God, I'd give anything to be able to get warm and see foliage!

Ok it's settled were going. Yes we will help him plant his garden. Warm soil, green grass

NO ICE. Make room for a couple more people... We Want Spring!!!!!!!

Now now there you two....just hold on for a few more weeks and spring will have sprung. Although I could use the help!

 

Just received first batch of heirloom seeds from you guessed it Heirloom Seed Company. Lots of great old lettuces, pole and bush beans and a couple cukes.

 

Most of my seeds sprouted BTW....all looking healthy and tomorrow plan on transplanting into new flats before placing them in the garden. I also scored some tree trunk sections for stepping stones in the raised bed that will also act as vegetable bed "dividers" to keep it semi-organized, although I kind of like the free-form style.

 

I'm using wine crates with the bottoms knocked out for carrot beds that will be companion planted with tomatos. I'll need to get some sand to mix into them and I think I'll sift the soil in there also to up the odds of nicely shaped carrots.

 

Someone apparently complained about my tool box structure being too high, so now I have to take the damn roof down! I think they are just jealous...... Now I need to figure out where to have my seedling flats so they won't get destroyed be rains. Shrug........

 

Pole beans all looking healthy so far even though some leaves are slightly deformed. Need to build poles or trellis for them also. Never ending................

Well I transplanted the first wave of seedlings into 6" flats only to have a monsoon of rain pummel them into the dirt the very next day.

 

Serves me right for not thinking ahead and rushing. I'll have to build some protection screens for the flats or something. Luckily most survived although they aren't looking so great now....

 

On the plus side, I got some great sand for my carrot beds so I'm looking forward to a good crop there. Also got first shipment of heirloom seeds so I'll be starting new flats shortly. More later.....

Ok so I guess time for an update....

 

The monsoon did trash many lettuce seedlings but about half survived as well as most tomato, arugula and chard. Carrots sprouted well. Now have a variety of Chinese green vegetables sprouting as well as Detroit Red Beets, Chioggia Beets, Caraway, Italian Parsley, Peppermint, Rainbow Chard and few others. Scarlett Runner beans just came up and look great. Pole beans all healthy so far. Carrots are transplanted into sandy beds I prepared with this ratio:

 

1 pt sifted garden soil from bed

1 pt sifted compost

1 pt beach sand

 

I planted a tomato plant amidst each small bed as a companion so we'll see how they get along. I'm not betting too big on the tomatoes as they are varieties not overly suited to Hawaii, although some are doing much better than others. I'll be transplanting the lettuce, arugula, beets, chard, chinese veg later this week. Next project is to build a permanent trellis for beans and cukes and start taking softwood herb cuttings to root. I'm also going to modify my seedling flat system so that the flats are part of the actual garden bed separated by wood dividers instead of portable ones. The advantage is that I can build a few cloches to cover the tops while sprouting, have deeper soil depth and accustom the seedlings to the soil type in the actual bed to minimize transplant shock.

 

I'm also toying with the idea of "movable flats". The idea is to have a bottomless frame that I can position anywhere in the open garden bed and sink it about half way in. Then I can mound a seedling mix on top and plant seeds exactly where I want them and again use a cloche for protection during germination and early growth, gradually hardening them off as they grow and thinning out as needed. This way, there is no transplanting involved and the seeds gain the protection from a flat. I know I could just put the seeds right in the ground without the frame, but I think the frames will allow me to better position individual crops for maximum spacing since each crop will be "squared off". I also need to keep making compost for the seedling mix in batches by hand so it allows time between sproutings to make more for the next round. By the time I have the whole bed planted, I've added a good 2 inches of excellent topsoil! Then next time around the cycle starts over and another 2 inches eventually gets added keeping the soil sustainable. Sounds good in theory anyway...... :please please:

 

More later.....