Category: Spring

Categories
Spring Vegetables Winter

Random seed sowing

Well, my green thumb is itching to get planting, so I randomly planted one of my long containers today with Swiss Chard, beets, and spinach in hopes of starting a cool-weather-tolerant container of leafy greens that will be ready in the next couple of months. We’ll see how this goes!

UPDATE: I also just checked the Environment Canada long range probability forecasts and it looks like we are likely to have a 70%-80% chance of below normal temperatures this spring. Looks like it will be cool weather veggies for a while.

Categories
Spring

How to build a PVC hoop tunnel

This year I am near the top of the waiting list for a community garden plot, so I am already planning what to plant in it and how to extend the growing season.

A good way is to make a PVC hoop tunnel and cover it with plastic or fabric to protect plants from wind and pests. It’s essentially a poor person’s greenhouse and can create a microclimate inside by increasing  the temperature depending on the type of covering used.

I found this video by FarmingFractals on YouTube that explains a simple and inexpensive way to construct a hoop house.

From this video, it seems all you need are:

  • 4 x 1/2″ PVC pipe cut into 8′ lengths (for ribs)
  • 2 x 1/2″ PVC pipe cut into 4′ lengths (for base)
  • 6 x 1/2″ PVC pipe cut into 2.5′ lengths (or your preferred base length between ribs)
  • 4 x PVC “side out” three-way corner joints
  • 4 x PVC T-shaped three-way connectors (to secure ribs to the base of the frame)
  • Your choice of row cover material
  • 3/4″ PVC pipe to make clips*
  • Saw for cutting PVC pipe
  • Measuring tape
  • Pencil
  • Something to fix the frame to the ground (e.g. old tent pegs, bricks)

*Although FarmingFractals made his own clips out of larger PVC piping, it looked like the clips ended up chewing holes in the fabric. I may try to find some other way of securing the row cover material to the frame, especially on the side that I may open up more often.

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Patiently waiting for spring

I have my meagre winter containers planted and still have no word as to whether we have been assigned a community garden plot, so in all my spare time I’ve planned out the patio garden for next year. It’s not the snazziest picture, but it makes sense to me!

The garlic and kale were planted this fall. The kale will be ready in the new year and the garlic next July. The radishes, spinach, and chard will be grown in the long planters that sit on the concrete surround. The pot with the carrots currently holds beets (which I am hoping to harvest near Christmas time. I will have to transfer the soil into some of the long pots, as according to rotation gardening I shouldn’t plant root veggies in the same place consecutively. The hanging basket which will hold peas again in 2013 currently holds my gai lan plant, which I’m beginning to doubt if the container is large enough, but we’ll see! I’m also planning on interspersing scallions amongst some of the planters in order to deter pests. We’ll also see how that works.

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Sugar and Shelling Peas

This year I planted two varieties of peas: Little Marvel, a bush variety; and Oregon Sugar Pod, a trailing variety. I have never tried growing peas in containers before, so here is my progress thus far.

Oregon Sugar Pod

Oregon Sugar Pod flower - June 12This is a trailing variety that grows to about 3 feet. I decided to try this in a hanging basket to make use of the vertical space on my small patio. It has started to blossom, so hopefully I’ll be picking and eating sugar peas soon! Some of the leaves are yellowing & I’m not sure if it requires a feeding or if it was getting too much rain last week. I’ll try a feeding when I water them tomorrow and see what happens. It has been slower than the suggested 75 days to harvest.

 

Oregon Sugar Pod - June 12
Jun 12 (day 79)
Oregon Sugar Pod - May 27
May 27 (day 63)
Oregon Sugar Pod - May 13
May 13 (day 49)
Oregon Sugar Pod - May 5
May 5 (day 41)

     

 

Oregon Sugar Pod - April 15
Apr 15 (day 21)

 

 

 

 

Oregon Sugar Pod - March 25
Mar 25 (day 1)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Marvel

Little Marvel - first flowerThis is a bush variety of shelling pea that is meant to grow in a nice, compact manner in a container. I’ve provided a tomato cage for additional support as some of the branches are floppy. After a slower start and having to re-seed sections of the pot several times, these peas seem to be doing well in the container. It has also been slower than the suggested 76 days to harvest, but that is likely due to the need to re-seed.

