GREEN JEANS ORGANIC GARDENING JOURNAL
BEGINNING SPRING 2009 WEST COAST, BC, CANADAMarch 5, 2009
For starters, I have chosen which vegies I will grow based on which ones are totally easy to grow organically, which won't be desired by the deer and the slugs - I have never been able to gain control over either of these garden pests without resorting to warfare. Most of the crops I will grow will compete against weeds nicely as well. Here is my list of vegies that are very very easy to grow using organic methods:
Potatoes
Squas, Pumpkins & Zuchini
Beets
Spinach
Oriental Greens
Tomatillos - small/medium green tomato like that is delicious when made into a Mexican salsa verde (green)
Sweet Basil
Cilantro
Green Onions, Red & Sweet Spanish Onions, Garlic
STEP ONE: SEEDS - seeds are the most economical way to start your garden, but they must be started in advance of the gardening season in some cases ie. tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and more, depending on where you live and how long a growing season you have to work with. Here on Vancouver Island, BC, we have a frost free season from about May 7 - Oct 10, varying a little from year to year. If you live in a frost free warm zone, then your seeds can be planted right into your prepared garden beds. The rest of us cold climate fold will need to start our seedlings indoors, preferably in a greenhouse or greenhouse window. If you are far from having the luxury of one of these glass houses you can start your seeds under artificial plant lights that fit into a flourescent tube light fixture, 4' or 8' long.
Or, you can just decide to grow only those crops that can be seeded outside once the frosty weather has gone. These are vegies like zuchinni, beets, spinach, beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, green onions, radishes, salad greens, lettuces, corn, squashes & pumpkins. These vegies will mature in a short few months and you will be harvesting them before the freezing weather returns. Another option is to buy seedlings that someone else grew, preferably organic seedlings from a local grower. The superior vigor of an organic seedling is very visible and the final results are way bigger, way more and better tasting food.
SO! Back to the seeds. You will need to fill small pots and shallow flats with soil and this is where you can do a little reusing & recycling. Instead of spending about $5.00 each for those flimsy plastic trays at the garden centre, you can use a number of items that are in your kitchen at home instead; empty yogurt & margarine containers need only several holes jabbed into the bottom to become excellent pots for plants like zuchinni which believe me you only need to plant 4 seeds. Flats or trays are used for starting lots of seedlings, like a whole flat of spinach, lettuce or white/red onion transplants. I get cardboard boxes that are shallow, cut them down to about 4 inches high if you can't find some already shallow. Now take a biodegradable garbage bag and line the box with it. VOILA; a seedling flat costing mere pennies.
SOIL FOR SEEDLINGS: You really should use sterile soil for starting seeds as this is a vulnerable stage in a plants life cycle. Many types of destructive fungi live in the soil and when the warm air, moisture and tender plant stems are added to the soil, the fungi pounce. You can buy sterilized potting soil from your local garden centre but the commercial soils are not organic and often contain toxic fertilizers and other additives. I use a mixture of 1 part course sand or vermiculite to 3 parts rich garden soil. I put the moist soil mix into my large turkey roaster, put the lid on and bake it in the oven until the centre of the soil has a temperature of 300 degrees F; measure the temperature with a meat thermometer. This usually takes about 40 minutes. It fills your kitchen with a very interesting loamy smell while it bakes. Once it has reached the correct temperature, you need to cool it down with the lid on before using it for seeds.
When your soil has cooled, fill your pots & trays/flats with it just to about 1/2 from the top. use something flat to press the soil down until it is a flat level surface. Using luke warm water, moisten the soil evenly, not too much, especially in the flats as they have no holes in them. That's it, you are ready to plant your organic seeds. Available at West Coast Seeds, BC, Canada. Follow the simple directions on the seed package with regard to start dates and how deep to plant the seeds. General rule of thumb says the seeds should be planted approximately 3 times the depth of the width of the seed. Keep the seeds warm & moist until they germinate, some in a few days, others a few weeks. Some seeds need dark to germinate, others light. You do not need to memorize which ones need which; this info will be on each seed package and you just need to read each one and then write the info on a tag and insert it into each pot or fflat with the seeds as a reminder of what is planted & when to expect it to germinate.
