Spring Better Hurry!

A look at the table by the south window and the grow shelves behind (left) it gives a clue as to why I am anxious for the soil to warm and the night time temperatures to moderate! And... why I am seriously in need of a greenhouse/high tunnel. I am planning in the next few weeks to make contact with our local building inspector to learn the rules, and ins and outs, of such things in my location. I am hoping they count a difference between "temporary" or "movable" structures and permanent constructions -- though I hope to eventually do both. I had great luck with a temporary structure -- written up in Backwoods Home Magazine in the late 1980s -- with a temporary "greenhouse" attached to the south wall of our passive solar house. It was made of PVC pipe, with a 2x4 attached to the wall of the house, into which 1" holes were drilled for the pipe. The other end of the pipes, which bent gently, went into similar holes in 2x10s laid on the ground. Cross bracing was done with additional pipes and good old duct tape and the whole thing covered with contractor-grade "clear" plastic. Access and venting were through the ends, where the plastic was gathered up against the house and held down with 2x's and cement blocks. Problem with that sort of structure where we are now, though, I fear, will be the WIND. Some redesign will be necessary.

Of course, I got started on the herbs WAY too early.. trying out the soil blockers (which seem to be working just fine, by the way.) So there are tons of basil, parsley, some rosemary and even lavender begging to be potted up yet again (4" blocks! WHERE will I put them?!) in addition to the cabbages and lettuces that are getting potted up from 3/4" cubed into 2' blocks. Hopefully, some of these guys will be heading for the garden in a couple of weeks (hardy veggies at least, the basil and the other herbs have some waiting to do -- unless they find themselves homes in windowsill gardens at early markets.)

Basil, looking a bit stressed, after its shower. I am not sure if the lighter discoloration is sun scald through the window from some of our sunnier days, or whether the cold well-water showers from the new mister (which seems to my hand, at least, to allow the water to warm a bit) were a bit to chilly for the tender herb.

And here is a look at our "kitchen garden" at present! The growing shelves in the kitchen window hold three planters of lettuce, from which we have been eating for some weeks. This is at least partly the second indoor salad planting for us; some of the first round started to bolt and were replaced a week ago. With the sorry lot of head lettuce we got at the store last week, we are very glad to have these guys to help round out our supper salads!

This year, we will be seeding lettuce in the cubes every 2-3 weeks all season long and transplanting into the garden to have better control over the flow of salad greens to market and to our own salad bowls. Current plans are for starting 20 plants of each of the 12 or 13 varieties for each round.

I have been feeling like I was "behind" in garden chores for some time, but a look at the calendar notes for last year indicated that our first planting out and seeding of early crops came around April 21. I know I had set up a primitive and very basic cold frame earlier on. I don't know if I will be doing that this year.

Celebrating Spring and the Full Moon

Here at Hearthfire Hill, the east garden has mostly appeared from under the snow and the west garden is working on it. Not quite time to burn weeds and till, but it will be soon -- barring a barrage of rain or sub-freezing days.

I had been waiting for the snow to clear in the area east of where the chicken tractor has spent the winter. The litter was accumulating above the height of the bottom rails and, until recently, the whole thing was thoroughly frozen to the ground. My plan was to dig out some of the litter from the deepest side to free that rail and then lever the whole thing up to free it for moving to the new location. I did dig out a bit of the litter, but found that the warm days had thawed the entire mess enough that the lever was only required to free the coop from the muck.

The fowl are now happily pecking about on fresh, real earth! And the ducks are once again enjoying the delights of a puddle to splash in, as I found, excavated and cleaned the pan that had been used for this purpose before the hard freezes set in. Now that the days are mostly above freezing, I set up hoses so as to be able to fill the duck pan and also to fill the water jug without having to lug it, full, from the house. At least I HOPE to be able to do that regularly, soon. There are still freezing nights to be had and days in the high 30s, so some hauling will likely still happen early in the morning. However, I will be able to "top them off" when I go to collect eggs mid-day.

