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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

The 2012 Garden Is Underway

Each fall, I generally clean everything out of my garden and either plow or till it, but last year I was lazy and traveling and did nothing.  I’d decided that since we had a big RV trip or two planned, there was no sense planting a big garden so I could just clean it off in the spring as I needed the space.  Early in the year, in the presence of Bev, my buddy Joe says “I’ll look after it while you’re gone” and Bev jumped all over that. 

Now it’s the full garden and I’ll still just clean it off as I go, but we planted some things last week in the garden and the brassicas and lettuces I grew should be big enough to put out this week. 

We planted 150 Superstar onion slips that I bought from Dixondale Farms along with seeds for radishes, beets, kale, chard, spinach, garden peas, and snow peas.  It’s hard to believe, but by letting last year’s onions dry out in the garage until October, then putting them in the fridge, we are just now eating the last of them and have only lost a few - we've never had sweet onions past into the next year.

Over the years I’ve used a variety of methods to encourage my seeds to germinate and why I’ve never tried this is beyond me.  After watching Bev use the oven with just the light on to bloom the yeast in her bread starter, I decided to give it a try.  I sowed the seeds in my starter medium in pots and sat the latticework flat of pots in a tray of water until the soil was saturated, then dumped the remaining water from the tray, covered it with plastic wrap, and put into the oven with the door closed, the light on, and a sticky on the door announcing they were in there.

I sowed them on Monday, some had sprouted on Friday and nearly all of the maters were up on Saturday – the eggplant have yet to come up.  According to my Thermopen, pretty accurate thermometer, it was 87* in the oven, which could be a little on the high side as the seedlings may not like it that hot – I kept a close watch on them and moved them to the greenhouse as soon as they popped up. 

Next time I’ll crack the door a little and try to keep it 80* in the oven.  If you start your own seeds, you may want to give this a try and if you already do, just say duh, where’s he been, I thought he was a gardener.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Bison Burger & A First


Larry

9 comments:

  1. Spring must be in the air at your house Larry. I really admire your ambition with your garden. I will forward this to my BIL who will have some time to look at it before we start to warm up over the mountain.
    Sam

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  2. Great idea about the oven.. hhmmmm.. i may have to start my own little garden now, knowing that trick!

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  3. With our 2 days of warm weather, I thought to myself yesterday "I bet Larry is starting his garden".

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  4. I hope your mild winter leads to a fine springtime and productive summer garden for you.

    Our southern hemisphere summer was a non-event here in Wellington, New Zealand.

    Instead of wearing shorts I have been wearing my jeans throughout December, Jan and Feb - our usual months of summer. At least the very cloudy days with lots of rain every few days meant there was no risk of a drought!!!

    Yep ..... always look on the bright side of life ...... (whistley bit only Mickle can't whistle)

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  5. Very interesting...I would never have thought of starting seeds in the oven.
    Looks like your garden is off to a good start Larry.

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  6. You're garden is already more successful than mine was all of last year :) How lucky to have a friend watch the garden so you and Bev can travel and have fun!! I think we're repurposing our garden area this year for a swimming pool :)

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  7. We are starting our garden as well! Our weather is warmer though, so we planted straight into the ground this time. I can hardly wait for the first summer squash! (I know, I know, I'll have to eat those words in a couple months!)

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  8. Larry, Way too ambitious for me! Living in the woods precludes all of this gardening stuff...although we do love the results! Our favorite is the asparagus, followed closely by fresh picked tomatoes... Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  9. Great trick, I haven't tried it for yeast OR seeds. Point well taken.

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