Excercise, social life and meditation (3 big pictures)

[BelgianMadCow]

March was cold and rainy - so was much of april :-( Still, I have some things to watch grow, and things I learned (the hard way).

From left to right:

Bed 1
potatoes I just "piled up" heaping soil around the plants so they are deeper inside if you will. Learning point: you really DO need 35 -40 inch between the rows or it becomes hard...

Bed 2
- spinach in various states of development - front ones I started in the greenhouse, at same time as sowing the other ones. Kind of surprising to see the front does better, but the nights have been cold for long... They must be like 5 weeks now, will harvest some leaves of each plant (should be able to do that 3 times). Should have taken new zealand spinach, easier to cultivate and spreads itself out.
- a small bed of radish which is ready (leaves are rather high, should have thinned a bit more) and a fresh seed bed next to it. Aside the radish, chervil, can't see it though.
- behind it with the dark green leaves: Rucola or nut lettuce or rocket salad (literal, unsure of the english name). They are going nicely BUT you do NOT plant them like regular lettuce - should be kept in rows or they shoot up too much. Oh well :-) All kinds of lettuce is what I'll be sowing regularly anyway so as to keep that half bed filled.
- behind that, regular lettuce. Ate the first yesterday, can't find tender salad like that in the stores. Have to use pellets against snails which have really become a problem round here. All the lettuce crops come kind of at once - gonna look into (cold?) salad soup and gonna make some neighbors / family happy.

Bed 3:
- in front, chive. Wow have they grown since last year. It's flowering, looks nice but think it's not as good for the taste. Behind it, oregano, mediterranean herb. It's spreading even faster, already gave half to a neighbor. Under the small drape: parsley, attempt 2. germinates really slowly, helps if you presoak them for a day at room temp. Behind that, covered with anti cat netting, more chervil. Want to have enough for soup, but the germination :-/ Gonna redo it in the greenhouse I think. Behind: 3 rows of leek. Not happy about how they are doing - think I closed the deep planting holes too soon. Last year, I didn't plant them deep at all. Thus, hardly any white part :-)
- aside of the leek: a row of onions, also on side of next bed, challots. Onion type plants are good against leek fly and carrot fly. Tried some insect netting - see the sad hoops - but cats and netting = fun and frolics. Love 'em but they seem to especially like leek, to lie on and poo between. Cats will do more dmg jumping on the tunnel nets than the flies so byebye nets. Next year, cat fence.

bed 4:
- in front, sorrel - a great addition to mashed potatoes. Needs to be more though.
- behind it, tarragon, to flavour vinegar and for real béarnaise sauce of course.
- rest: attempt 2 at carrots (under drapes). Attempt one is in the back of the row, no carrot sprouts to be seen but the weed was happy under the drapes, meh.

Behind it all: 5 berry bushes (red, green and white) that will (I hope) cover the ugly wall and yield more jam input material.

The strange color of the "pathway" grass in front is because I sprayed it - want that gone as it's a perfect start for weeds. Plus, better half wants things to look more tidy back here.

Next up, greenhouse (and 2 chickens besides and behind it). I should chalk the panes to avoid excessive heat. But look at my clean windows first!



Will not go into detail as by now nobody is still reading. Yes, that is a really stupid place for a rhubarb. Love 'em with sugar and raisins in it, gonna try jam as well. No pie experience here at home ;-) Planted tomatoes on the right are finally de-stressing (stem color no longer purple). Say nothing of the lettuce jungle to the left!
The styrofoam containers for sowing I got from local fish merchant, he was happy to get rid of some.

And finally, a look at the other small plot I started - since the neighbor is a young woman living alone, she didn't want to tend to the orchard or the plot of land. Well hellloo new garden :D



Pear and apple trees, and behind it 2 beds of early potatoes, 1 bed of late potatoes, 2 rows of leek (planted better and a bit later as well, the difference shows) with another cat-treated insect netting tunnel. A bed of peas that are an inch up and a bed of salsify to finish. Cucumbers and pumpkin can play in the back, seedlings out in greenhouse.
The REAL neat rows you can discern in the back is the garden of my 80 year old neighbor. Gardening 65 years vs. my umm 2...well suffice to say I spend a lot of time either talking to him over there or stealing with my eyes :-). We also share seedlings, you always have too many.

