The Life of A Garden

"My Love is Like a Seed, Baby...It Just Needs Time To Grow." ~ Janice Joplin (Trust Me)

Today I learned that I may have done pretty much everything wrong so far.

For one thing, I don't think I have nearly enough light system for what I am trying to grow. Woodchuck Gardener's locally experienced advice aside, every other garden source states that windowsills are only to be used a last resort and without grow lights, it's a waste of effort.

But it's not enough to have a grow light, you have to have enough grow light as well. Through sheer luck I ended up with a super light contraption with full spectrum blah blah and I haven't the least idea what any of it means but it was free so I took it (gratefully!).

I was also gifted an APS planting system starter kit and then added to it without really knowing what to expect, and now I feel overwhelmed with trying to fit all the pieces together using what I have and have purchased.

As of this minute, I have what can be covered by lights under the lights. I thought I could have the lights hang up higher and cover more area, and it was pure green horn ignorance that got us to this point.

Apparently, the lights don't do any good, or rather they can even do harm by producing spindly weak plants if the source is too far from the seedlings; the little ones burn themselves out reaching for the light. Rather than concentrating their energies into producing fat, dark, energy producing leaves, they grow long vulnerable stems that crush and break easily.

On top of that, I read today that I may have started my tomatoes a month too early! According to Garden Desk:

"For instance, tomatoes should only be under lights for 4 to 6 weeks before transplanting and you shouldn't transplant them until all danger of frost has passed. In my area, the average last frost is May 15th. That means that I should wait to plant the seeds of my 27 main season tomato varieties until mid-April."

THAT'S MY LAST FROST DATE! JEEZUM CRIPES!

I'm tempted to start over. But then, the peppers are coming up. All but the Italian Ice and Hillbilly Potato Leaf tomatoes have broken ground. The marigolds are going great, as is the kale which I now want to plant more of.

And then there're the four tiny basil seedlings that I know I'm going to want more of when the time comes because I just discovered that basil is an excellent companion plant with tomatoes. How apropos!

I think I may have killed the Johnny Jump Ups. Impetuously, I put the light on them right after we installed it and left their humidity holding bags on. I think the blunder steamed them to death!

I will just have to start them again, because I'm going to have their happy faces in my garden this year. And this IS going to all work out fine, whatever it takes - even if I have to break down and buy a few more light fixtures.

Oh yeah...to end on a happy note - The Moon Flowers have cracked and are going in the dirt today. They look like dinosaur seeds. Click on the photo and see for yourself...

XXKHT

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” ~Albert Einstein

"Tomatoes...they consume you before it's the other way around." ~ KHT

I believe I may be going 'round the bend.

I can't stop obsessing about the garden and in particular the TOMATOES.

I was minding my own business today, lurking in the Blotanical Pick Lists and began following a thread of tomato leads which ultimately led to me ordering five more varieties of tomato seeds!

Even without the veggie porn (few pictures), I was enchanted by the names. Besides, I was concerned over the lack of solid red in our tomato patch and they made me buy them...

Cuor di Bue
This Oxheart type Italian heirloom has been a favorite in Italy for many years. Beautiful 12 oz. fruit have a delicious sweet taste, similar to the shape of a heart, great for fresh eating or cooking. Large vigorous vines. Hard to find.

Cosmonaut Volkov
A smooth and attractive, medium-large red tomato that has a full, rich flavor. The productive vines yield well even in hot weather, perfect for canning or slicing. This variety is from Dniepropetrousk, Ukraine, and was named after the first Russian Cosmonaut. In response to many requests, we are pleased to add this variety to the catalog.

Tatar of Mongolistan
We were sent this rare tomato in the late 1970's by Iraqi seed collector, Aziz Nail, who was living in France. Medium-sized fruit are very flavorful, red, and flattened in shape. These have become popular with seed savers since we introduced it about 5 years ago. We are glad to have this tasty type back. Great fresh or dried.

Bloody Butcher
A small 3-4 oz ‘cluster’ tomato. Fruit are deep red in color and have a nice tomato flavor. Production is really good, but where this open-pollinated tomato really shines is its earliness. It ripens in only about 60 days, making it ripen about the same time as Early Girl, but this tomato is much tastier.

So if you don't want to go crazy (like me) whatever you do, do NOT go to visit Rare Seeds.com

If you think you can remain sensible, DO go to visit:

Garden Desk: The Pros and Cons of Heirloom Tomatoes a wonderful and informative post about what it says it's about...

and

Garden Desk: White Tomesol Heirloom Tomato which contains an impressive list of 20 kinds of Heirloom varieties, in addition to 13 hybrids that Garden Desk writer is growing this season.

I'm increasingly amazed at how much there is to know even on the most basic levels of gardening.

This being only my second season, I am truly nuts to try to do this so totally, having no experience, and I am likely in for some huge disappointments; but I can't help myself. The whole process is downright addicting.

