May 2022 Gardening Journal

Sunday, May 1, 2022

It's May...already.  

May just might be the biggest growing month of the year.  It doesn't seem like I made very much progress in April.  It seems like April was cooler than normal, but that could be totally wrong.  I did get quite a few things planted, but things just don't seem to be growing like I thought they would.  So I expect to see lots of change over the next 30 days.  It might be fun to take some pictures today then compare them with how things look at the end of the month.  If I had done that in April, I might be surprised to find that my "things don't seem to be growing" perception is totally wrong!

The first four months of no-till are behind me, and for the most part, I am really liking it.  I've already figured out some mistakes I made, but I think those mistakes can be corrected this fall when I put the garden to bed for the winter.

My first mistake was making some of the raised rows too narrow and steep.  When I water, the water wants to run down the sides of the raised row before it can soak in from the top.  So this fall when I top the rows with compost, I'll be flattening them out some so the top rows have more of a plateau for planting.

Green Pea Experiment: Initial Results and Ultimately, a Failure

All of the peas in the toilet paper rolls had a long,
vigorous root coming out the bottom.

Back in January, I thought I'd get a head start on my green peas by starting them indoors.  And I decided to try starting them in two types of biodegradable containers to see what worked best.

The peas started in the peat pots germinated at a much better rate than the ones in in the toilet paper rolls, but by the time I was ready to set them out in the garden, the toilet paper roll peas were much larger, and had a much better developed root system.  I think if I had kept them watered when they were trying to germinate, the toilet paper rolls  might have been the clear winner between the two containers.  I was satisfied enough with them that I've been saving the rolls again for another try with something.

Because I've been battling rabbits for a while now, I  decided to cover the peas every night.  I cut the bottom out of a bunch of saved milk jugs, strung them together on a string that I tied to the cattle panel, and every night I went out and set a jug over every plant.

It seemed like a good idea, and it did keep the rabbits away from the peas.  But unfortunately, when we had the ice storm in February, I thought I should leave the jugs in place to protect the peas from the ice.  They were protected from the ice, but because I didn't take them off when the sun came back out, the milk jugs acted like little "ovens" and the peas were severely damaged by the heat from the sun!  When I finally took them back off, the plants looked like they were deathly sick...pale yellow and burned looking.  

Sure enough, within a week they were all pretty much gone.

Covering the peas during the winter storm seemed like a good idea...it might have been if I had removed the jugs when the sun came back out.

I planted a bunch of old seed (and I mean OLD, OLD) but none of them came up.  So I bought another packet of seeds from the feed store in town and tried again.  Most of them came up, but because I wasn't covering them at night anymore, I think I have exactly five of about 30 plants left.  The rabbits have apparently had themselves a nice little feast.

I just don't think it's in the cards for me to have any peas again this year.   Maybe I will try again this fall.

Composting and battling the "What-ifs"

When RAF first helped me fill my first bins with cow manure last winter, I didn't really have a clue what I was doing.  I had never composted on that scale before, and had never done any "hot" composting.  I just saw the method on videos by Charles Dowding and Huw Richards and thought it looked like an easy way to make lots of compost...something I saw as a must-have if I wanted to switch to no-till gardening.

Besides having no experience in hot composting, I also didn't have a soil thermometer at the time I decided to set up the first bin..  But I ordered one on Amazon, and it arrived about a week after my second bin was filled.  I was absolutely shocked when I took the temperature of the pile...it was almost 160° F!

Being the type of person I am (if I don't have something real to worry about, I make something up), that temperature reading stuck in my head and that night I tossed and turned all night long, worrying - or battling the "what-ifs" as my Mama calls it.  

What if the bin catches on fire?  

Is it heating up even more right now? 

Is it dry enough that the fire would get out and burn down the shop?  

How would I put it out?   

How hot is it right now?  

Do I need to go check it right now?

I wonder how hot it is right now.... 

I think the frost would keep the fire from spreading.

Will the frost keep the fire from spreading? 

Luckily, common sense won out and I didn't get up at 2 am to go check the temperature of the bin!  When I did check it the next morning, it was still the same temperature.  And after asking The Google about it several different ways, I felt a bit better, because it sounded like the pile would have to get up to around 200° F before it was at any risk of spontaneous combustion.  

Really, 160° F is too hot for a compost pile.  That means the bacterial action has gotten so intense that the bacteria are generating so much heat that they are creating conditions they can no longer tolerate, and are actually killing themselves.  But while the quality of my compost might be degraded by that temperature, my small bin wasn't going to catch fire.

And as the articles I read predicted, the temperature pretty quickly dropped to around 140° F and it stayed right there for the next few days.

At that point, the bin started cooling much more quickly and finally fell to around 90° F.  

Time to turn the pile.

I learned a lot during that first turn.  First, I learned that I hadn't set up my bins correctly.  I had filled bin #1 with manure (the one at the far left as I faced the bins) and then I filled bin #2.

So when I got ready to turn the piles, I had to move the material from bin #1 into bin #3.  That meant  carrying every shovel full of manure six feet to the south, to the empty bin.  

