Wordless Wednesday - Seedlings Taking Over!

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Staining Siding Boards for the Shop

Last week I posted about all the siding we bought that will eventually go onto the outside of the shop and the house.

Yesterday I saw my Dad while we were on the Coast and he asked again about the colour of the stain we are using. So, here's some pictures so that he and you can all see what I've been up to.

Stained board on the left, plain board on the right.

See those pieces of wood on the floor? This is where the wood will be stack after it is stained and dry.

I took this one right as I started the job. At this point, all those long boards on top are finished and are stacked on the other side of the shop.

Sigh...there are a LOT of boards to be stained.

I can do 11 boards in one session. I have only so many places to set the boards as they are drying. I have been trying to do 2 sessions of staining a day, so I can get 22 done. One day I managed to get 33 done.

Here's the finished boards. I'm now taking a few days off from staining as we are doing other things around the homestead. The Gman is going to drag the tiller out of the Greenhouse where it has sat all Winter. After a tune up, he's going to get started on tilling the garden.

I have peppers to transplant now into pots. We came home to find another 4 pepper plants sending up flowers. The living room is inundated with transplants. We have had to move one more table and one long bench up in front of the windows, in order to have enough room to place all the transplants. The tables downstairs in the seedling room are full as well.

I am hoping the evening temperatures start warming up a bit so that we can start moving things into the Greenhouse.

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Peppers, Broccoli and Corn Seedling Update

The Peppers I started growing from seed this year are doing fantastic. I'm very happy not only with the germination rate, but also the growth. If you look closely, you can see pepper flowers forming in the picture above.

It's too early for the flowers. If I pinch them off now, the energy will instead go into the plant itself. I want better root growth and plant growth instead of flowers at this point. I pinched off all the flower buds on the 2 pepper plants that were sending them out.

I'll benefit by enjoying even more delicious peppers this year. The picture above is from last year and all the pepper plants were loaded.

My second round of broccoli seeds germinated very well. I planted several seeds into each up. Since my first germination did not go so well, I need all of these small seedlings this time around.

Yesterday I got them all separated and planted into their own cups. They will stay in the cups until it is time to transplant them right into the garden.

Here is one of the two corn varieties I am growing this year. This is Simonet and I seeded them mostly one to a cup, but there are several with two seeds per cup. I will have to transplant these into their own cups very soon. Maybe even this afternoon if I get a chance. This corn will be planted soon into our Greenhouse.

I also need to get my other corn seeded. I have many things on my plate right now. We are heading for the Coast tomorrow. It will be just an overnight trip, but one that needs to be made.

If Samantha is reading this post, I did receive your comment. I will try to get a diagram up next week of our various gardens. It's on the list!

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Seedling Pics

Seedlings are popping all over the place here in the Valley. Here's some pictures of what is happening so far.

I have moved the first batch from the downstairs seedling room up to the living room. Within a few weeks, the living room will be taken over by plants and that's how we like it!

So far, I've got Dill, some of the Peppers, and a lot of Basil (which I am nibbling on and adding to my dinners)

My seedling room

Lots of Red Cabbage. Great germination this year with these, unlike other years.

Tomatoes - they are still quite small, but that's OK. There's still lots of time for these to grow before we can put them in the Greenhouse.

I'm only doing Cherry Tomatoes this year. For our bulk tomatoes for sauce and salsa, we'll head down to Lillooet for a good day of picking.

Peppers - they are doing great. Excellent germination and really good growth. We've got lots of different varieties of hot heirloom peppers, plus quite a few Sweet Bell Green Peppers. I picked up some seed for Red Bell Peppers, and I'll have to get those seeded today.

Yesterday I got another flat of broccoli and cauliflower started, as well as a flat of Marigolds. It's getting crowded downstairs in the seedling room! I'll have to bring up another flat or two, in order to make room for more downstairs.

How are your seedlings doing? Are you having good germination this year?

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Seedling Progress

Here's an update of how my veggie and herb seedlings are doing.

The Basil is looking really good. Great germination and I have transplanted them from two to a cup to one in each cup. They will stay in the cups until I am ready to put them in larger pots for on the porch.

I had great germination with the Dill as well. I also had them 2 seeds to a cup. Dill does not really like to be transplanted and you can tell that from the pictures. Some are still in recuperation mode. I have them all one to a cup now. Next transplanting will be into the garden.

On the left are some of the Peppers. I am growing Yellow Hot, Orange Hot, Cayenne and some of Marion's Hot Hot Hot Peppers. Oh and also quite a few Sweet Green Peppers.  I have transplanted all of these to one in each cup now too. Next move for them will likely be straight into the Greenhouse. That won't happen for several more weeks.

I will probably have a pot or two of mixed peppers on our porch, as in years past.

