Setup

Bought a new greenhouse

Jenni — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 05:44:36 +0000

Bought a new greenhouse Jenni Sun, 03/20/2016 - 22:44

So the shelf greenhouse I originally bought had some issues, such as the zipper being broken. Then I found out some of the pieces that snap together had cracks in them. As such, I took it back to the store to exchange it. They were out of what I wanted, but offere me the larger greenhouse at a discount. I didn't think that was going to be an option, but my complex was pretty cool about it and said I could indeed have it. So now I have a nice walk-in greenhouse available on my patio.

I plan on having this up for about a month until we get through these temperature fluctuations that we have in early spring. For instance, a couple days ago there was ice on the cars and the bird bath was frozen. Yesterday it was in the mid 60s outside and sunny. Today it's in the low 50s and rainy. The greenhouse will help protect the little seedlings until they're ready to go into the ground.

I put it together myself, which is quite a feat since I'm in a back brace. Just goes to show how easy it goes together. Then our 13 year-old came out and helped me move it into place, put the cover on it, put in the shelves, and bring in the plants. It looks really nice on the patio. Now everything seems so much neater than it did when I had trays of seedlings sitting everywhere.

Its doing it's job, too - today it is cool outside, but inside the greenhouse it's nice and warm. Of course the slugs have found their way in, leaving trails on the sides of the greenhouse. I'll be sure to put in some organic slug bait soon.

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Tools

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Greenhouse

Replaced the lights

Jenni — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 05:55:29 +0000

Replaced the lights Jenni Mon, 03/14/2016 - 22:55

Well, I found that I really liked the other light I purchased better, so I packed up all the lights that I had purchased and returned them. When I bought them they weren't what I had wanted in the first place, and the way I had them hooked up made it difficult for me to water plants, move them around, etc. They'd said if they didn't work out I could bring them back within 30 days and that's exactly what I did. Now I have the new lights hooked up and I hope these are going to work better for me. It's much easier dealing with one light, two cords, and two chains on each shelf than two lights, two cords, and four chains. Ended up saving about $100 this way.

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Bought a new light...

Jenni — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 05:41:07 +0000

Bought a new light... Jenni Sun, 03/13/2016 - 22:41

So Friday I went out to buy a new set of lights for the third shelf since my eggplant had popped up and I didn't want it to get too "leggy". Went to my usual store and they only had one light (I needed two). They said they might have more in later in the day, but didn't know. Didn't even offer to put one aside or order one. I bought what they had and then ran around town trying to find another. No such luck.

So I went to Home Depot to see what they had. Couldn't find any 4' T5 lights that plug in, but did find some T8 ones. They were just under $18. Then a set of two daylight bulbs for the fixture was like $9. So for less than $27 I got a light that actually works better than the T5 ones I bought previously. They're brighter and are longer (even though all of them are supposed to be 4'). So I think I am going to see about taking these other ones back and replacing them. I haven't been entirely happy with them, but they were what I could find. For the $40+ I spent on each one, I would expect more.

If you go to Home Depot looking for them, here is what I got:

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How-to: So where do I start?

Jenni — Sat, 12 Mar 2016 06:42:41 +0000

How-to: So where do I start? Jenni Fri, 03/11/2016 - 22:42

A lot of people want to grow their own vegetables, fruit, and herbs, but don't know where to start. It's taken me several years, but I've gotten pretty good at it. I continue to improve and learn from others and will be even better once I'm in a house where I can plant in the ground and have more room to work.

For the purpose of my blog, I'm talking about fruits and veggies in the culinary sense, not biologically. So cucumbers, squash, greens, peppers, etc = veggies. Tomatoes and strawberries = fruit.

I grow plenty of vegetables and some herbs, but very little fruit. That's because most fruits seem to grow on bushes, vines, or trees, and I can't have any of those in my container garden. But once I get into a house and have land, I am looking forward to growing a lot more fruit. When it comes to herbs, I just grow the things I use often, like basil, rosemary, cilantro, and chives. I also grow some mint to help attract pollinators and such.

At first I began by buying seedlings that had already been started. I had no idea how to plant seeds, how to get them to do well, etc. I tried a few times and always failed. That's because I wasn't doing it right and did not have the proper tools. So by buying them all ready to go in the ground, I saved myself a lot of time and heartache. At first I bought them from places like Home Depot and Walmart, but then I found a few local nurseries. My favorite is Deep Creek Garden Center, which is at the other end of our street. I have a hard time passing by there in the spring and summer without stopping by. These nurseries tend to get their stock from local farms, which means I'm supporting my community by buying there. They also don't have the issues with plants that have been treated with chemicals that kill pollinators.

The first several years I purchased all of my plants there. They always have great deals going on and a pretty good selection. If you go in late spring, often times you can find plants that are already covered in small fruits/veggies.

Then I began experimenting again with growing my own seedlings. I went out and bought seedling trays, some seeds, and potting soil. I would get items to grow, but they were slow going and typically died within a week or two of sprouting. They were typically "leggy" (long stem) and small. I even made sure to leave the lamp on over them, but that only helped somewhat. So once again I purchased my seedlings from the nursery.

