Seed Starting Light Set-up

Add one wire shelf, 8 shop lights, 16 fluorescent tubes, a couple of multi-plug extension cords and an inexpensive timer and what do you get? A seed starting set up! I’ve seen shelves like this in garden catalogues and drooled over them, and then cringed at their price (some of them are nearly $300 plus shipping!!). Armed with an idea of what I wanted and a coupon to my favorite home improvement store, I bought the supplies for half the price of the garden catalog variety, and I avoided shipping. I highly recommend having a friend help you set this up, however, as it is no fun to break a light bulb, but lots of fun to work together.
What kinds of bulbs should you use? I thought that a full spectrum bulb would work best, but they're expensive. So I did a little search and found out from the University of Minnesota that plain old shop lights work just as well. I then double checked that information against the wise sages of the Gardener's Forum and found that most folks there say the same thing: don't waste your money on expensive lights for seedlings (now, if you're trying to grow plants throughout the season, that might be a little different). Also, if you notice your seedlings are growing away from one of your bulbs, replace it if you can. You want your little darlings to grow as straight and evenly as possibly. I laugh to my cowboy that he will never have a shortage of lights for his workbench as he’s got all the seed starting leftover bulbs to use.

A Fully Seasoned Day

Today was one of those bizarre weather days in Virginia. It started out 70 and gorgeous with a slight breeze and the smell of spring on the air. I thought it'd be a great day to snap some photos of the tulips coming up under the maple tree. They look like little red stars amidst the slowly greening vinca. We had the windows open, the heat off, just plain enjoying the day when suddenly the temperature dropped, black clouds were in the sky, and it started to rain. So we rushed around closing windows. Then it was about 45 and started to hail. No kidding, hail. Then suddenly cold sunlight and blue sky, so I snapped some more pictures of the tulips (which apparently had the good sense to close back up in the now cold weather, like little tubes of lipstick). Then more rain. Then more sun. Rain. Sun. More hail. Sun. It's like the entire season of spring has played itself out in one day. Just this moment, the sun is shining in the front yard and its raining in the back yard. All day, I've been watching, fascinated at the instantaneous changes in the weather. On days like these, I understand why we call Nature a woman, as if she just can't make up her mind about what she wants to wear.

Tomatoes, Onions, and Marigolds, oh my!

And they’re up! The seeds that we planted at our hen gardening party are finally putting up their little cotyledon leaves (first leaves from a seed). The onions are easy to spot, but the marigolds and tomatoes look exactly the same at this stage (it’s a good thing we marked them well!) This is the point at which we can take off the clear plastic tops of the seedling trays and lower the lights to just above the level of the seedlings (about 3” above the top of the seedlings). This will give them some air flow and will also give them the most light possible from my little shop light set up. The aluminum foil behind the shelves also helps increase the ambient light level for these future garden stars. At this point, I’ll also start petting my plants daily when I check them for moisture. No, I’m not some crazed gardener, petting the seedlings will help them develop strong stalks so that when they make it out into the garden they can withstand the wind and rain. Petting, believe it or not, will help to prevent leggy seedlings. This is also the point at which I’ll start watering with some dilute fish emulsion fertilizer. I like fish emulsion because I can buy it in concentrate and mix my own. I don’t like it because it smells, well, fishy. But it’s organic and gentle enough for my tender little seedlings. Perhaps next year I’ll be ambitious enough to make some compost tea.

Now I’m just waiting for the peppers and the eggplants to come up. I’m not worried because these typically take 2-4 weeks to germinate. Grow little seeds, grow!

I've been Forked!

Actually, I've forked myself. Instead of buying those expensive little plant markers, I'm using leftover plastic forks (you know, the ones that just seem to accumulate in junk drawers, inside the pantry, and in the car behind the seat.) I know that it is more sustainable to use the little wooden plant markers for seasonal marking because they decompose when I'm done with them, but I'm on a budget and all of these forks would be making their way to a landfill by now anyway if I hadn't washed and reused them (washed them in the dishwasher with a load I was doing anyway, at least I'm conserving water, right?)

