PNW: March 2014

Don't forget Marc, you have to be on the home page for the little thingies to show up and then you hover over them.

yolos wrote:Don't forget Marc, you have to be on the home page for the little thingies to show up and then you hover over them.

Good catch yolos - I was simply thinking Latest Topics list, but I see the note about advice to a newcomer and so yeah, the Essential Reading threads that are hidden on the left of the home page must be what they are referring to. Sorry about that.

Marc, I just tried it with Firefox and it's working for me. Is all well with yours now?

Fine now, thanks folks. I never noticed it was only on the home page, I guess.

We're back to really rainy weather now. Our watershed desperately needs it though. Regardless, sooner or later I've gotta get out there and start some planting.

I sure do like Territorial Seeds. My friend has the catalog and the information on the various plants is pretty amazing.  I have noticed huge price increases this year and my friends say that it is so with other seed companies also.  I am going to start putting our seeds in the frig.

Our broccoli is making lovely heads, our bush bean plants of the green and purple variety are pumping and our Yaya carrots are showing their first green.  The pelleted Napoli carrots aren't peeking up at all.  Got beets to thin.  I'm so bad at thinning.  Our super sugar snap beans are coming out of the chute ready to grab on to the trellis.

And it's a darned good thing we are not limited to our region when conversing on this forum.  I have yet to see someone from Hawaii tag on here.  Too bad.

I took a picture of our first zuke that looks like something got it.  The plants are doing well but then...  I took a picture but still do not know how to post.  It will happen someday.

Took a gamble..... same gamble I take every year, and planted out my leaf lettuce and some mustards under a portable cold-frame. So far, so good. They look like they are among the living.

Remember the old commercial where the lady stood outside a door chanting "open open open"? Me? I stand outside the cold frame and chant "grow grow grow" (whoops, just turned into a song..... grow, grow, grow your greens....gently through the spring.....merrily merrily merrily, life is but a ________)

Crum, my boys are in PE, my girls in devotions class, all my season 5 pics are on my other computer (the one that refuses to let me log in here). Guess I will have to encumber you with my blog link for the baby pics of lettuce.

Debs......trying to wring out.

They Toy Box: After School Chores
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kauairosina wrote:...And it's a darned good thing we are not limited to our region when conversing on this forum.  I have yet to see someone from Hawaii tag on here.  Too bad.

I took a picture of our first zuke that looks like something got it.  The plants are doing well but then...  I took a picture but still do not know how to post.  It will happen someday.

kauairosina, you are welcome to share with us anytime, though we may get a bit jealous of talk of beans and zukes when we are just sowing our cool weather crops!  I think I have seen some folks from Hawaii post every now and then, but certainly not often.  Actually for an idea, I've noticed that some folks, from regions like the desert that don't get as much use, kind of use their regional forum like a blog.  They start a thread for the gardening season and update it with pics and what they've been up to in their garden all year long.  Also of course the main Square Foot Gardening section isn't specific to any region and has plenty of places to post, like the Showcase of Gardens forum, or the SFG talk forum.  

I'm sorry you are still having trouble getting pictures posted.  Phooey. We love to see pics!  Have you tried the video tutorial I made?  That method still works for me.

All is not perfect in Paradise.  We have to be constantly on guard for fruit flies, the same kind of aphids and ants, and like stuff.  And.. we can't grow berries and stone fruits   although we try to make ourselves happy with papaya and pineapple and the like.

Papaya and mangoes and guavas and star apples make up for a lot.

Debs love the pics!! 

Your little seedlings look very happy with those pretty woodchips surrounding them......  Let me know this summer if your strawberries go nuts!...ours have gone crazy with the woodchips around them   

today was another sunny day of sunshine   we were able to go and get a half yard of organic compost to top off our SFG beds, they kind of sunk a bit with all the hard rain we have been getting....our home compost bed is full ....and.... well.....wet...needing sifted.....so much so we didn't want to fuss with it adding it to the gardens just yet....and we need to get a sowing!

we will work on it as the days get a bit drier for us PNW'ners...ha!....and then add to the beds.....

hoping for more sunshine tomorrow...would love to sow some spinach and lettuce in to our SFG and get our new SFG herb bed done....

happy gardening
rose.....who posted a question in the who has chickens thread for those of you who raise chickens
 

Marc Iverson wrote:Papaya and mangoes and guavas and star apples make up for a lot.

+1

what type of soil should I start my seeds in?
Mel's pre-mixed from Home Depot?? Or something else.
Thank you for your help.

anniem404 wrote:what type of soil should I start my seeds in?
Mel's pre-mixed from Home Depot?? Or something else.
Thank you for your help.

Hi anniem404 and welcome to the forum! You can start your seeds in straight vermiculite, which you likely don't have if you didn't make your own Mel's Mix. So go ahead and start them in the Mel's pre-mixed. After all, if you direct sow outside you'd be putting them in the mix. Same difference.

