Behind The Times Garden Planning

Now that spring's almost here, so many are posting pictures of their garden plans. Every last one I've seen has been made in either an on-line garden hosting program, the google sketch, Excel and even Audocad (sp?). For however computer savvy I may consider myself to me, all of these programs are so far beyond me. I prefer graph paper and pencil. Yes, I hear the stomping of dinosaurs as well, and no, I didn't walk to school both ways uphill in the snow.

I'm not comfortable sitting in front of a computer and mapping things out. I get fidgety, or there's someone that needs something, and if I want a quick change in something I have to go to the computer, load the program, wait, and then fix it. Keeping my plans on paper allows me so much movement. I can take the plans to work or to watch the kids play in the park, but honestly, I mostly take them to the couch with me at night. Planning the garden and holding that pencil, knowing I can change the whole feel of the garden with one stroke is so cathartic to me. There are times when I just lay on the couch with the pad on my lap and never really change one thing, but I know that I could.

This year I've taken to keeping a graph paper notebook which is infinitely better than the loose leaf papers I have had scattered around. I've a colored graph for each season and each of my three garden sections have their own page within that season. For example:

This is this past fall's plan for the corner yard. It's obviously been well loved and I've written in actual planting days and successes and failures as the season continued. I have a red graph for each of the two other beds on the immediate following pages.
Here's the plan for the spring side yard. This is my section with the most sun and you can SERIOUSLY tell in the difference in production. The onions are already in place and I'm thinking of leaving the far right box empty and doing half of the left box with turnips and leaving the other half blank for early summer planting. I wrote several notes and questions to myself around the graph. I obviously got caught in the rain with this page opened.

Last, this is the tentative summer plan for the other corner yard, again with the questions and comments. The main corner yard's summer plan is going to be under serious review in April when I find out if I've gained any more sun with the removal of the overhanging tree. You can also see my notes in the first graph that acorns were a problem, but they should be greatly minimized this next year.

Looking at the graphs I realize that I need to change my color coordination. The blue should be fall, green spring like it is, and the red summer. I might do that for next year. The good thing about having it all in this notebook is that I can go back year after year and see what I planted where and try to rotate things as much as sun exposure/shade factor will allow.

How's your planting grids coming?

The morning comes early. Especially when you have a boy who doesn't understand it's against the law to wake up at 5:30 on the weekends.

Sweet gardening dreams.

Keeping Garden Secrets

"Mom!" screamed the boy when exited the school bus, "Why can't a garden keep a secret?"

Note elongated pause while I dutifully played along ...."Well, I don't rightly know, honey. Why can't it?"

"Because the potatoes have eyes and the corn has ears!"

It's such a timeless joke told most likely from generation to generation. I remember getting a kick out of the same joke as a child, but I'm not sure my reaction was anything like his. He was hysterical. He had just told the best joke on the planet and his laughter at his own joke couldn't be contained. He staggered to the car, consumed with his laughter, and lay prostrate on the floorboard of the car, literally unable to pick himself up because he was overcome with the belly laugh and the snorts and repetitive utterance of the punch line over and over. "Potatoes and eyes!" he eked out between the giggles. "Potatoes, eyes and corn-ears!" The boy laughed so uncontrollably, tears streamed down his face. I couldn't help but join in.

He came to himself again. Picked himself up from the floor of the car panting and wheezing to calm himself down. We drove in silence for about 30 seconds when he said, "Mom. Potatoes can't see me and my corn didn't listen last year when I told it to grow. That joke makes no sense."

That's precisely when I pulled the car over and gave in to my own hysterics.

On to the gardening! The cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli seedlings are coming along. All of the new broccoli seeds germinated, but you can still see they're behind the others. Thank goodness the broccoli is in its own container so I can separate them from the other flat.
The lettuce seedlings are still under the Saran Wrap waiting to germinate. I can't remember off hand how long it takes lettuce to germinate, but hopefully we'll see some growth soon.

