Our weather

Today Tuesday rain 43
Wednesday rain 42
Thursday possible snow 44
Friday rain 46
Saturday rain 52
Sunday Sun 56

Today I went out to put the plastic sheeting over several raised beds to keep the beds warmer
Yesterday I planted radishes, and beets, today I planted spinach.

In order to get a head start in the garden you have to cover and uncover the raised beds.

I have a list of plants I should be starting in the greenhouse, but I have shelves to empty and pots to fill before this happens.

Tonight we may move a lot of the cut up branches to clear the lawn and garden.

planting beets, and radishes

I soaked the beets seeds this morning
This afternoon I drained them and added radish seeds to the mix

The theory is that the radish seeds come up first and then you know where you planted your beet seeds.
Beets take forever to germinate, (that's why I soak them for under 12 hours)

We will see how this goes.

I planted on February 2/27

french breakfast petit dejeuner radishes
radish daikon
custom radish mix (code for mixed radish seeds)
radish national
french breakfast rabano radish

early wonder beet
detroit dark red beet
cylindra beet
golden beet
tanus hybrid beet

daylilies

 It's been awhile since I've seen the blooms of the day-lilies, the reason over crowded lack of light

as you can see from a photo awhile back they are really over crowded.

We moved here 7 1/2 years ago almost 8 I haven't divided them. Just the other day I was reading you need to divide them every 3 years ...well they are certainly over due. I also read don't plant them under trees the trees will take up all the water. They are a thirsty flower and need mulch and sunlight.
Deer love to eat them.

Well we have 100's of trees, and lack of light and deer. A bit of a problem.

At work we have a field that is in full sunlight, in a wet land, no deer that may be a good new home.

Gardening in Newburg

I've been at our daughters since Tuesday, she is expecting baby number two soon.
While here I've done a little gardening. Weeding 10 gallons of weeds out of the front bed.
Digging up two rose bushes and transplanting them and one large bush I have no idea what it is.
I also dug up some calla lilies and divided them and replanted them.

I thought about planting the tulips and daffodils with their pots into the ground in the front bed.
Because they have a gopher problem.

But it looks like I won't get to it because the weather is turning cold and rainy. Besides number two is coming soon.

Eric is taking the day off and coming to join us. He's also bringing garden tools and 24 rose bushes.

Planting peas

We soaked peas over night on Sunday night.
Then monday morning I drained the water off the peas.
After the peas were drained I rolled the moisten peas in Garden inoculate.
I only use inoculate on legume seeds.

Then I had Carmen write on plastic plant markers the type of seeds and the date planted.

We then made our own planter mix.
I like to go to the farm store like Wilco to get bulk amendments like perlite, and peat moss, or vermiculite, etc...

The seed starting mix I use is half perlite and peat moss. Some times I'll use vermiculite (it depends on which amendment is cheaper)

Peat moss hold moisture and vermiculite and or perlite leaves air pockets for the soil.

The thing I like about making our own starter mix. It's cheaper and you know whats in the mix.

So after mixing our soil medium we filled our sterilized containers with the mix.

We moistened the soil before planting our seeds.

Then Carmen and I put a plant stake in each flat of what we were planting and proceeded to plant one seed per hole. After we put the seeds at the depth require we then covered the seed with more planter mix. Then watered with a fine mist spray.

I put black plastic on top of our raised beds, put the flats on the black plastic and put the hoops over the raised beds. Then Carmen and I put row cover over the raised beds.

I won't water the plants for a week.

The row cover I use is a fine row cover, it allows the rain to come in and some light. The black plastic will warm the soil below. The row cover will also protect the peas as they emerge from the over whelming bird population we have. The row cover will also keep the peas a little warmer than if they were in the open air. The other benefit of row cover it keeps pests away.

We are going to do succession planting this year where you plant some seeds now and some seeds a week or two later. This way the peas will be spread out over the season.

We planted two types of seeds yesterday.
Lincoln shelling peas and the oregon giant edible peas.

The shelling peas tend to be a bush, and the edible peas are climbers so you need some sort of trellis for these.

Peas put nitrogen into the soil and grow so nicely in our area. They are pretty much no fail. We've always done well with peas.

Peas shoots can be used in stir fries. Peas shoots are the baby shoots that come up from the ground. If you've over planted use the shoots for cooking.

Highlights of our garden notes

What I learned about tomatoes in Oregon
Require 6.5 ph soil
water from underneath (If you don't want to water for 2 weeks, take a 5 gallon bucket drill lots of holes in the bottom, bury the bucket in the ground leaving an 1" above ground. Plant a tomato plant on either side of the bucket. Fill the bucket up with water and don't water again for 5 weeks.

To protect tomatoes from rain cut the bottom out of a water cooler container and use it as a cloche for the tomato, left the top open.
To warm the soil around the tomato take two 1 gallon containers  preferably painted black and put on either side of the cloche. Fill with water put the lid on and place on either side of the cloche. The sun will warm the water and at night the warm water will warm the soil around the plant.

Every year add 6" of compost to your garden beds, or add agricultural lime in the fall.

