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Tuesday, 27 March 2012 15:03 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there.
We have had a wonderful, warm end of winter. I keep thinking we might have some bitter weather, maybe even cold but the gardening season is nearly here, and we are going downstairs where, with the geothermal furnace working in the winter, the temperature stays 65 degrees, and it makes an ideal room to start those seeds that require a longer growing season than we usually have in our outdoor gardens. I, frankly, do not believe we are going to have a freezing night before Memorial Day, when I usually plant our garden plants. But if my garden was planted, and it FROZE and KILLED my plants, I would feel really bad! We have had good luck with Memorial Day garden planting!
We plant our seeds in what looks like an old cake pan, but made of plastic, about 8 or 10 X 20 inches, about two inches deep, with a clear plastic cover to prevent moisture loss We plant about 20 rows in the potting soil, about 20 seeds of the same variety per row. We use a 1/4 inch of plywood, about 10 inches long, to depress seed trenches about one inch apart, crosswise in the seedling container. We usually drop seeds in each trench, about one inch apart, and stick a marker with the variety of seeds therein. We mark the name of the plants in that row on a piece of plastic, and stick that at alternating ends of each row. We place a clear plastic cover over all this, and wait for the new plants to emerge.
Our unplanted seeds are stored in the shop freezer until next year, but they don’t seem to mind being brought to warm, moist soil, and 18 hours of (artificial) sunlight! They automatically send roots down, stems and leaves up into the (artificial) light, and produce garden plants without danger of late freezes. We do check them nearly every day for moisture content, and the moisture we use is water, with Miracle Gro at 50 percent of the recommended concentration.
Soon the new plants will reach the plastic cover, then we remove it, and let the seedlings grow taller and stronger. We will use small a salad fork, a thin knife, or something similar to reach under the roots of each plant, and loosen the plant from the container by lifting easily, while pulling lightly on the top of the new, tender plant. I know from experience if you break a new plant’s stem, it won’t recover! So, lift lightly and easily, loosening the soil down under where the roots are, and we plant this wonderful new plant in a 36 cell flat, each of which breaks down into six, six cell trays because we usually plant six or multiples of six of each vegetable we grow.
Each six cell flat has the name of the kind of plant we think we planted therein! Record keeping is highly valuable, and mapping your garden each year is a really good thing to do, and if you notice some changes you would like to do next year that is where we write that desired change down.
Not everyone enjoys starting garden seeds indoors, but my parents did, and we do. There is nothing wrong with buying already started garden seedlings, and we have done both but, since we have a 65 degree room down in our basement, we will probably do this again next year. It looks like gas prices might make shopping for fresh garden produce out in the country pretty expensive and local grocers like Bob Egolf’s IGA provide a wonderful place to get good garden produce . . . Good gardening by Bob Smith Hi there. We have had a wonderful, warm end of winter. I keep thinking we might have some bitter weather, maybe even cold but the gardening season is nearly here, and we are going downstairs where, with the geothermal furnace working in the winter, the temperature stays 65 degrees, and it makes an ideal room to start those seeds that require a longer growing season than we usually have in our outdoor gardens. I, frankly, do not believe we are going to have a freezing night before Memorial Day, when I usually plant our garden plants. But if my garden was planted, and it FROZE and KILLED my plants, I would feel really bad! We have had good luck with Memorial Day garden planting!
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Tuesday, 20 March 2012 12:09 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there.
We have had such a mild winter, it is hard to realize spring is just around the corner, and we should soon be starting to grow vegetable and flower seeds that require longer than our usual growing season - and I think the best way is to start those seeds inside our 24 hour warmed house! We have a 65 degree basement with shelves, and we provide 16 hours of timed four foot fluorescent light bulbs daily, allowing the new seedlings to sleep in darkness for eight hours. The light fixtures are hung four inches above the seedlings, or their tallest leaves.
Here are some pre-planting indoor growth times it takes for vegetable and flower seeds we usually grow indoors here in Northeastern Indiana. I plan to plant the garden with these plants needing a longer growing season on Memorial Day, hoping to avoid any late freezes, directly adding seeds that will grow and mature during the remainder of our frost free summer.
Vegetables
Broccolli, 10 weeks; Cabbage, 10 weeks; Cauliflower, 10 weeks; Head lettuce, 10 weeks; Tomato, seven weeks; Eggplant, seven weeks; Peppers, seven weeks; Cucumbers, four weeks; Cantaloupe, four weeks; Squash, four weeks; Watermelon, four weeks; Rosemary, four weeks.