Little Marvel - June 12
Jun 12 (day 79)
Little Marvel - May 18
May 18 (day 54)
Little Marvel - May 13
May 13 (day 49)
Little Marvel - May 5
May 5 (day 41)

 

 

 

 

Little Marvel - April 27
Apr 27 (day 33)
Little Marvel - April 18
Apr 18 (day 24)

 

 

 

 

Little Marvel - April 12
Apr 12 (day 18)
Little Marvel - March 25
Mar 25 (day 1)

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Radishes – A review

I did a companion planting experiment where I planted quick-growing radishes with slower-growing beets. The  idea is that the radishes will be ready to harvest about a month before the beets, therefore loosening the soil for the beets when the radishes are harvested.

While the radishes have been successful, I don’t know if it’s the best idea to broadcast sow the two seed varieties as I did. When I was pulling the radishes, some of the beet seedlings were coming out with them because the roots were tangled together. I have tried again with baby carrots (similar to these) and radishes in another container, and this time I planted them in more orderly rows, about one seed per inch.

The radish variety I planted this year is Amethyst, which should mature in 25-30 days. This variety is meant to be slow to go woody, which seems to be true in my case. At 45+ days, the larger ones are just starting to get a bit fibrous.

June 3, 2012
(49 days since planting)

4th Harvest – 23 radishes in this harvest. After this, we still have one more harvest to go. In total, I think we will have harvested 50-60 radishes grown in one 24″ x 6″ x 8″ planter.

 


May 27, 2012
(42 days since planting)

3rd Harvest – Approximately 10 radishes in this and past harvests. Many of them are larger than a twoonie.

 

May 18, 2012
(33 days since planting)

 

 

 

 

May 5, 2012
(20 days since planting)

 

 

 

 

April 27, 2012
(12 days since planting)

Heart-shaped leaves.

 

 

 

April 15, 2012
(Seeds planted)

24″ l x 6″ w x 8″ h planter

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Time for something new!

The weather has warmed up significantly and we’ve had a good stretch of sunshine. I was able to harvest my Toy Choy twice before it bolted. Now I have to think of what to plant in this pot, since I think it may be too warm for bok choy.

I could plant more radishes, since the ones I planted with the beets are growing incredibly fast! We already harvested 2 (but I didn’t take a photo of those). The lot of them will be ready to be picked pretty soon!

Many of the other leafy greens like spinach and lettuce tend to bolt easily, but I may try one of the slow-bolting lettuces, such as: Red Deer Tongue, Merlot Organic, or Lovelock.

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Patio overview

I should have posted overview pictures of my patio at an earlier date to show the space that I have to work with. My patio is roughly 8′ x 12′ in the inner courtyard of our ‘U’-shaped building on the main floor of the east arm of the ‘U’ (the top of the ‘U’ faces north). I only get about 6 hours of direct sun at the height of summer on the outer half of my patio.

These pictures were taken 3 weeks ago on April 20th (facing west). The first photo is taken from inside my bedroom looking out toward the patio.

Three weeks later on May 13th, pots have moved a bit and things are a lot more green!

Moving from left to right on the patio (and in the photos): 1. Toy choy is in the long grey-brown container on the ledge; 2. hanging in the top left is the trailing Oregon Sugar Pod peas; 3. butterfly bush is in the white ceramic pot on the ledge on the left; 4. columbine are the pink flowers; 5. crocosmia are the tall spiky leave in the dark brown ceramic pot; 6. Swiss chard are in the smaller clay-coloured pot; 7. the larger clay coloured pot (with white rocks sitting on top of soil) is the future home of butternut squash; 8. the smaller clay-coloured pot sitting on a pedestal is the Little Marvel bush peas; 9. lavender is in the white ceramic pot on the ledge on the right; 10. rosemary, thyme and oregano are in the dark brown ceramic pot; 11. above the herbs in the long container sitting on the ledge are beets and radishes; 12. the grey-brown long container sitting next to it holds chives and mint; 13. the black pot at the very right of the ledge holds Skimmia; 14. on the patio table are mescluns and squash seedlings that will go to my dad’s garden.

