Transplanting early "earliana" cabbage and other seedlings

Very cold outside, can't work there, but there is a lot of things to do in the basement.


This year I am trying to grow "Earliana" cabbage, it suppose to be small but only in 60 days.... 
I checked the reviews, mostly all of them about poor germination, so I seeded a lot of seeds in one pot to check. I believe 100%of them germinated.


So I put them individual cups. I also sprinkled some if the DE on top of the soil mix to fight gnats, I was reading it may help.





 I am trying some new herbs from seed - there are mexican tarragon on the left  and sweet marjoram on the right.

 My peppers seeds are old, 3-4 years, and the germination is very poor, at least I can see some of the hot peppers coming out.








 Last year seeds of sweet pepper King of the North are good.

 Early greens - lettuce, Asian greens.... need to transplant too.

 Tomatoes are leggy but I like them.

Still cold outside

I am tired of waiting, where is the warmth?

We had snow at night again!
Anyway I have so much work to do, I am spending 2-3 hr last days.
There is my second butch of tomatoes , need to be transplanted.

 Basil at last! First time nothing was germinated, this time I used per-sprouted seeds.

 Chard on the windowsill is getting really large!

 My fennel - first time.

 Okra, I loved okra last year on the sunny porch.

 Celery Utah, transplanted and thinned.

 The biggest celery is now 4 inches long.

 Peppers.

 Greens on the top room.

 Mostly kohlrabi and broccoli are waiting to be planted outside.

 New container of cilantro.

 Borago - first time!

 Turnips.









 Asian greens.

 Yesterday with a help of my husband (thank you!) I added 5 more beds. Some are not finished and under black plastic. I do not turn the soil, just lay fall leaves right on the grass, than homemade compost+soil from woods.

I checked last year bed where I plan to grow carrots this year.  The soil is perfect, as I see, easy to dig, as butter! I just removed old mulch, ad turned the soil. Upper level is almost black, below the soil is more clay-look but can not compare with regular soil I have everywhere.
So my lazy raised bed method is working.

 Signs of sorrel

 I accidentally dump wood ash on the blueberry this winter. Now I am correcting this, removing all old mulch and adding a layer of compost.

 Strawberry Ozark beauty planted in early winter, now covered with black plastic.

 First irregular strawberry bed is cleaned and thinned from runners. There is mostly Ozark Beauty and Allstar. Last year I did not have strawberry, only some of them. So this year (second) I believe I will have a good harvest!

Cold March - One busy day

It is so cold outside! I am freezing.... but as old proverb says - one spring day can feed the whole year.
So I am going outside every day at least for one hour.

And look who was coming to watch me!

 I harvested some of my overwintered carrots,
If was my first try, not the right place and not the right time, but I am still happy.









I cleaned one of the strawberry bed , made it bigger and cover with plastic.

 This is second year plant (from last year runners). It looks happy for me.

 This bead still need to be cleaned.
My radishes in cold frame is green, but slowly. Next time I will insulate the cold frame.
I also - cleaned old mulch under the blueberries, added compost to them.
- made 2 more raised beds from bricks (it takes some cart rides to bring 25 bricks from the shed, than put leaves on the ground, than some carts of soil from woods and compost). I am not feeling cold anymore after card rides!

- planted summer garlic and green peas
- pruned roses very hard. last year I missed the time and they grown tall and not healthy.
- I also found this morning some of my seedlings dead in the basement! It looks some of the insects, like tiny transparent worms, 1-2mm long, just eaten my kohlrabi. May they be cutworms?
I was so upset! I used store seedling mix, but there also other plants with my outside soil, probably I mixed some... I feel so sorry, I sprinkled some DM-earth around each other seedling and pray.

Greens update

I started my Greens early this year, as experiment. Most of them are new for me, last year I planted only kale red russian, pack choi and mizuna from seeds.

On 1/1/2013 I put the seed in cell tray, in a month they looked like this -


I transplanted them in individual pots to see how they will do.


This is Kale Starbor from Johnnyseeds.

 We are raw vegan, I love to eat kale, I hope to have more this year.
"The finely curled, dark blue-green leaves can be harvested with one cut instead of being stripped off the plant one at a time, as kale is traditionally harvested. The compact plants, produce leaves that are very uniform, resist yellowing, and have good flavor."

 Kale Redbor - "Similar to Winterbor but purple-red. Redness and curling are enhanced by cold weather. For garnishing. "

Will see this one growing!

 Komatsuna garden giant -" Broad purple leaves with slightly toothed margins. Color appears early on young leaves. Mild flavor. Best for baby leaf as it is quick to bolt."
Right now they looks perfect, can't wait to eat them!

 Purple Mizuna - "Leaves are mostly green with purple margins at baby stage, while mature plants are purple tinged all over. More delicate appearance than Mizuna. Plants are very slow to bolt. Mild flavor."

 Left to right - komatzuna summer fest - "Japanese greens for salad and braising mixes. Uniform, upright plants with slender, fleshy, rounded green stems and dark green, rounded leaves. Good heat tolerance. "


Napa cabbage minuet - I see some leaf damage and wonder what's it?

Collard Georgian  - last year I bought seedlings from homedepot, thay stand the whole year.

Pack Choi black summer
"Broad, flat, light green petioles are topped with oval dark green leaves. Forms a perfect thick vase shape even when small."




Now let's go to the basement where my grow lights are.

 Rutabagas

 Cucumbers - straight 8 and homemade pickles, I wanted to grow them inside.

 Kohlraby early vienna

 Komatsuna red , again for Johnny's seeds -  "Beautiful addition to salads or micro mix. Upright plants with rounded leaves and green stems. Color will be darker when sown in summer and harvested in fall."

Kale dwarf blue curled

 My peppers - the tallest are Banana peppers

 Lettuce mix

 All other asian greens

 Greens on windowsill,  cilantro

 And the snow storm outside

 Cilantro again, just love it, it is very good to remove heavy metals from the body

 Basil, not from seeds, I bought some from the grocery store.

 Parsley

Dill and scallions.

Where are you spring?