Fencing (Out) The Critters

Let the preparation continue! This weekend I gave Chris the mission of fencing off our garden area to keep the critters at bay. So on Saturday morning while I was out for breakfast at Wise Acre in Minneapolis, Chris took measurements of the area and then picked up poultry netting and stakes from the hardware store. Supplies in hand, he set out to complete his wife-appointed mission. (Yes, I am a very lucky lady.)

We haven't had critters problems yet this year, but I've seen more than a few rabbits trolling the neighborhood in my tenure here so we know they are around. Last year we fenced off the garden area with wooden stakes and meshing (as seen below). This worked well enough, but it was no easy task to assemble and it got pretty shabby by the end of the year, so it came down before winter set in.

We are hoping this new fence will have a little more durability. Ideally we won't need to take the fence down for the winter and will be able to consider this task done for a few years. Husband measured out from the beds and staked the four corners. We gave several feet between the beds and the fence, I recommend at least two feet, so you can properly squat in there even where the plants are real big later on the in the summer.

Once the corners were staked it appeared to be a pretty quick process to add additional stakes every four to five feet for support. 

The stakes have little slits in them which are made to hook the poultry netting. Once all the stakes were in around he went with the netting, locking it into place. I don't want to discredit his hard work on this task, but I think even Chris was a little surprised at how quick it went. Arial view anyone?

Perhaps a not so grainy on the ground view would be preferable? Props to the husband for knocking this one out of the park!

However, the story does not end here. Remember how I said we hadn't seen any rabbits yet this year? Turns out, if you build a fence, they will come! Last night I was sitting in the back porch reading when I noticed Luna start to twitch...lo and behold....

Okay, I realize that rabbit is hard to see in the photo. But trust me, it was there, sitting right at the fence line, trying to figure out how to get in. And get in, it did! Yes,  my mesclun greens were attacked last night.

How you ask? Well, last year we put tent stakes into the meshing to hold it tight to the ground so the rabbits couldn't wiggle their way in underneath the fencing. We have every intention of doing it again this year, but we were in no rush to get 'er done as there isn't much going on yet. But with this mornings discovery it looks like we will be doing some staking tonight.

Another strategy for keeping out rabbits is sprinkling human hair at the fence line. We did this last year and it seemed to help, so, if anyone reading this is planning on getting a hair cut soon could you do me a favor and bring over your trimmings? I would really appreciate it. That's not too weird is it?

Moving Outdoors!

Guess who slept outside last night??

Our seedlings! That's right. I have begun the process of hardening off our transplants. Monday they spent the day on the front porch and then went back to their room for the night (at which point I ever so cruelly took their heat mat away). Last night I decided to bite the bullet and put them out on the back porch to be left out OVER NIGHT! I confess, I was nervous like a parent sending their kids off to their first day of school. But come morning, they were still there and looked pretty damn content to boot.

Truthfully, they didn't really sleep out doors. They slept in the back porch. Where the wind and the critters couldn't get to them. The nice thing about our back porch is that it pretty well serves all the needs of seedling that are being hardened to the inclement weather of Minnesota. It's warmer than being all the way outside, but cooler than the house. There is no danger of frost. And I also don't have to worry about them being directly exposed to the sun for long periods of time because they still have a roof over their heads. You see, they are in a state of transition, too much of the new environment at any one time can make them commit seedling suicide. We don't want that.

Over the next several days I will put the seedling out in the yard for a few hours at a time to get them used to the Sun and the air but they will come back in the porch at night. That is, unless the weather takes an extreme dip in the cold direction, in which case I can still bring them inside. I haven't lost all control...yet!

All of this means, I need to start thinking about how I am going to lay out the garden. Because, folks, it's getting on planting time. How that is too look exactly, I can't say just yet. Check back next week and I just might have a peak for you.

Oh, and get this...our strawberry patch is starting to flower...you know what the means!!!
Answer: STRAWBERRIES!!

Seedling Update - Day 41

It's been a while since I've updated you on our seedlings. In fact, it's been a month exactly since the last time you saw them. They looked like this...just little bitty sprouts.

But now, they are more like toddler seedlings:

The tomatoes have true leaves and are starting to smell like tomato plants. (I love that smell!) Against all odds the onions are still alive. The jalapenos and bell pepper plants are also doing well - they look like twins at this point, which I didn't really expect.  The marigold and lavender seedlings never turned into anything. No real loss I suppose as I didn't have high hopes for them. Oh, and if you recall during the lat update, when I mentioned how I had plans to start Brussels Sprout seeds, yay, that never happened. Opps.

