Choose the Tool to Dig a Flowerbed
The mission is to transform the weedy patch next to the front stairs into a flower bed and to move the long entrenched hostas from their path to the new bed and beyond. Tools of potential value are brought to the site and are displayed below. The bucket is for the weeds to be transported to the compost. The pointed hoe is excellent for digging out a specific plant. Hori Hori knife, constant garden companion (note the belt) does everything, in a one-pointed way. It leans against the shovel, as everyone knows, the usual digging tool. Next comes the strawberry hoe which sports two widths of hoe blade and is wielded like an axe. I love working with this tool. Last is the conventional hoe, good for moving plants which are not deeply rooted in fairly loose soil.
What else is on hand? The best fitting gloves for these hands, a small size coated palm and finger cotton glove (Boss's Flexi grip, in both summer and winter weights). There's a good grip without blistering the flesh and a solid barrier between my skin and the bugs I squish. Squeamish are you, upset at reading about squashed bugs? Do you garden?
Which tool will prove to be the one for the job? Or will several be needed? They are all at the job site now, so lets see how it goes.
The job site is between the stairs and the down spout. When we first moved here, almost two years ago I dug this area free of weeds. It was surrounded by a rough rock edging and had decent soil in it. I was about to plant herbs there, but the renovation team needed to reside the house, porch, well, everything you see in the photo. (Plus there hadn't been any gutters or down spouts then.) At last the final touch has been laid around the house in the mulch you see beside the house foundation. Beneath that mulch is a weed barrier cloth. Beneath the cloth is hardware cloth, anchored to the foundation to deter animals from seeking shelter. Yes, we really live out in the country, the back woods.
If you look closely, you can see the hostas coming up in the foreground, just in front of and to the right side of the steps.
And the winner of this job is the shovel. A whole section was loosened at one time and fingers riffled through to get the grass and other undesired plants out. Here's a bit of the soil showing. Yes, there are white pines above us, giving the pine straw you see. I use it as mulch on the blueberries.
After the beds were cleared of weeds and the amendments sprinkled on top of the soil I decided to walk back to the tool shed to get another helper to mix the amendments in. As it is a relatively small space I didn't need a full size rake, so this little tined cultivator was perfect for the job. The little hostas you see are left from previous landscaping. They will be dug up and redistributed. Stay tuned for that exciting story.
The shovel also proved to be the best help in digging up this hosta clump. Hori Hori knife comes in handy to thwack the lump to remove dirt from the roots. Some dirt has been removed here, but the rest of the job will come the next day. The clump spent the night wrapped in wet newspaper in the greenhouse. Unravelling roots to separate the plants will be a puzzle to work on while its raining later, hopefully today.
On with the job... In the yard, planted probably 30 years ago are overcrowded areas of summer blooming tiger lilly, spring blooming irises and daffodils. The orange lilies are one of my favorites. There's a wonderful picture of them on the top of Heather's blog, Idaho Small Goat Garden. Both the flowers and roots are edible to humans. We know for sure that they are tasty to deer as the whole flower head gets chomped away and no more flower forming parts are left by the deer to continue brightening up the summer.
Hoping to save some blooms for us, some of each of these bulb-based plants are transplanted into this little bed.
Another tool was used in anticipation of rain storms which have not yet come. As the crew isn't finished with this water diversion project, I need to protect the flower bed from the downspout outflow. The rocks were set in to slant the flow away from the bed and the mini-trench was dug using the smaller blade of the strawberry hoe, followed by smoothing with the larger blade. In the past I have found that water can be trained using a shallow trench like this. The flow may follow the trench out past the flower bed and stairs and then it will resume its normal course downhill which in this case is to the left, down toward the greenhouse and garden.
You may note that there are different plants now, not weeds in the bed. In a rather unimaginative arrangements, minus the hostas which will fill the spaces between the other bulb plants, from the rear, are tiger lilies, iris, tulip, hyacinth (the pink), lilies of the valley (my favorite) and varieties of daffodil. Other flowers will be added when the weather warms.
All the tools, including the ones that didn't get to be used on this job, were returned to the shed. The weeds were taken to the compost (first to dry out, then to be mixed in). The soil in the bed will be smoothed out and finished nicely (I hope) and mulched after the hosta addition. Then I can return to planting the onion, strawberries and cabbages that are waiting in the greenhouse.
Just for fun, here's a pretty picture for you, of lettuce in the greenhouse, with late afternoon sun backlight.
Thank you for visiting. May you and your plants all Grow Joyfully!
Propagation Heater First Try
Home Made Seed Propagation Heater Experiment #1
On one of my over-packed seed starter trays, the tomatoes, even the older seeds (from 1999!) were opening and extending into the light. But the rest of the nightshades, peppers and eggplants had not moved a bit of starter mix. Memory recalled that heat is a factor in starting these delicate things. I know one can get a professional store-bought heat source. But then I have something to store for 11 months of the year. I'd rather figure something else out.