RECYCLING TIP: Instead of buying plastic tags from the garden centre, you can use a yogurt container cut up into strips with scissors or leftover wooden popsicle sticks. Write with a wax pencil so your info will not wash off.
Keep checking your seed flats daily, checking to ensure the soil stays moist and warm during germination. Cold wet soils will encourage the occurrence of root rot and stem rot, common diseases of soft plant tissues. These diseases are controlled in non organic operations by using heavy doses of toxic fungicides. In an organic garden, diseases like this are kept in check by practicing cleanliness, using sterilized starter soil, as well as moisture and temperature control. Fresh flowing WARM air over the surface of your soil will help discourage these moulds and fungi as well. Take care that the soil does not dry out during the entire germination; the little seedlings are most vulnerable just as they emerge from the seed, but have no root system to go find water.
OUTSIDE - Plant garlic cloves now for September harvest. I used to think you HAD to plant my garlic cloves in the fall, but not so. If you plant them in early spring, the harvest just matures in fall instead of midsummer.
APRIL 2009
It's been a wet cold April here on the coast and I, along with many of my fellow coastal gardens, lost interest in vegie gardening for a while. This is typical here on BC's wet coat. For gardening tasks this month, I have been nursing my seedlings along that I started in March, and have planted more seeds indoors like Tomatillos, Squash and Sweet Basil - all warm soil, warm air, temperature sensitive plants.
Outside, when the weather had dried a little, we planted 1/2 of our organic Yukon Gold potato seeds. To grow potatoes, you can just cut up a potato and plant each piece that has 2 or 3 'eyes on it.
Garlic shoots are up.
The spinach, green onions and cilantro seedlings got planted out in old 1/2 whiskey barrels that we can cover during nasty weather (wind, rain, cold). These units have worked very well, though the tiny plants are just sitting there looking uninspired like the rest of us.
MAY 2009
This month, the weather has been as schitsophrenic as always. We are getting some beautiful warm, sunny days here, but then we switch back to wet & cold again the next day. We have planted out our zuchini seedlings into a little plastic portable greenhouse to keep them cozy during harsh weather days. The plastic cover MUST be removed on hot sunny days and put back on for frosty nights or rainy cold weather. The potatoes have poked their shoots up through the soil now and we need to remember to cover them if frost is predicted.
May 22 - Today, the soil has warmed up finally and we can do outdoor seeding of beets, green & yellow beans, green onions, more spinach, cilantro and other greens. If the weather goes all wet again, the bean seeds will not take off and will have to be planted again. Beets need warm soil to germinate in or else they will flower (bolt) and not make a nice juicy root. Plant lots of greens like lettuce, spinach & oriental greens now BEFORE the weather gets TOO HOT.
It is still too soon to plant out hot weather crops, so I will keep my squashes, Tomatillos and Sweet Basil in the greenhouse until true warm weather arrives in June.
Or, you can just decide to grow only those crops that can be seeded outside once the frosty weather has gone. These are vegies like zuchinni, beets, spinach, beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, green onions, radishes, salad greens, lettuces, corn, squashes & pumpkins. These vegies will mature in a short few months and you will be harvesting them before the freezing weather returns. Another option is to buy seedlings that someone else grew, preferably organic seedlings from a local grower. The superior vigor of an organic seedling is very visible and the final results are way bigger, way more and better tasting food.
SO! Back to the seeds. You will need to fill small pots and shallow flats with soil and this is where you can do a little reusing & recycling. Instead of spending about $5.00 each for those flimsy plastic trays at the garden centre, you can use a number of items that are in your kitchen at home instead; empty yogurt & margarine containers need only several holes jabbed into the bottom to become excellent pots for plants like zuchinni which believe me you only need to plant 4 seeds. Flats or trays are used for starting lots of seedlings, like a whole flat of spinach, lettuce or white/red onion transplants. I get cardboard boxes that are shallow, cut them down to about 4 inches high if you can't find some already shallow. Now take a biodegradable garbage bag and line the box with it. VOILA; a seedling flat costing mere pennies.