I confess, I am shocked at how much bigger these plants are already than my seedlings ever were last year. Turns out, having a grow light, while not necessary, actually has HUGE benefits to starting seedlings indoors. Who would'a thunk it??

I have a wee tip for you that I learned last year about growing plants. See that little leaf I've got my hand on? You will want to yank those little guys off as the plant grows, this will allow the plant to put energy into getting bigger and stronger. If you prune your plants as they grow you will notice a bug difference in how much faster and stronger they grow up to be.

And since I am here, I thought you might also like an update on the garlic. Last time you saw them, they looked like this, little cuties.

And now! Hello!

Hope y'all have a great weekend!!

Building Your Stake

One of our projects for this spring has been to build a third garden bed. Our 2, 4x6 beds, gave us a nice amount of food last year, that is, it gave us enough to eat, but not really much for saving so we decided to expand a bit.  I wanted to grow a few additional items, in hopes of being able to save some food for freezing and canning. So until the weekend before last this is what our "garden" looked like.

But then my handy man husband went out and picked up 4 10 ft 2x8's and got to work cutting the lumber to make a third bed that would run perpendicular to the other two and would be 11 feet long and 2 feet wide. Why these weird proportions you ask? There is a reason! This part of our yard is the only area that isn't covered by the tree's shade for a large portion of the day. If we made it any wider than 2 feet it probably wouldn't get any sun.  Basically, we are utilizing the last of the good vegetable gardening real estate we have.

After cutting the pieces to size Chris anchored them together with 2 L brackets in each corner.

And then he reinforced that by putting a few screws on the outside of the corners. I stood by and shouted words of encouragement like, "nice biceps!" 

Ta-da! That was probably the easier part. And the total cost, $26! Not bad, not bad at all!!

Next up, the soil needed to be removed and then the box needed to be filled with a happy and  healthy compost and soil mixture.

As fun as that part was (for Chris), I failed to take any photos, so now we are now going to move on to the next task. Which is to stake out the beds in preparation for sowing seeds. I have two options for you. We will call them year one option and year two option. Either way it helps to draw little ticks marks along the edges of your bed at 1 foot intervals so you can stake away later without having to measure as you go.

Year one option is to break up scraps of wood and tie strings around them, like so...

The nice thing about year one option is that when you are ready to take them out of the beds you can wrap them up and store them away to reuse next year. This made for fairly quick work this year since they were all already made, but it was not so quick last year. The one thing I don't like is that these guys can be kinda hard to get to stay in place as there really is nothing holding them down. But they do the job, no question there.

Year two option is my new favorite option because it was quick and easy work. I tied a loose loop with my string and laid the not knotted part over my tick mark, like so...

Then I used my handy little staple gun and told that string who was boss by stapling it into place.  

Sinch the knot around the staple...

Then pull the string taught to the opposite side of the bed and staple it down. If you get the staple fully into the wood it is surprisingly secure and you won't have to worry about it going anywhere.

The end result is three beds all staked and ready to be sown with seeds and plants. Year two option, which I used on the new bed, actually hovers above the dirt instead of sitting on it. I don't think this is better or worse, but one or the other might cater to an individuals preference. Also, it just looks a lot cleaner. 

This past Sunday I even sowed some seeds, from left to right we have two square feet each of Kale, Spinach,  Lettuce & Mesclun Greens. The Mesclun greens are new this year and replaced the Swiss Chard from last year. Turns out, I wasn't as into Swiss Chard as I thought I would be. No loss though!

Oh, and out in the front yard, we have the first sign of life sprouting up near our bean pole. I planted some seeds out there weeks ago but with the cold snap nothing ever happened. I guess they were just waiting till now to do their thing. (Disclaimer - this photo is from last summer - perhaps you already realized that since there are no day lilies planted at the curb side).

So, have you planted anything out doors yet? Is anything starting to pop up? Or did you do that weeks ago and already begun to harvest your first bits of food??

DIY Grow (VEGETABLES) Lamp!

Last year when I started seeds for our first garden, I went "all-out" and purchased the Seed Starter Gift Set from Burpee.com.

I did this for three reasons:

• It felt like enough pressure to think I could somehow successfully grow plants from seed,  purchasing the whole kit in one fell swoop made the task at hand seem a little less crazy overachiever like.
• Similarly, it was a lot less work to buy a kit than try and buy all the pieces separately -- especially as I was a bit unsure of of myself. I didn't want to have to debate about which tray to get and what type of soil to buy and so on and so on, as I am want to over think such things.
• Finally, ordering stuff online just is easier than going to the store, as long as you have a little foresight, and as my husband could confirm, I hate going to the store. 

