More Spring Preparations

I've been doing some serious thinking about how I can make my time in the garden more productive as well as less maintenance required.

I've ordered a composter. It will hold 160 gallons of compost! Lol. No more messy 2 sided pile resting beside my 2' x 10' raised bed. One of my pallets rotted. Plus it really didn't cook as well as I needed it to. It took far too long to produce compost.

This should do it. It also will be a lot neater.

Then, I've been watching River Cottage episodes lately and I really liked Hughes hoop house. I did a search and came up with a place that had very reasonable construction directions.

I've decided to go ahead and build one over top of 4 of the raised beds. I think this will be plenty of space to grow both early and late varieties of some things I've been doing without.

It's something that I'll have to put away every year because our weather will just destroy it. Freezing winter temps to 90 degree summers wreak havoc on plastics.

Anyway ~ here's the link for the hoop house directions:

http://westsidegardener.com/howto/hoophouse.html

Here's a picture of the hoop house:


Nothing fancy, but looks like it should do the trick.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

2 Trays of 8 peat discs with seedlings ( a couple have not come up yet). My daughter wants a couple and we're giving a few to local city gardens. I think I'll grow one for seeds only.

City Chicken

When I was a child, my Mom used to make a dish that she called, "City Chicken". It was actually cubed pork on a wooden skewer. Why they called it chicken I'll never know. I happened upon a website though by that very name! What a great idea they are promoting. Check it out:

http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/index.html

The great people over at The Path To Freedom are giving so many people inspiration to bloom where they are planted and the movement is growing. Can't buy the country property you've always dreamed of? Do what you can where you are!

We have a place in the town of Braddock (an old steel town) that is operated by a small group of artisans who have created a city garden and farmer's market as well as selling their wares. I've just started to investigate this and when the weather begins to cooperate a bit I'll pay a visit and give you a photographic tour.

I'm running off to work right now but will continue this post when I get back. In the meantime, follow the links at the chicken site and see some really cute coops!

Deliveries

The seed starting supplies I ordered have arrived, but I'm still waiting for the garlic and leek seed. I've gotten the lights ready and will start with the purple sprouting broccoli seed. Yeah!

Getting Ready

I've ordered some gardening products that should help my garlic and leeks get off to a good start. I have a plan for the garlic. I will start the garlic under my grow lights until they form some tops in these:

The larger 15 cell pots is what I ordered . They're about 2-1/2" in diameter and 3-12" deep. I ordered 2 of them which will plant up 30 cloves. Then after they form some tops and roots I'll take them out from under the heat of the lights and move them to the south facing window sill.

My rosemary plant is still growing on that window sill, so I think it will make a good transition for the garlic in a hardening-off process. From here I'll move them into the unheated greenhouse for a bit and then into the garden.

Then, the leeks will require a long growing season (120 days) and will do better with a longer cool season. Some years we seem to skip spring! Our last frost date is May 30. I'm giving them a head start too and hope to have them to plant out the same time as the garlic.

The parsley root seems to take a long time to germinate and a couple of years in a row we had a very small crop of them. I thought I could use these plugs for the parsley root too. Just to get them started.









They want you to buy the plugs to use in them, but when these are used up I'll just use a seed mix.

I received my purple sprouting broccoli seed the other day. However, they didn't even give me the name of the variety, days to maturity, open pollinated or hybrid, degree of cold tolerance. So, I emailed them in hopes they can give me this information. They arrived in a small ziplock bag with a slip of paper inside that said the seed needs to be started 8 weeks before last frost date. Yoi.

Everything should be delivered on the 15th of January. I can't wait!

Stop And Smell The Roses

It's been a nice holiday break for me. I even had to stop and think about what I left at my desk at work that will need my first attention upon returning. Ahhh. It's been a long time since I could say that. I guess I'm one of those people who just doesn't leave work at work.

I do have stress issues. It usually starts in my shoulder and neck area and graduates upward into a whopper of a headache. If I'm anywhere but at home I take Ibuprofen and it helps. If I'm at home I take a much different approach.

I turn to herbs. In an earlier post I gave a tea recipe for headaches. It's not a quick fix, but takes some time and is subtle. There are many herbs that will promote relaxation and if you have a favorite blend, then by all means use it! Tea by itself is relaxing to me. Even my favorite bag tea, Red Rose is comforting.

The next best thing to do is draw a hot bath. Now, the bath is effective but the addition of herbs is even better. It's important to get a good quality of essential oil if you are using it on your skin or ingesting it. Food quality. With the essential oil you will need a carrier oil and I prefer almond oil for it's quality and affordability. My son's girlfriend is a massage therapist and can order it in large quantities. I'm sure there are sources online for these supplies.

To make a floating bath oil you will mix 3 parts almond oil with 1 part essential oil. I use about 6 drops of the bath oil mix into my bath water. It will coat your skin as you get in and out of the tub. The aroma is heavenly and even the preparation should begin to work on you.

Some of the herbs that help me are lavender, lemon, rose, sandalwood, chamomile. Bergamot has a citrusy scent and mixes well with lavender. Now, you can also mix your essentials in with some Epsom salts for a muscle relaxing bath. Bath salts are easy to make up as small gifts too.

Out of the bath I use my neck pillow that just seems to get every creak and snap worked out of my neck. Then I'm all set up for a good night sleep.

The use of candles can help also. Aromatherapy is a great way to restore well being.

Seed Orders

HAPPY NEW YEAR Friends!!

I hope everyone has had a blessed holiday season. I know it's been a great time for me, even just for the time off from work.

Well I think I've got all my seeds ordered. I nearly made a mistake with the Purple Sprouting Broccoli by ordering broccoli raab. It had a description just like the sprouting type that forms a head. Even so, I'm not so sure I'm getting the product everyone has spoken so highly of. Here's the picture:
It's the strangest picture format, having a lot of space above and below the actual picture. I hope it publishes alright.

Then I ordered the leek seed Michel told me about that he and Janine like for pies. It's a French heirloom called jaunes du Poitou. There was only one company here in the States that I could find that had it and the packets have only 20 seeds in them. I will have to start saving the seed should it do well in the garden. It is a large, sweet, yellow leek.

If the broccoli is not a hybrid, I'll do the same with it. Since the flavor of the broccoli is better when grown during cooler weather, I'll experiment with how early I can get it out there without killing it! I could keep it in the greenhouse perhaps.




Above ground









below ground - but they really don't look yellow, do they?







So, in addition to the above newbies to my garden, let me introduce you to the rest of my guest list ;)

• MERVEILLE DE QUATRE SAISONS (49 days)( lettuce)
• HOLLAND GREENS TYFON (42 days)
• TINY TIM TOMATO - to grow in a hanging basket
  
• GIANT NOBLE SPINACH
• JERICHO LETTUCE (60 days) - withstands high temps without bolting
  
• PRINCIPE BORGHESE TOMATO (78 days)
• RAPA DI MILANO COLETTO TURNIP (57days)

This is the tyfon green. They say it will feed an army!
It does look as though it could!

It might take up one whole bed, but they sound interesting so we'll give them a try.


I have a lot of seeds from last year that I'll plant this year too like parsley root, cutting celery, chantenay carrots, Masai bush beans, Dragon Langerie bush bean, scarlet runners, summer squash, beets, early broccoli, radish, peppers and tomatoes.

I also ordered soft neck garlic for spring planting and have shallots for spring too. Soon I'll be planting seeds in the house and not long after that, transplanting in the garden!