I know we are fortunate that unlike our northern neighbors we do not have much, if any, time during the year in which nothing will grow. We've had multiplying onions, lettuce, dill, and cilantro all winter since we got them established before the cooler weather. Similarly we can dig up as needed the sunchoke that grew during the warm months. However during the cool, cloudy weather things grow pretty slowly. I started some radish and spinach seeds on the 11th that sprouted well but then were plagued by flea beetles. I was hoping the unusually cool weather in the last weeks would keep the bugs at bay and that the typically fast-growing radishes would be able to out-grow the bug attacks. We have been spraying the plants with water steeped with blended hot peppers and then strained. It's seemed to help but not solve the problem. Vegetables effected by the beetles are the radish, kale, spinach, and mustard greens - all the brassicas.
After attending an informative class this last weekend led by a farmer highly observant of natural systems, I have some great new ideas to try out. I am dividing our multiplying onions. They have been rocking it all winter. I hope we'll have more for the kitchen and for saving for next year's planting. I divided the onions into their smallest units, stripping off some outer leaves to accomplish it. I trimmed the tops (to reduce moisture loss and compensate for root loss). I also trimmed some of the longer roots so that they could be replanted more cleanly - with fewer bent roots. The largest bulbs and the trimmed tops were kept for the kitchen. Following what I observed this weekend, I am experimenting with planting transplants (versus seeds in shallow troughs to consolidate water for germination) on short raised rows across the width of the beds (instead of down the entire length) to allow for troughs in-between which will catch water and promote a larger root system by enticing the roots out to the troughs.
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| Carrots, radish, spinach, beet and swiss chard seedlings with the greenhouse in the background |
Our summer garden seed trays have been benefiting from the warm weather as well as the heavy plastic greenhouse we put up in a large mulch path space in the garden. The greenhouse elevates the temperatures with a diffuse light which has supported the sprouting of many eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, etc. When we had the trays in the full sun on the deck, the harsh difference between the fluorescent lights inside and the full sun burned the leaves of the tender young sprouts. Under our new system, summer and winter squash seedlings have already been moved up to bigger pots, as well as some tomato plants which I wanted to divide before the roots got too intertwined. Last year we thought we would be able to tell plants apart and didn't carefully label pots and quickly learned our error. This year, I made minimalist tags from an empty clear plastic seltzer water bottle that would have gone in the recycle bin, but instead was upcycled! The native plant seeds are starting to germinate. I broke dormancy on the seeds with the hard seed coats by immersing them in water brought up to boiling 1-2 times depending on if the seeds were swelling or not from water intake. We've got some flowering senna, butterfly weed, acacia, and more on their way!
