Sprouts

Spouts came up from my seed flats earlier this week. The foreground are the melon type plants.

I'm getting lots of flowers on the strawberry plants I transplanted into the earth box last week.

Pictures are better this week because Horace took them.

eBox v2

This is the 2nd year I've used my Earth Box. This is significant because the 1st year, you get to use all the included fertilizer, soil, and dolomite included and pre-measured with the new Earth box kit. Now I have to come up with my own ingredients for subsequent years.

I went to Yamagami's because they always have an Earth Box expert there. I was surprised they recommended I use organic Potting SOIL instead of potting MIX. The Earth Box instructions tell you (about 10 times over) that you must use potting MIX! Then, instead of giving me the 10-10-10 fertilizer recommended by the Earth Box Instructions, they gave me 5-7-3. A Dr Earth fertilizer rep was there, and told me how their fertilizer was 100% organic. This confused me because I thought that only compost was considered organic. Anyway ... the 3rd thing they told me is that I don't need to add any Dolomite to this potting soil, because it already has it I guess. Hmm. Well, since I've broken all the Earth Box rules, this will be an interesting experiment.

Here is how the 2 cups of fertilizer are placed on top of the full earth box for a 6 or 8 plant setup.
You don't mix fertilizer into the soil. It is supposed to lay on top, and it leaches down into the soil slowly over time. Also, you cannot let the fertilizer touch the plants. That is why it's concentrated into a strip. The plants will sit on either side of the strip. If you have a different number of plants, the fertilizer strip may be in a different place.

Finally, you cover the earth box with the bonnet and plant your seedlings. These are a 6 pack of strawberries I bought from Yamagami's. I have tried growing strawberries from seed before, and it is extremely difficult to do. I think buying these as seedlings is a good idea.

New Raised Bed

I have been using an 8x4ft raised bed made out of treated wood for the last couple of years. Finally, I replaced it with a new untreated cedar bed from Natural Yards. I had good luck with these before (my smaller raised beds).

I really like the way I don't have to use any tools to put them together. They fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and you just put a pin into the pre-drilled holes to hold them together.

I was careful to put new black tarp under the rocks around the perimeter, and also leveled them out with some sand. This wasn't really necessary, but I really enjoy not having weeds growing around the raised beds.

Now all I need is dirt!

Compost

Forgot to mention the compost cover crop I planted last fall. As you can see, the "compost" grew just fine. Here is a picture from the end of January.

The best thing to do is pull up these plants and compost them in the bin. But I was too lazy and just turned them under. This is considered the second best thing to do. Just make sure they're turned deep enough not to grow back. I turned these under on January 23.

I also picked up some free compost from the dump on March 14, and put a pretty healthy layer on top of these planter boxes and mixed it in a little bit.

Finally, I direct-sowed some seeds that are expected to be ready for harvest in 30 days (Mid-April). That will leave time for my seedlings to grow up in their flats and I can transplant to these planter boxes. The seeds I direct sowed today include:

1. Snow Peas (5), Oregon Sugar Pod II from Bountiful gardens 2007.
2. Baby Bok Choi (2), Toy Choi Hybrid from Burpee 2009.
3. Radish (2), German Giant from Burpee 2009.
   

Seed Starts

Started 2 flats of seeds in wet seed starting mix today. Picture shown before I covered these seeds with a layer of dry seed starting mix (it wicks up the wetness from the bottom quickly, without disturbing seed placement).

One flat contains the hearty melon type plants. They will sprout over about a week and be ready to transplant into the raised bed by the end of March.

The second flat contains less hearty tomato type seeds. They will grow a bit slower and need to be transplanted into larger containers before being transplanted outside, probably in mid to late April.

Here is how the seeds are laid out in two small flats:











Roughly going left to right, the first flat contains:

1. Watermelon, Sugar Baby (1) from Bountiful Gardens 2008.
2. Honeydew, Orange Sorbet Hybrid (3) from Burpee 2008.
3. Crenshaw, Early hybrid (3) from Burpee 2009.
   
4. Butternut Squash, Butter boy hybrid (1) from Burpee 2006.
5. Cantaloupe, Honey Bun hybrid (1) from Burpee 2009.

Again, roughly going left to right, the second flat contains:

1. Eggplant, black beauty (2) from Burpee 2009.
2. Cherry Tomato, sugar snack hybrid (2) from Burpee 2009.
3. Tomato, Roma VF (2) from Burpee 2009.
4. Red Bell Pepper, Chinese Giant (2) from Burpee 2008.
5. Tomato, Brandywine (2) from Bountiful Gardens 2008.
   

Weeding

Trying to get ready for the planting season by pulling weeds. Sigh, this picture is just one of about 5 loads of weeds I pulled. Still plenty more.

On the positive side, it appears weeds have not flowered or gone to seed yet. Also, dirt was still soft from the rains. So the time is/was right (first weekend in March).

Also put copper spray on the nectarine tree last week. I think it's a little late though because there were flower buds on the tree already.