SOIL FOR SEEDLINGS: You really should use sterile soil for starting seeds as this is a vulnerable stage in a plants life cycle. Many types of destructive fungi live in the soil and when the warm air, moisture and tender plant stems are added to the soil, the fungi pounce. You can buy sterilized potting soil from your local garden centre but the commercial soils are not organic and often contain toxic fertilizers and other additives. I use a mixture of 1 part course sand or vermiculite to 3 parts rich garden soil. I put the moist soil mix into my large turkey roaster, put the lid on and bake it in the oven until the centre of the soil has a temperature of 300 degrees F; measure the temperature with a meat thermometer. This usually takes about 40 minutes. It fills your kitchen with a very interesting loamy smell while it bakes. Once it has reached the correct temperature, you need to cool it down with the lid on before using it for seeds.
When your soil has cooled, fill your pots & trays/flats with it just to about 1/2 from the top. use something flat to press the soil down until it is a flat level surface. Using luke warm water, moisten the soil evenly, not too much, especially in the flats as they have no holes in them. That's it, you are ready to plant your organic seeds. Available at West Coast Seeds, BC, Canada. Follow the simple directions on the seed package with regard to start dates and how deep to plant the seeds. General rule of thumb says the seeds should be planted approximately 3 times the depth of the width of the seed. Keep the seeds warm & moist until they germinate, some in a few days, others a few weeks. Some seeds need dark to germinate, others light. You do not need to memorize which ones need which; this info will be on each seed package and you just need to read each one and then write the info on a tag and insert it into each pot or fflat with the seeds as a reminder of what is planted & when to expect it to germinate.
RECYCLING TIP: Instead of buying plastic tags from the garden centre, you can use a yogurt container cut up into strips with scissors or leftover wooden popsicle sticks. Write with a wax pencil so your info will not wash off.
Keep checking your seed flats daily, checking to ensure the soil stays moist and warm during germination. Cold wet soils will encourage the occurrence of root rot and stem rot, common diseases of soft plant tissues. These diseases are controlled in non organic operations by using heavy doses of toxic fungicides. In an organic garden, diseases like this are kept in check by practicing cleanliness, using sterilized starter soil, as well as moisture and temperature control. Fresh flowing WARM air over the surface of your soil will help discourage these moulds and fungi as well. Take care that the soil does not dry out during the entire germination; the little seedlings are most vulnerable just as they emerge from the seed, but have no root system to go find water.
OUTSIDE - Plant garlic cloves now for September harvest. I used to think you HAD to plant my garlic cloves in the fall, but not so. If you plant them in early spring, the harvest just matures in fall instead of midsummer.
APRIL 2009
It's been a wet cold April here on the coast and I, along with many of my fellow coastal gardens, lost interest in vegie gardening for a while. This is typical here on BC's wet coat. For gardening tasks this month, I have been nursing my seedlings along that I started in March, and have planted more seeds indoors like Tomatillos, Squash and Sweet Basil - all warm soil, warm air, temperature sensitive plants.
Outside, when the weather had dried a little, we planted 1/2 of our organic Yukon Gold potato seeds. To grow potatoes, you can just cut up a potato and plant each piece that has 2 or 3 'eyes on it.
Garlic shoots are up.
The spinach, green onions and cilantro seedlings got planted out in old 1/2 whiskey barrels that we can cover during nasty weather (wind, rain, cold). These units have worked very well, though the tiny plants are just sitting there looking uninspired like the rest of us.
MAY 2009
This month, the weather has been as schitsophrenic as always. We are getting some beautiful warm, sunny days here, but then we switch back to wet & cold again the next day. We have planted out our zuchini seedlings into a little plastic portable greenhouse to keep them cozy during harsh weather days. The plastic cover MUST be removed on hot sunny days and put back on for frosty nights or rainy cold weather. The potatoes have poked their shoots up through the soil now and we need to remember to cover them if frost is predicted.
May 22 - Today, the soil has warmed up finally and we can do outdoor seeding of beets, green & yellow beans, green onions, more spinach, cilantro and other greens. If the weather goes all wet again, the bean seeds will not take off and will have to be planted again. Beets need warm soil to germinate in or else they will flower (bolt) and not make a nice juicy root. Plant lots of greens like lettuce, spinach & oriental greens now BEFORE the weather gets TOO HOT.
It is still too soon to plant out hot weather crops, so I will keep my squashes, Tomatillos and Sweet Basil in the greenhouse until true warm weather arrives in June.