Monday, January 17, 2011

A Day Off

I had the day off from work today and was looking forward to working in the garden. So up and out of bed by 7:00 and this is what I saw.... Fog... very dense fog...


What happened to the sunny day that was forecast?


The sun did finally burn off the fog about 1:00 this afternoon and guess what I did after lunch?  


Bed 1 was my focus today. I finished setting up the water line.

Overhead sprinklers to start with. Once the seedlings are a little bigger I will add soaker hoses .
The sprinklers have an on and off switch so I can control what area of the bed is watered.
After making sure everything was in working order it was time to do some transplanting.

Testing the watering system.

I planted the carrots, the bok and pak choy.

Pak Choy and Bok Choy
I hope the carrots don't go into shock from transplanting the seedlings I started in the greenhouse. This is the first time I'm trying this method.

Carrots 
I also completed the water lines in bed 3. Now beds 2, 3 and 4 are all ready to be set on the timer.
 

In other gardening news the lettuce seeds I planted in bed 2 are starting to sprout. In the greenhouse all the tomatoes have sprouted. I'm still waiting for the peppers. I know most of you are thinking it's way too early to start pepper seeds. In our area it is time to indoor sow peppers and in a few weeks or so it will be time for the tomatoes. Yes I did get a jump on the tomatoes but I have never had a problem starting this early and the plants are nice and big by the time I plant them in the garden. I will also be starting my cucumbers and squash seeds next weekend. I picked up my red onion sets today and will plant them next weekend as well. I also need to get started on my sweet potato slips. I have a few sweet potatoes in the pantry that have started to sprout so I just need to put them in a glass of water.

For more information on starting peppers here in the Bay Area check out this weeks Love Apple Farm newsletter "Tip of the Week".

10 comments:

  1. look at you go! i'm envious of your expertise. i'm really lagging behind!

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  2. Kelli - Oh don't be... I have no idea what I'm doing :-) Lagging behind? Isn't your garden under a foot or two of snow? You still have some time. We have a very short spring here so it's good to get going in late winter weather permitting on the cool crops.... and remember I don't play by the rules when it comes to gardening. ;-)

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  3. It looks like you had a very productive day. I like your sprinkler system. Have you ever used a system like that before?

    Your carrots may go in to shock for awhile. They should be fine though.

    Take care and happy gardening!

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  4. I think it's great that you have someone that supports your gardening hobby enough to actually take pictures of you working in it. If only I could teach Jude how to use a camera.. :-(
    Anyway, i'm green with envy that you have already started for the year - mine is still a few weeks away..

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  5. Robin - No this is my first year with the sprinkler system. I hope it works the way I have planed. The one thing I'm not sure about right now is the water pressure once I add the drip lines to the other two beds. If I lose too much presser I'll be reaching out to EG for some help ;-)

    EG – Yes I am very lucky. My husband is great when it comes to helping me in the garden when I needed it and he is always taking photos of me out there. He also likes to eat everything I grow so it s win - win ;-) If I lived closer to you I would help you in the garden and take photos :-)

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  6. Liisa - heck, if I just had someone to throw a frisbee to Jude while I worked in the garden, it would let me get alot more done around here. Ha!

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  7. Glad the fog burned off and the sun came out.

    I noticed that it is 63˚F as I am typing this according to the weather widget in your sidebar. We are in the middle of another winter storm here in Maine that has added another 5-inches of snow to the ground. It is so nice to see you transplanting young seedlings to your fresh beds.

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  8. Muse - Yes the weather has warmed up. Not sure how long it will last. The weather is always dreary around my son's birthday is which Feb 28th. So lets see if it holds true. It is good to see seedlings in bed 2. Knowing it was going to be sunny and in the mid 60's today I wanted to water before I left for work... all I had to do was turn on the sprinkler system while I was making lunch and turned them off before I left. Oh so nice! Can't wait to add the soaker hoses and see how they do.

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  9. Liisa, that is exactly what I would do too, if I had a day off! AND if I had a greenhouse like yours :-( It must be so nice to be getting things started for the growing season already. We have two more months before we will even see the ground here and I can even think about setting up my mini "green tent" greenhouse. Have fun!

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  10. Hi Ellen - Thanks for popping in. We are so lucky to live in an area where we can grow just about year round. Before you know it Spring will be here and not far after that we we will be wondering where the year went ;-)

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