Spring Workshops in Williston

I went to a gardening workshop at the Old Brick Church in Williston village last night. It was hosted by a gardening group that wants to teach gardening neophytes how to plant seeds -- in the spirit of spreading the green.

I was familiar with most of the material covered, but I did learn a few things:


**Eggplant is difficult to grow in Vermont. It likes warmer weather than we can provide. It's also prone to pests, so if you're going to give it a go, potting it is the recommended approach. The soil in a pot will stay warmer too. I think eggplant might like living in my greenhouse for an extended period. On the other hand, nobody in my family really likes eggplant, so why bother? If I carry my seeds through to the end, I'm going to needs some creative recipes.

**The general consensus among the workshop leaders is that my seeds are unlikely to germinate in my half warm/half cold greenhouse. So today, I'm leaning toward an investment in heating mats.

**Don't till a garden -- it breaks down the soil structure. This discussion rears its head every spring when my husband wants to till the spring weeds under, and I want to pull them. My argument is that if you till a weed under, it has the potential of sprouting again. His argument is that I have a lot of weeds to pull. So this year, no deep tilling. I have a small electric hand tiller that I'll use to work up the top couple of inches, but that's it.

**Peppers like to be warm while sprouting then a little cooler for awhile before going into the ground. Curious.

**Self-watering pots are the pot of choice for patio gardening. They don't dry out like a traditional clay pot, so the plant isn't subject to the stress of being wet then dry over and over.

One of the impressive things about the workshop is that the organizers brought peat pots and cowpots, soil, and seeds for everyone to take a few planted seeds home with them. I didn't take anything because I already have seeds in progress. But I thought that was a generous offer.

Next month's workshop will tackle potatoes, broccoli, and kale. I plan to attend because my broccoli always bolts quickly and I'd like to find out why, and I'd like to try some potatoes for the first time this year.

Happy day before the first official day of spring!

First Seeds of the Season

It's mid-March. Temps in the upper 40s, sun shining the past few days. Makes the maple sap run and the seed companies busy. There's still a pretty serious chill in the air and snow in shady spots, so it's not quite warm enough for a full-blown spring fever. But I think it may be warm enough in my greenhouse to start some seeds.

I recently picked up a list of when to plant specific seeds at the Gardners' Supply retail store in Williston. Following their advice, I planted 4 eggplant and 20 bell and hot pepper seeds this past weekend.

I also planted some lettuce and spinach in a hydroponic growing system. And some cat grass just for fun. Challenge is that I'm not sure the greenhouse will stay warm enough for the seeds to germinate. During a sunny day, the greenhouse is warmer than my regular house, but at night, outside temps are in the 20s and 30s, so I'm not sure how much of the day heat will hold at night or when cloud cover is heavy.

I have electricity in the greenhouse, so I could use heat mats, but they're a bit on the spendy side. I also have fluorescent grow lights, but Husband isn't interested in "heating the outside" all night. (I tend toward agreeing with him, which I why I haven't turned the lights on.) I will need to turn them on for a few hours each day once the seeds sprout, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

In the past, I started seeds in the house and moved them into the greenhouse when they germinated. This year, I'm trying to use the greenhouse as it's intended. So I'm chalking this year's seeding up to an experiment. If I'm too early, then I'll obviously be purchasing my vegetable plants this year.

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Over in the hen house, we've let our three hens free range in the yard the past few days. Husband let them out because one is being pecked, so he thinks they're bored after a long winter in the coop. Letting them roam is a bit risky for them; we have quite a few predators that hang around our neighborhood -- fox, fisher cats, owls, hawks, bobcats. But the hens do seem happy wandering around, and they're good bug and weed control.

As far as the hens earning their keep, their egg laying has been rather prolific after a dry spell this winter; we get 2-3 a day, giving us more eggs than we can use. One of the hens is laying strangely oblong eggs right now -- they're even too tall to fit in an egg carton. I don't know what makes that happen -- or how long it will continue, as the eggs seem to change shape and color over time.

So with a few seeds and a long egg, I inaugurate the Zone 4 Dirt Chronicles.