:hi:
bmc

PS very few things compare to the joy of watching nature unfold the miracle of growth. About one fifth if that of my garden time is ummm non-leaning.

[maddezmom]

1. great pics and garden

My dad is a big time gardener and I swear from the time he turns over his garden he can't wait until Spring. Short growing season in MI, but I think after he retires he may do some seedlings and whatnot. I'm going to send him a link to this as I know he will enjoy reading a fellow gardeners story. :hi:

[BelgianMadCow]

9. Thanks! Your dad is probably much better at it

First year, only greenhouse, tomatoes I then left untended - to discover they still had a nice yield, respect@plants.
Second year, started WAY too late. End of may I think, only took 2.5 beds back from the wilderness.
This year, started in march, thinking yay me.
Then, also in march, my aunts (85) show me their tomato plants. Umm yeah I SHOULD be sowing I guess lol
Tilling the ground...has to happen in late autumn really, and work in all of your compost. *cough* I mixed way too much / big branches in my compost *cough* area, gonna be years before I can use it.
I have a greenhouse - so I should be having things to EAT by march, now I know thanks to a book with great what-when-how time schedules.

The sowing (is that the right verb?) and planting season is busy but very rewarding. Says my Book: after that, it's mainly pulling weeds. Yay. ;-) Nah, I'll be sitting in the shade and watching. Pulling weeds too soon is harder than doing so when they are large enough to get the root as well... *whistles*

:hi:

[roguevalley]

20. wow. I love your gardens and greenhouse. I am going to be using

old plastic milk crates for a raised garden this year. I am going to line them with plastic and cut holes for drainage. then fill with dirt and plant. When it gets warm. Alaska has a late start. :( Very nice garden.

[FirstLight]

2. Wow..I am so jealous!

You live in Belgium, really? what is the climate really like? it is comparble to east coast US or where?
I live in the High Sierras, we have snow on the ground till early april...sometimes even till late may! I can't really plant outside till mid June...so most everything I wil start indoors this year...but I tend to be really bad at that.

any tips on how to start seedlings?thanks :)

and tthanks for sharing such beauty and wonder of springtime! Happy MayDay!

[BelgianMadCow]

15. yeah I'm a native belgian - and if you like shades of green

we have lots of those :-) Winters are mild, a bit of snow or none. Summers are mild as well - tempering influence of the North Sea to the west of us - which is where we get our rain from, after most of it has been poored on the UK, that is. I do think it's close to the east coast weather - at least at NY level, not more to the south.

Starting seedlings (I think you mean indoor?)

Sow in a flat container (can find those for free), ideally using special soil for seedlings - it is like regular soil you can buy, but has fewer nutrients, too much nutrients (mixed in fertiliser) can burn seedlings. If you only have regular planting soil at hand, not thàt big a deal, sift out the large chunks.
Pre-water the soil with water at room temperature. Make a small "ditch" and cover the seeds with a layer of soil as thick as the seed is large - is a rule of thumb, check the seed packet as well. Press gently on the row, to assure contact seed-soil and cover the container with shrink-wrap plastic. I attach the plastic with toothpicks...the cover makes a big difference in how quickly the soil dries, and has a greenhouse effect. Most seeds need a specific minimum soil temperature! I use the microwave perforated type, a bit less condensation. You don't really want condensation water leaking all the time at the same spot, continuously soaked soil may cause the seed to rot. Haven't seen that indoor I should say. Allowing some airing by removing the cover for a while is a good idea.

Keep the box on a windowsill, facing east preferably, until you see the sprouts coming. Germinating can take up to 20 days! At that point, be careful not to expose the sprouts to too much direct (noon) sunlight, they WILL burn. I put them elsewhere, the cover helps a bit as well, and put a paper page on top otherwise. Also, turn the box around every other day so they don't grown tilted to the light.

You want the soil to not be soaking wet, not dry either. When it gets really dry, you get a kind of crust and sprouts can't get through. When I see that, I water carefully, then when that has soaked in (doesn't go in straight away) water some more. If you take a look every morning and evening, they'll be fine. Putting the boxes on the floor and not in front of cold / drafty windows at night is smart, too. I am not allowed to do so however.