Flowers
Begonia, 14 weeks; Pansy, 14 weeks; Violet, 14 weeks; Lobelia, 14 weeks; Stocks, 12 weeks; Blackeyed Susan, 12 weeks; Impatiens, 11 weeks; Torenia, 11 weeks; Coleus, 11 weeks; Petunia, 10 weeks; Flower Kale, 10 weeks; Ageratum, nine weeks; Snapdragon, nine weeks; Verbena, nine weeks; Diathus, eight weeks; Vinca, eight weeks; Nicotania, eight weeks; Ann. Phlox, seven weeks; SW Alyssium, seven weeks; Aster, seven weeks; Balsam, six weeks; Celosia, six weeks; Cornflower, six weeks; Marigold, six weeks; Portulace, six weeks; Datura, six weeks; Cosmos, four weeks; Zinnias, four weeks.
We will plant our indoor seeds next week, and I will tell you how we did it! Seeds can be started in many containers, from plastic coffee cups, to flower pots – but we start ours in what Johnny’s calls ‘jumbo plug flats,’ 36 cells, each cell with an open top, and slits for bottom watering, which separate into six “six cell packs,” all of which fit into waterproof seedling trays, and I recommend a clear plastic cover to retain heat and moisture until the new plants raise their leaves into the nice light that you should provide.
We use two - 48 inch fluorescent bulbs, one cool white, and one warm white. They will provide sun-like light, four inches above the leaves, over every two trays. There are more expensive “grow lights” available, but we have used these for years. We leave one cell completely empty, so when we check daily, we can see the level of the moisture in each group of six, and add nutritious drinks to each if needed. The furnaces in our basement keep the seed starting room at a steady 65 degrees. Be sure you keep written records of what plants are in each container! Good gardening by Bob Smith Hi there. We have had such a mild winter, it is hard to realize spring is just around the corner, and we should soon be starting to grow vegetable and flower seeds that require longer than our usual growing season - and I think the best way is to start those seeds inside our 24 hour warmed house! We have a 65 degree basement with shelves, and we provide 16 hours of timed four foot fluorescent light bulbs daily, allowing the new seedlings to sleep in darkness for eight hours. The light fixtures are hung four inches above the seedlings, or their tallest leaves.
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Wednesday, 07 March 2012 17:04 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there.
There are a lot of places to buy seeds, including your local hardware store, and there are a lot of catalog seed, plant, and supply sources. I am going to list the name and location of a few that we have used repeatedly, followed by their phone number. I believe that if you get one catalog, you may get additional catalogs from more seed, plant, and supply companies next year – but they are delivered free!
Johnny’s Selected Seeds – www.johnnyseeds.com (Winslow, Maine, 04901) - 1 877 564 6697…W. Atlee Burpee & Co., www.burpee.com, (300 Park Avenue, Warminster, Pa.) - 1 800 888 1447… www.MichiganBulb.com. – (P.O. Box 4180 Lawrenceburg, Indiana) – 1 800 836 9630. These are all in states that I have lived in, and their weather is similar to ours. When I have had problems, and called them, their advice was helpful, and free, and sometimes they replaced the plants that I killed the next year – free!
If you get one company’s seed catalogs, I’ll bet next year, you may get several new ones from other companies. I think they may exchange customer’s addresses with their friend companies, just as I have always found gardeners willing to help another gardener.
It is, I believe – in spite of the warm winter so far – too soon to plant garden seeds in the soil outdoors. We are in USDA zone 5, which means that, ON THE AVERAGE, the average last date of 32 degrees or lower temperature, will fall between May 1 and May 15. I remember one college professor who disliked “average” as a reliable predictor of the future, and to prove his point, said, “If you stood with one bare foot on a hot stove, and one foot on a cake of ice, would you be – on the average, COMFORTABLE?”
When I finally bought my Indiana farmstead retirement home, and started gardening, I lost some “early” garden plantings to a late frost. We start seeds downstairs in our cellar, where the temperature is a pretty steady 65 degrees in winter. My issue of “Starting Seeds Indoors” – HO-14-W) was reviewed on 4/01. It lists the time to seed before last frost (not the average, but the last!) for nearly all the vegetables and flowers that are grown here in home gardens.
