Saturday, April 2, 2011

The vines are winning

My flower seedlings from March 19th and the 26th have defied logic.  Or at least my logic.  Two six packs of the same flower, same seedstarting mix, same water, same location and one fully germinated and the other didn't.  Go figure.

Here are all the day 12 seedlings:



Cosmos: Cosmic Orange (7-10d) and Bright Lights Mix (7-10d)
Coreopsis: Mardi Gras (15-20d) and Thunbergia: Spanish Eyes Mix (7-21d) 

Morning Glory Flying Saucer (7-21d)
Nasturtiums:  Gleam Mix (4-14d)
Pansy Swiss Giant sowed without stratification 3/19

Minalobata: Spanish Flag (10-15d) not yet germinated
Morning Glory: Picotee Blue (10-15d)

MG Heavenly Blue  (7-21d) and a few Empress of India Nasturtiums











Day 7 after stratification and sowing:

Pansy: Swiss Giant Blend (10-20d) and Violas Amber Jewels (7-10d) 






Despite my inexperience many of the flowers sprouted.  I was expecting that it would take a lot longer for the vines to get so tall.  They can't go outside for another month so I may have a situation.   If they misbehave it is out into the cold frame whether they like it or not.  Meanwhile, tender veggies are hanging out on heating mats.


Day 7 pepper and tomato seedlings

Sowing Basil and Fennel tonight to keep the pepper and tomato seedlings company until May indooors.

Pea time

After a week of being quarantined in the house due to a virus I finally got out into the garden to get the cold frame together.  I needed to harden off the brassicas and make room for my tender vegetables indoors under the lights.  Over two days I  turned over all the beds, added more compost, and covered them with plastic to heat the soil.  The cold frame was put together and placed south facing against the fence.  It did take me a bit to figure out the automatic opener, but after a few calls and bringing it in the house to acclimate the interior wax I managed to set it to open at 70*.

The cold frame seems to keep the temp about 10* warmer at night and is venting at 70*.  I didn't realize how very hot it gets in there.  Highs up to 100* even when outside temps are 48*.  I have all the seedlings on self-watering trays which typically need water once a week inside.  In the cold frame they needed water after one day.  Fortunately, the soil temps seem to be consistently 68-74*  I put the broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage in the cold frame and they have done quite well.  I had lettuce seedlings from the 26th which really didn't have their true leaves yet but I was anxious to make space indoors so out into the cold frame they went.  I also had a flat of coleus and alyssum that I thought could go out.  The coleus suffered a bit from the cold weather... I think they will recover but I learned that coleus are tender.  The alyssum on the other hand are doing great.

Friday's April Fools' snow storm provided much needed moisture to my beds.  Today the beds soil temp was 68* and ready for planting.  

Bed #1 Sowed carrot and beet tower
Carrot: Berlicum 2 
Carrot: Cosmic Purple 
Carrot: Jaune Obtuse Du Doubs
Beet:  Gourmet Medley
Bed #4 Sowed greens
Spinach:  Bloomsdale Long Standing
Rocky Top Lettuce
Wrinkled Crinkled Cress
Endive De Meaux

Bed #5 Transplanted brassicas and sowed peas and greens

Sowed:
Spinach Merlo Nero
Mache
Arugula
Golden Sweet snow pea
Sugar Ann snap pea
Transplanted:
Broccoli Calabrese Green Sprouting
Broccoli Romanesca Italia
Cabbage Early Jersey Wake
Cauliflower Purple of Sicily

The newly planted beds are now covered with blankets that let in 60% of the sun and all the water and protect the seeds and transplants from their predators.  Meanwhile the greens that are in the cold frame are growing and I'll transplant them mid April into Beds 2 and 3.  I'm trying to stagger the greens and brassicas so I don't have everything ready at once.  

Updating my spring cleaning list:
1) Build the cold frame
2) Repair the tomato trellis connectors
3) Clear away space for another 2x6' raised bed for melons
4) Repair the roof of the Y9 arbor
5) Repair the Y8 gate
6) Replace the shed roof with a shallow box that can hold soil for wildflower mix
7) Change position of front layered boxes to allow for carrots/leeks
8) Add compost to each square of Mel's mix, water throughly, and cover with greenhouse plastic to warm the soil
9) Build potting shed
10) Add more mulch to the areas between boxes where the weed blocker is showing
11) Pull the wild onions that continue to grow through the weed blocker :(
12) Build trellises for beds 2-5
13) Remove excess rocks from Y8 flower beds
14) Remove holly bush and rose bush from Y8 rear fence
15) Relay brick patio with fine gravel base parallel to rear fence after holly/rose removed
16) Set up potato bags


 

Friday, April 1, 2011

Flower garden Y8

Looking at garden from path you 
can't even see the left fence under 
all the Virginia Creeper 
Adjoining my veggie garden my parents have a flower garden in the Fenway Victory Gardens.  As we were doing some work on the garden this week, we realized that we couldn't remember what it used to look like.  So here goes a collage of the changes since they received the plot in August 2010.
Looking straight into the garden 
from the path you can see the rose 
bush to the right rear that has grown 
over the entire fence separating 
my parent's garden from my veggie garden


  At first glance you could see some mature hydrangeas and lots of invasive prickly vines.  The gate would also need replacing at some point.  The fence although leaning was still sound enough for now.


After removing the fence that joined our gardens, pulling away most of the Virginia Creeper and the invasive roses, and doing some much needed pruning we found a pond, a shed, a lilac bush, a weeping cypress, and discovered that the plot used to be a rock garden that had been covered up with plastic and then covered again with a thin layer of soil and planted with grass and a few shallow beds.  The azalea and hydrangeas were so shallowly planted that most of the roots were covered up just by the leaning rocks.


The shed had been in the rear left corner buried under vines. We moved it to the left fence for easy access.  Later we planted wildflowers on the roof but I don't have pics of the sweet little flowers that soaked up the sun in that spot.  This year I plan to add a new shed roof with a lip for a proper soil layer for the wildflowers.


 Removing the vines from the path fence opened up a bed below it for planting flowers.  And you can now see the pond to the left and the back fence.  We then built a makeshift patio out of rescued brick and put out a patio table.  We relocated the azalea from its rock bed to a deeper soil bed behind the pond.  We pruned the hydrangeas and cut down the grass so one could walk through the path.







Finally in November we emptied the existing pond and replaced the liner.  We now have a functional 18in deep pond.  Mom has planned water irises, mint in containers. rosemary and flowering thyme around the edge of the pond.  We also have a solar pump waiting to be installed.
Now the flower garden is still under its winter gloom but we have big plans....