Mystery Seedlings

[surviort_wwdnet]

Rainy day yesterday so I stayed inside and played housewife. Working to offload some of the accumulation of almost 20 years in this house; one bag for Goodwill, one for when TSHTF.

Nice but chilly day today. Took one frost blanket to the bag garden to cover seedlings up tonight as it's supposed to dip into the mid-to-low 30s; folded and took another one to the garden shed for next winter. Brought in a load of firewood. It's time to pull carrots and parsnips, some onions, and a head or two of cabbage, but that will wait for tomorrow.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Finally got some seeds in the ground on friday....about 1/3 of garden is now planted. Rained on and off last two days here, so will try and plant some more today. This new business is keeping us busy...and making money....

[surviort_wwdnet]

Making money is a good thing! So is getting started on spring planting. My plants didn't freeze last night since I covered them with a frost blanket, which I removed this morning. Too cold and windy outside today to do anything, but tomorrow I've got to get weeding and emptying a container so I can start moving containers over to the bag garden. Then I can use the containers for planting, We have a couple of busy weeks coming up, so I need to get crackin'

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Well, I had a couple hours yesterday to get things into the ground or grow bags. Not many spots left except in the vertical garden, which I think I am going to try strawberries in the top half of that, and unsure what to put in the bottom half yet. Have more in ground garden this year, essentially tripling my space. Put my grow bags up on pallets in the area that flooded 4"-6" last year during the hurricanes. Last year the flooding killed my watermelons and cantaloupe....increased my corn this year (four plants last year to 9 this year), even though I didn't have good luck with it last year...gotta keep trying. I had two plants in each grow bag so this year I will try just one in each bag.

[surviort_wwdnet]

I watered my seedlings, and tomorrow I'll start transplanting the ones that are ready. I just hired 2 high schoolers to do some yardwork for me so that I can get back to focusing on growing vegetables. They gave me a price and I doubled it. If they do a good job, I can find more for them to do around here. Their impetus for picking up after-school work is a desire to buy a new fish finder for their Jon boat. Works for me!

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Thats awesome....it is good to see kids actually want to work for something instead of getting a handout.

I am in the wait and see what happens period...everything should be showing up between 7-10 days, so this time next week will be about that time. I am just watering and seeing what shows.

[surviort_wwdnet]

I got 320# of topsoil to fill in the areas that will be cleared, and a couple odd ones here and there. I had to offload the 8 bags when I got home because we have a trip to Gainesville upcoming and I wasn't going to tote all that weight with us.

Finally got to do some transplanting, starting with tearing out winter plants that just aren't going to produce when it's pretty consistently close to 90^o. I put in some new potting mix and transplanted 5 beefsteak, 3 Rutgers, and 3 Roma tomatoes; also transplanted zucchini, yellow squash, and cukes. I gave everybody a thorough watering and headed to the container garden, where I harvested 2 heads of cabbage, 2 large carrots, and 2 large parsnips to throw into a boiled dinner with some ham - and a huge head of cauliflower that had been hidden by the parsnip and carrot leaves. There are 2 small heads that should be ready to pick in a week or so. I was going to harvest some onions but think I'll use up what's in the house before I start pulling more, because they'll need to be hung to dry. I still have lots more to do but that was enough for today🥵

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

This is a year where I am testing out how well my original sandy FL soil does. If the SHTF we may not be able to get fert, top soil or additives. I will still fertilize (chicken manure), but all i mixed into my new in ground beds was some chicken manure then let it sit for 3-4 weeks before planting. I would like to just use chicken fert this time as I have plenty from my neighbors....Just need to find a recipe online that tell how to "water it down" so when applied it does not burn the plants....I gues this is the science in me coming out...My grandfather had a beautiful garden here in FL, and this was 50+ years ago. All I remember him using, as I helped him often, was cow and chicken manure....

[surviort_wwdnet]

No chickens, no horses, no manure unless I get Black Kow. I have some pelletized fertilizer and that's what I'm using. Since I'm not planting in the ground, it'll do.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

so, found an article that talks about making chicken manure brine...take chicken manure, check, and put into a burlap bag, check, then put into plastic garbage can, check, add water, check, and let soak for 3 weeks. Then use brine for fertilizing your garden/plants....seems like I have all the necessary component to this experiment. Now just to mix and put into the plastic test tube and wait 3 weeks....then see if it does what I am hoping it will do....

[surviort_wwdnet]

I hope it works - sounds easy enough.

[surviort_wwdnet]

Got beets transplanted today and watered everything - the bag garden is looking healthy. Got side-tracked by a missing cap nut on one of the trash cans that caused the wheel to fall off, so off to Ace Hardware I went then back home to play Mrs. FixIt.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Saw a few leaves popping thru yesterday....not many, but it's a start...a cucumber, pumpkin and pole beans....will see what today brings. Started my fertilizer brew so will give that 3 weeks to see how it does....

[surviort_wwdnet]

I hired a couple of nice young kids to do some yardwork for me because I can't keep up with it. The vegetable gardens, killing weeds & fire ants, and doing some pool maintenance are enough.

The bag garden is already showing signs of growth, and I'll soon need to do a trellis for the squash and cukes. Just like last year, it looks like I'm going to have to replant the bell peppers - only this time I won't plant 2 dozen seeds!

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

I had another plant push up two leaves. It was 1 week yesterday since planting most and 10 days for a few, so I know I should see more this week. My peppers sometimes takes 2+ weeks so we wait and see....