The Extension Office in each county is supported by Federal, State, and Local taxes, and provides help to gardeners, farmers, children, and communities. I recommend you visit them, especially if you have any gardening problems. They have thousands of publications, covering all aspects of gardening and agriculture, and will mail them to you free if you give them a stamped envelope with your address on.
When, as a young Master Gardener, I started answering phone questions from gardeners, the office staff would answer the phone, find out what the problem was, then get the publication from their files that answered that particular problem, and get it to my desk immediately – so I could answer the problem for the gardener!
Allen County Extension Office has a larger staff, and a Horticultural Educator (my friend, Ricky Kemery), but before I became a Master Gardener, I often called Whitley County Extension Office, and they provided me with the same type of answers, advice, and publications.
Right now is the time to decide what flowers and vegetables you would like to grow this summer, and buy the seeds to plant. Soon we will need to plant the selected seeds indoors, so the plants will be ready to plant in your gardens outdoors, hopefully, after the last frost! Next week I will tell you how I plant our seeds indoors . . . Good gardening by Bob Smith Hi there. There are a lot of places to buy seeds, including your local hardware store, and there are a lot of catalog seed, plant, and supply sources. I am going to list the name and location of a few that we have used repeatedly, followed by their phone number. I believe that if you get one catalog, you may get additional catalogs from more seed, plant, and supply companies next year – but they are delivered free! Johnny’s Selected Seeds – www.johnnyseeds.com (Winslow, Maine, 04901) - 1 877 564 6697…W. Atlee Burpee & Co., www.burpee.com, (300 Park Avenue, Warminster, Pa.) - 1 800 888 1447… www.MichiganBulb.com. – (P.O. Box 4180 Lawrenceburg, Indiana) – 1 800 836 9630. These are all in states that I have lived in, and their weather is similar to ours. When I have had problems, and called them, their advice was helpful, and free, and sometimes they replaced the plants that I killed the next year – free!
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Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:09 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there.
Usually I spend a lot of winter time in my shop, with a roaring wood fire burning in the stove. This weird winter year has been so warm, I have hardly needed more heat in the shop, and I miss being there. I am going to oil and sharpen my gardening tools, because I know when spring comes, there may not be enough time. I have a huge old apple tree that finally died last summer, and I wanted to wait until the soil froze before falling the massive trunk, to prevent it from digging into our soft back lawn – and the lawn hasn’t frozen yet!
The winter non-gardening weather is ideal for getting all your tools ready for next summer. If you have tractors, tillers, and mowers, they may need some greasing, oil changing, and sharpening, either by yourself, or by professional people who just may have more equipment and knowledge than you, but who might be willing to share some advice with you on proper maintenance.
I hope you have gardening catalogs and are getting ready to order the seeds you need for this year’s gardens. We have bought from many different seed catalogs, but our favorite is Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Winslow, Maine – 1-877-564-6697.
Of course, seeds and plants are available from several local stores, and many of the stores have someone who can give you some advice, and I believe any gardener will be happy to share their experience and know-how with you.
The Annual Fort Wayne Home and Garden Show at the Coliseum, March 1 - 4, has hundreds of companies showing their products, garden experts and professionals talking about their experiences and answering questions from attendees. There is a fee for parking each car, so if you could invite friends to fill your car, or ride there in someone else’s car, the cost total would be a little less – (I am of Scotch descent!)
A schedule of speakers is available, listing speaker’s name, room location, and time. I usually would spend more than one day there when I was more active and younger. Master Gardeners usually have a booth near the entrance, and offer seeds they have collected from their own gardens – and they would be eager to answer any gardening questions you have.
I guarantee you will learn valuable information, and probably make some new friends if you visit the Coliseum for this show. This is an annual garden show, held about the same time each year, and every year I have attended I have felt it a good value, and a good investment in gardening.