In the plant world, seedling production has begun in earnest. The cabbages are up and the first of 20 plantings of lettuces for the garden should happen today. I plan to succession plant lettuce every two weeks through the entire year, with an eye to not only supplying the farmers market stands but also beginning to offer produce to some local restaurants and maybe even the commissary. I prefer to start the seedlings under controlled conditions (in mini blocks, under lights in the house) because that way I can maximize the seeds and have a specific number of seedlings of each variety to transplant on a specific spacing on a regular basis. I think it is easier on them than transplanting thinnings in the garden.

Soon, too, my early mornings will be spent with the Dragon in the garden -- the Red Dragon flame weeder that is! K has asked me to do away with the worst of the grasses that sprang up in the waning weeks of the fall garden, and experience teaches me that if there is going to be a time of still air, or more likely minimal winds, it will be before mid-morning.

Mud Season Cometh

Here in Maine, everyone knows we have 5 seasons (at least). Between winter and spring comes MUD.

Mud season is, as one would expect, characterized by much water (melting snow and falling rain), warming temperatures and thawing soil. This year, with our significant snowfall and now the falling rain, we expect a bumper crop of MUD.

Here at Hearthfire Hill, garden planning and inside seed starting still continues. As we are on a hill, we will still be able to plant earlier than most. Our soil drains quickly and before many lower farms can even begin turning soil, we are planting.

I feel a bit behind the curve on the seed starting routine, but a check of the Excel sheet I use to plan starting and transplanting -- based on average frost free date -- tells me otherwise. Perhaps it is because I have been using herbs to experiment with the new, to me, soil blockers and I have yet to seed any cole crops. They are definitely on the list for this weekend, though. With many of the herbs being "potted up" from the 3/4" to 2" cubes, space is already beginning to fill. by the fall, I MUST HAVE a greenhouse -- at least a passive solar one on the south side of the house, at least a temporary structure of the type I used in WA state, and wrote of in Backwoods Home Magazine in the early 90s. For now, thought, the thyme is getting pruned regularly (I have a dinner plate full of "spring thyme" drying -- our first harvest -- and many flats of basil having been potted up. The lavender and rosemary has been potted up as well; fortunately they don't grow as fast as the thyme!

This weekend I will start the cabbages, broccoli and such in 3/4" blocks, start a few more lettuces (whether they will go to the garden eventually or become the next round in the "kitchen garden" for our use remains to be seen) and pot up the parsley.

I expect this next few days to begin to reveal the gardens as the snow pack disappears. Already about half of the dooryard is void of ice, and the rain and temperatures mostly above freezing -- even at night -- will continue the melt. I am looking forward to the first bit of earth to be revealed. Once I have a 4x8 patch devoid of snow, the chicken tractor will be moved. The fowl have been doing fine next to the house, which helped to block the wind during the winter, but the litter has built up to above the level of the 2x4 foundation of the shelter/pen and the squishy ground (mulch hay, fowl droppings and some shredded paper) needs time to mellow before being turned. And the chickens need to start their rotation about the grounds. They have been laying throughout the winter -- several hen and one duck egg a day -- and now are picking up steam. We regularly get at least a half dozen hen eggs a day and both of the duck hens are laying as well.

Soon a new pen will be built for the ducks alone and we hope to have a few turkeys and add a few new young chickens this year as well. I don't want to have all the layers being the same age as this will make a yo-yo effect in egg production.

This week, we will be attending a meeting with restaurateurs hoping to learn more about supplying local foods to local eateries. I have been told that our ability to grow salad greens throughout the year could be a good cash crop for us. We will see....

We have also decided to get on the Community Supported Agriculture wagon; Stone Soup Collaborative is offering several different CSA options this year. Our CSA allows participants to pick up produce at any of the farmers markets where we vend and to select their own mix of food, including seedlings in the early season, should they have a backyard garden or choose to try a few plants in containers. More info can be found on our website.

We will also be participating in the Husson University Health Fair on April 13 and this coming Monday, March 14th, will participate in the Agriculture in the Classroom project. We will read to, and share with the 4th grade classes at Morrison Memorial School in Corinth.

Towards a Greening of the Garden

Now, at first thought, gardening IS green, isn't it? After all, stuff grows, and to grow requires chlorophyll which IS green... And in the modern sense of "green" we do seek to garden in harmony with the earth, using "organic" principles, avoiding strictly chemical fertilizers in favor of compost and manure and the meals made from bone and blood. We pick off bugs, or very judiciously use water with a bit of soap or diatoms.