Rather than do that, I decided to put the manure into my cart - but that still meant loading it into the cart, pushing the cart over to the empty bin, then unloading it.  Wow...I didn't realize I had put so much poo in there!  It took probably a good hour and a half of work to move the pile!  

At first, I was able to empty the cart by just tilting it up and dumping it, but as I moved more and more of the manure, I had to tie the front pallet up to keep everything from spilling out into the yard.  That meant every shovel-full had to be lifted into the cart, and every shove-full had to be lifted out of the cart and over the pallet.  It was quite a workout, to say the least.

Notice I said "shovel-full."  That was mistake number two.  While the frozen cow patties were easy to scoop up off the ground with a flat shovel, scooping the patties out of the bin with a shovel (technically a spade) was extremely difficult!  The patties were turned every which way, so when I tried to put the shovel in, I would invariably hit a patty  that was turned at a different angle, or hit a layer of leaves.  It would have been so much easier to turn with a manure fork (which I subsequently bought!).

Patties...that was mistake number three.  Because the cow patties were frozen when I scooped them up off the ground, I just dumped them into the bin as they were.  I didn't make time to try to break them up into smaller pieces to expose more surface area for the bacteria to work on.  That meant that active decomposition was really only happening on the outside of the patties.  When I turned the pile that first time, I tried my best to break them up into smaller chunks.

And the leaves...that was mistake number four.  Not only did the leaves form a surprisingly solid layer that was difficult to penetrate with a shovel, apparently it was also difficult for the bacteria to penetrate.  At the first turn, I couldn't tell that the leaves had broken down any at all.  They just looked like wet, matted leaves.  Mental note to self:  if you use leaves in the compost bin, try to shred them first!

Finally, mistake number five.  I had piled some sticks and small tree branches at the bottom of the bin, thinking in my naïve mind that they'd break down.  They will, but not that fast.  So as I got near the bottom of the bin, I began to hit sticks that were intertwined and weighted down by the manure on top of them.  I pulled some out, and tried to get as much manure off the top of them as I could, but I finally just gave up and left the last bit of manure in the bottom of the bin.   The lesson?  If you put stuff like that in your bin, cut, chop, or break it into small pieces!

As I dug down into the center of the pile, the leaves and manure looked like they had been covered with a thin coating of ashes.  It again made me worry the the bin had been about to catch on fire!  Asking The Google about it didn't turn up much, but there was one page on Houzz.com that had quite a bit of good discussion, along with some funny comments about the gray ashy substance.   

But there was also a comment about a man who died after breathing fungal spores from compost.

I looked it up, and that did, in fact, happen.  

The 47-year-old welder from Buckinghamshire, who has not been named, died in intensive care a week after being engulfed by "clouds of dust" when he opened bags of rotting plant material that had been left to fester, in a case reported in the Lancet.

Source: TheGuardian.com; accessed April 17, 2022

So there it was...more ammunition for "the what-ifs."  That night, I couldn't stop thinking about the gray powdery stuff, and tried recreating the day's events in my head to see if I might have breathed in any of it.  I finally exhausted myself with worry, and decided that first, I probably didn't breathe in anything because the wind was blowing pretty hard from my back as I was working; second, if I did breathe in anything, it was probably only a very minor amount; and third, if I did, it was too late to worry about it anyway.  

I've turned the two bins three times now, and while I did try wearing one of my N95 masks at one point, I eventually gave up on that because it was a pretty warm, sunny day, and I decided I might be more likely to die of suffocation than from breathing in fungal spores.  

After the third turn, the temperature in the bins never did go up above ambient, and there were quite a few beetles, earthworms, and other assorted critters down in the compost.  Oh...and fire ants.  I was quite annoyed to find that the fire ants had made themselves at home down near the bottom of the bin, but I don't know what I can do about that.  I just went ahead and turned them over into the new bin.  I sincerely hope lots of them got trapped in the now disorganized pile and died!   

It was also interesting to me on the last turn how the material in the bins looked different and actually smelled like a forest floor...it had a nice "earthy" smell instead of a raw cow manure smell.  I know there is still quite a bit of undecomposed material in the pile, but I think at this point, I'll just leave them be and see what happens. 

Compost bin after a turn.  Lots of undecomposed leaves on the top, but overall, it was starting to look pretty nice after only two turns.

I couldn't resist trying some of the compost now though, even though it's probably still pretty "hot."  

In Charles Dowding's "no dig" gardening approach, he puts down some type of barrier to block weeds, tops that barrier with compost, and then plants directly into the compost.  

I didn't have enough "finished" compost to do that, but I did try an experiment with three of my broccoli plants.  I put cardboard down on the ground, then piled some of my not-quite-finished cow manure compost in a mound on top of that.  I then took three small cardboard shipping boxes, filled them with finished compost from my old "passive" compost bin, settled them down into the center of the composted cow manure pile, put a broccoli plant in each box, then covered the cow manure and compost-filled box with straw.  So far I can't tell that it has hurt those three plants, and they might actually look better than the others that were just planted right into the ground. 