The forks are marking seed areas. I garden using a modified square foot gardening method (modified because it starts out all nice and square footish at the beginning of the season when I'm planting seeds and then digresses slowly to a marginally controlled chaos as the summer season comes on and I find the urge to fit in "one more plant" simply irresistible). As the season progresses and these squares get filled up, I'll post a garden plan (this year seems to be the year of "oh just put it over there").

For now, these are the seeds planted today:
Libson White Bunching Onions
Carrots (thanks, JM!)
Chard - Ruby and White
Peas- Snap
Peas- Snow
Spinach
Mesclun Mix (I'll succession plant this every 2 weeks till early June)
Kohlrabi (the alien plant)
Beets

I can't wait for salads!! What did you plant today?

Just Eat It!

Hooray!! It's official! The Obama's will "Eat the View"!! For those of you who haven't been following the politics of homegrown food over the past year, Kitchen Gardener's International, led by Roger Dorian, has been running a campaign to get our new president to plant a vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House. From a small ground swell of support to interviews with major media outlets, the Eat the View Campaign has had a long road since Roger first suggested via On Day One that the next first family plant a victory garden. Tree Hugger had a short article on Wednesday about an Oprah interview with Michelle Obama. And then today, I just got word from the man himself, Roger Dorian. And then I saw the article on Yahoo.

I highly reccomend spending a few minutes cruising around the Eat the View website. You can read all about the campaign, press releases, and the history of gardens at the White House. This lawn really is your lawn!

I'll be honest, I've never signed a petition before that actually effected change. I love the fact that we live in a country where the voices of the people can be heard. It's very cool that our new president is going to lead the nation not just in terms of his job, but hopefully also in the example of a healthy lifestyle.

If the Obamas, arguably the busiest family in the nation, can find the time and energy to help plan and put in a vegetble garden, can't you? So, what are you waiting for? Get some great info on how to plan and start a vegge garden at Revive the Victory Gardens and at Weekend Gardener. In the futre, I'll write a post about front yard landscape vegetable gardens. But here's a peak at the Time article that inspired my own plans.

Dwarf Irises

Do you see them? Peeping out of the cold ground are the first blooms in my garden.


I saw them early last week and wondered what little blue piece of trash had landed under my tree (sometimes I forget where I put things in the garden... yet another reason to keep a garden journal). Walking out to angrily snatch up the offending trash, I caught my breath and giggled with excitement.

They were short and lovely, opening their happy faces to the cold late winter sunshine, laughing that they are not afraid of a March snow.

Their yellow tongues sticking out at me, daring me to lie on my belly on the chilly damp grass to try to get a photo, pointing out to me once I was there that the daffodils and tulips are also starting to show their heads.

I always feel that irises are laughing, joyful little flowers. With so many small petals to catch the sun and toss it around, they play with the light and quiver as if giggling in the wind. These (according to my scrawling notes last fall) are iris christata, the first blooms in my garden.

Hen Gardening Party

Oh! Am I kicking myself for not taking any photos at our little hen gardening party! (There weren’t actually any hens there, city ordinances against livestock and all, but that’s what I called it to gently let the fellas know that it was a ladies party.) I made a pot of tea, we covered the kitchen table in newspaper, rolled up our sleeves, swapped seeds, started seeds, and generally had a lovely time of it! Lovely LP has never really gardened before, as she laughingly told us “I want to be a gardener, I really do.” So JM and I were giving a few tips, and we loaded her up with peas and lettuces and spinach and chard to plant in the next few days and beans and squash and cucumber seeds to plant Mother’s Day weekend. Her clever daughter took some snapdragon and convolvulus seeds to put in a pot together (I thought she had a rather ingenious idea to put the snaps in the center of a pot to grow tall and then to have the convolvulus trailing around the edge. I love the creativity of children.)
And then when I thought we had totally overloaded her with gardening information and the hopes and dreams and wishes of fresh vegetables from her own garden, we started seeds in flats. And I’m not just talking one or two, we started enough seeds for at least 6 gardens!

