Seeds, Seeds, Seeds, When Will it Warm up?

Friday, May 20^th, I got the front 15 feet of the garden mapped out with string and stakes. Here is basically how the front of the garden will be planted. 

After all the mapping I was able to get a few plants and seeds planted, five strawberry plants, in an area that will get approximately 5 hours of direct sun a day and is approximately 2 feet by 4 feet. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 onions were planted from tiny plants and another 20 or so were donated to the neighbor or I would have had to rearrange the entire garden to make room for so many onions. I allocated an area approximately 12” wide by 6’ long for the onions. I finished up with Oregon Sugar Pod II Peas in an area 2’ x 5’ then Royal Burgundy Beans also in a 2’ x 5’ space. These are large and easy to plant seeds that are used by grade school students ,so I PRAY they come up or I might be shown up by mere children.

Saturday May 21 was typical Seattle area rainy weather. That said, I could reach and plant the carrots without stepping on the soil in the garden. I read that you shouldn’t walk on a wet garden, as it compresses the soil too much.  I believe it too, because when I was doing the heave hoeing to mix the soils to the original soil, I can attest that it was quite compacted from the walking we did on it while removing the sod when it was wet. I used a zig zag row to get a few more carrots in the area that is approximately 4’ x 18”. I think it’ll look interesting too and I’m just not one for straight rows. It’s my garden, and I hope the garden police won’t arrest me.

Sunday, May 22 was a little drier so I was able to step carefully into the garden away from existing plants and get a few more seeds planted including Squash, Spinach and Swiss Chard. I also decided to plant 6 small marigold plants.  My Mother-in-Law, who is a wonderful gardener, and grew up on a farm, suggested I plant them to help discourage various pests. I decided there was nothing to lose and it gives me some landmarks while I am in the garden or I might pull out the germinations as weeds.  Ugh.

Monday May 23 I took the day off.  The forecast was for rain and my injured wrist was really bugging me.  What was I thinking?  Seriously, what was I thinking with this project?  It didn’t rain as it turned out, but the garden seems to have retained some moisture and I don’t want the seeds to rot so I didn’t water.  The whole thing with watering has me totally discombobulated.  I’ll probably either kill the plants by letting them dry out too much, or I’ll keep them too wet, and drown them.  I love the gentle drizzle that we get here because it takes the onus off me to do the proper watering. 

Tuesday May 24, again forecast for rain, but alas, none.  I was bummed too because I could have played tennis outside, but elected not to with the forecast.  Could they just get it right?  Well, I decided to plant the beet seeds then watered the garden very gently. 

I only have one more seed packet to plant; Lemon Cucumbers which sound just delicious but the temps are not warm enough yet.  I also am still babying these tomato plants.  Keep your fingers crossed that we get warmer weather here soon.  My apologies to any readers suffering in blistering heat, terrible tornados or drought. I’ll try not to whine, seriously I will. 

Below is the facts spreadsheet that is indispensible to me in this project. 

Garden Facts Seeds from Territorial Seed Co in Oregon

Plant	Ph	Soil Temp to Plant	# Days	Seed Depth	Plant Date	Germination Date[1]	Harvest Date	Row Width	Thin spacing	Fertilize/ Soil Needs
Strawberries	Acidic	Perennial			5/20/2011 plants			n/a	n/a	Lightly when planted again when fruiting, everbearing consistent light fertilize
Tomato – Sweet Million Early Girl (I think)								2’ sq ea	24”
Cube of Butter Squash		60°	50	1 – 1 ½”	5/22 seed	5/27-6/19	Proj 7/19	24”	24”	Good fertile soil
Teton Spinach	6.5 – 7.5	45-70°	45-50	½”	5/22 seed	5/28 – 6/12	Proj 7/6	12”	3-6”	High Nitrogen
Bright Lights Swiss Chard		50-75°	60	½”	5/22 seed	5/28-6/8	Proj 7/29	18”	10 – 16” when plant is 3” high	When plant is 6” high fertilize
Chioggia Beet		55 - 70°	65	½”	5/24 seed	5/29 – 6/10	Proj 7/28	12” – 16”	3-4”	Moist rich- work in 2-3” of compost
Oregon Sugar Pod II Peas		40-75°	70	1 – 1 ½”	5/20 seed	5/28 – 6/14	Proj 7/29	18”	1”	Side dress when plant
Mokum Carrots	5.5 – 7.0	55 - 80°	56	¼”	5/21 seed	5/27 – 6/11		12” – 16”	1-3”	Not excessive nitrogen
Lemon Cucumbers		65 - 90°	70	½”				3’ square	1-2 plants in each hill	Under each group of seeds
Royal Burgundy Beans	5.5 – 6.5	65 - 85°	60	1”	5/20 seed	5/28 – 6/5	Proj 7/19	2’	2-3”	Not high nitrogen
Cortland & Walla Walla Onion					5/20 plant			4-5” apart	n/a	Regularly

