Plant...Then Wait...Plant...

Stuff's happening in the garden!  It has been very much a start-and-stop season, so far.  It took us forever to dry out enough to work the land.  Even then, there were tractors stuck and such fun farm things!  You know you're in trouble when you have to go borrow a big tractor 'cause the little tractor can't pull out the medium tractor, which is mired in the middle of the field.  When we did get going it was a couple of days of planting, a couple of days of rain, a day to dry out, a day of planting, a couple of days of rain.  Potatoes were planted first and I still worry a bit about them....was it too wet shortly after planting?  Was it too cold?

 

Now, at June 10th, most of our seed planting is almost done.  Garlic, onions, beans are looking good.  Lettuces, spinach, kale are peeking out.  Carrots seem to be a 'no-show', so just yesterday I purchased a whole new round of seed at Lindenberg's.  Beets, chard, snow peas, summer squash and winter squash are in, but no signs yet.  We still have second or third succession plantings to do of greens and beans.

Still on the agenda: all our seedlings of tomatoes, peppers, ground cherry and tomatillos, as well as herb seeds.  The greenhouse is almost full with about 20 flats of mostly tomatoes and a few peppers.  Inside, in the sun room, there are another fifteen flats of peppers, tomatillos and ground cherry.  Forecast looks good for the next couple of days!

Then, of course, it's the never ending weeding.  Easy to get distracted from the work with so many baby goats to play with!  And really, at some point, we should take a look at our ornamental beds in front of the house - the quack grass seems to be taking over!

It May Be Time To Boot Up the Greenhouse!

The potting up of little seedlings continues unabated.  And there are more seeds to start!  The tomatoes and peppers are pretty much all started; there are herbs to finish, and then it's broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, celery and some of our winter squash that require a hundred days or more to mature!  It's getting hard to move around in the sun room: it is stuffed with folding tables with grow light stands on top, grow lights or fluorescent lights strung beneath.  Watering requires crawling around on the floor, inevitably bumping our heads on tables!  Some of our vegetable crates are holding the trays of seedlings closer to the lights - we're constantly stubbing our toes on those!

Looking around this morning, it seems obvious that it's time to move to the greenhouse.  Nights have been chilly here this week, dropping to below freezing!  Our concern is that the greenhouse, built by Farmer Man's Father from mostly found materials, is not very energy efficient.  It is south facing, so the lighting will be excellent (the sun room is east facing, hence all the lights!), but it's not very air tight, and it's heated electrically so our concern is a large electricity bill!  But, you've-got-to-do-what-you've-got-to-do, right?

Seedlings need to be 'hardened off' - meaning they have to get used to outdoor temperatures gradually after being somewhat coddled in sun rooms and greenhouses.  We're looking to move into our hoop house (or high tunnel) shortly - as soon as we re-cover it!  The poly covering has been damaged beyond repair this winter, so first it must be stripped, a new roll purchased and then, on a calm day, the poly must be re-floated and attached.  That's a big chore (and a calm day can be hard to find in Manitoba)!  Then we can seed some greens directly and we'll move out some of our seedlings.  We have 'water walls', plastic 'teepees' whose walls can be filled with water.  These absorb heat during the day which they release at night, protecting the plants within.  This can also be done by using a group of plastic milk containers filled with water, surrounding each plant!  We're a little uneasy about planting out seedlings into our straw bale cold frame quite yet, because the temperature fluctuations are a little more extreme!  I think we will put some onion sets out there soon, though!  Busy, busy, busy - how about you?

Planting A Straw Bale Hot House

Farmer Man laying the rows!

Since building our straw bale cold frames, we've been monitoring the temperature with an air thermometer.  We seem to have killed our soil thermometer by leaving it unprotected on a shelf in the greenhouse all winter - oops!  With the windows on all the time, daytime temperatures can be as much as fifteen degrees warmer than outside and nighttime temperatures are as much as five degrees warmer.  Very acceptable ranges, so time to plant!  We've decided to use all old seed for planting the first one, to use up the seed and because this is an experiment and it's highly possible that we may let things get too hot inside.  We're a little unsure of how this should work, in practice.  If we let it get too hot inside during the day will the seeds be 'unhappy'.  Or do we want to let it get really hot during the day so that the soil has lots of warmth going into the night?  The forecast is for nights around freezing, and we think that we are more worried about that then really hot temperatures during the day, for now.  We can, of course, remove the windows during the day; we're just afraid we're going to forget!

