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.

Spring clean up and winter snow

The last weekend was really warm, about +10+12C and I spent some hours doing spring clean-up that I missed last fall.
And today it is snowing again with possible freezing rain after.
I am really affected by weather - long winter makes me feel blue. My be I need more vitamin D or as I called it "phitotherapy"  - working in the garden, I missed it!



 "Clean up" - I want everything to be neat and clean, but as always......
and I want to try Mittleider garden method this year.
I have couple reasons -my garden is in a wooden area, a lot of shade, and I need a productive method. Fist I tried to add more beds space and made a walks very narrow.



The more garden space I was thinking, the better! But the shade from tall plants was horrible for other beds, so I desided to make the beds about 60-70cm (24-28 inches) and the rows between almost the same.






 I will rearrange from north to south. (north-north-east to south-south-west).

These are 2 cleaned beds - asparagus on the back (cleaned, compost added, fertilized) and a new one for green peas.

 The new cilantro and lettuce seedlings were transplanted yesterday and today they are looking good in greenhouse and under row covers.

 I have some new 2x1 wooden planks to make new shelf's  and  plant support.

May be I will add some shelf's to this corner for seedlings trays and other light stuff.

And that snow is keeping me inside!

Greenhouse film update - crazy winter weather

Yesterday was 10F and snow, today 54F and rain, in the middle (night) freezing rain.


 I was very concerned about my new greenhouse film, I was able to cover my greenhouse only this November and we got only 3-4 snowfalls this winter. 

 I got the sheeting from greenhousemegastore.com, this is not a household plastic, and suppose to hold more pressure,  but I still do not know how long it may last.

This morning I came outside to make some photos of ice and snow on the film - there is solid 1 inch ice cover on the roof.





 The temperature inside was even lower than outside, and the plastic were covered with thin ice too.

I tried to gently shake the plastic to make the ice slide down, from the lowest square. I totally have the roof divided to 4 squares.


The roof itself is 24 feet long and about 6 feet on the side. My greenhouse stands on the slope and  the walls are 4 feet on front and 6 feet on the back. I can barely reach the top on the back with my broom. 

The greens - Asian tat soi is pretty healthy under the row cover.


Please comment with your winter greenhouse experience! I am a new gardener and would appreciate any advice!

Winter greenhouse - green peas, asian greens and onion

The last snow, actually the second big snow
this season was heavy, about 12 inches and more.

 I came outside to clean the greenhouse roof, just gently shaking the film from inside and the snow slowly was sliding down.

The best of them are kale, parsley, chard and tat soi.
The weakest plants are cabbages and kohlrabi.

 Every day I am snipping some of the green leaves. I can't tell they are growing, but staying healthy.

Some day ago I prepared a part if the bed for early green peas, the temperature inside can rise till +50F.

Today I planted peas and some radishes.

 Leek, young onions and garlic are doing good too.

Some of the asian greens are preparing to bloom, to cold.

Gardening on Christmas Eve

The weather is so good!
60 F and humid, 100% humidity inside the greenhouse.
I covered my greenhouse recently and transplanted some of the greens from the garden there.
That's how it looks now -

Lettuce, kohlrabi and green cabbage

 Mixed Asian greens, borage and celery

 Parsley, chard and leek

 Chard, napa and onion

 Radishes, bok choi and tatsoi

 Green onions ready to transplant.

 Small bed cleaned, added peat moss and vermiculite.

  Ta-da!  (the was also some place for small beets)

Raw Food Thanksgiving 2015

Happy Thanksgiving!

Raw vegan turkey pie - walnuts, raising,   fruits.

Raw vegan rolls

Raw mushroom burgers

Sweet potatoes and vegetable salad, almost eaten.

 Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!

Growing Tanacetum, or common tansy

Tansies are mainly perennial herbs, ones you plant them and the next years you will treat them as weeds.

I planted mine a year ago, in front of the garden
(my mistake), yes, it is invasive, but beautiful and very good for bees.
And  yes, it smells! "Shoo-Fly"! More than 6 feet, very strong, health plant, no matter how much I pruned it.

I am going to make a strong anti-parasitic tea, also using wormwood, black walnut hulls, and cloves.

I have  enough to make a tincture too. It can be used while fasting to expel worms, especially round and thread. It is also valuable for treating hysteria and kidney weakness. It has also been used to promote menstruation. Tansy has shown to be helpful in treating gout and epilepsy. It has been thought to relieve the pain of sprains, bruises, blemishes, scabies, and pain of rheumatic joints. Tansy is very effective for relieving the pain and inflammation associated with arthritis.
I have  arthritis problem so I will try this tincture this fall.

Remember, tansy is a very strong herb and may be poisons.