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rainbowgardener
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Green peppers have true leaves now, two weeks after the seeds were planted. Continuing to plant, today planted sweet alyssum and sage. The first shelf is now filled and I will soon switch on the third pair of lights (starting on the second shelf)...

Looking at our weather forecast, I think the broccoli plants will go out Sun afternoon for their first taste of the outdoors, to start hardening...

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rainbowgardener
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Just updating... along with all the above, I have now planted nasturtium, purple millet. hyacinth bean vine, nicotiana. I replanted salvia and parsley since some of my 2010 seeds didn't take and planted some more of webmaster's heirloom tomatoes.

Broccoli, dill and fennel are still going in and out hardening off, since the weather has so been so variable and lots of strong wind storms. We didn't get tornados where I am, but very windy thunderstorms. Not good weather for little seedlings. Green pepper and cardinal climber have been potted up... Long way to go with all the transplanting and up-potting!!

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rainbowgardener
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Quick update. Planted squash yesterday (indoors under the lights). A little early for it, not even April yet, but we are having such an early spring.

It changes day by day, but currently 13 trays of seeds/ seedlings under the lights, 11 trays out on the deck hardening off and I've planted a bunch of stuff and sold off 60 pots....

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applestar
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You're off to a well-organized great start as usual :D :mrgreen:

I said I was going to try to direct seed as much as possible this year, but I have my tomato starts sunning outside and just up potted some broccoli though I had originally intended to transplant them outside. I still might but the rows of crucifers I sowed under the insect screen tunnel are all starting to sprout. -- I might end up giving these starts to my Dad.

In fact, everything is coming up outside and I'm thinking I need some more sophisticated hand weeders. 8) :roll:

Temps are supposed to come back down in the 40's at night so my tomatoes' overnight camp outs are done as of tomorrow night until it gets warmer again. But this will be good forthe spring crops. Maybe they'll manage to make it before the sudden summer comes.

Inside, I have so many little starts going and I sowed some more stuff today (Malabar spinach, True Potato Seeds, and Cleome).... :oops: ...though I do think I'm being restrained this year.... :wink:

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rainbowgardener
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Yesterday I put the first tomatoes, peppers and basil out on the deck to start hardening off and today some more.

Planted acorn, delicata, and zucchini squash, cucumbers, moonflower, statice indoors under lights. That's the LAST! Nothing more gets planted indoors!

Between what's on the deck and what is under the lights, there's over 400 plants and I've sold 90 and planted a bunch....

Fall planted broccoli and spinach continue to thrive and be amazingly productive in the new front lawn bed and the garlic there is looking very large and healthy.

My tomato plants are amazing this year, up potted in to the large drink cups, because they outgrew the 3" pots. A foot tall and wide, thick stemmed, well branched, leafy and just looking so healthy.

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rainbowgardener
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I am so pleased with my new (last fall) sunny front lawn bed! It's got two closely spaced 10 foot rows of fall planted spinach in it that are just going to town. We've had spinach lasagna, spinach noodles, spinach omlettes, spinach salads and still it was getting ahead of me. So last night, I picked about two gallons of spinach leaves, washed, de-stemmed, chopped, blanched, cooled, and froze them. Made most of a quart of frozen spinach. Makes this city girl feel so earth-mother-ish to be doing that kind of thing.

Off to go pick lilac flowers for my lilac wine project (different thread)!

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rainbowgardener
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My potatoes have been sprouted for a few days now! They are such pretty plants. I would grow them as ornamentals even if they didn't make potatoes.

On a different note, it's just the beginning of April and I have already been covered in spider bites and now have poison ivy on both arms... Sometimes I do wonder why I like gardening; I'm so sensitive to all that stuff.

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applestar
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Aww.... Do you have Jewelweed? That or plantain are excellent field remedy for bites. Ever since I had a horrendous poison ivy reaction, I have to be very careful and try to uproot them as seedlings. It must be tough tending your hillside. In this instance, birds are no help at all the way they "spread" them around.

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rainbowgardener
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Unfortunately, I have tried a few times to get jewelweed started on my hillside, but it hasn't taken. I do have plantain and I always use it for bee stings, didn't think about it for the poison ivy. It's not a serious case, just a couple streaks where I must have brushed past some. This time of year it's still not real leafed out, so harder to spot than later.

Just a comment that how I spend the growing season tends to be covered in red bumps, scratches, scabs, bruises, etc..... Not a pretty sight!

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applestar
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Last year when I had poison ivy (I was pulling up a biggish seedling using a plastic bag in dog poop technique and it touched me) I stuffed a jar full of jewel weed and plantain + a bit of peppermint (cooling anesthetic) and covered them with witch hazel - oh what is that liquid called?
Anyway, I used that after washing.

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rainbowgardener
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Seedlings are starting to get a little raggedy from waiting for the weather to cooperate. We keep having a week of perfect weather and then one or two nights that go down almost to freezing.

[img]https://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt102/rainbowgardener/seedlings2.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt102/rainbowgardener/seedlings4-5-12.jpg[/img]

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applestar
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Oh my, you ARE in trouble -- but some of mine aren't too far behind at about 8" (with a couple of one footers in one gallon containers -- these are the ones my MIL started early... yellow Brandywine). They are in my cold garage so they've slowed down, but every time I take them out for the day, they jump in growth.

