The Garden Thread - March, 2024

March 2, 2024 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[MomwithHope]

I also always put out my mom's egg collection on the table. Mostly wood eggs, a few stone ones. Found the ceramic basket many years ago. Fake grass.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Finger Crossed for you! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[metmom]

Back to snow, but even more now. The latest is 9-10 inches. >:(

[Liz]

Delectable Onion Pie was on a website that encouraged vintage Victory Garden recipes.

[Liz]

Vintage Onion Pie / Victory Garden recipe

Ingredients
6 to 8 medium onions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons canola oil
6 large eggs
1 cup soft bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

Directions
In a large skillet, saute onions in oil until soft but not browned; drain well. In a large bowl, whisk eggs. Stir in the bread crumbs, cheese, parsley and onions. Place in a greased 10-in. pie plate. Bake 350° til knife in center comes out clean, 35-40 min.

Tips——Soft Bread Crumbs
Blender bread torn into pieces; pulse til crumbs form. One slice yields 1/2-3/4 cup crumbs.

[Liz]

The Victory Garden Cocktail
Time to sit back and admire your handiwork---your weed-free garden.

Muddle fresh mint and ginger, add some cooling
cucumber juice and a dash of Pimm's liquor,
if you imbibe. Add ice and garnishes.

[MomwithHope]

Looks delicious.

[MomwithHope]

Books like an easy recipe. Our parsley made it through the winter for the second time. We always buy sweet onions. Right now they are coming from Texas.

[Pollard]

Went to the grocery store and the magnetic greenhouse with plants pulled me over there. I’ve had the thought of picking up a Sungold or two but they had Sun Sugar instead. Never heard of them so I passed on them until I could look them up. Supposed to be nearly the same but less prone to splitting. Gonna grab one next time I’m there.

I gave up on the idea of planting a bunch of paste tomatoes. When it’s time to harvest and process them, I’ll probably still be working on finishing touches of the high tunnel.

[MomwithHope]

This is a tomato sauce year this year, plus we want to make twice as much V8. So we will order our tomatoes from a Mennonite farmer. And grow lots of green veg in the garden.

[Pollard]

Thanks for reminding me. Some Amish family/families just moved into the area 2-3 years ago and set up a farm and store. Prices are decent and I do like to support them.

[MomwithHope]

The nice thing about buying them is I can do a half bushel a day instead of saving them up on the dining room table.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

That sounds wonderful! I’m going to make a Quiche for brunch tomorrow - scored a lot of leftover ham from my Sister who hosted Easter, today.

I never think to add sauteed onions, so I’m gonna. Thanks! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Ugh! So sorry to hear that! Hoping for a better outcome.

Believe it or not, SPRING will find you! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I really under-estimated on the V-8 this past year, too! Plenty of Salsa - which is good on everything - but I’m down to 8 quarts of V-8 which will NOT be enough to ‘support our habit’ until mid-summer! ;)

[Paul R.]

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

Question: I’m trying to start lettuce from seed this year, but am having trouble getting any germination. The seed packets are marked 12/2024, and I’ve tried a couple different “seed starter” media. Planting depth is 1/8”, as per some of the seed packets’ instructions and common web recommendations. Soil temperature varies wildly at that depth, as these are in starter containers, outdoors: Soil temp. has been between 35° F on a few cold nights, and near 80° F on warm days. (I do cover the containers on cold nights, as air temp. has been as low as 31° F a few days ago.) AVERAGE soil temperature would be ~60° F. The seed starter media is kept damp but not “wet”. Watering is from the bottom.

Is the soil temperature variance the problem?

I’ve seen a FEW recommendations for lettuce seeds to be right on the surface / not buried at all. ???

Would germination be better if the seeds were on the surface and covered with very light transparent plastic like Saran Wrap for moisture retention? (Obviously I’d have to remove the clear plastic soon after the sprouts came up.)

TYPICALLY, what % of lettuce seeds germinate under good conditions?

Thoughts?

Thanks!

[metmom]

I started mine in seed trays ad did cover them with plastic wrap until they started germinating. I didn’t have trouble with those but with the parsley and thyme, and lavender, they’ve been bears.

One thought I had about covering seeds outside is to use an old under the bed box bottom. They could be used lie mini greenhouses and propped up during the day but let down at night. I don’t know if that would help with germination of lettuce, though. I thought it might only add a growing zone to the seeds under it.

[Pollard]

I think I've just come to the realization that seeds can be sown a little deeper in starting mix or potting soil than what the packet says. The depth given is for direct sowing I believe and soil is harder to push through than starting mix.

One of the more experienced growers here can correct me if I'm wrong about being able to sow deeper in fluffy mix.

Noticed it when starting bok choy and Asian greens. They both tend to put out multiple shoots right at ground level as so;

Mine have up to an inch of single stem before they split like below but longer and the longest ones are wanting to flop/lay over. I'm thinking if I had sown them twice as deep as what the packet says, they wouldn't be like that.

I always top water until they sprout and use a humidity dome to prevent that top of the mix from drying out.

Wildly swinging temperatures will have an effect. I set my heat mats for 76 for cool weather crops and just bumped it up to 82 for peppers/maters. As soon as they all sprout, I'll turn it down to 70 and pull the humidity dome off. Once they have true leaves, I'll turn the mats off unless it's a really cold night because my seed starting room is unheated.

I would bring your containers/trays indoors, top water and cover with something to prevent drying. As soon as most all of them sprout, pull that cover off. If you don't have grow lights, as soon as they sprout, bring them outside and then only cover on cold nights.

I always get 90% or more germination if I do everything right.

It's kinda crazy how cool weather crop seeds need to be warm to sprout but a few weeks later, the plants can handle cold just fine. Must be why Spring seems to come in a sudden burst when conditions become just right.

[Pollard]

I always get 90% or more germination if I do everything right.

But this last batch went bad. A few things had sprouted so I had already pulled the humidity dome off. My heat probe came out and was laying on the floor so the heat mats stayed on full time and dried the seed mix out. Two lettuce of 10 had barely sprouted and I've kept watering since but no more sprouting so I guess the rest of the seeds had broken open but not broken through yet. Killed 'em. Gotta start over. I think I'll do them in seed trays instead of paper towel rolls because they seem to dry out really fast.