Red onion seedlings

In about 4 days seedlings have come up.  25 of the 36 seeds I planted have sprouted.  The ones that have not sprouted I am not worried about.  They may come up in a few days or not at all.  If they do not more will be planted. 

Red onion seed starting

So I picked up a 72 slot seed starting kit from Lowes, which is actually two 36 slot setups.  It has a plastic tray which houses 36 growing slots.  There is a plastic dome which goes on top to hold in moisture.  Each one of the 36 slots has a peat pellet that expands when warm water is applied to it.  The seeds being used are Ferry-Morse "Red Burgundy" onions.  Plant the seeds about 1/2 inch deep and cover with the soil.  Seeds should sprout in within 10-12 days.  I am in zone 9-10 so I should plant these December - March.




This is planted dirt with the plastic cover on.  They have been started inside and are sitting under a CFL grow light for 16 hours a day.  When the seedlings start showing up I will remove the cover.  That is after they reach about an inch in height.




Hopefully soon I can post an update to this with pictures of little seedlings.  For something like onions where you want a large quantity of them seeds are a good choice.  When it comes to an item that you want only 1-6 plants, get a started plant from your nursery.  Seeds only good for the year they are made.  After 2 years you only get about a 40-50% success rate.  Use eBay with caution for seeds.  Personally I have experienced mixed results, however sometimes it is the only place to get that "one" seed.

Still diggin

I am still digging out the garden so there is no real pictures to show as far as progress goes.  It is going a little slower than I would like it to but I want it done right.  The pvc pipe connecting the four old garden beds is being dug up as well as the old drip systems.  Each of the old beds had 16 square feet of growing space for a combined size of 64 square feet.  This new raised bed is 5' x 24' and 120 square feet.  That is a heck of a lot more space.

These are some of the vegetables grown in the old beds.




Four different types of carrots. Solar yellow, white, purple and regular orange. Roma tomatoes and a lone orange tomato. White and red onions, okra and sugar beets.

Composting

Another new addition to the garden is a compost bin.   For about $40 at a local hardware store I picked up a 115 gallon compost bin made by GardenPlus. It is made of 90% recycled materials.  The bin snaps together and seems to be of good quality.  Some of the reviews of the unit are negative but I found those accusations to be unfounded.  Total time to put it together was about 10 minutes and I was taking my time.




My reasons for composting is basically being frugal.  I turn yard waste and vegetable waste into fertilizer.  All grass and plants taken out of the garden are going into the bin.  There is a lot of pine cones, pine needles, leaves and other yard waste I can throw into the bin.  Along with the yard waste can go banana peels, spoiled vegetables, paper and coffee grounds can go in.

Things that can go into the bin:

• yard waste - grass clippings, leaves, pine cones/needles, tree limbs.
• vegetable waste - banana peels, apple cores, onion skins, anything vegetable and fruit related.
• paper - shredded documents, junk mail.
• coffee grounds, tea, anything else that was once a plant.
• Water from cleaning out your aquarium.

It is pretty simple to compost.  Add 50% green and 50% brown, water and air.  Nature will break this down into compost.  You will need to turn the pile and make sure it is moist or it will rot and not compost.  Easy enough with a pitchfork or a special tool you can buy at the hardware store.   

The plan 2011 thus far

So with the garden being transformed into a 24' x 5' growing space I have figured out the basic starting plans.




The red circles represent tomatoes.  They are spaced 18" apart divided by 36".  The tomatoes are 12" from the sides of the garden.  One row of three will be Roma and will be used for canning.  The other row of three will be either beefsteak or another large red sandwich tomato.  The two black circles will be for black krim, lemon boy or Mr. stripey, just for fun.  Yellow onions(orange circles) will be about 40-48.  I use these a lot for grilling.  Green represents garlic, about 36 bulbs.  Blue is for carrots.  This year they will be just regular orange carrots.  No multicolor heirloom varieties.  Not a significant difference in taste in my humble opinion.  The brown is for red onions, about 26 of them. 

This will leave me with space for egg plant, cucumber and then maybe potatoes.  Greens such as herbs and lettuce are to be grown as well but will not be in this planter bed.  Other options are hot peppers such as jalapenos and herbs.

Quick status update

Progress is going ok.  Right now obviously I have the raised bed frame completed.  It has been back breaking work to remove the grass and overgrown old beds vegetation.  The garden is 1/3rd of the way cleared and work will probably take another week.  Then it will take about 10-12 loads of topsoil to fill the bed.  I have declined the free fill dirt the city has to offer.  It is free but full of unknowns, properly composted topsoil will outperform the fill. 

Another thing is a composting setup.  That will be featured another blog entry.

Here we go again.

So I bought four - 2"x12"x12' and a 2"x12"x10' board.    The 2"x12"x10' was cut in half.   Some Olympic redwood deck and weatherproofing stain was applied to the wood.   It was assembled with galvanized framing hardware.   In the end it came out to approximately 5'wide by 24' long.   This raised bed is actually surrounding my original four 4'x 4' plots and then some.




As you can see my old garden fell into disrepair and became overgrown.  The egg plant is the lone half dead plant in the picture.  If you try this yourself make a note that the 2"x12"x12' boards are over 50 pounds a piece.   Next thing for tomorrow will be to dig up the grass and weeds.  With a bed this size it will take appox. 120 cubic feet of topsoil to fill.  That will be 10-12 trips for my beat up pick up truck.  In the meantime I will figure out plumbing for the irrigation.

Lessons learned

So after a while, work got in the way and discouragement with the small plots of land cause the garden to become neglected.  This time we will try things a bit different by analyzing what went wrong.

• 4' x 4' plots of land for the garden.  While it made it nice for crop rotation it also limited my space for growing.  Over crowding was necessary to plant every thing I wanted.
• Even thought I had 24" between 4'x4' plots to allow space for my lawn mower it was a pain.  It was a good idea but bad in practice.
• Only used 4" boards to make the beds raised 3" above ground.   This allowed the grass and weeds to easily invade the garden.
• Tried to grow too many things and too many heirloom vegetables.
• Drip irrigation is not the best solution for the garden.  I found that the vegetables that were around the spray heads grew better than the ones at the drip heads.

So the plan this time around.

• Redo the garden so that is a 4' x 24' bed.  This will solve 2 problems.  One it will allow more growing space and two I will not have to mow between beds.  However the garden may be slightly bigger as I will be cutting a 2 x 12 x 10' board in half.  Being frugal I will probably make the garden a bit wider.
• I will use 2" x 12" x 12' boards to form the garden bed.  It will raise the garden one foot above the ground.  Hopefully it will keep the weeds at bay a bit more and also make it easier to tend.
• Focus on the vegetables I like to grill and pickle.  Onion, carrots, egg plant, tomato, cucumber, peppers and some herbs.
• Use the drip irrigation but mostly the spray heads.  Due to city code and state regulations I will use the drip irrigation system.  If it is not permanent the city/state cannot ticket me.

Even though I had success with my garden there is room for improvement.    For one thing it will take a lot of dirt to fill the new raised bed.  The city has fill I can load in my truck and use.  I will also be enhancing it with manure and bagged garden dirt.  Will also be using leaves and pine needles for composting.