Tons of Transplants

Wasn't this winter crazy? The cold weather seemed to go on and on. While the arctic cold fronts lined up for the chance to visit Texas, I stared out at my garden anxious to get started on my spring planting. Very soon impatience won out and I decided to take matters into my own hands.

If spring was going to be late this year, I was determined to be ready when it got here by starting my seeds in the house. It helped that I already had a home-made seed growing rack. The rack shown below can accommodate 4 seedling flats. It's assembled from PVC and uses inexpensive shop lights hung on adjustable chains.

Indoor seedlings grow best under full spectrum light bulbs with the lights just above the seedlings. I use chains and s hooks to adjust the lights to just the right height. A light timer is real handy to make sure the seedlings get 14 hours of light daily.

This sweet basil seems pretty happy under the grow lights.

A sunny spot, a container, soil and some seeds are all that is needed to get started growing seeds indoors. For me, success has come from trial and error. When something went wrong, I researched the problem and decided how best to solve it. For example, did you know that seedling's stems are made stronger by air currents? Running a ceiling fan or other low powered fan will help the seedlings develop stronger stems.

Not all seeds will germinate, so I always grow more than I need. This seed starting system can accommodate 72 seedlings at once. The two trays sit in a reservoir which allows the seedlings to wick up water from below. This three piece tray and reservoir system is reusable. If taken care of it will last multiple seasons.

Seed starting mix is a very fine soilless mix specially suited to starting seeds. I like mixes that contain worm castings. These specialty mixes are very pricey compared to other soil mixes, which is one reason why seeds are started in small cells and then moved up to larger containers later.

Grower's medium is a courser soilless mix that is generally either peat based or coir based. The mix I'm using contains mycorrhizae bacteria which assist plant roots in taking up nutrients. 

Grower's mix does not usually contain a fertilizer, so it is up to the grower to decide how to fertilize the plants. I like to water with a diluted liquid fertilizer, so the plants get a steady supply of food.

With a little luck, the seedlings will be healthy like the okra and cucumbers shown below.

With a little more luck, there will be an abundance of seedlings. 

Like I was saying earlier... It was a long winter.

I'll be selling my excess seedlings online at the Yard to Market Co-op website. The plant mugshots I took for the online catalog are shown below. 

I hope to fit one of all these varieties into my garden this year, but considering I'm already out of garden space that might be tricky. But wait, I have an idea. I'm going to try grow bags this year. More on that to come.

The Loudest Buzz

The wisteria is in bloom! The flowers drip from the arbor in a display that is both eye catching and nose arresting. The scent is unmistakable and alluring, so I approach for a closer look and a deeper intake of the wonderfully perfumed air.

That's when I hear the sound. The loudest buzz you will ever hear. My shoulders instinctively come up to ears and my head sinks down deep into my clavicle. That's the buzz of dozens of carpenter bees as they zip from one flower to the next.

The buzz isn't just for show. The carpenter bee has powerful thoracic muscles that literally buzz the pollen right out of the flowers. 

Carpenter bees are often mistaken for bumble bees, but one good look at their shiney hiney will let you know that they are carpenters bees.

The eastern carpenter bee moves from flower to flower giving me an opportunity at a few sequential shots.

Most of the other bees are not so considerate, but my camera and I are on a mission. 

I thought this black bee might be a mason bee, but on closer inspection, I'm not so sure. He seems kinda pudgy for a mason bee. He may be a mountain carpenter bee, but who knows. With over 700 species of carpenter bees, it would probably bee-hoove me to do more research. 

Bee good and have a fun spring!

Dwarf Flowering Almond

For 20 years the dwarf flowering almond (prunus glandulosa) has been a harbinger of spring in my garden. The double pink flowers open early and have excellent staying power. Since I'm awful at remembering plant names, the flowering almond simply became known as the pink fuzzball tree around our house. I think you can see why.

I'm not sure where or why I originally purchased this shrub. I probably saw it in a big box store during it's spring flush of pink fluffiness and snatched it up in a moment of impulse. I'm glad I did because it's turned out to be one of my best purchases.

Various web sites describe the flowering almond as needing full sun and moist, well-drained soil. These days I rarely plant anything requiring "moist" soils, but I have to say this plant is very drought tolerant once established. It lived quite happily between a lantana and an ornamental pomegranate until it was relocated last May. 

The mature height of the flowering almond is supposed to be 4-5 feet. Mine stands about 3 feet tall. Perhaps it is smaller due to lack of water and care. I never pampered it. I don't even remember ever fertilizing the poor thing, but every spring the tight little pink buds form and then burst into flower.

This is a plant I can truly count on to get my spring off to a good start! 

Play it Again Onions

On  a recent trip to the Hope Farmer's Market, I saw the most beautiful green onions at the Yard to Market booth. The tops were beautiful, but what really caught my attention were the fabulous roots. I knew these onions would be perfect for a little experiment that I have been wanting to try.

Did you know that you can re-grow green onions and have fresh clippings on hand whenever you need them? Well, you can. Re-growing onions is both fun and frugal. I tried a similar experiment with celery, which you can read about in my blog, Magic Celery. The celery experiment worked great, so I'm pretty excited to see what happens with the onions.

To get started, simply cut the green tops off of the onions and reserve them for your favorite recipe. For this experiment, we'll only need the bulby bottoms.

Grab yourself a pot or a nice patch of ground and space out some holes for each of the onions. I found my gloved finger made the perfect sized hole.

Plant each onion root, leaving the top poking up out of the soil. Water well and place in a sunny spot.

In just three days, noticeable sprouts will begin to form.

In know time at all I'll have a wonderful harvest of green onions for soups, baked potatoes and salads. Give it a try!

Go for the Gold

When I grow beets, I go for the gold! Golden beets that is.

This year I'm growing both red and golden beets, but at harvest time, it's easy to tell them apart. The golden beets are bright yellow all the way through to their leaf veins, and the red beets have these beautiful red, striped stems.

If you've ever prepared and cooked red beets, you know that the red juice can be quite messy, but not so with golden beets. Red juice aside, I just prefer the taste of the golden beet. They are wonderfully sweet without that earthy taste that sometimes accompanies red beets.

Roasting really brings out the flavor of root vegetables. Tonight I'm roasting golden beets and carrots tossed with olive oil, a bit of thyme, salt and ground pepper in a 400 degree oven. After 30 minutes, the vegetables are fork tender and oh, so good.

Nutritious and low in calories. You can't beat beets.

My Backyard Weather Station

As a gardener and weather-geek, I was thrilled to get this weather station as a gift from some very good friends this past Christmas.

I had been dreaming of my very own weather station for some time, but my Libra decision-making skills were on the fritz. Weighing the pros and cons can sometimes slow down my purchases. So, as you might imagine, I was thrilled to get such a wonderful gift.

This professional weather station provides lots of cool features including the ability to monitor weather remotely via a smart phone or personal computer.

True to it's advertising, the Acurite Professional Weather Center came with very good instructions and was very easy to set up.

The Acurite internet bridge connects to my wireless router which enables the transmissions from the outdoor weather station to be sent to the internet.

What really appeals to me about this system is the ability to monitor the weather in my backyard via an iPhone App. The Acurite Acu-Link application is free to download, and as soon as I created an account and completed the online setup, I was off and running.

The outdoor weather station offers five weather sensors in one compact unit. For best results, the weather station needs to be in an open location with no obstructions. The recommended distance from the ground is at least 5 feet. The unit comes with a solar cell which needs to face south to properly orient the wind direction vane. Unless you know exactly which way is south, you'll probably want to use a compass to get this right. 

The station has components to monitor temperature, humidity, wind, rainfall, and atmospheric pressure.

The temperature display has an awesome design. It shows today's high and low temperature as well as changes over the last 12 hour period. If more information is needed, I can look at the records tab to see what's been going on over the last year.

Rainfall and rainfall records are available in a format similar to the temperature. The rainfall collection cup on the outdoor unit automatically empties each 24 hour period, which is very handy.

Wind speed and direction are fun to watch if you like to know the second those cold fronts start blowing in.

Another cool aspect of having your own backyard weather station is the ability to share your information with other weather-geeks. Wunderground offers an application that allows people to register their weather station so others can see it.

The wunderground map allows me to pinpoint weather stations of interest in my neighborhood, the city, or beyond.

Here's the weather station at the Natural Gardener. I've heard this can often be one of the coldest spots in town.

With so much weather information at my fingers tips, I can weather-geek out whenever I want. How fun is that! Thanks Jeanne, Marty and Jen!