Doodles found his way into the unplanted bed!

So, we chose 'Nantes Half Long' carrots, 'Russian Red' kale, Claytonia or miner's lettuce, 'Renegade' spinach, arugula, 'Esmerelda' lettuce and Black Spanish radishes.  The carrots are 2010 seeds, everything else is 2011 seed.  Farmer Man raked the bed and then, using the rake, marked shallow rows. I followed behind laying the seed quite thickly.  First design flaw we noticed in the bed:  Farmer Man had taken a scoop of soil out to create a mound for the bed, so that the bed could be sloped to the south.  The back wall is almost four feet high, standing in the scooped out area, and it's a little hard to reach into the bed.  That's an easy fix, we just have to put a scoop of soil in that area.  Other than that, the bed works quite well, easy to reach from the sides and front!  We found the soil in the bed very dry so we'll have to keep on eye on moisture levels!  Farmer Man dug out almost every hose we own: as the irrigation system is not yet running water will be coming from the house.  Better than hauling water and watering cans, and we have no big use for them anywhere else, yet!  Now, nothing to do but wait, watch and water!  Perhaps, just perhaps, we'll be having a delightful, fresh salad in about a month!

The Thrill of the Sprout!

Doesn't matter how many years we do this, every time a flat of seeds sprouts it's a thrill!  A whoop-dee-do, yee-haw kind of a thrill.  Something about that wee life starting from that tiny seed is awe inspiring, every time!  We'll start a lot of seeds over the next month.  Anything that requires a growing period longer than the four months we have between frost dates will be started indoors.  This will include tomatoes, peppers, herbs, celery, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, some of the winter squash and more!  Last year we probably started over forty flats, thickly seeded!  Many of those had to be 'potted' up into pots as they got too big and crowded for the trays - besides, bigger tomato plants are better, right?  Before we can safely use our greenhouse, weather permitting the beginning of April, we will end up with plants everywhere in the house - and then we'll fill the greenhouse, too!

We always start with any seed left over from last year.  Pictured is basil; I ordered a huge bag last year and had a pretty good harvest but still had a bit left in the bag.  Also started bell peppers left over from 2011.  So far, no sign of the peppers, even though they were planted a couple of days before the basil.  I've also started some mesclun lettuce mix for our eating, also from last year.  As seeds arrive in the mail, more flats get started.  Cubits Organics were very prompt in sending my order and some of their sage, thyme, marjoram, oregano and borage are planted.  Received West Coast Seeds and their peppers and tomatoes will be started early next week (The awesome Dragon's Tongue bean is stashed).  Johnny's Select Seeds emailed that they have shipped and that will include more tomato and pepper varieties, as well as cabbage and some other goodies for seeding direct into the garden, like sunflowers.  Tomorrow at Brandon's Seedy Sunday I'll be picking up some packets from Heritage Harvest Seeds including a few of their awesome selection of heirloom tomatoes!  Then, the bulk of our crops, especially regular, direct seeded veggies like carrots, beets and beans will come from Brandon's own Lindenburg's Seeds.  If the 2011 bell pepper seed doesn't sprout soon, we'll add that to the order from Lindenburg's.

As the seeds progress, it adds so much to the house.  The humidity is raised, the smell of life and green growth starts to permeate all the rooms.  It's like Spring starts early, indoors.  Soon we'll be snacking on micro-greens with the added zest of some basil sprouts.  I can hardly wait for the basil to grow: even though we dried some of last year's harvest, there is nothing like fresh basil!  Of course, it's not all good smells and easy growth.  It's hard working keeping all these babies happy!  Some, like the peppers, tomatoes and herbs, need heat and light.  The lettuce prefers it cooler and a little shady to start.  The sun room, where we start seeds, is a little unreliable in temperature so we've got the seed rack wrapped in plastic to preserve heat.  On a sunny, warm day the temperature inside can shoot up quite quickly.  So it's a lot of monitoring: opening the plastic, closing the plastic, unplugging the heat mats, turning the grow lights on, adjusting the lights' height as seedling grow.  Once the little plantings have two sets of leaves we'll start fertilizing with a dilute liquid, organic seaweed fertilizer, custom mixed and getting stronger as the plants grow.  We'll be busy the next few months and then even busier as we move outside into the garden!

