Mother Earth News's website back in April (you can see the garden plans on our Facebook page).
In addition to the carrots, beets, and cucumbers, I planted four zucchini, six yellow squash, four butternut squash, three watermelon, three cantaloupe, and two melons of a variety called Tigger - I'm very excited for the last type in particular! After I planted all this, I did some light research to see when we can expect to see baby squash and melons. It looks like if this weather holds up, they'll all have sprouted within a week! Then, I transplanted our two kale plants and three of our broccoli plants, plus the three cabbage (two green, one red) that I got from the Starter Barter about a month ago. I'm stoked, to say the least.
On Friday, I transplanted the peppers into individual containers, and they are positively thriving. Next up are the eggplant, which are still somewhat puny. I'll be transplanting the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant pretty soon here, but I want them to get a bit stronger first - after transplanting the tomatoes, we put them in the coldframe, and then we had a couple of cold nights. Three cherry tomatoes didn't make it, and most of the other plants wound up with chilling injury. I brought them back to the apartment to make sure they would be warm enough from here on out. After what happened to the tomatoes, I didn't put the peppers in the coldframe at all, but brought them back to the apartment as well for more windowsill time.
I have thinned the beets to one plant per cluster. I also bought six 3-ft-long pieces of rebar yesterday. When we start stacking additional tires on the ones the potatoes are in, I'll stick two pieces of rebar in each bottom tire to hold the stack up straight. The next tasks on the list are to remove the netting from the peas, put up the trellises for the peas, set up an anti-child barrier, and get more hoop materials from ReSource so that I can extend the netting over the squash, zucchini, and melons. As always, I shall continue to weed to keep those dastardly garden demons under control.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading!
WOG out.
Ten days later, I received a rather brusque email from one of the company's employees. This email stated several things. First, it said that the company had never received my order, due to a glitch in their ordering technology. For this, the employee apologized sincerely. Next, the email said that the shipping price the site had given me was inaccurate - the upshot was that my total price would be almost twice what it was before. No apologies or offers of discounts for my trouble were attached to this information, although what had happened could be interpreted as false advertising. Finally, the employee offered me the opportunity to refund my order, if I so desired - or I could continue with my previous order, at the real price.
I decided that I would refund my order and went back to the website to see what the real shipping prices were for other products so that I could find a suitable replacement product. Sadly, the prices were still the same as when I had placed my first order! I wondered how many other customers were having the same issues as I. I added to my email a query about the price of a smaller quantity of alfalfa meal and the attached shipping. The employee replied with the prices, and eventually I decided on two 5 lb boxes of alfalfa meal. That's one-fifth of the amount I originally ordered, and it came for a higher price than what I originally ordered. Through this whole process, the employee was less than cordial, and did not approach apologetic, even though what should have been a quick, simple process had now turned into a bit of an ordeal. In light of the employee's lack of courtesy, I am in the process of writing a letter to our local Better Business Bureau.
Now, on to happier news. Yesterday we had gorgeous weather, and it seems as though the weather here has finally turned for the warmer (knock on wood), so I went ahead and planted most of the remaining crops. The first order of business was to extend the netting to cover at least some of the things I planted, but the net would have to turn a corner. The last time we tried that it didn't work well at all, so I cut the net, pulled it over a new hoop, and staked it down. Then I stretched the cut end of the net over the other net, at a 90-degree angle - thus turning the corner - added another hoop, and staked it down again. In the midst of this, I planted another row each of carrots and beets, four cucumber seeds, and two lemon cucumber seeds. Then I staked down the net and continued to plant elsewhere in the garden, according to the garden plan I created on Mother Earth News's website back in April (you can see the garden plans on our Facebook page).
In addition to the carrots, beets, and cucumbers, I planted four zucchini, six yellow squash, four butternut squash, three watermelon, three cantaloupe, and two melons of a variety called Tigger - I'm very excited for the last type in particular! After I planted all this, I did some light research to see when we can expect to see baby squash and melons. It looks like if this weather holds up, they'll all have sprouted within a week! Then, I transplanted our two kale plants and three of our broccoli plants, plus the three cabbage (two green, one red) that I got from the Starter Barter about a month ago. I'm stoked, to say the least.
