Month: February 2011

10-day-old plants

The baby plants for the winter garden are now 10 days old. So far, things are going pretty well for a first effort, but there are some problems. I’m afraid that some of the plants may already be too leggy. Some of the seeds weren’t deep enough, and some plants fell over, though they were able to send down a root. I had very poor germination with the Wakefield cabbage, for reasons I don’t understand. [See correction: It wasn’t the Wakefield cabbage.]

Lessons learned so far: The grow-light should have been lower to provide more intense light and reduce legginess. I need better forceps to place the seeds at the right depth in the growing media. I’m hoping that the legginess can be corrected when I transfer the plants to potting soil in peat moss cups.

These plants are all for the early garden: cabbage, broccoli, brussels spouts, cauliflower, and celery. I also have lettuce and snow pea seeds, which I will plant directly into the ground. I’m shooting for March 15 for planting things outdoors, depending on the weather. When these plants have been moved outdoors, I’ll start seeds for the summer garden — tomatoes, squash, etc.

Work day

There was an area of garden I would have liked to till last fall, but I didn’t, because there were a couple of small trees in the way that needed to be transplanted first. Ken transplanted those trees today and did the tilling. We’re only about a month away, I hope, from planting the early crops. In the photo above, Ken has dug up one of the trees and put it in the wheelbarrow. Patience has approached to admire Ken’s digging.


Next: Ken with the tiller


With the tilling done, the chickens now cluster around to explore the fresh-dug dirt.


That’s Patience at Ken’s left hand. She has a huge crush on Ken.


The hawk mesh over the entire garden is almost done. I have to pick up more fishing line, though, before Ken can finish the job. He calculates that he has used about 1.6 miles of fishing line so far. We’re confident that the fishing line will keep the hawks away from the chickens. But it remains to be seen how long the fishing line will last. A long time, I hope, because it was a huge amount of work for Ken putting it up.

Spring fever day


Sunday was sunny, and the temperature was above 50F. Everyone, including the cat and the chickens, had spring fever. Even the cabbage and broccoli seeds, planted less than 48 hours ago, had sprouted in their little indoor hothouses (photos later this week when the plants are bigger). The chickens had a nice long day outside under Ken’s watchful eye. But they constantly scan the sky. At one point, when two hawks were circling, the chickens all went back into the chicken house.


The first thing Ken did was to put up a new bluebird house. We now have three bluebird houses.


After much thinking and discussion, we finally decided that the best way to protect the chickens from the hawks is to tie fishing line, spaced about 12 inches apart, along the top of the garden fence. This is a big job and will take some time, but when you become attached to your chickens, you’ll do whatever it takes to protect them. The fishing line isn’t visible in the photo above, but it does show up in the next photo below.


Some of the strands of fishing line can be seen to the left of the bluebird house.


Ken is about 25 percent done with the fishing line project.


We found quite a lot of animal poop in the garden, in the thick patch of winter rye grass. Neither Ken nor I can distinguish rabbit poop from deer poop, but this almost certainly has to be rabbit poop. It’s very doubtful that deer could get over the 8-foot fence. And if deer had been into the garden, there’d be tracks. The poor hungry rabbits need the winter grass, so we’ll wait until spring to try to find and block the places where the rabbits are getting under the fence. And part of the plan for next winter is to plant a stand of winter rye grass near the rabbit patch, particularly to provide winter food for the rabbits.


The winter rye does look delicious, doesn’t it? It has been a great winter salad for the chickens.

Time to start seeds for the early garden

This year, I’m determined to start everything in the garden from seed, using heirloom seeds. If I’m calculating planting dates and starting times correctly, then now’s the time to start seeds indoors for the early garden — cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, etc. When those things are in the ground, then I’ll start the seeds for the summer garden — tomatoes, squash, etc. For the early garden, I also bought seeds for lettuce and snow peas, but those don’t need to be started early indoors.

To do this, I bought a seed-starting system from Park Seeds. This includes the growing media, the little greenhouses, fluorescent grow lights, a soil warming mat, etc.

The grow lights are hooked to a timer to turn the lights on and off as appropriate. The warming mat keeps the soil warm while the seeds are germinating.

I ordered my seeds online from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

As an experiment, I’m going to try to grow some celery. I doubt that celery will like my soil and climate, but I’m going to see how it goes. And, of course, the reason I’m using heirloom seeds is that I want to learn how to save my own seeds from year to year.

I’ll post more photos when I have some baby plants.


Park’s “Bio Dome” seed-starting system


A thermostat controls the soil-warming mat.


A timer controls the grow lights.