Categories
General Update Spring

Harvest time and update

I made my first toy choy stir fry this weekend almost 6 weeks after planting my first toy choy seeds on March 20th. In truth they could be a little bigger before harvesting (they were about 2 inches tall), but I actually needed to thin them a little and decided they shouldn’t go to waste, so I made a chicken stir fry.

    

The beets and radishes are growing well and I have started to thin a few radishes. These were sown in mid-April, so about 3 weeks on, this is what they look like. The radishes should be ready in another 2-3 weeks, while the beets will be another month or so. The beets, like the Swiss chard, seems to have multiple seeds in one pod, so I had to thin the double beets.

 

The mesclun mix is also growing well, and I transplanted the stray lettuce that was growing amongst the buckwheat. I’ve been thinning out the mesclun every few days, as they can grow to be full-sized heads of lettuce if I let them. I’ll try to keep them around the size of the plant in the foreground so the plan is that we’ll have salad greens once a week or so.

 

The Swiss chard is a bit of a mystery to me. I wonder if I should have just direct-sown them into the pot rather than starting them indoors and transplanting. They started out quite tall and spindly, though they are starting to grow their second and third sets of leaves and beginning to look like Swiss chard. However, they are still very floppy and fall over whenever I water them. I’ve since sown a few more seeds in case some of the transplants don’t make it.

My two varieties of peas are really starting to do well. The Little Marvel that had struggled with our cold, wet spring is starting to fill in, though again, I may have to sow one or two more seeds. And the Oregon Sugar Pod in the hanging basket is also doing well. I notice they have tendrils for gripping and climbing, but I’m hoping the vines will trail downwards. I’ll have to keep an eye on them and train them to trail (if possible!).

The squash seedlings I started indoors for my dad’s garden, Baby Blue Hubbard squash, are doing well… almost too well because they’ve started blossoming already! I have moved them outside to start hardening off the stems and readying them to be transplanted soon. The early butternut squash are also being prepared for transplanting too.

 

The buckwheat has also struggled with the cold spring, and they never really did a good job as a cover crop because they didn’t flourish. However, they will still work as green manure, adding nutrients and improving soil composition as they break down once it is turned-under into the soil. After rescuing the errant mesclun, I turned the buckwheat under to prepare the soil for my butternut squash experiment. Buckwheat can apparently break down within a few days, but I will give it a week or two before planting the squash. I’m also tossing the thinned seedlings into this pot for additional compost.

Aside from veggies, my flowers are doing well. Still no sign of blossoms on the crocosmia, but the columbine is in full bloom now and I’ve spotted a few pollinating insects checking out the flowers. I also have an alpine columbine that is a dwarf version planted in the same pot. I thought it was done-for as it has struggled in past years, but lo-and-behold it is blooming this year! As well, I have FINALLY seen the first sign of life of the butterfly bush (Aesclepias), so now I know they won’t generally pop up until the first two weeks of May.

Categories
General Update Spring Vegetables

General Update – Busy week

I’ve been pretty busy this week and didn’t get to post as much as usual, but I did take some photos. Temperatures have warmed up to consistently above 10 degrees Celsius and have had some very sunny days, as well as some very rainy days! Ah springtime in Vancouver! But we also had several days where the wind was blowing in from the west and there was a salty sea air that is so refreshing! That’s one of my favourite things about living on the coast!

It’s about 5 1/2 weeks into Spring and since I started working on my outdoor vegetable garden. I have seedlings galore and can’t wait to start harvesting!

Toy Choy – At 5 1/2 weeks, my baby bok choy is about 2 inches tall. I’ll wait until they get a little bigger before I harvest them, as I really like them in stir fry! I initially spread seeds all over the container, then 2 weeks later added more to the right-hand side of the planter, then 2 weeks after that I reseeded the left-hand side. Next year, I will seed one side, then seed the other, and alternate… that makes more sense.

