Sunday 10 March 2013

When to start planting

Seed Starting & Planting

Timing your seed planting is the key to success.  Plant too soon and you run the risk of a late frost damaging or killing your plants.  Plant too late and you can end up with a smaller harvest due to a shorter growing season.
Naturally, different areas have a different "last frost free date" and that is what you have to go by.  Here in the "banana belt" (southern Vancouver Island) we can often get going much earlier than places in the north or the prairies.  When we lived in the interior of B.C. we usually waited until May 24th to do outside plantings.  That is no longer the date we stick to here in Duncan.  Each area is different and if in doubt I suggest you ask at the local garden shop or  plant Nursery.

Start seeds inside or outside?
If you use your favourite web browser you can find charts to tell you how long it takes to sprout the various seeds and when to do the transplant seedlings you have started inside, out into the open garden.  
When starting seeds inside the house there are a number of things you have to keep in mind.  
* Seeds don't usually need light to germinate (but there are exeptions - primarily some flowers)
*  Seeds have an optimum temperature they like for germination.
*  After seeds have sprouted they need sunlight!  Too little light and they will grow tall looking for the sun.
*  Choose the right starting media & pot size.  If the starter pot is too small and the type of plant grows quickly, you will need to do a re-potting before it is time to plant it out into the garden.  Extra work that you can avoid!
*  Your little plant pots must be kept moist but don't drown the seeds!  
*    Think about how many plants you are going to need before you start seeding.  You will need perhaps 10 - 20% more than what you actually are going to use as some will  not thrive or survive.
*  Consider how much room you have to plant "stuff" out and then think about the cost of the finished item.  For example,  if you don't each much cabbage and you have limited garden space, do you really want to use up your space with something that you can buy at a low price in the store?
*  Before you start, get your materials all figured out.  What kind of tray you are going to use and how to keep it covered.  Yes, I said covered!  Your seedlings will do better in a covered container than just sitting open on a counter or window sill.  A lot of baking goods come in a plastic tray with a clear plastic cover - ideal for starting seeds providing you are not doing a huge number.  If you go to a garden centre you will find there are starter units available at a price.   
*  If you are going to want to start large quantities of seeds you may be interested in building your own plant trays and plant pots - and maybe even a seed germination box.  The latter can be made any size you want and you can purchase a heater cable you bury in sand in the bottom of the box that is thermostatically controlled to keep a nice even temperature for your seeds.  Before we downsized I used to grow a lot of seedlings and made trays out of strips of cedar cut to make trays that would fit in my starter box.  If you do this, make sure you optimize your space by making the trays the right size to fit in the starter box and make the box deep enough to be able to put strips on the inside to put small "planks" on to provide support for a second layer.  Any questions, drop me a note & I will try to answer your questions.
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Some time back I found a seed chart that I thought was good.   I was going to post it here but this format does not accept PDF files and it is 14 pages long so if you would like a copy post a request in the comments section of my blog and I will e-mail it to you.

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 What "ZONE" are you in?
It is necessary to know what zone you are in so you can correctly figure out what plants are hardy in your area.
 http://www.veseys.com/ca/en/learn/reference/hardinesszones/alberta
 http://www.veseys.com/ca/en/learn/reference/hardinesszones/britishcolumbia

http://www.veseys.com/ca/en/learn/reference/hardinesszones


The above websites are just a sample of what you can find if you use your browser to search and find what zone you are in.  And if you use the last link, Veseys have a list of zones on the right side of the page.  If you click on the zone you are in they give you a list of all the seeds etc. they can provide for use in your zone.
 
One type of plant that is extremely popular as a "start it yourself" 
 type of seedling is Tomatoes - partly due to the large variety of seeds available and the fact home grown tomatoes always seem to have more flavour than ones bought in the store.  I won't go into any more info on this here as I already have a blog page on tomatoes - take a look at it!

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Plant Starter Pots
There are many websites showing how to make your own starter pots for next to nothing.  Just "Google" newspaper plant pots and you will get lots of sites to visit.
GG 

 
 

Thursday 7 March 2013

Spring Clean-up Time is Coming!


Spring Cleanup Time  is coming !


Spring is just around the corner - closer for some of us than for others living in the still frozen north.  Here on Vancouver Island we are fortunate to have an earlier spring than most areas.
In our area we are slightly later than in Victoria B.C. where they are already enjoying lots of spring flowers.  Ours are coming along nicely too and some things are already growing.  
I have been out in the greenhouse and cleaned things up, pulled out the weeds that grew over the winter.  I was amazed to see a couple of pea vines that managed to live over the winter, one of which had a bloom on it.  Unfortunately, the base of the vines were withering away so I just pulled them up and planted more peas in the hopes of having some to eat early.   They are planted at the base of the wire frames.


My strawberry plants inside the greenhouse (unheated) have some flower buds on them and they produced a load of runners so I will have lots of plants this year.  

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The outside strawberry plants look nice and healthy and also produced an abundance of runners so I think I will be giving plants way soon.  If you look closely you can see the acorns all over the place.  As soon as it is dry enough I will be cleaning up all the dead leaves and sorting out which plants to keep and which to give away.  (I am sure the rain will soon stop long enough for the ground to dry up a bit!)

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Speaking of the greenhouse, the one thing that is in there that always does extremely well is the "Egyptian Onions" aka Walking Onions.  I have them in the greenhouse so we can have early green onions.  The bulblets I planted last fall are now at a size they can be harvested. We don't use a lot of green onions so we don't have a big planting - just enough to use a few now and then.   The main plant itself has more than doubled in size and the nice thing is they don't really need to be inside a greenhouse as they will survive nicely over the winter in areas with sub-zero temperatures.  The small onions at the bottom of the picture are just about ready - a little bigger would be OK but small is nice.

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One other thing that did well is the Oak trees in the neighbour's yards.  Yes, I said "yards" - 3 or 4 trees on the south and a huge one on the north - all of them were raining acorns on us last fall and now there are many dozen sprouting all over the place.  In case anyone is interested in growing more Gary Oak trees (endangered species) I have offered the sprouted acorns on our local freecycle/recycle group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cowichanvalleyrecycle/
Many interesting offerings by the group - everything from plants to boats, and it all has to be given away free.  Last fall I gave away a couple of buckets of acorns - one to a lady whose 2 little girls wanted them to feed to the squirrels, the other to a lady who was going to process them into acorn flour.

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 Last fall I left a lot of the oak & maple leaves on the ground in the flower beds - good mulch, and it did it's job so our plants that were covered are now sprouting up nicely.  I raked up the leaves now so insects can't multiply under them, have heaped them on my compost pile in hopes they will eventually rot down. The heather, oriental poppies and day lillies are looking good.

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The raspberry canes have overwintered and thrived.  They do send out shoots for new canes and I notice that two shoots have found their way under the wall of the greenhouse and have come up in there.  (you have to look closely to see them!) Those will be dug up and offered to anyone needing them - on "Freecycle" of course!

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While we were away, the people taking care of our place planted some lettuce... a different variety than we normally grow so we will see how it does. We normally plant a few plants of baby butter from seed.  Just a few seeds planted every couple of weeks can give you a steady supply.

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Talk about a strange looking sight!  I planted some Oregano late last summer and it seems to like the location.  Every branch that touched the ground has sent out roots so this mess can be divided up into a number of plants.  The strawberries were not really invited but the runners just grew all over the place.  If they produce well, then maybe they will get to stay in the place the chose.  In the black pot is a cutting that has rooted OK and is sprouting.  When it gets a little larger maybe we will be able to figure out what we were trying to grow.   One of the problems that comes with age is not remembering what the heck you planted!

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