A handy alternative for sowing directly in the box is doing so in small (couple inches) pots, the kind you have leftover if you buy flowers. Then the seedling can grow to a small plant directly in that pot, and that's convenient for planting outside. You'll need a bit more sill space for this, leave some sill space free as well or the cats lie IN the containers. Hmm nice warm soil purr.
I put those pots inside a styrofoam container so I can handle them, cover them as well, and water without messing up the house. When you sow directly in the container, you will have to move plants to such pots when they have like 2-4 real leaves (the very first pair isn't counted). This is hard work for my thick fingers... it depends on what you are sowing though - some are typically sown in rows and thinned "in the row" rather than put in pots. Pots straight away I do for tomato, paprika and cucumber. Lettuce as well. Oh and did basil too, works great. Many of the herbs are ideal for grwoing in pots in any case (a bit bigger then). You will want to put a couple seeds per pot, not all of them germinate or do so nicely.
Even better, sow in peat pots - the plant's roots can grow through it and you can plant it WITH the pot. It all has to do with disturbing the root system as little as possible.. I don't to the last thing, these jiffy pots cost.

Finally, when the plants are a couple weeks old, you want to move them outside in steps - "training" them to get used to cold and temperature change. First a colder hallway, then a garage, that kind of thing. If you plant one directly from inside it will be too weak.


ow that was a lot of blabla - basically good soil, good watering, a cover and some love does the trick.

1st of May = Feast of Labor here. All socialists come out and speech :D

[The River]

3. Nice

I used to garden about 2 acres
to feed the family year-round.
Lot of work.

[BelgianMadCow]

11. 2 acres now that is a LOT. I thought 800 square meters

was enough for a family, which is only about a fifth of an acre...humm I'm sure you're right since you have done it - didn't you have some to spare?

I have maybe 2000 square feet including greenhouse and chicken run. I don't have any power tools though, I sure hope you did! How come you stopped doing that if I may ask?

[panader0]

4. How's the weed doing?

[BelgianMadCow]

7. I just knew someone would do that ;-)

since you ask, this just up:



This is from last year, hemp is real good to keep potatoes plague-free.

Or were you talking about the larrrge weeds under the rhubarb? Rhubarb will win!
Also weedwise: the thin spikes you can see coming from the ground here and there are a "signal weed" for a soil that has "closed", is too acidic and probably left untended for a while :-(

ps thanks for the reminder - took out the picture with my kid

[AspenRose]

5. Very nice

I salute you :patriot: :applause:

[bananas]

6. k&r - great photos. nt

[NV Whino]

8. Beautiful garden

I'm still battling frost.

Vineyard wind machines go on. I jump out of bed. Throw on sweats. Race to the garden in 32 degree temperature and cover veggies. Now I have a cold.

[BelgianMadCow]

13. Vineyard wind machines?

Is that
a) a brand new alternative energy generation method
b) a rather impolite way to refer to a flatulent farmer
c) a kind of grapeheating hairdryer on steroids?

seriously, getting out of bed like that...when I do so and just go downstairs to get something for my better half, she thinks I'm some kind of hero.

And even more seriously - this whole thing gave me a whole new perspective on farming. In the old days man o man... and still. To depend on the weather or see "babies" die...

[NV Whino]

16. It's sort of C

These are airplane motors complete with propellers placed on tall pillars in vineyards to circulate air (warming it up) at this time of year when we get late frosts. I'm caught between two of the fuckers. The upside is, it alerts me to a temperature drop so I can go cover the babies.

The downside is, it's like trying to sleep in the middle of a runway.

[pleah]

10. Beautiful garden!

:hi: :thumbsup:

[upi402]

12. #1 Eating food, #2 living indoors

I wish I could afford to work out, but at least I ride my bike more now! So now that the weather is good, that works!

I'm composting and growing some food now. Many neighbors are too.
Except the rat bastid Republican down the road who works scab on a job that ousted its union workers. He's got a steady gig. Hurray for him and fuck me!

[BelgianMadCow]

14. need pyramid you mean?

if so, spot on. That is part of my motive.

Hope things change for the better. Even if the f***ing you mentioned is high on the pyramid as well ;-)

[tabasco]

17. Great post!

What a nice garden.

[wickerwoman]

18. I totally envy your chives. Mine are circling the drain.

Looks like a great set-up! ;-)

[proud patriot]

19. I need to plant some potatoes

:)