Spring in the Garden

I’ve been itching to start. I’ve been planning the garden for so long – plotting the space, learning what I’ll need to do and scheduling out the work so it can all get accomplished. And now the time is almost upon us! I’ve cleared the leaves and the pine needles and I’ve gotten organized and now we’re actually doing it – we’re growing vegetables from seeds!

I have to admit, this is my first time actually growing from seeds. Last year I decided to try vegetable gardening and I learned a lot. This year I decided to take it to a different level.

My first step was picking up How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine. Yes, it’s the longest book title ever, but its full of great information.

I decided to take a stab at the plan they had laid out for their mini garden which is about 100 square feet. I looked at the vegetables they chose, and did make a couple of substitutions but otherwise kept the main vegetable choices intact.

Once my list was complete, I headed over to Johnny’s Organic Seeds and placed my order. Given the popularity of seeds this year (did you hear seed sales are up 19%??) I’m so glad I ordered in January! Of course, this means the box from Johnny’s has been sitting and taunting me and this week, we were finally able to rip in!

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First, I looked in my handy, dandy book and I created a spreadsheet that calculated when I would need to plant my seeds to give them enough time to mature before they go in the actual garden, after the last frost. This helped me to establish that I needed to start my planting the weekend of March 29th – give or take.

Greenhouse Tray

Then, I got some great advice from a friend who is a veteran gardener. She suggested the greenhouse trays that come with the little peat/dirt discs and the lid.

The trays can be reused every year and once your little babies have grown enough that can be simply transferred in the little gauze enclosed dirt discs which expand when they’re watered.

There are many reasons why this tray system worked so well for me.

1. Relatively inexpensive at $10 and they can be reused year after year. You just buy replacement discs!
2. I can fit 72 seedlings in these trays which is extremely space efficient.
3. My husband and my daughter were both able to participate because of the simplicity and efficiency of the system!

In fact, I’ve been working so much I haven’t had time to plant my seeds – so yesterday my husband and daughter actually took over the seed project themselves!

• First, my daughter carefully arranged all of the discs in the tray and then my husband added the water. My daughter then patiently sat and watched as the discs magically grew!
• Next, my husband took a chop stick and he and my daughter carefully made holes in each little gauze encased dirt packet.
• Then, the correct numbers of seeds were sewn into each bundle and the peat/dirt mixture was used to cover them up.
• They pressed the lid into place and then put the seeds safely into a warm, dark space for three days for germination.

In another three weeks or so, we’ll be starting the next batch! I think we’ll be doing three trays altogether and then we’ll be able to rotate the first seedlings out of the tray and into the garden and we’ll begin germinating again!

And to finish off - a great video on the lifecycle of the seed!

The Seed from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

Please take one hour out of your evening on Saturday, March 28th, at 8:30PM, to join millions of people worldwide in an event called Earth Hour.

You can read all about it at the Earth Hour website here: www.earthhour.org

It’s a worldwide, voluntary rolling local blackout!

Is your house, neighborhood, township, city, region, county, state signed up? Make some calls and send some emails; this is a good way to spread the word about energy consumption!

~Ben
altE U.

My 3rd electric bill came in at the same usage as the 1st full month: 73kWh.

My latest natural gas bill also came in and, though it wasn’t as low as I’d anticipated in my last blog entry, it does show a substantial reduction over the previous tenant’s usage. The actual meter reading showed about 86 CCF of gas used in January and February combined (72 {estimated} and 14 CCF, respectively).

The usage history for this apartment for February (the month for which I have the longest record, 3 years), shows a much steeper decline than what I suspect actually occurred. In 2007, the previous tenant was billed for 111 therms (CCF) for February; in 2008, the figure was 34 therms. I suspect that the apartment was unoccupied for a substantial part of the month (or it was unusually warm in Columbus!). If we assume my own consumption was about the same for both January and February this year, then I used about 43 therms in February (though I think it was somewhat lower than January’s usage).

As it is, the graph, going from 111 to 34 to 14, could be a poster child for conservation and efficiency! But 111 down to about 40 is still a 64% decrease– that’s nothing to sneeze at, and I haven’t even done all that I could do to minimize consumption and maximize efficiency.

~Ben
altE