Busy as a Bee

What's New...or Ongoing?

    Oh my gosh! The last few weeks have been filled with garden fun! An ounce of sunlight, changes a week of gardening or more. Yep made up that nugget of knowledge all by myself. Don't quote me though because it only makes sense if you live in the PNW probably. So what's really been going on?

1- The Annual Plant Sale- We went to the Annual Plant Sale held by the Snohomish Conservation District. If you haven't checked out your local conservation district, dammit you should they have so much to offer. From rain barrels, classes, soil tests and so much more.Wow! They had so much going on! We purchased a dogwood tree, service berry pushes, bush berry plants, huckleberry plants two kinds thank you very much, two different kinds of Oregon grapes, and a bunch more native plants. I'll be honest, some of the plants looked sad and weepy, but I'm hoping that they will perk up soon enough you know because they are natives! We also purchased a mason bee lodge rather disgruntled when we found out that despite what the sign said no bees came with the lodge oh my poor kiddo who spent the afternoon talking to the little bee larvae that weren't even there, and a bat box clearly no bat with this box. So the mass planting was on like Donkey Kong! Somehow it seemed like we got so many plants, yet not nearly enough!

Ignore the ugly fence (we share with neighbors don't get me started), these are the deer ferns and sword ferns we purchased. Yep that's my handy pine limb border. I love this section of the front yard. At the bottom are huckleberry bushes and an Oregon grape.

2-The seedling nursery is bursting at the seams! Finally those stinking artichokes have come out! Oh man I have three different areas for the plants and little seedlings. 
                            There are both warm and cold germination areas (yes because apparently seeds are like people and they like their own special little environments....damn those divas). 
                             Then there is a main grow area where the young seedlings are placed. Again, there is a hot and cold area. The ever-loving peppers have yet to get off their heat mat in this area. If they are off they turn purple and cold. :( So they remain.

Just before the thinning. I hate thinning...it feels so awful to be cutting down happy little seedling babies!

Peppers and artichokes!

                             Finally, there is the tall plant light section. Coming from lovely farm happy Camarillo, California I haven't had to use grow lights....ever. So when I started this project I missed the part in which you have to keep the plants under lights until it's warmer outside. Holy crap these plants are way too big for the main lights! Where the heck am I going to put them now? That "warmer outside" time doesn't come at the end of February. 

Happy tomatoes...Brandywine, Green Zebra, and Black Cherry Tomatoes!

Cow pots, Trader Joes bottles and a plastic pot from the native plants purchased earlier.

3- Potatoes in the ground! I ordered my potato seeds, probably a little early. So a very stressed Mandy researched what to do with them while the ground warmed. I ended up putting them in a box in our living room and letting them green a little bit. They went in the front yard today!  

These are the tops of the trenches, where the markers are located. Also, to the back right is another Oregon grape. Yea for natives!

4- We even had a chance to trim the massive pine tree in the front. I've made good use of the limbs we cut. I've used them as borders, trellises for peas, and name markers. Yep, I'm feeling good about it!

New pea trellis made of pine tree limbs.

  So the last few weeks have been filled with a plethora of plantings and growth. We have built the raised vegetable beds, and are beginning to work out the watering system. More to come on that! 
Hope your garden is growing too!
Cheers-
Mandy

The Rhubarb Experiment

Rhubarb...oh yummy for my tummy!

      When I was young, my grandmother grew it along her back fence. Bright red robust stalks, with leaves as big as dinner plates beckoned me to visit. Oh the pies, the sauces, the things that they made. I LOVE rhubarb! Living in hot and dry southern California, rhubarb never really thrived in my garden. Onward and upward, moving to the Pacific Northwest this plant was at the top of my list! 
      If you follow this blog, or randomly read it, you may have read my post, Surprises I Adore. Or maybe you didn't read it an who really cares? You'll just have to catch up! So there I was with some rather big rhubarb and totally unsure of what to do with it. Some people told me that it was too early to put it out. Others told me to go ahead, no problem, it loves cool weather. So there is was, no one really knew for sure. UGH. 
     Here's what I did. Two plants were planted in the ground on the side of our driveway. One plant was planted in a pot and placed on the deck in the backyard. Two more plants were placed in a milk jug that was cut in half and left partially open. For the next few weeks, there they were. So what happened? Which one did the best? Here's the low down on my lessons in rhubarb:

Potted, and in the ground...rhubarb!

1- Rhubarb is not a fan of pots. First of all the soil never seemed to even slightly dry, leaving it to look pretty soggy. Poor rhubarb. It survived, but looked so sad and showed no growth.

Sad, sad potted rhubarb. Look at those wimpy little leaves.

2- The plants in the ground have shown some growth. They are more perky than the potted plant for sure! They are a bit leggy, but solid with slight growth. Their color is great!

3-Now this was interesting. I was concerned that the mini greenhouse made by the milk carton my make it too warm. Also it seemed that the milk carton didn't drain effectively. I punched a million holes in the bottom, but ok whatever. The leaves actually were breaking out the sides of the milk carton! So yes, the rhubarb was happy and growing. The color, well it was a little yellow-ish, light and at the very least pale. Of course, I didn't take pictures until it was in the ground. One particular interesting characteristic was that the growth appeared much stronger in the milk jug.