On Friday, I transplanted the peppers into individual containers, and they are positively thriving. Next up are the eggplant, which are still somewhat puny. I'll be transplanting the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant pretty soon here, but I want them to get a bit stronger first - after transplanting the tomatoes, we put them in the coldframe, and then we had a couple of cold nights. Three cherry tomatoes didn't make it, and most of the other plants wound up with chilling injury. I brought them back to the apartment to make sure they would be warm enough from here on out. After what happened to the tomatoes, I didn't put the peppers in the coldframe at all, but brought them back to the apartment as well for more windowsill time.
I have thinned the beets to one plant per cluster. I also bought six 3-ft-long pieces of rebar yesterday. When we start stacking additional tires on the ones the potatoes are in, I'll stick two pieces of rebar in each bottom tire to hold the stack up straight. The next tasks on the list are to remove the netting from the peas, put up the trellises for the peas, set up an anti-child barrier, and get more hoop materials from ReSource so that I can extend the netting over the squash, zucchini, and melons. As always, I shall continue to weed to keep those dastardly garden demons under control.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading!
WOG out.
Friday, May 27, 2011
The Summer Begins in Earnest! ...and in Fort Collins
I hope that title made you at least smile. My dad used to say, "It's raining in earnest! And in Maryland." It would make me and my brother crack up.
Anyway, on to the tasks at hand. There are many! They are plentiful. They can not wait! And yet, they have waited, because I've been busy and then out of town. But now that I've returned from my brief visit home, the garden takes first priority.
It's amazing how many weeds can appear in a mere five days. That's all I was gone for - five days! - but the weeds took advantage of it and were waiting for me when I returned. It's almost as if they knew... So. First garden task is weeding. Ben and I did some of that yesterday, and removed the largest ones, but we mostly just skimmed the garden looking for the big bad guys. Today, I shall expend a greater effort scouring the soil for little weedy menaces. Also, I asked Ben to just leave some pretty darn big dandelions yesterday; I'd rather get them with a trowel to make sure I get the whole dang taproot!
Next, I shall remove the netting from over the peas, which, by the way, grew most vigorously in my absence! One of them is starting to twine its tender tendrils around the netting. This I will not allow, because as the pea grows, it will be forced to either come through the netting or grow up and over the arch that the netting forms as it follows the hoops - this will not only make harvest difficult, but it will also block light from the other peas. the netting must be removed from the peas now or never, because the longer I leave it, the more peas will attach themselves to it.
After I remove the netting, I'll need to set up trellises for the peas to climb on. Some will be able to climb on the fence, but the fence isn't up yet - maybe Anne Marie and I will spray paint some fence pieces today and then attach them, but she has some other obligations, so that might have to wait another day. Sadly, the swingset is right next to the peas and onions, and of course this is the play area of choice for Louis' children, including the infamous Joseph. We shall have to devise a way to keep him off of that side of the swingset, lest he fall on the unprotected peas and destroy the crop. I'm thinking some kind of gate; maybe I can create a barrier using the netting from the peas, or something.
I also need to transplant some of the seedlings from their containers in the coldframe into the garden. Chief among these are the cabbages, kale, broccoli (the ones in the apartment as well), and fennel. The fennel may go in Ben's herb garden; not sure yet. I'll be referring to my Mother Earth News Vegetable Garden Planner for placement of these crops (see new album on our Facebook page!).
Speaking of transplants, I need to put the eggplant and peppers in some individual containers. They're getting crowded too, and even though it'll soon be time to put them in the garden, I want them to get a little stronger and grow some more roots in individual containers.
The beets, as I have mentioned previously, have sprouted in clusters (this is supposed to happen). This is great, because it means they're healthy, and it looks really cool - however, I'll need to thin each cluster down to one plant so that plant will form a nice-looking root instead of a lumpy conglomeration of the roots of all its siblings. This is a fairly urgent task, because the beet seedlings are getting rather large.