Research on-line found some good ideas. The following site has excellent data on the temperature that seeds like to wake up into: http://tomclothier.hort.net/
This next page gives some great ways to make one - if you want to have equipment to store for 11 months of the year: http://www.gardengrapevine.com/BottomHeater.html
All the information on the RIGHT way to do it, and why is here: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/556/
However, I'd like to do it now, today, without driving in to town, reconstructing something or waiting while it is delivered to the back woods from the internet distribution center. So, let's experiment!
In the RIGHT way they indicated that a heating pad wouldn't work because it can't get wet. Well, why not remove the tray to water it and dry the sides after watering?
Gather the ingredients first
Low flat heat is needed. Heating Pad! We have one with a digital control that goes off in 2 hours, and one with a dial which lasts as long as you put it there. That's the one.
Safe surface on which to place the heat - a rectangular roasting pan. Cheap metal, but its better than burning a wooden window sill.
Possible need to have air circulation to modulate temperature - a rack with tiny feet that came with the toaster oven.
The clear plastic canopy to hold in the heat.
Ready to Experiment!
Many different ways to try.
First with the heating pad directly under the flat, that was too hot!
Then, with the rack on top of the heating pad and the flat on that, hmm, seems to be just right! The soil is a bit not-cool to the touch and the tomato starts on the other side are getting no heat as the pad isn't as long as the flat.
We'll see if there's any green results from the seeds.
Here's how it looks:
And the rack which holds the flat away from the heating pad is show below:
On the inside, the tomatoes are all to one side, where the heat is not.
We'll see how it goes!
Please let me know if you have any thoughts, helpful ideas or suggestions!
Digital Garden Record-Keeping Tools
- when was that seed planted,
- when did the sprout come up,
- when did it start to wilt, brown, or
- when fortune smiles upon us, when did it flower?
All these questions can be answered with Garden Record Keeping. Certainly this is not an easy or simple task. There is so much data to track.
I remember trying to keep track of life when we used those little sticks of wood and graphite and dried sheets of wood pulp to make records. Then we’d have to leaf through all these pages to find what we wanted to know and correlate data both manually and use up valuable brain cells to think it through.
Now I rejoice in all the digital record keeping tools at my fingertips. Here’s an example:
One of my gardening friends, upon visiting my greenhouse wanted to know when the growth of the lettuce (at this point, I’m forgetting a word she used to describe the growth pattern. Let me digress to investigate. We corresponded by email, so I go to my email program to do a search on mail with her name in it. I didn’t have to go far, only to the next item on my dock - yes, I’m on an Apple, but don’t worry -even Windows users have these cool tools.) accelerated.
Hmm, I said. I don’t know. Let me consult, not the oracle - but the visual record. Moving over to my Photo database, I created a folder and labeled it “lettuce growth”. Then scanning through the photos from the time the lettuce seeds were planted. Oh, how did I know the date?
By consulting the calendar program. I have a calendar which shows up in a different color for each of my life paths (all integrated on one monthly page). Recently I’ve added several to accommodate all the gardening areas. My favorite one is for yearly activities. I set each item to be repeated once a year, so as I learn what needs to be done, when, in this Ozark environment, my trusty computer can let me know when its time for what.
Yes, I’m giving a computer a lot of responsibility, which means I have to BACK UP frequently. I’m sure that my rusting brain cells can remember to do that. Much better than they can remember all the details of everything I’m planting and growing and having to do to keep the garden growing.
Back to the Calendar program, input in search field “lettuce” and I can see when I planted them, 12/31/08. Back to the photographs at the beginning of the year to see more details and place representative pictures of the lettuce growth in the folder marked “Lettuce Growth.”
I love photography. But in the old days, though I had a good camera, I didn’t feel that good about the cost of film and development. And I never liked the date burned onto the photograph. However, I love the date that comes with digital photos! And the ability to label each one and sort them into folders.
Frequently I take the camera with me into greenhouse and field just to note what is going on, so when the questions come up later, there’s the answer!
I planted too many different types of seeds into one tray yesterday. I have little mini popsicle type sticks as the labels that fit in the tray. I know that they can easily be dislodged. And I’d really like to know what variety and color of which plant each seedling is. To keep it straight, I photographed the labels in the tray in order so I will be able to put the puzzle back together if it falls apart. Digitally assisted gardening!
Back to the lettuce - Wow, they were transplanted into the greenhouse bed on 1/5/09 (photo below). That’s fast!
Then (below) the lettuce plants started to overlap on 2/6. (That’s probably when I should have started to thin them, but my “right to life for plants” perspective is not today’s focus.)