Oddly, last fall I dumped out a packet of lettuce seeds by mistake when the dog brushed my arm. They germinated earlier this fall, but had almost negligent growth. Not even the size of a quarter. The 8 degree temps of a few weeks ago did them in. So I thought. Now I've got quarter sized lettuce growing and I'm wondering if I should just thin them and let them be or remove them entirely so I can amend the bed if I ever get a dry weekend. We can't seem to go three or four days without rain. We're expecting freezing rain this weekend. I can never remember a winter with 2 winter events. Odd, that.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

On Lettuce Seeds and Lobsters

There's a lot of debate regarding our impact on the Earth. We deplete the ozone layer, contribute to global warming, fill her with trash, rage against her weather and garden pests and generally behave towards her like a spoiled child as we stomp out our carbon footprints as we march off towards our room to slam the door.

She'll win in the end. She always does. She puts the most succulent of meats inside a rock hard shell, terms it 'lobster,' prices it to where you have to mortgage your house to afford it and laughs her pretty self silly as she watches us with pliers and bibs, cursing and raging to the point we swear we'll never eat that blasted thing again. Until the next time.

Lettuce seeds are right up there on her payback list. I started some of my lettuce in flats tonight...I think. I had the seeds in my hand; that at least I know. I picked them up, placed them in the soil, only to find some hiding under my finger nails three cells later. Which cell didn't get planted? Were these extras that hitchhiked rides along the way? Who knows. I'll let them sprout and then figure it out. You won, lady. You reign supreme, hands down. Your flowers, sunsets, mountains and beaches aren't so shabby, either.

I had two types of lettuce mixes that I ordered one was a gourmet blend and the other a heatwave blend.
The seeds I attempted to work with tonight were the gourmet blend. I'm going to wait to direct sow the heatwave blend since hopefully they'll withstand bolting as long as possible. I remembered to water down the soil before I planted this time and covered the flats with plastic wrap until they sprout. I know some lettuce needs light to germinate so these went directly under the lights to join the cole crops. In a few days, I should know what cells those rogue seeds came from.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Following The Example of Others

Ever since I expanded the garden no less than three times last year and went from 18 sqft to 204 sqft in one year, I now realize I have almost enough room to plant everything I could ever wish for. Then I think to myself, does anyone REALLY need 9 sqft of carrots or 20 sqft of radishes? I've found the answer is yes! Yes you do, especially if you spread the love through different varieties.

We're not adventurous eaters. I know I could grow all sorts of different squashes or peppers and cucumbers, but really, one kind is usually enough for us, given the exception of tomatoes. Yet I've been reading the seed lists and planting schedules of others recently and decided there were a few areas I could really branch out, namely carrots and radishes.

I've already planned on growing the basic red radish, my father's black radishes and the German blue radishes Stefaneener sent realized this wasn't such new territory after all, so I ordered some watermelon radish seeds as well which I hope will prove a nice contrast with the basic red ones.

I also ordered a purple carrot and a white carrot to go along with my basic carrot seeds I already purchased. There should be one more bright yellow carrot coming in the mail shortly.

So there you have it. I'm entering new territory and living on the edge, or at least it's as close to the edge as I'll get this year....anyone see the need for an armenian cucumber? Or rather, what off the beaten path variety of veggie can you not live without?

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Movin' On Up - The High Rise Is Complete

For my birthday last year, the man agreed to let me build three more boxes in the other corner yard. They only got built in June, so I didn't get much use out of them, but I had high hopes for them for this year since the location gets a bit more sun than the main corner yard does. I built the boxes rather quickly and honestly thought that the six inches and eight inches I chose for the depth would be fine even though I knew from my first foray into raised beds from Fall of 2008 that it wouldn't be. Still, I chose to save the money on the wood and build them anyway.

Now I'm adding an addition to them and turning them into a high rise to be the depth they should have been all along.

The man, graciously as always, cut all of the boards for me. In the other corner yard, there's two 3x3 and one 8x4 bed that need additions.

I stacked the boxes.

The screws we had were too long, so I went out and got some two inch lengths and went outside to try my hand at screwing in the connecting blocks, myself. I could do it. Why couldn't I do it without help? It's a drill and screws; it practically works by itself.

I'm shamefully not as cool as I thought I was.

