Seeking advice for my first spring garden

[Purrfluff]

As of April 3rd there is no still no germination on anything I planted outside. I just hope I didn't flush expensive seed down the toilet. I can wait a while for germination, as long as it happens. It's April and we have cold and wet again.

I think I got spoiled by planting things last August. Germination was rapid then. Almost instantaneous for a few things. The brassicas germinated rapidly.

Not so now. It's remarkable how much soil temps affect germination rate and speed. I'm starting to see why my mother always said we have a short growing season here.

The soil temps don't really go up until June. And at that point it's a race until the rain and cold returns in September. Though I suspect if I just had a week of dryish, warm weather I'd see germination all over the place even at this date.

If I can just get the brassicas started that would be something. I really want to harvest a lot of broccoli this year. Actually, the only non germination that's really pissing me off is the oats. Everything I've read says they should be germinating like crazy. So far, nothing. How the hell do people get a cover crop going in early spring?

On the brighter side I am getting pretty good germination in the peat pellets indoors. Even a few of the ground cherry seeds germinated. The arugula seed, which was too small to see, is germinating happily in the peat pots. It's hard to believe that any of these teeny seedlings could ever possibly grow into large plants. But if I'm lucky that is exactly what will happen.

The only serious problem I've run into so far is that the seedlings that have germinated are getting very leggy. Long stems but very few leaves. And they are reaching for the sun. I hope this doesn't bode poorly for the future. I've been rotating the direction they face in the hopes of them not listing too hard to one side.

How large should the seedlings be before I stick them outside? Or should I first transfer them to larger pots and then transplant them into the final location? The peat pellets are small and won't allow for much root growth. Though I'm sure they can go at least a couple of more weeks in them.

When to transplant the ground cherries will be the really tricky part. I think they are supposed to go outside in June. I'd simply direct seed them in June but I don't think that will give them enough time. I'll try it anyway with excess seed when the time comes.

The celery and mint seed continue to refuse to germinate. I've heard that it's hard to get these going so I'm not really surprised.

 

[MaryMary]

Try to read the instructions to find out the optimum and minimum temperatures or you will be wasting your time and expectation.

Good advice, there! Here is a link for the temperatures necessary for germination and the rate at which you can expect seedlings. I again recommend investing in a cheap temperature probe.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/deschutes/sites/default/files/Horticulture/documents/soiltemps.pdf


Next year, before you plant seeds, maybe you could try pre-heating the soil? Look up your local free things. Try - "Craigslist > Free stuff > Glass." You should be able to find some old windows, or even glass shower doors. If you propped the glass on bricks or buckets above the garden, the magnifying effect would warm the soil.


Since it sounds like you have a good bit of soil to amend, I'll suggest going to your local Starbuck's and asking for used coffee grounds. They advertise that they save them for gardeners, just walk in and ask. (You may want to call ahead of time - I tried the one closest to me, and they don't save them, because no gardeners ask for them. So I'll be calling ahead!!)

Coffee grounds are organic, free, and worms love them!!

Here is another reason to use coffee grounds!

I read through the comments on that video. I read this, and thought you might be interested.

I had a Cut Worm problems in the past,but not any more since using coffee grounds,FREE from Starbucks,donut shops or who ever serves alot of coffee,just ask

I don't think they do much to deter the birds but I use them anyway. I think what happens is that the birds get used to certain things and cease being afraid.

Might not help much, but once they get used to them, try moving them to different parts of the garden. At least it will look new. (I agree with @marlingardener, a cat or two is probably your best bet. Although, I admit, I'm biased. .)

Mint must be contained or they will take over.

This is no joke.

Mint. Mint. Mint, mint, MINT!!!

I never realized how invasive it is! Terrible stuff. I yanked out every plant I saw. I dug down deep and took out roots. I tilled the garden and pulled out every leaf, stem, and root I saw. I repeated that process two weeks later. And still there was mint. I did that every spring for three years. I still had mint.



Mint.

 

[Purrfluff]

I'll look at that document, thank you. I'm getting a soil thermometer soon so I can check the soil temps myself.