So, our To-Do List this week is as follows:
1. Weed!
2. Thin beet seedlings.
3. Take netting off peas.
4. Put up trellises for peas.
5. Construct anti-child barrier to prevent entry into pea area.
6. Start fence latticework for peas to climb on.
7. Transplant seedlings into garden.
8. Transplant eggplant and peppers into individual containers.
9. Plant most of the cucurbits.
- the following are continued from the previous post -
10. Plant more carrots and beets.
11. Extend hoop-and-netting system.
Now for some updates:
The carrots have finally sent up some true leaves! This is very exciting, because these seedlings have been up for over a week with no tangible sign of true leafage.
The beets and peas, as mentioned above, are looking fabulous.
The remaining onions look pretty darn good. There is one red onion that I need to keep an eye on - the leaves are looking a tad wilty, and it seems to be significantly smaller than most of its buddies. Hopefully it's not another case of mold, but I guess we'll see.
The potatoes have finally sent out some real leaves! The Colorado Rose ones have, anyway. The mystery white ones that we got from the Food Co-op haven't sent any real leaves out from their buds yet, as far as I can tell.
The strawberries are looking dang fine. One that had come back from the dead is dead yet again. But who knows? Maybe it'll come back again! I'm hoping for some fruit out of those guys in the next few weeks.
The raspberries are looking fantastic! I can hardly tell which were the ones I'd transplanted anymore, because they have made such a comeback from their transplanting ordeal. I don't expect fruit from those little guys this season, but they're looking really healthy - and I guess you never know. The plants that Anne Marie already had have bloomed a little, so it looks like we'll definitely get a small harvest from them (not surprising - Ben told me he got a good deal of fruit out of them last July).
That's all for now! More updates later. Thanks for your patience as I've come and gone from the blog these last few weeks, and as always, thanks for reading!
WOG out.
Anyway, on to the tasks at hand. There are many! They are plentiful. They can not wait! And yet, they have waited, because I've been busy and then out of town. But now that I've returned from my brief visit home, the garden takes first priority.
It's amazing how many weeds can appear in a mere five days. That's all I was gone for - five days! - but the weeds took advantage of it and were waiting for me when I returned. It's almost as if they knew... So. First garden task is weeding. Ben and I did some of that yesterday, and removed the largest ones, but we mostly just skimmed the garden looking for the big bad guys. Today, I shall expend a greater effort scouring the soil for little weedy menaces. Also, I asked Ben to just leave some pretty darn big dandelions yesterday; I'd rather get them with a trowel to make sure I get the whole dang taproot!
Next, I shall remove the netting from over the peas, which, by the way, grew most vigorously in my absence! One of them is starting to twine its tender tendrils around the netting. This I will not allow, because as the pea grows, it will be forced to either come through the netting or grow up and over the arch that the netting forms as it follows the hoops - this will not only make harvest difficult, but it will also block light from the other peas. the netting must be removed from the peas now or never, because the longer I leave it, the more peas will attach themselves to it.
After I remove the netting, I'll need to set up trellises for the peas to climb on. Some will be able to climb on the fence, but the fence isn't up yet - maybe Anne Marie and I will spray paint some fence pieces today and then attach them, but she has some other obligations, so that might have to wait another day. Sadly, the swingset is right next to the peas and onions, and of course this is the play area of choice for Louis' children, including the infamous Joseph. We shall have to devise a way to keep him off of that side of the swingset, lest he fall on the unprotected peas and destroy the crop. I'm thinking some kind of gate; maybe I can create a barrier using the netting from the peas, or something.
I also need to transplant some of the seedlings from their containers in the coldframe into the garden. Chief among these are the cabbages, kale, broccoli (the ones in the apartment as well), and fennel. The fennel may go in Ben's herb garden; not sure yet. I'll be referring to my Mother Earth News Vegetable Garden Planner for placement of these crops (see new album on our Facebook page!).
Speaking of transplants, I need to put the eggplant and peppers in some individual containers. They're getting crowded too, and even though it'll soon be time to put them in the garden, I want them to get a little stronger and grow some more roots in individual containers.
The beets, as I have mentioned previously, have sprouted in clusters (this is supposed to happen). This is great, because it means they're healthy, and it looks really cool - however, I'll need to thin each cluster down to one plant so that plant will form a nice-looking root instead of a lumpy conglomeration of the roots of all its siblings. This is a fairly urgent task, because the beet seedlings are getting rather large.