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[1] Replace with actual germination date when it occurs – the range is to help me so I know when they should be showing their little heads J

Plant	Sun/ Heat	Watering	Other Notes:
Strawberries	Full sun		Mulch to protect berries and hold moisture – mulch deeply before winter, rake off in spring. Pinch off earliest blooms each year (all flowers cut off at planting time), pinch off all runners to get smaller numbers of large fruit or leave runners for smaller fruit but higher quantity. Rainier is June bearing, Tribute and Quinault are everbearing.
Tomato	Full Sun
Cube of Butter Squash	Full Sun	Just barely damp soil to germinate	Can rub male flowers to female flowers to aid pollination. Hill the soil and plant 3 seeds in each hill then then to 1 -2 plants per hill.
Teton Spinach	Sun but not too hot		For baby – harvest when leaves are 3-4”
Bright Lights Swiss Chard	Partial sun
Chioggia Beet	Full Sun	Keep soil moist to prevent crusting over	Prefer rich, deep moist soil – then when 3-4” tall
Oregon Sugar Pod II Peas	Full Sun	Frequent ground watering, cool water, keep soil moist – mulched at planting	30” tall, spread out planting 6-8 days, use support on plants. I’ll put in seeds where some failed to germinate to spread the season – otherwise planted entire row on 5/20
Mokum Carrots	Full sun	Even soil moisture at all times, irrigate well just prior to harvest to ensure roots have absorbed maximum water.	Very smooth soil – work in lots of compost – clumpy soil will make crooked roots. Add 1-3” of soil when plant has 7 leaves or so to prevent tops of carrot to be green. These carrots need to be hand harvested carefully.
Lemon Cucumbers	Full Sun		Plant several seeds in a hill and thin to 1-2 plants in each hill
Royal Burgundy Beans	Full Sun	Mulch around shallow roots to maintain moisture – did at planting, can add as plants emerge	Plant a few days apart for different cropping’s 24” tall plants, one row. I didn’t plant on multiple days but can put seeds in the missing spots where they failed to germinate.
Sweet onion	Full Sun	Need moisture near surface	Harvest when tops are yellow and begin to fall over Walla Walla and Cortland. Walla Walla are closest to the street

Mid May Garden Progress

After removing the sod, the garden soil had to be increased and improved a bit. Overall the soil here is pretty nice but much of it went with the sod. It’s now in a huge pile along the fence in the backyard which will be another big project this summer after the grass in it dies. I’m beginning to really wonder what the H__ I was thinking. Someone should have suggested I have my head examined, but my friends are too nice. Please everyone, next time, don’t be so nice. I am not exactly sure how much time I spent heave hoeing heavy wet bags of Bumper Crop and Organic Garden Soil then spreading and digging them into the existing soil, turning and breaking up and mixing. By the time I finished, I was so exhausted I could barely walk into the house, remove clothes and shower. My memory of eating is completely gone but my lovely husband cooked something and I shoved it into my gob hole. Just a short while later I was grateful for our Tempu-pedic mattress and let the aches melt away overnight.  My body is a pretty achy thing these days and this bed is helpful in getting a decent night’s sleep and recovering the body to get up and do more. I realized that blogging after this kind of effort is almost impossible, so I hope you’ll all understand if the description doesn’t come immediately after the effort. I think the most physically difficult part is done, at least for the front 15 feet. The back 14 feet still have remnants of sod and needs a lot of additional soil and amendments before it will be ready for anything. Maybe that section won’t get planted this year, maybe never, or maybe something like blueberry bushes. I’m already wondering how long my body is going to hold up in this little misadventure of mine.

After all the tilling and turning, I attempted to test the Ph of the soil, to see if I needed to make any changes to that. I don’t know if I totally botched the tests, but it looks like the garden soil is somewhere in the 6.0 – 6.5 range, which I think is going to be fine for just about everything, except the spinach, so I will spread a little lime for that. I am also taking the advice of a gardener at Molbaks about the slugs here. I’ll use a product called Sluggo which is approved for organic gardens and is less messy than beer bait. On the other hand, pouring beer in the garden could be fun. Drink a gulp, pour a gulp, drink a can, pour a bit . . . hummm.

