Planting Notes

Cole week was brutal. Worked hard on the job most every day and came home to pulling the sod chunks out of my beds. Broke a tine on my (Commandeered from Gideon) pitch fork. The goal was to get it turned, de-chunked, graded, 2" of compost added, and watered in. I wanted to saturate it so that if I had any sink holes, like what appeared in my potato patch, I could fix them. So on Thursday night I finished with the last of the compost and set the water. Friday morning it was a soupy mess, but no loss of real estate. Friday evening I forced the children, under duress of physical harm, to come out and help me plant my cabbage and broccoli. We had some very special bonding time. Kerri, summoned a folding chair, and oversaw the progress. Sometimes I don't think we have enough of good-ol' gritty family interactions. As the light completely faded, the kids finished planting the last of the coles, and I watered them in. Cole week was accomplished. The rains came and the cabbages are happy.

It can be a little difficult knowing when to plant what when. I'm using advice from an array of sources. Mom planted by bloom time of certain plants, which is directly related to soil and air temp. Most of us remember in Ag class, or listening to KOZI, hearing about degree-days. The jist of the concept is that you take the low and high temp, average them out and find out how many degrees have warmed or cooled above a threshold temp (like 50°) and calculate that into days. Basically it tells you where you are at in the season. So on a cool year, like this year, there would be less degree-days (shrubs and trees bloom later). Wouldn't it be cool if there was a planting chart directly related to apple degree days. That would be handy. Let the local ag station do the all the calculating. Maybe I'll start working on that.

• Cool season vegetables like potatoes, lettuce, peas, and root crops, need at least 45°
• Tomatoes, beans, and marigolds like at least 55°, preferably 60°
• Peppers, eggplant, okra need at least 68-70°

I love volunteers. They give an indication of what you can plant when. All the cool season volunteers have been up for a while, dill and borage. Rudbeckias germinated a few weeks later and second and third leaf are starting to appear. I have kept my soil on the dry side to help increase the soil temp. We had a couple of days this past week that were in the high 70s and maybe the low 80s. Volunteer cosmos have germinated. The first volunteer scarlet runner bean has germinated. I would get ready to plant beans. Volunteer marigolds have not germinated. Can't plant tomatoes yet. The ten-day forcast looks great. We may have had our last frost.

Last Monday I took a trip to the coast and picked up plants for a job. I also picked up a few plants for me. One flat and a handful of seed packets was $78. So when I got home I chopped them little plants up into 144 pieces (gross huh!), stuck them in roottone, wrapped them in plastic, and placed them on the heat mats. Yesterday, I pulled off the plastic from two flats I had propagated from some of Vern's plants. I had pretty good success, for not having used roottone. Probably better than 80% rooted. So I have two flats of bacopa, bidens, and wave petunias that cost me less than $10.

The Basil Dilemma and A.L. Syndrome

It poured on and off all day yesterday, and is still raining this morning. It was a good day to work in the greenhouse. I ran out of space, so all of the hardy stuff moved outside to get hardened off, and wait for planting. Every now and then I find myself with "A.L. Syndrome"(Aunt Lahna Syndrome), and yesterday was one of those days. It started while transplanting Dark Opal Purple Basil. I calculated that I need maybe 40 plants to edge my cabbage beds. That is 2/3rds of one flat. Then I need a flat for extras and to give away. Basil should be an easy plant to give away, no one can say no to purple basil. (Here is where the frazzled justification for taking up valuable greenhouse resources kicks in.) "But the rest in the seed tray are so cute." "I didn't expect them to grow so fast. I was hoping to transplant straight from the seed flat into the garden." "Someone will need basil, it would be a waste" So I planted them up. All seven flats. Then I started on the Green Leaf Holy Basil, the Italian Basil, and the Thai Magic Basil. Seventeen flats of basil, and look at all of those little seedlings still left in the flat. The voices in my head continue: "They can't go to waste. I can't just throw them in the compost." "Not cute little basil." Before I'm even aware of it, a severe case of A.L. Syndrome with its twisted voices has set in, and the greenhouse is completely filled with basil. "Maybe if I leave them on the heat mat until later it will be easier to throw them out." "What would Aunt Lahna do?" "I need more room." "I definetely am going to have to expand this dinky little greenhouse." "BASIL! BASIL! BASIL!" (It can get quite claustrophobic at times in the greenhouse. Way too many people in there at once. Whispering at me. Yelling at me. Yet I struggle through it. I suspect Kerri thinks I'm lonely at times. She is so wrong.) So I push the cleome out of the greenhouse. Live or die it is your time. Like Jerry Clower said about the coon. "Don't shoot a coon, you give it a fightin' chance." "Run it out of the tree into the pack of dogs, and it at least has the choice to whip all 20 dogs." You too pansies and sweet william - out. "Tough it up" I need more room for these valuable little basil. Actually if I didn't have such a case of A.L. when I transplanted the pansies, I wouldn't be in this dilemma.

You know I love you Aunt Lahna and I might have a few extra basil for your garden this year, but you'll have to come visit me in my greenhouse. I think there is room for one more.

The rain has eased, I better go fertilize, and continue thinning dill.