I find great beauty in the unfolding leaves.
And below, complete overcrowding occurs on 2/20. My friend received a couple of photos and the answer in her email!
Another example of digital recording keeping:
I’m preparing a post on a comparison/review of two brands of watering cans. I couldn’t remember one of the brand names and the photo did not show the logo clearly enough.
Back to my digital records in the Mail department. I did a search for “watering” in the body of the emails and came up with the email receipt for each item, including model number and brand name. Hazaah! No wonder the Baby Boomers and the Digital Age are such good friends! Whatever my little mind forgets, the super-big hard drive kindly remembers.
I just have to recall what word to search for...
However you garden, May you have joy in both the remembrance and the forgetting!
Digital Photos as Gardening Log/Record
- when was that seed planted,
- when did the sprout come up,
- when did it start to wilt, brown, or
- when fortune smiles upon us, when did it flower?
All these questions can be answered with Garden Record Keeping. Certainly this is not an easy or simple task. There is so much data to track.
I remember trying to keep track of life when we used those little sticks of wood and graphite and dried sheets of wood pulp to make records. Then we’d have to leaf through all these pages to find what we wanted to know and correlate data both manually and use up valuable brain cells to think it through.
Now I rejoice in all the digital record keeping tools at my fingertips. Here’s an example:
One of my gardening friends, upon visiting my greenhouse wanted to know when the growth of the lettuce (at this point, I’m forgetting a word she used to describe the growth pattern. Let me digress to investigate. We corresponded by email, so I go to my email program to do a search on mail with her name in it. I didn’t have to go far, only to the next item on my dock - yes, I’m on an Apple, but don’t worry -even Windows users have these cool tools.) accelerated.
Hmm, I said. I don’t know. Let me consult, not the oracle - but the visual record. Moving over to my Photo database, I created a folder and labeled it “lettuce growth”. Then scanning through the photos from the time the lettuce seeds were planted. Oh, how did I know the date?
By consulting the calendar program. I have a calendar which shows up in a different color for each of my life paths (all integrated on one monthly page). Recently I’ve added several to accommodate all the gardening areas. My favorite one is for yearly activities. I set each item to be repeated once a year, so as I learn what needs to be done, when, in this Ozark environment, my trusty computer can let me know when its time for what.
Yes, I’m giving a computer a lot of responsibility, which means I have to BACK UP frequently. I’m sure that my rusting brain cells can remember to do that. Much better than they can remember all the details of everything I’m planting and growing and having to do to keep the garden growing.
Back to the Calendar program, input in search field “lettuce” and I can see when I planted them, 12/31/08. Back to the photographs at the beginning of the year to see more details and place representative pictures of the lettuce growth in the folder marked “Lettuce Growth.”
I love photography. But in the old days, though I had a good camera, I didn’t feel that good about the cost of film and development. And I never liked the date burned onto the photograph. However, I love the date that comes with digital photos! And the ability to label each one and sort them into folders.
Frequently I take the camera with me into greenhouse and field just to note what is going on, so when the questions come up later, there’s the answer!
I planted too many different types of seeds into one tray yesterday. I have little mini popsicle type sticks as the labels that fit in the tray. I know that they can easily be dislodged. And I’d really like to know what variety and color of which plant each seedling is. To keep it straight, I photographed the labels in the tray in order so I will be able to put the puzzle back together if it falls apart. Digitally assisted gardening!
Back to the lettuce - Wow, they were transplanted into the greenhouse bed on 1/5/09 (photo below). That’s fast!
Then (below) the lettuce plants started to overlap on 2/6. (That’s probably when I should have started to thin them, but my “right to life for plants” perspective is not today’s focus.)
I find great beauty in the unfolding leaves.
And below, complete overcrowding occurs on 2/20. My friend received a couple of photos and the answer in her email!
Another example of digital recording keeping:
I’m preparing a post on a comparison/review of two brands of watering cans. I couldn’t remember one of the brand names and the photo did not show the logo clearly enough.
Back to my digital records in the Mail department. I did a search for “watering” in the body of the emails and came up with the email receipt for each item, including model number and brand name. Hazaah! No wonder the Baby Boomers and the Digital Age are such good friends! Whatever my little mind forgets, the super-big hard drive kindly remembers.
I just have to recall what word to search for...
However you garden, May you have joy in both the remembrance and the forgetting!
Compare Growing Bibb and Romaine/Cos Lettuce
I have to harvest it frequently just to give enough space. Well, I did plant it all too close, thinking that I’d be able to plant it outside, but it grew up way beyond my expectations. I was planning also to cut off every other one as they grew too big. However, it got so overgrown that I have to do surgery just to find the stem to do the cutting.
