Time to transplant the starters

My apologies for lacking content over the last few weeks.

The boy and I made a trip to the plot over the weekend to see if there was any snow pea growth. Nothing visible so we gallivanted around the site on the sort of adventures that 4 yr olds dream up.

I began transplanting some of the starters this evening.  4 Carolina Wonder Peppers and approx 7 San Marzano Tomatoes were transplanted into 2"x2" peat pots.  I would have done more, but I got a late start.  There is much more to be done, though.  I'll revisit the repotting tomorrow and take some pictures to upload.

Spring Preps & Building a Naptime Shelter

I had about an hour to spare yesterday evening and the weather was rather warm (63 degrees) so I snagged the boy and took him out to the plot with me.  He helped turn over a few boxes with me.  After the five from yesterday, there are only few more that need to have the November/December leaf layer mixed in with the rest of the soil.

After growing bored with that, he worked to construct a "naptime shelter" that's "like The Guy Who Eats Weird Things."  Because I greatly enjoy watching a certain survival-themed show on DVD and Netflix, the boy's seen his fair share of interesting shelters and creative ways to start fires.  Since he doesn't remember the name of the show or its weary host/creator/camera crew/pack mule, he simply refers to that whole thing as "The Guy Who Eats Weird Things."

With some help with the roof from dear ol' dad (he couldn't easily reach that high), he dragged his 2"x8" plank in place for a bed and, thus, his naptime shelter was complete shortly before it was time to head home for dinner.

A naptime shelter like "that Guy Who Eats Weird Things"

Finally made it to the plot!

The weather today was rather pleasant for the first time in a little while.  With a high of 63 today, I was able to get out to the plot for the first time in over a month.  I didn't get as much done as I would have liked (lots-o-newspaper in need of going down), but the boy and I were still quite productive. 

We made a trip to Home Depot and picked up a some bags of topsoil and LeafGro for one of the empty boxes at the plot and the elevated box I made last weekend.  Once that was done, we filled the one empty box, turned over the leaves that were in there from when I sunk the box, turned over a few other boxes to mix in the leaves that had been on top over the winter, and planted snow peas in three boxes.  Two of them are shown in the picture below (left). 

It was also quite nice to see that the "surprise onions" are doing quite well.  The picture (right) doesn't do them justice.

 

With forecasted temps in the 50's and 60's off and on over the next two weeks, hopefully, I can get some more boxes turned over and put the hose reel into the ground.

An elevated box for salad greens

A few weeks ago Wifey asked me if I could build her a planter box to grow salad greens on our front stoop.  No problem!

I measured the space between the railings and designed an elevated box.  I decided to be a little more ornate with the box so I made the corners out of 4x4's with slots routed on two sides of each 4x4 to accommodate 1x12's which would become the sides.

Not too bad for a weekend project, if I say so myself.  I wish I'd had a chance to get to the plot to lay down some of the weed barrier and plant peas, but at least this project is out of the way and Wifey can start growing salad greens.

Preparing for weed barrier application

As I've mentioned previously, I put down a combination of newspaper and mulch as a weed barrier at the plot.  This is done after I dig up the rows and remove weed roots from the paths.  Earlier last night, I took stock of my stockpiled newspaper.  With thanks to family and a friend at work, I have quite a bit to work with.

While the application process isn't exactly rocket science, a little bit of thought is needed.  According to our site manager, someone out at the plot site works for the local county landfill; through testing, they found that newspaper ads (the glossy-printed ones) leech some relatively nasty chemicals as they break down.  As such, I remove all those ads from my papers.

You need a decent thickness of paper to act as the first line of defense.  I don't know that there is such a thing as "too much."  It was recommended to me that I should use a thickness of at least 1/2".  Early on I tried using less, but found that paper closest to the ground breaks down reasonably quickly and that certain weeds (namely a nasty thistle we have out there) send runners that can gradually bore through thinner (~1/3") newspaper barriers. 

