What happens when you don’t store things correctly

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ruined squashDon’t you hate it when you work hard at something only to discover that something you did ruined it? That’s the story with my banana squash. I’ve only got two left over from my summer square foot gardens. But they’re both like this. You can see the dark, soft patches over most of the skin. I left this in my garage thinking it was warm enough in there for winter squash. I was way off. These can withstand cooler temps, but not freezing temps-at least not for very long. With the windchill, it’s been below zero for quite a while. I think we had about a 10-12 day period of this. My garage isn’t insulated but it’s obviously protected from the wind so I thought I was safe. This is the first time in as long as I can remember that it’s been this cold so I didn’t even think about my squash being stored in the garage. I also ruined about 20 pounds of potatoes because I stored them outside where it was not only cold(freezing), but water got in the container and did its damage. In the next year I’ll be writing a small ebook about correctly preserving your harvest. All the tip and tricks. I know how to do it-though this picture would suggests otherwise-I just haven’t had to worry about temperatures this low for such an extended period of time. I’ve got some other things I’ll be sharing about how to have your own little cold storage area right in your gardens. It’ll be fun, but in the meantime, I’m a little bummed out about a lot of my storage items. Learn how to store them the right way. It’ll save some heartache.
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How I sprout seeds

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sproutingsprouting2I tried to order some Kohlrabi from the local seed company two weeks ago.  They informed me they didn’t have any and that last year’s seeds were a failure.  After a short discussion the receptionist excused herself and asked me to wait for a minute.  When she returned she gave me 3 packet of kohlrabi-2 purple and 1 white. She explained they had a batch from last years lot left over and didn’t charge me a penny for them.  I asked her what the problem was and nobody knew.  This is how I sprout seeds.  It’s very easy and very effective.  All I do is wet a paper towel with warm water and then ring it out.  I place the towel on a plate, sprinkle some seeds on it, and then cover everything-plate included-inside a plastic Ziploc bag.  Leave it in a place where it’s over 70(our home is set at 72)and see what happens.  What you don’t see is the 18 other kohlrabi seeds that have fully sprouted and have been planted in potmaker cups.  Every single one of these seeds sprouted, which means they can be grown.  Doing this eliminates all guesswork.  You now know which seeds are viable because those are the ones that sprout.  All you need to do after that is put them in potting or growing soil and treat as you normally would.  These will grow into full plants with water, and light.  I plan on showing this to the store as they wanted to know if I could get them to grow.  Now we know the seed wasn’t the problem.  The growers either tried to grow this at the wrong time of year(hot weather doesn’t work very well with these), or their soil was the problem.  Maybe a combination of both.  I suppose another problem would be trying to plant them in freezing weather which could also lead to failure.  Either way, these sprouted in a mere 3 days.  I just gained about a week by doing it this way.  More good stuff.  If you’ve got things that need 10-14 days(or longer)to come up in potting soil, doing it this way will get you growing those a lot faster.  More fun stuff.

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It’s dark and dreary outside

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potmakerBut it’s green inside! Going down to the basement and seeing signs of new green life gives you a beacon of hope of things to come during the dead of winter. And it’s been a hard one. In anticipation of selling an early crop of veggies and produce I thought I should probably get some things started indoors. The weather has been horribly cold for weeks now. I planted 36 potmaker cups on Saturday and here it is-3 days later-about 25% of my cups have sprouted. That’s pretty quick. I had a heat mat underneath the tray and made sure to keep the soil damp. It looks like we’ll have nasty weather through the weekend and then it starts warming up to normal temperatures. If that’s the case I should be ready to plant for my mini-CSA that I provide for 5 families.

It begins

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johnnys seeds2Opened up the mail today to find my Johnny’s seeds had arrived.  It’s my favorite place to order because of their variety, track record, customer service and it’s money back guarantee.  This is a small sample of the items I ordered.  I got so pumped when I got them that I’ve already started some indoors.  It’s going to be zero tonight but the forecast shows things will warm up at night in about a week.  So, I’ve begun-in anticipation of selling some pretty cool things to a small number of customers.  Right now I’m planning on the first delivery of crops by the second week of March.  It takes a little planning but it’s pretty easy to do.  I know how many squares of each item that I need to grow and how long it’ll take to grow them.  I usually add another 7-10 days just to give myself a little leeway.  Some of the things I’m growing right now are very different from what I sell during the regular spring season.  And that little thing in the upper left hand corner?  That’s my PotMaker that I bought from Burpee’s last year.  I no longer have to go out and buy plastic cells and trays to grow.  I use plain old newspaper.  When it’s time for these crops to go into the garden I just place the newspaper cup right in the ground.  It completely decomposes in about 8 weeks.  If you’re anything like me these seed catalogs are like candy-you always bite off more than you can chew.  Well, I probably did buy more than I needed, but with the square foot gardening method, some of these will last me for 6-8 years.  With a SFG you never have to worry about all that heavy thinning-you just plant what you want to harvest.  You need 8 heads of lettuce?  All you need to do is to use 2-1 foot squares.  Each square can grow 4 full heads of lettuce.  You simply put a pinch-2 or 3 seeds-into each hole, cover, water, and sit back.  You’ll have to snip off the extra seedlings that grow with a scissors(1 of only 3 tools that you’ll ever need.)  In six weeks you should have 8 perfectly formed heads of lettuce that have only taken up 2 square feet.  This is a great system.

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It’s growing!

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experiment boxI can’t believe this-it’s been below zero(with windchill factor)for more than a week now. Today was the first day we’ve had that reached a high of 30. It’s been dark and gloomy. This is my experiment box that I’ll talk about at a later date. With it I do all kinds of things that show how easy and efficient it is to have a square foot garden. I’ve got 13(hate that number)radishes growing and 4 heads of lettuce. I’ve peeled back the protection to snap the picture but it’s been covered first with floating row cover, and then plastic. I lightly water it once a week and that seems fine. I’m not completely surprised that it’s growing because I’ve done similar things in the past. But it hasn’t been this cold for this long before. This was planted a little earlier than my regular gardens-which have nothing growing in them that I can see. At least not yet. Maybe that experiment won’t work. But I did receive my new seed packets from Johnny’s and I’m getting very anxious to start planting. In four weeks I’ll begin-President’s Day weekend. I won’t do hardly any work to have my soil ready to plant-one of the beauties of the square foot gardening method. It’ll be in perfect shape by then. The only work I’ll do is to cover my gardens with plastic and let the sun do its magic. In a about 5 days-bingo! If you’re interested in putting in a square foot garden(hope you are), now is the perfect time to start gathering materials-wood, soil components, nylon netting, grid material, and electrical conduit. It’s a one time expense that will serve you well over the years. If you live in Utah and would like a SFG but don’t want to put the whole thing together yourself, my good friend Belinda has a great business that will do it for you. She’s the best.  Her business is called Gardens to Go and you can read all about it here. Spring is getting closer and I can’t wait. I’ve got some terrific new things I’ll be growing for our family and others. Thanks for coming by….

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