And since celery is also supposed to like really rich soil, and since I've never grown celery before and really don't know what I'm doing, I decided to do another test.  I had 12 celery plants...I put six of them in the ground in the garden, but the other six I planted in my middle compost bin.

Celery in the compost bin.  I hope the compost isn't still too "hot" for the plants to survive there.

Now...the "what-ifs" have already started in on me about the celery in the compost bin, but I'm going to ignore them.  I'll just be sure to wash the celery really well in case there's any Escherichia coli contamination on them!

April 2022 Gardening Journal

Friday, April 1, 2022

We had a freeze last night.  I didn't think to cover the asparagus and it looks like it took a pretty good hit.  The spears that had come up are all bent over and they look frozen.  

It seems impossible that March is already over.  March...I had so many things I was looking forward to planting and now the month is just gone.  I did get some things planted, and I do have a few plants growing in pots, but it just seems like the month "went missing" or something. 

My beautiful raised rows have been invaded by fire ants.  They have also invaded the compost bins.

The Enterprise apple tree and the Gala apple tree that I bought from Stark Brother's nursery are putting out leaves.  I don't know if they'd have taken the frost last night, but they got covered up with some old sheets just in case and they seemed fine this morning.

The American Hazelnut trees I ordered from Arbor Day Foundation came last week.  I got them planted out in the back yard. 

Bought 20 10' t-posts at the Co-Op for the new "deer fence," along with two rolls of 2"x4" horse fence from Atwoods.  Hope to be able to start setting posts in the ground this weekend.  We'll do a little on this project at a time, just working as we can. 

Rangemaster "Horse Fence" from Atwoods.  The openings are 2" x 4" and it looks and feels like a good quality wire.  This 200' roll was $309.99.

 

Sunday, April 17, 2022

Happy Easter!  

April is flying by, just like March.  I can hardly believe we're already halfway through the month.  It kind of makes me sad, because April is one of my favorite months of the year.  All the plants start to "wake back up" from their winter dormancy, and the summer birds and insects start to trickle back in.  The cow pasture is a brilliant emerald green, although lots of the green is from meadow buttercups (those yellow flowers, the generic name we give to them).  But it's still pretty.

It always amazes me how fast the chickweed grows.  It seems like one day the flowerbed is brown and lifeless, and overnight it's covered with chickweed a foot high.  But I don't mind the chickweed.  I can go through with my hands and rip it out of the flowerbed with very little effort...and it makes a great addition to the compost bin.

Chickweed spreading into the flowerbed.

It's really been a busy month if I stop to think about it.  As each day goes by, it seems like I'm making absolutely no progress at all in the garden, but looking back now, I see lots of small things that I've done that altogether add up.

We've had quite a few days where the forecast called for severe storms.  

An "edge" of a thunderstorm approaching from the west on the morning of March 30.  This storm just brought us some gusty wind and heavy rain.  Thankfully, no damage.

There have actually been tornadoes to our west and to our east, but we've so far been lucky and not taken any type of storm damage.

This screen capture from Monday, April 11 shows an area of rotation approaching Scranton.  I heard from my dad that a tornado did touch down briefly at Scranton, and did some damage.  This one eventually went south and east of us over Knoxville.  A friend of my younger sister who lives in Knoxville said they could hear the storm roaring as it went by.  Thankfully, it didn't cause any damage in that area.

An earlier storm had moved along that almost exact path, only the first storm did produce a tornado that moved through parts of Pope County, and stayed on the ground for quite a while.

So with the threat of hail, I have put off transplanting things into the garden.  The tomatoes and onions were starting to look especially stressed, so even though we still have the possibility of severe weather in the forecast, they got set out in the garden late this week.

The other weather threat has been the cold.  We've had one night where there was a pretty solid freeze (low temperature that night was 27° F according to my little sister).  While I did cover up the apple trees and the little raised bed, I forgot about the asparagus, and it took a pretty severe hit.  

The second night of cold wasn't quite so bad...just a light frost.  I don't think it would have hurt things, but I went ahead and covered the apple trees and lettuce beds that night as well.  Again, the asparagus took a little hit, but nothing nearly so serious as the first freeze.

We've had lots of cloudy days though, but not an overwhelming amount of rain.  I think we're actually below normal on rainfall for the month.  I have managed to get my water barrels all full again.

Fire ants...oh how I hate them.  There was a large nest of them at the base of the old pecan tree and I never did anything with them for fear of hurting the tree.  They actually hurt the tree, building their nest up under the bark on the south side.  But by not taking aggressive action against them, I think they built tunnels out horizontally, into my compost bins to the east, and into my raised rows to the west.  So far, I've discovered them in the first foot or so of every row in that part of the garden.  I've been pouring boiling water on them and that seems to knock them back for a bit.  The question will be if that caused them to move somewhere else, or if they'll repopulate the area after I get things planted in it.  If they do, the plants may have to be sacrificed.  I would hate that, but I have learned the hard way that you can't give those devils an inch or they'll take a mile!

