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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January 2020

1-29-2020
The New garden Year has begun. I've always wanted to grow a garden inside during the winter months. After some research I've found that it's really not all that hard. I've attempted it a couple times but discovered that I was going about it not wrong but more difficult than it should have been. I was using five gallon buckets when 12 ounce Dixie cups are just fine. It sparked by imagination into a total salad greens garden that could be grown inside with grow lights. I'm now experimenting with root crops as well. If that works it will open a whole new inspiration of gardening for me. Greens and root crops like radish and carrots do not need pollination so they would be just fine grown inside. I'm not interested in hydroponics but maybe a hybrid of soil and liquid nutrients would be more my style. 

These are lettuce plants that I think are about four or five days since being planted. There are already several plants popping up. When they get big enough, they will be separated into their own cups. Hopefully, in four to six weeks I'll be eating salad from these plants. My research has given me instructions to feed the plants with nutrients from hydroponics but I'm just going to feed the plants with general fertilizer from miracle grow maybe once a week. So this could be a new adventure in gardening.

Radishes are popping up through the soil. So all is well way down below.

1-30-2020
Lettuce is growing nicely and radishes are start to show themselves. I see six out of ten planted starting to pop through the soil. So the grand inside experiment is under way. The first fertilizing was today. So next Thursday, I'll give them another shot. I don't want to give them too much or it will burn them out. Just enough to keep them healthy and strong.

1-31-2020

I count nine lettuce plants growing in three cups. The fourth cup didn't sprout any lettuce seeds. I'm not sure about what happened there but I have not concern about it. Nine plants will be enough for the experiment. When they get a little more growth on them, I'll transplant them into a single pot for each of them. They seemed to be a little dry this morning so I sprayed the top and watered the bottom. I will keep watering the bottom each day from now on. I have bigger cottage cheese and yogurt containers that I might use for the plants to give them and chance to expand their roots a bit. 

October 2019

October 3rd
Wow, the summer is over and I've got a lot to do in the yard and garden. It's probably not all going to get done. The garden this year was even worse than last year. I'm just going to clean it up and move on. The soil in the containers is a question as to what to do with it. I've done some research and will reuse it. Basically the videos that I watched just mixed the old container soil into new at about half and half. Then they might boost it up with a little extra organic fertilizer. I have the advantage of having a large composter that I use for mixing soil. It works great for that.

I finished up cleaning up the Urban Ranch garden.

 Yeah, it doesn't look pretty but all the buckets are empty and the supports are stacked. I still want to give the patio a good clean before Winter sets in but it might not get done until next spring.

There is all the soil from the buckets. I'll let it rest a bit and use some for the next round of containers. I have purchased tulips and crocus to put in some larger containers. I will use some of this soil mixed with fresh potting mix soil and plant the tulips and crocus when the temperatures start freezing at night. Hopefully, it will keep the bulbs from sprouting until spring. I might bring them inside a bit early to start them growing early.

August 2019

August 3rd
The summer is quickly passing by. I totally skipped over July so I'll catch up some with July gardening. All my vlogs that I follow are harvesting buckets of produce now. I'm harvesting a few tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers. The buckets this year are struggling. First it was cold, then extremely hot and now moderate temperatures. The bucket soil got up to 98 degrees during the extreme not weather. I think that greatly affected the plants. They are producing but the foliage doesn't look too healthy. The two in ground tomatoes faired better.

The poor man's patio has really put on a show this year. I did it the same as last year but it sure seems to be having a better display this year. Well, there is one difference this year. I usually set up automatic watering but this year I didn't. It requires me to get up close and personal to every plant while watering it. I kind of like it better. Maybe that's why the plants are doing better. They like the personal attention.

The old water tank had to be retired. It was just too much to keep patching up the leaks in the tank. This one even though it's advertised as a six foot tank is smaller and hold 50 gallons less than the old one. I'm thinking about painting the tank but it's quite a process to clean off the oily film and scratch the surface with sand paper before painting.

August always seems to be out of control weed cleanup month. This August is no different. I've already harvested five bags of yard waste from just three beds and around the water tank. There's still much more to go. The tree sprouts alone will give me a ton of yard waste this week. 

My idea of setting out potted flowers where the spring bulbs are has been a great one. The flowers are last sales of scraggly Walmart plants and grown from seed Marigolds. They are just starting to flower and will be putting a spectacular show during August. Well, I hope.

August 15th
Sheesh, the month is half gone; school for Bradley has started; and the garden is dwindling down. The bucket garden this year is struggling. The hot July week heated up the soil in the buckets to 95 degrees. It nearly cooked the roots. Next year will be a different plan of action. I'm thinking that the plants will be started in buckets but when the weather warms up enough they will be buried in the ground. The soil bucket will have the bottom cut out and holes cut in the sides. The soil bucket will have weed fabric that lines the sides to keep the soil from coming out the sides. The soil bucket will be set inside another bucket with the net cup. When the time is right, the net cup bucket will be removed; the weed barrier will be cut to let the roots grow out of the soil bucket and the soil bucket will be buried in the garden bed up to the neck of the bucket. In theory it all looks good in the mind. The biggest thing is the removal of the net cup bucket and getting the soil bucket into the ground without destroying the plant. If it works it should be the best of both world. 

I always seem to forget to take a before picture. This was a four bag yard waste project. Every year about this time I start the yard and fence clean up that always is a major task. Trees and vines seem to love my yard. I would like to plant a Fall garden but I just don't think it will happen. The time is just not there again this year. Yard work won't happen again today, tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day. Well, I don't know maybe some today. Well, that is if it don't rain. A big storm front is headed this way. As I watch the radar, I see it dwindling away. That happens quite a lot. It must be the lay of the land for God's hand that directs most storms around Omaha. August

August

August

August

June 2019

June 6th
Yeah, I'm not keeping up on this blog very well. May is gone without an entry. Now almost a week has passed in June and nothing in this blog. What's up with that. Oh, maybe because I'm busy. Yeah, that's it. 

