February 16, 2015 - More Seeds Started!

February 16, 2015 -

The Arugula is progressing quite well. It is growing in its little seed starter pot and has begun forming its first true leaves. Will need to cull soon and focus on the stronger ones.

The Broccoli is also progressing well and will need to be culled soon. Both seem to like the grow lights I have over them. Below is a picture of the first sprouts emerging.

I will try to post current pictures tomorrow.

I started three more plants tonight as well. Kale (Dwarf Blue Curled Vates), Spinach (Bloomsdale Longstanding) and Mustard Green (Florida Broadleaf). The Kale has a germination rate of 10-21 days. Hopefully by 2/26 I can post some pictures of the sprouts coming up. The spinach is 8-10 days and the mustard green is 5-13. Pictures will follow as soon as the are up.

Still no sign of the peas. We have had a bitter cold front come in that might inhibit their progress. Only time will tell.

February 5, 2015 - Started Some More

February 5, 2015 -

Continuing on with the garden for 2015, Isaac (my oldest) and I planted some seeds today. We started some Calabrese Broccoli and Arugula.

The Calabrese Broccoli is the most common broccoli grown in the US. It was mostly a vegetable grown in the Mediterranean. It was introduced in the US in the early 1900's by Italian immigrants. Isaac is very excited about his broccoli. The germination rate is 10-21 days. Hopefully, by 2/15 I can post pictures of little seedlings.

Arugula is a salad green that is in the cabbage family. It did not becoming popular until the 1980's in the US. Considered a trendy salad green, it is rumored to be an aphrodisiac. In mid-evil Europe it was discouraged to grow the "Rocket" because of this fact. The germination rate is 5-7 days. Hopefully, by 2/10 I can post pictures of little seedlings.

Until then, my tray of little seed pops will have to work.

January 31, 2015 - Garden 2015 Is Underway

January 31, 2015 -

The 2015 Garden has now started. While cleaning out is still needed desperately, we have begun the garden for 2015. The Delks are expecting to grow from a family of five to a family of six this year, no baseball trips will be interrupting the garden plans and this year will hopefully be better than ever.

Abby Delk and I planted some Sugar Snap Peas today along with some garlic. Isaac Delk and I got our little starter pots ready for some of the cool early spring vegetables of greens, lettuce and broccoli. We will be trying to extend the growing season with mixing and matching of in season crops.

With the new found hobby of woodworking and the never ending supply of wood from scrap at work, I will be incorporating several organic layers of sawdust (mulch) and wood ash (burning the scrap wood). We did this in our Sugar Snap Pea patch which we planted today.

The Sugar Snap Peas have a germination time of 7-10 days. Hopefully by February 9th I should start seeing some little sprouts. If I do, pictures will follow. I planted three rows in one of our 4' x 4' beds.

Hopefully tomorrow, we will plant our cool weather stuff indoors to begin it growing.

More to come.

Joe Delk

 

More Plants - More to Update

March 4, 2012 -

So last time I told you about the mishap ... or I should say the weather ... with the Cole Family seedlings (Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, etc.) and how I had to deal with them. They will make fine dirt for the future. So, now I will tell how I replaced them.

Thursday night, Isaac, Abby, Andy and I planted 18 new Broccoli plants. Because I got them from Bonnie Plants, there were only a few varieties. So we planted 9 Premium Crop Broccoli and Packman Broccoli. I am curious about the Premium Crop because the package said they could produce heads up to 12" across. That is mammoth. They had a lot of fun doing it. I think they had more fun watering them they than did the actual planting.

We also planted 42 red onion bulbs. These were Whethersfield Red Beauty onions. I lucked up getting these at China-mart, I mean Walmart, for $1.88 for 50. Hopefully, these will do well.

I must say though that after Friday night's fun weather, it has gotten cooler and I have some of the Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach poking their heads up. Hopefully, they will grow and not bolt. Just in case they do not grow, I bought some Bonnie Spinach today and planted them. I also bought some Bonnie's Romaine lettuce today, but I did not plant it because it was cold outside.

Well, we have some yellow and white onions to plant this week and I have to build another 4x4 bed.

Keeping you updated.

Update on the Delk Garden

March 2, 2012 -

My blog dashboard tells me that it has been two weeks since I last update this. So...here is an update.

Tragedy Strikes The Seedlings! I think I use that word too much. Well we all know we have had a very unseasonable winter. I like it but the seeds for most spring vegetables don't. I had a couple of varieties of cabbage and broccoli going but they just never seemed to develop. I also had some cauliflower going as well but it also seemed to have trouble flourishing. I think the reason was two-fold: (1) Poor nutrition in the seed starting soil I had and (2) it was just too warm. From what I read last year, the Cole family likes to have weather around 55-65 degrees to germinate. We just have not had that in the house or outside and because of that my seedlings bolted. Well needless to say, I chunked them into the compost pile last night. I have bought two varieties of Broccoli from Bonnie Plants that I will do and one variety of cabbage. These are Premium Crop and Packman for the Broccoli and Flat Dutch for the cabbage.

Tulips are still working their way up. I think just about every bulb came up that we planted in the fall.

Garlic is doing well. Hopefully it will continue to grow and I will have some garlic for the fall.

Got 8 of the beds functioning and ready for plenty of plants. Still got two that I need to fill and get ready. I also have enough material for at least one more with my re-purposed lumber.

I plan on this weekend starting my tomato plants indoors with the help of my empty toilet paper rollers.

Keep growing.

Onions

February 15, 2012 -

I am going to try onions this year. Not sure if I will break down and do sets later but right now I am going to try growing from seeds. I have never done this. When I was younger, my Dad would buy sets and we would put them out in a row and watch them grow. However, we did not have much luck because of the clay ground we had.

I am going to try three varieties this year. I may try four but we will have to see. The three varieties are: Sweet Spanish Utah Jumbo (a yellow), Southport White Globe (a white) and Red Burgundy (a red). I have planted the Sweet Spanish Utah Jumbo and the Southport White Globe. I will probably plant the Red Burgundy this weekend if I have time. I started these indoors in egg cartons. When they get a little bigger, I will move them out to the garden as sets. I will probably plant these with the cabbage I am working on to keep down pests.

The Sweet Spanish Utah was the first to germinate. I have some small green shoots showing up. Germination time was supposed to be 10-12 days, but it looks like they are a little early. These seeds were planted last week on will hopefully yield some onions around the beginning of June. We will have to see, like I said this is the first time I have planted these. Since this is the first year I have tried them, I am just doing 12.

The Southport White Globe has not sprouted yet. I have also planted 12 of these. Waiting for the first shoots to pop up but nothing on them yet. These also should start yielding around June.

The Red Burgundy I will plant 12 of these also. I may do some more of the yellow and red since I am not a big fan of the white.

Anyway I will keep you posted.

Copenhagen Early Market - Cabbage

February 10, 2012 -

Had a bit of a scare last night. I had made the comment to one of my co-workers that need to move the seedlings from the seed start dirt (which is not really nutrious for the plants) to some good compost soil, then I came home last night to see the Copenhagen Early Market variety of cabbage practically wilted. I transferred the plants to cups full of dirt and soaked them in water, but one of them will not make it. So I replanted 1 cabbage last night.

I will do the same to the rest of them tonight and Saturday. All the others seem to be doing well.