Part of my problem is psychological in that I cannot stand to not plant something. Spring is here and the days are ticking away. Just leaving the soil bare until May gives me an itch. I really should be able to get some lettuce and brassicas going, shouldn't I?

Assuming I can get the mint to germinate it will be in a pot. If I can't get seeds to germinate I'll probably get some starts somewhere.

I have moved the pinwheels around from bed to bed in hopes of deterring birds. And I've put up what's left of the flash tape. I think the birds have just gotten too smart. Maybe some kind of new object will give them the willies for a while.

When summer comes on I think the birds will leave my seeds alone. They did last year. I had no problems with birds pulling seeds or attacking seedlings until around mid September. Then they went to town. I keep putting out Sluggo in the hopes of keeping the slug populations down.

To my surprise it would appear some birds attacked the leaves of my tulips as well. There are big, square looking cuts on the leaves. Hopefully they still bloom.

 

[MaryMary]

Spring is here and the days are ticking away. Just leaving the soil bare until May gives me an itch. I really should be able to get some lettuce and brassicas going, shouldn't I?

I found this link for you, which has a list of things you can plant now. I've done a good bit of snipping, so I recommend reading it for yourself, but I hope this is helpful.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/gardening-calendar
April Garden Calendar
Produced by OSU Extension, each month provides reminders of key garden chores, such as fertilizing, pest control, planting, and maintenance.

Planting/Propagation

• It's a great time to start a vegetable garden. Among the vegetables you can plant, consider:
  • Western Valleys, Portland, Roseburg, Medford: Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, chard, chives, endive, leeks, lettuce, peas, radishes, rhubarb, rutabagas, spinach, and turnips.

 

[Purrfluff]

Update on 4/6/2018:

I went out to look at one of the beds where I can put in grain cover crop seed. And the birds have been pulling out the seedlings and leaving them (dead) on the surface of the soil. I'm pretty sure they are also just eating the seed before it even germinates. This is probably a significant reason why none of my cover crop is coming along.

I've put up pinwheels and some flash tape and it's made no difference. I've put down bird netting but it's just sitting on the soil.

I didn't realize what a huge problem the birds would be. They are systematically destroying everything I plant. They are destroying my ability to get a cover crop in. And I'm pretty sure they will start wrecking other seedlings when they germinate.

I'm actually quite angry about this. It seems like everything in nature is conspiring to wreck my garden. The birds, the slugs, the rabbits, the cutworms, and the moles. The damned birds even started eating the leaves of my tulips. Go knows what they will do to my sunflower and corn seed when the time comes for that.

It's not practical to use transplants for everything. Direct seeding is a necessity.

My current plan of attack is to build some crappy frames out of wood that will stick about a foot above the soil. I'll drape the bird netting over it and and use staples to try and create a sort of tent.

The birds have been known to go under the netting before. I'm not sure I can completely secure it against that but I will try. My mother will freak out if a bird gets caught and dies in the netting but I'm not going to shed any tears.

Unfortunately there is too large an area to put netting on all of it. I can do this with some of the raised beds but not the native soil.

I read something about stringing fishing line over rows to deter birds. Does this work?

I continue to put out sluggo in the hopes of keeping down the slug population.

The high winds keep blowing away the milk jug cloches.

I used to kind of life birds. Not anymore.

 

[David from Dothan]

Sounds like you would REALLY benefit with a greenhouse.......

 

[Purrfluff]

Update on 4/12/2018:

Mostly further frustration. The rain has been never ending. I can't get out to plant anything. And the clay soil is too wet to work anyway. The rain has brought cool temperatures which is screwing up germination. The forecast is more rain at least the rest of the week. And not just some sprinkling either. Heavy rain. And some heavy wind along with it. Which is knocking over my milk jug cloches.

The birds are still wreaking havoc. As I feared they are now pulling out all of the pea seedlings. I am building some u shaped supports to staple bird netting to. This is probably doable with the raised beds but I don't know how I will pull this off with the rest of the garden. I can't put bird netting over the entire thing. I am hoping there are some seeds/seedlings they won't be interested in attacking.

There has been some germination on spinach and lettuce. There was germination on pea seedlings before the birds destroyed them.

I apologize for all the negative bitching. But between the weather and the critters the garden is not off to a good start. It seems like every effort I make is summarily destroyed by mother nature.

