Monday, April 27, 2009

Recent Activities

First off I have put the harvest widget up on my side bar. I did end up getting my harvest widget back after the html editor crashed with all my files disappearing. I reinstalled the program and my files were still gone and today they are back, no idea what happened there. I still think it's windows vista's fault and I am sticking to it. I will have a tomato harvest widget coming as well once I start harvesting tomatoes, hopefully near the end of May.

Now about the weather, it has been pretty erratic lately. Saturday was about 25c(77f) followed by thunderstorms with rain all evening and night. Then Sunday was a chilly 16c(61f) with a cool breeze and today is 28c (82f) feeling like 31c(89f) with the humidex.

Some real technology at work here, It is so hot
it took three stones to vent the frame on Monday.

I have some updates on the poly tunnel that I have posted about here and here. I have started to work on it again after it has sat in the office being neglected for a while. Last week I cut all the poly to fit and stapled the two end pieces on. This past weekend my Mom graciously sewed the velcro on the top piece of poly for me so I can easily raise & lower the poly. I am hoping to complete the poly tunnel this week and do a post about its construction.

Sewing at the speed of light.

This past weekend I also spent a lot of time in the garden doing various things. I planted out many seedlings that have been in the cold frame. They include the broad beans(fava's), broccoli, shell peas & snap peas. I still need to plant the seeded yellow onions & shallots, tatsoi, chard & some lettuces. Here are some photos of the planting:

The broad beans from Down on the Allotment. They really
didn't like the heat last weekend in the frame so I planted them
out fast. The have cool little black spots on them. Maybe this
means flowers are coming?

The broccoli, I planted out 16 altogether. There is radish &
onion sets interplanted with them. Now I have to start
planning when t0 start the second crop of broccoli.

The shell peas, Green Arrow. They were grown from seed from
last year and are very tasty. I planted out 20 peat plugs, some
with 2 plants and some with one plant.

The snap peas, Sugar Snap in their terracotta pot. I planted
out 6 into the container due to poor germination. The seed was
purchased this year.

I also dug out two of the new raised beds leaving just the top one that will be dug out very soon. I need to get going on refilling them so I can get planting. Once I finish digging the last one I will do a post on the additions and also include the square footage of the whole veggie patch. I have never calculated the square footage so it will be interesting to know.

Lastly I am going to start doing a weekly photography post and a garden meal post. Hopefully it goes well as I am horrible at keeping a schedule. The photography post will be on Tuesdays starting this week and will consist of a few nice photos of the garden I took during the previous week. The garden meal post will be on Thursdays and will not start until the garden is in full swing. In addition to regularly eating veg from the garden I want to start cooking one meal a week that is predominantly from the garden. For this meal I will allow the use of oils, pasta, grains(flour, rice, breads etc), dairy & eggs but I will try to mostly avoid meat and no bought produce expect maybe mushrooms. It should be fun.

12 comments:

  1. Dan, your seedlings are sure looking good. I have a lot to learn when it comes to growing my own seedlings, but I think I know now what I did wrong...let's hope I remember it next year!

    Looking forward to your garden meal posts. I'm also going to be looking for new recipes to try, utilizing the veggies from my garden.

    Granny

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  2. I think it is safe to blame Vista for anything that goes wrong. :>

    You have so many beautiful seedlings. I'll look forward to your Tuesday garden photos, but I'm with Annie's Granny. I want some recipes with that meal post. I'm always looking for new ways to use my produce. Some work, some don't, but I love trying them either way.

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  3. That is incredible! It must be so nice to see them grow like they do.

    I have never been in weather that cold before. WOW!!

    I planted these three aromatherapy plants and they are doing ok. I will have to post it. Considering every plant I touch usually goes belly up.....it's a miracle they are alive!!

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  4. Your crops look great! Yum!!!

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  5. Granny & Daphne - I will definitely include recipes. I think I will start with a rhubarb recipe this week. Then in a few weeks hopefully the garden will supply me with some ingredients to get the recipes coming.

    LeighnAnn - Sundays cold was nothing compared to this past winter. I am ready for the warmth to stay. Good to hear you have some plants growing and I will look for the post.

    Tina - It won't be long now until I am harvesting again!

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  6. Aw man....I can't wait to see the poly tunnel finished!

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  7. Great post Dan! Love the seedling pics, the progress report on the poly tunnel, and now will be anxiously waiting for the weekly pictorials and the food posts.

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  8. Dan, you HAVe been busy. WOW, that's a ton of stuff done. I'm so glad you got out and were productive this weekend. Everything looks so good. I hope everything works out for you. I can't wait to see how the hoop cover works with that nifty velcro.

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  9. Busy boy - that all looks so good! We mums do come in handy at times too, don't we?

    The black dots do indeed mean that your broad beans will be in flower before long.

    Strange that your Sugar Snap peas were so poor in germination. I received a packet from a friend which should have been used by 2005 - I knew about it - I just wanted a few for a breeding experiment - and most of them have come. Sometimes we never know what factors are the most important.

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  10. I'm intrigued by your poly tunnel. Do you get much wind in your area? Over the past few years I've tried various methods for making a tunnel and none really lasted because the winds are so strong in my locale.

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  11. Those poly covers sound interesting. Good luck with the new posts

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  12. EG - The poly tunnel is looking sweet. I am just waiting on a bit more sewing and then I can finish it off. Very soon I am hoping!

    KitsapFG - The seedlings will be happy to be out in the dirt now.

    Sinfonian - It will certainly be an homage to velcro.

    Vegetable Heaven - Mom's do come in handy for lots of things, especially string related things. That's pretty good that you had germination on those seeds. I'm not sure what was wrong with my seed. It came from a home center so I'm guessing it's old seed that was not handled properly. Or maybe I just picked the bum seeds in the pack.

    Linnyhb - It does get pretty windy here, especially in the colder months when it will be in use. I am hoping the velcro along with some weighting will keep it snug as a bug.

    Dawn - I can't wait to finish the poly tunnel off, it is starting to look really good!

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