March Review (Pacific Northwest Reign)

(Wonderful idea Justin!)

March started warm and dry (at least by PNW standards) and is ending wild and brisk. Creation has a way of reminding me that there is more to understanding weather trends then how many days I can go without a coat and what the weather lady prophecies.

It obviously is not too late for a late snow. Hail can still attack but the sunny days have been amazing.

If your peas are not in yet there is still time, but we who have ours in are patting ourselves on the back.

At my house radishes are teasing me with their fast leaf growth. Most lettuce has a 2^nd set of leaves, the beets probably need to be thinned and bok choi is starting to look like I expect bok choi to look.

Chances are very good that I will need to replant spinach and chard. A few came up but not enough. Those that did come up have a 2^nd set of (true) leaves. The carrots are so small that I am just not sure how they are doing.

Tomatoes and onions from seed are back in the kitchen window. It was just getting too cold for them on the deck. Both have true leaves. The onions will soon go into the garden. Tomatoes need a cold frame. The tomatoes had become a bit yellow (light green really) because of the chill. Home grown Tomato seedlings (NOT storebought, not even if you bought them outside) CAN go outside for the day if it is over 40 degrees but ONLY in a cold-frame.



Mine is JUST starting to look like more than a box of dirt.

Deborah …..wondering how yours is doing?

I'm excited about my modified sfg coldframe. The greens are almost 3 inches tall, and carrots are not far behind. Broccoli is over 4 inches. White onions about three. Wife says they remind her of the top of my head when I need a haircut! Cabbages and brussels aren't doing nearly as well as the broc.

The first planting of peas in Feb are about 3 inches. I made a fourth planting this past weekend in a 1x4 box to try out a new trellis design I made.

I planted 60 seed potatoes in boxes this past weekend inbetween rainstorms. I've always grown them in the ground. This is my year to try them in a box.

I'm having my usual bad luck starting maters and peppers inside. They must know I'm not really into it.

I'm looking forward this month to getting the winter blankies off the rest of my beds so I can get some marigolds planted and some color going.

And that's the way it is at boffer's TT sfg mecca in spirit if not weather!

Yikes, I had ice on my cold frame glass this morning!

Uk! We have a high wind warning but so far no frost.

Are you planting more today or just doing April 1st shenanigans for 72 hours?



Deborah ....a little sugar for your tea?

Hello out there, PNW!
I am trying to get the hang of this forum. This is my second year doing SFG and I am expanding from one bed (3 x 8 ft) to 5 beds (125 sq ft total). I have 1 bed planted with strawberries, 2 veggie beds filled and ready to plant, and 2 more veggie beds framed up but needing to be filled. My plan is to get my early crops in the first 2 veggie beds this week! I have lettuce, bunching onions and kale started indoors and have been hardening them off. I also have 4 types of tomatoes, sweet peppers, basil and marigolds started indoors for later. I wanted to post a pic, but haven't figured it out yet. But.... hello, I'll be in touch again soon! I am working on my SFG correspondence course this year to get certified as a SFG coach.

Paula

Helloooo Paula,

Great to have you here. Hopefully your gardens haven't been washed away by the recent rains. I look forward to seeing your pictures and insight.

Thank you, Deb. I started my blog as "Momma Pajama" several years ago because I'm an early bird and I end up doing hours of work in the early morning in my pjs before the rest of my house wakes up.

I am growing Siletz (a Czech early slicing tomato), Brandywine (late heirloom slicer), a cherry tomato (from my sis-in-law, not sure of name yet) and San Marzano (a Roma paste tomato). I plan to have 2 of each type this year and then determine how many of each type is enough for my family of 4 (well, 2 are teenage boys, so...).

Will try posting photos again later, going to nap now after singing in choir at 3 Easter services this morning!
Paula

My kinda girl!

I also have Siletz and they are doing good between my kitchen window and the patio on warmer days. Brandywine never got vine ripe for me in Robe Valley (on the Mountain Loop Hwy East of Granite Falls). Now that I'm in Everett I should try again but this year I went with Persimmon. Not really strong seedlings. My plum is a Russian that I found at the Mt. Vernon Natural Foods Co-op. It is called black plum. It is from a tiny little seed company on Lopez Island. Sounded great until I started reading the taste test reviews. "Mealy" is a word that keeps coming up. But it continues to thrive in chilly weather. Listed at 65 days, but in Maritime PNW that could mean 130 days. STRONG seedlings.

I didn't get cherry or grape tomatoes this year. Maybe I'll find an interesting one at a farmers market this spring. I do have way too many peppers coming from TTS at the end of May.

Deborah .....would have come to hear you sing if I had known (actually I wasn't up that early)

Deb,

I discovered Brandywines last summer, and did I ever luck out because of the great weather. I did everything wrong that you could possibly think of while growing that tomatoe plant. Yet it was a bountiful harvest. It's now the epitome of a what I think a tomato should taste like. Of course, my standard of comparison has always been the tomatoes my grandma grew when I was a little shaver.

I read all the tips and tricks and must dos for growing tomatoes, but I don't pay attention to them anymore. For me, it's all about the weather. Some years we got it, some years we don't!

I know I should try it again. You can shave a minimum of 4 weeks of spring and at least 3 weeks of fall off the growing season in the mountain valley.

Ha! Got the photos to work thanks to the great tutorial by boffer! This top photo is a shot of my front yard with its 5 beds. The far left top one is 3' x 8' and has strawberries and a blueberry bush. The middle two are 3 ' x 6' and the right two are 3' x 8'. That gives me about 150 square feet in the front yard this year. My backyard is very shaded and I have only 2 beds back there. Last year I had only one of these front yard beds and I grew about 30 lbs. of produce, so I'm excited to keep good records and see what we can do this year! (Last year this yard had several big, dying trees and no sun - hubby took them all out and we laid the cement mosaic path together.)



This 2nd pic is my living room cardtable plant nursery. It is the sunniest corner of my house, plus I am using a table lamp with a compact fluorescent bulb and an Ott light to start the newest seedlings. I started my seedlings in toilet paper tubes set into Costco lettuce boxes - high tech, NOT! Then I potted them up into old 4" pots and gallon pots I saved. The potatoes are sprouted from organic spuds from the grocery - I thought I'd try them out this year for the first time.

I am so glad you got your pic's on! I couldn't figure it out until I read Boffers post either.

I used paper towel tubes for some of my starts but yogurt cups with holes in the bottom for tomatoes.

Mine are not nearly as far along as yours. I come from a place where there was not much indoor light and I worried about tender new growth being a problem. I was taking them out to the deck everyday that it was over 40 degrees but they were looking a little yellow. It was just too cold without a cold frame. It kept them from getting leggy but I don't want them set back at all. They are back in the window. They are just getting their 2nd set of true leaves.

Our plan is to do a front yard garden that centers on a mini fruit orchard. For now we are just getting veggies going again.

Deborah ....who loves your garden