Progress

I let the rain fall on the garden today. It seemed dry yesterday. I finally went out and covered it again around 4:30pm. I'm hoping, waiting, wishing that the chard and lettuce seeds I planted directly into the ground will start sprouting soon. The spinach plugs I put in the ground late last fall are amazing! The garlic is growing too and the leeks look happy, although I think I need to separate them to give them more growing room.

The babies are growing! Not all of them, but some, and while I am a little worried about how leggy some are already looking, I am thrilled to see their little green leaves.

Here's what peeking out:

2 broccoli
3 borage
3 petite rouge (cos lettuce)
2 jericho (cos lettuce)
2 little teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy oregano
3 cilantro
1 blushed butter (cos lettuce)
2 basil
1 striped roman tomato
1 high-carotene tomato
2 brandywine tomato

Not bad for a beginner, huh?

I have a grow light trained on the seeds from 8am-10pm everyday. At night I put the plastic dome lid back on, cover it with towels and train the light up at the bottom of the planting tray. It's still pretty cold here, especially at night. No new mold has appeared. I check on the seedlings off and on throughout the day; I mist them with a small glass mister I found at Goodwill for about 3 bucks. Seems to keep them moist without encouraging the mold. Of course I only give the babies warm filtered water :)

I still need to order or find:

mint
purple coneflower (echinacea)
bee balm
sweet potatoes
yukon gold potatoes
inoculant for beans/sweet peas/peas
yellow pear tomatoes

On the backburner:
roses
blueberries
apple
(maybe pear?)
bay laurel

I'm very happy with the progress of the garden beds. I finished the middle circle; it's about 6-7 feet in diameter. I poured a small amount of cement inside a small circle of rocks and placed a flange inside. A length of copper pipe screws into that and on top I'll epoxy a bowl - voila! A birdbath is born, right in the center of the garden.

The fourth rectangular bed is also finished and waiting for soil. With all the rain we've been having, I'm able to check drainage...so far, so good. Considering I built this whole garden on top of about 3 different surfaces; cement, dirt, gravel, it's all draining well as far as I can tell. I do need to get some small gravel for paths and around the outside of my beds. As much as I like my mulched walkways, I'm afraid it's too much of a haven for slugs. There's a lot of clean up to do too; moving unused rock, raking down paths, adding gravel and mulch. My goal is to get the groundcover (crimson clover) turned, and the beds all filled by April 2. Next I'll plant beans, peas and sweet peas. I am planning on waiting to train them up a teepee until it warms up at night. That way I can keep them covered if it gets cold.

There's something besides seeds growing...

As of 3/8/09 I have found a moldy, fuzzy, fungus growing on the top of my peat pots. Looks like damping off disease.

Hmmm.....

After some quick internet research, I decided to take the plastic dome off the tray, scratch out the fuzzy mold stuff, add a little dry dirt and see what happens.

Seeds

I started the following seeds indoors on Friday 3/6/09:

broccoli
borage
chives
3 types of romaine lettuce (jericho, blushed butter and petite rouge)
german chamomile
oregano
cilantro
bell peppers
celery
parsley
basil
5 types of tomatoes (striped roman, high carotene, oregon cherry, brandywine and manitoba)

I am using a plastic tray with 50 empty peats pots. Into the peat pots I put Steve Solomon's seedling mix from Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades:

1 part by volume garden soil
1/2 part by volume finely screened compost
1/2 part by volume sifted and moistened sphagnum moss

I made about 2 1/2 gallons of the seedling mix and added 1 cup of Steve's complete organic fertilizer and 1/4 cup of ag lime.

I put the seeds into the individual peat pots filled with the above concoction, according the the directions on the back of the seed packets. Most seeds came from Territorial Seed Company.

I put the plastic dome on top of the seed tray. Obvious condensation formed quickly. I have a 75 watt grow light positioned about 8-10 inches away. I plan to keep the light on the plants for 14 hours a day, aiming the light up at the bottom on the tray for the other 10 hours. I will cover the top of the tray to give the seeds the darkness they need.