I have enjoyed the mild winter, and I hope March doesn’t turn cold and nasty. I almost have all the things I wanted to get done this winter done, and we are busy planning our garden activity for another good growing and harvest season, and hope you are, too . . . Good Gardening by Bob Smith Hi there. Usually I spend a lot of winter time in my shop, with a roaring wood fire burning in the stove. This weird winter year has been so warm, I have hardly needed more heat in the shop, and I miss being there. I am going to oil and sharpen my gardening tools, because I know when spring comes, there may not be enough time. I have a huge old apple tree that finally died last summer, and I wanted to wait until the soil froze before falling the massive trunk, to prevent it from digging into our soft back lawn – and the lawn hasn’t frozen yet! The winter non-gardening weather is ideal for getting all your tools ready for next summer. If you have tractors, tillers, and mowers, they may need some greasing, oil changing, and sharpening, either by yourself, or by professional people who just may have more equipment and knowledge than you, but who might be willing to share some advice with you on proper maintenance.
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Wednesday, 22 February 2012 14:55 |
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by Bob Smith
Hi there.
I have lived in climate zones similar to northern Indiana all my life, and I can’t remember a more pleasant winter weather year than we have experienced here in the winter of 2011-2012! Sure, it has snowed a little, and made slippery roads for one or a very few days, but the snow plows and salt trucks came out before the school buses pick up students, and the temperature climbs above freezing enough to melt nearly all ice from the roads we travel. Of course, it is awhile until spring and summer roll in, so we will continue to pay attention to the temperature and weather information.
We are very careful – actually Judy is very careful, because she has been driving my car to carry me to everywhere I need to go, and she takes care of my every need since I had a lumbar spine fusion last August, with three inch titanium screws anchoring my spine to a stainless steel plate keeping everything in order.
Full recovery may take one year - but I am past the sixth month, but still using a wheeled walker to perambulate and I have had excellent care and treatment, I recommend that if spinal fusion is recommended, that you check any possible alternatives – and, “THANK YOU, JUDY, for all you have done for me!”
I hope you grow some plants, and hopefully a garden, with flowers, and food items like beans, tomatoes, squash, vegetables, sweet corn, peppers, and fruit, etc. If you don’t know how, but would like to, you could ask the gardeners you know, or owners of gardens you admire, for assistance – like the name of their seed providers. They wouldn’t mind helping you with seed catalog information and advice.
When I was young, my father started seeds he saved from last year’s garden, or a packet of seeds for about ten cents, in shallow boxes of moist soil, kept behind the wood burning stove that burned all night. Seeds need warmth and moisture to start growing, and proper light, 16 hours a day to become producing plants. Currently, seed packets are often offered for $2.50 per packet, and we usually buy more than one year’s supply of each kind of seeds we plant, because they can be stored in a refrigerator or freezer for years before planting.
Seed catalogs will often mention what ‘Planting Zones’ the pictured seed will best be grown in, and seed packets will usually say if and when those seeds should be started indoors, to avoid late freezes when planted in your garden. The U.S. Department of Agriculture produces this map, and it has just been updated-for the first time since 1990, and some areas in some states like us and Ohio, are in slightly warmer zones, because the “coldest days of the year there” aren’t as cold as they used to be, and in this area, which used to be Zone 5 – some of it is Zone 5B, and some of it Zone 6A! I think it is the result of global warming! But some people just don't believe the globe is warming!
My good friend, Ricky Kemery, Horticultural Educator for the Northeastern Indiana Extension Service, says gardeners should be wary of starting seeds of annuals OUTDOORS too early in the spring. We start most garden seeds under proper fluorescent lights (one cool white bulb, one warm white bulb) downstairs in the basement, with a timer that turns them on for 16 hours, and off for eight hours each day.
We usually move the plants outside to a trailer to ‘harden off’ a week before planting, and pull the trailer out into the sunlight during warm daylight hours, and put it back in the barn when night approaches. We usually plant our garden on Memorial Day, and some neighbors plant a little sooner – and somehow get the first tomato sandwich before we do! – but when we planted before Memorial Day, sometimes we had some plants FROZEN.
If you are computer wise, you can click on the USDA’s Planting Zone Map, enter your zip code, and get the up-to-date estimate of “average frost free days.” I will still try to plant on Memorial Day! Good gardening . . . by Bob Smith Hi there. I have lived in climate zones similar to northern Indiana all my life, and I can’t remember a more pleasant winter weather year than we have experienced here in the winter of 2011-2012! Sure, it has snowed a little, and made slippery roads for one or a very few days, but the snow plows and salt trucks came out before the school buses pick up students, and the temperature climbs above freezing enough to melt nearly all ice from the roads we travel. Of course, it is awhile until spring and summer roll in, so we will continue to pay attention to the temperature and weather information.
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