Look at the big beautiful leaves. Yellowish veins, but robust stems and new growth!

      So what would I do differently? I'd combine the jug and the ground. Next season, if  I have to plant any rhubarb I will put them in the ground, and then place a half jug on top of the plant. After a few weeks, I would de-jug the plants. I wonder if that would work for any of the cool weather greens? Hmmmm.....I can see it now, my whole front yard peppered with the tops of the milk jugs from Costco! I'm sure the neighbors will love it! Here's to a good year with rhubarb, and next year a harvest!
Cheers-
Mandy

Gargantuan Nursery for Nerds Like Me!

Wow! It’s already been over a week since I last posted. I swear I kept trying to do it thinking about it. Truly, though I’m up to my eyeballs in the Gargantugarden. Hmmmm where to start? Well we’ve got to start somewhere, so why not from the bottom up…oh the things I could say about that.

Mulch

Seriously….so….much….mulch. I know, I know I did it to myself. Really though, the soil and weed situation was approaching apocalyptic proportions. So after another 10 hour stretch 4 hour stretch of loading the wheelbarrow and unloading it elsewhere, it is all gone. IT IS DONE! Insert the monumental achievement music, do a dance of joy! Strangely enough, I actually ran out of mulch. The front yard is 90% done. I may be able to live with that. The side yard is 80% done….ugh I must complete…, and the backyard is virtually 99.9% done.

I did discover a few things in the process, most importantly the backyard soil is filled with grubs. I collect them and let The Boy give them to his chickens. Even more interestingly, Stella, our other mastiff loves to eat them! EEEEWWWW! She even tried to steal them out of the wheelbarrow!

The best part is that it’s done in time for the grand planting! This Saturday we are going to the Snohomish Conservation Society’s annual native plant sale. We have pre-ordered a few bazillion plants and 1 tree. Hopefully the VOR (Voice of Reason, aka my super-duper hubby) won’t turn all mulch hulky when he sees what we ordered. Hehehehehe….Now that the mulch is done, he’s happy and he likes it but man he was less than pleased he turned into the Mulch Hulk and had a hulk size grrrrr moment about it when he saw the massive pile. All and all it ended well. YA! :)

TheGreat Rhubarb Experiment

    The rhubarb plants were just too big to stay inside. They cried to me daily begging for their freedom and who am I to deny them their freedom? It may have also been that I’m so ready to garden all day every day that I couldn’t help myself…..maybe. Anyhow because I’m from the golden land of perfect soil and weather I really wanted someone from Washington to validate that my babies would not die. Alas, no such affirmation occurred. So I put them outside in various formats/conditions. Now it’s an experiment! More to come on that, later. Click on for details.

Oh Seedling Mania is Certainly Afoot

    OMG!!! These lovely little beasts are my new favorite fun time. I’ll admit that on occasion, I may always jump into new projects with both feet and all appendages first. So yes now my mini light set up had doubled quadrupled in size. Ok so I had ordered two 4 foot lights and then planned to nest them together, but one showed up shattered. Grrrrrr…. So I have a 4 foot, and a 2 foot. Under the four foot I have one of my heating pads, and the other is on the other side of the room without lights. It’s so much FUN!!! I LOVE LIGHTS! Did I mention that already? Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1-Leeks are the absolute tease and take FOREVER, even over week or more apart for emerging! Just when I really started to give up on those little suckers, they popped up.

2-Trader Joe’s packaging is a seedling lovers best friend. Here’s why:

·        Plastic Trader Joe’s bubbly water bottles that’s what my offspring call them I think they are really just sparkling water…make great mini green houses. Cut the tops off, poke some holes in the bottom and viola! Very nice. Yes, I’m patting myself on the back for this reuse.

·        The sliced pineapple containers work awesomely as containers for the small seedling pots. The lid works wonderfully to keep the moisture in.

 

3-Take the seedlings off the heat once they emerge. Some of mine were getting Jack Skellington skinny and tall. After reading WAY TOO MANY articles and falling asleep during some highly academic analysis of seedling behavior that the heat can make them stretch too much. So no more heat once they emerge.

            4- You need to lightly brush your little seedling babes. Don’t I sound like the seedling pedophile? Again many an article read, and from that I realized I needed to brush them with my hand to simulate wind and other things that would make their stems move around, to strengthen them. 

5-I need more lights…more lights….MORE lights. REALLY! In my infinite wisdom I didn’t think this whole thing through. I know you’re shocked. What I mean to say is that I forgot that many of these little babes are going to live under these lights for longer than just a few weeks. I need to have the space to help them grow and the lighting to support it.

6-Artichokes take forever to emerge. Soon there will be a post about the great artichoke experiment.

I go on, but I think I might split all this amazing information up into more than one post. I mean really, I sick of reading it already, aren’t you?

Cheers,

Mandy