Yes, my green thumb is thriving . . . I was a little concerned, given my previous lack of success in the greenhouse, in the past 2 years, but this year, I think I can safely say, I've put all that behind me. And after only three weeks of use!
I started my seeds as usual, in the dining room and my little mini-greenhouse/seed propagator, and they grew. However, this time, after testing out the heater in the greenhouse and finding that it did, indeed, do the trick, I moved my biggest tomato plants out to their new home, on Mother's Day. Since then, I've had to re-pot them twice, because they've out grown their pots. To date, the tomatoes have at least 3 bunches (please excuse my incorrect tomato terminology, I'm still new at this!) of flowers growing on each plant. I have 9 plants. This was before I fed them any Miracle Grow, so it seems I'm off to a roaring start.
My other veges are growing extremely well also - some are ready to go out into the garden, if it would stop raining long enough for me to finish weeding and get my potatoes planted, before I plant anything else!! This weekend, hopefully.
I have green peppers, one red pepper plant, cucumbers, broccoli, beans, lettuce, peas and a variety of flowers (these are destined for outdoor pots) in there at the moment, and it is full!! Which is great - it's never had this many plants in it, ever! I just re-potted my 6 broccoli plants yesterday - moved them up from 4 inch pots to 6 inch (or one gallon?) pots. They were seriously root bound. I've put 3 of my lettuce plants in a window box - the other three are going in the garden, plus I have some tiny ones I started from seed myself, which will eventually replace these bigger ones.
All my beans and peas are destined for the garden - I started them early just to see how well they'd do - horticultural experiment #3, I think we'll call that one! The plan is to put a select number of tomatoes and cucumbers in the garden also, and see how they do - if the weather is nice enough for long enough for them to produce a decent crop . . . and to see if all the vege predators will leave them alone!
Aside from the weeds, which once I get ahead of them, are fairly easy to control (the problem is getting rid of them before I plant!), we have a variety of vege predators in the garden. There are the birds, which eat the raspberries - but that's okay, because I have lots - we also have chipmunks and squirrels, which eat my peas and my beans. This would actually also be okay, because again, I have lots, but they only eat half of a bean or a pea pod, and move on to eat another. So, I end up with a lot of half-eaten, and thus useless veges. Oh, and one of those little buggers (don't know which critter, because I didn't catch him in the act) actually dug up some of my potatoes last year and ate part of a couple of them!! Again, I have lots - we're still eating the potatoes I grew last year - but I still had to throw away a few, because they turned green, thanks to the digging critters!
Oh the joys of gardening in the country, eh? Haha, actually, it's a lot of fun . . . and I really don't mind sharing, I would mind even less, if they would let me catch them in the act and pose for my camera. How cool would that be??
The weather this weekend is supposed to be nice, warm and sunny, so I should be able to get all my veges planted out, and the seeds planted too. First, continued weed removal; second, building plant supports (peas and raspberries); and then planting!! As usual, I'm a week late, but it hasn't seemed to make a difference in previous years - this is my fourth year of vege gardening, so although I'm still a novice, I think I'm getting the hang of it!
Now, if only I could find some small, square straw bales, I could launch another experiment!!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Who's YOUR Farmer?
I saw this bumper sticker yesterday, in the middle of tailgate of a Ford pickup. Who's your farmer? I am my farmer!! Now that spring is actually here -- not that season which, according to the calendar is spring, but since there's still several feet of snow on the ground, it's really winter -- the snow has melted, so I can finally seriously start thinking about my garden. Okay, I have been doing a lot of thinking already, but now I can put those thoughts into action. And get my tomato plants off the hearth in the living room, and out into the greenhouse!
Although we live on a farm, and I have been known to "whisper" the hay into growing taller than our kids, I'm not really a farmer. I'd say, more of a wife-whose-husband-owns-the-farm-his-grandparents-homesteaded-on-back-in-the-1930s kind of horticulturalist. In short, I don't farm, I garden. In the garden and the greenhouse. Or rather, I attempt to grow stuff in the greenhouse. I've had a few issues with that in the past couple of years.
However, 2011 is going to be different! I hope.
Last year, I managed to successfully grow cucumbers in the greenhouse - much to the surprise of one of the ladies at our local garden centre. How did you tie them up, she asked. I used a tomato cage. The sticks and string apparatus wasn't working, so since my tomatoes were clearly stunted and not going to need the cages, I just popped them around the cucumbers and tied them up with survey tape. Fabulous. Until the frost got them in September.
This year, now that we finally live on the farm, within sight of the greenhouse, things are going to be different. For Mother's Day, my husband built a two-tiered growing bench for the greenhouse, so now I have 16 feet of growing space (in a 10 foot long greenhouse), and last night, we hooked up a heater and tested it to see how warm it would keep the greenhouse overnight. It went down to 2C last night and there was a frost. But the greenhouse, at 5:30 a.m. was 8C, with no frost. Excellent. Just have to goose the heat up a wee bit, to make it 10C overnight, and my tomatoes can move off the hearth and into their proper home.