By preparing your paper in advance, you can efficiently lay the paper barrier with minimal hassle while in the garden.  If your newspaper is unfolded once (meaning you're looking at the entire front page), it takes quite a bit of newspaper to achieve a 1/2" thickness.  I pre-stage my newspaper by achieving my 1/2" thickness, then tape the corners such that each packet of paper won't shift around.

It can't be overstated how helpful pre-staging your newspaper is vs. even mildly windy days.  It's a pain to sort through the ads, store the newspaper backs, stack the paper, and lay it down when your paths are as tight as mine are even when there is no wind.  Pre-staging allows for greater efficiency in the garden and space-saving when you're about to do the deed.

Oh, the humanity!

I can't imagine how long it'll take us to dig out from all that white stuff!

Our snowfall as seen on the in-progress potting bench.

I only wish I'd made that last minute trip to the grocery store for water and TP......

It's snowing!

........kinda.  In the DMV (aka Washington DC area for those uninitiated with the term), the meteorologists tend to pull a Chicken Little whenever there's even a hint of snow.

From what I can tell, depending on the source I look at, we're right on the edge of either getting "some snow" or "some significant snow."

These are, of course, only a few of the predictions (the main local ones, not the national sources).  They appear to be reasonably consistent.  Whether they're right or not remains to be seen.  If they're right, though, with us being right along the I-95 corridor, we should be right around 8"-9" of accumulation.

Having said all that, I've been up since 5:30.  I'd characterize it as being something harder than thick, blowing flurries with no accumulation on any hard surfaces and maybe 1/2" of slush on the grass.  So far, it's looking like another overblown DC snow prediction.

My grow light setup

The last frost here is approximately May 4.  With some of my seeds calling for a min 8 week growth cycle prior to transplant, that means a minimum of March 9th.  Since I'm antsy, I started early.  I moved my started plants downstairs to the grow lights this evening, I'll post a bit about that.

Last year, I started our seeds and kept them in that south-facing bedroom until I transplanted the starters and moved them to my grow light setup in the basement.  Unfortunately, our south-side of the house is shaded by a large maple tree which makes seed starting a little tougher.  Also, our son's current bedroom the room with the most readily-available surface for laying out seed trays.  I have some thinking to do on that front.
 
To make my grow light setup, I bought a 4'x6' shelf system from either Home Depot or Lowes.  I think it was simply from wherever it was that I'd accumulated the most gift cards via birthdays and Christmas presents.  The price was around $85, I believe.

I also purchased twin-bulb overhead shop lights that had their own plug (as opposed to needing to be hard-wired).  Around $20 per assembly.  I plugged both into a surge protector. 

There were difficulties in getting the lights set up properly.

• Its important to pair available plant/aquarium light bulbs with the shoplights.  The "T" rating on each matters. 
• There weren't many options that met my specs for space, not requiring hardwiring, number of bulbs, and which weren't reviewed as having poor ratings.
• Getting working lights was harder than it should have been. I found that the Lowes I bought the lights from restocked a lot of returned or otherwise opened-box lights.  Many were missing the hanging brackets.  When I got home with my purchase and tested the lights, I found one to be faulty after a good bit of troubleshooting.  In returning it, I had to go back through the problematic stock to find another that looked like a good option.

Along with the accompanying hook and chain, I purchased 2 lengths of 1/8" chain and two additional hooks per light.  All that allows me to vary the light heights above the plant seedlings such that they won't stretch to hard to get to the light.

As I mentioned previously, I had issues caused by overwatering: fungus development and fungus gnats.  This year I will be buying a fan to create some air movement by my plant starters.  I haven't done that, yet, but that'll come.

Please pardon the sign.  It was a joking gift from the wife to christen the ManCave when we first bought the house.  :-)

Tomatoes and basil already reaching for the light.

The second shelf (below shown) is currently unpopulated.