...BUT like many gardeners and growers, we had become accustomed to the ubiquitous plastic pot and six-pack, and the plastic flat which group these smaller containers on the greenhouse benches. Now, unlike some growers, we always washed, sterilized and reused all these plastic containers until they were well beyond use. Even when one or two of the cells of the thin six-pack material would break or degrade, I saved the units and would nest two of them with broken cells overlapping complete ones until the bitter end.

Yes, I know there are other planting containers... peat pots and others made from cow pies and such. Their main drawback, the higher price, took them out of contention especially when coupled with their designed single use.

This year I decided to invest in the infrastructure to begin moving away from all that -- to avoid the whole container issue almost entirely -- by planting in soil blocks. I suspect that any plants I sell will need to have their 2" or 4" block placed into a pot for the customer, though I am hoping to introduce the more environmentally aware customers to the old-fashioned way of buying transplants. Back before the advent of the plastic pot, greenhouse growers used wooden boxes to grow their transplants and would carefully remove the plants you had selected from the box with trowel and fingers, and wrap them carefully in newspaper for their trip home. If the larger soil blocks hold up as well as the smaller ones that were just "potted up" yesterday, I should be able to do this easily, or even to plop the selected plant blocks down into recycled cardboard "flats" in which stores get a variety of beverages.

But back to the blocks...

The soil block making tools can be manufactured at home; there are a variety of plans on the Internet for such contraptions. I chose, however, to buy metal ones from Johnny's Selected Seeds. I got three sizes; the mini block maker for starting most seeds (3/4" blocks) and the 2" and 4" sizes most often used for "potting up" as the seedlings grow but also useful for the larger seeds of squash, melons, etc. I did a lot of reading on the Internet, as well as talking to folks who had used the block makers, to try to learn the ins and outs. I learned that not all soil mixes work and that there was no consensus on whether the ProMix that I have on hand was good. I also learned that the wetness of the soil used to make the blocks is very important.

The soil needs to be SOGGY! This is bound to be counter-intuitive for anyone who has experience planting in flats or other pots. Notice not only drips, but an actual stream of water falling from the handful of potting mix as I squeeze it. If water does not squish out the top of the block maker as you push it down into the potting mix, the blocks will fall apart.

Next you load the blocker. I have talked to people who use a plastering trowel to scoop up the mix and force it into the block maker. I chose to put my tub of potting soil on a chair and to push my tool into the mix, repeatedly and with force. Having the work surface down low makes it easier to put more "oomph" into it. Squish as much potting mix into your block maker as you can; you cannot overload it!

Make sure you scrape the excess off the bottom of the block maker. Some folks run it along the edge of their soil tub. I scrape it with my hand.

Then place the blocker into the container that will hold your blocks. I still have some plastic flats, so I am using them at present. Push down the block maker, squeeze the handle to release the blocks and lift. Sometimes a very slight shake is necessary to release the blocks from the tool.

Voila! you have a set of soil blocks! Continue until your container is filled. You can put each set of blocks close to the previous ones; the blocks do not need much space at all between them.

One of the benefits, for me, to using the mini blocks is that they prevent me from planting my seeds too close together! I have a bad habit, when seeding flats, to over plant. The seedlings emerge too close together, get leggy. Transplanting them into six-packs is hard on me and on the plants, too.

There is a trick to getting just one, or at most two seeds into each tiny block. I will admit that this process takes a bit of patience, but it also makes your seed go much farther! All you need is something to hold a bit of water and a toothpick.

Just a bit of wet and the toothpick will pick up a tiny individual seed.

Usually touching the seed to the block will leave it there. At most, you will need to brush or rotate the toothpick a bit to leave the seed behind. The hardest part, when doing tiny dark seeds, can be remembering where you are in the sea of blocks!

I cover the seeded tray with a sheet of saran wrap to keep them moist until the seedlings begin to emerge. You will need to be very vigilant in keeping the blocks moist! This may be the biggest challenge to using soil blocks. Because they are surrounded by air on 5 of their 6 sides, they dry out very quickly. You will need a gentle mist to water them, or your sink spray attachment just barely turned on. Until the seedlings get some roots to help keep the blocks together, it is easy to damage the block structure by too hard a spray.

