Broccoli Prom Dress

Today we planted out the broccoli and brussels sprouts.

Last year we used row covers to keep moths out,thereby keeping out their larva. It worked brilliantly, but I wasn't too impressed with the strength of the floating row cover that I ordered. I ripped a couple holes in it during its first year. Not the durability that I was hoping for. Over the winter I had an idea. I thought I had read an article about people using tulle as row covers. This sounded like a good idea to me, but would it be cost effective. My Mom is a crafter, so I asked her what the cost would be. I did some figuring and it would cost me more than the row covers, however my Mom also informed me that she gets frequent coupons from one of our local fabric stores. I waited until she got a 50% off coupon and I bought enough tulle to cover half of one of our garden beds. It wasn't wide enough so I had to have my Mom cut it in half and then sow the two halves together. When it was done, she called me to inform me that my broccoli prom dress was ready. Time will tell if it will be a more durable solution.

Big Ol' Broccoli

We planted the broccoli at the end of February, I just hadn't gotten around to writing a blog about it ... or any blog ... since January. Nonetheless here they are today, they are looking great.


On of them is a brussels sprout. We bought some seeds and are seeing how they do in the ND spring. Also, as an experiment, I took a cutting from one of the poplars I have dormant in the garage and it actually rooted. Promising.



One more thing, this past weekend we planted some leafy greens in our cold frames which had some spinach already growing in them.

Winter Garden Update

I haven't posted anything in a while, and I apologize that I don't have any pictures (I forgot the camera in the house) but I do have an update. We had three types of vegetables in the two cold frames alive and well before winter struck. Swiss Chard, Spinach and Parsnips. I am happy to report the spinach is alive and well, even the sprouts that didn't have time to turn into full sized plants are still green. The chard looks dead. And the parsnips still have green growing crowns (the rest of the leaves look dead).

The winter temperatures thus far have dipped as low as -35 degrees F. While the spinach and parsnips aren't growing, the important thing is they are still alive and with any luck they will start to break dormancy near the end of February.

I have made a couple of observations this year on the subject of cold frame gardening.

1. Keep your cold frames close to your house. Mine are really hard to get to without going through large snow drifts.

2. In my case, the cold frames are in a pour spot in regards to sun exposure. They face south but the low winter sun gets blocked by the trees in our yard. In town, this might be unavoidable.

Cold Frame Part II

I realize it has been a long time since I have written anything, but time kinda got away from me. So what better time to pick it back up again than when I have constructed cold frame v2 (or is it cold frame 1.2). It is similar to my first cold frame, only with some slight improvements. But let's start from the beginning. First I purchased cedar 2x2's and cut them to length. I butt them together for a simple joint.


On the last cold frame I bought metal brackets for corner supports. This time I decided to save some money and cut the leftover 2x2's into corner braces.


This is what it looks like with all the braces in place. The lids were much easier to put together with store bought 2x2's rather than twisted scrap pieces off my wood pile.


Then I clamped my pieces of plexi-glass to the lid frame and drilled holes in it. I used a drill just slightly larger than the sheet metal screws I planned on using. A word of caution, when drilling through plexi-glass drill gingerly. It can crack easily.



Once I had all the holes drilled, I screwed in the sheet metal screws with a nut driver.


Next I cut the side pieces to length and cut them at an angle from 12" down to 8". I don't have a picture of that, but here is how I attached them to the back 2x12 and I did the same with the front 2x8.


This is the whole frame put together. After I got it put together, I had a thought. The the joints where the angled pieces meet the front and back pieces don't allow the lids to lay exactly flat (a problem I had with the first cold frame). So it dawned on me that I could just flip it over. That worked really well and the lids now lay completely flat on the frame. I don't know if I explained that very well, but it will make sense if you ever build one.


The other improvement I made was to use heavy duty hinges on the back. I also wanted hinges that would allow the lids to be removed in the summertime. The perfect solution was recycled door hinges. I didn't pay anything for them and they are really sturdy. As you can see from the picture they are a little to big to fit all three screws in on the top side, but 5 out of 6 screws in the hinge is plenty to hold it all together.


On the next version I plan to try to recycle some old window sashes instead of using plexi-glass. The plexi was also free, but I think that window sashes or storm windows will last longer than plastic that isn't UV resistant.

I'm a Tree Herder

I had a thought the other day. Why am I trying to keep 10 tiny trees alive from ten miles away? Wouldn't it be easier to pot them and bring them into town? "Absolutely!" said Frank Gomez of hybridpoplars.com. Ok, so I'm a little slow with my epiphanies.

So, I loaded up my tools and some containers into the trusty rusty pickup and began herding the rogue poplings into town. 10 out of 300 lived, not a great outcome. One might think that I would be upset. At first I was, but I am choosing now to chalk it up to experience or lack there of. I will be wiser next year, and by the by, Frank has graciously agreed to replace the ones I lost next year and he has given me tip after tip along the way. If you want to look at it with a positive spin, I now have the strongest 3 percent of the trees for propagation purposes!

So, until next year this is where the little buggers will live (well, they have a winter home in the garage).

Sláinte Slugs!

While my wife was picking lettuce this afternoon in the garden, she found a few slugs. We have had a very wet year, in fact we have surpassed our yearly average already. So, I decided to toast the little buggers and give 'em a drink. I have read about beer traps, but never needed to use one. So, I buried a dish up to an inch from the top and put some Keystone in it. We'll see if I catch any.


After finishing the rest of the 'stone, I had to take a picture of the beans. They have completely outgrown their allotted space. If you look closely you can see a few ticked off pepper plants getting caught up in the mix.


I reached a personal record in my compost pile, 150 degrees. Yes, I have a compost thermometer (pause for snickering). The science of compost fascinates me to no end. I have been experimenting with composting coffee grounds obtained from a local coffee shop. I have been mixing them in with a little wood ash (to counteract any extra acidity) and then buried with last fall's leaves (and of course kitchen and garden scraps).


We are saving peas as next year's seeds for the first time. These are snap peas. I ended up saving way more than will fit in my garden, but they won't go to waste.


This tiny little guy is an alpine strawberry, we started them indoors this winter for funs and we finally got to eat one. Although they don't get much bigger than this, I picked it a bit too early and it didn't taste that great. I picked it in my zeal to win the harvest over the birds. I won, they lost, it was very tart.

Random Updates

I haven't had much time to blog lately so I thought I would lump a few brief entries into one ball o' randomness. This first picture is a pretty decent sized harvest of snap peas and broccoli. We ate some and froze the rest. The broccoli was two years in the making since the rabbits ate it before we could last year.

This is one of the poplars. It is doing well, most are not. The weather this spring was not great for these guys. The guy I bought them from said the heavy rains we received likely caused them to rot before they grew. Even though they could be considered a failure this year, I am still optimistic for next year. You can click the tag at the bottom for the rest of the story.

We were so excited about the broccoli that I decided to grow a second round of it as a fall crop. The seeds were planted in peat pellets that we received as a gift one year. They work just fine, but I still like soil blocks much better for moisture retention and size.

This is one lonely maple that lived from the maple experiment. It is the only tree standing from the 15 seeds planted. About 4 seeds germinated, but only this one is still going. One out of fifteen doesn't sound very good, but for free seeds I gathered in the neighborhood I think it is encouraging. I will try again next year with a lot more seeds. I also plan to harvest some acorns to plant this fall.


That's what's going on in brevity at our household. Hopefully I can keep up and dedicate enough time to certain topics in future entries.