The vetch took off growing like crazy in mid-March and I started cutting it down to prevent it from going to seed in the garden.  I have all but a row and a half cut...that row and a half HAVE to be cut this week, or I'm afraid I'll have waited too late.

Vetch/winter rye is being cut down and left on the row as a mulch.

Here's what I can remember that I've transplanted or planted in the garden up to this point:

Carrots; Bibb lettuce; Cherry Belle radish; Early Texas Grano onion; Sugar Snap peas; Detroit Red beets; Tendercrisp celery; Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage; Commin dill; Cilantro; Calendula; Petunia; Broccoli; Brussels Sprouts; American Flag Leeks; Empress of India nasturtium; Cherokee Purple tomato; sweet basil; German chamomile; and Borage.

Cherokee Purple tomatoes, with sweet basil interplanted throughout the row.  The plants have cages around them now to protect them from the rabbits, but will be tied up to the cattle panel when they get tall eough.

The flowerbeds have had several things planted, including snapdragons; larkspur; calendula; petunia; zinnia; sunflower; verbenia; purple prairie clover; wild bergamot; and other assorted flower seeds that my mom gave to me in an envelope last fall.

RAF and I did make more progress on our very big gardening project yesterday.  We now have the  stretch of fence along the south part of the yard (almost) put up.  It's not perfect, but then nothing I am involved in is ever perfect.  If it keeps Mo and Lola in and keeps the deer; rabbits; cows; other dogs and groundhog (and Mr. Groundhog is back, by the way) out, then it's a win.

The new fence.  We left the existing barbed wire fence and posts up (the shorter orange posts), but added new 10' posts between each short post, and put up 2" x 4" horse fence on the outside over the barbed wire.

I'm not positive we got it stretched tight enough, and I'm not at all happy at how we got it fastened around the pipe fence at the corners, but it seems pretty solid.  And while I wish it could have been straight all across the top, we just went ahead and followed the dips in the yard so that the wire comes into contact with the ground all the way across.  We might could have bent it at the high points, but that would have meant bending the majority of the wire past the shop and I just didn't think we could do that.  It was a much harder job than it should have been, mainly because we didn't have much of a clue about what we were doing, but in the end, we were able to get it fasted to the posts most of the way across and we got three wires wrapped around the post on the west end to hold it.  We'll need to put tension back on it to finish, and I have lots of fence clips to install and tighten, but I'm not at all unhappy with our progress yesterday.

I plan to pick up the two wooden posts needed for the H-brace at the north end of the west fence this week, and once we have those concreted in, we'll be ready to stretch that wire.  I think it will go better for us because we learned some lessons on this first installation.  

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Tomorrow is a big garden day!

 

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

They're here!  My order from Nourse Farms was delivered today, with 25 Galletta strawberry plants and three blueberry plants!

The order came with a nice little instruction book and a packet of Agri-gel.  The plants were well wrapped, but I wish they had put some crumpled up newspaper in the box.  One of the blueberry plants had the end broken off.  I don't think it will hurt it though.  

I put all 25 strawberry plants in the section of the raised bed that RAF helped me finish.  It has Ocean Forest® potting soil from Fox Farm on top of the clay.  I hope that works out.   I know they're really too close together (they're spaced only about 1' apart), but hopefully I can move some of the runners next spring after I get the back part of the raised bed finished up.

March 2022 Gardening Journal

Thursday, March 17, 2022

And we did get more snow...

 

 

With the temperature hovering right around freezing, the snow didn't stick on the roads this time, and although we probably got around 2" total, a lot of it melted before nightfall.  The sun was out on Saturday, and most of the snow was gone by that afternoon.  

The skies got cloudy again early in the week, and it just seemed chilly outside.  But mid-week the sun came back out, the temperatures warmed back up, and it really is feeling a lot more like spring.

Radishes are coming up in the little raised bed, and I set out a few lettuce plants and the few little onions that survived from January in between them.  Unfortunately, the rabbits found them last night, and one of the onions has been nibbled off.  So this afternoon I put up a wire hoop over the bed to try to protect things.  Hoop is made of some old 2" x 4" welded wire that was left over from some project I did long, long ago.  Hope the rabbits aren't able to get through openings that size.

RAF has helped me work on the raised beds that I decided to build around the cellar.  Although they're not perfect, I'm pleased with how it's turned out so far, and just hope that my strawberry plants will do well in the top bed.  

Two levels completed, then rain moved in.  I've since added boards for the bottom level, and have started working up the dirt getting the beds ready for planting.

 

 

Thursday, March 10, 2022

In the past couple of weeks, I've been pretty busy trying to get some seeds started, and pricking out and potting up some of the ones that had already sprouted.

We're in for a couple more pretty cold days, with more snow. 

 

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

The last week of February was just miserable.  But I think spring is trying to win out, and my gloomy-doomy mood is somewhat better because of that. 