Seeds just don't need the nutrients in the mix to sprout, but once they get their first true leaves they do need outside nourishment. At that point if they were in a sterile seed starting medium you would either need to begin fertilizing or transplant them into a fertile planting medium, like Mel's Mix.

What are you planting?

FamilyGardening wrote:today was another sunny day of sunshine ...

we will work on it as the days get a bit drier for us PNW'ners...ha!....and then add to the beds.....

hoping for more sunshine tomorrow...would love to sow some spinach and lettuce in to our SFG and get our new SFG herb bed done....

Your weather isn't quite tracking ours but it's close. We're having one of those "If you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes" springs. We take advantage of the sunny spurts and get on out there. Then the rain clouds blow back over and we head back in.

Gorgeous out there now, though the wind is chilly. I'm getting very irritated that none of my seedlings have made an appearance. If the "watched pot never boils" saying applies to waiting for seeds to sprout, my little garden is doomed. We had the right temps that it seems I should have seen everything on time, but I guess all the rain cooled things down because nary a sprout has decided to show it's wee head.   

Beautiful and over 60 degrees here today. Yesterday it was rainy, and the day before it was pouring cats and dogs. Maybe this is part of a new warming trend in the warming trend we've been having in the middle of our warming trend.

 

anniem404 wrote:what type of soil should I start my seeds in?..

gwennifer wrote:...go ahead and start them in the Mel's pre-mixed. After all, if you direct sow outside you'd be putting them in the mix. Same difference...

+1 That's my thinking too.

sunshine today......tomorrow???

hubby is almost done with our new SFG herb bed   

we were able to plant our garbage can potatoes

we top off our SFG beds with some new organic compost we are trying from the same place we get our mushroom compost from....its a bit spendy, but still cheaper and better then buying bags at the big box stores....just cant wait for our own compost pile to dry up a bit so we can get into it   

sugar snap pea transplants are doing great in our SFG box2 despite the heavy rain and wind.....now just to keep the slugs off!....hope the sluggo does the trick because those green healthy sugar snap pea vines look mighty tasty   

hoping to get to those spinach and lettuce seeds tomorrow....its 9pm and I want to go out to the garden and plant some seeds.....eeek!

happy gardening
rose .....who wonders if anyone else has a lot of yard clean up to do from winter winds      

gwennifer wrote:

anniem404 wrote:what type of soil should I start my seeds in?
Mel's pre-mixed from Home Depot?? Or something else.
Thank you for your help.

Hi anniem404 and welcome to the forum!  You can start your seeds in straight vermiculite, which you likely don't have if you didn't make your own Mel's Mix.  So go ahead and start them in the Mel's pre-mixed.  After all, if you direct sow outside you'd be putting them in the mix.  Same difference.  

Seeds just don't need the nutrients in the mix to sprout, but once they get their first true leaves they do need outside nourishment.  At that point if they were in a sterile seed starting medium you would either need to begin fertilizing or transplant them into a fertile planting medium, like Mel's Mix.  

What are you planting?

Not sure how the reply will turn out as I am new to this forum. Thank you for your information. I had found Mel's mix online at Home Depot, but like everyone else we cannot get it unless we pay large cost for shipping. I guess I am going to have to make my own mix. I am in the Seattle area and was wondering if anyone on this forum might have found the pre mix at a local nursery? I will probably call around tomorrow, if unsuccessful then will make my own mix based on book formula.
Thank you again for your help on this. Great forum by the way, lot's of information.

Good luck anniem404! There are other's here in the Seattle area who can likely give you sources for the components if you decide to make your own.

Rose, it was so beautiful out today I was outside for hours with the kids. Love the extra hour of daylight in the evening. In spite of checking on my beds twice, still no sprouts. I spent the rest of the time out front TRYING to make some headway in the garage while the kids played with the other neighborhood kids. I'm trying very hard not to be depressed about it's condition and how little I can do about it, and just plug away at the things I can do in there. But it's not easy.

The wind does make an absolute mess of things doesn't it? I'm in a newer development (10 years) and there aren't any of the big mature evegreens nearby. But in our last neighborhood every yard had one or two. Wow, the mess those made! Every wind storm was followed up by a full yard debris bin at the curb, that's for sure.

So I'm guessing you've got an indeterminate potato for your garbage cans? Are these ones you've grown before?