The indoor seedlings in the peat pots are doing well.... mostly. The brassicas are getting leggier and leggier. In some cases they are snapping their delicate stems. I'd like to just say screw it and transplant them into the garden. But I'm pretty sure the birds would just destroy them. Which would be pretty disappointing for some of the seeds which I only have a very small amount of.

 

[roadrunner]

Never-ending rain in Portland...Isn't that normal?

BTW, you do know you live in a rainforest...right

 

[Purrfluff]

Update on 4/16/2018:

Continued frustration with the weather. It doesn't feel like spring here. We've had constant rain the last couple of weeks. Soil temperatures are actually going down. The last reading I took showed my soil temps at around 50 degrees. That's down from around 54-55 a week or two ago.

I get that it rains a lot here. And most of the time I don't mind it. But the rain is putting everything on hold. It keeps the soil temperatures down, makes the soil unworkable (heavy clay soil goes to hell when it is wet), slows growth of existing plants, and compacts the soil.

What's worse is that the rain has lately come with strong wind. The wind is throwing my milk jug cloches around (one of my few defenses against birds and rain) and causing my pinwheels to get tangled up in the string that marks my rows.

What it comes down to is that I can't get anything done in the garden when it never stops raining. I need an extended dry period to dry out and warm the soil.

So, yeah. I'm cursing the weather.

And the birds. Though I have erected some defenses. I built some crude U shaped structures and pounded them into the raised beds (basically, just two garden stakes with a horizontal board connecting them). Then I draped bird netting over them and stapled the bird netting down to the platforms and the sides of the raised beds. Essentially I built a tent out of bird netting. This was relatively easy around the raised beds because I could staple the netting to the boards that form the raised beds.

It wasn't so easy to do it in ground. I just tossed some boards over the bird netting in the hopes that the birds wouldn't get under it.

I'm going to have to find a way to create a tent over the native soil though because corn will get planted in there eventually. And I am sure the birds will feast on the corn seed if they can. And that will be a large area to cover.

Germination rate of the grain cover crop is still low. I assume it's a matter of soil temperature primarily. However, I am getting decent germination from the mustard green seed I sowed. And I pretty much just tossed the mustard green seed into the soil and left it.

In the future I may use mustard greens for a spring cover crop. The only problem with this idea is that since mustard is a brassica it will break crop rotation to use it as a follow on from things like broccoli and cauliflower.

I think the other lesson is that I must find a way to put some kind of cover crop in the ground in the fall. And to let that cover crop sit until about May.

Growth of the indoor seedlings is good. The legginess of the brassica seedlings continues and several have snapped their necks as a result. I assume they just aren't getting enough sun. I'm considering trying to harden them off and transplant early. But most of them still only have one or two true leaves.

Lastly, I did some sow some parsley seed in the rain. I read that parsley actually likes cool temperatures and requires constant moisture to germinate. In that case I might as well take advantage of the constant rain.

 

[Purrfluff]

Update on 5/3/2018:

Substantial progress has been made. Last week we had a stretch of warm, dry days. It did wonders for germination and growth. This week is supposed to be similar.

I sowed a lot of seed. Not everything has germinated but a fair amount has. I'll have to start thinning the lettuces within a week or so. The alliums (leeks, green onions, and chives in this case) are taking their sweet time germinating but I think they will germinate.

I'm kind of running out of time though. Planting warm weather crops in my area is always a bit of a crapshoot. We have a short growing season for warm weather stuff so you have to get it in as soon as you can. But because the soil is so slow to warm up and the weather is so unpredictable you run a big risk of non-germination. I'm holding off on cucumbers and squash until mid May. I may do a trial sowing of beans this week.

My mother already got grafted tomato starts from Portland Nursery so she has that under control. She will do the same for peppers. It's her bailiwick and she's good at it.

My biggest disappointment has been my attempt at cover cropping.

My bird net tenting worked. As far as I can tell it successfully kept the birds from eating seeds and tender plants. So that issue is solved. But I'm still getting terrible germination on the grain seed. I'd blame the oat seed I got from Territorial Seed. But other grain seed, including oats from other suppliers has run into the same thing. I can actually see seeds sitting on the surface of the soil doing nothing. I thought the way I was supposed to sow these seeds was to broadcast them and rake them around. That didn't work.