To the right of the Peppers are some more Basil. Behind them are the Parsley seedlings. They are taking their sweet time getting started, but that's OK.

In the front are some Wave Petunias. I had a beautiful purpley pink one on the porch last year. Now these are Hybridized. So, although I have had good germination, we will have to wait to see what the flowers look like. They will likely not be purple tho.

Some of the green cabbage. I took this picture on April 5 so they are already looking a bit better than this. I normally have really good germination with Cabbage and they grow HUGE here in the Cariboo.

My Red Cabbage is up and slowly growing. I have also seeded a half flat of Broccoli and half flat of Cauliflower. Yesterday I started a half flat of Cherry Tomatoes and a half flat of Brussel Sprouts.

If I get the time this afternoon, I am going to start getting the Greenhouse ready for Spring!

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Seedling Progress

It's been a busy couple of days here. Here's a quick post showing a little bit of progress with my starting seeds.

The dill I seeded is doing great, many cups have 2 plants in them. Usually I only seed 1 per cup, but I am using seed that is a couple of years old and I wasn't sure how they would germinate.

Now I will have two choices - I can either transplant them into 2 cups or just clip one seedling off.

And I have some Basil up already which is fantastic. Nothing yet from any of the Peppers I seeded, although they do take awhile to break the surface.

I have one measly Coreopsis poking through from the 21 I planted. I will give them a few more days to see if any more come up.

As for the Violas, 0 so far. I seeded a bunch of these last year, but can't remember how long they took to poke through. I'll leave the also for a few more days to see if anything happens.

No Onions up yet as of last evening....

How are your seedlings doing?

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He's Tilling!

The Gman started tilling the main veggie garden today! He got 3/4 of it done!

That means I can get started planting some seeds....lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, carrots, peas...lots of the cool weather veggies can be planted now.

Meanwhile down in the seedling room......arugala, a couple of kinds of lettuces and basil

In the foreground are Violas....behind them Echinicea.

Over the last several days, I have been trying to finish up seeding trays down there. I've got zuccini, more cauliflower and broccoli, sugar beets and grain amaranth planted. I also started 24 corn!

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Preparing for Garden Tilling

Today, we're working on getting well composted manure spread over the main Veggie garden. Usually this is done in the fall but, since I was still recuparating last Fall,

finishing this off got postponed.

You can see the tiller in the pic....it is inching its way closer and closer to the garden!

And...I brought up some of the veggies from the downstairs Seedling room.....peppers and cabbages. Now I have to set aside some time to start more seeds down there....always lots to do at this time of year!!

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Seed Germination - Not the Best!

Boy, I am having lousy germination this year! I have reseeded each veggie several times. I finally bought a different bag of soil, thinking maybe the problem was the soil I was using.....now I wait and see if that has made a difference.

Here's what I have so far....

Cabbages.....

A bit of Basil coming up....

A few Echinacea.....

I had fairly good germination on the pepper....18 out of 24!

Overall, it's been a disappointing start to the gardening season. Oh well....I will keep seeding and keep my fingers crossed!

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A New Round of Seeds Started (and the Peppers are Popping!)

A few Peppers poking thru....

This morning I got another round of seeds started:

9 spinach

6 Arugala

6 Green Lettuce

11 Broccoli

10 Cauliflower

7 Parksley

8 Dill

6 Red Salad Bowl Lettuce

Tomatoes:

5 Purple Heirloom

5 Orange Heirloom

7 Red Heirloom

4 Jetsetter

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Tomatoes

They're UP and they're growing.....we've had a pretty good germination, thank goodness!

A few of them are getting large enough that I will have to transplant them within a couple of days. Tomatoes are the only veggies I start from seed that I end up transplanting into larger containers.

I'll make sure to take pics when I do, and when you see the pics, and the end results, you'll understand why I transplant them!

Our chicks come tomorrow so we've been busy getting things ready for them. I'll be at the post office at 10am for when the truck comes with the mail. Then I'll race home with them and get them under the lights! I'll put up pics of that too!

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Little John Deere

We've been puttering around here, working on a bunch of different stuff....

Yesterday, the Gman got the little JD out of the shed. Started giving it a tune up - realized we are missing a part to run the mower deck.

Anyway, I got a lesson on how to drive it. So off I went, up and down the driveway, it was a bit of a jerky ride. Maybe I'll get used to it!

I set up temporary fencing for the chickens. They were driving us both nuts again. They have 11 acres to hang out on, but they really seem to like my flower beds.

So, I'll put them in here around 1pm or so, then let them stay in there till almost dark. They are liking it, I throw a bunch of scratch out for them. And they have some shade from under one of the big trees. I put some water out there for them and set the bucket in the shade, so they should all be just fine.