My Bert and Ernie arms couldn't hold the drill, press down on the drill and then hold the block in place while making sure not to shift the box on top. I got one side of one box done, practically stripping the screw bit to do so, and if you lean your head to the side, or have a stiff drink before viewing the picture, it doesn't look too bad. OK, so it looks bad. EG, I saw you cringe.

I gracefully conceded defeat, however the dog who witnessed my crushing failure wouldn't agree that graceful was the right word, but I packed it up and came to ask for help. The man's right. I'm "not qualified."

We went out to tackle the job together and I don't know if I feel better or worse. He struggled almost as much as I did. It turns out I couldn't have bought worse screws if I had tried. They had no bite whatsoever. So it wasn't all my shortcoming, but I was responsible in the long run. So, does that make me more or less qualified?

Here are the finished raised-raised beds. Next weekend looks cold, but sunny for both days, so I'm likely going to get the compost then to try to start filling these babies and top off my other beds as well.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Seedling Update

The broccoli seedlings I replanted are starting to germinate. I hate it that they're going to be behind their cabbage counterparts, but it should be good in the long run. There's only one cell in the middle of the back row that hasn't sprouted. That's okay odds with me. Some of the cells have two seedlings, so maybe I can manage to divide one and use it to fill the spot in the garden.
The soil dries out very quickly as you can tell. We have a dehumidifier in the basement which sucks all of the moisture out. If we didn't have it, I'd be growing mushrooms as well. I just have to make sure I water everything frequently.

The cabbage and cauliflower seedlings are doing very well. They're actually looking robust which is nice for how cold it is in that basement. It gives me hope that those broccoli seedlings will toughen up as they grow.

See! Some are even starting to sport their true leaves. Just a few more short weeks and they'll be in the garden.

I'm hoping to get the additions to the beds on this weekend and fetch the compost to refill the beds. It's going to rain on Sunday, so if I'd need to get it done on Saturday if anything.

I know the added depth is going to be a huge asset when it comes to larger harvests. I don't know why I didn't just go ahead and make the beds to the depth I wanted to begin with. Hindsight and all that, I suppose.

I'll be starting some lettuce and spinach seedlings here in a week or two. The fun's really about to begin!

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Onions Thinned, But Not My Waistline

I'm just amazed to see the stems of those onions expand like they are. Last year's onions were a total flop and I can honestly see that these onions are really going to bulb up. I went ahead and thinned out some of the plants that were looking too close together and boy were those roots deep! Take a look:
For each one, I actually had to dig down below the bulb, hook my finger under the bulb and through the roots and pull with all my might. It was more difficult to get them out than I thought it would be.

They didn't weigh much, but I'm starting my 2010 totals on the side. Last year I kept the weight by vegetable, but this year I'm thinking I may just keep an over all total. What do you all do?

We had my parents over for supper the other night and baked a brie topped with the conserve I made earlier. This is before it was baked, but it was nice and buttery, nutty and sweet.
I'm going to try to fix my bowed boxes and hopefully build my high rises this weekend so I can fetch my compost either this weekend or next. It's getting to be about that time. My records show I had already planted out a LOT of things by this time last year, but I also remember much of that failing or needing to replant a lot of it. I'm thinking to keep the spring veggies light this year. Covering everything with straw on and off last year was for the birds. I'm itching to get started in earnest with the summer crops!

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Dear Mr. Nefarious Seedling Eater,

It seems we are at an impasse.

I am disheartened to see your antics of this past fall have transferred to the spring. Your decisions to prey on the weak, the feeble, and the vulnerable have less than endeared me to your character. You nibble on seedlings on the ground. Understandable. The yard is your home as well, but then last fall you chanced to hazard the romp up the deck stairs, over the screen mesh of the porch and then onto the deck where you dined on my potted Swiss chard. You've done the same again to my cole crop seedlings. Is nothing sacred?

I suppose I should thank you for decimating my week old seedlings instead of well established ones, however I'm not feeling charitably solicitous for your discerning tastes have led you to nibble only on the few growing broccoli seedlings and not the plethora of cabbage or cauliflower ones I started for no reason. Not that this is an invitation to lunch tomorrow, but it illustrates my consternation.

