What did you do in the garden today?

[Packy]

Very new to gardening, so been ordering seeds I have my trays and seed blocker in the box. So I've been planning and entering in my calendar when I need to start my seeds. The next few months I'll be building raised beds after I'm done with my 2nd chicken tractor.

 

[gtaus]

For all the reason stated - thaw, refreeze, icks getting in, etc. I also have several autoimmune diseases & take immunosuppressant drugs so I don't mess around with anything.

Sorry to hear about that. Yeah, I would not risk anything in your case, either. Stay healthy.

 

[NanaK]

No. This will be a first for me. I've been watching videos on the method. Thought I'd try some marigolds, sunflowers and cabbage. I can't direct sow sunflowers because of our chipmunks.
I'm all ears, if you have any suggestions

Sorry for my late reply. I've had a bad cold working on me.
This is a pretty good tutorial for winter sowing. Pretty much the way I do it. I like that I don't have to worry about critters stealing my seeds before they get a chance to grow. Seems less watering and making sure they do not dry out. They usually stay moist without having to look at them everyday. These go outside instead of taking space under my grow lights. I wish you lots of luck!

https://extension.umd.edu/sites/ext...All the Dirt on Winter Sowing Power Point.pdf

 

[CNJ]

I got an idea to use stretchable sticky tape to hold the plastic in place and waterproof duct tape for the seam. I got the idea after making a mess with clear silicone. I ordered the heavy-duty sticky tape from amazon just now. It rained last night, and the plastic I put around my plant kept the rainwater out of my bucket. However, I am still working on the best way to secure the plastic.

Waterproof duct tape is working for me. I wet my bucket cover and put a square plastic sheet on top, this makes it easier to cut round with a scissor. I cut a line halfway and wrap it around the stem of my plant, so that the plastic is just on the edge of the rim. I put a tape where it slightly overlap to seal the cut. I go around the lip edges with a cut piece of waterproof duct tape. I think this way is better than my sticky tape idea. I don't think a lot of water can get in, any way I have a hole at the water level, so it doesn't really matter that much. The color of the plant will tell me if I have a nutrient deficiency.

 

[WthrLady]

Very new to gardening, so been ordering seeds I have my trays and seed blocker in the box. So I've been planning and entering in my calendar when I need to start my seeds. The next few months I'll be building raised beds after I'm done with my 2nd chicken tractor.

Welcome !

 

[gtaus]

Very new to gardening, so been ordering seeds I have my trays and seed blocker in the box. So I've been planning and entering in my calendar when I need to start my seeds.

In theory, I really liked the idea of the soil blocker. In practice, my soil blocker did not work very well and fully half of the soil blocks were malformed and had to be redone. I had purchased a poor quality soil blocker and it just did not work very well.

Because you have to mix your soil with water for the soil blocker, you might have to experiment to get the consistency right for the blocks to hold together. I found I needed to have the soil much wetter than I had thought, but eventually, I was able to get good results with my soil blocker (after I made modifications to fix the poor quality of the device). Point is, it might take some experimenting to get the mix just right for your particular soil blocker.

Eventually, I moved to using plastic net pots with slits in them. You get the same benefits of air pruning as you do with the soil blocks, but it's much easier for me to pack a net pot than to try to form the soil blocks with my soil block maker. Also, the net pots I bought are about twice as big as my soil blocks which is the main reason I switched over to the net pots. Most of my early plants were 8 weeks inside the house, and the 3-inch net pots I had provided that extra room for the plant to grow strong without needing to repot the plant before transplanting.

Like soil blocks, you bottom water the net pots and let the water soak up into the potting mix. With the net pots, you don't need any expensive soil blocker mix, which might be an advantage to you if you find you are spending lots of money on the soil block mix.

If I only had plants for 4 weeks inside the house, I think the soil blocks I make would be great. But stretching out my plants to 8 weeks inside would require repotting the plants to a larger container before my transplant date.

I still use my soil blocker for plants I will start inside the house for only 4 weeks, or less. The soil blocks take less space in the trays and also less (about half) potting soil. Anyways, I now have both methods of starting plants and use each to my advantage depending on the plant and how long I will be growing it inside the house before transplanting.

The next few months I'll be building raised beds after I'm done with my 2nd chicken tractor.

For a number of years, I only use raised beds for my gardening. I practice the hügelkultur raised bed system which I find the best for me. I make my raised beds out of pallet wood. It costs me less than $2.00 per 16-inch high, 4X4 foot, raised pallet wood bed. I'm on version 2.0 of my pallet wood raised bed design. It works great for me.

If you are interested in learning a bit more about the advantages of the hügelkultur raised bed method, check out the thread Hügelkultur Raised Beds. If you are brand new to building raised beds, you might want to scan the posts in that thread and learn how to avoid many of the mistakes most of us beginners make when building our first raised beds. There are some methods and build designs that will last much longer than others. Anyways, there is some good discussion on raised bed build designs in that thread that I wish I knew years ago when I first started making my raised beds.

YouTube has many videos on making raised beds. They all look great when first built, but many of those raised bed designs will fall apart in only a few years and the YouTube poster will probably not post an update on their failed design. Some do, but most don't. Since you seem to be in the information gathering phase of gardening, I would suggest reading what other gardeners have learned from experience, so you don't have to make the same mistakes.

Also, if you buy a raised bed kit from a big box store, chances are it will look real pretty when you put it together, but many of those kits fall apart in only a few years. If you read the discussions on raised bed builds, you will learn how to modify those kits stronger, so they last longer.

I realize that you did not ask for any of this advice, but I'm offering it proactively because it is information that I wish I had access to when I first started off with my raised beds. Best of luck with your new adventure.

 

[Tahai]

How would you repackage a few seeds? Without plastic

My sister sent our seed order in. We are splitting packets of some things and trading 4 to 6 seeds of some of our old seeds and some of our newly ordered varieties.

Glass baby jars make sense for some of my seed stash. Mostly, the jars are too big for the seed size x number of seeds.

Last year, I made envelops out of paper: I found a template online, printed a pageful, cut them out, glued one end, let that dry, put the seeds in, and glued the other end. It is better to write the contents, source, and year on it before any gluing. Last weekend I discovered it is also better to write the seed count on them.

I'm fairly happy with the envelopes but they are a little hassle to make and I had to destroy them to open them. Also, a few seeds got caught in the ends. That might be from impatience so letting the glue dry more could fix it. Possibly, if I made them extra long, I could cut off the end and reglue them shorter. Or maybe there is a better way.

I'm toying with the idea of using straws. I need a way to close off the ends. I would rather not flatten the ends. The tricky part is being malleable enough to fit as a plug yet neither shrink loose as it dries nor allow the seeds to stick to it nor give too much moisture to the seeds. Anyone want to throw out some ideas?

What about little fabric rounds or coffee filters? Put the seeds in the middle and tie it up tight? Or used spice jars? Or fold them up in toilet paper squares really good and staple or tape closed.

 

[akroberts1085]

I have decided it's time for me to start seeds. I'm tired of waiting for the weather to clear up. I can hopefully get a better harvest this year compared to last year.

 

[akroberts1085]

I almost forgot to let everyone know that I have a new puppy. This is Wally

 

[ShrekDawg]

I almost forgot to let everyone know that I have a new puppy. This is WallyView attachment 3733825

Awwwww