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Gracii Guns

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They had us germinate the seeds in open flat containers this time.  I really feel like I got better germination in the containers with lids.  The moisture was more even and it took less watering.  The open containers always seemed to be drying out.

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I skipped my coffee this morning and I had sugary cereal which I never eat. So now Im on a sugar crash with no caffeine. I cant possibly imagine facing all the work ahead. Not to mention todays work of rehydrating my potting soil and adding some nutrients. Im clutching my mini trowel and watching Motley Crues "The Dirt" which might just be the only dirt I see today. :lol:

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1 hour ago, soon said:

I skipped my coffee this morning and I had sugary cereal which I never eat. So now Im on a sugar crash with no caffeine. I cant possibly imagine facing all the work ahead. Not to mention todays work of rehydrating my potting soil and adding some nutrients. Im clutching my mini trowel and watching Motley Crues "The Dirt" which might just be the only dirt I see today. :lol:

There's no work getting done without caffeine!

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21 minutes ago, cineater said:

There's no work getting done without caffeine!

And then the used grounds go in the compost - its perfect!

I finally had coffee, way too late in day for me. Will be up all night working up my seedling! :facepalm::lol:

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6 hours ago, soon said:

And then the used grounds go in the compost - its perfect!

I finally had coffee, way too late in day for me. Will be up all night working up my seedling! :facepalm::lol:

What did you seed?

I spent the day cleaning up the yard.  Would so love to plant but it's way too early.  Stuff's coming up though.  Surprisingly, I didn't hurt today, that was a quick come back. 

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9 hours ago, cineater said:

What did you seed?

I spent the day cleaning up the yard.  Would so love to plant but it's way too early.  Stuff's coming up though.  Surprisingly, I didn't hurt today, that was a quick come back. 

Glad your getting back into gardening shape so fast! So exciting when nature show its power and germinates so quickly. We have more snow on the way tonight, but we're close behind you!

I seeded the onions earlier. Yesterday turned out being a complete write-off, lol. Theres still a lot of underground root systems at my garden so Im planning on putting in a lot more perennials in as a form of starving off the underground systems. So, Im considering dedicating most of my tray space to giving some perennials a head start. I love growing tomatoes and peppers, but maybe for this season I will focus on establishing new berry patches, horseradish and use my trays to start some candy/drink perennials. And Ill do a bunch of black turtle beans as my primary food stuff - they grow fast so will also fight weeds. 

So, that being said, Ive got a bunch of leftover tomato, sweet pepper and jalapeño seeds from seasons passed. So Ill hope they arent expired and throw the in the trays today. Hopefully get enough for a salsa garden (garlics in already). Then flip the trays to some larger perennials. Not sure... hard for me to picture barely any tomatoes.

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That was very lazy phrasing on my part! Sorry! Thats like my own 'internal' reference for them! :facepalm::lol:

Angelica, Meadowsweet, Sweet Cicily, Hibiscus, Elderberry, all the berries can all be used to make candies, sweeteners, soda flavours and such. The reason to grow them, that I should have made more clear, is that I already have a lot of perennials in, they're all (savoury) culinary, medicinal or household product herbs. So if I want to add more perennials to deter the weeds I needed to think about other uses for perennials. And as it turns out, all of these are either rather large bushes or in elderberries case, a small tree. So they work out perfect for my needs!

Sweet Cicily's leaves can be dried and powdered and used in place of sugar as a sweetener! Hibiscus & Raspberry, Strawberry & Basil, Blueberry & Oregano sodas!!! 

Angelic has shoots similar to hostas and fennel that were a traditional candy, they are already sweet and tasty and are usually cured in sugar. Its also a common to use the flowers to favour liquors/liqures. Ill throw some flowers in a home-brew beer: 

CNEDZDah.jpg

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^^^ these ones look most familiar to me, look like a candy you could go to the variety store and buy right now.

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^^^ I think this version was cured in liquid sugar?

 

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I went ahead and planted cool season veggies in one of my summer flower beds.  Trying to show they can be used ornamentally as well as food producing.  I have broccoli that comes up purple and cauliflower that is a bright yellow.  The kohlrabi comes up a neon green.  Got red cabbage and kale plus swiss chard that comes in different colored stalks.  Interested to see how it looks.

You ever heard of keyhole gardening?  It's a variation on lasagna gardening and some direct composting.  I'm going to have the students give it a try.  Basically it's a raised bed with a cage in the middle.  The outside is your layers of brown stuff and green stuff.  In the basket goes your compost material, your kitchen scraps.  Useful in areas with poor soil and limited water.

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On March 27, 2019 at 11:22 PM, cineater said:

You ever heard of keyhole gardening?  It's a variation on lasagna gardening and some direct composting.  I'm going to have the students give it a try.  Basically it's a raised bed with a cage in the middle.  The outside is your layers of brown stuff and green stuff.  In the basket goes your compost material, your kitchen scraps.  Useful in areas with poor soil and limited water.

No, Ive never heard of any of these techniques :smiley-confused2:

So the plants go around the cage? And the active compost feeds the plants?

**************

Ive seen a praying mantis once - they are incredible. Youre lucky to have all of em!

More snow today :( 

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Yeah that's the basic concept.  https://www.engledow.com/green-scene/2013/12/how-to-create-a-keyhole-garden/  The lasagne garden is built the same way, in layers, but your compost is one of the layers.  Both are great if you want to plop a bed down on top of a spot without tilling.  Layer up what is normally considered waste and make your own fertile soil.  Pretty easy compared to getting out the rototiller and tearing up the soil, chopping up your worms and giving all your weed seeds a nice place to start. 

We're spring rains all day.  I have plants coming up everywhere.  Fingers crossed we don't flood.

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Took my side project person to native plant school today and she won 10 native plants.  She's pretty excited about starting her beds.  Except she has some stuff going on and the plants had to come home with me.  We'll at least get these in ground this year but the whole project may have to go on hold for a while.

Watching the creek come up, another 5 feet and it would get us.  Fortunately it stopped raining.  This isn't even a bad rain.  We get a good one and we're going under.

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Woohoo, seeded tomatoes last Friday, nothing showing Tuesday night and this morning they are up an inch and a half.  Got tired of watering all the time and put a dome over this group of seeds.  Think I get better results when I do the mini greenhouse.  It gets too much moisture build up I just crack the dome a bit.  I'm not a lazy gardener, just tired, lol.

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