Kale at 10 days

You have to love kale.  10 days after planting I have lovely healthy sprouts popping up. 
The best way to thin kale is to pinch off the smaller plants and eat them. 
Trust me.  Eat the sprouts. 
You can do this for radishes, too... in fact all your greens will be yummy as sprouts.

Dirty Hands

This seems to be the year of the kids at The Reclaiming Dinner Project. Many of the recipients of my tomato plants have kids, which was why I grew cherry tomatoes in a variety of colours. I also have been handing out kid-friendly seeds to friends / co-workers / strangers who have kids in the hopes that they might get the next generation excited about growing food. White, purple and Nantes ("real" baby) carrots (again for the colour palate), mild radishes and different greens (for the gratification of quick sprouting), sunflowers and marigolds... seeds as nature's toy box.

I will admit that I am chatty, enthusiastic and eager to involve as many people in my project as possible. And so early one spring morning I was talking with a fellow dog-walker at my conservation area (whose dogs are tolerant of my over-sized Great Dane, and who walks his dogs as early in the AM as I do mine) about spring. Scott is a teacher, and seems like the kind you would hope your kids would get - dedicated, energetic and curious. He mentioned an idea for a class project - to get the students to find examples of spring's arrival. Of course I launch into seeds which leads into a Sunday AM meeting where I hand over jiffy pellets, trays, lids and seeds.

This morning I ran into him again, and he updated me: most of the seeds have sprouted and the kids are totally into it. We discuss the curiosity of kids, especially at 11 years old; how the act of passing on the knowledge of where food comes from and the sharing of the means to feed ourselves is a completely worthwhile exercise.

It turns out that the kids have their own blog. I've invited Scott and his kids to contribute to this blog so that we can share first-hand their enthusiasm and wonder. I have the hope that they learn to love their dirty hands and watching their seeds grow into small plants, that they will take their lessons home and share them with their parents. That maybe a few more gardens will be planted, and that more dinners might be created at home.

The logistics of hardening off during a rainy spring

It has rained pretty much the entire month of April. It has also been cold and dreary and the version of spring that no one really likes... Spring showers sound so charming and so "I'm singing in the rain", but spring rain is just cold and wet. The Farmer's Almanac warned of a colder, wetter April (and part of May, too... ugh) and so it has been. But perhaps it has also been like a genuine spring as opposed to the hot, dry springs of the last couple of years that have really felt like summer (as in "we skipped from winter to summer and missed spring entirely"). So as a result our property is soaking wet, our rain barrels are already 1/2 full, and I'm sure the well is comfortably replenished. It has also meant my peas took 28 days before they broke ground, I haven't had to worry about the carrots and parsnips germinating, and yesterday was the first day I could hang laundry out on the line.

So comes the difficulty of hardening off the 93 tomato plants that I've got thriving in the basement (safe and warm under lights, and destined to be given away). We have a covered front porch which gets very little sun until late afternoon, and which is perfect for the first day or so (no matter if it rains). But eventually sun will have to come into the equation, so the south-facing back deck is the next stop in the process. However there is no protection from the rain or wind back there, which means I have to be extremely diligent in keeping an eye on them (not to mention managing my time). But how to harden the plants off if it doesn't stop raining?? And how to harden off 93 tomato plants alone (plus all the peppers, basil, onions and brussle sprouts) while also working full time? While I love my tomato seedlings, I had dreaded hardening them off. Here is where the cold frame comes in (unless you are lucky enough to have a greenhouse)...

A cold frame is basically a slanted box, with some kind of transparent material as a lid (old window panes are commonly used, but I have heard of people using plexiglass or other clear plastics). They are traditionally put right onto the ground, and you can put some cold-tolerant plants into them even weeks before the last average frost date.

You put your seedlings into them, and the seedlings gradually get exposed to the sun and wind, and are gently hardened off. This is all according to what I've read - I am only today the proud possessor of 2 cold frames.

Thankfully yesterday was glorious and sunny and a balmy 15 and so my guy got to building me 2 cold frames. He built them with used window panes (which can be propped up), the sides are made out of recycled coreplast (a baffled plastic material) that we had lying around, with slits in the sides so that the C02 from the plants can vent. He also built them with high sides; I wanted to be sure my tomato plants wouldn't outgrow the box before the weather warmed up enough to plant them out. I put the frames on the deck since our backyard is so wet. The only worry I have is that the spaces between the deck boards lets cold air into the cold frame, and the nights are still cold (although above 0), so I will have to do something to ensure the cold air doesn't damage the plants on cold nights. But yesterday and today I've moved most of the tomatoes, all the basil and of course the onions and brussel sprouts into them.

Yet while I have dreamt of cold frames for years, and have read about them in every "how to grow a garden" book, I realize I don't really know how to use them, or at least not with any degree of confidence. Does one just put the plants in there and walk away (well, keeping an eye on the temperature inside) and then 2 weeks later the plants can be planted out straight from the cold frame? Can they just tolerate being put in the box, exposed to sun without being shaded at first? Will they get enough exposure to wind within the box, only to suffer when they finally leave it? Do they have to be further hardened off once they leave the confines of the box? I haven't found detailed instructions about their use, so I'm winging it based on what little I've read.

I put some of the strongest plants into the cold frames, and for now treat it a bit like a greenhouse - I plan on keeping the panes closed during inclement weather, but will open them up on hot days. I'll also open them up a bit on windy days, to allow the tomatoes to practice a bit of yoga. I have 22 days until the long weekend (the traditional time for planting out tomatoes unless one has a series of cloches or some other type of protection against late spring frost) and so hope that is enough time to iron out any bugs in my novice efforts. By the end of the week I will have moved all the seedlings into the frames, I think.

Without the cold frames, I was facing the prospect of carting that many plants outside and bringing them inside each day for the 7 -10 days it takes to harden them off. Now that they are nestled comfortably in their little house I can focus on hardening them off easily, rather than risk sun- or wind-burning them.

It is raining again today, which might be in my favour. There won't be high hot sun beating through the glass while the tomatoes are acclimatizing to the temperature shift, and they'll hopefully be ready for wind and sun by the time the rains end. It seems unfair that I am far more concerned with how the tomato plants cope than I am about the brussel sprouts, the basil or onion, but that is just my way. I really LOVE growing tomato seedlings.

By the way, I did start to harden many of the tomatoes off yesterday (mostly the exciting cherry varieties), and I was once again shocked and amazed to see how thick the stems got in only a few hours of gentle breeze. Like peas growing, it seems that you could see the tomatoes strengthen if you paid close enough attention.