RKayne's Blog
RKayne's posts about: cold frame
Feb 10, 2008 | 4:24 PM PST
Tags: Brandywine , Cherry Tomato , compost , butterleaf lettuce , green leaf lettuce , Walla Walla Sweet Onions , Smooth Leafed Olympic Spinach , Radishes , Garlic , Black Prince , Cold Frame
So, I talked to G today about how we really couldn't do much until we treated the dirt at the end to make it soil. He totally got it but was a bit put out as we really wanted to put the Walla Walla sweet onions in today...so, I came inside and got Carry to take me to the local Home Depot and we got some 'emergency cow poop', came home and I dumped about a bag and a half between the two spaces.
At this very moment I am reading a book called 'Cubed Foot Gardening' by Christopher O. Bird. Well, I really like what he has to say. So, we are doing an intensive seasonal rotation garden. Going through it I decided to ignore the packets suggestions (I know! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING???) Either way, I looked through our last frost, possible first frost...and found that for some reason (Ring of fire? Could it be the volcanoes? Hmmm...maybe ;) ) that our growing season is actually LONGER then where I grew up in NC! Maybe a month or so longer! Wow.
So, we planted! We planted the Walla Walla's that we were going to anyways, but they also planted the smooth leafed Olympic spinach according to the 'cubed ft design. Spinach is kinda tall so it gets the north side of the garden all over! Then we put the onions in front of the spinach to fill the area on the north side. On the south side I planted all the lettuces and some onions. I put the butterleaf and greenleaf through my newly opened area and then in his 'garlic rectangle' G put early radishes. So, assuming things work the way I have been reading, both online and in the book, and from what I saw last year....we should have solid green in about a month! wOOt!
Next week? Cold Frames based out of the containers that our greens come in.
We shall plant the tomatoes, we have Brandywine and my cross breed black prince/brandywines from last year, and some cherry sweets for G cuz that boy can GO through some maters!!! our deal, on his side he can eat all of them he wants, on ours, ASK! LOL!
Honestly....pics...
soon. I took some but the batteries need to charge up a bit, had to chare them a tad to take pics. Damn we need a new camera, haha.
Jan 17, 2008 | 10:56 AM PST
Tags: triple curled parsley , compost , companion planting , tomatoes , kohlrabi , Walla Walla Onions , cold frame , garlic
We are in zone 7B here. Almost time to gear up! I have a couple of the large boxes that salad comes in so am going to introduce our youngest to cold framing. He is going to grow Kohlrabi this year so it looks like, the best bet, would be to go ahead and cold frame the starts at the end of this month, beginning of next as our last frost SHOULD be about March 24th.
The other item he is going to grow is Walla Walla sweet onions. He got the area ready and composted in Fall so they will have he perfect setting and I plan to place them randomly as they also lend to being a pest deterrant.
I need to get a new pic of my Parsley, you can't see it between the last of the tomatoes there but it has gone plumb crazy with the nice cold weather, beautiful tufts of green-ness, like giant green snowballs (the pastry...if you can call them that, haha). I had put it in for two reasons, one, I love fresh parsley, but more so for the fact that parsley and tomatoes are companion plants. I had the added benefit of having something nice and green through these winter months on my side.
Interestingly enough, the garlic (this hedges his space, sides and back, random side and back on my side) decided to come up with our warm snap. Nature came to her sense and was all over the being winter again these past few days and the garlic does not seem to care so maybe it will just keep going. G there is excited as this is the first results he is seeing for all his hard work, he went out the other day 'just to look at the garlic'. Hard to teach an 8 year old patience but he has been pretty good at it (or he just kinda forgot for a bit, hehe).
Sep 11, 2007 | 11:28 AM PST
Tags: brussel sprouts , Walla Walla , Sweet Onions , tomato , compost , manure , cold frame , broccoli , Bloomsdale Spinach , kohlrabi , sugar snap pea seeds , early radish seeds , forced bolting
Got our youngest excited about doing some cold weather planting, now I just have to figure out what else to put in when the tomato's are done! I know I will be planting some Walla Walla onions in between the maters as they need to be there now, and then get some of the best sweet onions in the world come spring. But for G-man's spot, there are the sugar snap peas that are done, and I need to go pick the seed off of them and the early radishes I forced to bolt for next spring and clear it out. He will help, he seems to love it (YAAAY!). So, we will clear it, take down the trellis and stir in some compost and manure. I got him some broccoli and brussel sprout seed, and there was something else! And I can't remember! OH! YES! PURPLE KOHLRABI! He is going to love this, wanted stuff he likes that has odd appearances, these will suffice, hehe. As the tomatoes are finishing (I have time) I Will probably throw spinach in..fresh spinach, yum! I am on the lookout for some material to make a cold frame as that is move able, we may lease on for the next year but if not I want to be able to move it! That would be a fun one for our youngest, he would get a kick out of the early growers and fresh lettuce all winter, this little guy can't get enough salad and he eats brussel sprouts with me, no one ELSE in the family will, haha.