Everything's Alright - 'Dragon's Tongue' is Here!

We grow a lot of different vegetables, we need variety for our CSA families.  We start pretty much all of them from seed ourselves; yes, we may find a bedraggled tomato cheap at the garden centre, or see some nice bushy herbs and pick them up, but largely we start everything ourselves.  We pour through the seed catalogues as soon as they start arriving, circling what's new and interesting, looking for our favorites.  But somehow, I never feel secure until a pound of 'Dragon Tongue' Bean seed is in the house.  Most things we order by the packet, or maybe a large packet, but 'Dragon Tongue' we get by the pound!

I'm a bean fan since childhood.  Green beans were my thing - never liked yellow wax beans as much (I know that will get me some flack because yellow wax are a top seller for us at the Farmers Markets).  Then, in the '90's I was introduced to the purple bean 'Royal Burgundy'.  Such a disappointment that it turns green on cooking but a yummy, tender bean.  Then, I was introduced to the true French Filet bean, not the sliced up regular bean so often called filet, but the true, little skinny, tender, melt-in-your-mouth Filet.  Heavenly!  That was my favorite for a while!

We've grown a lot of different beans: heirloom, open-pollinated, new introductions, pole beans, purported great flavor and on and on.  But my absolute favorite is 'Dragon's Tongue'.    It's an heirloom, described in different places as a Dutch butter bean, a Romano type and a wax bean!  It's a big, wide, flat pod with purple streaks.  It has fabulous flavor, is never stringy, produces really well regardless of our weather, freezes nicely and - there's more: can also be grown on and saved as an awesome dried bean!  What more could a grower want?  I think we first found it in TerraEdibles great catalogue of heirlooms, and we can get the bean from Heritage Harvest, too but only West Coast Seeds offers a big, big bag!

It's huge fun for us at the Farmers Markets because we're generally the only ones who have it!  Gets lots of attention and some great 'bean' discussions are started when it's on our table.  Foodie-types who have jumped right in and tried it generally become fans, too and come back for more.   Problem is, we often pick it for Market or CSA so enthusiastically that this year we had none to dry or freeze!  Okay, and we did eat quite a bit fresh, which is the best way to eat it!  Do you have a favorite bean?

We've Started Growing, Again!

It may be a little snowy outside, it may be freezing cold but in our sun room little seeds are going into warm soil.  Hopefully, soon we'll have baby plants - lots of them!  Here in Manitoba we have a very short growing season.  Our last frost date is officially June 6 and first frost is September 10!  Any seed that required ninety days to maturity or more needs to be started inside the house early and plants, not seeds, set outside.  For us, that includes tomatoes, peppers, many herbs, broccoli, cabbage, melons and some of our favorite winter squash.  We have a small, homemade, lean-to greenhouse against the barn, but it's not even slightly energy efficient; our first year here we started seeds in the greenhouse and saw our electricity bill increase about $300 - not affordable.  So now we start our seeds in the sun room, attached to the house.


Farmer Man built us a seed starting unit.  It's a three tier wooden stand, with common, two bulb fluorescent lights attached on all three levels.  We use one warm and one cool bulb in each light fixture, for a full spectrum light.  We have acquired a few table top and hanging grow lights in the last few years; the sun room will be filled with folding tables with light stands on top and hanging under a table for extra space!  There will end up being plantlets everywhere before it is warm enough to move to the greenhouse!  The bottom shelf on the grow stand has heat mats and the whole thing will be surrounded with heavy weight plastic left over from making the hoop house.  Quite a nice little hot house is created.  During the summer we store the lights and heat mats and the stand is in our prep area holding our bags and berry boxes and such accessories as we need to get our veggies to market.

