Moving On

Garden Days

The calendar may say 3 weeks of spring have passed, but the Jetstream is saying otherwise. There is a bounty on Punxitawny Phil the groundhog, and a lawsuit by the State of Ohio vs The groundhog for misrepresentation of early Spring. I failed to tap my trees this year because  the blizzard of the century  hit at the beginning of the month and covered my entire backyard,and quite frankly I was too tired from shoveling the entire city of Milford to bang in a couple of taps. Please note that once again the snowfall was on a Friday and a Saturday when I specifically asked in my last blog that the snow storms were to occur on Monday nights into Tuesday mornings only.
 Mother Nature what did I do to piss you off? I turn the lights off in every room, hang my clothes on the line, recycle to the point it drives my husband nuts. If you can't compost it, burn it, reuse or give it away then it goes in the trash. I know the public works guys on my street want to know what kind of freaks live in this house that puts out trash once a month and has gigantic overflowing recycle bins with all the bottles from the bar at work. The heat has been off in my house most of the time and when it is on just to keep the pipes from freezing we set the thermostat below 60 degrees. My children actually want to go to school because it is warmer there. No, not really!


 So the maple syrup blog I had planned for this issue will have to wait until next February.

 

 

 The Greenhouse Project

  My backup plan for this month will be the construction of a greenhouse kit purchased from Harbor Freight and Tool in Orange, Ct. The  most critical step in this adventure was the perfectly square  foundation set in the exact location. That took an entire afternoon to get it just right. The very next day of this project brought a foot of snow to cover our handy work. The box full of clear plastic panels and a myriad of screws and metal frame parts stared at us from the family room floor as we dissected and studied the sparse directions. I began to wonder what our odds were for getting this completed before spring? While we waited for the snow to melt once again this year, I took a trip to the library in town and took out the only 2 books we had on Greenhouse growing year round. They are The Greenhouse Gardner's Companion by Shane Smith and Four Season Harvest by Elliot Coleman. The companion book is an excellent source for everything you need to know about greenhouse gardening. The other book is an interesting approach to foraging year long in New England; a more grass roots and environmental approach.  Youtube was another wealth of  overwhelming information with countless videos of professional and hack greenhouse gardeners eager to sharer their own tips for growing year round.

 

 You Can't Put Anything On The Internet If It Isn't True

This guy has great tips for the greenhouse

Waiting for this

 Fortunately for us a few Youtube faithful managed to video the construction of this exact model greenhouse that we have, and we were able to fit each and every part where it belonged. Although we did have to flip and disconnect and reinstall panels at times, it is complete with only a couple of pieces left over and the spousal bickering was kept to a low simmer. This is not, however a one man or two person project. There was a point in the roof installation where we needed the helping hands of our neighbors. The day we placed the plastic sides in was near hurricane force winds and we spent more time chasing the panels from across the yard. Those little metal clips were likewise a challenge. The following day I held an umbrella over my husband's head while he made some final adjustments. 

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle

 Save everything is my motto and that has proven to be fruitful for making seed starter kits out of "clam shell fold over" tomato containers and boxes from the restaurant. I love re-purposing landfill junk whenever possible. Yoghurt containers, cottage cheese tubs and instant

Don't forget to water

I love Lupines

microwaveable soup and macaroni and cheese containers work great.




 That is except in the case where you neglect to add the water before microwaving the macaroni and cheese. A week later and we are still trying to get that smell out of here. There are many seed catalogs out, but beware as they may be addictive to hoarders.

 My advise is to plant what you know you will eat. A Cook's Garden publishes a beautiful magazine with some unusual varieties. Last year I tried to save seeds from Cinderella pumpkins and Hubbard squash as well as Jalapenos and Habanero peppers. We will have to wait and see how that works out. Honestly, the local hardware and feed stores carry enough of a variety to "grow" around. At $1.50 to $2.00 a pack it makes for a considerable savings rather than purchasing $5.00 veggie packs later in the spring. Plus growing your own seeds gives you something to do inside while you wait for it to be nice outside.

Celery From the Root End

 With the weather still refusing to cooperate, I used the tops of these styrofoam containers that the fish comes in around the bottom base of the greenhouse for insulation. We salvaged a space heater to keep the night temperature at 45 degrees. This worked well until the night I plugged it in and almost caught the entire house on fire. The daytime temperature races up to 100 degrees by noon on a sunny day, so I crack the door and window and that maintains a beautiful 90 degree environment for  seed boosting. I have to say that the mescaline and arugula did not do well pre- seeded in the house. It got leggy fast. So I have tried another approach in the bottom of the foam fish boxes. I poked holes in the cartons with a pitchfork and filled it half way with compost made from all the vegetable scraps generated by the restaurant. I topped it off with potting soil and dug long furrows for planting the mescaline. When I water these boxes, the "compost tea" flows through the bottom onto the next shelf of seedlings. When it gets warm enough, I can transplant the entire box out to the raised beds. The insulated styrofoam keeps the soil temperature warmer when the sun goes down. The micro green experiment is being featured as a garnish on the snapper special  tonight.

   

 When Life Gives You Lemons

    We all had to grow and grow up a bit this month. Sometimes you do not get everything you are wishing for, and sometimes you have to deal with more than you bargained for. You never know the outcome until you dive in and give it your all. Sometimes you get the brass ring and sometimes you grow the perfect tomato. And when you miss the mark for whatever reasons, or your tomatoes have blight, keep your head up and March on. The seasons will pass, and if you get out of the game, they will pass you by. Regrettably you will have missed all the opportunities to feel, learn and heal. These are the moments that set us apart from the mundane. The simple life is actually made up of hard times that we take and reshape in order to harvest the actual crop of our true selves. These growth periods make champions. If winning were easy than losers would do it.

 Family, Community, Planet, Service, Peace,Love and Garden

Every path and every plot,
Every bush of roses,
Every blue forget- me- not
Where the dew reposes,
Robert Louis Stevenson

  Bee El