Every day I learn about ten new things. Today I learned (don't laugh) the difference between hybrids and heirlooms (thanks Garden Desk). I learned that I should expect lower yields from my heirlooms and that I'm going to have to do battle with the buggers - but I figure we didn't have fantastic tomato yields last year anyway, and I'm growing so many varieties, some of them are going to work and whatever didn't I will have learned from the experience and will try to improve next season.

Best case scenario, I have so many tomatoes, I'll be a slave to preservation and sales - I plan to sell some veg this year at (hopefully) The Old North End Farmer's Market and also (maybe) to some local restaurants.

Worst Case Scenario: I get few tomatoes and I study harder next time and learn from my mistakes. I will still have an exciting array of seed varieties to play with and I can perhaps enlist a mentor for insurance.

All this talk about it has give me the urge to go look at the babies. The kale needs transplant already because it's in the germination tray and not under light. It's leggy and is crying for a different situation.

Also, my daughter is going to sign up for a plot so she'll be on hand to take the stragglers on. With all that going for us, I'm pretty sure we're going to be buried in delicious veggie goodness by July.

Mmmm, mmmmm, good.
XXKHT
*veggie descriptions lifted straight from rareseeds.com

“We dance round in a ring and suppose, While the secret sits in the middle and knows” ~ Robert Frost

Even though it's way off topic, and after I refused to reveal myself to my first commenter stating that I want this blog is to be about Kimberley's Garden and not so much about Kimberley...

My new bosom garden blogging friend Linda who writes Garden Girl has invited me to participate in a meme: "List Ten Things That People Don't Know About You" It's almost too challenging since I tend to be a very open person, so I'm changing it to...

"Ten Things That The Public May Not Know About Me"

1. I was born in Wurzburg Germany while my father was in the military headed to Vietnam
2. I gave birth at home four times (on purpose! as Linda says)
3. My eldest child is 21 - the age I was when I had him - making me officially old enough to be a grandma. (Yikes!)
4. I do not want grandchildren - but not for reasons of vanity. As much as I love meine kinder, I feel guilty for producing a litter of western super consumers and I hope they'll be gentler to the environment than I was. To clarify:  I would dearly love any grandchildren that come along, but my hope is that if my children want to have families that they'll consider adopting someone who's already here and needs one - the more humanitarian and ecologically responsible option.
5. Ok, my other blog readers are well aware of this, but I am a die hard agnostic and I publicly question and often ridicule all the major religions in a quixotic effort to find and/or add some clarity to the convoluted and dangerous subject. (you gotta start somewhere)
6. I've been a professional cook/chef off and on for 28 years and the highlights were working as the pastry chef at Robert Duval's former restaurant (was his at the time) The Rail Stop in The Plains, Virginia and also at Restaurant Nora in Washington DC, the first all organic haute cuisine restaurant in the east.
7. Nora and I did NOT get along. But Mr. Duval and I did. He has a major sweet tooth and loved to watch me bake, often asking questions and or just lurking around to observe the process.
8. I say outrageous things just to get laughs (all the time)
9. Sadly, I have never attended college
10. In addition to being an avid new gardener and former chef, I am also a traditionally published writer (culinary and travel topics), a mixed media artist and photographer, and my recycled bike parts sculpture "Where Bicycles Come From" will hang in downtown Montpelier, Vermont all summer as part of their Sculptcycles exhibition. The picture is of the model, but the actual sculpture will be approx 5'x5' made of bike tires spray painted and wrapped in white duct tape with a tricycle suspended in the center. The contraption will be suspended from fishing line from some high anchor hopefully to the effect that it appears very sporelike to the viewers below.
11. Bonus: I am unemployed. (Anything considered.)

Well there you have it.
XXKHT

Next up BABY PICTURES! (and I mean the green kind)

"I love to freak out salespeople. They ask me if they can help me, and I say, "Have you got anything I'd like?" Then they ask me what size I need, and I say, "Extra medium."” ~ Stephen Wright

It started innocently enough. This morning, we headed to the Gardener's Supply Outlet in Williston because we had a "Take an Extra 20% Off One Item" coupon (that we forgot - doh!).

Usually, I don't see anything of interest in the outlet, in that it is stocked with mostly ornamental fluff and schwag for ladylike gardeners more interested in lawn ornamentation than growing something useful, like, say...food.* That said, we went in looking for a light timer and came out with these babies instead:

I couldn't resist! They were 25% off of an already marked down $49 sale price making them $36 vs  $85 retail. Ignoring that this price is the equivalent of a whole extra APS system, I justified aloud through the process.

"Remember how I have wanted them since I first spied them last spring?" I asked Robert.

"My Wellies are too tall for squatting, and my clogs are too open for spring planting." I told the cashier.

"Sometimes women just need shoes." I mused silently.

Mea culpa... at least they're good for my sole(s),
XXKHT
*a little judgmental I admit, but if the shoe fits...

“The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is like an eggs-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'." ~anon

In other news....