Many of the heat loving plants will go into the stand as soon as they are seeded.  Tomatoes and peppers often get a plastic cover over the tray, to keep in heat and moisture.  Some seeds like lettuce, a cool weather crop, will never go in the seed stand because it's too much heat for them!  And we will start some lettuce soon for us to eat as micro-greens!  We start with any seeds left over from last year and we seed thickly in case germination is not good.  We do five rows in a common tray, so with the peppers already done that's probably over a hundred plants per tray, if they all germinate!  As seeds sprout, the tray gets moved up a level, away from the heat pads.  They will get potted up into small pots once they have two sets of leaves.

Many seed packets contain all the information you need to get going.  Each type of seed is different in what they want: the depth the seed should be at, whether they need light or heat or not, time to germination.  We also have a couple of great reference books, in case we need more information.  We have Lois Hole's 'Vegetable Book'  (a great all-around reference for cold climate gardeners) and Suzanne Ashworth's Seed to Seed - a great book on saving as well as starting seeds!  Starting seeds on such a volume will keep us busy: monitoring, watering, starting more, potting up, checking humidity and keeping Doodles the kitten out of the dirt will consume some time in the next few months!  We love the work - it's so exciting, even now, when new little bits of life have popped up through the soil overnight!  And I love to check the mail these days; a little parcel that rattles is so exciting!  Are you starting seeds? 

Seedy Sunday is Coming Up in Brandon!

Just a few of our potato varieties for sale at Seedy Sunday 2011

Put this in your date book!  Seedy Sunday is March 4, 2012 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM!  It's just a few weeks away.  It's being hosted this year by Samaritan House at 630 Rosser Avenue.  All proceeds from the day will benefit New Era Community School Friendship Garden!  There will be coffee, tea and muffins for sale all day.  There will be seed vendors, including Aagaard Farms with our selection of gourmet potatoes!   I do believe Heritage Harvest Seeds from Carman, MB will be there because I emailed them this morning about picking up our order at Seedy Sunday!  I hope Jim from Prairie Garden Seeds in Saskatchewan will be there again this year because he always has some interesting and rare heirloom seeds!  If you've saved extra seed from you garden bring it along for the Swap Table and try something new!

This year there will be some different information tables at Seedy Sunday; Seeds of Diversity Canada and EcoAction are among them!  I'll keep you updated as more join in.  Blake, the organizer, is also welcoming community groups, gardening groups and vendors such as crafters, bakers and canners!  If you'd like to join in contact Blake at leolotgarden@gmail.com!  Should be a fun day - are you ready to think gardening?

Hoop House reconstructed!

Hoop House, Deconstructed

Hoop House, Reconstructed

OK, we're definitely a little behind this year.  Behind in blogging, too, because we reconstructed the hoop house about two weeks ago.  I've had the pictures, had the story, didn't get it posted because other things kept coming up - like baby goats!  Last summer our hoop house suffered fatal damage in a summer storm.  We had a little trouble this Spring finding the plastic because everything in town had been purchased to help build flood protection.  We finally got our hands on a good roll of appropriate plastic and made a date with some friends.  Deb, Calla and Joe came over on an evening to help put the house back together.  While us ladies were looking at kittens, Joe and Farmer Man got the plastic over the hoops very easily.  They secured it by shoveling dirt on the bottom edges.  It was quite calm that night, but started to rain on us.  Once the plastic was over the hoop house, we had to nail in wood slats along the sides, which holds the plastic in place.  The three ladies worked together on one side, the men on the other side.  A bit of a challenge to straighten the plastic and then nail in used, warped boards.  Obviously, we got it done.  Farmer Man just had to reattach the doors on both ends and it's good to go another year!  I've already planted some flower seeds because I'm hoping to supply a wedding in July!  Soon, some of the tomatoes and peppers will get transplanted out there for a fast start in the high temperatures and wind protection it affords.  A hoop house is a good thing to have!  

Growing, Again!