Notice the one plant above that stands up straight and slightly darker green. This is a mix of Bibb and Romaine and I really like the upright posture which keeps the leaves out of the dirt, keeps the water running off of it and makes a tighter head. Its a lot easier to deal with.
The photo above is of a group that had the outer leaves thinned a couple of days ago. You can see some of the inner leaves of the Bibb lettuce, they are a bit crisper and crinkly and seem to come together almost like a head. I think that to give them a really fair trial I ought to thin out the plants and leave them room to leaf. I could put some in pots and start hardening them to the outside, maybe bringing them back inside for foul or frosty weather.
The greenhouse will be jam packed soon. Its time here in the Ozarks to start the nightshade seeds and its hard not to go too overboard on them. Hoefully this year if I have too many plants started, there will be neighbors or people at the Farmer’s Market who would like to take them home.
Above are my favorites. Crisp and crunchy, well behaved Romaine or Cos lettuce. They are much easier to care for as the leaves don’t touch the dirt and I can have them closer together. Of course, the question is, for how long will they be able to be so close together. If I can keep on eating salad twice a day, I’ll be able to trim off the outer leaves - but I doubt I can stay ahead of this growth.
Below is today’s favorite tool for harvesting the lettuce, leaf by leaf. If the heads were much bigger, thicker and I were whacking off a whole head, then something bigger would be good. But for the kind of trimming from the outside of the head, these little clippers, shown here in their plastic pouch, are very easy to wield. They have a very precise response. I’ve seen them in craft stores.
The greenhouse beds the lettuce are growing in were given good amendments last year and when the lettuce starts were planted they were planted in some worm castings. Probably could use some more, if I could get through the plants to the soil.
I always do this, try to plant more than what is recommended for the spacing. Its hard for me to believe what it says in books or on the back of the seed envelop. Must do the mistakes myself, often more than once. I think I can get away with it, but rarely does it turn out to be good. When the lettuce was really little, it seemed like lots of space. Below is how they looked on January 5. Yes, they look too close together then too.
Alright, it must be time to re-supply the neighbors.
So whatever lettuce you choose,
May you be Growing Ever More Joyful!
Wonderful Tools - Widger
What is a Widger?
That’s what I wondered too when I saw it in the catalog of Bountiful Gardens (www.bountifulgardens.org), a biointensive publication for heirloom, untreated, open-pollinated seeds (and stuff) for sustainable growing.
No, they didn’t pay me for this review, but they did make the wonderful Widger available to me (and everyone) for a small fee of $5.
My previous seed starting “technique” used to be different than it is today. I used the little individual packets of peat moss that inflate with water to start individual seeds. As many have found about this method, the little bag (would you call it that?) which holds together the peat moss, also, sadly holds togther the roots and keeps the poor plant from growing to its fullest. Of course, one who knows something about gardening, and isn’t too impatient to plant (which does not describe me in the past) knows to tear apart (or sometimes cut apart) the exterior to loose the inner contents and free the roots. To my mind though, does this not undo the value of the little seed starter bundle?
Now, I am working with starting seeds in flats. If I can wait until the true leaves grow in, I transfer them WITH THIS WONDERFUL TOOL to a six pack, filled with freshly worked soil and freshly strained worm castings. A work of love.
If I did not have this tool, I’d be casting about for facsimiles of it, trying to use knives, screw drivers, nail files, what else could work? The end of a spoon? I’d never known there to be a tool to do this precise job.
But this little thing, yes I’ll show you pictures, has a gentle edge that will not damage the young’ns. It has a bit of concave plane which holds some soil, roots and can also support the stem. There’s a little place for the thumb to rest so mind/hand coordination can work optimumally to support the little ones.
Below you see the intrepid widger sliding into the starter mix to gather together the roots of a red cabbage seedling.
Below the widger creates a hole and holds back the soil to make way for the baby root ball in the 6 pack.
At last a full photo of the widger, tamping down the soil around the red cabbage. Yes, the seedling is a bit leggy. If you recall reading the February 11th post called Light on the Seedlings, I admit to using unapproved lighting techniques. However, the plants are kept in a greenhouse which is bright when the sun shines, so I believe it all evens out. Besides, what if the power grid gives out and we don’t have electricity? What did we used to do before electricity? This valley where I live only started to have electricity some 60 years ago - so I know it has to be possible to raise food by the power of the sun.
More about the question of leggy, stretched out seedlings, in the next post!
Here’s what the Bountiful Gardens catalogue says about the widger:
For many years we have used and loved this elegant little stainless steel tool for pricking out and transplanting tiny seedlings. The original British manufacturer stopped making them in 2004, but we have finally found someone who produces them just for us ... slightly modified but just as useful as the original. it’s amazing how much difference a small tool like this can make! A Bountiful Gardens exclusive.
Whatever you tools you use, Grow Happy!