Right now the kit is selling for $50, I actually think last year it may have been a bit more, I remember feeling like it was an expensive purchase. But maybe that was just because I ordered all my seeds at the same time. I justified the cash drop because I knew I could reuse the kit again, and I am!

Now, anything you read about starting a garden from seed will tell you the three most important factors in growing vegetables are (or anything really) good soil, water and sun. The kit comes with a heat mat which keeps the soil at a nice warm temp that encourages the seeds to grow, as well as soil pellets full of happy healthy nutrients and it also has a self watering system, so as long as you make sure there is water in the bottom of the tray all the guess work is taken out of that part of the process. Which for me is crucial, I would otherwise over water or underwater them, I know it. (I swear I am not here as an advocate for Burpee, its just that, if you are going to spend your time and money trying to do this, why not give yourself a one up on the whole process.) That pretty much takes care of everything, except....

The one thing I did not buy last year was a grow lamp. And it's because those b*itch!s are dang expensive! And as I have said before, last years garden turned out fine:

One of the things I love about gardening is getting try the same or similar tasks out in different ways to see if you can make it better or if you are best to stick with what you have done in the past. I still don't have $200 to drop on a grow lamp I would use for 10 weeks a year, but I do have a husband who is very supportive of my cause. And if a grow lamp is going to give my veggies a better chance at growning big and strong, I would at least like to try it.

And then I found the plans for a DIY grow lamp over on Vegetable Gardener

PVC is not generally on my radar for ANYTHING that I want visible in my house but the price was right. Greg, the creator, provides nicely illustrated instructions to go along with the specifications, making this a very DIY friendly task. So I printed off the instructions and gave them to Chris, who graciously agreed to take the task on while I did other things, like paint our stairwell.

The total cost for materials was under $50 and Chris built the whole thing in an afternoon. 

We of course tinkered with the original specifications to fit our much smaller seed tray. And by happenstance, I realized we didn't need those "legs" to keep the contraption upright so I took them off and it feels much less imposing now than it does in the picture above. I love that it is adjustable; as our seed babies grow we can move the light upwards and encourage them to keep reaching for the stars light. In fact two days ago I made the first adjustment. I don't have an up to date photo to share with you now, but I'll be sure to snap one this weekend and provide you with a visual update. Update: See how it's so much less intrusive without those big 'ole legs!

Two other things I wanted to mention. This seed tray hasn't actually held up super well. The tray itself is made of very thin plastic so when you remove the plants for transplanting the bottom gets all bent up, as you can see here. I pushed the individual holders back out before planting this year but they just don't have the nice shape they did last year -- and I wonder if it doesn't contribute to some self watering issues. Speaking of self water, the mat has disintegrated a bit and I have started supplementing my seedlings with a spray bottle almost daily. 

On the other hand the soil I received last year with the kit seemed to hold moisture a lot better than the soil I bought this year from Menards. Next year, I think I will use Burpee's super growing soil pellets again. 

Update on Seedlings - Day 11

Just stopping in to provide a little update on the seedlings, I know you are dying to hear how their first 11 days have been. 

TOMATOES: As I suspected, the tomatoes are coming in strong and are leading in the height category. Tomatoes grow faster at the get-go than anything else I have ever planted. One of the many reasons they are so awesome. I have three types of tomatoes going right now, and none of them seem to be any better off than the others. Sadly a few of the tomato plants were brutally ripped out of the soil by an over sized beast named Luna, she is now suffering a quarantine from the seed babies. 

JALAPENOS:  Since this is my first year with the Jalapeno’s I didn’t know what to expect, but almost all of them have already popped up. And they are adorable. I love them so much and am looking forward to eating many many of their offspring.

RED ONION: Funny/Annoying/Unfortunate thing, in my last post on the subject I remarked that I did not have a great time growing onions last year. In fact, I never even transplanted them. I seeded them again this year, same packet of seeds even, to see if I would have better luck.

Well, I read this week that growing onions from seed is REALLY DIFFICULT.  The best advice seems to be starting onions from sets and not seed, until you get a few strong years in, and then if you are dying to grow them from seeds, try again. I am not sure just yet how I will deal with this. It’s still early enough to consider multiple options. Perhaps I will be back later with a post solely dedicated to ‘The Onion’. Perhaps not.



BELL PEPPERS: I am just starting to see the first bit of life from the bell peppers. I am hopeful that this years addition of a grow light will give them a leg up from last year. Don’t worry, I’ll let you know.

MARIGOLDS: Only two seedlings have sprouted. And they don’t look super happy. I am not too worried about this, as they were free seeds. And growing plants from seeds isn't my passion. Additionally, I think I am having “self-watering” issues on this side of the tray—due to a disintegrating water mat—but have been supplementing with a spray bottle, which is good practice anyway. Time will tell.