 

February 2022 Gardening Journal

Monday, February 28, 2022

Wednesday morning started off cold, but dry, and I intended to get to the store for a gallon of milk before 10 am, which is when the weatherman said we might start to see some precipitation.  Around 9 am, I decided to go ahead and go, but before I could even get my boots on, the rain had started, and one step out the door changed my mind in a hurry.  The step was already glazed over with ice.

Luckily for us, most of Wednesday morning we had sleet rather than freezing rain, otherwise I'm not sure if we'd have had power through the rest of the storm.  By afternoon, the sleet had transitioned over to rain, with embedded lightening/thunder, and even cells with some rotation in them, if you can believe that!    

By Thursday night, when the rain finally moved out, I estimate that we ended up with close to 1/2" of ice, so a big shout-out to Arkansas Valley Electric for clearing out the right-of-ways so that none of the power lines were taken out by falling tree limbs.

It was cold without our propane heater, so we pretty much lived bundled up in one room with two electric heaters.  We didn't freeze to death, so I guess we survived it. 

 

2/23/2022 10:50 am - Everything is starting to get covered by a light layer of sleet.

2/23/2022 12:36 pm - Just over an hour and a half later, we were completely encased in a layer of sleet and ice.

  

Thursday, February 17, 2022

I guess RAF and I are in for a miserable night tonight, and several miserable days next week.  Our propane line under the house started leaking a couple of nights ago and the repair appointment isn't until Friday, the 25th.  So that means no propane heater in the living room.  The low tonight is supposed to be around 18 degrees F, but it should start warming back up tomorrow...until next Tuesday night.  At that point, temperatures are supposed to get cold again with the possibility of freezing winter precipitation of some sort for Wednesday and Thursday.  

I am so done with winter.   

 

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Update on green pea germination: 

Peat pots - 10 of 15 (67%)

Cardboard Toilet Paper Rolls - 5 of 18 (28%) 

First daffodil of the year bloomed today.

 

 

Sunday, February 6, 2022

The green peas have started coming up!

Update on the Green Pea seed starting experiment.  

The peas have started coming up.  So far, seven have come up in the peat pots, and only two in the cardboard toilet paper rolls.  One of the peat pots is starting to get quite a bit of mold on one side at the top.  There appears to be a very light film of mold on the side of one of the cardboard rolls as well.  The one cardboard roll that had started to unravel is almost completely unraveled now, with the soil starting to spill down the side.

A couple of thoughts about why the peat pots are "winning."  First, I think the seeds in the peat pots may have come up more quickly because the peat pots seem to hold the moisture better than the cardboard rolls. That could be because the peat pots, being square, are packed together more closely (the cardboard rolls have lots of air space between them).  It could also be that the peat just naturally holds moisture better. 

(In all fairness to the cardboard rolls, I've tried not to just saturate them with water this time, because I thought that might have been the reason for all of the mold, and that it probably contributed to the rolls coming unraveled.)

Second, I realize that I filled all of the cardboard rolls too full.  By filling them up completely to the top, the water tries to roll off the side before it has a chance to soak in.  So I'm not sure they've actually received an amount of water equivalent to what the seeds in the peat pots received. Were I doing this over, I'd leave about 1/4" of space at the top to help contain the water. 

 

Saturday, February 5, 2022

With all the ice, sleet and snow on the ground, I kept sending my dad text messages reminding him and my mom to be very, very careful when they were out doing their chores so they didn't fall.

So who was the one who fell on the ice?  Why me of course!  I guess I got my left foot up on the sloped ground around the storm cellar more than I realized and when I lifted my right foot to take a step, away I went!  Although I hit the ground pretty hard and rolled, I wasn't hurt other than just a bit of a sore hip.  It just goes to show you that I'm not very good at "practicing what I preach!"

Back in December, I decided to set up "events" in my Outlook calendar with reminders about when it was time to plant different things through the growing season.  This past week, one of my reminders popped up: 

 

That means it's officially time to start on the 2022 garden!  And while February isn't the busiest month for planting, there are a few things on the calendar. 

So today, I've planted some Emerald Giant bell peppers.  And because the Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage seeds I planted back in January have never come up, I planted some Early Dutch cabbage seeds too.  I'm pretty sure I planted some of the Early Jersey Wakefield seeds last year too, and they never came up.  I know the seeds are quite old, so it's probably time to throw them in the compost.  The Early Dutch seeds are very old too, so I may have the same outcome on them, which is to say, nothing.  No great loss, I guess.  I'm not a real big fan of cabbage anyway.

I had gotten in a rush last month and started the broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage earlier than the calendar said.  They've come up, and will go out in the garden in early March (if I can keep them alive until then).  

The problem I've always had with seeds started indoors is light.  I bought some LED grow lights last year and have fastened them to a piece of 1/2" plywood.  I've had the seedlings under that light for a few days, but either I didn't get them under it soon enough, or they're still too far away from the light.  Although their leaves are a healthy dark green, all of the plants are very "leggy."  

Leggy Brussels sprouts. The one on the upper left is almost 2" tall!  Very bad....

And my little onions and leeks that I was so excited about earlier?  Well, they weren't spindly because they're Alliums.  They're spindly because I almost killed them.

