2011 Vegetable Seeds

Well I haven't posted on the blog in an exactly a year plus a day. So I guess I should update it. I started my tomato seeds on March 6th. They are growing well. They were repotted on the 18th and buried deeper in larger pots. I am growing Black Krim (doing the best), Sioux, Super Marzano Paste, Sweet Snack Cherry as well as Virginia Sweet which came free with my order from Tomato Growers Supply. I tried a new system this year. I bought the Burpee Ultimate Growing System. While the idea is solid the execution leaves a bit to be desired. The system is "self watering"; however the materials they use are cheap, flimsy plastic. Mine had hole in it when I bought it, apparently, but I didn't realize it until I had planted my seeds and added water. This of course made returning the damn thing a bit tricky. On the upside the coconut coir works much better than expected, as a matter of fact I purchased a block of the stuff at Home Depot that makes 8 quarts of planting medium. It holds moisture very well. While I was disappointed with the quality of materials used in the system, I wouldn't go so far as to not recommend it, but it only gets 2.5 out of 5 stars. For $20 the materials could have been much better.

Started Tomato and some flower seeds

I started 4 varieties of tomato plant on March 13. I went with the peat pots this year as opposed to the newspaper pots because I got sick of transplanting them to larger pots last year. I started Pineapple, Box Car Willy, Sugar Snack, and Victoria Hybrid. They've germinated and are about an inch tall on average, but have not yet gotten their first true set of leaves.

Today I started a bunch of Marigolds and Johhny Jump Ups. I did use the newspaper pots for the Johhny Jump Ups, but the same peat pots I used for Tomatos for the Marigolds. I saved the seed from the Marigolds last year and have no idea what variety they were, but we were impressed by the size of the blooms.

Garden and Chicken Run Expansions!!!!

After months of being holed up in the house, I took a "me" day today. Took the day off from work and dropped the kid off at the babysitter so I could work outside for a little while. Seemed perfectly logical considering the temperature has stayed above freezing for a few days in a row and the 1 foot of snow we had on the ground has diminished to about 2 inches in most places. I have been toying with the idea of a garden expansion for awhile, then we added 5 more pullets to our flock of 7, so the chicken run expansion seemed a good idea. So here's the plan....

The garden's original size was 25 feet by 40 feet. I am expanding the 25 foot dimension. I have decided exactly how far, but somewhere in the the 6 to 10 foot range, giving me somewhere in the neighborhood of 240 to 400 additional square feet, or put another way a 24% to 40% expansion. I started today by pulling the posts from the west side of the garden, and left it at that for now. Like I said I haven't definitely decided how much larger I want the garden. Decisions, decisions.

The chicken run expansion was more straight forward since I only had so much space to work with. The original chicken run was 15 feet by 20 feet or 300 square feet total. I am expanding the 20 foot dimension. The new dimensions will be 15 feet by 27 feet or 105 square feet more than I had before. At least initially the expansion will be separated by the original fencing which will give me 2 separate areas. The new pullets can be put into the new smaller area and hopefully when added to the flock will be integrated with minimal problems. I'm also hoping that once the new are living peaceably with the old I'll be able to put all the chickens into the newer run and get something green to grow in the original run, and rotate the chickens back and forth (at least spring through fall) growing grass and clover in one side while the chickens eat, scratch, and generally destroy the other. If that doesn't work out I'll remove the original fencing and just expand the run. The upside to that is I will be able to expand the chicken coop making more room for additional chickens. I can't keep up with egg orders as it is right now. I took 2 metal t-posts that I removed from the garden and put them into place. I also took the center wooden post I removed from the garden and used it for the corner post of the chicken run expansion.

I don't have any pictures yet since it wouldn't really look like anything has been done. I will post them in the future when everything is done.

Almost Time for Gardening

I'm getting the itch to get my garden going. I've started several tomatoes indoors, including Better Boy, Delicious, and Cherokee Purple. The first two are hybrids I've had laying around for a several years, and was actually quite surprised when they germinated. The Cherokee Purple is a Heirloom tomato that I'm pretty "excited" about. It is said to be one of the best tasting tomatoes around. I only hope it produces well enough to justify planting it in my garden. I planted Old German tomatoes last year and wasn't impressed with the number of fruits I harvested, and it too was an heirloom. Same story with the Brandywine. So it would seem my experience with the heirlooms is less than perfect, but I'll keep trying.

I've also started yellow onion sets inside. I read about this in some magazine. I guess it will give me onions a couple of weeks earlier than most folks, but it won't be long until I can plant more in the garden, so actually I'm only gaining about a 4 week head start on those.

I'll also be growing about 100 row feet of corn, a bi color variety called Ambrosia, which I don't know much about but came recommended from my local feed store/nursery. Also can't wait for the pickling cucumbers, as they were a huge hit last year even though it was my first attempt at pickling. I hope to get more green beans from my heirloom pole beans than I got from my bush beans last year. A new addition this year is red garlic which I've never grown, as well as 3 grape plants, Thompson Seedless (2), and Pink Reliance (1). We'll see what else I can come up with between now and Mother's Day, which is the recommended planting date here in Cincinnati.

Would love to hear from everybody about what they're planting!!!!!!!!!!