So, our To-Do List this week is as follows:
1. Weed!
2. Thin beet seedlings.
3. Take netting off peas.
4. Put up trellises for peas.
5. Construct anti-child barrier to prevent entry into pea area.
6. Start fence latticework for peas to climb on.
7. Transplant seedlings into garden.
8. Transplant eggplant and peppers into individual containers.
9. Plant most of the cucurbits.
- the following are continued from the previous post -
10. Plant more carrots and beets.
11. Extend hoop-and-netting system.
Now for some updates:
The carrots have finally sent up some true leaves! This is very exciting, because these seedlings have been up for over a week with no tangible sign of true leafage.
The beets and peas, as mentioned above, are looking fabulous.
The remaining onions look pretty darn good. There is one red onion that I need to keep an eye on - the leaves are looking a tad wilty, and it seems to be significantly smaller than most of its buddies. Hopefully it's not another case of mold, but I guess we'll see.
The potatoes have finally sent out some real leaves! The Colorado Rose ones have, anyway. The mystery white ones that we got from the Food Co-op haven't sent any real leaves out from their buds yet, as far as I can tell.
The strawberries are looking dang fine. One that had come back from the dead is dead yet again. But who knows? Maybe it'll come back again! I'm hoping for some fruit out of those guys in the next few weeks.
The raspberries are looking fantastic! I can hardly tell which were the ones I'd transplanted anymore, because they have made such a comeback from their transplanting ordeal. I don't expect fruit from those little guys this season, but they're looking really healthy - and I guess you never know. The plants that Anne Marie already had have bloomed a little, so it looks like we'll definitely get a small harvest from them (not surprising - Ben told me he got a good deal of fruit out of them last July).
That's all for now! More updates later. Thanks for your patience as I've come and gone from the blog these last few weeks, and as always, thanks for reading!
WOG out.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Updates Galore
Only a few updates this week.
On Tuesday, I went to WOG to water and check up on things (as I usually do) and was watering the pea patch, when I noticed that some seedlings were coming up! We have baby peas!! This was especially exciting because we'd more or less given up on the peas as a lost cause - they had been in the ground for a few weeks, with no sign of life, and peas should be relatively quick to sprout. As mentioned in a previous post, we think the problem was that they weren't getting enough water. Well, we remedied that, and the result was some babies! So now we're trying to do a much better job of watering everything daily, or almost daily.
This strategy seems to have worked well, because either some beets or some carrots are also coming up. I think the leaves are more beetlike than carrotlike, but I suppose we won't really know for sure for a while, because the cats messed up the row markers a while back and I had to guess the exact location of each row. Hopefully the other crop, whichever it is, will come up soon as well. The remaining onions, the ones that didn't have Fusarium, are looking swell - only a few red onions are a little puny, and hopefully they'll catch up.
The raspberries look great. I think all of them have new leaves on them now. Hooray! We'll have plenty of delicious berries in a couple of months :) The strawberries look excellent, too - most of the blossoms have opened, I think, which is great news for yield. Of course, we'll only be getting a few berries out of them, but I bet they'll be scrumptious. And next year we'll have plenty of strawberries to go around.
The babies that are still in the coldframe are looking all right. Some of the eggplants and peppers are clearly stressed, probably because it's been chilly recently. We brought them into the house yesterday, because it was supposed to be cold last night (and it was).
The babies in the apartment are looking spectacular. On Chris' recommendation, I put them in the windowsills of the bedroom (it gets the best light, generally), and have just left them there, watering about every other day. I wrapped the curtains around the other side so that the white fabric would reflect some light back down on the babies, as well as create a little greenhouse-like microclimate in each window. This has helped reduce some of the etiolation that was going on, especially with the tomatoes.
The baby broccoli in the windows desperately need to be transplanted into individual pots. I haven't done so yet because I've been worried about the cold weather. The plan was to do that today, but the high is still only going to be about 47. I could transplant them and put them in the WOG house bedroom, but I'm concerned that the cats might bother them. I will wait it out for a couple more days and hope the weather improves.
