In the ground this week

This week I've been working to get my squash and cucumber seedlings in the ground. I finished digging another whole bed and a half and up to 7 and a half of my 11 beds dug. Only 3 and 1/2 left to go.

Here's the squash and cucumber variety lists:
(18) National Pickling Cucumber
(3) Burpee Hybrid Slicer
(2 hills) Golden Zucchini (Fedco)
(1 hill) Dark Green Zucchini
(2 hills) Buttercup Squash
(2 hills) Delicata Squash
(3 hills) Butternut Squash
Here's a row of the cucumbers. We still need to build a frame for support.

I also seeded my first batch of Romano Green Beans and placed a few Scarlet runner beans near the frames for the tomato supports.

My pumpkins and melons await my finishing of another bed and a half. They are sprouted in newspaper pots and awaiting transplanting on the front porch.
I plan to get them in this weekend.
(2 hills) Jarrahdale Pumpkins
(2 hills) Pie Pumpkins
(2 hills) Minnesota Midget Melon
(2 hills) Iroquois Melon
All these seeds are thanks to Miss M.

After I finish my squash, the final two beds are for my peppers and eggplant and for more brassica crops.

Soaking in the Sun

This week brought warm temperatures in the 50s and even 60 and full sun. Each day when I got home from work I put a few of the hardy seedlings out for some time in the sun. I noticed that this time last year we shoveled the snow off the raised beds. This week it has melted and gone and the cold frame was in the 70s. Spring is on the way!

Here's my kale (both lacinato and winterbor) sizing up nicely with a few oak leaf lettuce plants.
Also some red acre cabbage seedling thanks to Miss M.
My sweet potatoes which were started on Jan 30th are showing more growth but it is slow going. Luckily there are still a few months before the slips will need to go in the ground.
Recent seeds sown:

3/8/10
Red Acre Cabbage (6) from Miss M.
Winter Savory from Miss M
Chocolate Peppers from Miss M

3/17/10
Catskill Long Island Improved Brussels Sprouts (12) from 2008
Freckles Romaine Lettuce (6) from 2009

Seedlings

I'm pleased to say that I've had more success with getting the peppers to sprout this year. I put them in a warm spot next to a radiator. I also kept them very moist and was more patient. I seeded them on 2/21 and some of my hot pepper mix and my habaneros have sprouted in the last few days. Here is one of the hot peppers.
I also have my first tomato seedlings. The Sweet Chelsea Cherry tomatoes have sprouted, followed by a Green Zebra. Hopefully others will follow soon.
I also have sprouts up from my arugula, tatsoi, and swiss chard. No sign of the spinach. I've had poor luck with seeding spinach both inside and out. Here is arugula on the left and tatsoi on the right.
I'm also glad to see that all my herbs have sprouted, including my rosemary which has a very poor germination rate. I have a plant wintered over but I'm seeding another as insurance.
My kale is doing well, showing its second leaves, but the first set of lettuce is not. Many of the sprouts wilted. I may have one or two that will pull through. Here is my kale.
It is probably time to start some more seeds!

First Sprouts

Yesterday and today the first seedlings appeared. Here on the left is kale, and on the right is oakleaf lettuce. I'm eager to plant more but my seed starting calendar tells me I need to wait. Maybe I'll start a cherry tomato or two in hopes of early tomatoes.

Garden Update 5/25

It has been quite a while since I did a full garden update, so this will be a long post. Here is the south bed. It is pretty much filled. The garlic is doing well on the right side of the bed.
In the front of the bed are my two types of carrots: Purple Haze (left) Chantenay Red Core (right). Also in the front are two squares of golden beets (not pictured). In the middle I have one square of tatsoi,
and two squares of Broccoli Rabe. According to my seed starting chart, it should be ready to harvest as of 6/11. I think it is interesting how the seedlings are different sizes, though they were planted at the same time.One broccoli rabe is already show signs of flower buds.
There is also sorrel at a small seedling stage (not shown) and my Pot o' Gold Chard. In the back are my very sad peas. Only six plants after 3 times seeding! I've transplanted them so that they are in the same square. The good news is that then I will have room to move my basil to this bed and plant an additional tomato in the other bed. I also have 2 squares of rainbow chard (though I'm not seeing the colors yet). Two of these plants over-wintered and the red one looks like it will soon go to seed.
Finally, along the garlic is a row of spinach that is doing fairly well too.
Here is the north bed. The empty spots are for warm weather crops: tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers & peppers.
Here's the kale at the back of the bed. The very well developed radishes at the far left. These will make way for tomatoes soon. And the arugula and freckles romaine on the right side of the bed. Inside my tomatoes and peppers (2 on the left) have made wonderful progress from a week ago. I've been helping them along with 18 hours of light. They are on to their second and third sets of true leaves and their stems are becoming more stocky. Last year I had my tomato seedlings out in walls of water at this point, but this year I'm going to be patient and wait until June. In the meantime, the tomatoes can make up for lost time.
My cucumbers and zucchini have sprouted and are beginning to show signs of their first true leaves.
I'm very pleased with all the garden progress!

