PNW: Winter 2014

Only thing I'm paying attention to is my lamb's quarters. I've got some outside, uncovered in a great big pot, and four small pots planted with them inside by a window. NW window was all I could get; oh well. Almost all of it overplanted with seeds because the germination was so sketchy and so varied. Finally getting a second set of leaves, months after they were planted; three months or more, for some of the outside ones. The inside ones, one of the plants had such a thin stem that gently watering it beheaded the plant!

Last I checked my onions was a couple weeks ago. Maybe I'll check them tomorrow. They're under row cover over at the neighbor's house. The spinach up here was getting a little dry a couple weeks ago, but morning dew and morning dew are keeping the surface of most everything here moist for many hours into the day, so I think they're doing okay in general. I'll check again tomorrow.

In my master gardener's program, we planted lupins in the greenhouse last Saturday. I know very little about about almost any kind of flower, so perhaps watching them grow will be helpful in that regard. We learned serpentine propagating, it was nice chatting with fellow students and the instructors, and I got two more hours in toward the 70 volunteer hours the program requires.

Marc, any tips on germinating lupine?

If I recall correctly, the seeds like light. So we covered them with perlite instead of soil. The master gardeners say seeds that need light to germinate will still get the light they need right through the perlite.

We used a standard potting soil, and didn't add anything to make it more acid. We did not bury the seed; we just put it on top of the soil, then sprinkled the perlite on top to a depth of roughly the standard 2 to 3 times the weed's width, which in this case was equal to a light sprinkling, enough to cover the soil and then just a tiny bit more.

We did not scarify the seeds and, as far as I know, they had not been refrigerated. We did not soak them. That's all different from what I see recommended in many places on the net. The Master Gardener's course leads to a certification by Oregon State University and its procedures come from there, and the program sells their flowers to raise money every year, so even though this way of doing things is different than may be found elsewhere, I figure it must be reliable and work.

Something I read:

WARNING:

Lupine plants are not transplant-friendly plants. Whenever the plant's tap root is disturbed, the lupine does not survive.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/start-lupine-seeds-38503.html

Of course, it could be my memory messing with me again. I'll check again if it was lupins this Thursday at class. If it wasn't lupins, I'll come back and let y'all know I screwed up. But we only planted two things from seed so far, and I know the first one was something I had never even heard of and had a latin name I couldn't pronounce.

I grew many lupins from seed a few years ago, and really had no problems. I just planted them in Mels mix, fertilized when I needed to and I use peat  pots for seedlings and so just tore the side to allow the roots to spread out and then last year they were in their prime BEAUTIFUL...
In fact, as I recall they started to take over my garden seeding themselves, which is OK

Marc and GWN, Thank you for replying. I think I will now give them a try. I will use peat pots for the seedlings so that I can trim most of the peat and plant in their permanent home. It makes sense that they would not like their roots disturbed.

I have a photo of me at 16, sitting on a rock in the foot hills, surrounded by Lupines, California poppy and fiddlenecks. It was spring time and my bf and I took our horses up to Coarsegold for a ride.

Lavender Debs wrote:

FamilyGardening wrote:Green onions, globe onions, candy onions and leeks sown indoors on Jan 3 2014
got their first hair cuts this morning   

Yea you! I was thinking I should plant mine today or tomorrow. You grow girl! I'm thinking I may take a chance and start a clam-shell (the containers berries come in from Costco and TJ's) of lettuce, mustards and spinach. I should get parsley and artichokes winter sown before I run out of winter to sow.

Deb...who got her x-mass potatoes planted way late...but is still happy to see they are coming up now!

HI ya Debs!

are you going to keep the starts inside or are they going to go in the green house of under the bonnet once they are up and growing?

I want to start some lettuce and spinach too....but so far there is no lights for them as the onions and leeks are using that space.....not sure if I could move them out to our unheated green house or not??....currently in the green house there are some onion seedlings that we started in the fall and over winter them in the green house and they are doing good....not really growing much though and our seedlings indoors have just about caught up to them....what do you think?...should we move the onions and leeks out to make room for lettuce and spinach under the lights?

cant wait to see your harvest of early potatoes!
hugs
rose

My greenhouse is basically unheated as well, except that at times I run an extensions cord out there and heat it.  Not in the coldest part of winter though.  I have started some red wing onions and shallots and artichokes indoors and set them out in the greenhouse, then thinking again,I put the lights on them, and then finding out that it is supposed to get really cold here this weekend I have brought them inside again AND I brought the light inside.   JUST cannot make up my mind     I have given the onions a little haircut as well.

I have been pondering all morning on how to get these onions and leek starts out to the small green house....