I still have yet to contact either local autobody to see if they can donate a few tires to us for potato-growing purposes. I need to get on that and get those babies in the ground soon!
Yesterday, Chris and I went to the Starter Barter in Avogadro's Number restaurant. Most of what people had to offer were tomatoes, and I didn't buy any of them, because I think WOG's neighbor plans to give us some of his starts that he's not going to use - plus, we've sprouted our own, and I want to see how they turn out. We did buy two more hot pepper plants from Drew - one Ancho and one Santa Fe. They are looking good, and hopefully they'll stay that way. We also got two green cabbage plants and one red cabbage plant, as well as five garden huckleberry plants and one wonderberry plant. I do enjoy experimenting with new crops! Hopefully they turn out well. I wonder where we'll put them all - space will be a little tight! But we'll manage, and we can always give some seedlings away.
All in all, this week has been somewhat eventful and vastly encouraging, since the peas and either beets or carrots started to come up. I can't wait to put more plants in the garden! Thanks for reading.
WOG out.
On Tuesday, I went to WOG to water and check up on things (as I usually do) and was watering the pea patch, when I noticed that some seedlings were coming up! We have baby peas!! This was especially exciting because we'd more or less given up on the peas as a lost cause - they had been in the ground for a few weeks, with no sign of life, and peas should be relatively quick to sprout. As mentioned in a previous post, we think the problem was that they weren't getting enough water. Well, we remedied that, and the result was some babies! So now we're trying to do a much better job of watering everything daily, or almost daily.
This strategy seems to have worked well, because either some beets or some carrots are also coming up. I think the leaves are more beetlike than carrotlike, but I suppose we won't really know for sure for a while, because the cats messed up the row markers a while back and I had to guess the exact location of each row. Hopefully the other crop, whichever it is, will come up soon as well. The remaining onions, the ones that didn't have Fusarium, are looking swell - only a few red onions are a little puny, and hopefully they'll catch up.
The raspberries look great. I think all of them have new leaves on them now. Hooray! We'll have plenty of delicious berries in a couple of months :) The strawberries look excellent, too - most of the blossoms have opened, I think, which is great news for yield. Of course, we'll only be getting a few berries out of them, but I bet they'll be scrumptious. And next year we'll have plenty of strawberries to go around.
The babies that are still in the coldframe are looking all right. Some of the eggplants and peppers are clearly stressed, probably because it's been chilly recently. We brought them into the house yesterday, because it was supposed to be cold last night (and it was).
The babies in the apartment are looking spectacular. On Chris' recommendation, I put them in the windowsills of the bedroom (it gets the best light, generally), and have just left them there, watering about every other day. I wrapped the curtains around the other side so that the white fabric would reflect some light back down on the babies, as well as create a little greenhouse-like microclimate in each window. This has helped reduce some of the etiolation that was going on, especially with the tomatoes.
The baby broccoli in the windows desperately need to be transplanted into individual pots. I haven't done so yet because I've been worried about the cold weather. The plan was to do that today, but the high is still only going to be about 47. I could transplant them and put them in the WOG house bedroom, but I'm concerned that the cats might bother them. I will wait it out for a couple more days and hope the weather improves.
I still have yet to contact either local autobody to see if they can donate a few tires to us for potato-growing purposes. I need to get on that and get those babies in the ground soon!
Yesterday, Chris and I went to the Starter Barter in Avogadro's Number restaurant. Most of what people had to offer were tomatoes, and I didn't buy any of them, because I think WOG's neighbor plans to give us some of his starts that he's not going to use - plus, we've sprouted our own, and I want to see how they turn out. We did buy two more hot pepper plants from Drew - one Ancho and one Santa Fe. They are looking good, and hopefully they'll stay that way. We also got two green cabbage plants and one red cabbage plant, as well as five garden huckleberry plants and one wonderberry plant. I do enjoy experimenting with new crops! Hopefully they turn out well. I wonder where we'll put them all - space will be a little tight! But we'll manage, and we can always give some seedlings away.
All in all, this week has been somewhat eventful and vastly encouraging, since the peas and either beets or carrots started to come up. I can't wait to put more plants in the garden! Thanks for reading.
WOG out.
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 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.
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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