Tomato Transplants Update

The very good news is that my tomato seedling have finally started to show true leaves. You can read about my problems here. Transplanting, less water, and better light seem to be the solution. Our new lights seem to be really making a difference as the seedlings inside have done better than the ones outside. I've also be giving the ones inside as much light as I can, just shutting them off when I go to bed, and then the timer comes back on at 4 in the morning.

So here is the progress. Last week's photo is on the left, this weeks on the right.
The set that has been inside under the grow lights:

The set that has been outside in the cold frame:

I guess since the seedlings are doing better under the lights, I should bring in the set from the cold frame. Since almost all my seeds sprouted both seeds I planted and I only wanted one of most varieties, I may have enough healthy seedlings to be able to give some away!

Tomato Transplants

On Saturday we did two things to help the tomato plants, which seem to have been stuck at the seed leave stage for the past month. First of all, we replaced the florescent lamps in the seed starting set up. We bought one plant/aquarium bulb which is at the red end of the spectrum and one natural daylight bulb in the blue end of the spectrum. I also transplanted the seedlings into larger cups. I split up the pairs of seedlings of each variety. One will remain inside under the lights, and the other will go out into cold frame. I'll know the lights helped if the ones inside do at least as well as the ones outside.

I may have to resort to planting seedlings from a friend and give up on mine if they don't take off soon.

Garden Update 5/7

This week's rain and moderate temperatures have allowed the garden to really get growing. It's amazing when compared to last week's pictures. The early-transplanted seedlings have really adjusted and taken off. As you can also see, the weeds have too. I need to get out there and start pulling.
Here's the kale,
spinach,
arugula, and freckles romaine lettuce.

The radishes are also enjoying all the moisture. I may be able to pick a few soon.
The carrots have begun to get their true leaves. These are my Chantenny Red Cores.
Here is one of my two peas. I need to re-seed again. My broccoli raab have mostly all sprouted and already show signs of starting true leaves.

In the cold frame, the tatsoi(far left) is looking like there's a bit too much moisture. Also some pest has been attacking its leaves. The golden beets (center) and the sesame plants (right) are doing well. I also have yellow chard starting as well as radishes, cosmos, dill and over-wintered onions in the ground.

Inside is another story. I gave my tomatoes a sun-burn last week and they still haven't moved beyond the seed-leaf stage. I read online that this may be caused by over-watering. I'm guilty of that. I'm trying to leave them alone for a while. Luckily a few of the seeds recently sprouted and are looking better. I may loose the first batch of started seeds. Also under the lights are basil, sesame, oregano, thyme, summer savory and two peppers. Last weekend I started cucumbers and zucchini, but no sprouts yet.

Hopefully the rain will abate on Saturday and I can get some more gardening in.

Garden 4/30/09

The warm spell helped some things in the garden really get going. The arugula and lettuce seem to have recovered from transplanting too early.

Carrots seed on 4/11 sprouted on 4/25. The seeds got dispersed a bit erratically by the rain. I'll have to do some thinning later on.
The radishes have taken off in the heat. It also helped my second sowing of them sprout in 5 days.

The garlic is taking off as well.
Cooler temperatures are in store for the rest of this week, but the row cover should keep everything protected.

Seedlings

Recent plantings include:

5 blocks of golden beets
4 blocks of sesame seeds
10 blocks of Sugar Snap Peas
Dill and Cosmos inside the cold frame but in the soil where they will remain
Radishes inside the cold frame
3 Sorrel in the raised bed
14 Broccoli Raab Quarantina in the raised bed( We tried Broccoli Raab just before a recent seed order so I ordered some)
9 spinach in the raised bed

Here are the seedlings as the progress. Most have moved out into the cold frame for this hot weather. The tomatoes will probably come back in as the weather is supposed to cool starting tomorrow. If the photos aren't identified in the text, hold your cursor above them and a label will appear.

The peppers and some herbs are the only plants that have remained under the lights. Today my second pepper sprouted. It's #4. I seeded these back on 3/27 so that's a month germination. I'll be starting peppers earlier next year.

The sesame seeds on the right are ones I started from seeds bought in the bulk section of the local coop. I'm also starting some that I ordered and I'll be comparing the plants. If the harvest goes well I should have plenty of black sesame seeds for topping rye bagels.

My "Sugar Daddy" Snap Peas that I seeded in the garden had horrible germination. I had the same problem with them last year. I planted between 20 and 30 seeds, the rest of the packet and have two seedlings with no signs of any more coming. So I've started Sugar Snap Peas in soil blocks. Here I can see that the seeds are putting down roots and beginning to send up shoots. I'll transplant them to the row shortly after they sprout.

The tomatoes seem to be making slow progress. Last year I planted out seedlings in the middle of May with walls of water around them. I'm not sure these are going to be ready to put out then. We may have to wait until after my last frost date at the end of May.