Seed Timing

Technically it's spring now, but I'll admit that its more "early spring" than "spring spring."  But on the rare sunny day that gets mixed in, a farmer gets tempted to plant.  I was recently reading the instructions on my pea packages and apparently starting the seedlings indoors is discouraged, and they should be planted outside "as soon as the soil can be worked."  With that advice under consideration and then ignored, I usual go ahead and start plants indoors, aiming for ~Presidents Day as ideal seeding time for peas.

Here's a comparison that backs up my thinking.  Check out these pictures taken today, the first one is of snow peas, planted outdoors on 2/24.  They're planted up against a nice warm piece of southern facing foundation.  Look how big they are (or aren't):

Ok, maybe you had to squint but they're there, right in the middle.  Now for comparison, here are some peas that I started on 3/15, indoors, then transplanted out the other day.  Time will tell which grow faster or produce more, but for plants that are about 4 weeks younger, these guys look pretty good:

In my experience-based opinion, it makes more sense to start peas indoors then transplant them out after they have 3+ leaf pairs.  This is because spring growing conditions are challenged by the reemergence of the local slug population.  Slugs like to eat my peas right at the surface as they first break ground, but they're less inclined to climb up to the higher leaves.  Hopefully these larger plants will have at least a fighting chance.

St. Patrick's Day

I'm not sure when potatoes are supposed to be planted.  But I do know when St. Patrick's Day is every year, so that's when I plant them.

A few days prior I dug out a ditch of a bed for them, and then backfilled with compost, fertilizer, and straw.

After her nap, I recruited my helpful assistant and the potatoes went right in.  We planted about 2# of spuds, so I'll be curious to see what our end-of-season yield is on this operation.

Springtime!

Gret and Liz enjoy a pow day

Sushi Chef

Big M making sushi.  With tortillas, egg, honey, raisins, banana.  Yum!

Snow Peas

Well if snow is falling, I might as well plant snow peas.  After all, I've had a bunch started in the grow room and it is March already.  (Usually I like to Plant Peas on Presidents day)  Hopefully they can get established now, while the slugs are frozen?

Snow

Cold on the heels of my post about using row covers to keep the plants warm and dry come this weather event, the Blizzard of 2012.  Were people afraid to travel? Yes.  Were schools closed? Unnecessary, but yes.  Did my plants survive?  I guess I'll know in a few days....

Row

Lettuce and kale, living in the rowhouse.  Looks like there's some slug or worm damage on the kale, but lettuce is going strong.  Speaking of lettuce, we had our second harvest of the year from stuff planted last fall.  Admittedly when I say "harvest" I'm talking about a few heads of Romaine, enough for two bowls of salad.  And when I say "second" I also mean last, since that meant harvesting all of the remaining lettuce.  So until these plants in the row house get bigger....

Speaking of row houses, supposedly ones like this are to keep the plants warm.  I'm not sure how well the thin layer of fleece does that, and I also wonder how much sun it filters out (the kale look spindly).  People tell me that in Oregon, the bigger benefit is that the covers keep rain off the soil, since soil saturation leads to moldy rotten seeds and plants, so things are nice and cozy and dry inside.  I'm also hoping that covering the row reduces the number of slugs and other trouble makers.  

Valentine's Day, under the lights

2/17

I thought that it seemed overpriced to have to buy a miniature row house like the one on the left, especially when I already have a roll of fleece cloth.  But having spent an hour today bending bamboo arcs and trying to affix the fleece such that it doesn't blow away I'm ready to declare the manufactured one a deal.  After all, the pre-made one has metal support arcs that anchor well and are enclosed in pockets.  It's so easy to set up, and isn't lopsided like the one I built.  

Under the left house is a mix of chard, kale, lettuce, etc.  It's sustained some minor slug damage but otherwise seems well.  The one on the right was filled today and includes 2 types of pea starts, some chard starts, and my first direct sown crop of the season: radishes.  The package says they'll be ready in 20-25 days.  Sure.  

The prepared soil on the left will be potatoes.  There is room on the right for lettuce; some of the rye grass cover crop remains here.  Far right is the asparagus bed, cozied in with a layer of straw and now some steer manure on top of that.  I added two crowns of UC157 towards the front, since the lawn has been cut back by about 2 feet there I figured I'd fill it with more asparagus.