Seedling Update

Just a quick update with some pictures. Firstly, the majority of the second bath of onions and leeks seem to be doing ok.



Although there are some exceptions. They are slouched down and I am not too sure what they are sulking about. I will have to do a bit of reading up on the matter.



And lastly we have some tomatoes from a couple of weeks back!



On the minus side it snowed today! My plastic tunnel, not that anything appears to be growing in it, was definitely closed up. All in all, a good start I feel, although the onions give me some concern. I might plant some more for back up.

Deciding what to grow

This year being my second season as a urban farmer I have decided to be quite selective on what I grow. Last year I was in awe of all the exotics I would grow and then eat only to be disappointed by the vast array of failures I had.

This year I am going to be a practical West Coast gardener. I will grow what worked and what should work in this climate with just a little bit of what I really hope will work (inverted from last year).

So... What to start with? Beans! I just potted the following: Empress Beans(For my wife's stir fry), Kidney Beans (I love Chili), Boston Favorite (for soups) and Lima Cisco's Bird Egg Bean (for salads). All of which were from the US company, Seed Savers Exchange. I have recently become more of a fan of the West Coast Seeds company as it allows me to buy items like Potatoes without border issues.

The picture you see here is my furnace room. I located my pot of seeds between the furnace and the hot water tank for warmth. I water them every day and will install lights in there this weekend for once they sprout.

Next round of seeds will be for some tomato plants. I did the beans first as they can go outside earlier.

Next Batch of Seeds

Today I planted another tray of seeds (the second full tray), this time using soil for seed starting that I purchased from Triple Tree Nursery as I felt that the bedding soil that I was previously using wasn't doing that good a job, so we'll see what the difference is.

This time the planting consisted of some more Black Beauty eggplants (8 seeds), Marvel of Four Seasons lettuce (8 seeds), Lucullus Swiss Chard (8 seeds), Champion of England peas (16 seeds), Canterbury Bells (16 modules) and Bloomsdale spinach (12 seeds).

At the moment, the tomatoes that I planted back on the weekend and placed on a heating mat have started to germinate, but not the others just yet. I re-potted the onions that I planted back in January and the leeks and onions that I planted a couple of weeks back are going gangbusters. Pictures soon.

Tomato seeds are in!

Today I sowed a pot of Black Zebra tomatoes (3 seeds), a pot of Nepal tomatoes (3 seeds), two pots of Golden Cherry tomatoes (6 seeds), five pots of parsley (2 pre-soaked seeds per pot), a pot of Black Beauty eggplant (3 seeds in the pot) and two pots of King of the North Sweet Pepper (3 seeds per pot). I am being a little cautious about the quantities as it all needs to fit into the square foot garden I have going. I might have to change some of the positions that I have planned as I go, but I am only doing four tomato plants this year. Hopefully I will actually get to eat some this year as most of my crop was wiped out by blight last year. I have put them on the heating mat that I bought from Lee Valley recently, so let's hope that it does some good, especially with the heat-loving seeds.

Below are a couple of images showing the progress of the onion and leeks that were planted earlier.

I have finally managed to finish one of the raised beds (only five to go!). I filled the bed with a medium bale of peat moss (approx. 4.4 cubic feet), half a bag of vermiculite, 8 bags of mushroom compost (at 10 litres a bag) and a whole bunch of lime. I am hoping that this combination will suffice, but it will have to do for the moment.

I was a little eager in getting this bed ready as I thought that I had some major planting to do, but when I checked again I realised that I got my dates all wrong and that I was several weeks ahead of myself. Not to worry, I planted a square of Champion of England peas (8) and a square of spinach (9 seeds). As it is a little early I covered the bed with the plastic tunnel that I bought from Lee Valley last year. I will plant more peas in about two weeks time, but since the bed was ready I wanted to see how early I can start. I guess I'll know in a few days.

Seedlings are go!

The image above is of one of my onion seedlings that I planted back in January. There are two more seedlings from this batch on the way, but this one is the most advanced out of the three.

In the meantime a couple of the leeks have sprouted as well as early indications that the chamomile is going to go well. I have shifted all of my seedlings under some fluorescent lights to ensure that they get enough light in their emerging days.

First Batch of Seeds Sown

Today I filtered another one of the beds that I am creating for the vegetable garden. I am trying to create 6 raise beds and have so far managed to filter the stones out of two of them. I have a very stony garden and so this is a very necessary first step. Today I only went down approximately 6 inches, and the raised bed will add a further 12 inches, meaning that there should be a good 18 inches of relatively stone-free soil, which should be enough for most of the vegetables.

Today I sowed 9 pots of Bedfordshire Championship Onions, as I did last month. On a positive note (well not THAT positive), one of the onions that I planted last time has come through, which I was surprised about as I thought that I had soaked the seeds too much. I also planted 9 pots of Durabel leeks, 5 pots of Scotland Leeks and 9 pots of chamomile.

I am using these deep-root seed starters that I recently purchased from Lee Valley tools.

Seed Update

Well, there has been no movement with the onion seeds I planted earlier. I even used my wife's heating pad as a make-shift seed heating mat, but to no avail. I am currently blaming the peat discs and hoping that the seeds aren't too old (I only bought them last year). Never mind, I have some more planting action later on this week, and we shall see how it goes.

On the plus side, the 2009 Lee Valley Tools brochure arrived today.