HI GWEN, take the garage one day at a time.....I know the feeling all to well....my house is tiny....so when garden season picks up....my tiny kitchen table is full of garden stuff and my sewing that was on the kitchen table has now moved into the living room and on to the coffee table.....  ( im working on a quilt for a new great baby niece due soon) I feel like im always picking up, but only to find im going in a circle.....our garage was made into a laundry room....that's now the catch all place ....what we really need to do is clean that out and make room for my sewing....the garden stuff gets put back out side after we are done with growing seedlings......  

we used fingerlings for the garbage can potatoes.....last time we used Yukon golds not knowing about indet and det potatoes....fingerlings are suppose to be good for garbage can potatoes so we thought it would be fun to try it one more time

we have a lot of different potatoes planted this year....in the ground already are Yukon golds....they are my favorite but they don't store well....some kind of red potato, could be pontiacs....and a true blue/purple potatoes......our new neighbor last year grew some of those blue/purple tatters and they were fantastic....we all loved the flavor and I found that they stored a bit longer then the others....we traded plums and beans last year for some   

we still have some other smaller white seed potatoes that we got at Home D. and have them in a cool and dark place holding off planting them....we want to grow them close to the same time as our corn because we are experimenting with growing potatoes and corn together as companions....

I read they are companions so we want to try it out and if it works.....then that would be awesome....we are planting one 6x8 of the companions and one 6x8 just corn to see the difference....if it turns out well....that would free up a lot of space to grow other things.....or even just be able to grow more potatoes....we love out taters that's for sure....

happy gardening
rose

Thanks for the encouragement Rose. I'm doing what I can in there. Problem is my husband is a bit of pack rat and there's nothing I can do about "his" stuff. There are parts of the garage I can't even walk through and I'm so embarrassed every time I open the garage door. The kids love to play outside with their bikes and trikes and scooters and skates and bubbles, and what mom wouldn't want to encourage their kids to play outdoors? But everything has to be piled on top of each other to even fit in the door so it can be closed, so it's difficult for them to get things out and I have to help them. So it's a daily reminder of a difficult frustration.    Also a difficult reminder of me trying to make more room by having the shed built for the garden stuff, and now having one more unfinished project and no hope of how it can be completed.

Actually maybe someone can help with this: We have an old broken leaf blower my husband wasn't able to fix. He finally purchased a new one so I'd like to dispose of the old one. I was thinking I should dump out the gas/oil mixture that's in there but not sure how? And what to do with the gas/oil mixture I collect?

I've got my table taken over by a sewing project right now too. Mine's a quick and easy one making zippered pillow covers for the couches in our living room. This year our house is turning 10 and I'm giving the room a mini makeover in celebration. A new more colorful rug and new pillow covers to pull out some of the color from the rug; finally getting a coffee table, and bought some new shade tolerant plants with new pots the same color of the new pillows. Too fun. Should have taken a before picture. Oops. Already sold the old rug and covered four of the pillows.

I've been busy playing in the dirt all weekend, just indoors with houseplants instead of with seedlings. No more crawling babies and too curious toddlers means I can finally bring my plants back into the family room. They are in sad shape after being banished from their favorite sunny windows. They hated living on the north side of the house, but I grew to love having plants in those rooms too, so I went and sought out all new shade tolerant plants for those rooms and now have plants everywhere. Love it.

Just inspected my little garden. The sun feels so warm already this morning. One weed sprouted and half a walnut shell appeared. I'm VERY grateful the squirrel that left it there didn't go digging.   

Kind of a poor photo, but a small number of my 250 heirloom tomato seedlings. I have decided to try to sell come heirloom tomato plants at the farmers Market, so started many extra.
Will see if I can keep them alive until then.  My garden is still frozen and covered with lots of snow. But it is melting every day though... so soon  

Wanted to do some planting ... wound up clearing out some dying trees instead. *sigh* It's really time to get on with things already. But a clear day doesn't mean just gardening; it means other clear-weather chores.

I am enjoying the unseasonable warmth, though. And at least we got some more firewood, and trimmed some low-hanging branches to be in compliance with the advice from the fire department. They suggest trimming the branches of mature trees up to six or eight feet from the ground, as long as you're not removing more than a third of the canopy. Makes it just that little bit harder for flames from underlying forest duff to reach out and burn someone.

Tomorrow's class, but this I resolve: Friday is for planting!

GWN it's nice to see you posting again. That's exciting about the farmer's market venture! Are you going to have your own booth or are you cooperating with someone?

Marc, it's true what you said about other things that need to be done when the weather is nice. Seems like a lot of things go on hold when it's cold and damp.

I was able to work more in the garage today; this time on the old chicken coop I shouldn't have bought. Tore off the roof, one whole side, and most of the floor. Between me and my neighbor we got the truck filled up so tomorrow I'm off to the dump.

I also spotted two radish sprouts. I spared all you garden veterans a picture this time, but no promises tomorrow.   

GWN,  I just noticed (dumb me) that you have a super deluxe green house!!  For those who may want to have one, can you tell us a bit more?  Is it a kit?  Did you build it yourself?  Are the panes glass or plastic?  It reminds me of one set up at the Heirloom Exposition last Sept 2013: