Busy Day

Finally started cleaning the basement to start planting seeds soon.  What a MESS it had become!   I could barely move around in parts of it.

Part of it is Loki.  He's an explorer and a real climber.  And when he jumps up of some places, they aren't as sturdy or stable as he thinks.  Appearances can easily deceive a cat.  They think that anything that looks solid is solid.  A stack of stuff can fall over.

So my stack of soil-filled planting trays (ready for planting) wasn't as sturdy as he thought it was.  It all crashed down and spilled the soil out everywhere!  

But most of it is my fault.  Last year, I had a bit of a return to some of the results of falling off the extension ladder.  Sore back, sore knees, some general fatigue.  So when finished with yard/garden work, I tended to put stuff in the basement wherever I could fit.

Well, you run out of space eventually.  Things don't get put away as they should.  Buckets stay a bit dirty.  Seed packets sit out and expire in the warmth (I usually keep them refrigerated).  Fallen soil collects on the floor.  And I fell into a habit of just laying in bed every night for 10 or more hours (mild depression, long covid, aging?) and that didn't leave much awake time for other than basic stuff (and blogging, which I just have to do).

I'd been meaning to tackle cleaning the basement for a month, but there was always something more immediate to do.  The seductive comfort of the heated waterbed, doing laundry, cooking, shopping, etc...  

But I've been getting myself up earlier lately.  Yesterday I made lunch fast, just skimmed the newspaper (must read the editorials and comics), and got myself down the basement.  Where on earth to start?  Well, if I am going to cook dinner, I want the kitchen clean.  I know I will make some mess cooking, but I need it to be clean to start.

So, in the basement, I picked stuff up off the floor, then swept it (I have a shop-vacuum, but I don't like the noise).  And sweeping is rather "meditative".  Quiet, repetitive, calming...  I knew I would mess it up again cleaning higher spots later, but it gave me a good surface to work from.

I mix my own potting soil.  When I run out of it, I mix more.  Which means I have bags of various stuff (peat, sand, compost, lime, fertilizer) left over.  I also used to buy kitty litter in 35# tubs.  They make great containers for the leftovers.  

So I combined 1/2 buckets of some of those and stashed them under my potting bench after sweeping that area clean.  Then brushed the empty buckets clean.  Stacked them up and set them in the garage.  That got me some space.

Collected everything that should really be out in the toolshed and set them next to the patio door for moving there by wheelbarrow (today was for organizing, not moving).  That got me some more space.  Took the trays I grow lettuce and other small crops in and dumped them all into a large shallow bin.  Broke up the chunks of soil and mixed it around with some organic slow-release fertilizer.  Refilled the trays and stacked them aside for planting in a few days.  

That got me the small TV-Tray-size worktable back.  It sits next to the basement refrigerator.  I use it for  holding bulk fresh food while I fit it into the fridge and I also use it for planting.  I was glad to have it available again.

I have a large planting stand, 2'x4' and 5 shelves high.  Bought it many years ago and added fluorescent light fixtures to the underside of each shelf.  Fluorescent lights last well and are energy-efficient, but at 14-16 hours per day, they last only months and even then, they collectively use about 800 watts!  And the fluorescent tubes aren't free either.

So, 1 1/2 years ago, I bought special "grow-light" LED) panels to replace them.  I haven't done that yet.  I need to take all the fluorescent fixtures off and install the LEDs, but I didn't have space (or energy) to do it before.  I am ready to do that now.  The LEDs use 1/4 of the energy and should last many years.  That almost starts to feel like "free", and the seedlings will get better light!  

But it will probably take an entire day to get that done.  I will remove the old fixtures one half-day and install the new ones the next half day.  Because I know my hands/fingers will cramp if I try to do it all in one day (and may anyway in 2 days).  

And I still have to clean the potting table.  The soil from the stacked trays Loki knocked over a couple months ago is still all over it.  The seed packets are still sitting out on the table and are probably useless now.  I have a pile of seed labels that need to be sorted out.  I rinsed out the old 6-pack cells a few days ago, and they are dry and ready to reuse.

Aside from basement-cleaning for planting,  I need to re-order many seeds.  It's a bit late, so some I want will be "out-of stock" now, but that's my fault.  Vegetable seeds will be easier to replace, but flower seeds become unavailable fast.  

But at least I am making some serious progress in the basement.

 

More Random Things

1.  I got my 2nd Moderna Covid shot yesterday.   What a STRUGGLE (I joke)!  Actually, I just drove 15 minutes to the shot center, was in and out in 20 minutes (and only that long because there was a required 15 minute observation period) and 15 minutes home.  Seriously, from the time I walked in the door to the time I had my shot and my vaccination card returned was only 5 minutes!

I had only the least sensation of any shot.  Well they DID stick a 1" needle in my arm, after all...  But at least that is all over for now.  When time has passed, I will get a Covid test to see if I had it asymptomatically last year.  If that would be detectable after the shots, of course.  I'm planning to have an annual physical in June; I'll ask about that then. 

I'm curious because I have felt oddly tired since last Fall and tend to lay abed for longer than I used to.  It might be several things.  Age, Covid itself, mere boredom from home-restriction due to the virus concerns, or even Season Affective Disorder.  I've had a mild problem with SAD for a couple decades.  

It varies.  Some Winters are mild and I am out more so little problem.  Other years Winter is harsher and I get less sunlight exposure.  I don't mind fluorescent bulbs and have "daylight" tubes in most fixtures, but I don't know if that helps much.  The only true sunlight is sunlight.  I know there are special bulbs available.  Everyone seems to have some odd minor problems...

2,  All the indoor seed-planting is complete.  Next comes some early outdoors plants.  Beets, spinach, beans, carrots, leeks, radishes.  My tomatoes will be a bit late as I got them planted late.  Some are for "normal" transplanting out and some are for grafting attempts.  I used to go to great lengths to plant heirlooms early with devices designed to keep them warm (wall-of-water cylinders and hotcaps), but I am convinced now that it doesn't seem to matter.  Tomatoes transplanted out "late" seem to catch up and possibly surpass the earlier ones.

My bell and hot peppers didn't emerge well this year.  They aren't any older than the tomatoes (which came up almost 100%) but some seeds don't store as well as others.  I may have to buy some pepper seedlings in May.

3.  John showed me how to drain the gas tank on the brushmower (and then of course I should add new gas).  And he told me I need "starter-fluid" to squirt into the carburator to get the engine running while new gas is pulled in.  Wait, does he mean "starter fluid" like some people use to light charcoal or some specific gas engine stuff with the same name?  I need to ask.  

4.  A half of an old tree in my neighbor's yard fell over into mine. It is substantial. Fortunately, none of it landed on the 4  small flowring trees I planted in Fall 2019.  Part of me says "sure I can cut it apart".  The sensible part says "call a tree company".  I'm not 35 anymore.  But I WILL wait until the backyard daffodils have lost their leaves and the bulbs are safely underground again.  

The tree guys do great work and they work hard, but they don't pay much attention to landscaping.  They have a goal.  Cut stuff up, drag it out. throw it into the grinder.

I'll call them when there is little to damage.  The fallen tree isn't actually causing an immediate problem.

Seedlings UP!

 I was gratified to see some seedling emerging from the newly-planting trays today.  Some Cosmos flower seeds emerged, some lettuce seeds emerged, some radishes emerged.  Good start.  I expect tomatoes and peppers in a day or two.

I planted snow peas outside today.  I wasn't sure how to plant them; they need support and I didn't want to dedicate any tomato cages to them as I'll want those in a few weeks.  So there I was in the yard, and I noticed a 5'x3' piece of rebar 6" mesh.  Perfect!  I keep stuff around because it always gets useful "eventually".   

Attached it to a support pole after weeding the spot and loosening the soil.  I had the pea seeds pre-soaked overnight 3 days ago and saw which germinated (16 of 18).  Those got planted.  

I received 2 grafted Brandywine tomatoes from Territorial Seeds yesterday.  Those are under indoor lights to firm up the grafts and encourage rooting.  I have my own to graft, but I'm not good at it so having a couple professionally done is good backup.  And I have pots of direct non-grafting seedling for standard growing.

I was late on planting, but experience tells me that later-planted tomatoes catch up to early-planted ones so I thing I may have a good harvest this year.  One always hopes...

This year, I hope the many flowers I have planted indoors will thrive outside.  They usually do, but I have less-usual ones I hope to use to establish some self-sowing ones that may repeat for years.  It's a fight between the weedy grasses and the flowers each year.  

I've been rubbing the marigold flowers to separate the seeds the past few days while watching TV.  They grew well enough just scatterred around last year and I am hoping for the same this year.

There were whole square yards of them.  I hope for the same this year...

The weather is great.  Time to be outside more these days.

The Indoor Lettuce Garden

OK, so yesterday I posted about the veggies and some flowers to go outside in a month or so.  Today I'm posting about the indoor lettuce garden...

I HAD a great lettuce garden going before The Ladder Incident.  Radishes, Bok Choy, Carrots, and 4 Lettuces.

Great Neighbor Deb watered them twice when I thought about them, but they usually slipped my mind.  Priorities were groceries, clean cat litter boxes, and laundry.

When I was able to get down to the basement again (barely), the indoor garden was in trouble.  I managed to water them a few times, but noticed "dust" on the leaves.  Turned out to be an infestation of nearly invisible tiny aphids.  It was too much to cope with at the time.

Thankfully, some plants survived anyway.  Last week I took the trays outside and sprayed them with Neem Oil (a tree-based organic insecticide most effective on small soft-bodied pests like aphids and mites but safe for humans).  The nights were warm, so I left them out 2 days.  Them I sprayed the HELL out of the plants with the garden hose and left them out another 2 days.  

The surviving plants looked bad!

BUT, they were clean of all aphids!  I harvested those.  Fine salads...

I emptied all the tray soil into a large 2'x3' plastic tub and sprayed Neem in the soil to get at any surviving aphid eggs and to let the soil dry a bit.  I don't actually know if aphids lay eggs in the soil, but I was being thorough.  And apparently it doesn't bother earthworms.  I found some beauties in the soil when I repotted the trays!  I moved the worms outside to rich soil.

Then I refilled and replanted the trays.  Bok Choy, Radishes, Red Romaine/Red Leaf/Green Leaf/Green Head/and Endive Lettuces will come my way in 6 weeks!  The nice thing is they are "cut and come again".  They regrow new leaves several times.

I'll show pictures when they are growing again (but they will look about the same as the top pics).  It was nice to be able to get my hands in soil again!  

I have snow peas soaking overnight for planting outside tomorrow.  There is still time for them to fruit before the hot weather hits.  I will be able to plant some seeds directly outside in a couple weeks.  Spinach, Pole Beans, Corn, Beets, Carrots, etc.  Can't wait...

Gardening can be a cruel hobby.  Last year, I had everything planted indoors and out on time but it stayed cold and wet all Spring, so most died and some couldn't be replanted (too late to mature or ran out of seeds).  I hardly got any heirloom tomatoes, no corn or spinach, and few peppers.  THe pole beans were OK.  

This year, the weather was good but I wasn't.  Still, hope springs eternal.  I'm not beyond the point of expecting some good harvests.  

Getting Back To Normal Activities

I was surprised to realize I haven't posted here for a while.  I suppose I got used to just posting about falling off the ladder and healing from it.  Well, I'm about as healed as I will ever be, so there wasn't much to say about that.  I'm walking, driving, shopping, doing household chores about like before.  The collarbone ain't ever gonna be re-attached to the shoulder bone though.  An operation is bad enough; the recovery requirements are worse.  

But I DID get back to gardening yesterday and today.  I got tomatoes and peppers started indoors  (yes, I'm late by a month).  I have 2 groups of tomatoes planted.  Some are planted normally for direct transplanting outside in 6 weeks.  

But some are planted 2 to a larger pot.  Those have an heirloom tomato and a special rootstock tomato for grafting.  I am (so far) a complete failure at grafting tomatoes but I keep trying.  The idea is that a vigorous rootstock tomato (that on its own produces poor fruits) can be topped with a less vigorous heirloom tomato with great fruits.  

The rootstock makes a larger root system, is disease resistant, and absorbs more nutrients to send up the heirloom stem.  There are 2 basic grafting methods.  One cuts off the tops of both seedlings and you clip the heirloom top to the rootstock bottom.  

The other has you shave both stems slightly and clip the shaved areas together.  That leaves both seedlings with roots for nutrients while the graft heals.  Then later, you cut the bottom of the heirloom and the top of the rootstock off, leaving one grafted plant.

Someday I will manage to get that to work.  Other people do.  I've watched youtube videos of it and they show the routine success.  They get a lot more true heirloom fruits than usual.  You can even buy them (I have 2 grafted Brandywine tomatoes on order for delivery in a couple weeks.  But they aren't cheap ($10 per plant), but they really do produce better so I REALLY want to learn how to do it myself.

I also late-planted a bunch of flowers indoors.  Some are standard ones like zinnias, marigolds, and salvia. Others are more unusual but are tall cottage-garden "self-sowers" so if I can get them established outside they might spread and shade out weeds for many years.

I have to confess that my lovely indoor lettuce garden failed while I was injured.  But that is for another post!

Indoor Gardening Started!

It's always a bit of work to get started each year.  Here is how it looked last week...

Well, things pile up over the Winter.  So I organized some supplies into piles, moved some stuff to the shelves in the garden shed, and threw out some junk.  That left me with this...

NOW, I have some working space and am ready to go.  The barrel (above) holds my personal premixed potting soil.  WAY cheaper than buying those small bags, and I know for sure what is in them (I try to stay organic).  The tubs below are the various components that are left over, plus some of them are used potting soil from last year.  Those are fine for established plants but not for new seeds. Kitty litter tubs make great containers (good size, good handles, good tops). 

The long narrow planters are for indoor lettuces, pak choi, and leafy celery.

The stacked trays below are filled with my sterile potting soul mix for the new seeds.  I poured an inch of hot water into each tray so the soil could soak.  Dry potting soil takes a day to get saturated.  It is not like regular dirt, LOL!

So, tomorrow, I will be able to plant seeds.  The first will be the heirloom tomatoes I hope to graft onto vigorous disease-resistant rootstock.  I've never succeeded in that in 3 years but I keep trying.  I learn a little bit each time.

The rest of the trays will go to perennial or self-sowing flowers I am trying to establish in old beds, some mass-annuals like marigolds and zinnias, and other veggies like bell peppers and melons.

I used up 1/2 of the barrel of the potting soil, but the trays are filled and saturated.  That means all I have to do is plant seeds according to schedule.

And I have a great schedule!  Years ago, I made index cards for each veggie, sorted by "weeks before and after last frost date".  Each card has the name of a veggie and the indoor or outdoor planting date, the kind of fertilizer it wants, and the spacing per square foot of garden space.  Example:
 
And I have 2 calendars marked with + or - weeks related to last frost to remind me which cards to look at for planting each week.

The growing season has STARTED!

Indoor Gardening

Some plants grow well indoors under lights.  Lettuce is one of them, and I love my salads!

The specific names don't matter, but from left to right:  A loosehead , a purple romaine, an endive, and a red leaf.  The nice thing is that I can just take scissors and cut off a plant 1" above soil-level and it grows back.  Each 24" tray holds just enough that each plant grows back in time to be harvested again.  They go on for months that way.  And they are completely organic!

I got the planter trays from WalMart, I mix the soil myself (peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, and slow-release 12-6-6 fertilizer) but any houseplant potting soil will do.  I grow them under fluorescent lights on a rack.








I use standard lights (I used to use those Gro-Lux lights, but they are expensive).  But I learned that the white lights work fine IF the color index is right.  Plants like the red and blue ends of the spectrum so make sure the "temperature" listed on the box or label is at least 5,000K if you try this yourself.  BTW (possibly over-explaining) green leaves look green because the plants DON'T absorb that color.  But purple leaves do, so the 5,000K that produces all colors works for them too.

I also grow basil and celery, but I just replanted those trays, so no pics at the moment.

Since I'm discussing lettuce, here is my typical tossed salad:  Several lettuces, grape tomatoes, onion, mini-cucumbers (because they are seedless), chick peas, black olives, green olives, bell pepper, and sometimes a chopped mushroom or carrot or cubed ham.  Some people like cheese or croutons; I don't.  Otherwise, if you can eat it raw, I add it.  Except cabbage type stuff (I love them as sides, go figure).  They don't go well with tomatoes...

Well, since I'm discussing food, here's my typical meal:  3-4 oz non-fish meat (I hate fish), a large salad, and 2 side veggies (a green and a red/purple/orange/yellow).  With a couple glasses of Zinfandel (goes with everything I eat).  Dessert is nuts and fresh fruits. 

Sometimes some vanilla ice cream and Lindor/Lindt truffles...  Extra Dark, White, and Hazelnut.  I buy a 120 piece box of each about once a year.  360 pieces, 365 days. 


Tomorrow, I sit down with the seed catalogs and my seed tray and see what I need to order for next year.


The current model is on the left.  But the old one is good for carrying seed vials out to the garden.  All the vials (specimen containers I found on sale once) are numbered top and sides and I keep a descriptive list on a spreadsheet and the tray stays in the basement refrigerator (which I use as a root cellar for bulk stuff.

There is a fine line between "organized" and "obsessive", and I'm not sure which side I'm on.  LOL!  Probably, since I wonder about it, I am (barely, I hope) just under it. 

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year To All.