LAVENDER: Nada. As in, did I plant those, or was that a dream?? Maybe next week.
I still have three empty rows on the tray open and begging for seeds. Last year, I started my cucumbers indoors, even though the packaging said I could direct sow, and I think I will perhaps do this again.  Why not give a head start, right?

Additionally, I just read last night in John Seymour's The Self-Sufficient Gardener (Shout out to Gackles for the recommendation!) that Brussels sprouts do well from transplanting and have increased flavor when they experience a frost or two. (This frost business is also true for Kale). So I think I will start those now as well.

I could go on, but I think I will leave it there for now and hit you up again later with more seedling chatter.

Reflections For a New Year of Gardening

This weekend, I started seeds for this yea'rs garden. Which leaves me thinking a lot about last year's garden. Last year was the first year I had planted a vegetable garden. And by all standards it went well. There were mishaps -- I never learned the art of thinning, which was likely the reason my peppers never made much of themselves -- but truly, for never having gardened before I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of food I was able to harvest. Sadly, I didn't record much of what took place last year, expect with photos on my smart phone, which later crapped out. So this year, while I go through the very cyclical process of planting a garden from seeds again, I'll be intentional to write down my lessons and hope that is makes me a little wiser, and a little more confident. 


While out celebrating a very important birthday the other night, I overheard a conversation some friends were having. Both of them grew up on the plains of North Dakota, descendants of farmers, rooted with a more innate knowledge of what it means to work the soil than I. They were lamenting the lack of snow that has come down this winter, and making known their fears of an oncoming drought. (I confess, my plot of garden, is so small than I don't know if this really is something I need to be concerned about, but this is not my livelihood, so I kept quite.) Of course, I am as aware as anyone here in the Twin Cities that this winter has been a cakewalk. I mean, the high yesterday, March 17th, was 84 degrees, and to add insult to injury, I can't remember the last time it rained. But seated between these friends,  I gleaned the magnitude of their fears, to which I previously had not given much thought. The problem is that the ground is frozen and therefore any water we get now will just roll on down a slope and or into a basement. Snow seeps into the earth, deep into the places below us we are unfamiliar with. It makes soil ripe for planting. Through it, we are made hopeful for a year of abundance. But what is to happen this year? We haven't even had 10 inches of snow. 


Last winter, was a cruel, cold, dark, snow laden winter. It came at us with incessant persistence. By the time it was all over, we had received 86.6 inches of snow, it was the fourth snowiest winter on record. The spring gave little relief, it was wet, dirty, water logged, our basement flooded A LOT. Summer didn't show herself till 4th of July weekend. But still, the garden was good. The lettuce and spinach thrived in the cool weather weeks longer than I expected. Though it wasn't until early September, the tomatoes showed up in abundance, and with it came much joy and excitement. Was this success due to a harsh but wet winter? 


So much of the gardening experience is hindsight and it lends itself mightily to reflection  This year is still a mystery. Perhaps, the growing season will be long and hot and I'll actually get my peppers to grow, or maybe everything will be so dried out that the sun will only prove to be that much more harsh. As Michael Pollen says, in Second Nature, "in a few months, summer will pass judgement on the merit, or folly of our January [or in my case 'March'] schemes, but right now anything seems possible." Whatever it is, I am so excited to find out.


All that aside, one of things I love most about gardening is that it is so real in your hands. The part I get to play is physical, and full of dirt and mud and high hopes. Which brings us to this weekend, in which I have sowed the first seeds for this years garden. Here they are, in their newly planted glory.

Vegetables - 

• Tomato - Roma - NEW

• Tomato - Black Pearl Hybrid
• Also had for year one - very successful & delicious
• Tomato - Burpess’s Big Boy Hybrid
• Also had for year one - very successful & delicious

• Hot Pepper - Jalapeno M - NEW

• Onion - Red Delicious Hybrid

• Also sowed year one -but was unsuccessful - was never able to be transplanted.

• Pepper - Carnival Mix
• Also had for year one - unsuccessful, I suspect it was due to the summer being too cold & short. Also, I planted zucchini next to it and didn’t thin properly so they suffered shade for several weeks before I got on the thinning band-wagon.

Flowers - This will be my first experience starting flowers from seedling.

• Lavender
• Marigolds - How awesome are those seeds?

Oh, and the most exciting news of the weekend. The garlic I planted in the fall is breaking out of the ground!

As are the Picasso Tulips!

Have you started your seeds? Or noticed anything in your yard starting to sprout? Hopefully you are out in the yard now, making the most of this beautiful day.