April 2, 2022

    I sprouted Bitter Gourd seeds. I soaked them in water for 24 hours starting March 28th. I then put them in damp paper towels inside zip lock bags and placed in bed with heat blanket on. The Green Skin has had the best germination so far. Yesterday 16 of the 31 seeds had begun to grow tails so I planted them in starting trays. I added 5 more today that grew tails since yesterday. Of the other three varieties only one seed has sprouted so far. 

I also planted a tray of Borage yesterday and a couple dishes of Butterfly flowers and another type of seed or two. I don't have the names of now. I'll add them in later. 

Last Frost

Today is 6 weeks and 1 day until last frost of May 15th. This coming week will be a push to get as many plants started as I can. I will be cleaning out the small greenhouse, putting on the center cap and getting seed trays started. 

 March 27, 2022

I planted a tray of Jalapeno peppers and a tray of Sweet Peppers , Best Boy & Big Red Tomatoes.  

I had left the Raspberry plants outside for several days, maybe a week, but brought them back into the greenhouse on the 26th of March as we are now entering a period of below freezing nights. On Sunday the 27th, I finished going through the raspberry plants cutting away all the dead leaves and stems, the result of a spider mite infestation. I believe the mites have been eliminated by repeated applications of a neem oil spray and the days and nights spent outside the greenhouse. 

Looking at the week ahead- Monday March 28, 2022 - Saturday April 2, 2022

Weather- Monday and Tuesday look still chilly but dry. Temperatures should be in or near 40's.

               - Wednesday in the 50's but rain

                -Thursday Cold in the 30's and possible snow

                -Friday & Saturday Back to the chilly 40's but dry.

Goals -     -Start the remainder of the milk jugs

                -Set up at least two more seed starting beds

                -Set up one seed starting bed for Garlic seeds

                -Instal fence from the driveway gate to the East line fence with Meyers. Include two gates along the way. Make it Goose proof to Bull proof.

                -Set up and plant/replant the permanent rhubarb bed or beds.

                -Plant the 5 trees purchased last week. Three Apple trees (Honey crisp, Golden Delicious, Cortland), one Peach tree (reliance), and one Pear trees (Bartlete).

                -Eventually the peach trees should be grown in a hoophouse shelter. Reliance is supposed to be hearty to zone 5 but we are at the limit. A hoop house will add 1 to 2 zones. Plan to construct a berm with the tree within to add height and provide more earth heat shelter. Also include a cold sink to drain off the cold air from within the hoop house.

Last Frost- This is week 7 until last frost. It's time to plant and plan in earnest for the coming gardening season. Perhaps it's time to cleanout the little dome in front of the garage. Maybe add bales around the outside and put the top piece back on? 

This looks like work enough for a month. In addition to the above items, I also have the sawmill to put together and the Starlink dish should arrive on Monday. That will have to be installed and set up.

 3/19/2022 I bought two ginger roots at Viking village for $4.99/lbs. They have nubs growing on them and are fat so they look like they will grow nicely, at least one of them does.

I also bought packets of seeds Cabbage/Copenhagen $1.79, Borage $1.89, and Catnip $1.89.  Recipe filed in Garden 2022 folder.

I planted the first bed of starter plants approximately 3x 6 feet formed out of hay bales and covered with a 4 x 8 sheet of double wall polycarbonate. There are over 500 seeds sown in this bed. They include Broccoli, Super blend, Brussels Sproouts, Copenhagen Market Cabbage, Hollyhock flower Outhouse, Dill Super Dukar, Okra Clemson Spineless, Borage Borago officinalis, Calendula radio, Cabbage All seasons, and Rutgers Tomato. 

March 9, 2022

 This morning I planted a tray with 16 cells of Bee balm Panorama Mix (Monarda didyma), the rest of the flat was planted with Wisconsin Lakes Bell Peppers. I also planted 5 milk jugs of Zinnia Exquisite winter sowing. I've noticed a great difference between aronia cuttings taken in December and those taken a month ago in February. Those from February are doing many times better. I did not noticed roots yet on a couple that I dug up but the tops are uniformly greening up where those from December are spotingly showing top growth but many no growth at all. On the photo, the tote on the left are cuttings taken in December. The tote on the right are cuttings taken in February. All have been in a heated greenhouse all thus time.

March 20, 2022- update on the Bee Balm Panorama Mix and The Wisconsin Lakes Bell Peppers. The Bell peppers are beginning to come up. 

2022 Garden

 It is the 8th of March, 2022. I have about 10 pots of Ginger started, a couple trays of Turmeric, another bunch of pots of turmeric and Galangal ginger. I'll take inventory and update the exact amount of those. 

What I want to do this evening is to begin documenting the work being done at Narrows Creek Garden in 2022. Today, I started three trays of seeds I think. One tray has three varieties of peppers: Thai Hot, Habanero, and Jalapeno. The second tray has Spearmint and Common mint (Mentha sp) which I believe is also spearmint. Third is a tray with rows of Onions: Sweet Spanish and bunching. I used one package of Flavor King bunching onions and one package of Ferry-Morse Evergreen Bunching but I doubt I'll ever be able to tell the difference. The packages were from 2018 and 2019 so they may or may not grow. I planted everything heavy assuming germination will be low. All the seeds have been in the greenhouse where temperatures often get over 100 degrees so I need to use up all my old seeds this year or toss them.

In addition to the things started in the greenhouse I have about thirty milk jugs of various seeds winter sown outside. I'll have to inventory those as well and try to continue to post regularly the things I plant this season.