Hello my fellow gardeners of Hive! It has been a long time. To long in matter of fact. It has been a whole month since my last post, and I did not think that I would be standing by waiting to start my garden. For the past few years I have always talked the weather of Salinas Valley up for how well things grow here. Yes that is true. We have such a great environment to grow many things. But this year is the coldest that I have ever experienced. So this cold weather has stopped me in my tracks to do what I wanted to do. This is mainly because I wanted to start my seed outside like I did last year. But if I wanted to get started, indoor was the only way I could of gone.
Before I begin on what is happening now, let me take you back a few weeks. With the weather setting me back, not a whole lot was happening. Yet some curveballs was thrown my way. One being a Gopher coming for my Garlic!
Last year I was sure I would be battling these fur balls, but thankfully I had zero issue with them. Knock on wood. So when I came upon my garden one morning, my heart sank to see these dirt mounds. I though forsure one was gone. Luckily it did not get to it. All I did was dig up the tunnel, and destroyed it. My hopes is to spoke it into going to another part of the yard. So far it seems to have worked.
Something good did come out of me digging up the Gophers tunnel. I made a new friend!
If you remember my last post, I was planning to plant Marigolds along the edges of the garden. Well due to the cold it was a fail. So now since it is warmer I am trying it again.
This time I am planting a mix of flowers. So far the weather has been in my favor, and the forecast is looking great. So these should come up. Unlike the Marigolds, which actually where starting to sprout in a few places, but then the nights hit 37 degrees in a week in a row! Another thing that happened was the Nasturtiums I planted got devoured by some snails. So that was another fail!
So that is everything that has happened since last post. Really not a whole lot. Another thing that just happened is I decide to give a try on growing a couple Autoflower cannabis plants on my balcony. In order to get started, I have to start the seed indoor. You can see that post here. So since I have dug some things out of storage, I figured I might as well stop pronasicating, and get something going for my garden at work.
The way I like to get my seeds started is by putting in a wet paper towel between two plates. This way they can sit on the heat mat, and stay nice, and warm.
I am starting off with 5 seeds apiece of each seed pack I picked up. ALso since space is limited, I am going ahead, and putting different seed with each other.
Also since I ran out of plates, I improvised, and used some bows for the tops instead. Oh, and I made sure to label what seed I had in each.
I am using a reg old desktop lamp with a LED bulb for the seedlings. Pictured here is the Cannabis, and some Radishes that my son started at school.
I am teaching him how to garden this year. He helped me transplant his Radishes into Jiffy Pots.
Which is what I am using for all the seed starts this year. I had having to transplant. Also since my space is very limited, I have no choice but to start in small pots. So it is going to be nice to just throw these into the ground once they are ready.
Another thing I am doing to get my seedlings going, is putting them in the sun for a few hours in the day. After each day more sun is shining too! So that will mean I will gradually set these seedlings out for longer as well.
So now things really are going to start to pick up. This time I mean it! LOL My compost is about ready too. So before I am able to put my seedlings in the ground, I will work some compost into it. I may pick up some more plants from the nursery, but one thing I really would love to have is Pumpkins. Which I already have started. If anything perhaps I will pick up some Habanero, and Jalapeno. We will see because I know Melons take a lot of space in the garden. One thing is I am going to have lots of fun doing it!
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Thanks!
Very awesome man! My daughter likes to help me in the garden too. We gotta teach the young 'ens how to grow their own food! cant wait to see the garden going bro!
Yeah it’s fun! I thought it was so cool he was the one that started these in his class at school:)
That is cool!
I see that I'm not the only #hivegardner that has been set back by the cold weather.
Gophers can sure do some serious damage to a garden. The holes they leave behind can also be very dangerous. Not knowing that one was there, I stepped in one a few years back and twisted my ankle pretty good. It swelled up like a son of a gun and it had me hobbling around for a few weeks.
It's always fun to read that a gardener is teaching their children the basics of growing. Start them early and they will be gardners for life.
There is nothing like going to your garden and picking some stuff to add to a meal.😁
Yeah we have had some flowers get eaten up by them over the years. Also those dirt mounds look like crap after laying a nice layer of mulch down! Hopefully this cold weather passes, because I won't have much room for all these seedlings very soon, lol
That's intensive work you've executed in your farm. Tilling the soil for various work is one of the difficult work. The Garlic look very good. Thanks for the good work
Thanks, and yeah now I just need to pull the weeds before I plant:)
I think it is time for me to try this method of germinating seeds...
This method works great for me! However I would warn it is best not to wait to long after they sprout. I should of got this in fury yesterday. But they will be ok. I just hate to let the roots grow any longer since they end up getting wrapped up with each other.
Nice, they already germinate, it is so satisfying seeing them.
Awesome man. Hopefully the weather this year is good for gardening.
This weather has been crazy this year! It is starting to get warmer though. But with the way it’s been going I won’t be surprised if another curve ball is thrown my way lol
I wonder if we are going to have crazy winters for a few years. It seems like we are experiencing a 40 year weather pattern here in Utah. We had a crazy winter with a ton of snow back in 1983 and this year we had a bit more snow than we did back then. The flooding has already started here and it is worse than it was back then. We have houses sliding off the mountains. Its been crazy so far.
That sucks. We had rain like we just had back in 1996. As far as the cold weather, I don't recall when that was. It definitely seems weird