If that's not the way to plant the oat seeds I don't know what would work. Painstakingly sowing hundreds of individual oat seeds one at a time would be very tedious.

The only cover crop that is germinating well is the mustard greens. Normally I'd say this is fine. Mustard greens are supposed to release some kind of pest repellent chemical as they decompose. But using them in this fashion does break the crop rotation rule in regards to brassicas. I hope I don't end up paying for it later.

As a sort of experiment I took some buckwheat seed and sowed it in a couple of rows like I would for veggies. I'll see what kind of germination I will get.

I'm not getting super fast growth on the oats or the buckwheat. I normally wouldn't care except I will need those spaces in June. Which leaves little time for growth. I really hope I can find a way to incorporate cereal rye into the still active plants come September. I'll need a cover crop even more in the winter to suck up rains.

Stuff that's been sown so far as I can recall: spinach, lettuce, arugula, pole peas, broccoli, cauliflower, parsley, some flower mixes, carrots, a bee flower mix, celery, and kale, cabbage, brussels sprouts, and daikon radish.

And there are the indoor starts. I have come to the conclusion that the small jiffy pellets are not suitable for brassicas. There isn't enough room in between them. The stems get tangled and break. I've had many broken necks on brassicas. I think the small pellets work ok for something like leeks as those don't get as easily tangled.

The thing I'm really shooting for are the ground cherries. I've started several in the small jiffy pellets. I got pretty decent germination but growth rate is slow. But it's too early to direct seed them. It's going to be a roll of the dice as to whether the ground cherries have enough time to mature and produce fruit. I hope so but I could be caught flat footed.

In mid May and early June there will be an explosion of planting. Corn, parsnips, cucumbers, squash, and succession sowings of everything.

Then in July I will fill any empty space I have with fall veggies That's where I intend to put most of my brussels sprouts seed.

As always, suggestions are appreciated.

 

[Purrfluff]

Update on 5/5/2018:

More planting recently. I put in seeds for squash, cucumbers, and zucchini (yes, I know zucchini is a type of squash). I think it's too early but my father insisted. I also put in beans which could go either way. Sowed some flower mixes, marjoram, tarragon, oregano, more broccoli, and daikon radish.

My folks got their grafted tomato starts from the nursery and planted them. Grafted peppers are to come. I am looking for eggplant starts.

The flower mix I put in today is Territorial Seed's "Beneficial bug mix." My hope is that these flowers will support a population of ladybugs, lacewings, and other insect predators.

The real highlight is that my strawberry plants came from Raintree Nursery in Washington. These are kind of special. They are Marshall strawberries. Marshalls were considered the premier eating strawberry for many, many years. Then the strawberry crinkle virus hit and pretty much wiped them out. They have no resistance to it. The cultivar nearly went extinct except for some stuff held in storage by the USDA in Corvallis, Oregon.

But now there is an attempt to bring them back, at least a little. They are still totally vulnerable to the crinkle virus. But we've never grown strawberries at our place so I am hoping the virus is not present on our land. If I'm wrong this will be a boondoggle. But if I'm lucky this could be the start of a whole crapload of strawberries each year.

My mother and I planted the strawberries in one of the raised beds. I'm hoping that over time the strawberries will send out runners and propagate themselves. if they multiplay sufficiently I will transplant them into other locations. The goal is to eventually have a large number of these plants. We got six from the nursery. I hope they all survive. The plants were pretty root bound but otherwise looked healthy.

What I am not sure about is whether I should cut the flowers off of them. My thinking is that the plants should be putting their energy into making roots and leaves. Fruit can wait. On the other hand cutting off the flowers might do more harm than good. Advice would be appreciated.

Also, two Wild Treasure blackberry plants and two blackcap raspberry plants came with the strawberries. I've never planted cane berries before and am unsure on how to do this. I know I will eventually have to build a trellis for them but I figure that can wait a few months. A standard garden stake will do for now. I'm think trellising involves tying most of the vines to the trellis. But I am thinking of letting one or two flop around to see if they will root themselves in the ground and start a new plant. Our raspberries propagated themselves in this fashion. Except the raspberries were a dwarf variety that didn't need trellising. (Raspberry shortcake).