I will not be thwarted, Mr. Nefarious Seedling Eater. You may have won this round, but the weekend is fast approaching and I'm a fair shot with a straw and spit ball.

Until then,
Ribbit

Sharing Is Caring, Except For When It's Yuck-Foo

I usually say "The morning comes early," which isn't a lie. It usually does.

But when you never get to go to bed, the morning looks far off, indeed.

The girl brought home yuck-foo (the crud, stomach bug, virus, whatever) on Friday and she's gracefully shared it with us. The man started feeling it around 9:00 last night. I got it around midnight and now the boy has woken up. He hasn't horked yet but he knows he doesn't feel right so he and the man are soothing their sick bellies with Batman cartoons while I fiddle on the computer and wait for the next wave.

At least it's a school holiday.
Hope everyone stays yuck-foo-free.

The Pay-It-Forward Packages Arrived Safely!

I'm pleased to say that both of my pay-it-forward packages made it safely to their destinations.

One went to Kalena Michele in College Park, Georgia, USA and the other went to Mangocheeks all the way in Scotland. I let the boy and the girl pull the names from the hat and one pulled the closest entrant to us (College Park is about an hour and a half south of us; spitting distance, really) and the other pulled the farthest. I thought it couldn't be more perfect if we had tried.

If you missed out on this round and would like a chance at playing again, go to either or both of their blogs right now to enter their drawings.

Kalena Michele at Amira's Blog
Mangocheeks at Allotment 2 Kitchen

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Seed Starting Part II....OK, Only Some Seeds Starting

Last weekend I started some broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seeds in cell packs in order to transplant them in a month or so. My seed starting setup is in our unheated basement so it stays pretty cold down there. For those of you who have never had the pleasure, here it is:
No laughing. It really works rather well. It's just a piece of plywood wedged between two unfinished walls and one supporting it in the middle, but it's not really holding it up since the horizontal board is wedged so tight. It stays pretty darn cold down there so what grows, grows slowly, but it does grow, which is better than nothing at all.

I mainly wanted to start the broccoli seeds. I'm going to have 9 broccoli plants. Not a lot for many of you, but I decided to checkerboard them again this year. The one per sqft planting did not work out for me this fall, so it's back to what I know will work. Those things just need more room.

I've failed each time with cabbage and cauliflower. I bought some smaller cabbage that's supposed to be better for SFGardening, but I'm still going to checkerboard them. I put three cells of cauliflower. Why? Beats me. I suppose I'll keep on trying since I have the seed.

Now the seedlings are starting to emerge. Look at the pretty seedlings on the left and the bare cells on the right.
Murphy's Law. It's unavoidable. The cabbage and cauliflower are in the left pack. The broccoli, with only two cells sprouting, is the right.

Well, what'ya gonna do. I'll give the broccoli a few more days. The seed is last year's seed and I'm not an experienced seed storer so that may be why they're not sprouting. Instead of ordering new seed, I'm going to let the packs they sell at the stores suffice. However, they haven't put the seed racks out here yet. I thought I remembered MLK weekend as the go-to date last year, but I'm sure they'll be out at least by Valentine's Day.

I may leave the cells outside for the next few days and just bring them in at night to see how they'll do with the real sun. Yesterday, our low was 23 and we made it to 61 for the high. Amazing. We're in for a few week stretch of 50 degree weather. Do you think if I put them outside in the morning when I go to work that they'll enjoy the sun during the day and be content to go in and out?

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Bridging the Gap

2009 was a banner year for The Corner Yard.

2009 was the first year for The Corner Yard, so I don't suppose I should be surprised having nothing to compare it to. We did have that small container garden that didn't produce a single cucumber or zucchini and the handful of little yellow pear tomatoes can't hold a candle to what we grew this year. Ok, so we went from six pots to 204 sqft. Hold the *duh* factor. I'm giddy and I'll spin the tale as I like, so...2009 was a banner year for The Corner Yard. ;)

I harvested 136 lbs. Which, honestly, from 204 sqft isn't a lot, but I didn't add the other corner yard or the side yards until well into the summer growing season and everything I planted in the other corner yard failed, so I can only imagine next year will be better.

Here is the last harvest from the 2009 garden...harvested in 2010.