Then I started reading online about growing seeds and realized that I had two problems:

First I was using potting soil instead of seedling soil. Seedling soil is specially made for seedlings and has all the nutrients your seedling is going to need for its first few months. Potting soil typically has no added nutrients, which means you need to add to it in order to get good growth on your seedlings.

The second mistake was that I was using regular lamps - a table lamp and the one that hangs over my dining room table. These were not enough to grow seedlings. They were also quite a distance from the plants, particularly the hanging light. Hence why the plants would get so "leggy", as they were trying to reach the light source. I remembered seeing a grow store over near where I live, so I went in there to get some advice. I ended up picking up a 4' long light and a stand to hold it. This light pretty much covers my entire table with light, even when the leaf is in use. That meant I could grow a lot of plants under it.

Upon fixing my soil and light problems, my seedlings took off like crazy.

I still had one problem, though - mold. The trays that I had the clear lids on always seemed to grow mold, which would then cause issues with my seedlings. I decided to stop using the trays since it was already fairly warm inside. Sure enough this fixed the mold problem and I didn't really see any difference in germination times. I think if my house were drier or cooler the lids might make a difference, but since we already run humid and warm, it makes more sense not to use the lids.

Since then I've had a lot of success with my plants. Hopefully when I do my next batch of seedlings I'll get to record a video of it so that you can also watch me go through the process.

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How-to

Mistakes

Setup

A big upgrade

Jenni — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 07:07:59 +0000

A big upgrade Jenni Fri, 02/05/2016 - 23:07

So this year I decided to put in a big upgrade to my seedling growing setup. I've been very successful ever since I added a nice big grow light over my seedlings. That led to a lot more extra seedlings, which meant a good amount of sales of my plants. Last year was a very good year, which meant some money left over after paying for all the expenses related to growing the plants. As such, I decided to put that towards an upgrade in my system.

I've now bought a nice heavy duty shelf, three smaller grow lights, and a daisy chain cord so that I only need one power cord for all three lights. This will allow me to have a setup on the dining room table under the really big light as well as three shelves of trays. Each shelf will fit at least 4 trays, if not more.

I'm so excited about this setup, as it means all of the plants will have good access to light instead of me having to regularly rotate them so that they all get some time under heavy light and some under the outskirts of the light. The plan is to get this set up in the next week or so, as I'll be starting the peppers, tomatoes, etc. later this month. This will allow for even larger seedlings than I've been able to grow before, which would make them even hardier and more likely to better make the transition to outside.

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Lighting

Setup

Transplanting herbs

Jenni — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 05:57:13 +0000

Transplanting herbs Jenni Sat, 03/14/2015 - 22:57

So today it's time to transplant more of my seedlings. This time it's the herbs. Once they start to get several true leaves on them, I go ahead and move them to the planters they'll be in outside. I go ahead and plant them all, as I know only some will make it through the process. If several of them end up growing large, I'll transplant them again to another set of these planters that I have, which means more herbs for me! ;)

With the basil I can also transplant it into some of my larger tomato planters once those are going, as the two plants love to be together.

My herbs have just loved these planters. They attach to the post on my patio and I can hang several of them all together. I started out with three, which I have used for chives and basil. This year I am moving the cilantro there as well. I also picked up one more set of three planters at Home Depot the other day. We had to dig to find the only set that was even close to being complete. Mine are black, but apparently they come in a terracotta color as well. I like the black, as it makes the soil nice and warm, which the plants seem to love.

The planters are made by Fiskars and you can check them out here.

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Problems with planters

Jenni — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 06:02:52 +0000

Problems with planters Jenni Mon, 03/09/2015 - 23:02

So over the last few days I've been transplanting all of the bigger seedlings into larger pots. The first ones were my zucchini. Every day I've been checking the watering tray to make sure there was still water. Not only was there still water, but it was about the same level. That really perplexed me today, so I decided to look further.

Turns out that the planters have a problem from when they were manufactured - the holes are missing. As such, the plants can't get to the water in the tray.

This is a pretty big problem, as the key to these seedlings doing so well is the easy access to water without needing to water the soil (and get the plant all wet). As such, I am taking a pair of scissors to each one and cutting a slit on each side like they would have if they were made correctly.

So if you buy some of these pots, be sure to pull up the pots out of the tray and make sure they are made correctly.

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Mistakes

How-to: Planting outdoors

Jenni — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 06:57:09 +0000

How-to: Planting outdoors Jenni Fri, 03/06/2015 - 22:57

There are some items I grow from seeds that go directly outdoors when they reach a certain size. Onions and peas are two of those (beans would be a third). Regular onions I plant directly outdoors since they have a large seed onion. Bunching onions, on the other hand, are tiny seeds and seem to work best if I start them indoors. These are onions that you would grow for their stems - green onions. I love green onions and eat them on a lot of things. As such, I try to grow at least two window boxes of these every year.

Pea plants can grow very quickly. It's not uncommon to find that they've grown several inches in a day. As such, once they get several true leaves on them I plant them outside.

