2009-03-27 (Last Freeze -5 Weeks) Quick Update

I potted my broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower yesterday in 4" pots of Mel's mix. I procured used pots from a co-worker. Nothing like free stuff! Some of the seedlings are just getting their first true leaves, others have had them for a few days, and others don't have any yet. Not sure where they should be. The onions are ready to go outside, but I'm not ready for them. Hopefully this weekend. The onions planted in the vermiculite five weeks ago are easily as big as the ones planted in soil seven weeks ago.

The chard came up last week. The peppers and lettuce started coming up this week. Only three of ten bell peppers so far, no habaneros and only one cayenne, but the jalapenos and serranos are going gangbusters. All of those were planted two weeks ago. Some of the lettuce hasn't germinated, but a new crop is going in this weekend for a staggered harvest.

Tomatoes and celery were planted last week. The tomatoes started coming up this morning, about 80% germination so far. Woohoo! No celery yet.

Onion (Allium cepa)

I purchased Yellow of Parma seed from Seed Savers for 2009, as well as two good-storing hybrids from High Mowing Seeds: Red Wing F1 and Mustang F1. Onions need a fairly long growing season prior to the summer solstice, when the bulbs begin to mature, so I start them indoors. Square Foot Gardening suggests planting 16 onions per square foot, which works great for growing green onions, but that only gives room for 3" bulbs to develop, so I'm going to plant nine per square foot.

February 6 (12 weeks prior to last freeze): I started the seeds in Jiffy Strips with a popular potting soil, one seed per square. I planted 20 seeds of each variety. Approximately 60% of Yellow of Parma germinated , but the two hybrids were disappointing. I only got two of the Mustang to germinate, and five or six of the Red Wing. I also planted an additional twenty or so of each in cups of Vermiculite. Again, Yellow of Parma germinated much better than the hybrids.

March 26 (5 weeks prior to last freeze): According to my schedule, I am supposed to transplant into the garden tomorrow, but my boxes are covered with snow, and only one has soil in it anyway, so I'll hold off awhile longer.

Yellow of Parma: A top-quality, late-maturing onion with handsome, golden, upright globe-shaped bulbs. Average size is 1 pound. One of the best for storage. Imported from Italy. 110 days from transplant.

Red Wing F1: The ultimate red storage onion! Blackish, purple-maroon, glossy skin and interior ring color that continues to develop during storage. Deeper red than Red Bull F1, with a rounder shape. Uniform, large, round globes average 3-4”. Very hard bulbs indicate its exceptional storage ability, similar to Copra. Long day. Days to maturity: 118 days

Mustang F1: Slightly larger and slightly later than Cortland, this yellow storage onion has equivalent storage capacity. Mustang was a real beauty in our trials. We were impressed with its size for a long storage type, and the foliage held up to overall disease pressure better than most any other onion in the trial. Long day. Days to maturity: 108 days

Broccoli (Brassica oleracea)

Calabrese Broccoli: Brought to America by Italian immigrants in the 1880s. Popular market variety. Tight heads can grow up to 8" in diameter. After the central head is harvested, side shoots follow. 58-90 days from transplant.

I purchased Calabrese Broccoli seed from Seed Savers for 2009. Broccoli stalks aren't all that great for eating (in my opinion), so I plan on cutting the heads off as close to the top as possible and allowing all the side shoots to develop for a second harvest. Broccoli gets pretty big, but not big enough to warrant the 24-36" spacing recommended on the seed packet. I will plant one per square foot in my boxes.

February 6 (12 weeks prior to last freeze): I started the seeds in Jiffy Strips with a popular potting soil, one seed per square. I planted 20 seeds, but only nine or ten actually germinated. Next year I will plant two seeds per square and clip off the extra if both germinate.

March 26 (5 weeks prior to last freeze): According to my schedule, I am supposed to transplant into the garden tomorrow, but the seedlings are smaller than I had expected, and it's snowing again today, so I decided to pot them up in 4" pots and keep them indoors a little longer. Most of the seedlings are just getting their first set of true leaves.

April 13 (3 weeks prior to last freeze): The broccoli has been going outside nearly every day to harden them off. So far, they're doing great, even down to about 26 degrees. I would have transplanted those, but a harder freeze was forecast for this week and I didn't want to risk the plants that have been growing for two months already. The forecast has changed, but I'll probably do that next weekend anyway.

Planting Schedule

I put together a planting schedule for vegetables that I grow (or that I might grow at some future date). Keeping a printout of this at my gardening table makes it easy for me to look at a date and know what I need to do. A PDF is here and an Excel spreadsheet is here.

Getting Started

I decided to start a gardening blog to keep track of my experiences in gardening here in Elk Ridge, Utah. Things posted here are my own opinions, derived from doing research online, reading books, and good old experience itself. Last year's garden was a good success. I had some topsoil brought in and grew many different things. But the melons, pumpkins and winter squash took over a large portion of the ground and some things didn't do so well. So I decided to make some changes.



I'm expanding my garden this year and implementing suggestions from Mel Bartholomew's book Square Foot Gardening. I am building boxes using 2x8's and filling them with "Mel's Mix," which is one part each (by volume) peat moss, vermiculite and compost. I am planning on 12 2x8 foot boxes, five 3x3 boxes and five 1x3 boxes (for the kids). Mel says you can grow in just six inches of his mix, but I'm going for eight inches to reduce watering even more. I also bought some rebar, EMT electrical conduit and some nylon trellis netting to grow tomatoes, melons, winter squash and such vertically. I'll post some pictures of my setup when I'm done with it, but you can go to the above website to see some of Mel's pictures. I also bought some wood shavings that I can use both as chicken litter and as mulch. BTW, this can all end up being very expensive when doing such a large garden. I would recommend starting small and expanding some each year.



Of course, all of this will be fenced off with six-foot fencing to keep the deer and chickens out. They can both do serious damage to a garden.

In order to grow some of the longer-season veggies, such as broccoli, I bought an HID (high intensity discharge) lamp to grow things indoors as much as eight weeks before they go outside. I'll talk more about lighting in a later post.

I have already started broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, swiss chard, lettuce and peppers. Tomatoes and celery go in today. I will post about each of these as I find time.

The peach trees look like they're about to send out the first leaves of the season. The cherry trees are coming back to life. The chickens are happy to have a snow-free yard again. And despite the snow forecast for Sunday/Monday, I'm pretty excited for spring!