I pulled all of the remaining broccoli regardless of how it looked since it didn't seem to be growing anymore, and after the week of 20 and below temperatures, I figured I was lucky it looked as good as it did. We'll be enjoying them tonight!

The only things left in that garden are the onions, garlic and the rosemary bush that keeps hanging on. Even though I counted this broccoli in with the 2009 harvests, I'm thinking of counting the garlic and onions in with 2010 since they were planted with the intent to harvest in 2010.

In other good news, I came home today to find two seed packs from Dan at Urban Veggie Garden Blog. He sent along two varieties of tomato seeds, one Black Cherry and the other Cherokee Purple.
I've never tried to start tomatoes from seed before. I'm excited to give it a shot, but nervous as well. We don't have a single window with a northern or southern exposure, and the windows that get eastern exposure are shielded with a porch awning and the western light is blocked by the woods out back. The basement light set up is too cold to support tomato seeds, but I'm thinking I may be able to smooth talk one of the teachers with a window in my school or my neighbor into renting me space on a ledge in exchange for seedlings. I really, really have my fingers crossed that I can get these to work.
Thank you, Dan!! You've helped to sustain my neurosis until planting time.

The morning comes early. Sweet seed starting dreams!

Spring Seed Starting

It doesn't feel like it outside, but Spring isn't far away. What remaining broccoli was in the side yard will come out this afternoon and all that will be left in any of the gardens will be the onions, garlic and rosemary. The 18 degree temperatures killed off what remaining radishes and lettuce I had attempted to grow out there, but the soil is frozen solid, so I can't pull out the remains yet.


By last year's calendar, this is when I started my cole crop seedlings to transplant in mid February. I went to my local big box and other stores that usually carry seeds, and contrary to what other people around the country have said, our local stores haven't started stocking any seeds or seed starting supplies yet. It's a good thing I still had some seeds and seed starting medium left over from last year.

Today I started my broccoli (Green Goliath). This has done wonderfully for me in the past and I'm glad to grow it again. I must be a glutton for punishment because I split a flat with cauliflower and cabbage. I've never gotten cauliflower to grow - this will be my third attempt, and my adventure with cabbage was well documented earlier this fall. I figured one more go and then I concede defeat.

The cabbage is Green Gonzalez. The description read it had smaller heads and was conducive to intensive or raised bed gardening, so it was worth a shot.

I mixed together some potting soil and seed starting medium and filled two 9 hole cell packs that I saved from last year. I put two seeds per cell being that they were last year's seeds and I was banking that they'd sprout. I did forget to wet the soil down BEFORE I put the seeds in their places, so I'm hopeful things will still go well.

Next, I covered the flats with a plastic bag and put them on the kitchen counter until they germinate. Once they germinate, I'll throw them in the basement under the light set up. It's pretty darn cold out there, but the light does give off some heat.

In a few weeks, I'll start my lettuce mixes in cell packs. I'll run short of space under the lights, but hopefully by that time, the broccoli will be able to spend some time outside in the sun during the day and the lettuce can be pampered under the lights.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Oatmeal Cookies To the Rescue!

Sorry! I don't have an excellent cookie recipe to share. I wish I could help you there, but I honestly don't bake from scratch and I'm okay with using the Betty Crocker oatmeal cookie mix. Having a bag or two around the house never hurts when you get iced in and it's too inhumanely cold outside to garden.

Today was one of those days. The boy and girl have both convinced themselves that they are too old for naps. The boy, at almost 6, I understand. The girl, at almost 3, is just trying to hang with the big dog. Inevitably, as the day wears on, we get cranky, groggy and generally combative, so we decided to make cookies to quell the rising squall.
The girl decided making cookies was hard work so she had to take of her sweatshirt.

They ate their cookies, scrumptious, might I add, and we then moved the party to include an early, early bath. After much splashing and general glee, the boy and I did some laundry while the girl went downstairs to play and the man braved the icy streets and went to the grocery. After 10 minutes or so of laundry, the boy got bored and went to play with his sister....who was not in the playroom as expected.
See. She's not there. We screamed her name and ran outside, upstairs, and in the back yard. I was almost in full panic mode. Maybe the man had taken her to the store...but she was wearing a night dress and couldn't go out like that. I went back to the playroom to look in the closets when....look through the window in the second partition of the doll house.....
Looks like we're not beyond naps after all.