I'm starting to get germination on the carrots and celery. Which is somewhat surprising. I put a couple of ground cherry seedlings in pots in the hopes they get larger and can be transplanted into the ground in a month or so. Assuming they survive the hardening off process. I'm starting some others indoors. I'll direct sow whatever seed is left once I am done with growing transplants.

And I'm going to try growing tomatoes from seed. It probably won't work but it's worth a try. I got a packet of Burpee Early Pick VF Hybrid. I am going to start some transplants indoor and then see if I can put them in the ground in June. It's probably too late for this but the cost is minimal and it will be an interesting challenge. The purpose of these plants will be to gift them to friends without a garden.

Next up in mid to late May will be cukes, squash, pumpkins, and corn.

 

[MaryMary]

I think it's too early but my father insisted.

You only planted them a week sooner than I would plant them here in zone 6. I agree with your father.

Next up in mid to late May will be cukes, squash, pumpkins, and corn.

Pretty sure you can plant them now. . I will be planting my squash/zucchini tomorrow or the next day. (Planning around days off, not the weather!)

 

[Purrfluff]

Update on 5/22/2018:

With a few exceptions the garden is starting to come together. Most things I plant are germinating and growing. I was able to enough of a cover crop going in the raised beds to till it in. Granted, there wasn't much biomass but it's better than nothing. And my hope is that the mustard greens will provide a pesticide effect as they break down. That's the theory I've read about, at any rate.

And I've been fairly successful at getting buckwheat to germinate. I'm trying to cover crop what's left of the native soil with the buckwheat. I want to add some organic matter and capture some water. I do need to till it in to give it time to break down though.

We have had a tomato disaster, however. Background:

The raised beds are filled with topsoil we had delivered several years ago. And that topsoil have served us well. It's starting to run out of nutrients which is why I have tried to add compost and cover crops.

We built a couple of new raised beds and got topsoil delivered from the same company. It's basically the same as the old stuff but it was a higher grade and included some manure/compost in it. I figured this would be a good thing and my father did pay extra for the higher grade.

We built some small raised beds just for individual tomato plants. We have done this several times before and typically we dumped potting soil into those small beds for the tomatoes.

This time I put in this topsoil instead. My assumption was that this would be more than adequate.

So we got tomato starts from Portland Nursery. Specifically we got grafted tomatoes, which my mother is very fond of. The plants looked quite healthy when we got them and they kept looking healthy... until the moment we dumped them into the small raised beds. And within a day or two they started to die. The leaves wilted and turned brown. Something was very wrong. The tomatoes got plenty of water and my mother did the transplanting. She has transplanted literally hundreds of tomato plants and I don't think she's had a single one die on her yet. She knows what she's doing.

I can' t be completely sure but I think the new topsoil was killing them. We also put some peppers in this stuff. And while the peppers are doing better then the tomatoes they also seem less vigorous then they should be.

We swapped out topsoil for potting soil in a couple of the beds and got replacement tomatoes. Also grafted tomatoes and also from Portland Nursery. The replacements are doing fine. And one of the tomatoes got dumped out into the native soil in another part of the garden. This part of the garden gets a lot of shade and so this one doesn't look so great but it's still alive. Actually, all of them are still alive but the ones in the topsoil still look sickly.

So I am assuming there is some factor in the soil that is hurting them. I have several theories but won't be able to prove any of them. I'd welcome suggestions as to what could be in this soil that hates tomatoes.

1.) I listened to a podcast (Joe Gardener as I recall) where he had gotten a load of horse manure for his compost heap. As expected it composted nicely. Then he spread that compost and it started killing all his plants. He discovered that the people who were pasturing the horses sprayed an herbicide on their fields to keep the weeds down. The horses ate the grass and the herbicide was not broken down in their gut. It got into the compost and the compost turned deadly to plants.

It's possible something like that has happened here. Whatever manure the soil manufacturer/seller used could have herbicide in it. If this is the case I'm pretty screwed because I don't know how long it will be until this stuff breaks down.

