Winter Garden... Gone!

I spent the whole weekend playing in the garden. I know I should have been cleaning the house or doing my taxes but I just could not keep my butt in the house. Every time I looked out the window I saw things that needed to get done outside and with the temps in the 70's how could you blame me.

My to do list:

• Cut back the morning glory
• Clean up the old herb area
• Finish planting out the seedling
• Sweep the patio
• Trim potted plants as needed 
• Water

The morning glory needs to be trimmed back every two years to keep it from turning into a rats nest. The photo below is the view from my living room looking at the MG.

Morning glory
View from living room

 This plant can get so crazy that it will grow into the spaces between the ceiling boards and into my living room... no kidding...

It's amazing how this plant will find it's way into the house every year.

There is so much more light in the house now. 

The area where I grew my herbs in pots before I moved them to the bed next to the kitchen door needed some serious clean up and rearranging. 

Before

During

After
Now I'm ready to plant some flowers in this  area.

I planted the rest of the carrots I started in the greenhouse in the micro 20 soil blocks. All of the carrots had at least one to two sets of true leaves. They seem to be holding up just fine after transplanting.

I also planted out the beets and spinach I started in the micro 20 and transplanted into the 2 inch soil blocks. I have say I will not be going back to starting seeds in plastic cells. The soil blocks are so much easier to work with.

 

Everything is all cleaned up and I'm ready for the 2012 gardening season.

The photo below is the view from my living room.

Are you ready for the 2012 growing season?

~ Happy Gardening ~

2 Inch Soil Blocks and Greenhouse Power for Daisy

Before I left for work this morning I prepared some soil for the 2 inch soil blocks. Preparing the soil is just placing some soil into a container adding water to it to make a slur. Letting the soil mix sit for an hour or more ensure the soil is completely wet. I should mention here that I did not make my own soil mixture. I bought the soil from PottingBlocks.com. If you want to make your own soil mix you can find the recipe here.

Making the 2 inch soil blocks takes a little more muscle. You want to ensure you have all blocks filled with packed soil. If you are doing it correctly you will see water oozing out the top of the blocks. In this photo you can see that I only have water oozing out of the two middle blocks. I need to put more pressure on the two ends.

The block is now full and ready to place in the tray.

Not bad for my first try.

 I planted four each of turnips, broccoli and cauliflower.

You can see a clear difference in the two soil mixes
for the micro 20 and the 2 inch blocks

Six out of 20 radishes have already started to sprout. Once they all sprout I will plant them into bed 3.

These next two photos are for Daisy over at Daisy's Kitchen Garden. She asked me how I was running power into my greenhouse.

Here you go Daisy. I plugged the power strip into a heavy duty power cord. You know the ones that come in bright orange and you can find them in green too.

Power strip zip tied to bottom of shelf.

Board placed on top shelf  to prevent water due to condensation
 from dripping on to the power strip.

I will keep you updated on how the soil blocks are doing and if I'm having any issues.

Soil Blocks and Garden Clean Up

What a beautiful weekend. Since I have started my vegetable garden I cannot remember a time when I was out in the greenhouse planting my seeds for the spring garden in a tee-shirt..In February!!

Saturday was spent cleaning up beds 2, 3 and 4. Raking out leaves and pine needles and turning the soil.

Bed 2 before

Beds 3 and 4 before

I added homemade compost to top off the beds, reset the water lines and put the square foot grids back in place.

We have only had a few days of rain this Winter so I was expecting the beds to be really dry. I was happy to see that only the top few inches were dry. Weatherman says we are in for a day of rain on Tuesday. I have been holding off watering in hopes of getting some rain soon.

Today was spent trying my hand at making soil blocks and can I just say why didn't I do this sooner?

Soil blocking station 

 I'm starting with the micro 20. Here goes....

Watching the video before hand really helped to get down the technique.

Wallah... first block of 20. I think a tray with a small grid would work better for the micro 20's but this will do just fine.

Once the tray was filled I added the seeds by using a pencil dipped in water.

Tray 1 with spinach, carrots and lettuce. 

To keep track of what I planted and where I made a soil block tracking grid.

 I also drew out beds 2, 3 and 4 so I can start figuring out where everything is going to go.

