Garden Update

First turnip of the season from the garden. It weighed in at 4 lbs. I'm quite pleased with that. 

Seed Saver

I'm a seed saver.  I've saved lots of flower seeds before but this is my first attempt at veggie seeds. 

Below, the seeds look ready to fall off, so I decided to cut some bunches off before they fell to the ground.

Parsnip seeds on a paper towel

I'm testing the viability of these seeds in a damp paper towel in a plastic bag.

This is my drying setup. I'm excited to see how it turns out. I hope to have plenty of parsnip seeds for next year.

Harry Dodson

Planting Cabbages

I've been delaying planting my cabbage plants outside because i've been trying to grow without using pesticides and i'm afraid they'll be eaten by the insects but it's time for them to do some serious growing.

I planted them in tires that I turned inside out and painted my favorite outdoor color, Battleship Grey. I hope they don't go into transplant shock like my turnips did.

Now begins the battle with the bugs. Grrr. 

  

 

Rhubarb and turnip greens

I hadn't been paying attention to my rhubarb and they became over grown. The leaves were getting so big that a few of the stalks were breaking at the base so today i decided to cut the bigger stalks and let the smaller ones grow. My wife makes a delicious jam from our rhubarb.

The greens are coming along fairly well. I think I should have started them earlier but I was afraid of the frost.  

They are usually the first produce from the garden and I usually plant them two or three times in the season. We love them with our traditional Newfoundland jiggs dinner. 

Mini Greenhouse From Plastic Fish Box

I had plants to harden off so I kind of threw this together real quick.Here I used a plastic fish box,any type of box,rectangular or square could be used.To build it - put together 2 frames,stagger the joints  on top and bottom frames.Attach hinges to the frames and paint, you'll need a trim strip to nail on top of  the plastic, paint that too.Use a better colour scheme than  I did.Anyway to finish,apply the plastic with staples first, pulling it tight for good appearance, than nail on your trim pieces and  attach the unit to the box of choice,your done.

Growing plants under lights

Turnips and cabbage are doing good, had them outdoors for a couple of hours today in the cold frame to toughen them up. I'll talk about my newly built cold frame in another post.

Cabbage plants.

Peppers are also looking good.

 We have tomatoes!

Here's my high grade liquid kelp fertilizer . An energy boost for your plants.