Mom and I grew over 400 plants this year- 50 for her primary, 250 for my annual sale, and 100 to donate to our homeschool co-op Spring Event.

The school sale was this weekend- along with my tomatoes we had flats of flowers donated by a local business. There were games and a bouncy house for the kids, a little yard sale, a waffle truck, and lots of local businesses with information booths set up. This was all to raise money for our PTSA and co-op.

A new experiment for me this year: water tepees for my tomatoes! The channels hold water- they absorb heat during the day and keep the plants warm at night, warm the soil, protect the plants from wind and rain, and… I think the red light is supposed to do something good for the plants. One that was on uneven ground collapsed today- thankfully my daughter was out watering plants and came and got me. Poor little tomato- I staked it up and will try the tepee again this afternoon, with some supports.

Strawberries are blooming and so is last year’s kale. The kale needs to come out, but I wanted to leave the flowers for the bees.

We found a broken robin egg in the garden- we have two or three nests in our yard. I’m not sure how many are occupied, but I think the crows succeeded in stealing an egg. The robins have been ferociously defending their territory the past week, and are always out digging up worms and finding bits of fluff for their nests.

We have some bits of ajuga popping up in the yard- I love the purple leaves and flowers, so I normally leave it. Even when it pops out of my cinder block wall.

The oregano is getting huge- I need to trim it back and dry the leaves. I like to let it flower in the summer too, because bees LOVE it.

My husband and I happened to walk by a p-patch in Seattle a month or so ago. So, so, so cute. I want a cute garden!! Seriously. Anyway, there was a flower in full bloom that I’d never seen before. Plus, when do you see orange blooms in April? Nearly everything is blues and yellows. I saw a bucket of it at Freddy’s and it came home with me that day- kumquat nemesia. Full sun, drought tolerant, annual, blooms in the spring, not fussy… I am smitten.

Things are growing nicely- the tomatoes grew fast in Mom’s greenhouse- I brought home about 175 tomatoes, kale, and tomatillos to sell this weekend. It’s time, they’re getting too big for our pots! They’re all snuggled into my cooler greenhouse now, alongside my fresher seedlings for the warm months.

After this heat spell we’re in, I’m going to take my sunflowers, squash, borage, calendula, and marigolds up to the bigger greenhouse to grow for a few weeks. I needed to make some room for them first! There are still about 200 plants up at the other greenhouse- 150 spoken for that will go out in two weeks, and about 50 others that need to come down.

Half of those sold today, I know we won’t have trouble finding a home for the rest!

Seedlings, pricked to cups in the greenhouse tomatoes, tomatillos, kale, and basil.

Seeds sown in greenhouse: more basil, calendula, borage, and marigolds.

Seeds sown in the garden: peas, parsley, oregano, and chives.

I still have carrots for the garden, and more summer crops and flowers for the greenhouse. My mom has been awesome this year and lent me her greenhouse space, in exchange for tomato starts for her friends. Can do!! Her greenhouse is larger and warmer than mine, plants do awesome in there.

I hit a big flower sale at Freddy’s, and came home with 32 fuchsia starts, 12 petunia, and some other assorted fillers. I filled a bunch of flower pots this week, they do a lot to brighten the yard!

So far I have about 280 plants spoken for, not bad!

I was happy to find as asparagus spear in the garden- I started with 6 crowns, and only one survived the digging it took to install a new water main. I’m not going to harvest this year, but hope to harvest next year!

A footcandle is a measurement of light based on the light in a 1-foot-square area illuminated by a single candle known as an international candle. This method isn’t totally accurate, but will give you a good idea of your footcandle measurement. (For example, the windows I tried to raise seeds in my first year here are measuring at about 32 fc. No wonder those buggers didn’t grow!)

To give you an approximate idea of the fc power of various light sources-
Starlight: .00011 fc
Moonlight: .02 fc
Overcast daylight: 1,000 fc
Direct sun: 10,000 fc

Here’s a neat trick to measure the light where you’re growing- you will need a manual camera, set on Shutter Value (that’s TV on a Canon) so that when you set the shutter speed and ISO, the camera will set the aperture. Don’t worry, this is EASY.

1) Set the ISO at 200
2) Set the shutter speed at 1/125.
3) Point the camera at your light source– for example, a window or greenhouse roof– and take a picture.

When you’re looking through the lens you’ll see numbers along the bottom- check your aperture or F-Stop

Veggies need light about 1,000 fc, give or take for each variety, to grow well.  (And they need it about 8 hours a day.)

If your aperture is:
2.8, that’s 32 fc
4, that’s 64 fc
5.6, that’s 125 fc
8, that’s 250 fc
15, that’s 1,000 fc
22, that’s 2,000 fc

I’m considering adding flourescent lighting to my backyard greenhouse, this is a handy way to see how much extra I need!

All information from Greenouse Gardeners Companion, written by Shane Smith.  Copyright 1992.

Here is the revised version on Amazon.

I’m coming back, don’t worry. I have some new self care recipes, lots of smoothies to share (only the keepers, don’t worry), and it’s about time to start getting ready for the spring garden.

the remains of an orange cream smoothie and my happy lamp

My half a basket of apples yielded 2 quarts of spicy, brown, slightly tart juice. These apples were ugly- spotted, wrinkly, small, and possibly worm-marked inside. I’ve already worked through three baskets (of the prettier apples) for fresh eating and pots of apple sauce. We need no more apple sauce, even Cocoa is slowing down on apple consumption, and we haven’t worked through last year’s apple butter. So two quarts is a great result from half a basket of apples that had no other purpose. (I started this adventure with 8 baskets of neighborhood apples, and could not find any more friends willing to come and get some. A friend moved suddenly and had to leave her harvest behind, lamenting that she’d only had time to can 40 quarts of sauce from her trees. Did I mention that she was an 8-month-pregnant mom of two little boys? Super Woman!!!)

One half basket left to get through… And I will have a house full of hungry, thirsty people one evening this week. I think I know where those last apples will go!

I’m trying a more common (and older) approach today and warming the onions on the stove in honey. I know raw honey should be better, but I don’t buy unpasteurized foods. I’ve included rosemary sprigs in the pot- rosemary is listed as being an antibacterial and a decongestant, besides being delicious. (Among many, many other properties.)

This will be great to have on hand for the cold and flu season- the toddler and preschooler have coughs that won’t break up, and onion boosts the immune system so hopefully this will help keep the rest of us healthy! I’ll either mix a spoonful into warm water or just let them lick it off a spoon.

Today I took a two-year-old can from storage in the backyard and spread it over my four raised beds. I intended to do a fall/winter garden, but my dirt in a few beds needs serious rest and amending. My spring kale planting is still going strong, and will last happily through the winter for us.

Have her put these words in alphabetical order, says the lesson manual. I say make her alphabetize (and put away) all the movies! Love when learning and housework are best buds.