Why Does my Garden Grow?

Time is flying – the last day of April already and I still have nothing new for this year in the ground – not even the potatoes or peas! This month was cooler than last month which hasn’t helped matters very much and I have been very busy with other things. Anyway, without wanting to leave April without a post, here are my first and second starts of this year awaiting hardening off and planting in the hopefully not too distant future. I have just been away for four days and they leaned towards the window somewhat, while I was gone (I just turned them around which is why they appear to be leaning away from the light!).

The tomato and pepper seeds were planted with mixed success, it seems, so far. I haven’t been able to pay much attention to them and I have some leggy seedlings in this batch and some ‘no-shows’ as well. More on those, soon.

I really hope to be able to get into the garden a lot more this coming month… We’ll see.

It was a very mild winter for these parts and spring started unusually warm as well. We have already had some pretty consistent summer temperatures into the 80 degree range.

So… what has been going on? Well, considering the weather, quite a lot. I am behind on seed starting but have been doing quite a lot outside trying to get things done as best I can. The list of things to do is rather overwhelming but I suppose I just need to keep working at it, one thing at a time.

The Aerogarden – Well, after the loss of the tomato plants, I had a rethink about the growing medium, since I am too tight to order the ‘proper’ grow pods! So far, it seems that this latest idea seems to be working. I used some cheesecloth to make up the ‘pod container’ and used vermiculite with some perlite thrown in (about 4 parts vermiculite to 1 part perlite). So far, the Basil seedlings seem to be doing OK and growing as one would expect. We’ll see if there are any problems down the road, of course, but as of this moment, things are looking good. The photo here is shortly after they germinated a couple of weeks ago.

I re-hardened off the plants and herbs that survived from last year and have already re-planted those in the Front. The Chard that I started… it was rather hit and miss. I lost quite a lot but those that are surviving seem to be doing OK. I have gradually been hardening those off as well, though they are currently back in the living room since it dipped back into the 30s last night (and today!).

I moved all of the ferns that I could from Riverside into the bed at the back of the house. I hope to be able to use that space for more vegetables this year. The ferns don’t seem to have been bothered by the move and as of right now, I’d say they are doing extremely well. Everything that I had read made me think they would be hard to transplant but they seem to be doing just fine. Very well, in fact!

Everything else seems to be emerging from winter hibernation in the garden at an accelerated pace. Leaves are everywhere and the Gladioli (I think that’s what they are called!) are growing along side the daffodils and tulips in the garden.

I pulled the water feature back out, emptied and cleaned the pond (only two dead frogs in there this year), refilled it, broke the water feature, fixed it and finally have it up and running. As long as Jake doesn’t knock it over, it should survive another season I think!

Talking of Jake, the mud track he creates whilst sprinting off the deck has to go. I have dealt with this for several years now and nothing I have tried so far has worked to stop the damage. I pulled a lot of rock from the creek at the edge of Riverside, laid it in position and then concreted it in. Actually, I need to extend it somewhat yet but even with what I have, it seems to be working! So far, so good. More on that another time.

I feel like I’m way behind on seed starting. That is the next task for this afternoon. I may even have to just go ahead and direct sow this year if the weather remains consistently like it has been of late! Still, there’s a brief update. I couldn’t let March fly by without posting something. I dare say there’ll be more to come in the months ahead!

Hmm… well, it seems that I have some good news and some bad! The day after my last post, the Aerogarden tomato gave up the ghost in no uncertain terms. It has now been sitting for 5 days, where it grew, looking like hell! I will get around to removing it (and the other one which looks equally as bad) probably tomorrow.

Oh well, you win some,  you lose some, right? I know their demise was my fault. I really must sort out a better feeding system/regime or something. What I did, didn’t work, so I’ll take it from there and try something else next time. Feeding-wise, I was rather brutal. I need to ease up on the whole feeding thing!

On the other hand, the ‘Perpetual Chard’ and ‘Bright Lights’ chard seem to be doing ok. Several plants have had some growth spurts over the last couple of days and even the weaker ones are showing signs of  at least trying to ‘grow big and strong’! I guess I planted about 36 seeds, then after the first cull – due to the way chard germinates, I am currently left with about 27 potential plants. At this stage, some of them are rather less ‘potential’ than others but, as always, watch this space! I wonder how many decent plants I’ll be left with before the the next stage arrives? We’ll just have to see…

It is now the second half of February and winter still hasn’t really arrived here. Not winter as we know it in this region, anyway. There is a little patchy snow on the ground but nothing worth mentioning. As I write, it is 40+ degrees outside. This seems to have been pretty standard lately.

Of course, I’m sure we’re going to pay for that one way or another but I have to say that, so far, this has been my kind of winter – since we have to have winter at all!

So, what has happened in the last few weeks since my last post? Well, not much really. A few points I thought I’d mention though. The Swiss Chard from last year continues to do pretty well in the living room. I took a picture the other day and it wasn’t until I saw it that I realized that I have, it seems, a bit of an aphid problem! I am assuming they’re aphids – I’ve not really looked into it, but suffice to say ‘an insect infestation’. Since I took the picture of the Chard, I did give it a dose of vegetable  insecticide I had lying around (I hate to use that sort of thing but since I’m not eating it – just trying to keep it alive – I figured I’d spray it.) I also gave it a dose of hydrogen peroxide (3% H2O2) diluted 1/32 with water (H2O). From what I’ve read, that seems to be a reasonable dose and it does seem to have helped but it is still too soon to tell if it has solved the problem. Still, other than that, the chard from last year is doing well and I’m surprised it’s survived this long. maybe I WILL get to plant it out for seed this season?!