I do have even smaller green house that I could put in to our slightly larger one, and maybe even convince hubby to move them so that our dryer venting hose could go inside it.  we could then dry our laundry at night   that might give them a bit of warmth to carry them over until the sun comes out   

happy gardening
rose...who wonders if GWN ate her onions hair cuts   
ours are in the refrigerator waiting to be consumed  

rose wrote:rose...who wonders if GWN ate her onions hair cuts
ours are in the refrigerator waiting to be consumed

ROSE..... I did not know you could eat them....... WHOOPS they just went into the compost..
Janet who is planning what to do with the next haircut

GWN wrote:

rose wrote:rose...who wonders if GWN ate her onions hair cuts
ours are in the refrigerator waiting to be consumed

ROSE..... I did not know you could eat them....... WHOOPS they just went into the compost..
Janet who is planning what to do with the next haircut

GWN - Use them just like chives or green onions. YUM!!! Got some baked taters?

GG

gg wrote:YUM!!! Got some baked taters?

My taters are mostly sprouting now, I am thinking of just saving them to plant.  I am sure I can find something else to put them in

sanderson wrote:Marc and GWN, Thank you for replying. I think I will now give them a try. I will use peat pots for the seedlings so that I can trim most of the peat and plant in their permanent home. It makes sense that they would not like their roots disturbed.

I have a photo of me at 16, sitting on a rock in the foot hills, surrounded by Lupines, California poppy and fiddlenecks. It was spring time and my bf and I took our horses up to Coarsegold for a ride.

Well, I double-checked on the lupins, and those planting directions were correct according to the president of the Master Garderner's association locally. He pointed out though that their directions say lupins can be covered either with soil or with perlite/vermiculite, as they germinate either way.

In other news, I went to the neighbor's house and lifted up the remay over my hooped beds. Almost all my onions have sprouted and appear to be doing nicely, so that's good. We get no water there over the winter and I haven't watered them once. In another bed, my brussels sprouts grew just a tiny bit over the past three months, but they're alive anyway and look healthy. My radishes threw up some healthy-looking leaves, but every time so far I've felt about for a thickened root, I've just gone and disturbed a string of a root, so this time I left well enough alone.

Tomorrow I'll check the containers I have up here at home.

My indoor lamb's quarters are spindly as ever but on their second set of leaves, and the ones outside in a big uncovered pot are just starting to get some second leaves. They're so cute! I hope lambs quarters work out for me, as my lettuce has just been sitting there and I got no cold-season edible crops this winter (yet anyway). Everything is just frozen, so to speak, in time.

I don't know if anyone remembers, but my kids and I grew Strawberry Popcorn this past summer.  It's a miniature variety, with the cobs only growing 2"-4" long, and you can dry them and then pop them.  The kernels are white when harvested and dry to a deep red color.  

This past weekend we finally popped them.  Just for fun, we tried it the first few times on the cob so the kids could watch them pop and see the cob bounce all over the microwave.  But we took the rest off the cobs and put them in a paper sack to pop.  Much higher yield that way (the cob often ended up smoking before all the kernels had popped) and of course less messy.  And now the kids are excited to grow it again this summer.

What have you all been up to?  I just signed up for a Fruit Tree and Dormant Spray class at Shorty's tomorrow morning.  Free to sign up and attend if anyone is interested.  They'll also be hosting an Early Season Seed Starting class at the same time.

FamilyGardening wrote: HI ya Debs!

are you going to keep the starts inside or are they going to go in the green house of under the bonnet once they are up and growing?

I want to start some lettuce and spinach too....but so far there is no lights for them as the onions and leeks are using that space.....not sure if I could move them out to our unheated green house or not??....currently in the green house there are some onion seedlings that we started in the fall and over winter them in the green house and they are doing good....not really growing much though and our seedlings indoors have just about caught up to them....what do you think?...should we move the onions and leeks out to make room for lettuce and spinach under the lights?

cant wait to see your harvest of early potatoes!
hugs
rose

I start them in the house, then move them right out to the green house. Otherwise they get all leggy and I end up trashing them before they get planted. If it is going to freeze I think about bringing them in, sometimes I think about it in the wee night hours when I will not get up from my warm bed to take care of them. They do ok.

The greens will go out during the next moon (the snow moon just started last night -Jan 30 The next moon is the worm moon when the ground warms up enough for worms to get active). under plastic in the front garden. The leeks and onions go out in a couple of moons (the Pink moon when trees bloom)

Debs...... who still has beautiful, firm onions and garlic to cook with, but sadly no fresh parsley or celeric.

Wow, last week the weather channel said 19 degrees and snow on Saturday; a few days ago, 20 degrees and snow ... and now 42 degrees and rain! All told, a 22 degree change, and rising temps all through next week. Cool! Or, um, Warm!

Raised beds?  WHAT raised beds?

So the weather the last few days has been a good reminder that February is still a winter month!  Here's what my garden looks like right now:
We got enough snow to make snow ice cream with the kids:
1 can evaporated milk
2 eggs*
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Mix together, than add enough clean, fluffy snow to reach desired texture.  Typically about a gallon.  Yum!