Both of these plants have reached the point where they are ready to plant outside. Now I just have to get things ready. It's perfect timing as I also need to start moving squash plants into bigger pots and I am going to need the room. One flat of seedling pods holds 72 plants, while the flat of larger pots only holds 18.

I've used the same soil for the past few years. Each year I get a few new plants, and therefore buy some more potting soil. But some of the soil I've had is at least three years old. As such, I felt it was time to revitalize it. I went to Home Depot and picked up a small tarp that would be big enough to cover the majority of my patio. I also picked up four bags of compost.

I picked out this one type of compost because it sounded interesting - there are no synthetic chemicals, no poop, and is natural and organic. It started when two college students noticed how much food was wasted at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Now food scraps from restaurants and such along with yard trimmings are turned into compost.

I spread out the tarp and then I dumped one bag of compost on it.

Next I select several pots, make sure that all the plant matter is gone from the top of the planters (some might have grass growth or leftovers from last year), and then I dump that on top of the compost.

Next I go to work mixing up the two so that there is a fairly even mixture of compost into the old soil.

Next comes filing up all the empty planters with the mixture I made and then put some plants into them.

Since it is still a little cold outside at night, I am covering them at night to help them stay warm and then removing the cover once it starts warming up in the morning.

Topic

Another planting year begins

Jenni — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 07:07:56 +0000

Another planting year begins Jenni Sun, 02/22/2015 - 23:07

So it's the end of February, which means another planting year begins for me. Since our last frost date is usually March 27th, I know that I can start my seedlings around the end of February and have them ready for transplant by the time our last frost hits. So that means getting together my seedling pots, plant markers, and seedling soil.

Seeling Soil

In the past I've used the Miracle Grow seedling soil, but it comes in a pretty small bag and can be expensive. This year I noticed that Jiffy has a bag of seedling soil that is about the same price, but a larger bag (12qt as compared to 8 qt). I'd heard good things online about it, so I purchased that to use this year instead. There's also the added bonus of the mix being organic as well. Seedling soil is always good to use for starting plants by seed, as it is specially made to provide a seedling with everything they need, minus water and light.

If you look for this at the store, the package might be slightly different. The bag I had said something like "Natural & Organic" instead of just "ORGANIC". Apparently they did a slight change to the front of the bag this year.

Seedling Greenhouse

Because we had to clear everything from our patio last year so they could paint, all of my seedling planters, pots, etc. were all boxed up and went to storage. Of course nothing got marked, and it's been months since everything was moved, so my husband can't remember where in storage he put the boxes. So I went ahead and bought new planters this year. I had some of these last year and thus far I've found they work really well.

They're by NK Lawn & Garden and are a 72 cell "mini greenhouse". The set comes with a watering tray, tray of cells (which you can pop apart into individual 6 cell sets), a clear cover, and instructions. I like using the clear cover until the plants get too tall to be able to stand upright. Often times I will take the cover off during the day so that the seedlings get maximum light exposure, but then put it back on later in the day and through the night. This helps keep in moisture and heat. That is especially important while you wait for the seeds to pop up.

Seedling Markers

I went onto Amazon looking for seedling supplies, particularly seeds I couldn't find in the store and plant markers. I had used popsicle sticks in the past (you can buy a big box at Michaels), but I found that they often promoted fungus growth once they were wet. So this year I decided I wanted to use plastic markers. I looked at the store, but they were a little spendy for a small pack. I ended up finding a pack of 100 of them on Amazon for about what a 15 pack went for at the store.

These markers help me to keep track of what I have planted, which is especially important when you plant multiple items that look the same, such as different varieties of the same plant (Roma tomatoes, Beefsteak tomatoes, etc.). I use permanent marker on them to ensure that nothing wears off or rubs off.

Seedlings

But the most important thing I needed was seeds. And lots of them. I always like growing a variety of items. As such, it's not uncommon for me to have 20+ different plants growing at one time. This year I'm doing 30 different plants.

A lot of my seeds I pick up at the store when I'm out shopping. Whenever I go into a feed store, grocery store, dollar store, etc. I always look to see if they have seeds. Usually by about January they start putting out their seeds. I grab a few here and there until I have everything I need. This year one brand that I like - Home Farmer - still hadn't showed up at Walmart. I grew their Asian Fingers Eggplant last year and loved it. I like making curry and having easy access to fresh eggplant is always a bonus. Because I couldn't find the Home Farmer ones - or them from any other seedling company - I had to resort to buying online.

I was looking at buying from one of my many seedling catalogs I requested this year, but many either came too late or had too high of shipping for a single packet of seeds. I'm planning on buying from them next year, as they have some interesting varieties and often times throw in free seed packets to try. It was just too late for me this year. So I went and looked at Amazon.

I ended up finding a big packet of the eggplant seeds I needed for a really great price. Not only that, but I found some seeds I wouldn't have thought about growing before - snapdragons, pansies, and bluebonnets. The first two I always just bought at the store and the last one is something about Texas that I really miss. So I picked up some of those as well.

When my seeds arrived, I also got a bonus pack of artichoke seeds. So I figured "why not?" and am growing those as well.

Now that I had all of my necessary pieces to start gardening, the next step was bringing it all together.

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