With the garden bed nearly ready, and the temperatures of the soil getting close to what the seeds need, I realized that I needed a layout for all the plants. The spreadsheet came in helpful as these plants can get quite large from a tiny little seed, or not so big. It all needs to be planned out, or a novice can get a million beans and only a couple onions, or other equally awful combinations. I probably will end up with an awful combination anyway, as I have no idea how much these plants will produce. I used the information available to me and made a plan trying to give the sunny spots to the sun loving plants and the ones needing more cool temps areas farther back where they’ll get shade during the hottest part of the day. I also had to take into account a pipe running through the middle of the garden and not plant anything over it as it isn’t that deep.

At this point I have seeds for Cube of Butter Squash, Teton Spinach, Bright Lights Swiss Chard, Chioggia Beet (organic), Oregon Sugar Pod II Peas, Mokum Carrots, Lemon Cucumbers and Royal Burgundy Beans. I have Strawberry plants, Rainier, Tribute and Quinault, Tomato plants Early Girl and Sweet Million and Onions, Cortland and Walla Walla. It’s too cold at night to plant the tomatoes so they are being babied in the garage at night and out during the day. It needs to stay above 55° at night before they can go out.

Better Late Than Never

Early May 2011

So, I’ve always wanted to see if I could sustain myself without a grocery store within 10 feet of my home.  I know it is impossible, I could never live far from a grocery store, but knowing that, doesn’t mean I can’t try, just this once, to grow some of my own food.  So, this is the summer to do it, before I am so old and decrepit, that the thought of bending down, to put a seed in the soil would break my back.  How difficult can it be?  Well, let me tell you, extremely difficult, if you weren’t taught all the particulars before embarking on this kind of adventure.  So, before I even start, I have to have all my excuses firmly in place.  My Father sold insurance, as did his Father, My Mother was a housewife, for the most part, but did grow some killer tomatoes, once.  Otherwise, she knew very little about gardening.  Her Father worked in a casino, in addition to being a soldier in WWI, but I digress. 

I’m more than half way through my life, and living where we have beautiful fertile soil and a decent sized lot, so it has to be now or never.  If I don’t at least try, another one of my life’s dreams will go unfulfilled.  I should have started this blog weeks ago, as I’ve already spent hours and hours reading pages and pages of books, seed descriptions, and particulars about the Puget Sound area of the Pacific Northwest.  The King County Extension Office Web Site is very helpful. http://king.wsu.edu/gardening/  O.K.  I should be able to grow anything, basically, if you stick it in the ground here it grows; alright, already.  I still think it is important to understand what you are doing.  When I decided to do this I was definitely in the Unconsciously Incompetent group, I didn’t even know what I didn’t know and certainly didn’t imagine it to be so involved.  If I would have imagined it, I would have opted for some bushes, and weekly trips to the wonderful farmer’s markets; which we still may be doing.  I have moved slightly towards the Consciously Incompetent group with all this reading.  I am seriously jealous of the Unconsciously Competent Gardeners who don’t even realize what they know, they just do it, and successfully to boot.  I hope to become Consciously Competent someday.  Let’s see how close I get this summer. 

My fantastic husband has helped, he is much bigger and stronger than me so can pull out sod so much more efficiently.  We have mostly removed the sod from an area approximately 29 feet by 9 feet.  The entire garden is completely in shade from the neighbors house, on the right in the photo, in the morning and our house starts to shade the garden by 4 in the afternoon.  The front 10 feet get sun from late morning to 8pm or so.  I might already be screwed by selecting this site, as I said, I have no idea what I am doing. 

I ordered seeds from Territorial Seed Co in Oregon http://www.territorialseed.com/ their web site is wonderful, with sowing, thinning, watering, fertilizing, Ph and other information about potential pests, diseases and problems for each so I printed those sheets out for each and have created a spread sheet to help me keep all this information handy as my brain is more like a sieve than a repository of information these days. 

I am also lucky to have a couple good gardening nurseries to get advice and products from.  The closest is Bellevue Nursery http://www.bellevuenursery.com/ and another great one is Molbaks Nursery http://www.molbaks.com/. 

My goal is to grow all the various plants without any chemicals and to use only organic products.  The seeds may not be organic as I am looking for hybrids that grow well here.  I can use all the help I can get.