Pictures in the Hoop House

Inside of the hoop house

Seedlings in the hoop house waiting to be transplanted
(Red Russian Kale, I believe a couple other kinds of Kale
and four different types of Swiss Chard)


Collards, Kale, and (I believe) Kohlrabi


Some baby arugula in the hoop house


Baby mustard greens in a row

Pictures!

I love taking pictures and for whatever reason lately, I have not taken as many pictures. So since I am overdue, here are some pictures.

Some of my plants under lights in the basement


Some just transplanted curly parsley


Parsley waiting to be transplanted


Some tomatoes outside in the small hoop house


A flat of Catnip


Pepper plants

I have some more pictures that I have to post, and will do so either tomorrow or later today. I do not want to post too many pictures in on post. I have some pictures of outside and also some pictures of inside the big hoop house. We finally have quite a few things planted outside now. It is nice to see so many things finally growing in the ground, makes it feel like the market is coming closer.

We still do not know when the first market at valley city will be, but as soon as we hear anything we will be sure to let everyone know.

I am planning on having a post for a topic of the month for this month, May. I know we are already a week into May, but better late than never, right? The topic of the month will be about micro greens. Well, I better get working on the topic of the month.

Seed Starting

I just thought that I would post an seed starting update, since I have been spending so much time lately working on the website and I do not want to neglect my blog.

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage and Brussels Sprouts Seedlings

I have lots and lots of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and brussels sprouts started. I may have over did it a little, oh well nothing new. I have moved these two flats outside my greenhouse (that is in the basement) where it is cooler (around 60 degrees at the highest). They grow better there than in the greenhouse where it is much warmer (around 70 degrees at the lowest). I do start them in the greenhouse though, I think all seeds start better when the temperature is higher, no matter what kind.

I will be starting my eggplant, some peppers along with some other things today or tomorrow. They all will be started in the greenhouse in the basement and the eggplant will be started on the heat mat since they like it warm.

Transplanting and nice weather to come!

Today, thanks to the help of my mom, we were able to get a lot of transplanting done. There are still things that need transplanting but we were able to catch up on a lot that needed to be done. So while we transplanted we watched episodes of "The Legend of the Seeker" (my new favorite show, I am hooked) on the computer. It can get boring transplanting for hours. Trust me it is a lot less painful if you have something to watch.

Anyhow here is what we were able to transplant today: The rest of the peppers (Fish Peppers, Sweet Red Peppers, Flavorburst Peppers, and Islander Peppers), Stevia (I did not get too many of these to germinate, not sure why, was kind of disappointed, oh well there is always next year), Mexican Sunflower Tithonia Fiesta Del Sol (miniature variety, good for pots), and Strawberry plants (these did not germinate well also, not sure why).

I still have not transplanted those poor tomato plants from my last post. But trust me they are next! I just do not like to transplant tomatoes, so I have been putting it off. There are also some flowers that will need transplanting such as dahlias, asters and strawflowers. There are some others but I can not think of what exactly they are off the top of my head.

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Ok, now lets talk about the wonderful weather that is on its way starting tomorrow. I am so glad that the weather is going to be nice for awhile. There is a lot of planting that I have to do outside, so I am so glad that I should be able to get planting done this weekend. Here is what the weather is suppose to be like this week:
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Thursday- Almost 60 degrees- Sunny
Friday and Saturday- High 70's- Sunny
Sunday- High 70's- Partly cloudy
Monday- 70's- chance of rain
Tuesday and Wednesday- High 60's- chance of rain
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Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday sound almost perfect to me. I should be able to get a lot of work done one those days.

Monday, rain, but warm, that is ok with me as long as I can get a bunch of work done the days before, and as long as it is warm and I do not have to worry about seeds rotting, I will be happy.

Tuesday and wednesday, rain, but still not terribly cold, sounds ok to me. Besides the forecast might change by then, or I should probably say will change by then. They do not know that far ahead.


So if I can make it through tonight which will be pretty cold (30's) I should be ok. I am looking forward to the nice weather.

Hopefully this weekend I will be able to plant beets, pak choi, some kinds of lettuce, diakon radishes, kohlrabi, head lettuce, and possibly some carrots. We will see how things go. Oh, and I almost forgot I will have to transplant some onions and leeks. I am going to have to look at all my seeds to make sure I am not forgetting anything, because it sure seems like there was a lot more that I had to plant.

But for now it is time to go to sleep and rest up for all the work ahead.

More Pictures!

Have you noticed that I like to take pictures?

Just a few of my many dahlias

I think that I forgot to mention, in my post about the plants that I will have for sale this year, about my dahlias and geraniums. So I just wanted to mention that I will have many kinds of beautiful dahlias and geraniums available for sale around the start of the Valley City Market. I will be sure to post pictures once they bloom, which still will not be for awhile yet, but I guarantee that we are getting closer.

