Back From a Chilly, Rainy Week in Michigan

The boys and I went back to Michigan last week to hang out with my brother while he was home on leave from Afghanistan.  It was a lot of fun, chillin out in my old hometown with the fam, cooking out and drinking.  Of course there were other activities thrown in as well - I went to work, hung out with a couple other relatives, etc.

One of the things I wanted to accomplish was moving some of my more meaningful Michigan plants from the old house to my boss/friend's yard, where they could flourish until I have a place for them.

There are a lot of plants in here, including several roses, a big mountain daisy bush in the middle, chives and mint that are a couple generations old, winter and summer savory, lemon balm, lillies that my mom planted decades ago - representing a bouquet of flowers my dad bought her when he was deployed over seas, borage, and a few more meaningful plants.

I didn't have a camera, so I used the crappy one on my phone to take some shots.

I bet this spot will be gorgeous in a few years.  *sigh*



I miss my garden!  But I'm determined to get over it and move on.  What else can you do?  

I was out digging in pouring rain in a blue and gold dress, surrounded by poppies and roses and flowering sage and irises and so much more flora that I had spent hundreds of dollars and hours coaxing out of cold Michigan mud, feeling sorry for myself, when my neighbor friend came over.  She told me I looked like a garden fairy.  We chatted and laughed in the rain, and I offered plants like I have for years.

At least my mark on Grand Rapids isn't doomed to degenerate into wildness forever, given that at least half a dozen yards in the place have blooms originating from my tangled collection.  That makes me feel a little better:)

A few last shots from my former Leonard St. garden.

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Seedling Sunday: The Delicate Art of Seedling Transfer Part 1 - Paper Towel Seedlings

One of my favorite forms of germination is sprinkling the seeds on a damp paper towel, covering it with a plastic bag, and leaving it alone for a few  days.  It's almost insta-growth.  Even the most hard-to-germinate plants will start out quickly this way.  It only takes a few days to a week.

Take your base (I use meat trays that have been thoroughly washed) and lay two or three sheets of paper towel down.  You want enough ply so that the cloth will stay damp, but not too few so that the seeds are in water.  Sprinkle your seeds on top, spray gently with water, and seal in a ziploc baggie.  Don't forget to label.  A few days later, you'll see growth.

You don't want to leave them in the paper towel for very long.  Once you see a couple tiny leaves, you'll need to transplant.  Too much longer past that, and you'll damage the roots when you start manipulating the paper towel.

This is what you'll need:  Water, seed starter mix, potting soil mix, a place to transplant, and a spray bottle full of water.

 Now, a lot of people just use seed starter, but I'm a creative cheapskate.  Comes from growing up poor.  Seed started is expensive, and I don't like the way it holds water.  So, I fill y pot 3/4 with good old fashioned cheapy potting soil. 

Then I top it off with seed starter, and drench with water.

Now, the delicate part.  You can try to pull individual seedlings out, but I find that to be way too time consuming, with low returns if you damage the fragile root.  So I cut swatches out at a time.

Pull off the bottom layers of paper towel, leaving only the topmost layer.

If you turn it sideways, you'll get a really cool visualization.

Now lay the sheets on top of the pot.

Add a handful of more seed starter on top.  You can either leave the soil covering the plants, or gently blow on it to expose them to light.

Spray the whole lot with enough water to dampen the seed starter.  If you missed the pre-plant watering of the dirt, ever so carefully do it now.

Now revel in the new growth!

Well, I guess not all of are so easily pleased. 

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The Who-What-When of Starting Seedlings

Spring is in the air!

OK, maybe that's an exaggeration. I mean, I’m currently sitting cozy in my house watching Farscape while a snowstorm dumps almost a foot of snow on my back porch.  However, looks what’s growing in my windowsill!



It’s lettuce and eggplant, in case you’re wondering.

Two Saturdays ago, I was in dire need of some quality play-in-the-dirt time.  Luckily, I have an awesome boss who has not only an indoor greenhouse (a glorious tiny glass room accessible through a sliding glass door behind the kitchen), but is generous enough to invite desperately cabin-feverish moms and their boys over for some planting!