These are the 2" blocks, which were made with 3/4" holes in the center to accommodate the tiny blocks. These herb seedlings have been potted up to the larger size blocks and will grow here for some time. Depending on how they grow and where they will end up, these blocks may go directly into our garden, or onto the sales tables at our markets, or they may get potted up once again to be sold as herbs in 4" pots later in the season.

Moving Toward Spring as the Snow Falls

It seems that here in Maine, the depth of winter -- at least as read by the depth of snow on the ground and in the piles pushed back by the plows and drifted in by the winds -- comes in those weeks after the first of February. Traditional days such as Groundhog Day harken to other traditional noting of the passing of the year: Candlemas, and Imbolc indicate that in many times and places, the earth had shed its winter's mantle and the farmers made offerings and said words in hopes of a good season.

Here, we dream over seed catalogs and place our orders. Those with true greenhouses (the heated kind) may begin planting some of the earliest crops, likely in preparation to planting them in the unheated, but solar warmed "high tunnels" that have become popular of late. We think ahead to the garden and farmers market season to come, making changes to our brochures and web sites and planning marketing adventures for the coming season. This gardener attended the Maine Farmers Market convention held last month in Belfast. It was most informative, especially as I am a newcomer to farm marketing. I became much more motivated to connect with customers and potential customers for both our garden, and the Farmers Markets were we sell, by using social media. So, connect up with the Maine Stone Soup Collaborative on Facebook and on Twitter!

Now, having planted some "virtual seeds" of the marketing kind, I am off to make soil blocks and start some more herbs and early lettuce for our own kitchen garden.

Of Life and Groundhogs

"If the groundhog sees her shadow, it means that there are still six more weeks of winter. If she doesn't see her shadow, it means that spring is only six weeks away. So what is the difference?"

The difference, my dears, is in how we perceive and how we therefore respond to the turning of the seasons. Our perception is the only thing that changes; the seasons turn more or less as they always have, with deliberate pace.

When the groundhog sees its shadow on a bright and sunny winter's day, our spirits are lifted, albeit temporarily, by the sunshine. Perhaps the temperature has moderated, the winds taken a holiday and the cloudless sky allows the full interval of the lengthened day to soak into our unconscious minds. We feel, at a very primitive level, the turning of the seasons and the coming of spring. But, alas, there will be more overcast days to come; more days of snow and winds rearranging the snowy landscapes. There will be the inevitable days of icy rain melting, just barely, the frozen white.There will be weeks remaining of dirty snowbanks, mocking us as we remember the groundhog's "promise" of spring.

But on days like today, when the prognosticating rodent can barely find the opening of its burrow home; when the winds blow and snow falls and drifts from the first moments of light until only the porch light is left to illuminate the passing flakes... on days like today spring feels no closer than it did weeks ago on the Longest Night. We sit by the fire and dream over seed catalogs and garden plans for a season that feels very far away. But the sun will shine again, and in every ray, every drip from the eaves and every bit of brown we see the coming of spring. From a point in the darkness, we see the growing light.

Spring is a point on the calendar, a tide that ebbs and flows as the year turns but it is also a feeling that lifts our spirits in renewal. It comes first with the promise hidden in the first swelling of the buds on the trees, with the movement of the birds towards their breeding and summering grounds, and with the underground stirrings of sleepy animals and plants. It bursts forth with the joy of the first hints of green and gathers speed as the cold winds and rains make way for gentle breezes and quiet showers.

Here at Hearthfire Hill, our seed orders have been made and on this cross-quarter day we will be planting a token selection of hardy lettuces, to grow as the first kitchen garden of the year. Soon the onion and leek seeds will arrive and be planted, and more herbs will join the rosemary, thyme and lavender that are about to be potted up from their 1/2" soil blocks.

Happy "Spring Finding" to all and may you find it in your hearts and in the turnings of the wheel in its time.

Snow and Wind Blows and the Garden Plan Begins

I have been, over the last few days, taking stock of what seeds I have still in stock and pouring over catalogs and variety descriptions to see what we will plant this year. Some varieties will be coming back, and others will not.

