March update

I had a whole week free at the end of march, so used it to get some garden work done.  The first order of business was preparing a flower bed out of a grassy, sloped corner that was difficult do mow.  New beds sans power tools are hard work!  Of course I changed plans a few times in between, and got distracted and started re-leveling the pavers nearby along the way, but in the end I finished this terraced bed and got the blueberry bushes planted.  It looks a bit random, as i tried to use materials already on hand, but it will do for now.  We aren't allowed to use peat moss so I gathered lots of pine needles in the forest (even though online research tells me that they wont actually change the acidity of the soil) and added lots of compost to the planting hole.  We will only water with rain water and try a sulfur fertilizer to help decrease the pH. 

Our other big project was replacing some rotted posts that formed a retaining wall and pathway.  This was the most irritating project imaginable.  Trying to remove rotted wood that is confined on all sides by other structures and then trying to dig a hole under these confinements takes much longer than usual. 

Right before heading of on vacation I planted some transplants to make watering (at home) easier for our neighbor.  Fennel, salad, beet, savoy cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower got planted under cover even though it was a bit early and they were a bit small. I had too many lettuce seedlings so I gave them away to 3 other gardeners. 




The favas, radishes and peas have germinated, and I think I see the germination leaves on the carrots, although it is hard to tell.  The weather has been warm and sunny but nights have been cold.

hellebores

primroses

sprouting favas

lettuce seedlings

sprouting rhubarb

poor worm, i thought i was 'saving' him from my digging only to see that moments later he was taken by a lizard.

spring is in the air!

Last week the daytime temperatures were about 15 C so I let the seedlings get some sun on the balcony during the day.  Nights are still cold, so they were brought back inside each evening.  I have been watering with dilute fertilizer mix every time I water and that seems to have helped growth a little, although the brassicas are growing VERY slowly.  They are also quite long and falling over.  Any idea of what went wrong?  I have had them under lights since they sprouted, but perhaps they were a few inches too far away?  The lettuce looks good, and if it is warm next week, I'll harden them off and plant them.  That will free up some space under the lights for my recently sown tomatoes.

seedlings enjoying some sun on a mild day

seedling update

The seedlings are finally starting to show signs of true leaves.  The celeriac has finally germinated and the jalapenos as well (although not 100%).  I think the slow growth after germination may be due to the coconut compressed pots I used, I am guessing they are a sterile growing medium but they don't have a lot of nutrients.  Today I fertilized with a dilute liquid fertilizer, hopefully there wont be any root burn.  Oddly the white lettuce seeds (4 varieties) have all sprouted where as the 2 black seeded varieties are still empty.  I wonder if the seed color trait is linked to germination time?

edit: both black seeded varieties never germinated even after a second sowing.  must have been a bad batch and just a coincidence they were both black seeded.

The brassicas seem to be getting leggy even though they are under lights.

planting peas

This past weekend I planted some peas. I overestimated how many I would need and presoaked too many seeds.  I went ahead and plant them anyways and will thin later.  Favas got planted as well as some carrot seed mats.  Our water at the community garden hasn't been turned on yet and it hasn't rained in a while so the soil was fairly dry.  We got 2 watering cans full of water from a nearby fountain, but that is not something I will be doing again.  More work than it is worth, next year I will wait until they turn the water on to plant peas regardless of how warm the weather is.  I also dug some new flowers beds out of an incline that was covered in weeds and those got planted with a variety of summer bulbs.  Unfortunately I forgot to charge my camera so no before and after pictures this time.  Snowdrops and Crocus are blooming in the area, although we don't have any in our plot.  We are looking forward to the daffodils planted last fall, they are about 15 cm high now.  And there are lots of mystery tulips coming up in various places.  The pak choi was starting to bolt so I harvested half of it and it got made into a rice noodle stir fry.  It still tasted great!  Our ground wasn't frozen at all, but when we went back the next day to check on the compost, which is in a somewhat shady corner, we discovered it was frozen solid. 

Seed Mats

Today, I made some carrot and radish seed mats.  I hope to get an early planting in under row cover this weekend.  Daytime temps have been over 10 C, although nights are still below 0 C.  Also on the planting list this weekend; peas and favas.  I wont use up all my seed in case the weather does take a turn for the worse, but it is worth a shot.

These were made using the famous seed mat tutorial from Annie's Granny.  All the cool kids seem to be doing it so I'll hop on the bandwagon.  It was really hard for me to find cheap toilet paper or paper towels here!  Restaurants are stingy with their paper towels in Europe, probably because of all the crazy gardeners that want them.  Now, who is responsible for them being so stingy with the ketchup?  I finally managed to get a couple of rolls from the science lab that is very thin two-ply.   We have extremely expensive equipment, super cheap TP....figures. 

ready to glue

here they are drying

I am trying out a lot of different varieties (6) for both taste and to see what does well here.   Hopefully I can narrow it down to 2 in the future.  I was surprised that they were packaged so differently, even within the same brand of seeds.  At first, I thought it had to do with price or if they were F1 and hence more "valuable",  but there seems to be no correlation.  Some are double packed, where the inside packet is either foil lined or just plain paper, and some are just thrown in the main package.  The foiled lined packs would appear to do a good job of keeping light and moisture out.  I saw a tiny white insect (maybe an aphid, which was quickly squashed) crawling around among some unpacked seeds, which did NOT make me happy.  Perhaps the plain paper keeps insects out?

foil lined, paper an no extra packaging

I only made enough for 1 planting because I think the moisture from the glue reduces how long you can store them.  Hoping for a warm week and speedy germination!

Lights

I rushed to get an inexpensive light system set up.  I had to improvise a bit, because there are no "inexpensive" shop lights here, just fancy ones.  I finally decided on some under cabinet lights (120 cm long, T8 bulbs) that are meant to be wired directly into an electrical source and not plugged into a wall.  I got 4 lights at 5.50 Euros each, so that was by FAR the least expensive option.  I also had to buy some wiring to adapt them into plug in lights and I got an automatic timer.

Yes, condescending employee at home improvement store, I am capable of wiring this myself!

but how do I get you open!? brute force is the answer

oh how nice of you to put the opening instructions inside! 

I managed to not electrocute myself

And now I have light!  Did I mention I transported these on my bicycle, all while having a non-functioning headlight?  Luckily, no cops stopped me as it would have been hard to keep a straight face at the irony of having to explain a broken headlight while transporting 4 fluorescent bulbs.  Yes sir, I realize it is broken which is why I bought these to fix it....?

The seedlings seem happy in their new home!