Farmer Man has been busy the last few weeks. He's cleaned out the sun room, moved in the seed starting unit that he built and he's started planting peppers. The first babies are up! We've got heat mats on the bottom level, to get things started that like some heat. The trays then move up, or start on a higher level if the seeds don't require bottom heat. All levels have grow/fluorescent lights. Eventually, the seedlings will move out onto folding tables in the room, where we do have some stand grow lights. From there, if it's warmer, the seedling trays will go out to our greenhouse (which is a little expensive to heat this time of year, hence the sun room start!) As the temperature has been a little cold, we've got the seed starting unit wrapped in plastic to keep the warmth in, and, in the last few chilly days, an electric heater, just for extra night time protection. Next, on Farmer Man's agenda: tomatoes! I'll probably get some herbs started pretty soon, too. And, of course, a flat of mesclun mix lettuces for some micro greens has to get started soon! Both The Hen and Farmer Man need some fresh greens! It is soooo good to have something growing again!Are you starting anything from seed?

Getting Ready for Seedy Sunday Brandon!

It's a busy, busy day getting ready for Seedy Sunday. Farmer Man is in the root cellar, weighing and bagging seed potatoes. I'm getting seeds ready for tomorrow's big event! We'll have seven different kinds of potatoes and five different kinds of winter squash. This is the first time we're officially selling, so we're not that organized: hand-written tags will be the order of the day! I did have some nice little glassine bags for saving seeds, so the seeds will be safe and sound. With the winter squash, we decided in the fall to let Mother Nature preserve the seeds for us in the original package: the squash. So, early this week, we opened the squash, scooped out the seeds, twirled them briefly in water to loosen the seed from the pulp, then separated them from the pulp as best we could. Then we lay them out on towels to dry for three days. It's worked out quite well! Now, I'm going through them as I package, to make sure it's all nice, plump seeds in every package. We're donating potatoes and eggs for the brunch tomorrow, I believe the Head Chef, Dave Barnes, is coming to pick them up later this afternoon. Brunch at 11:00 AM, seed sale starts at noon. Events go through the evening, ending with a social. Check out the poster here. It's all happening tomorrow, at Park Community Centre - hope to see you there!

Seedy Sunday Brandon!

I'm copying this directly from an email from Blake Hamilton, the organizer of Seedy Sunday who is doing great work as the co-coordinator of the community gardens at New Era. Everything you need to know, I think!


This is a day devoted to bringing food, culture, community and education into one totally awesome day and night! The brunch, dinner, and social are fundraisers for the New Era Community School Friendship Garden (4th and Louise) and each cost ten dollars. However the Seed swap (12pm- 5pm) and the Food Documentary FRESH (7-8:30pm) are free.

The Seed Swap and sale is an opportunity for people to exchange seeds that they have saved themselves, or from seed packs that they have purchased from some of the seed producers who will be selling seed at the event. Prairie Garden Seeds (Humbolt Sask), Heritage Harvest Seeds (Carmen MB), Aagaard Farms (Brandon), as well as some other local and out of town merchants yet to be confirmed will be in attendance, with a focus on those that supply heritage, heirloom, and organic seeds. Check out www.seeds.ca for the mission of Seedy Saturday/Sunday's across Canada.

The Brunch Buffet 11am- 1pm will contain some of the most organic and locally available foods possible, the Bison Chili dinner will be of the organic free range Crocus View Farms variety, and a vegetarian option will be available....also, the spicey scale will be yours to decide unlike last years very spicey "mild" Chili option!

The Documentary FRESH is new on the scene and this screening will represent the second screening in Manitoba (I believe). It's a optimistic, realistic and workistic look at how we can take our food security and culture back into our own hands as communities... check out www.freshthemovie.com for more info. The screening is free along with the seed swap admittance because it is the organizers belief that education and access to healthy food seed should be available to everyone... donations merrily accepted (we will be making a generous donation to the makers of FRESH).

The Line up for the social is as follows: DJ's Tabernac (locals K. Slimon and A. Vandale), followed by Brandon's new electro dubstep quartet PINK ROBOT. Balanced Records (Winnipeg) DJ's Billy Rockwell, Seed Organization, and Kasm, will get your hips gliding on the dance floor with afro/funk/jazz house/ and dubby braeaks while Redworm from Bass Invaders Wpg will end the night with some heavy beats (dubstep shreddery). Visual effects and interactive wall by Meg Rabbit of POMOPROJECT Wpg. Sound by the Good Vibe Tribe and Bass Invaders. Cash Bar opens up at Five O'Clock.