My neighbor across the street at Terra Nova got some rocks delivered but was the wrong kind of rocks. He told me I could have them so I spent a day moving them over to my property.  They will be used to build up the raised beds on the north side of the property. There should be enough there to build up another layer around the raised beds.

The bucket garden has been started for this year. I'll have a few tomatoes and a few Bell peppers.

The threat of hail inspired me to bring the buckets inside the house. It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase, "kitchen garden." After a couple days the threat passed and the buckets were back outside where they liked it much better.

The potatoes are liking the new raised bed. They are close to blooming. There were planted close to the end of April soon after Good Friday.

I have started building the hügelkultur bed by laying down a layer of grass clippings. 

Then come the wood. This wood comes from trimmings the power company did a couple years ago that they just left piled up. My pile has covered this portion of the bed. It's taking more wood than I thought. There are a couple more piles along the tree line that I can use but I really thought that I could build a couple more but I'm thinking one will be it. Another layer of grass clippings will cover this wood and then about a 12 inch layer of dirt. This bed will rest until next year before planting. 

June 8th
Today was a good day. All the pots for the trellis and wall were planted and watered. The cucumbers were planted in the cell trays. I have about 25 cucumber seeds that sprouted. That's about half the seeds on the mat. I suppose that's fairly good germination for seeds that are several years old. I think I'll try some zucchini seeds next. They might be coming in late in the season but that's ok.

I planted the cosmos and the hollyhocks. So we will see if they survive. They should have been planted a month ago so they are so over grown and leggy that I'm not sure they will really do any thing. 

June 10th
I used the caulk gun sealer to seal up the leaks in the gutters. I'm hoping that I can start using the gutters to water the plants again.

June 11th
It rained today. I'm not sure how much. I brought in the newly sprouted cucumbers. They do look good. I will let them get a little bigger before transplanting them into the bigger glasses. I started the fresh seeds from Burpee. There were 34 seeds planted. Now I'll have to start working on the pots for the cucumbers and the water tank for the watering.

June 15th

The bucket garden is thriving quite well. The tomatoes are covered with blooms and all the plants look really healthy. I just am having trouble sealing up the gutters for watering. They just continue to have leaks some where. 

Sprouting old cucumber seeds. Only half of these sprouted. They sprouted in five days.

I planted the seed sprouts in seed cells and two days later they were up and growing. This is about a week after the sprouts were planted.

When they were big enough I transplanted them into 8 ounce plastic glasses with holes drilled in the bottom. The next stop will be the final home in the plastic buckets.

Filled the gutters with water but couldn't see any leaks. The tomato gutter seems to be dry every day so I'm suspecting a leak some where still. Hmmm, it might not be a leak that's causing the water to be gone out of the gutters. It might be birds taking a bath in the gutters splashing the water out.

April 2019

April 2019

April 20, 2019  
Boy, time is flying by. April 20th and soon the planting season will be in full swing. I'm so far behind but yet the weeds are some what under control. It's been a different year for gardening. The weather is finally co-operating and half the potatoes are planted.

This is my idea of a raised potato bed. I was orginally meant to be a sweet corn bed but I changed my mind and made it a potato bed. This is before the potatoes were planted in the bed.

March 2019

March 2019

March 30, 2019  
Really, March 30th and nothing posted here in the March blog. This month has flown by with all types of weather. March did indeed come in like a lion and is going out like a …. sheep not a lamb. It still has a lingering of cold and chance of snow in the forecast. So far it's missed us but the threat is still there.

GARDENING YEAR IS HERE

I do love the Spring flowers. They just don't last long enough. These are always the first to come up and are so colorful. Crocus is one of my favorite flowers. Daffodils, Tulips, and Hyacinth are the others that are on my favorite Spring flower list.

TERRA NOVA GARDEN

The garden is such a mess. This is the starting point for Terra Nova Gardens. Last year was a total bust and the garden went rogue. It totally went wild and I lost all control and finally just gave it all up for a season that was lost. Only my backyard raised beds did I get any harvest from. Hopefully, this year will be a different year. There were just too many family and friend responsibilities last year. My plan this year is to garden early before family and friends schedule take over for the day. If I can get a couple hours every day, it should be enough to reclaim the portion of the garden that I want to manage this year. The rest will be given a sabbatical under tarps. 

There is a granite countertop business near my house that throws away the pallets that the countertops are shipped in. These pallets are 12 feet long and 32 inches wide. They are made from heavy oak wood and weigh probably close to 100 pounds. Here is a plan to make raised beds even more raised than the rocks. The pallets have to be remanufactured some before using in the garden but still they will be a great asset to get some raised beds that are ascetically pleasing to the eye. How long they will last before rotting out, I don't know but I'm hoping for at least two to three years. By then I'll have a new plan for longer life.

So this is bed 11 which is next to the bed with the weed mess. This bed is the first to receive the make over. Much of the weed mess, about 18 inches deep, has been piled on top of the bed and then dirt is piled on top of the dried out weeds. Another layer of weed cleanup will cover the dirt and then another layer of dirt will finish out the raised bed. I originally wanted to plant sweet corn in this bed but have changed my mind to use it for potatoes.

This is over half of the sides up and with the first layer of dried weed cleanup and dirt. Now for the fabrication of the next section of pallets. That's it for today.