Onto the Aerogarden tomato plants. Hmm… well, this isn’t such a happy story. Firstly, I managed to almost kill them by over-fertilizing (I’m too cheap to buy the ‘food’ they recommend, I make my own with what I have). I overdid it, somewhat, and after an initial ‘glow’ from both plants, they then quickly went downhill! My bad! Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, it seems that the aphids that were happily chomping on the chard, discovered the tomato plants and issued a party notice on each plant! Both tomato plants had a dose of H2O2 and a little insecticide but I think it was too late by that point. One plant MAY survive, though the other one, I’m too embarrassed to even take a picture of! You can see the one that is barely holding on, below. Despite it’s sickly look, maybe it will survive, maybe it won’t? I don’t know yet.

My first seedlings of this year (in the conventional sense) are Swiss Chard “Bright Lights” and “Perpetual Chard”. Both sets of seeds were from last year’s batch. They are doing OK on the whole. The Perpetual Chard is doing better than the Bright Lights but I will take whatever I can get. I know I will end up with more plants than I know what to do with when it finally comes around to setting them in the garden!

Plastic cups on sale from WalMart for a ridiculously cheap price, recently,  prompted me to use them this year instead of my aluminum cans like I did last year. A lot less hassle, too!

That’s it for now. Hopefully, this strange winter will continue without too many undesired effects. Updates won’t be as forthcoming as they are in the spring and summer, but I will post again in the not too distant!…

As can be expected, things in the growing department are SLOW right now. Anyway, for a quick update, here is an update on the lightbox. I have Perpetual Chard and Bright Lights Chard germinating in there right now. I did a cull tonight. I HATE to do that, as thinning is not something that comes naturally to me. Nevertheless, you can see the seedlings before and after in the pics.

The Pot ‘n’ Patio tomatoes I have growing upstairs in the Aerogardens are hanging in there. I think they are more concerned with root growth right now, rather than leaf growth. I will update on those soon in a separate post.

A strange winter – very mild for this area. We have had some dives down into the lower temps but basically, it has been a lot warmer than usual. Right now, it is hovering around freezing, or just above – unusually warm for this time of year! Anyway, I hope that continues!

Since things are growing, I dare say I’ll be back to update with successes and failures on here before too much longer.

Though not too cold, it is pretty damp – a picture of my stove that keeps me warm through the winter is included below – shortly after lighting again tonight…

Come on, Spring!…

Well, even though this winter has been very kind to us here in south west Wisconsin, it is still winter, nevertheless! The seed-starting “itch” has begun, though I am holding back as best I can, based on last year when I had to try and hold my starts back for longer than they would have liked before being transplanted into the garden!

I haven’t started any of the ‘serious’ seeds yet and it will be a while (I think!) before I do. Actually, I am still researching seeds online and making some lists. That said, if past years are anything to go by, I’ll just buy the usual from the store! I hope to be a bit more adventurous this year but by the time I make up my mind, often-times, it is too late to order anything and get them started in the right time frame. Watch this space though, I suppose, when it comes to that this year.

That said, I have started the Aerogardens back up again. Oddly, not so much from a desire to start anything but because of lack of light. Over the winter this year, it has been very dark upstairs when I came home from work. That is unusual, even for winter and I couldn’t understand why I didn’t have that problem last year. Then it occurred to me that the Aerogardens were active around this time last year, so it was lighter upstairs, by default. So, now I have the ‘light issue’ sorted and I have started some Pot ‘n’ Patio tomato plants. I had 4 seeds left and put 2 seeds into each Aerogarden last week. As of right now, one has germinated in each of the Aerogardens. You can see the Aerogardens in the pictures below and also my very first seedling of 2012! So, we’ll see…

I also put my light box and grow light back into action. Actually, it is a new light fixture since I didn’t want to have to remove the one I used last year again from the garage. I had some seeding soil medium left over (it’s a mix of various things but is all I had when I had the urge to do this!) and threw in some chard seeds. I had plenty of Perpetual Chard seeds left from last year and I also had some Bright Lights left. I’m a little dubious about the medium I ended up planting them in, but once again, we’ll see…

Upstairs, the survivors from last season are doing OK, on the whole. You can see what the herbs are doing in the picture below and the chard is actually looking pretty healthy. The plan is to plant those out in spring and since those should seed this year, perhaps I can gather my own seeds from those plants? That’s the ‘plan’, but anything could happen!

So, I’m ready to get started but it’s still way too early for this region. I know I’ll start in earnest earlier than I should and I’ll update when I finally can’t wait any longer! We don’t have much snow on the ground right now and I’ve only had to fire up the snow blower once so far this season – that was last week. It’s in the 40s as I write this, though they are forecasting a little more snow – not much though – perhaps an inch at most with some mixed/icy precip. Not nice but a whole lot better than the last few years have been. Winter, even if it hits us hard in the not too distant future, is going to seem very short in comparison!