I have a confession. I want to raise chickens.

Problem: I live in downtown Burlington, Vermont in a two bedroom, upstairs rental, which is one of the many reasons I community garden (and glad for it!).

I'd heard there are chickens in downtown Burlington (figuratively, not literally), but I never dreamed I could keep them myself. I'd always figured raising chickens fitted on the long list of life goals some where between buying a house with property  and building an outdoor bread oven.

I opened the 7Days this morning and what to my wondering eyes should appear? Some Burlington HS kid raising chickens in his backyard downtown, that's what. Now, I'm not a covetous person by nature, but I have to admit, this story makes me plain old fashioned jealous.

Honestly, rarely a week passes that I don't at least once pine aloud for brooding hens of my own. How I long to gather warm green and pink (and brown and blue) eggs out from under happy, clucking birds who live right in my own backyard, where I can get to them whenever. The desire has become something like a mantra.

I eat eggs almost every day. I love them prepared in every way except over hard. If there's such a thing as reincarnation, I was likely an egg sucking spiny anteater in a previous life. But in my defense, at forty-two, I still have exceptional hair and skin, and most people guess my age to be far less than reality.

Besides strong genes, and avoiding the sun in my youth, I've credited this to my love of eggs, with their 13 vitamins and as many minerals and rich protein content. Also, no creature has to die to provide all this goodness; and if you buy from local humane farmers like Lucky Ladies down the Intervale, even better yet.

Studies show that happy animals produce better quality foodstuffs, and eggs are no exception - hens that forage actual insects produce glorious, dark, rich yolks. Ever notice that conventional white egg yolks have a bland, barely yellow hue? Garbage in, garbage out, I say.

Sadly, even though industrious high schooler Zev Chasen, has realized my dream at a tender age, I think I will have to wait until I at least own a home (with or without property). It's hard enough to find housing downtown with two cats - can you imagine trying to explain "flock of brooding hens" on a rental agreement?

For now, veggie porn'll have to do.
XXKHT

Helpful Hint #1: Eggshells are useful additions to the garden. Eggshell tea, made by filling a vessel with eggshells and water and letting it steep for a few days creates a calcium rich liquid for watering plants. Alternately, use the water left over from boiling eggs or intensify the solution by boiling the eggshells first. Tomatoes especially need the calcium and it's supposed to be superior for watering seedlings.

Edge garden beds with loosely ground eggshells as an organic slug repellent. The sharp shells cut the slugs up, so naturally they avoid it.

"Wishing and wanting to see you, I step on thin ice." ~ Madoka Mayuzumi

We're not quite ready to begin germination, but I am antsy with anticipation and so we went down to the Gardener's Supply today to buy some name stakes (or markers or whatever they're officially called).

I couldn't believe the price at 10 cents a piece. Doesn't seem like much until you have a small stack of flat molded plastic that rings up at close to $7.00! I know that they're not worth more than a quarter in materials all together. What a racket!

I'm beginning to feel the guilt of not being more creative in my efforts to recycle and reuse. Robert is what is known as a Gear Head - someone who always wants the newest and the best.

If we're planning to re-use something over and over, I suppose I don't object (much) to buying quality, newly manufactured things. But if we could find a reusable alternative, why not?

I can't count how many yogurt containers we've thrown out this winter... I did save many of those clear plastic egg cartons that my old neighbor mentioned were great for seed starting, and am thinking of using them for last minute starts, just to give a few things a tiny jump and as a kind of experiment.

The reason we have the APS seed starting system is because my aunt swears by them and also bought the first round as a gift. They make perfect sense with their wicking systems and covers; and clearly they're the product of years of logical evolution. Of course, I want the babies to have a solid start.

But now, Robert is looking at light meters and talking about heating pads and I so want this done as holistically as possible. People were starting seeds in cold frames and on window sills for centuries before we had all this gear!

It's not that I don't love technology, but it's not infallible. Speaking of which: perhaps it's my poor searching skills, but with all the ten gazillion gardening sites and blogs out there, there don't seem to be any that have step by step photos of the seed starting process. Bad news for Kimberley, but good news for TLoAG because this is going to be the place.

In the meantime, I'll keep studying and hoping for the best. I'm so eager to get started that this blog is saving me from going stir crazy - also, while we were down getting the name stakes, we couldn't help but to drive a little further to see the garden at rest in her winter whites.

The Intervale Compost looked downright majestic with her rich, black mountains, steaming like mini-volcanos as great flocks of crows flew overhead.

I can't believe they're going to close it down and redirect all that natural goodness to landfills. It won't be the same, and I keep hoping that a miracle will occur and everyone will put aside their differences for the good of one and all.

But I promised myself to keep this blog upbeat and uncontroversial; that's what my other blog is for.

And so it shall remain, at least for today,
XXKHT

notes on pics: I took several photos of the compost but for whatever reasons I don't like them well enough to share. I'll try again later and add them here if something better comes out.