Poor, poor pitiful onions and leeks.

I'm pretty sure that I let them dry out.  Apparently the air in the living room is super dry and because I thought by looking that the pots were still damp, I didn't check them.  They weren't damp.  When I finally did poke my finger down in the pot to check the soil moisture, it was actually very, very dry.  

I gave them a good watering and put them under the LED grow light as well.  I can see new growth that has put up, especially on the leeks, so I hope I haven't completely lost all of them.  But I really started them way to early anyway, so if they don't make it I guess that's just a lesson learned early.  I'll have time to start more. 

 

Thursday, February 3, 2022

The back side of winter storm Landon is making its way across Arkansas tonight.  We were pretty lucky actually...we only got about 1/4" or less of ice topped by probably another 1/2" of sleet last night, topped by maybe another inch of snow today.  So far the power has stayed on and while it's very cold (39 degrees on the inside porch this morning) we've managed to bundle up and stay warm enough.  Our forecast is calling for less than one additional inch of snow, and it will be the dry, powdery kind, so we don't expect it to accumulate on the trees or power lines.

February ice, sleet and snow from winter storm Landon.

Looking at the picture of the panels in the garden, I guess it's a good thing I didn't try to rush and plant my green peas in the ground!  They've not come up yet, but the Brussels sprouts and broccoli seeds planted on the same day have!  

Mo was his usual happy self this morning when I put on his harness and leash...until I opened the door.  He took one look outside then actually shook his head "no!" and started backing up!  I had to laugh at him, and practically had to push him out the door.  We only stayed out for a couple of minutes - enough for him to pee on a clump of grass in the yard - then straight back in the house!

But this afternoon, with the snow over the top of the sleet, he didn't seem to mind being out at all, and he bounced along through the snow as we made our usual round around the yard.  He stopped for a couple of minutes on the east side of the shop, and while he was looking at something/listening to something, I took the time to gaze out across the absolutely breathtaking beauty of the countryside in the snow.  

Dark steel-gray-blue clouds hung low over dark steel-blue-green mountains, framed by the stark whiteness of the big American Sycamore tree out in the field.  The more distant trees were shapes etched in black on a background of white snow.  It was so beautiful - one of those things that messes with my brain.  I'm not sure if it makes me incredibly happy or incredibly sad.  When we got back into the house, I happened to look out just in time to see a flock of snow-geese, flying low, white silhouettes against the dark mountain, which was slowly shrouded by a heavy band of snow....  

I wish I could take pictures with my eyes.

Green Peas: a Seed-Starting Experiment

It's really still too early to plant peas outside.  But it's really not that long until time to plant, is it? I wondered if I could get a head start on my peas by starting them indoors this year.

I decided to go ahead and plant the pea seeds in individual biodegradable containers and save my plastic four-, six-, and nine-packs for other things.  I had a few peat pots that I bought at my favorite little local feed store, but after watching this video by Huw Richards, I decided to experiment with toilet paper rolls again.

I say "again " because I tried using toilet paper rolls to start tomatoes and peppers last year.  I would categorize that attempt as a moderate failure.  

The seeds I put in the pot sprouted and grew, but the process of getting the dirt in the rolls was ridiculous.  

I had cut the rolls in half, thinking I could get more containers that way.  I quickly discovered that it was almost impossible to fill the little half-rolls with soil.  I tried lining them with paper towel in the bottom.  It helped, but it was very awkward trying to hold the paper towel in the end while adding the soil (anything that requires good motor skills is hard for me, since I am notorious for dropping things).  I eventually ended up just setting the half-rolls in the cut-off milk jug and trying to cram the rolls full of the soil.  I'm pretty sure I ended spilling as much as I got in the containers. 

The cardboard soaks up water really quickly and as it gets saturated, the rolls may start to come apart at the seam.  What I hadn't realized was that by cutting the tubes in half, there was a lot less seam holding them together, and they were coming completely apart in just a couple of days. 

Then came the mold.  And when I say mold, I mean monster mold!  All of the cardboard tubes quickly developed a heavy layer that started on the outside, but then began spreading inwards to the soil.  I really think I was lucky that the half rolls held together long enough for me to get the seedlings set out in little grow pots.

I didn't think I'd ever try the rolls again, but watching the video made me think that my problem might have been that I kept the trays too wet.  Apparently there are lots of people out there who use them successfully, so I decided to give it one more try.

This time though, I decided to leave the rolls in one piece, and as I often do, I puzzled on it a good part of the night when I was supposed to be sleeping.  I came up with a plan that I hoped would work.

The supplies:  1) The cardboard toilet paper rolls (and a paper towel roll, that was cut into thirds);  2) a proper plastic tray to hold the rolls (milk jugs are too small and uneven on the bottom); and 3) a cardboard egg carton.

My "brilliant idea" was this...cut the "cups" out of the bottom of the egg carton, and stuff those down into the toilet paper rolls to create a "bottom" for each container.

Separate the egg "holders" into individual units.

Then stuff each one in a tube!

The completed "pots," ready for soil.

