My Sugar Snap Peas are sprouting.

I planted these Sugar Snap Peas with my grandaughter last December 4th. I suspected they would sit dormant and sprout early on. It appears that I was correct.

My 1st Wintersown Sprouts are up.

These are some Broccoli  seeds that I planted in milk jugs last January. They have been outside all winter and are the first jugs to sprout.

A few modifications to my hotbed.

For whatever reason the manure isnt heating up. It's been pretty cold, snow, and one night it was 16 degrees F. My soil temps were a steady 40 degrees. I bought a small electric heater and an insulated blanket that concrete workers use. At night I cover the bed with foam board and the blanket. The soil temp has come up to 60 degrees and the air temp in the upper 80's by day. I have a row of Iceberg lettuce that came up yesterday.

I planted the first seeds in my Hotbed today.

I planted seed for Celery Verde Pascal, Celeriac Giant Prague, Leeks Blue Solaize, and Mammoth Pot Leeks,Lettuce Iceberg, and Romaine,Onions Evergreen Bunching, Chard,Argento and Peppers Chimayo, Baby Belle Tri-color,Melrose, and Carmen. The soil temperature after four days, down  four inches is about 60 degrees, so well see what happens. I've decided to only plant the Evergreen Bunching Onions because they survive the winter and you can dig them all winter long. The soil already was starting to dry out and I had to water after I planted. I sprinkled milled Sphagnum moss on top of the seeds and tamped them down lightly

 Also you can see the foam insulation I am putting on at night until it gets warmer.

Garden Hotbed with sash

So here is what I ended up with at the end of the day. It doesnt look real pretty, but it should serve it's purpose. I bought two of the sash for five dollars each, some body gave me one, and I had some plexiglass and made one for about $15 . The bundle of foam cost $18. So its more or less a $35 dollar project. The picture doesn't show it very well, but the sash slope away from the shed.  Yesterday was the second day and I put a thermometer in the soil. It said it was 30 degrees, which was a little disappointing. This morning it read 30 again, but it got down to 18 degrees last night. I am covering the sash at night with more sheets of foam. Today was sunny and at 5pm the thermometer read 60 degrees.  Im hoping this shows the manure is starting to heat up,because the probe was down about four inches, and even though it was sunny, it was only about 25 degrees and I don"t think the sun alone would have heated up the soil to that depth. I am hoping I can plant my first seeds tomorrow afternoon. I want to plant celery, celeriac, peppers and a few others that grow slowly. I think I'll wait till about the middle of March for the Tomatoes. I think it would be best if all the sash were made of wood. Also the plexiglass is relly nice to work with, but it's probably expensive in big sheets. My bed is four feet wide but three is probably better. Its probably best to round up the sash or old storm windows and the size your bed accordingly.

Getting the Hotbed ready for the windows.

I sprinkled the soil to wet it, and then I mixed up some subsoil clay, type S lime, and manure to make a primitive cement or mortar. I had thought about throwing some Portland cement in, but didn't have any. I was really trying to spend as little money as possible. The purpose of the cement is to seal up and slope the ends. This whole bed is on the south side of a garage, which blocks it nicely from the North and the wind.

My home made sieve and the sifting process.

I read that you should run your soil through a sieve to prepare the seed bed. I bought a three foot long piece of hardware cloth "1/4 inch holes", and then with roofing nails nailed it to the two by fours. Then with last years soil I tried to run it through the screen. This part was really tedious, mainly because the soil was wet and really didn't go through very freely. I had a nice pair of rubber gloves and worked it back and forth with my hands. You can see what didn't pass through. The soil that did was really nice, and should work well for the real small seeds I want to plant. This part was real tedious and time consuming. After I was about half done filling over the manure with 4-5 inches of dirt, I had to give up and used the unsieved soil, which will work fine, I suspect down the road a bit. 

Hotbed, Insulation, and Horse Manure.

I lined the pit with one inch polystyrene foam board, to keep the heat from escaping. Then as you can see I began to back fill it with the manure. As I went I watered it real well with a sprinkling can and packed it tight with my feet. I kind of wish I had put the foam underneath as well. Maybe next year. 

My Hotbed Pit

This is the pit that I dug last fall. In January I piled it full of manure

, and then this Tuesday the 22nd as you can see here, I emptied it to begin the process. I'm not really sure it's deep enough and I think next year I might dig out another six inches or so. This is where I grew my tomatoes last year.

Experimental Garden Cloches

Real glass cloches are so expensive. I saw some today for about $25.00 each, so I am experimenting with some different plastic containers I picked up at Walmart. The white tubs were only $1.50. I don't think much is going on inside of them. It seems the limiting factor with plants is soil temperature. Until it reaches plus 50 degrees not much growth is going to happen.

Raised beds using sand bags.

I have some beds that end on a sharp slope, and I wanted to give them a more definite end. A while back I was in the Honduras and saw them using sand bags to make huge raised beds ten feet high or more on one end. I thought it was a pretty good idea. I think these including sand cost about $1.25 each. The sand bags come with strings to tie them off.