Tomatoes:

• Brandywine
• Mexico
• Cherokee Purple (my personal favorite)
• Mr. Stripey
• Eva Purple Ball
• Early Annie
• Roma VF

Cherry Tomatoes:

• Yellow Pear
• Blondkopfchen
• Ghost Cherry
• Camp Joy
• Gardener’s Delight
• Hawaiian Currant
• Black Cherry

Peppers:

• Jalepeno M
• Garden Salsa
• Sweet Bell Pepper Mix (I have no idea what will come up!)
• Sweet Banana Pepper Mix (again, surprises!)

Eggplants:

• Black Beauty
• Lavender Touch Hybrid

Other:

• Libson Bunching Onions
• Impatiens
• Marigolds
• Parsley

(I'm a little nervous about whether there's enough room for them all once they're transplanted.... we'll see how that goes in about a month)

After everyone left, I transplanted the Lavender Lady that was ready (23 of these little guys)

And that’s on top of the little starts that are already sprouting!

Thyme seedlings are super easy to grow - these are about 2 weeks old.

The super high-tech seedling markers are pieces of paper encased in packing tape.

JM scolded me a little that I haven’t been blogging the garden as it grows till now, and that it’s not just my garden that I’m growing, so I should be sharing what’s happening to all of these little seeds. Perhaps this is the start of something wonderful, helping other folks learn to grow their own food and flowers. I like the idea of that, growing my and other folks gardens. It’s like gardening foster care, when the little plants are ready, they’ll move on to their permanent homes.

So here’s the blog, lovely JM!

And here’s to another day in the Maple Tree Garden.

Harvest Remembered: Thoughts on Environmental Stewardship

For the past 3 winters, around the end of February, I get this itchy feeling and it's not from the wool sweaters. It's my garden, calling to me. Our very first garden together was at an apartment, on our 6 x 12 patio, in pots and crates (I'll dig up some pictures to show you sometime). I loved the way that our plants vined and twined and shaded our southern patio and cooled off the evenings after work and then, as if those gifts were not enough, the plants gave us yummy fruits.

And so here I am again, at the beginning of March and the ending of winter and I am thinking of harvests past and what I long for from harvests present. Our first patio garden moved with us when we bought our house, and those poor little plants were so stressed by the move, yet they still gave us a harvest. And so as I dream of this year's coming bounty and of building garden beds and of the flowers that will cheer my neighbors and my kitchen table, and as I finger seed packets that will grow into yummy food, I pause before the start and remember. We have been so richly blessed to be able to grow some of our own food. For that I am grateful.

I keep telling myself that I'm going to start a blog that will matter to people, that will have fabulous readership and that will help change the world and I keep not starting because those goals are so lofty, I don't even know where to begin. So I think instead, I will begin in a place that I know, in my own little corner of the world, on my own little corner 1/10 acre lot, in my own little Virginia town.

This post will mark the start of sharing with you what we're doing in our little corner. Through our professional jobs in conservation and in architecture, we've both become more concerned with our resource consumption, so we are starting a business to help people make their homes energy efficient, we are trying our best to green our own house (though I'm still undecided on whether I like using the word green at all, I feel it's way over used, but it's also such a handy little adjective... how about when I use it, I also explain what aspect of green I'm talking about), we are living on a tight budget, we garden (for sanity and for food security), we are involved in promoting green issues in our community, we volunteer with high school kids, and we are trying to figure out how to fit it all in and live intentionally. This blog will serve as an ongoing discussion of how all of those areas of life intersect and how we are trying to be better stewards of what we've been given, starting with the small things, and with the overarching goal of living lightly on the earth and making choices that are sustainable for the environment, our budget, our community, and our family.

Encouraging environmental stewardship (and other fun stuff)