2.) The manure was too "hot" and burned the roots of the tomatoes. I find this kind of unlikely because I think the manure was well composted. I've spent a lot of time with this soil and it doesn't stink of poo and it doesn't seem to have obvious raw manure. There are chunks of what I think are compost of some kind.

One odd thing I noticed about the stuff is that it has a lot of chunks of what look like modeling clay. Very hard, very dense, and very grey. This is almost exactly the same as the crap I found in the steer manure compost I got at Lowe's. It doesn't seem like chunks of clay soil but chunks of actual, pure clay. I take these chunks out of the soil and toss them aside.

3.) Garden symphylans were in the soil. Once the tomatoes got planted the symphylans went to work. I have no doubt we have symphylans in our own soil but the level of organic matter in our soil is pretty low (I am trying to increase it). And my understanding is that symphylans like high levels of organic matter. Manure would certainly qualify. I did use my mini tiller on the soil once it was in the beds though.

4.) Wrong soil pH. My mother did put some lime and bone meal into the soil before planting (I used the mini tiller to incorporate it). This has always worked before. But if this soil was alkaline and we added lime we might have pushed it over the edge.

I'm open to any other theories folks might have. The biggest problem is that now I'm afraid we have toxic soil. And we have two raised beds filled with this stuff. And I incorporated it into the ground and into the old raised beds.

And I have some (admittedly) scanty evidence that this soil is generally problematic. I used it in pots to put some transplants in from seedlings I started indoors in peat pellets. And while most of the transplants into it are still alive they don't show signs of growth or root development. And some transplants I dumped into the native soil (which is awful stuff) appear to be doing better than those in this rich topsoil.

I put other seeds into one of the raised beds full of this soil. And I am getting slower and scantier germination than I expected. I planted an entire row of bean seeds and not a single one germinated.

On the flipside there are alternative, possibly more likely explanations for my issues. It may be too cold and too early in the season for beans to germinate. At least for this variety (soleil bush beans). I planted some other beans (nickel bush beans) in an old bed and I did get germination on those.

And the seedlings I put into the pots were very small and spindly. And I didn't properly harden them off. I put them outside primarily because they were getting too leggy indoors and I was tired of untangling them in the small peat pellet tray. I basically moved them outside on a warm day and crossed my fingers. Yes, I'm aware that was stupid but I didn't care at that point.

Lastly, I used this stuff to make rows for planting buckwheat. And the buckwheat germinated just fine and seems to be growing healthily.

I just sowed seeds into the second raised bed with this stuff in it, It put in leeks, green onions, endive, lettuce, and dill.

 

[Purrfluff]

Yet another update on 5/22/2018:

My last post reached the character limit. I had a few more things to add.

I made some arguably stupid plant purchases. I got a couple of honeydew melon plants. The chances of getting melons out of these plants is slim to none. I intend to put them in the hottest area of the garden around June. They are dinky plants so I moved them to slightly larger pots to wait until I put them in the ground. Well, only one of them is still alive. It looks like a bird attacked one of them. After that it wilted and is dying, if not already dead. I've given it water and fertilizer and nothing is bringing it back.

I also got three eggplant starts. These are less iffy than the melons but not by a lot. I got two "Millionaire" and one "Black Beauty" starts. From what I've read it's unlikely I will get much, if any, fruit from these plants. Especially the Black Beauty. It just isn't hot enough for long enough here. I think the cool nights until July will stunt them. However, I did get some "wall o' waters." Well, a knockoff. I'll keep those around the plants until late June. I am concerned that these things block sunlight and air circulation. But people use them on tomatoes for months at a time with no ill effects that I have heard of.

This has been a hot May which the weather forecasters say is an indicator for a hot summer. So perhaps the melons and eggplants will produce. Assuming I can keep them watered enough. The "Millionaire" eggplants are in potting soil in large pots. Which I hope means I won't have to water them constantly.

 

[SeniorCitizen]

I've had chickens the most of my life and determined they don't care for wheat much so you could consider winter wheat as a cover crop if you can find the seed and possibly the birds wouldn't be so bothersome. Wheat straw makes excellent mulch.