Getting my Garden Hot Bed ready- Fresh Horse Manure

I want to have a manure powered Hot Bed to start my seed in this spring. I dug out a twelve foot by 4 foot bed. It is dug down about two feet. I then filled it in with about three cubic yards of horse manure. I think its supposed to simmer there this winter, until about the 20th of February. Then I am going to sieve the soil through about a 1/4 inch screen. Before you fill in with four inches of earth, you are supposed to fluff up the manure, then wet and pack it down. My goal is to start all my own plants and not have to buy any this year. I have rounded up some storm window sash to use over the top of it.

Winter Sowing- This is my first attempt at this.

This is my first attempt at what on the internet is called "Winter Sowing". The idea is that you put about four inches of potting soil in containers. You have to punch holes in the lids and bottoms, then water them well and sow your seeds. Then when the weather warms to suit the seeds they will decide when they want to sprout. I like the concept for a number of reasons, you can plant the seeds when there is no rush. Also it gives you a back up to what ever system you use to start seeds in the spring. Plants are so expensive to buy, that any way to generate your own plants will save a lot of money. I spent $2.50 on containers. $2.15 on soil, and $4.00 for an ice pick.  The lids are taped down with clear packing tape. I planted today the following: Large leaf Basil, Perennial Flower mix, Kohlrabi Gigante, Cauliflower Di Sicilia Violetto, Celeriac Giant Prague, Swiss Chard Bright Lights, Celery Pascal Green, Calabrese Broccoli, and Snowball Cauliflower. 

Ganet Yam/Sweet Potato Planted December 27th.

I bought one of these at the grocery store today. I was careful to buy an organic one, the others are treated with a chemical to keep them from sprouting. I you submerge half of it in water it will sprout, and by May I will have all the slips I need to plant in the garden. I think I saw somebody selling slips for two dollars a piece recently.

Evergreen Bunching Onions-December 20th Planting

With the bunching onions, you can cut off about an inch on the end and trim the roots back. Then you can plant this nub and it will regenerate itself. I planted about 20 of these nubs today. And I picked about 20 nice green onions yesterday. This year I planted some seeds in March, and then randomly  set them out in a bed. They are really foolproof little plants. The only thing I did was weed them all year. Next year I want to plant them in rows in trenches and mound them up to blanch them as they grow. I think the idea is to plant them in deep trenches, because the white edible part can really be lengthened by burying them.

Radish Harvest

We planted these Radishes the first two weeks of September. I was gone and couldn't pick them in November. This Monday the 4th of December

, we picked 10 bags of them. The white icicle and the Easter Egg Radishes did the best. The Easter Egg had nice size and were very uniformly round and have nice colors red, white and purple. I didn't take any pictures of them washed and cleaned, my hands were to wet and cold.

Last picking for Bright LightsSwiss Chard

I think by far Swiss Chard is the prettiest plant in a Vegetable Garden. Two days later it is 18 degrees so it got wiped out. I take Turkey sausage and brown it in water and Olive Oil. Then I cut the Swiss Chard down into pieces, and beginto cook it. While it is cooking I put about 1/4 cup of peanut butter, some salt and pepper, Soy Sauce and two table Spoons of fermented fish sauce in for flavoring. Then I like to eat it over rice. It's quite yummy.

Calcots- Forcing Onions

These are the onions I planted in September. The winter won't hurt them at all. I have at least 60 bulbs growing. Each one will produce 5 green onions. Early, sweet giant and robust. They will start growing in February and be ready for harvest in April.

Grey Griselle French Shallots

This picture was taken December 4th. These are the Shallots I planted late in October. They got a good start and will up and growing in February. Im not planning on mulching them. I had some leaves over them but they blew off.

Planting Sugar Snap Peas-December 4th

I noticed a few years ago that some Sugar Snap Peas came up voluntarily and got a big head start on the ones I planted. I think they were sprouting in February. So my experiment here, is planting the seeds intentionally the 4th of December. If they survive, I'll get a real early jump on the season. If not I'm out 50 cents worth of seeds. The ground was frozen and I had to poke little holes with a stick. I had a young helper.

Planting Tulips-Hugelkultur Style-

I bought 25 Tulip Bulbs called Darwin Hybrid. I tried to lay them out equidistant, and then shoved them down several inches. They should be buried deeper, so I put several inches of fresh horse manure over the top and another several inches of chopped leaves over the manure. That way it shouldn't draw flies and smell. I sprayed some water to top it off, hoping that then the wind won't blow away the leaves. Now it can rest and we'll see what happens in the spring.

Hugelkultur - Good use for old firewood-Preparing to plant Tulips

I am kind of intrigued by the idea of Hugelkultur. I am getting ready to plant some Tulips, and a friend gave me some old firewood. I dug a pit, stacked the wood and replaced the soil over the top. The wood is supposed to act as a sponge for water, and nutrients as it decomposes. It should work well in a Tulip bed, because you don't have to till it every year. The whole project took about an hour. It was much easier than what I was afraid of.