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What I learned about the insects world
There are over 300,000,00 insects
Bugs can be beneficial and harmful what's important is the balance of them.
That is why chemical control is not a good idea it kills both the good and bad bugs and throws the cycle out of balance.
Kill aphids by popping them like bubble wrap. This sets off a pheromone that will attract lady bugs to finish them off. It also warns other aphids and says don't come here we are dying. Teach your kids to pinch aphids.

Spiders are good. Did you know they make a web and eat it everyday for protein in their diet.

Know what insect eggs look like lady bugs eggs are golden and rice shaped.
A fly that attacks veggie crops look like white rice shapes that are poked into the leave of a plant.
You want to get on top of these guys or they will destroy your crop. Pinching them is the best method, taking off the leaf and putting it in a plastic bag, it may come down to destroying that plant.

Caterpillars turn to moths or butterflies. Yes we like the butterflies but the caterpillars are destructive to food crops so you want to get rid of them.

Insects brains identify with one color. Some are drawn to blue or white or red. So if you plant to your flowers in one color grouping it's easier to draw certain bugs in and control others.

Don't spray with sprays that take care of many bugs because they will hurt beneficial bugs. If you have to use sprays use sprays that kill only one thing.

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Greenhouses
Glass is best, polycarbonate is next
Steel frames are best, but wood painted white would be Ok
You need vents in the roof and on the floor for good air flow
Lean to greenhouses are the most economical greenhouses
Concrete foundations are great and dark gravel would be next
Watering from underneath not over head
heating with a fan if needed but you have to have the right size heater for the size of green house you have
aluminized shade cloth is the best for growing
LED lights are the best but are too expensive, so florescent T5 bulb with another florescent red spectrum bulb are great for growing vegetables and flowering plants.
Use yellow sticky insect papers to catch the flying bugs
You have to know what your growing to know what kind of green house you need.
Are you growing for vegetable starts
or are you growing tropicals
This makes a huge difference because of the requirements.

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Eric learned from his tool class that spraying your tools after pruning with lysol is more effective than bleach or alcohol in killing bacteria and diseases. You want to do this every you go to a new plant to not spread diseases.

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In his tree class he learned not to put anything plantings under the tree. This robs the moisture the tree needs. You all so need to keep mulches 5" away from tree trunks to keep varmints from girdling.
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In his soil class he look NPK  (N is above, P is below and K is all around)
Worms, chicken manure, bat manure, are great.
Mulching mow
Kelp meal or seaweed are great

Organizing garden seed

Make a list of what you have 

Then make a list of what you like *

Beans 

Black valentine bush

Top crop bush 

Three color blend snap 2 packages

Straight n narrow bush 

Hutterite bush beans 

Italian rose bush beans

Beets

Taunus hybrid 

Early wonder

Broccoli 

Early green broccoli

*veronica broccoli

*sorrento broccoli arab

Cabbage 

Ruby perfection hybrid 

*parle cabbage 

*tender hear chinese cabbage

Carrots 

Touchon carrot 2 packages 

Nantes coreless carrots 

Kaleidoscope mix carrot mix

*Yaya carrots 

*Sugar snax 54 carrots

Cauliflower

*green mist

*Sunset cauliflower

Corn

Baby corn bonus

Cucumber 

Home made pickles 

Straight eight cucumber 

Cc cucumber

Climbing cucumber 

Mediterranean cucumber garden oasis 

*summer dance cucumber

Flowers 

Hand collected marigold seeds

Sweet pea incense peach shades

Garlic 

Garlic bulbs

*turkish giant garlic

Greens for the salad garden

Bistro corn salad or mache 

Pac choi me qing choi hybrid

Mesclun 

Alfresco mix multi pellet mixed greens

Lettuce

Kale white russian 

Kale lacinato cabbage family

Selvetica Arugula or roquette

Organic gourmet arugula

Arugula

Indian summer hybrid spinach

Tyee f1 spinach

Charlotte chard

*montecito lettuce 

*Ching chiang 

Gourds 

Luffa

Herbs

Fenugreek

Slow bolt cilantro 

Cilantro coriander 

Thyme 

Sweet genovese basil 2 packages 

Fineleaf dwaf bush basil 

Pistou basil 

Tarragon russian

Dill 

Spearmint

Cumin 

*finissimo verde a palla 

*lemon mint

Melons

Charente's 

Watermelon georgia rattlesnake

Watermelon diamond 

Watermelon sugar baby

Okra

*okra star of david

Onion family

Chives

Tokyo long bunching 

Blue solaise leek 

White onions bulbs

yellow onions bulbs

red onions bulbs

Peas

Lincoln shelling peas

Oregon giant edible pod peas

Home collected seas

Peppers 

Golden treasure 

Rainbow bell mix

California wonder 

Jalapeno pepper

Potatoes

Red pontiac 

Yukon gold

Pumpkins

Casper 

Rouge vif decamps

Radish

Custom radish mix 

French breakfast petit dejeuner

French breaksfast Rabat

Squashes 

Ronde de nice summer squash

Tomatoes 

Culinary mixture tomato

Gourmet heirloom blend indeterminate yellow, orange, red, pink, green, purple, bicolor 

Black sea man tomato

Campbell’s #33 VFA 

Heinz 1370 VFA

Rainbow cherry blend 

Seeds collected don’t know what they are