I didn’t purposely plant lettuce (which won’t be transplanted, merely eaten when it gets large enough) and eggplant (which will eventually be transplanted) together.  They came home from Jean’s in separate pots.  But a certain little puckish boy decided he wanted to play chef with plastic spoons and dirt.



Yep, that’s him.  I’m just grateful anything came up at all!

I’ve ordered buckets of seeds from catalogs and while I’m waiting for them to get here, I started cleaning and organizing the containers I’ve been saving all winter for seed starters.



Oh yes, it’s recycling at it’s finest!  The plastic carryout container is an ideal starter because, while closed, it retains heat and moisture.  The bottom of a milk jug is perfect for shallow-rooting seeds.  Don’t throw the top away, though!  You’ll be using it as a heat cover for tender tomatoes or other heat-loving plants.  I like the cardboard soup bowls and OJ boxes because you can easily remove the paper without damaging the roots or plants when it’s time to transplant.  Also pictured are yogurt, fruit, and pudding cups and the bottom of a plastic water bottle.

Why use these?  Because they’re free.  Because they’re small, so you don’t waste lots of expensive seed starter or dirt and vermiculite.  (For some great recipes for potting soil mixes, check out The Artistic Garden’s page on the subject.)  Because it’s irresponsible to buy new containers when you’ve got lots of usable stuff lying around already.

Next comes the question of what to plant when.

First, figure out your zone.  You can find zone maps on the web, but in my experience, most of Michigan is roughly Zone 4b/5a.  The Detroit area is Zone 6.  Southern Delta/Schoolcraft area is, oddly enough, Zone 3.  But from Copper Harbor down through southern Michigan, you can be sure to grow plants rated for zone 4.  And even though many zone 5 plants will make it, some of them don’t when the winter is particularly hard or when there isn’t enough snow to keep the plants insulated.

(Note: You can also plant tender perennials for zone 6 or 7 in sunken pots, and pull them and keep them a Michigan basement to over-winter.  Rosemary is a good example of a tender perennial you can grow this way.)

Now you can figure out your last date of frost.  Though you can find them here, in my experience, you’re usually safe to get the hardy stuff (peas, cabbage, lettuce, etc.) by Mother’s Day.  You can also put tomatoes and such out as long as you provide some cover, such as the tops of milk jugs, or if you want to get really fancy, heat tunnels made of polythene film draped over wire hoops (made of coat hangers or bent fencing).

Now time for some simple math.  Counting backwards from that date, create a calendar that looks something like this:

Last Date of Frost  in Grand Rapids, MI (90% certainty): May 19^th

10 weeks from LDF: March 24th
8 weeks from LDF: April 1st
6 weeks from LDF: April 7th
4 weeks from LDF: April 21st
2 weeks from LDF: May 5th

Now, check the back of seed packets.  For example, my gourd seeds tell me they can be started indoors 4 weeks before the date of last frost.  April 21st it is!



There are, of course, some variations.  I have a couple home-made coldframes out back, so I can plant stuff really, really early.  I’ll have started radishes, carrots, lettuce, and other crops out in my coldframe in March.  Some I will transplant when the ground is ready.  Some will stay there until maturation.

I also use my coldframes to harden off crops.  Most of the plants you start indoors can’t be planted outside as soon as it’s safe.  You’ll have to spend a week or so taking them out and leaving them in the cold for progressively longer periods of time so they don’t die of shock.  Read more here.

Finally, with some plants, bigger is better.  I’m starting some perennial plants (columbine and hollyhocks) right now.  The bigger they are, the longer the growing season, the better chance they have of surviving.  Their flowering cycles will be messed up for a season, but after a winter they’ll be fine, perfectly in sync with the seasons.

My seed order should be here any day now.  I’m so excited!  Among the plants are some old friends of mine that I’ve haven’t grown in a decade, like woad and rue.  You can be sure that I’m gonna be playing in the dirt again as soon as the seeds get here!

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