Throughout the day expect to hear acoustic acts and some smooth dinner music by BU music Dept. friends, and some presentations by local food activists, and seed savers. Come with seeds to trade or with some money to buy. Envelopes will be available so seed packs can be split up and shared!


This is about the future of food, community, and celebration!!!

Tickets to the social (mandatory at 9 o'clock) available at Senate Skates and Marquis Project... no tickets at the door!

If you want to volunteer please contact Blake (573 5314), Ryan L. (724-7960), or mo (573-1940)!!!

Thanks for your support, we hope to see you at Park CC.... Spread the word!!!

Best regards,

Blake Hamilton
New Era Community School Friendship Garden Coordinator

Thinking Spring!

This week our mail box has been full of not presents and holiday cards but seed catalogues! For us, it's rather like receiving presents, except they'll cost us money! We love getting the new catalogues, although we're a little busy to deal with them now. After Christmas, we'll curl up by the fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate and make our plans for the coming Spring. A few of our favorites are here already: Johnny's Selected Seeds, who are really geared for the market gardener, with lots of organic selections. West Coast Seeds, with lots of organics and heirlooms, but we've got to be careful with our selections because they are rather focused on the cooler, moister climate of the West Coast. Veseys Seeds is here, a Canadian company with lots of selections and breeding for commercial growers - some great tools and growing aids as well (really craving some of their 'Snap & Grow' greenhouses!). We've also got Stokes, William Dam and T & T, a Winnipeg company with lots of great selections for short season gardeners. Still missing in action are Heritage Harvest Seeds, a great little Manitoba company preserving heirloom varieties. Prairie Garden Seeds, a Saskatchewan company also preserving heirloom seeds and looking for interesting stuff including grains. We got a lot of our basic seed from Brandon's own Lindenberg Seeds, who have really improved their selection of organic seed in the last few years. And we always look forward to Terra Edibles, with the most amazing lists of heirloom tomatoes and beans!

Seed Balls: Slightly Subversive Party Favors

I love this idea! Evergreen, the Canadian charity that is all about greening up cities, has a fabulous recipe on their blog for seed balls. A mixture of (generally) wild flower seeds, dirt and clay; the balls are a fun and easy project for kids at parties. Something a little greener and more useful than trinkets and candies! Aside from the fun of playing in dirt - the seed balls can then be 'planted' (tossed, quite literally) and the kids can watch them grow. The subversive part: guerrilla gardeners can take them and 'bomb' derelict lots, sterile back alleys and other places that could use a little life! Evergreen does not recommend the subversive part - they say nothing about that on their blog. I've read it about it other places, Green Frieda was making some last winter in a quest to spread native flowers in her area. Read about Evergreen's recipe here.

The Aftermath....

Just had a Sunday morning walk-about. Quite a day at Aagaard Farms! First, on checking The Hens, heard some noises behind the trees; thought somebody was trying to steal our friends' Joe and Calla's boat. Took a peak: it's some of our neighbours cattle, perhaps scared across the road to the shelter of our tree belt during yesterdays' storm. Walking toward them seemed to head them home and they took off trotting for their own pasture. Some very large trees are down at the east end of the property. It's willow shelter belt - not too surprising. A major river coursed through the field yesterday, washing out some of Farmer Man's planting. We may have corn four feet south of where he intended! More bad news: big branches down in the asparagus patch, with some loses of lovely new asparagus! Farmer Man spoke last night to our neighbour Mike Waddell, half a mile south of us. Mike had a funnel or mini tornado go through and has a number of big trees down and quite a mess around his yard. I guess things could have been worse!

The good news: some of the potatoes are up, even in this cool weather! And the dugout level is much higher than it was ten days ago! More good news: spotted an oriole and some swallows! Swallows have nested around our garage every year - their arrival means summer is close by! We have to make sure the garage is closed up or they might nest in there. They tried that a few years ago, it got too hot and some of the babies died. We love to sit and watch the swallows on a summers' eve - they are so beautiful in motion, and eat lots of bugs as they are soaring around!

