What an odd thought, what image comes to mind: the world of kerosene… And now I’m in it! Purchased new today, at a healthy 35% discount, this small, rather inexpensive, KeroWorld-brand indoor kerosene heater is the core technology in the extended-spring greenhouse plan. The idea is to turn the unheated hoophouse into a barely heated one, by warming it at night so that it stays above 38°F (4°C). That way, I can put out seedlings weeks early, instead of crowding them under scarce indoor lighting until it warms up in April. It should also give the earlier-than-ever lettuce, going into the ground in the greenhouse, a smoother start. This heater is low-powered—10,000 BTU, recommended for 420 sq ft, it’s 640 sq ft out there—but only a wee bit of heat is required. I think. Last year’s propane space heater was quite efficient, but burned too much gas for every-night use, it often went out by itself, and it required lots of ventilation. Plus, I don’t really like relying on pressurized tanks. This heater will hopefully burn low and steady, and it’s pour-to-fill! Aided by a fan to keep the air moving, and row cover on the coldest nights, it should get the job done. This all reminds me of Patrick of Bifurcated Carrots’ comment a while ago about the line between good and bad technology. It seems a personal decision as much as anything. Why don’t I dream about full-blown winter greenhouses, with high-intensity lighting and industrial-strength heating and ventilation, I wonder? Dunno. I just don’t. But an extra growing month in the strengthening sun, and a little less reliance on indoor lights, traded off against some kerosene, well, THAT would be cool!
Parsley!
The first flat-leaf parsley has been popping up over the last day. This is Hilmar, a new variety I’m trying for the first time this year, in addition to the regular Plain Italian that’s around every season. Elsewhere in parsley, planted a few days earlier, there are two varieties of curly, Krausa Market and Green River. Altogether, 144 plugs, and I’ll keep two plants per. The quantities are not as worked out as for most of the other crops, because so far, it’s been more of a bonus herb, in CSA shares and occasionally at the farmers’ market. I’ll probably start one more tray of 72, because I have a couple more curly types—Green Pearl and Forest Green—that I’d like to try. Probably won’t need ’em all. I could pot the extra. Anyway, you can never have enough parsley!
Tomato seed
It’s sounds a little odd to call it that, but this is my tomato seed collection. A rough count says there are maybe 150 packets, with another 30 on the way with the just-completed all-heirloom tomato seed order. I’ll get a few more basics, like Juliet, in the last big general seed order, and that’ll be it for the season.
Most of these are different cultivars, there are only a few…doubles. The brown envelopes are heirlooms from a small seed company. The printed packets are mostly hybrids, from my two main seed suppliers. The plastic pouches and plainer white envelopes are various seed given to me to try (I’ll generally only accept seed from trusted sources, people who actually garden and seed-save, to avoid…disease).
Why so much, so many? I dunno. I don’t think of any other veggies in my seed supply as “collections” (like trading cards or tiny action figures). I do clearly remember looking closely at a fuzzy little tomato seed back in Year 1, about to start my first transplants, and thinking, “No way is this little thing is going to turn into a massive tomato plant with 20 lbs of big, fat tomatoes?!” (At that point, all I knew was what I’d read and seen in pictures.) It wasn’t so much disbelief in the powers of the seed, but in my ability to actually manage this obviously intense process—what a tiny seed!—to a reliable, predictable harvest.
Of course, once you’ve watched seeds grow into plants, it becomes…normal: clear the way a bit, and the plants do most of the work! Still, having imprinted themselves on my consciousness FIRST, right at my gardening start, I guess tomatoes have a mild hold on me, and I obsessively plant a few more different varieties every year.
This year, there may be a more manageable 40 varieties (down from over 60 a couple years back). I haven’t finished the starting line-up yet.
Ten-day leeks
The leeks are thriving, all straight up and down. Ten days from seeding, and some of ’em are nearly 3″ (7.5cm) tall. Clearly, the seed was more viable than expected, looks like practically every one popped up. The first parsley just appeared, and a second set of arugula is already blowing in the wind. Things are slowly getting…busier.
Exploring down below…
These technical drawings of a lettuce root system are from Root Development of Vegetable Crops*, first published in 1927 and now in the public domain. This is an incredible book that I just discovered. The text is like a complete gardening course delivered from underground. Over 30 North American common garden veggies are covered, a chapter each. The drawings record direct observation, the result of years of root excavation.
I can hardly describe how satisfying and…enlightening it is to simply look at page after page of painstakingly drawn root systems! Here, the top two pictures are lettuce at two months and then at three months and flowering. Each square in the grid is one foot. The little side-by-side illustratation shows 3-week-old seedlings, grown on the left in loose soil (nearly 2′ down!!), on the right in compacted soil (and to think, I have 3-week seedlings in tiny plug sheet cells, 2-1/2″ deep!). One look at this and your mind expands!
*I downloaded it from the fantastic Soil & Health Holistic Agriculture Library, an online repository for numerous excellent books, mostly from 1910-1960, and all entirely free—there are many organic farming classics, tons of great, practical stuff!
Lettuce-watching
Tiny farming is in a mid-winter slow motion state right now, kinda like the calm before the storm. I don’t have daily livestock chores—I don’t have animals, yet!—and as far as garden activity, I’m waiting. About the only thing visual going on, besides lots of reading and staring at one screen or another, are the early seedlings. Here, the Granada is rapidly putting on color on its way to deep red… Lettuce-watching. Not that there’s little to do. There’s a new grow rack to build, lots of organizing in the Milkhouse and drive shed, materials to source and order, tons of stuff, actually. I could even get an early start on tax-time bookkeeping… Instead, I’m pushing it a bit, savoring leisurely reading for a few days, when there’s a little time!
Still snow…
The snow hasn’t gone anywhere in the last week, and there’s not much to see or do out there. The greenhouse needs to be cleaned up and made ready for an early March opening. That’ll be a day’s work next week, I still have to purchase a heater (indoor kerosene, I think it’ll be). And that’s it for now for gardening outdoors…