*If you're worried about raw eggs, you can pasteurize them.  Place eggs in a pot of water and heat to 140 degrees F.  Keep eggs at this temperature for 3 minutes, than remove from pot, rinse under cold water, and store in refrigerator for later use.  140 degrees is the minimum temperature recommended to kill off any bacteria but this temperature is not hot enough to cook the eggs and they will still be raw.  (My water temp actually reached 150 by the end of the three minutes, is spite of removing pot from heat, and my eggs were still raw.) Edited to add this method is controversial, so do your own research and decide.

Very rainy this morning. Didn't have to water the outside plants when I went to my greenhouse session at the master gardener's course today.

Bulbs are sprouting, and snowdrop flowers, at home. And plenty of weeds!

Donna and Gwennifer, I LOVE your photos. So peaceful looking. I know there are down sides to all that snow, but your gardens look like they are sleeping.

I love snow photos too. It may feel like hell to the people living there, but it's so beautiful to me.

Sanderson,

Yup, downsides indeed! I'm thinking about going online to see if the local supermarket can deliver in this weather.

Across the street, a neighbor with a huge white pickup tried to pull out, spun a bit, then backed back in. His huge Malamute/wolf/shepherd mix is out leaping and cavorting in all this snow.

Fortunately, I have really wonderful neighbors, one of whom has come by with her snow blower twice during this storm. (The blower nearly didn't work this morning.)

If my 5' tomato trellis gets buried, I'll know we're in real trouble!

The wind is really going; clouds are slipping across the sky like they're late for an appointment. The rhodies are occasionally clacking against the side of the house, and their leaves are flickering. Blue sky comes and goes. The trees are bending a bit, sometimes shaking a lot.

I was curious at our class today what the MG program would be selling at their spring sale, so I thumbed through their plant labels. Chocolate cherry tomatoes! Oh boy! I grew those a couple of years ago in a pot, and the flavor was amazing. I'll definitely try to snag one of those for myself. Also was recommended "Legend" as "bullet-proof."

  we have snow, enough for the kids to play in tonight   


love the snow pics!

Marc....Chocolate cherry tomatoes sound yummy   

I have been pondering on a few things for the garden this year.....and your post has me pondering even more.....we try and grow everything from seed, we did pretty good last season with only a purchase of a couple cucumber plants because ours were eaten as seedlings....

it takes a lot of time and effort to grow your own starts....

I noticed last year at our local nursery, and our local home depot they were getting in more of a variety of tomato plants including heirlooms from local growers......IM sitting here tonight thinking about all the hard work that went into our tomato plants last year and how late blight wiped them out in a matter of a few days.....so Im pondering on starting a few and then buying a few local starts too....

this year Im thinking about only starting cherry, determinates  and ones that were developed for our PNW growing area.....

we grew these last year and they did good enough, to give them another try

sweetie cherry...love the flavor and did well before the late blight hit

Red robin.....did great in a basket, nice compact plant with good flavor cherry tomato was pretty much done by the time the late blight hit

Maskotka....ugly growing plant, (might do better in a basket) produced an early ok tasting cherry (hubby and kids liked it) and was pretty much over, by the time the late blight hit

Oregon springs.....med size tomato and was one of the latter plants to get hit with the blight, we did lose some fruit to blight but did harvest some before

Mild Jubliee...... that didn't do to well last year but did great the year before, we want to give it one more try since we still have some seeds and it produced wonderful orange tomato

we only purchased 1 new package of tomato seeds for this year....a new triple resistant to early blight and to a few other diseases.  *Iron Lady* F1, Determinate 5 oz fruit

that's 6 different varieties for us to start our own seedlings.....the last couple of years we had around 20 or so tomato plants.....6 sounds more manageable   and if we come across something like a Chocolate cherry, we will have room to pick it up and give it a try

happy gardening
rose

Rose, I had kind of resolved to grow everything from seed this coming season, but I figure it is likely to be just as cheap to buy a single chocolate cherry plant as it is to buy a packet of seeds, and one plant is all I'll want because I already have way more seeds than space to plant anything. I just really liked chocolate cherry so much.

Setting up for a whole grow-light system seems more and more onerous on a tight budget, so I think I might plant all my tomatoes in a "winter-sown" milk jug fashion and leave setting up a light system for another year. I may be growing mostly stuff that is direct-seeded this year, except for a few things planted last fall that our unusually cold winter didn't kill off -- the tiniest imaginable kale plants and some small but still happy-looking brussels sprouts. As well as just a few tomato plants. Plenty of onions and leafy greens.

Iron Lady sounds nice. We got hit by blight too. I'm hoping it won't come roaring back this next year.

Twas a beautiful morning, but it's melting fast.


Inside  a couple heated hoop houses:

Direct seeded lettuce, bok choy, leeks, and radishes.


The healthy plants are transplanted chard that were started indoors.  The sad plant in the second square back is from a planting last fall.  It was already struggling to recover from the cold temps in Dec; it didn't handle the cold earlier this week very well.