Watching the seeds grow...Feb. 9, 2009

Tomato seedlings (18 varieties) are up and growing... A few cells haven't come up but most are up - can't wait to see how the different varieties do. Thought this would be a year of experimenting in heirloom varieties, different organic fertilizers and different mulches... will keep a journal and try to dtermine which do best in my zone 7 hot and humid summers in raised beds.

Found a storm door on Freecycle.org in my area and created a makeshift cold frame to protect the collard babies while they hardened off. So far they have come through 18 degrees and 2 inches of snow followed four days later by a 70 degree weekend... can anyone spell climate change? Moved some out to the raised bed since we need to make room for more seedlings in the *cold frame*.

Cold Weather Gardening...February 4, 2009

We feasted on roasted vegetables yesterday featuring fresh carrots from our "hoop tunnel" bed. Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest book (http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/) is inspirational. We had already wiped out the turnip and beet greens from the bed, but still have more carrots and spinach left. The temperature that morning hit 19 degrees and we actually had two inches of snow - our second of the year which is unusual for our area in zone 7 - but the carrots were fine in their little home :-)

The kitchen counter is now the official seedling nursery - already started

collards, green onions and broccoli... the counter under the new fluorescent light was getting crowded, so we located a glass storm door offered on Freecycle (check out http://www.freecycle.org/) and made a makeshift cold frame in one of the raised beds - the collard babies are doing fine under the glass even with the arctic temps the past two days. Makes room for the 18 types of heirloom tomatos I started two days ago....