Buckwheat – At 5 1/2 weeks the buckwheat seems to be suffering. We’ve had a pretty cold spring and quite a bit of rain, so I think that’s why the buckwheat is still so small and yellow. It does tell me that I need to add some more sand to the container to improve drainage, though, before I plant my squash in the same soil. However, I have a rogue mesclun lettuce seed that grew from last year (the purply plant). This is what the mesclun in my small patio table container will eventually look like.

Mesclun – About 11 days after planting the mesclun seed mix, I have a lot of tiny seedlings. They benefited from being covered for two days under a plastic produce bag to create a greenhouse effect. The planter was uncovered for several days after sowing with no movement, then I covered it over and within a day they sprouted. Just providing the extra few degrees of warmth really seems to make a difference. I will have to thin these out soon, but when they are a little bigger.

Peas – Both the Little Marvel and Oregon Sugar Pod are doing well after their second sowing. The Oregon Sugar Pod seems to have done well even with the cool Spring, though it is placed much closer to the building and likely got more ambient warmth to help with germination. The Little Marvel has been less successful and I think I may need to re-sow a third time to fill in some gaps. However, that planter was further from the building and was exposed to more cold, wind and rain. It’s very possible that, even though I didn’t soak the seeds prior to sowing, they could have gotten water-logged with all the rain we’ve had. I also didn’t plant them very deep, so that could have also exposed the seedlings a bit too early. In any case, the Little Marvel seems to be doing better and I still think they’ll flourish soon.

 

Swiss chard – About 6 days after I transplanted the Swiss chard outside, I seem to have had a planter mis-hap… or more accurately, a planter misplacement. I inadvertently had placed the planter under the corner of the balcony above my patio. We had some heavy rainfalls this week and the rain gathered at the point right above my chard planter and continuously dripped on my poor fragile seedlings (and made a big splashy mess on the patio floor!). So I’ve moved the planter and planted some backup seeds in case my seedlings don’t make it. I also went over to a friend’s house (she is the one who gave me the chard seeds) and found that she has over 10 plants growing really well in a much shallower container! Even if all of my transplants survive and the new seeds sprout, I think I’m safe to keep them all!

 

Beets & Radishes – The beets and radishes have also already sprouted and they’re not kidding that radishes grow fast! These seeds were sown about 14 days ago. The bigger seedlings with heart-shaped leaves are radishes, while the seedlings with the thin red stems are beets. They look similar to the Swiss chard seedlings because they are closely related.

Columbine – Aside from the Skimmia, the first of my flowers to bloom will be the columbine. It has had foliage most of the year, but it did die back in the winter. It has about 5 flowering stalks this year with multiple buds on each. Can’t wait for it to open!

 

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Drooping Swiss chard seedlings

As I had mentioned in previous posts, I am starting Swiss chard seedlings indoors before I transplant them into a container outside. Two days ago, my chard seedlings went from bright and healthy to pale and droopy.

I think the Aerogarden may have created too ideal light conditions for them and they grew too tall and the leaves too heavy for their slender stems to hold up. The only other mention I could find on the internet about droopy Swiss chard seedlings was in this post. The picture is almost exactly the same as my picture. Some of the comments suggested that this means the chard is screaming to be moved to its permanent home outside, so this is what I did this afternoon.

Although I swore I would not add another container to my patio this year… I have… added two. My Swiss chard container is one of them. It is 24″ diameter by about 26″ tall.

I mixed together Sea Soil, some small aquarium gravel and eggshells for increased drainage, and bone meal and organic fertilizer. All five peat pots with chard seedlings were planted with only their leaves popping up above the soil. This means the pots were about one inch below the soil surface.

Usually, you would let the transplants get used to ‘living’ outside over the course of a week by gradually increasing the amount of time the plants are set outside. This way they can slowly get used to the wind, direct sunlight, and changing temperatures. I had set out the larger seedlings yesterday and today, but didn’t feel I could really wait much longer because they were so floppy.

Now I wait and see how they do. If they all survive the transplanting, I will eventually have to thin each clump to the strongest plant.

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