I have saved seed from a red watermelon that I liked, hoping it breeds true and will definitely plant the Rainbow carrots again. Many of the lettuce varieties will come back again this year (but not purchased as a mix) and I shall expand the planting of sugar snap and petite pois peas. I plan to get onion sets once again from Blue Seal. They don't label varieties -- there are brown skinned and red skinned and white skinned babies in their respective boxes -- but the brown onions I grew from their sets a year ago (that is, the 2009 growing season) lasted an entire year! Yes, I mean I was still getting usable onions from my braids when the 2010 crop would have been ready, had it not been eaten by the weeds.

NEW varieties for this year will include:
green fillet TAVERA
purple fillet VELOUR
yellow fillet CONCADOR
beets RED ACE
beets BULLS BLOOD
beets - yellow TOUCHSTONE
beets - white BLANKOMA
beets - white WHITE ALBINO
BROCCOLI Spring Rapa
CABBAGE Red Express
cantaloupe TASTY BITES
carrots WHITE SATIN
carrots YELLOWSTONE
carrots DEEP PURPLE
carrots ATOMIC RED
carrots RED CORED CHANTENAY
chard FORDHOOK GIANT
collards CHAMPION
corn HOOKERS
corn TRIPLE PLAY
corn PAINTED HULL
corn MARTIAN JEWELS
corn SUGAR BUNS
corn AUGUSTA
corn TRINITY
cucumber HARMONIE
cucumber ALABI
EGGPLANT Rosa Bianca
kale WINTERBOR
leeks KING RICHARD
lettuce GREEN ICE
lettuce SPECKLED AMISH
okra RED BURGANDY
okra CLEMSON
onion CRIMSON BUNCHING
peas Precoville PETIT POIS
peas PATRIOT
peas CASELODE
peas FEISTY
pepper REVOLUTION
radish PLUM PURPLE
radish WATERMELON
SQUASH Table Queen Acorn
tomato DEFIANT
tomato TAXI
tomato ORANGE BLOSSOM
tomato HEINZ 2652
tomato MOUNTAIN FRESH
TOMATO Peacevine Cherry
TOMATO Red grape/Red Pearl
turnip HAKURAI
turnip SCARLET QUEEN RED STEMS
celantro LARGE LEAF
purslane
miners lettuce
PARSLEY Leaf, Giant of Italy
BASIL Dark Opal
BASIL Lemon
calendula ALPHA
calendula RESINA
dyer's BROOM
Dyer’s COREOPSIS MIX
indigo
Weld Reseda luteola DYER'S ROCKET

Returning to the line up once again:
BEAN Gold Rush Bush Bean
BEET Early Wonder salad greens
CABBAGE Danish Ballhead
CABBAGE Frigga Savoy
CABBAGE golden acre
carrots PURPLE HAZE
carrots RAINBOW
CUCUMBER Calipso Pickling
CUCUMBER General Lee Slicing
CUCUMBER Little Leaf
DILL Bouquet
LETTUCE Buttercrunch
lettuce CARDINALE
LETTUCE Outredgeous
lettuce PARIS ISLAND COS
LETTUCE Red Salad Bowl
LETTUCE Slobolt
lettuce SUMMERTIME
lettuce WEBBS WONDERFUL HEAD
lettuce ROYAL OAK LEAF
LETTUCE Winter mix
MUSKMELON Halona
ONION bunching
PEAS Coral Shell
peas SUPER SUGAR SNAP
pepper NEW ACE
PUMPKIN Baby Pam
PUMPKIN Baby Pam
PUMPKIN New England Pie
SPINACH SP785/P Giant Winter
SPINACH Avon
SPINACH Bloomsdale
SPINACH SP799 Regal Hbd
SPINACH Space
SQUASH Carnival Acorn
TURNIP purple top white globe
zucchini - 8BALL
BASIL - lettuce leaf

Seed orders will go out shortly to Fedco, Pinetree Garden Seeds and Johnny's

We also will be experimenting this year with starting and growing our seeds in soil blocks. I will transfer plants for sale at market into recycled and cleaned plastic pots, but I am hoping this will work well and save us the hassle, waste and expense of plastic or other boughten pots.