Trays were placed on heat mats. Since these first two trays are cool weather crops as soon as they sprout I will remove them from the heat mats and give them a few days in the greenhouse and then plant out into the garden.

Next I will be making the 2 inch blocks.... stay tuned....

Let The Seed Starting Begin

Hello my name is Liisa and I'm a seed-aholic.

I spent the evening going through all my seeds and organizing them. Does any one person really need 25 different varieties of lettuce? Well apparently I do.

I only have to buy two of my favorites for this growing season, Baby Persian, "Green Fingers" Cucumbers and Mini Salad, "Baby Belle" Peppers from Renee's Garden. I have more than enough of everything else to get through the season maybe two. The seeds are nicely organized now.

 The pop-up greenhouse is up, the shelves are built and all the tools are in place. 

I will start most of the seeds in the micro 20 and "re-pot" to the 2" soil block when needed. Then plant out to the garden with the 2" blocks so timing will be everything this year.

I'll be testing the soil blocks with carrots, lettuce, spinach, snap peas, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. Wish me luck.

Nothingness

Every year in December I start to think about the new year ahead and try and get a feel for what is in store. Going into 2011 "Change" was the read I was getting and boy was there a lot of change not only in my world but in the world as a whole.

While sitting and having lunch with a co-worker a few weeks ago she asked me what my read was  going into 2012.  "Nothing" is the word that came to me. I didn't mean I didn't have anything to say, the feeling was "nothingness". It was a little freaky since there was still a lot of change going on in our company and the fact was we could loose our jobs at any time. I felt nothing, almost empty.

Last week I watched my first episode of "Hoarders" It was like watching a train wreck, you just couldn't stop looking. It was very sad to see the true pain these people were going through. I don't know that I would watch it again but it did make me take a good look around me. Was I holding on to things just because I thought I could use it someday?  I cleaned out two junk drawers two days later.

I have also been feeling stuck, like there is no energy flow around me. Feeling like I can't move forward. I haven't started my seeds yet, I haven't felt like going out into the garden, just stuck.

A few days ago a good friend of mine posted a link on her FaceBook page to a blog post called I Urge You to Purge Your Clutter–Tamara Kerner

It was this statement that put it all in perceptive for me "Clutter is not only bad for your health, but it blocks your prosperity. There’s literally no room for new energy. I can almost guarantee that if my client is overweight or having money troubles, there is a source of clutter and excess in their life."

The feeling of nothingness was in fact the theme for the new year I just couldn't see it until the other signs came into play. The episode of "Hoarders" and the blog post. My feng shui is completely out of whack. There is no energy flow in my house and it is dragging me down. This year is all about purging and getting organized. Bring that positive energy flow back into my life. I now know what I need to do. One room at a time, one closet at a time, one drawer at a time. It's time to let go of the clutter in my life. I'm starting to feel better already.

I'm sure by now you are wondering what this has to do with my garden journey. What does clutter and purging have to do with throwing some seeds in the ground and letting them grow? Well a lot. You see I hold on to things that I think I can grow my seeds in. They sit in one of my sheds just waiting for that day when I just might need it. I went into that shed this morning and took these photos.

No wonder my feng shui is out of whack. Look at this mess and this is not the only mess I have in my life. My closets are overflowing, my drawers are all full. Do I really need all this stuff!

Over the summer I bought myself a 2 inch soil blocker thinking it would be fun to learn a new skill. Some of my fellow gardeners have been using soil blockers for the past two years and love them.

Robin over at Gardener of Eden did a blog post on soil blocks with a link to a great site called Potting Blocks.com Jason Beam has a few videos on how to use soil blocks. After watching the videos I took a look around the site and decided to invest in my garden tools. No more cheap plastic trays and seed staring container that needed to be replaced every year. It is time to clear out all that clutter and replace it with long lasting tools that also minimize my carbon footprint.

My new toys tools arrived today and I am looking forward to learning a new skill and clearing out some clutter.

Micro 20 soil blocker, 2 inch soil blocker, dagger trowel,
cubic, seed and dowel pins, potting block tray.

Propagation trays and bottom watering trays

  These trays will last for years to come and will be easy to clean and store.

If you came into the new year feeling less than motivated take a look around your home. Do you have clutter in your space stopping your energy from flowing?