I was actually really pleased with how the egg carton bottoms worked.  I was able to pick up each tube and spoon the damp soil in and press it down into the tube to get a good fill.  I filled each tube to within about an inch from the top, and only spilled a little this time! (For the record, it's not very easy to cut the egg-holding part of a cardboard egg carton apart!)

Ready for planting!  I sprinkled about 1/8 teaspoon of the Plant Success Organics Mycorrhiza granules in each tube/peat pot.

After soaking the pea seeds in warm water for about 30 minutes, each pea was put into its own little pot and topped off with soil.

And finally, a label for each pot, just because I have a ton of popsicle sticks, and wanted to be able to keep up with where each plant is once set out in the ground.

I had the potting soil pretty damp...notice how the toilet paper rolls have already soaked up a lot of the water.  One of the tubes has already started to unravel a bit at the top.  I hope it will hold together and that the others don't do the same thing.

The finished trays were then set in the south window of the inside porch.  The porch is unheated, and still gets down in the low 40s at night when the outside temperature is in the 20s.  But they'll have good sunshine all day, and I hope to see the peas coming up within a week to 10 days.

I planted 18 toilet paper/paper towel tubes and 15 peat pots.  I'm guessing that the toilet paper tubes held two and a half times as much soil as the peat pots, and I was able to fit more of the the rolls into a smaller tray.  I really liked that...the tubes go vertical more than horizontal.  It will be interesting to see if having more soil, or making the roots grow deeper has any impact on the seedlings after they're put out in the garden.

And now, we wait.  

Update:  April 1, 2022

I set them all out in the garden and they all died or were eaten by rabbits.

Composting...for real this time

I started what I called a "compost bin" a long time ago.  That first bin was made from the old landscape timbers, stacked two layers high, with an old storm door fastened over the top of it.  Pretty much the only thing I put in it was vegetable scraps - things like lettuce, tomato and potato peels, ends off of the squash, etc.  When I got ready to put something in it, I'd just lift the door, dump the scraps in and lay the door back down.  It got very hot under the glass during the summer, so even though the pile wasn't dense enough to heat up on its own, the stuff in it did decompose pretty quickly.  It just didn't make very much compost because I really wasn't putting much in it.

When I moved the old recycling box out under the tree and turned it into a house for my little chickens, I put what little compost was under the old door out in the garden, and decided I would turn that spot into a raised bed instead.  I didn't have a compost bin for a while.  I don't remember for sure, but I must have just dumped my vegetable scraps over the fence for the cows?

But after my sweet little chickens all died/were killed, I decided that rather than tear down their little pen, I'd take the wire off the top and turn it into a new compost bin.  A friend from work had given me four old pallets, and I fastened those around the edges thinking I could just fill that up and use it as a passive compost bin.

What was left of my old compost bin, made from the little chicken coop. Three of the fours pallets have already been removed.

There were a couple of problems with that setup.  First, if I wanted to do anything with the compost (other than add stuff to the bin), I had to untie one of the pallets, and drag it out of the way.  Not that big of a deal, except the pen was under a small ash tree, so getting access to the panels turned out to be much harder than I thought.  Second, because I had left the wooden sides of the old chicken coop in place, I had a hard time getting my shovel down into the compost to "turn" it, so it seemed like the pile just always had a bunch of undecomposed "stuff" on top.  I sure wasn't getting much usable compost out of it!

I think my early mistakes with composting were a result of me just not knowing what I was doing.  It makes so much sense to me now, and should have been obvious to me all along:  If you want to make lots of compost, 1) you have to compost lots of stuff.  And if you want to make lots of good compost, you don't just need to add "lots of stuff."  2) You need to add lots of the right stuff.  And if you want to make lots of compost in a shorter amount of time, 3) you have to put some work into your bins, turning the pile every so often.  

I was 0 for 3 on my composting.

This isn't going to be a lesson on "greens" and "browns" or about how to compost in general.  There are lots of good articles online about that.  All you have to do is go to The Google and type in something like "greens and browns in composting" or "how to compost" and it will show you all kinds of articles.  I also won't list the many composting articles I've read this winter, or the YouTube videos I've watched.  But this one by Charles Dowding is one of the ones that got me going on my composting again.

Three Types of Heap, see how they work and the compost they make

Since I already had four old pallets, enough to build one bay, I decided why not give the three-bay system a try?

Dowding mentioned that he didn't put anything under their bays...they just set them up on top of the grass.  I decided against that though.  With the aggressive Bermuda grass that's in the yard.  I figured it might not be a very good idea to give that stuff easy access to my compost bays, so I started out with a layer of old tin underneath.  A potential drawback I can see from doing this is that it also cuts off access for things like earthworms that might migrate up into the bin.  So I'll have to see how this works out.  

The long-term plan is start with this single bay, then add two additional bays to the right, using those for my first and second decomposition bins.  This original bin with the tin under it will be my "final" bin where I store the finished compost.

