Winter Harvest Monday

Today I wrapped up my bean sprouting venture. It took 6 days to get to this point and they taste great. More about them later this week.

Outside today I harvested the last of the green onions. Their leek like appearance comes from a combination of deep planting and having to peel the outer leaves due to cold damage. I also brought in the last of the 'Little Gem' romaine. Next winter I am planning to plant a lot more of this romaine, it is really hardy.

If you would like to see what everyone else is harvesting stop by Daphne's Dandelions for the full list.

Planting by the Moon

I tried out some moon planting tonight for the first time. My recently seeded onions had pretty lack luster germination so I needed to seed some more. After seeing the large wolf moon last January I decided to looking into planting by the moon.

With my limited reading so far I found out my planned planting date of Feb 1st would have been a poor idea as that is a barren time. Feb 6-7th is a better time to plant roots crops during the new moon phase. If you are looking to read up more on moon planting Granny just did an informative post and the Farmers Almanac also has good information.

Tonight I seeded a cell pack each of Utah Sweet Spanish onion and Amish Bottle onion. This time I planted 12 seeds per cell. I hope they germinate well so I can grow 4 plants per cell in order to have enough plant stock. If these do not germinate well I am going to have to plant sets again this year. Onions seem to be the one veggie that always cause me problems, from poor germination to weak growth to small bulbs.

A Beautiful but Cold Day

Today was a very nice sunny February Day. We had a high pressure system push down from the north which gave use lots of blue sky's but also really cold temperatures. Here are a few photos I took today:

Male Mallard, Taken on the Grand River in Caledonia, ON


Male & Female Bufflehead, Taken on the Grand River in Caledonia, ON


Barn, Taken in Six Nations Reserve

Fourth Time's A Charm

I have been trying to grow a Brugmansia sanguinea seemingly for ever. My first attempt was probably 7 years ago from Thompson & Morgan seed. The seed grew great but it turn out to be the white Brugmansia candida. After complaining I received replacement seed which then also grew out to be the white version. I then lost interest. Last year I decided to try again and order some seed from ebay. Of the 5 seeds only one sprouted and it then abruptly damped off. Clearly I like punishment so I order seed again this year from druid_moons on ebay.

Again I receive 5 seeds but this time they have done really well. I ended up with three viable seeds and now have two healthy seedlings growing. The third one I accidentally cooked to death by placing it to close to the metal halide bulb. In the next few weeks it will be apparent if the seed is true. Brugmansia sanguinea have toothed fuzzy leaves so identifications will be pretty easy now that I know what to look for.

Above is a photo of the flower that I borrowed from google image. It is quite a striking plant. I hope this will be the year it grows true and I will be extactic if I end up with two healthy plants.

A good mail day

My last seed order arrived today. I needed a few odds and ends so I ordered them from Pinetree Garden Seeds. They have a very good selection of seeds and good prices but those better prices come with less seed most of the time. Here is what I ordered:

Tatsoi, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Pinetree Leaf Lettuce Mix, Sungold F1 Tomato & Martinos Roma Tomato

A couple packs of mung bean seeds, I am going to try out sprouting my own bean sprouts. A few years ago they started selling bean sprouts in sealed bags. Being sealed makes them taste awful from the trapped off gassing. I also ordered 80 plastic labels and ended up with 50 wooden labels. I have dropped them a line in hopes of getting my plastic labels resent. I'm not really a fan of wood labels, they mold.

Pinetree also had this 'No No Feeder' on clearance. It stands for no wood & no plastic which means the squirrels can't eat it, a plus in our tree rat filled yard. It was only up for a few minutes and started attaching chickadee's & house finches. Seems like a hit!

In the regular mail came the annual Lee Valley Garden Tool catalog. If you have not checked them out before, they carry a very good selection of garden related things, many things that are quite hard to find now the the big box stores have taken over. Things I am eying from them this year are:

The stainless steel digging fork with an ash handle. I have wanted this fork for a couple years and this year will be the year I finally get one. I don't have a fork in the shed and this one seems like excellent quality for $36 bucks.

I am also sick of buying peat modules for things that don't like being transplanted. So I am going to get a couple of these Rootrainers. I seen them used on Vegetable Heaven last yeat and they look like they work very well. I will use them for peas, broad beans, squash, beans, cucumbers and melons. The Rootrainers air prune the roots which greatly reduces transplant shock and they also stop the roots from winding around the pot.

Well that's all the garden consumerism for today... no affiliation with either company by the way.