Some of my geraniums



Mixed Salad Pot

I am not sure if I mentioned this before or not but I will have available for sale a potted salad mix. This is just a sample one for me that I made up as an experiment. I wanted to find out what grows best together and taste the best together so I can make up some different combinations to sell. In each pot I plan to have a couple different kinds of lettuces, arugula, at least a couple kinds of greens and a flower that is edible and can be used in salad mixes (Nasturtium or Violas). In this pot I planted Endive, Arugula, Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce, Red Sails Lettuce, Spinach, Salad Burnet, Corn Salad, Sorrel, and a rather large Nasturtium. Of coarse the ones that I will have for sale will probably not be quite this crowded, again this is just an experimental pot. I plan to grow these under lights indoors durning the summer. Since I will not be able to have actual lettuce available durning the summer since it is too warm and they would become bitter, I figured that I could have these available instead. So you can grow your own lettuce mix, and of coarse once you pick it it will grow back again so you should be able to get quite a few nice salads for your salad mix pot.

I also plan to have some mixed herb pots available. I am not sure yet exactly what kind of combinations I will make up, but each pot should have atleast 4 different kinds of herbs in it. I will probably make up some pots with the four kinds of basils that I will have available this year, and will most likely have some with herbs for cooking that go well together.

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And here are some more pictures:

Violas and some peppers

Some of my larger Fairy Tale Eggplants

Four different kinds of Basil:
Sweet Basil, Lemon Basil, Opal Basil and Cinnamon Basil

Zinnias

Some of my tomatoes that are in desperate need of transplanting!

If you plant you tomatoes in flats like this, I would not suggest that you let yours get to be this size before transplanting. They will be ok though, once I get them transplanted. I just finished transplanting another flat of tomatoes yesterday, for some reason I do not like transplanting tomatoes very much. I will be very glad when they are all transplanted, which I hope will be very soon!

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I just thought that I would mention that it is not positive yet but it looks like we will probably be selling at the Strongsville Farmers Market on Thursdays in addition to the Valley City Farmers Market. We are also still looking into other possible locations to add to Strongsville and Valley City. Strongsville Farmers Market does not begin until July, acutally they told me it would be the beginning of August. Which seems a little late, hopefully they made a mistake. I would like to add another location that we could sell at earlier than Strongsville, but am having trouble finding one.

I will be sure to post further information, about where we will be selling this year, when it becomes avaiable.

For now I guess I should get back to transplanting, because I have alot to do.

Looks like I am behind once again

I just realized that I am once again behind on my planting. What I am worried about is it always seems like once I get behind it is very very hard to catch up.

There are only 60 days till the first market, and this past weekend I should have planted beets, kohlrabi, and Diakon Radishes outside, and I believe there where some other things too. Inside I should have planted zinnias, a bunch of herbs and some other flowers. I am not really behind on planting the things inside but I would have liked to have planted them already. I also have tomatoes and some other things inside that I should have transplanted already.

Boy do I feel behind. How will I catch up?

I am not sure how I am going to get more stuff planted outside unless it stops raining, warms up and the ground drys up enough to get it tilled an prepared for planting. I was able to get some things planted outside when the weather was nice for a week or so. Under row cover I planted about 2 weeks ago kale, collards, some lettuce, dwarf pak choi, and ishikura scallions (long scallions). I peeked under the row cover today and it looks like the scallions, lettuce and pak choi are coming up. I did not look at the kale and collards. It was raining and muddy outside and did not feel like pulling up another row cover, and was satisfied to know that something was coming up. I will have to check those some other day, maybe when it is drier outside and not raining.

I am hoping to start my seeds inside tomorrow and hopefully get at least some of my tomatoes transplanted. I am going to have to check the weather report and see if I might be able to get some things planted outside soon. Hopefully I will. I am hoping to have a nice big selection available for the first market. So I looks like I am going to need to get to work, so I can catch up, and have everything ready in time or atleast almost everything.

Seedling update

Well, my greenhouse in the basement is almost full. Things have been pretty nice here outside lately, and as long as the weather permits I should be planting some seeds outside this week! How exciting is that? My basement temperature right now is about 62 degrees, and my greenhouse in the basement is about 80 degrees! It is really really warm in there, which is helping all the seeds that I just planted come up very quickly. This week I will also have to begin transplanting my first group of seedlings (Sweet Basil and Carnations).

Here are some pictures that I just took today of my seedlings and my light setups:

Picture of the "greenhouse" in the basement and the new shelf that I just added which will soon be filled with plants and lights.


Shelf of tomato and pepper flats, the peppers have not started coming up yet but the all the tomatoes have sprouted (both the tomatoes and peppers were planted almost 1 week ago).


Some of my eggplant seedlings (they are getting nice and big!)


Some of my little Sweet Basil seedlings that really need to be transplanted.
Hopefully I will be doing that tomorrow.

Carnation Seedlings that also need to be transplanted.

That is my update for today. Tomorrow I have transplanting to do, and since the weather is not suppose to be real good, it does not look like I will be able to plant anything outside tomorrow. Hopefully after the bad weather passes everything will not be too wet, and I will be able to do some planting, the beginning of this coming week. Outside within the next week I am going to have to plant head lettuce, romaine hearts, scallion seeds, possible swiss chard (depending on the temps.), some kale and a possibly some other things that I am unable to think of right now.

It is so nice to be able to finally watch things grow and know that warm weather and summer is finally on it's way here.

Be sure to check back on Wednesday April 1st for the post about our first vegetable of the month- Beets!