The morning comes early, and I need a stout beverage to settle my nerves. Sweet gardening dreams.

That Errand...

Looks like I should have darted out for the beer and frozen pizza after all. Schools are closed today. Yes, this is the extent of the snow, and this is your cue to snicker, but it's the ice on the roads that is causing the difficulty. Minimal ice, but ice none-the-less, and we're ill equipped to handle the situation.

Regardless, it's still funny.

Whereas the beer and pizza would have been prudent, who needs the traditional snow-cry of the Southern man of "white bread and milk" anyway when you've got biscuits with Stefaneener's "sweet honey" as the boy calls it. Perfection in a jar.

The morning will come cold and early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Y'all Northern Folk Get the Last Laugh

Go on. Chortle from deep in your belly. We southerners just can't handle snow.

Actually, we can't even handle the idea snow might fall. The word 'snow' makes us all dash to the grocery for white bread and milk to sustain us through a meager dusting, but we all do our duty and panic unmercifully and watch the weather continuously just in case a rogue flake rears its ugly head.

We're expected to get a dusting tomorrow.
A dusting, mind you, and schools are closing left and right. Some are releasing kids tomorrow at noon. I remember a few years ago we canceled school for the threat of snow which never fruitioned.
Go on. Laugh.

Now, I concede that we don't have the ability to handle snow like the north does. Salt trucks are limited and I honestly have never seen a plow. Ice IS dangerous. We, as drivers, are ill equipped with the know-how in order to navigate in icy conditions. No one is arguing that, but the chicken little routine is over the top.

So, now I've said this and the reports will be wrong and we'll wind up getting 3-4 inches which would constitute a major snowfall in this area. The white bread and milk may not be such a bad idea after all....but I may just substitute my panic for beer and frozen pizza.

Old Man Winter Bites

I know I've got nothing to complain about. Many of you have high temperatures now that are lower than our lows at the moment, and technically, I'm not complaining; I'm stating fact.


It's down-right frigid out there. It's unnatural, I tell you. Our weather dude said this was the coldest January with the longest running cold snap in 15 years. I'm thinking that deserves a blog post in itself. It's not supposed to get above freezing until after this weekend which is just odd for GA, especially in January. February usually has a few doozie days, but this is early and fierce.

The extra garlic in the little pot has prostrate itself and is begging for mercy. Those limp tendrils echo the plight of their sisters in the corner yard. Hopefully they'll perk up once winter is over and grow enough to be harvested. It's my first go with garlic, but I'm hopeful.

The onions in the side bed are also feeling the burn. However, these are doing MUCH better than the ones I planted last year and have even fattened up quite a bit. I actually think I may get some to bulb up for me this spring. This will be a very nice treat. I need to thin a few out, but I feel a lot of soup coming our way soon, so I'll pull them for use in that.

Oddly enough, the remaining broccoli shoots that I planted willy nilly in the side yard, under the chimney so they don't get any rain and I haven't touched them with a hose or bucket, the ones I've completely ignored and said, "Eh, if they grow, they grow," are scorning Old Man Winter and enjoying their lives just fine. You know, I've almost forgotten the joy of pulling things from the garden. We got so inundated with broccoli that I'm delaying picking this last batch just a little bit longer. I wonder if I'll get the excitement back when it comes time to plant and harvest for the spring year after year. Last year I was chomping at the bit; this year I feel a bit more reserved and patient. I'm sure I will gear up as soon as the time comes to start my spring transplants in just a couple of weeks and then I'll rally as the jungle emerges. That first ripe tomato will also help out quite a bit, I imagine.

I'm thinking then, maybe this cold isn't so bad after all. Oh, it's miserable alright, but may not be a deal breaker. It provides a well needed respite and allows you to decompress and rally the troops. There's a lot to look forward to, and wonderful seed catalogues and cider to keep me warm. It's time to dig out my graph paper and begin planning in earnest. I think the planning is almost as enjoyable as the harvesting.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.