Any chance you could use some kind of a cover or are there somethings in the beds already that make it difficult? My main tomato row this year is full of arugula and turnips right now, but in another area, the tall peas have been decimated by chipmunks or something so sort of available.

I really need to uppot the hot peppers so I'm about to kick my taller tomato seedlings out in the "greenhouse" shelving outside (but it's still 39°) -- am not really sure if tomatoes would be OK in there with it zipped up if temps go down to low 30's overnight as predicted for the next week. I do have three 1 gallon jugs of water in the bottom....

Was also considering rigging a 1/2 tent of plastic sheeting and planting out a few... But my last average frost is last week of April. :?

Still, this has been a very productive spring so far. My early spring crops went in earlier than normal with no fear of hard freezes, and are coming along very well and enjoying what is to them the perfect temperature range.

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applestar
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This week has been a bear! Days nice and sunny but nights going down to 30's. But I decided to leave the tomato seedlings outside:
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/40514b11.jpg[/img]

This unit comes with a double zippered front flap, a zippered vent on the back near the top and a shade cover and a blackout cover (which is supposed to be useful for photo sensitive blooming as well as for using the shelves for storage)

During days with temps in the upper 50's or above, both front zippers are opened and the flap rolled up and the back vent flap is also rolled up. We had a couple of days initially when it was super sunny but extra windy. So I opened everything but slipped the shade cover on to protect both from the sun as well as to break up the force of the wind.

Yesterday and today, it was chilly just hovering in the upper 40's to mid 50's so I opened the front zips only a little bit and unzipped but not rolled up the back vent.

For the overnight 30's I decided that if I used the woven shade cover to create air space THEN put the black nylon cover on top, I might be able to get away with leaving them out. I went out 1/2 hr before sunset while the sun was still up to close up everything and put the two covers on, then in the morning, I waited until the sun came around to this part of the garden and started shining on the upper corner of the black cover before going out and removing both covers to let the sun warm up the air inside through the clear plastic. Until the daytime temps got sufficiently warm, I just unzipped the upper vent a few inches and opened the front zip on the opposite corner a few inches so a slight thermal dynamic draft would start up.
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/4fe87004.jpg[/img]

So far it seems to be working well and as of today, the seedlings are looking stockier and sturdier. Maybe I'll take a picture tomorrow (after another forecast low of 37°F=>typically 34~35°F in my garden)

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rainbowgardener
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Looks good! I have made a home made version in past years by wrapping a metal shelf system in plastic, with velcro strip down the middle to open/close it. This year it warmed up so fast, I never bothered to put it together.

We had two nights of frost after I put tomatoes in the ground. I covered the whole bed they were in with the motorcycle cover, right over the top of all the cages and stakes. It is big enough to reach the ground that way and get tucked in and weighted down. It is black and heavy/ insulated. So I just left it on for a couple days and everything in there stayed in the dark. Took it off this AM and everything looks fine, except it looks like slugs kind of had a party on my broccoli, there in the dark.

Indoor seed starting is winding down. Everything has been potted up, the heat mats are off, three of the light fixtures are off. There's 9 trays of plants left down there. I've sold 115 plants, will be taking 5 more trays in this weekend to sell. Planted a bunch already, have 9 more trays hardening off besides the 5 to sell this weekend, some of which are for me and some of which will get sold later.

Within a week or so the indoor seed starting will be all closed down!

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rainbowgardener
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Well it took longer than a week, partly due to weather issues, partly to my time constraints, but the last seedlings are now out on the deck to harden off and all the lights are off. No more seed starting this year.

Tons of stuff still to plant though, lots of seedlings and some trees/ shrubs I ordered.

Last plant sale at Quaker Meeting will be this Sun. Right now I've got about a dozen trays on the deck, some will get planted, some will get sold and then I will start giving stuff away. I've sold about 200 plants so far....

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rainbowgardener
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Everything is in the ground, I have sold probably close to 300 plants, I still have 6 trays of seedlings on the deck, some of which I will still find places for and some of which I will give away.

Now I'm working on planting trees... six saplings that volunteered around the property and some that I ordered.

To be able to do that, I turned the compost over. Last time I did that was in mid Feb when I started planting seeds outside. I have used all that compost, So I once again turned the compost pile to get to all the good stuff at the bottom. Turned out to be close to a 2x2x2 pile of lovely dark, fluffy, crumbly stuff, that all got made since mid Feb!

Put all the unfinished stuff back in the Earth Machine along with a bunch of pulled weeds etc that's been waiting a couple days for the turning to happen. So with being fluffed up and the additions, the Earth Machine is as full as it was, but I have all this finished compost besides...

It's amazing bounty! Really I only garden so I get to play with compost! :)

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applestar
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Your plant sales must be wonderful -- they are so lucky to get your well grown plants!

Compost -- It's amazing, wonderful stuff, isn't it? I turned over my compost pile and found about 2 cu.ft. of finished compost as well -- just in time to plant the cucurbits, sweet potatoes, okra, and sow corn

Some of the corn has been delayed because I'm planning to turn over a portion of my sunny meadow that got overgrown by encroaching grass but we had days of heavy rains. I'm going to try growing Bloody Butcher along the back which should create an interesting privacy screen especially if they grow as tall as they can. And between them, squash, and the beans, this part of the bed should be ready for planting anything next year. 8)



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