Anyway, back to the project.  The back pallet was secured to one of the existing fenceposts and shimmed up where necessary so it was level and plumb (I have my daddy to thank for that...but that's another story unto itself!).  Because the ground sloped down a bit toward the fence, the side pallets had to also be shimmed up a bit on the east side, but when they were all tied together, I wasn't unhappy with how it turned out.

The first bay, ready for some greens and browns!  Yes, the pallet on the left is a little out of plumb...it needs a support post in the ground beside it to hold it straight.

The first layer that went in was a wheelbarrow load of the wonderful leaves that RAF helped me collect in the yard earlier in the winter. 

The second layer was a cart load of "green manure" that RAF helped me collect today from the field.  I had joked with him and with my dad about how there was so much out there that I should take my cart and gather it up.  My dad just laughed and said that's what his grandpa used to do...gather up the cow manure from the lot where he fed the cattle and put it in a pile to rot.  That's what he and Mamaw used to fertilize their garden.  They never bought chemical fertilizer, instead just using what nature provided for them.

A cart load of "green manure" for the new compost bin.

So if it worked for Papaw and Mamaw, why wouldn't it work for me?  And there are lots of compostable-material-producing friends out in the field....

Some of my compostable-material-producing friends.

(Just as a side note, it was sort of an interesting experience collecting the manure today.  It turned out to be much easier to shovel up than I had anticipated (because it was frozen!) and it turned out to be much heavier than I had anticipated!  RAF joked that if my dad went to sell any of the cattle, he needed to be sure to make them wait to poo until after they were weighed at the sale barn!)  

More compost friends...earthworms!

Another cart of leaves, another cart of frozen cow manure, and another cart of leaves brought the new bin up to about half-full.  

At that point, I took the top layer of compost off the old compost bin (again, much harder than it looked because it too, was frozen) and I tossed that on top of the leaves and poo.  This layer wasn't very thick, but it did have some more compost friends in it.

All that was left was temporarily attaching the last pallet to the front of the bin.  A couple of strings later, and the bin was at a stage where it is now a usable compost bay.

The last pallet in place.  All that was left was tying it in place so it wouldn't fall over.  (The "out of plumb" pallet on the left was pulled back straight when it was connected to the front pallet!)

I've already starting adding more "stuff" to the new bin...some rotted wood that blew out of the top of the old silver maple in the front yard, along with the coffee grounds and other vegetable scraps from the bucket I keep under the kitchen sink. 

I'm not at all sure how long that green manure will take to break down, and I'm sure I didn't add enough earthworms today to do much good.  I also need to buy a soil thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature in the bay, and get a pitch fork to use when turning the pile.  But I feel pretty hopeful that this project has put me on the right path to creating lots of good compost, something I really, really need if I'm going to keep my pledge to use a no-till approach to gardening.  

As I walked Mo around the yard this evening, I looked over at the mud-hole, where I had tossed all of the old vegetation I cleared out of the yard this past summer and fall, and told myself, "Next year, all of that will go in my compost bin."  

If it all works like I hope it will, it will be a very good thing.

Growing Onions

Because I have the gardening bug so bad, yesterday I decided to go ahead and try planting some of my onion seeds, with plans to set them out pretty early, protecting them from the cold if I have to. 

Last year, I ordered two varieties of onion seeds...Walla Walla and Yellow Sweet Spanish.  I had tried growing some of the Yellow Sweet Spanish last year, and they never did amount to much.  I supposed it was because I had set them out in the east garden, where the soil gets very hard and dry, and I hadn't done a very good job of keeping them watered.

Since that seed packet was already open, I planted about half of the remaining seeds in a pot and started thinking about where I could put the grow light when they sprouted.

It sounded like a good plan.  But I live in zone 7a in Arkansas, and anyone who knows anything about growing onions knows already what I've done wrong.... 

As a way to spend yesterday's rainy morning, I did some reading on the Homestead and Chill website.  The article on How to Grow Onions: from Seed or Sets to Harvest talked about "short day" and "long day" onions.  I had never heard of such a thing.  I always thought an onion was an onion was an onion.  Not so.  DeannaCat included a picture from an article on the Johnny's Selected Seeds website.  The Johnny's article did a good job explaining what the "day" designations of an onion variety mean:  Map & Key Features of Short-, Intermediate- & Long-Day Onions 

If I had spent a little bit of time learning about onions before I bought my seeds last year, I would have known that neither of the varieties I bought (both "long day" varieties) will ever amount to anything here in Arkansas.

I now understand that since we're south of the 35th parallel, I need to grow "short day" or "intermediate day" varieties.  An onion like Texas Yellow Sweet or Vidalia would be better suited for my garden than Yellow Sweet Spanish and Walla Walla.

So today, I started over on my onions.  I ordered some "short day" onion seeds from Eden Brothers...Texas Early Grano.  I'm not sure how long the seeds will take to get here, but I figure they'll still get here in plenty of time for me to get them started early like I had originally planned.  According to our planting calendar, onion seeds should be planted outdoors in mid-March, so I hope to have my little onions ready to go in the garden by that time.

I guess this is "Stupid Mistake #1 for 2022."  I'm sure there will be lots more of them to come.