Contents

Timeline
Seed Propagation
Transplants
1. Needed
Garden
History

Timeline

February 10th: need to be germinating anything like peppers growing from seed
March 1st: cut off window for growing basically anything from seed
April 1st-10th: Last frost date, in theory

The garden beds should have soil in them before mid-March (try early March), but not mulched until after the ground warms up.

Seed Propagation

In 2012, seed propagation was an experiment in failure. Major problems:

Attempted to propagate too many things
Attempted to propagate difficult things
Used tiny cells to start, waited too long to transplant many, killed several during transplantation/pruning.
Using an air duct as a reflector hood was only effective at helping to keep them warm. We really need a sheet of mylar or something instead, or nothing.

Things that did work:

The seed starting mixture and fertilization regime seemed adequate.
Water procedure (fill tray and allow starting mixture to suck it up) worked well.
Plastic wrap was indeed adequate for germination. Use less water this time around however.

Possible solutions:

Germinate fewer things (probably herbs, a few weird peppers)
Have the garden ready early enough to plant things like the melons directly in the beds
Use the medium peat/cardboard pots to start a single seed, and instead of thinning later accept that a few will not survive hardening off.

Process

Staring mixture: 1 part vermiculite, 1 part perlite, 1 part spaghum peat moss
- 3 Tbsp lime (antifungal properties?) when 1 part = 1 gallon
Fill peat trays 1/2-3/4 full with mixture
Put 2-3ish seeds per pot to maximize chances of success (ClintonEbadi is perhaps a too-cautious person at times)
Cover to the recommended planting depth
Fill drainage tray with 3 quarts water (overfilled the first with a gallon, underfilled the second with two quarts, three seems to be enough to keep everything properly moist)
Insert and mark seedling trays with business cards (variety + planting date + # of seeds/cell + expected germination date)
Wrap the whole thing up in plastic wrap and wait

Equipment

7 drainage trays capable of holding 5x10 cell paper/peat starter cell pots (I'm going for easy transplantation here) (GT_n = Germination Tray N, ST_n = Seedling Tray N)
Storage rack for seedlings and germination trays

Seeds to Acquire

For 2013, it's probably too late now.

Marigolds, yarrow, potatoes?

Available Seed

Plants to Germinate

Easy:

Basil
Dill

Transplants

Given the effort required to germinate a lot of things, we'll probably have more success just acquiring transplants for most things.

Needed

Bell Peppers
Bannana Peppers
Parsley
Rosemary

Garden

Pests

Figure out how to deal with stinkbugs: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/controlling/stinkbugs/

Construction

Several small raised beds due to limited areas that receive enough sunlight, root infested soil (well, living in a forest does have its disadvantages), crappy soil, large drip lines, etc.

Soil

Soil: http://www.areamulchandsoils.com/mulch%20price%20page.htm ($20.50 per yard2) The minimum order is way more than we need, so it looks like we'll be buying sacks at a garden center (the overall cost is about the same, but we get half the dirt, bummer).

Strata:

3" (overflowing top of bed) mulch
10" compost/soil/perlite/vermiculite mixture
1" of mulch
tilled earth

Layout

Pending raised bed plans... at first glance, Square Foot Gardening looks like a reasonable framework to sketch things out.

5'x3' raised bed
4 5'x16" beds, around a 6' tall garden trellis cube made of electrical conduit (Five 10' boards)
- Two are built, two are not (but ends cut). We might want to build only one or zero more, and instead put down weed barrier inside the trellis and setup the teepee thing for squash instead.

Main Plot

First step: allocate each square roughly so that we can visualize the garden. Unspecific order (easier to perform plant location optimization after we know how many squares of each will be grown).

	1	2	3	4	5
1	cayenne pepper	cayenne pepper	nil	parsley (4)	marigold (5)
2	onion	bell pepper	cilantro (4)	onion	onion
3	lettuce	lettuce	onion	plum tomato	plum tomato

Cilantro and dill might be better off in a small bed (or buckets) of their own, allowed to self-seed throughout the summer.

Garden CUBE

Move butternut squash to main plot + teepee and vine eggplant instead?

	1	2	3	4	5
1	crookneck squash	crookneck squash	nil	nil	this row is actually spaced 18"
2	Amish melon	Amish melons	hanover melon	hanover melon	nil
3	cucumber	cucumber	lima bean	lima bean	nil
4	Slicing Tomato	Slicing Tomato	nil	nil	nil

Squash plants should be a couple feet apart and will need support for the fruit at some point.

Teepee

Kill grasses, level out a bit, and put down weed blocking fabric in the middle of the trellis. Build a 2'x2'x12" bed and a tripod for the squash.

Butternut squash?

Containers

Take inventory of available container -- ClintonEbadi 2013-01-29 20:24:04

Onions? More herbs?

Habaneros x 4
Bannana Peppers x 4
Overwintered peppers x 1
New bell peppers x 2
Aurora Peppers x ??
Basil x 6
Overwintered Rosemary x 2
New rosemary x 3
New mint x 2
New catnip x 1

In the yard somewhere

Possibly just mix a bunch of herb seeds together with a bit of sand, toss in a spot near the edge of the yard, and cover with a thin layer of topsoil.

Chamomile
Chicory
Anise
Cumin
Lavender
Rosemary (good hedge for the front!)

History

/GardenLog2012

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