March 2020

March 6 - Here comes March like a lion. Yesterday the winds were strong. They were staining winds of 25 to 30 MPH and gusts up to 55 MPH. Today not so much. March is a volatile month with weather changing almost at a moment's notice.

This little crocus is trying its best to show us all the Spring is indeed here. I for one am ready for this year's garden to begin. I just might actually have a garden to enjoy this year. The last couple years have been challenging. For two years it's been a bust for gardening. I haven't really had a true garden since 2017 which was my best year. This year other than having the structure still in place, it will be like starting over. It will be a lot of work and time spent to bring up to a workable garden again. It may not all get done this year but I can hope for major accomplishments. One of the main time obstacles has been removed from my schedule so it will give me much needed time to spend at the garden. I have more plans in my head than can ever be accomplished in one life time but it's what keeps me exciting about living.

The lettuce and radish experiment was a great success. I am ready to harvest the third harvest from the lettuce and have a couple more good radishes on track to be harvested. It's a little more difficult to grow a good radish but the up side is that once it's known that the radish won't be turning out so good, it can be eaten as a microgreen so not all is lost even for a bad radish.

It's time to start sprouting some Bell Pepper seeds. Last year I sprouted the seeds and in 10 days I had plants growing. The seeds sprouted in five days and the planted sprouts were up and growing in another five days. I'm hoping for the same this year. It's a sure way of getting 100% planted germination. If the seeds are planted directly in the seed starting tray, it can take up to three weeks for them to germinate so if they don't germinate or are sporadic, then it's another three week wait to see if the next group will germinate. So the sprouting before the planting method worked great last year and this year will be the test to see if I still have the touch.

I hooked up the rain water hose to the tank a couple days ago. It's now set to collet water for the roof. February was a very dry month and it looks like March has started with dry weather. I think February had about .02 inch of moisture and so far there's been nothing in March. I'm just waiting for those Spring rains to kick in. 

Saturday March 7 

First day at Terra Nova Gardens. Not much happening there at the moment. I started building the east side of bed number 3 with the blocks that came from the flood area north of Fremont. I have a stack large enough to build one raised bed. This bed is in the formal area of the garden. It will most likely take me most of the summer to get it built. I do want the path done by the end of October. With the extra time in my schedule it just might happen on the road back to full production of Terra Nova Gardens. I have a high hope of really getting some things done this year. There's much to do and I have a head full of plans for both Terra Nova Gardens and Urban Ranch. 

This is the end of the first day's work.  The wall will continue for about 20 more feet. The top will be covered with a solid top block to finish out the side. I am hoping to be at least a section like this added to the bed every time I come to the garden. A little bit each day will get the job done soon enough. As I look around at Terra Nova Gardens I see need every where. The neglect for two years has really taken a toll on this garden. 2017 was an awesome year but now the garden just looks very sad and unhappy. I do hope nothing happens to circumvent the progress this year but one never knows what the future will bring.

It's raining today but so far it's been very little moisture. Not even enough to raise the rain water tank level. The website says .24 inches of rain which would be about 36 gallons of water.  The rain guage in the garden says no measurable moisture and the was in the big tank says no water saved.

This is the lettuce after two harvests and from the looks of it, definitely will be needing to harvest again today. The radishes are a little more finicky about growing. Maybe it just the way radishes are but not every one will turn out to be a good radish. After about a week of growth some will stand straight and stocky and some will be leggy and spindly. I've just pulled the leggy ones and thrown them in the salad for microgreens. I'd say only about a third of the radishes planted turn out to be good radishes. It takes about 20 days for a radish to grow to harvest size.

I have more kinds of radish to plant to see if one would be better than what I'm using. Right now the best I've found is Champion. The foliage stays small and the radish grow to a deceit size in about 20 days. I have some others that I want to try that are a bigger size but they might not be suited for indoor growing in PVC pipe.

February 2020

Here it is February already. An entire month has passed by. I'm happy with how the seed area is progressing. Now if the plants can just keep growing and produce a harvest, I will be ecstatic. It will mean that I can sustain a garden inside the basement basically year round. The possibilities are huge.

The lettuce plants are on day 7 from planting and the radishes are on day 5. In a couple more weeks on Valentine's Day, the onion seed will be planted. That will be the official start of the garden year.

02-02-2020

 


More of the same. The Radishes are a little spotty with germination. They have germinated but at way different times. Some germinated at three days and some are just now germinating at 6 days. Well, it was old seed.

02-05-2020



Four radishes have grown from 10 planted but it was from old seed so I will except that as an excuse. The lettuce and the radishes have really popped since I gave them a feed. I'll wait another week and give them a light feed again. It's been 11 days since planting. I'll wait another week or two to transplant the lettuce plants to one plant per cup I think I'll have about 10 plants.

02-14-2020



The radishes are starting to put on some weight and I'm thinking that this might be viable way to grow radishes year round. I'm interested to see how the bigger radishes will do as they approach harvest. The radish that I just planted can get up to 1 1/2 inches in diameter which is the diameter of the PVC pipe. If need be I could go to a bigger pipe.

The lettuce just keeps growing leeps and bounds just like the video said. I don't bathe them in the hydroponic nutrients but I do feed them once a week with miracle grow general fertilizer

02-16-2020

The outside tulips are up and growing. The tulip containers have no sign of growth. I'm not sure the bulbs made it through the winter. If they don't come up, next year I'll just keep the bulbs in the refrigerator and plant them about this time of the year in the containers.

In the ground tulips are up and growing.



Radishes are really putting on weight now and starting to look like a radish. Roots are out the bottom of the PVC pipes. The new radishes are reaching toward the light. I think I should have put them in a different tray closer to the light. They are looking a little spindly. If they don't do well, I'll start the next batch closer to the light.

Lettuce continues to grow and look ever so good. So the lettuce is 22 days from planting and the radishes are 20 days from planting. Ten more days and radishes should be ready for harvest. Twenty three days until lettuce should be ready for harvest.

02-19-2020

The second planting of radish turned out very leggy and had to be replanted.

The experiment with winter gardening has been a complete success so far. The next round will be expanded into a bigger planting. It might be a year round operation.

02-20-2020
Radishes are looking good with seven more days to go for a 30 day harvest. I think they could be harvested right now and maybe I'll have to harvest them early. It's time to think about what the next step will be in this experiment. I could ramp it up big time but I'm just not ready for that. Maybe a few more and gently ease into the routine of a steady crop of greens and radishes. It's better than microgreens for me. Actual salads are a good step toward winter growing.

02-22-2020

This is the radish harvest after 25 days. I probably should have harvested about three days earlier. So it would be around 21 days or three weeks. The lettuce could be harvested and I just might have a fresh garden salad today.  The lettuce is just under 30 days. This is a hugely successful experiment. Now I just have to figure out how to get a succession of harvest schedule.

The onions are coming along. I have replanted some of the empty pods and it looks like I'll be planting some more empty pods again. This method seems to be working wonderfully well.
I have snipped off the bent tops. I did that last year and this year I learned that is what needs to be done to keep the stems strong. It seems that every thing I figure out on my own gets confirmed that it's the right thing to do.

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