I'm not totally sure if this is what one is supposed to use a greenhouse for, but I'm also giving my other garden plants a head start. I have planted lettuce, cucumbers, beans and peas in little peat pots and they have all sprouted in the past 10 days. My intention is to grow them in the greenhouse until the end of May, when one can finally put stuff out in the garden without too much worry of frost. In theory, this will give me a head-start on the veges, which usually come ripe all at once, and I have a heck of time getting them all harvested, eaten or preserved at once.
I'm also going to kick-start my "deer resistant" perennials this way. I have several peonies, ferns, bleeding hearts and irises ready to plant, which I would love to plant in the garden in early June as actively growing plants, not tubers. Especially since their garden is not quite ready yet.
Who am I kidding? It's not ready at all!! I have two big rocks and two big piles of topsoil (one of which is in the wrong location) and a general idea of how big I want to make the garden. It will, when completed, provide an awesome view from our living room windows, with the native bush behind as a backdrop for the pink, blue and white blooms I've chosen.
Provided, of course, that these plants really are deer-resistant, and Madame Deer and her baby leave them alone. Boris the moose appears only interested in eating the leaves off trees, especially willow trees, so theoretically, she won't eat them. Yes, I know, Boris is a boy name, but the kids thought that would be an excellent name for our resident moose - who, when the house was being built, thought the garage made an excellent moose shelter! She has no antlers, therefore she is a girl moose. I believe her middle name is Princess though, hahaha.
So, today begins Tomato-growing-in-the-greenhouse experiment #3. Experiments #1 & 2 were dismal failures. I actually grew the tomatoes better in the dining room in the past 2 years, than I did in the greenhouse. More on that in my next post.
Thanks for reading - and happy gardening!!
Although we live on a farm, and I have been known to "whisper" the hay into growing taller than our kids, I'm not really a farmer. I'd say, more of a wife-whose-husband-owns-the-farm-his-grandparents-homesteaded-on-back-in-the-1930s kind of horticulturalist. In short, I don't farm, I garden. In the garden and the greenhouse. Or rather, I attempt to grow stuff in the greenhouse. I've had a few issues with that in the past couple of years.
However, 2011 is going to be different! I hope.
Last year, I managed to successfully grow cucumbers in the greenhouse - much to the surprise of one of the ladies at our local garden centre. How did you tie them up, she asked. I used a tomato cage. The sticks and string apparatus wasn't working, so since my tomatoes were clearly stunted and not going to need the cages, I just popped them around the cucumbers and tied them up with survey tape. Fabulous. Until the frost got them in September.
This year, now that we finally live on the farm, within sight of the greenhouse, things are going to be different. For Mother's Day, my husband built a two-tiered growing bench for the greenhouse, so now I have 16 feet of growing space (in a 10 foot long greenhouse), and last night, we hooked up a heater and tested it to see how warm it would keep the greenhouse overnight. It went down to 2C last night and there was a frost. But the greenhouse, at 5:30 a.m. was 8C, with no frost. Excellent. Just have to goose the heat up a wee bit, to make it 10C overnight, and my tomatoes can move off the hearth and into their proper home.
I'm not totally sure if this is what one is supposed to use a greenhouse for, but I'm also giving my other garden plants a head start. I have planted lettuce, cucumbers, beans and peas in little peat pots and they have all sprouted in the past 10 days. My intention is to grow them in the greenhouse until the end of May, when one can finally put stuff out in the garden without too much worry of frost. In theory, this will give me a head-start on the veges, which usually come ripe all at once, and I have a heck of time getting them all harvested, eaten or preserved at once.
I'm also going to kick-start my "deer resistant" perennials this way. I have several peonies, ferns, bleeding hearts and irises ready to plant, which I would love to plant in the garden in early June as actively growing plants, not tubers. Especially since their garden is not quite ready yet.
Who am I kidding? It's not ready at all!! I have two big rocks and two big piles of topsoil (one of which is in the wrong location) and a general idea of how big I want to make the garden. It will, when completed, provide an awesome view from our living room windows, with the native bush behind as a backdrop for the pink, blue and white blooms I've chosen.
Provided, of course, that these plants really are deer-resistant, and Madame Deer and her baby leave them alone. Boris the moose appears only interested in eating the leaves off trees, especially willow trees, so theoretically, she won't eat them. Yes, I know, Boris is a boy name, but the kids thought that would be an excellent name for our resident moose - who, when the house was being built, thought the garage made an excellent moose shelter! She has no antlers, therefore she is a girl moose. I believe her middle name is Princess though, hahaha.
So, today begins Tomato-growing-in-the-greenhouse experiment #3. Experiments #1 & 2 were dismal failures. I actually grew the tomatoes better in the dining room in the past 2 years, than I did in the greenhouse. More on that in my next post.
Thanks for reading - and happy gardening!!
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