We have a good number of broccoli and cauliflower come up, no tomatoes yet tho! The plan for tomorrow is to work on the greenhouse. We need to get the staple gun out and refasten some of the plastic. Aside from that, it held up really well over the winter.

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Broccoli, Cauliflower and Tomato Seeds

Ok, well yesterday afternoon, I managed to get my potting room cleaned up from the last round. Then I started seeding.

I seeded 20 Broccoli and 20 Cauliflower....crossing my fingers that they germinate well.

This morning, I got my tomatoes seeded:

7 Sweet Baby Girl Cherry
6 Siberian - a hardy tomato for growing Up North (am doing these up for a friend)
10 Amish Paste
7 Roma
9 Jetsetter

Hmmm, that gives me 33 plants for our use, I think between the 2 greenhouses, I would have room for a few more, maybe 5 more....so I may do a few more Jetsetters.

I grew those last year and they were wonderfully large and tasty. Fantastic for fresh eating, and good for sauce too. This year I am trying Roma and the Amish Paste mostly to use for sauce. Sphere: Related Content

Seedlings

Well, I'm pretty disapointed....of all those cabbage seeds I started, I have 50 green cabbage up and 1, yes one (!) measly red cabbage. I don't know what has happened. I waterered properly, have the lights on for them...I dunno.

Anyway, today I need to move on and start the tomatoes, broccoli and cauliflower. Maybe I'll have more luck with these, at least I hope so!

I've been working outside, the snow is 99% gone. I've been concentrating on weeding out the berry bed properly. Pics later today hopefully! Sphere: Related Content

Cabbage Seedlings

I was just downstairs counting up the cabbage seedlings that are poking thru the soil.....we are up to 24!

Not one of the red cabbages is up yet, nor any peppers yet, tho it's too early for them. Peppers take several weeks to get started....

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Ready, Set, Grow!!! Starting Seeds

Yesterday was THE day. I got seeds started downstairs, weeeeeee! A couple of years ago, I made up a list of all the seeds we wanted, then counted back to figure out when to start them. I took into account the days until maturity.

Now that I have that Master List, each Spring I can take a quick peek and know when to start what....

Since I knew I would be away for a week, I delayed starting seeds until I got back. I didn't want to have the person looking after our place to have yet Another Chore added to the Daily List.

According to my list, ideal starting time for peppers is Mar 23. Cabbages would be Mar 26. So, I'm a few days late, big deal....it won't matter....

Here's my process....

I use styrofoam cups. I poke one hole in the bottom of each, just enuf to provide some drainage. These cups are on their 3rd year of use! I treat them gently, and definitely wash them all out using a little bleach and hot water, then giving them a really good rinse.

Then I fill them almost to the top with Sunshine Mix, then water that soil.

Then I seed. I don't put 3 or 4 seeds into each cup, I put one seed per cup. I would rather not thin if I don't have to. I find if I keep a good eye on the cups, I can reseed any that don't come up.

After dropping in a seed, I top up the cup with more Sunshine Mix. Then I tamp down on the soil with my knuckles, to ensure the seed is in good contact with the soil. Then I add a bit more water....

I do 21 cups per tray. This is only becauze that is how many fit in a tray, lol....it's not for any scientific reason!

I always try to fill one flat fully with the same type of veggie. That way, I only need to mark one cup with the seed type.

I set the cups in the bottoms of those greenhouse thingys you can buy. I have some on hand, so I use those up first....

After I use up all the bottoms, I start using the clear plastic tops. Since they are quite a bit more flimsy than the bottoms, I line them with cardboard. Otherwise, every time I moved the tray, I'd have cups falling all over the place (not good)

Once I use the top plastic thingys up, I use cardboard flats (from beer or cased canned goods) as my trays. I don't spend any extra money if I can help it....I try to keep all my costs down by using materials already on hand)

A few trays under the lights....

All my seedlings sitting under florescent lights. We have a little space heater in this room to keep things warm....

Since I KNOW I have to grow a LOT more animal feed this year, I decided I could fill all the room under the lights with cabbage seed. I don't have to start Tomatoes and Parsley (the next on the list) until April 20, so these seedlings will have pretty much 3 weeks of grow time.

By that point, I can move all the Cabbage upstairs and free up the lights for the next round.

Sooooo...here's what I have seeded so far:

14 Cayenne Peppers (I got carried away, we don't need that many!)

7 of my friend's little hot hot peppers (I will find out the name)

21 Red Cabbage (I had seed left from last year, germination was terrible, but we'll see what happens this time)

183 Green Cabbage (Yikes!) I know, I know, that's a LOT of cabbage....but most will go down below in the Animal Garden. With six Piggys and a whack of laying hens, the cabbage will be totally used, I am quite sure!

So, from now until April 20, all I need to do is go down and check on these cups every day....water when I need to and hover over them and wring my hands until everything comes up!

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