New farmer

A new farmer has come to work on the Suburban Farm. Today we pick some more of the micro greens and washed them. We really cannot work on outside since there has been a practical flood the last few days. Some places got 4-5 inches of rain and there was water standing in the yard and on the garden plots so I haven't been able to finish the tilling.

These are some photographs of tomato and pepper seedling. It has taken almost two weeks but now we are getting 2-4 true leaves on the tomato. The pepper plants took almost 10 days to come up so no true leaves yet and not a single eggplant came up from the two year old seeds so I have just received the new seeds and will start some pots in the next few days.

Seed Potatoes

I want to plant potatoes this year in the garden. In order to plant potatoes you need "seed potatoes". Now every place I look in books or on-line the recommendations are to buy certified seed potatoes. I never see any in local stores and the ones on line are expensive. I have decided that I have been following the rules and regulations very closely and that it is time to "color outside the lines". The reasons given for not going to the local grocery store is that the spuds might be infected with viruses and that potatoes are sometimes sprayed with a chemical to keep them from budding out. I decided I would try some organic spuds and just see what will happen. They look pretty healthy and of course viruses are small so I cannot see them; however they are sprouting. Today I will cut them up and let the cut sides dry out for a few days making a scab before I plant them. We will know in a few months how it goes.

Daffodils

Daffodils are beautiful and remarkably hardy. Although we cannot eat them, the wonder of the daffodil is food for the souls and pleasure to the eye. They may look delicate but they are quite hardy and although we have had very unusual snow has not damaged this year’s. I have been taking the daffodils into work and for patients and I am surprised how good they look on day 3 and 4.
It has now be several years since I planted a few bulbs. No more than 3 or 4 in a patch that now look like they may have 12-16 flowers from splitting the bulbs.

I have good news about my tomato seedlings and can report that almost all pots have produced at least one if not two seedlings. However, I have yet to see any of shoots from the peppers or eggplant pots. It has been eight days. It may take a few more days to show but also the seeds are a year old. Seeds age and the longer you keep them they will be less robust and likely to sprout. I am still hoping to get a few and I really only need a few but this is one reason to consider buying new seeds each year and saving seed each year from your own garden. If you do save seeds you should remember that if they are hybrids like F1 that you will not get the same plant. More about that later.

Cold Week

This has been a cold weather weak but there has been some activity. I have planted things out side but really too cold for much to come up. The cold frame did work pretty well. I had moved the cabbage and lettuce to harden but then it was suppose to get down to 22 degrees. This was a little nerve wracking so I brought in most my plants. I decide to leave a few pots in the cold frame to seek how well it would work. I put the plants back out yesterday and the it looks like the cold frame did a good job. The ones that were outside for the nights look as good if not better than the ones I had brought in.

I also had seeded pots with tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. They can take a lot of time come up but at 6 days the cherry tomatoes are starting coming up. I haven't seen any thing else yet. I will be off for a few days but I hope that a few things will come up and I might be able to work on the strawberry bed or do some plowing on my third plot.

The daffodils are coming up and today we have blooms today I brought in a half dozen to the office.

Big Weekend on the Suburban Farm

Lots of activity this weekend. I have shifted the lettuces,(romaine and butter-head) cabbage, spinach and chard seedlings from the inside grow lights to the cold frame for hardening off. This means to have the plants have a chance to get use to cooler temperatures with the ability to protect them with cover from frost or heaven forbidden snow. Once the plants have come up and have at least 2 true leaves they can go outside. Strangely the chard has been the slowest growing to produce true leaves. Interesting the mature plant will have leaves that are 12-15 inches long when it is ready to harvest.

I then had room to start tomato, eggplant and pepper seedlings which will need at least 6 weeks before it is safe to go out side.

The other thing I got done was tilling and preparing the second of my three beds. With the extension of this garden bed will have about 300 square feet. I have enriched with compost, lime and rock dust for micro-nutrients. I will do some soil test of the area this week to check and see if any further adjustments are needed.

Seeds in the Ground

Today it was sunny and dry and the temperature got up to 70. I made the most of time and tilled, put up my sugar snap trellis and my cold frame. I was able to plant sugar snaps, beets, fava beans lettuce and rocket. I had good showing planting these things this early last year and I have enough seeds to plant again in two weeks if I should need to; or more likely to have another crop that will be offset by a few weeks to prolong the harvest. Today take a look at the trellis that I hope will be covered over in a few weeks with pea vines. My only worry about this is that I am using seeds from last year. With the passage of time the germination rate may drop but I have been able to plant my seeds densely to hopefully take this into account.

Broccoli Raab and the Bunny

At this point the only thing that I have in the ground is Broccoli Raab(BR) and some onions. The BR looks like it has just shrugged off the snow. I hope that I get a goodly amount in the next few months. These plants have been in the ground since the fall and should be poised to grow quickly now. Last year cabbage months got into the BR I planted in the spring and destroyed them before they could make. I need the crop to come in before the moths have a chance to migrate north. When mature they will look like little heads of broccoli but they have a stronger taste, more like cabbage or some of the other cruciforms. Tonight when I went out to supper there was a little bunny in the garden. I throw a piece of bric a brac at him to scare him off. He didn't flinch, but my wife objected to a second try...

Some people think that with such a strong taste the bunny probably will not want to eat the BR and others think it would be OK if he did, since they are not so sure they will want to eat it when it is ready anyway.
I will be putting some seeds in the ground this weekend, and it will be time to pot some warm weather things like eggplant, peppers and tomatoes, since you can get a 6 week head start toward producing a crop by starting the seedlings now. I will probably put some seeds out directly when it is time to transplant so if these plants tire the second crop will be on their way.