Mostly about Planting Seeds...

Radish Seeds

  My Johnny’s Seeds have arrived! Well almost all of them…all but one package (which is back ordered a few more days) and the potatoes. It was enough for a beginning.

Lucy "helping" plant seeds

    I want to talk a little about the goal of this venture because it may make the process I am following clearer. I think that anyone can grow lettuce, carrots, etc. (though I have failed even at that) However, I have a grander scheme. I don’t just want to plant, watch them grow, eat, then start all over. We must eat more than once every three months, so I think I have come up with a sustainable system. I am planting based on a two adult/two children appetite. Counting in the variable that my wife doesn’t like the taste of anything green and Lucy is just as happy with rice and beans, we may need even less. This works out in round numbers to 12 Lettuce, 12 Spinach, 6 pokchoi, 12 beets, 36 carrots, and 36 radishes every two weeks. I devised the “divisible by six plan” because the basis will be egg cartons. Starting today, I am planting a few egg cartons every 2 weeks. Once the harvest starts, I will then have harvestable, all organic, loved, cared for, beautiful vegetables every two weeks, with none of those terrible, toxic, deadly pesticides you hear about (although we've eaten our share of non-organic and haven't died yet :-) This is, of course, marring natural disasters, inquisitive dogs, forgetful gardeners, and other phenomenon.

   The process: #1 Steal the egg cartons from the recycle bin (you should have seen the look on its face when it realized it had been swindled) #2 Plant in rows #3 Mark rows #4 Watch and water.

   Once I begin to see sprouts, I will plant them in the hoop house and cold frame. The carrots and radishes should be able to just grow through the packaging, so I can plant their whole cartons. The leafy specimens, I will separate and plant with adequate spacing. Then marking the cold frames and hoop house by dates, I should be able to track them with mathematical precision and watch the cornucopia of organic goodness fill up! (Aren't I "poetical"?)



Egg Cartons filled with Dirt



Radish Seeds getting planted



Cartons ready for transport

Notes: There are a couple small but important notes here for the few weary travelers who have made it thus far.
1) If you buy johnny's seeds, they come in these really nice resealable packages. Don't rip off the top before reading the label.
2) You can buy "pelleted" seeds, which means they have a clay around the seed that will break down. This helps when trying to plant one seed at a time. They are a little larger and easier to handle, though about a dollar more per package $3.95 instead of $2.95. I plan on buying all pelleted from now on.

Creating a hoop house...

This is a slightly belated post, but it took me a couple of days to compile footage, and get all of my notes together. In an earlier post I spoke about starting a 12 month garden. You may have raised your eyebrow about this and thought, "I've heard that one before", but it wasn't all hot air (or just words on a page). In evidence, I supply this post.

I had to order the greenhouse glass for the lids of the cold frame, so I only framed the wood and turned the soil. I have evidence of this for a later post when I wrap up that project. This weekend's finished product was the hoop house. Like all projects I do, it involved two trips to home depot (one for all of the planned items and one for all of the unplanned items) and a bit of midstream innovation. All things look easier on the DIY network than they really are, this is no exception. I got the general idea from books/Internet posts I've read, but what would be the fun if you followed directions? Where would we be if Thomas Edison went with the common herd and used oil lamps and candles? If Lewis and Clark stayed in the East, who would have led civilization into the west? Where would the iPhone be if we all thought Alexander Graham Bell was the last word on telephones? It is the American way to recreate the best designs. I am an American, therefore I reinvented the hoop house!

So, if you want to be an American too, don't watch the video and go make your own your way. If you want some of my sketchy ideas, though, keep reading (and try not to laugh too much).
I started with 3 pieces of pressure treated 8' 2X4s, 5 10' 1/2" PVC pipes, screws, nails, and 5 "T" connections for 1/2 PVC. (here, I unwittingly strayed from the program by buying the wrong 1/2" T connections, so in the future, I will test the connections, not read labels). If you want to enjoy making this, it will be much more fun to also have a skil or chop saw and a nail gun. Other tools may be used, but these work best.

Step 1: Cut one 2X4 in half so that you will have 2 8' sections and two 4' sections. Nail these together to create a rectangle. Note: You will want to seal the pressure treated wood with an oil based sealer so that the chemicals used to pressure treat the wood do not leak into your soil and kill those wonderful plants you are trying to grow.

Step 2: Cut all of the PVC pipes in half. You should then have 10 5' pieces.

Step 3: Drill holes on PCV and start screws that will subsequently be attached to the wooden frame.

Step 4: Attach all pieces of PVC to the wooden frame at equal distances. Use PVC primer and glue to bring the tops of the PCV together with the 'T' connections.

Step 5: Turn the soil where you want the hoop house to be and bring in at least 4" of good soil. For best results add steer manure and mushroom mulch.

Step 6: Put plastic over the new hoop house!



If after watching the video you have any questions and would like more detailed info or pictures, or would like to see all of the things that I messed up and innovated around, feel free to drop me a note. I'll be happy to let you learn from my mistakes.