Seeds For Fears?

We don't get much television here at Aagaard Farms. We don't have cable or satellite, so we (sort of) get three of the four national channels, one of which is all French. Apparently, in America, some of those zany late night commercials are marketing seeds for the fall of civilization, or something......Interesting post on one of my fav gardening blogs, Garden Rant, about the phenomenon.

The 'Pot Maker' in Action!

We blogged a while ago about our fondness for a little gizmo called the 'Pot Maker'. Well, here it is in action: loaded with some blue pumpkin seeds and watermelon seeds. We find this works really well for those things that are brittle and do not take to transplanting well. A number of people have asked if they disintegrate or fall apart, if we tape them together or add a dab of glue. The answer is no; we just roll them up, fold over the substantial bottom and crease it well in the base. We don't have a lot of trouble with them disintegrating, a few may implode at planting time but we just scoop them up and keep planting. On the whole, they work really well, and instead of buying peat pots we're re-using newspapers!

Movin' On Up!

To the greenhouse! The time had finally come, the sunroom was bursting to the seams and there are more seeds to start! And I am not having seedlings in my living room! So, up to the greehouse went the early starts of tomatoes, peppers and herbs. And, literally, it is slightly up hill; movin' on up describes the journey! Farmer Man is making room for starting broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, and soon, some of the longer season pumpkins.

We Love This Gadget!!

If you like to recyle, re-use, save money, save the planet, upcycle, be thrifty - any of these things, well, the Pot Maker is for you.  You can make your own pots using this device and the newspaper!!  Some plants require a long growing season, which we do not really have in Manitoba.  So, we start them early, inside, to give them all the time they need to bear their fruit.  Some, like watermelon, cantelope and winter squash, are quite brittle and do not transplant well.  So, we start them in pots that can be planted directly into the garden.  We might have used peat pots, but we question how sustainable peat moss is:  it takes thousands of years to make and we're going through peat bogs rather quickly so........we're bound to use it all up.  We've had this little device over a decade, and it's having a bit of a renaissance!  Suddenly, this year, it's in tons of seed catalogues and gardening supply catalogues after being a little hard to locate for a few years.  It's easy - you take a strip of newspaper and wrap it around the handle, then press it into the base to 'crease' the paper into shape.  The shape holds amazingly well; if we hold seeds in these pots for seven or eight weeks due to bad weather, a few pots will be falling apart.  We simply scoop it up, paper and all and plant.  Most newspapers these days are printed on unbleached paper using veggie or soy inks and are quite safe.  We wouldn't recommend using shiny, highly finished or highly coloured papers, which will have more chemicals in them.  It's a great investment! 

Getting a Little Cozy in Here!

The sunroom is getting a little full - it's hard to move around, let alone water without bumping into a flat of plants.  The potential for a disaster (and a messy, dirt-every-where kind of disaster) is high.  So, the question is:  is it time to fire up the greenhouse?  We always pause a bit before making the decision.  The greenhouse was built by Farmer Man's father and, like the house, is kind of 'cobbled' together.  Left-over wood, windows from an old fifth-wheel trailer, it's not really high-efficiency.  It can be really expensive to run.  Now, the weather is very good currently, temperatures above average.  But will it stay that way?  Is it worth the move now?  Farmer Man has been potting up peppers, tomatoes and herbs all week and there are more to go.  And we have to start seeding broccoli, cabbage and such.  We need the elbow room, and soon!  So, start piling things into the living room?  Or boot up the greenhouse?

Blue Pumpkin

If you read the last Dark Day Challenge post, we were gifted part of a blue pumpkin.  This came to us from our market gardening pal Marlene Trelka.  Marlene has grown these for a few years; she was given the seed by a neighbour (now passed away) who called it a New Zealand pumpkin.  We've grown something like this before: we knew it as an Australian pumpkin, it may be a Queensland Blue, but it's smooth enough that we think it is Crown Prince.  Regardless, it is absolutely awesome eating, and as you can tell from the skin, a fabulous storage pumpkin.  We've removed and are drying the seed for planting this spring.  It's hard to find here, so we are ecstatic to have the seed.  Thanks, Marlene!!!