How-to Start Seeds, build a sifter

This weekend is going to be full of gardening. I'm hoping to start seeds with my sweetie today after work in this fine, fine weather. If we have time I also hope to bring out the cold frame and maybe tap a black birch just to see if they're still flowing - black birches give the most divine sap for drinking straight (too much of a pain to boil down to syrup because the sugar ratio is pretty low). Since the season for tapping birch is slightly later than the maple's I'm hoping the sap is still flowing, though this sugaring season has been incredibly short and strange - we haven't even been getting nighttime frosts anymore where I am! And something that's making me giddy is that my animal kick is being totally fixed by my sweetie, who surprised me a few weeks ago by dropping that he will be working at an animal farm this summer! Yay!

Since you too need to start some seeds, here's what you'll be doing over the next few days:

Starting Seeds
Seed starting is an integral part of growing food. if you're going to do gardening the cheap way, you will not be buying seedlings at the nursery for $3 a pop. instead, you'll buy a $3 seed packet and get planting!

Materials
high quality top soil/potting soil/finished compost
a sifter (optional but helps - see below on building your own)
pots, trays, whatever you'll be planting into
water (a lot)
seeds
a seed-growing station (florescent light, surface to place seedlings on)
a bin/wheel barrow for soil
clothes you're going to get wet and dirty
something to mark what's what (Sharpie and masking tape works well)
a rag or something to wipe your hands on
any soil additives (like bone meal or blood meal) that you're using

Procedure
Dump as much soil as you will need (I always err on the side of caution and use extra soil) through your sifter and into a barrow/bin. working in small batches, pour soil over sifter, and shake the soil into the wheel barrow/bin, throwing large chunks that can't be sifted into a separate pile for use in the garden, compost, or with better-established seedlings. Sifting soil provides for the finest soil so your seedlings don't have to fight through rough and chunky soil to get established. Add any additives you're using at this point.

Wet the soil until it's very wet, but not muddy, and mix well. I do this all with my hands.

Next, fill your pots or trays to within a centimeter of the top. Fill all the pots at once, because you'll need to have somewhat cleaner hands for the next step. You want the soil to be packed in enough so it won't settle much more. When you're done, wipe your hands.

Get your seeds and plant them in the pots 2-3 seeds per pot (you can weed out the weakest ones later). Generally, seeds should be planted at a depth of twice their width. Some seeds, however, need light to germinate. Check what the catalogue or seed packet says, or consult a gardening book. Also make sure that your seeds don't require extra treatment like scarification prior to planting. If you're planting seeds that have a very poor germination rate, plant in flats with a lot of seeds and then replant the surviving seedlings into individual pots. In general, starting in trays and then transplanting to pots saves a lot of space if you're doing a large-scale garden.

Cover the seeds with soil and label the pots with plant, variety name, and date started, along with any other relevant details. I'll be keeping a journal (on this blog) about varieties, how they grow, what they taste like, etc.

Bring your seeds your seed-starting station, if you're working outside. Once seeds germinate, keep them in the light for at least 10-12 hours a day, adjusting the height of your lamp to prevent leggy plants. Keep the plants warm (soil needs to be warmer than 55 for a lot of seeds to germinate. Check your specific seed guides for what temperatures you'll need). Water daily with a light stream of water that doesn't displace soil or harm the young seedling. Once the plants have leafed out in their first true leaves, thin to the strongest seedling in each pot.


In a few weeks, you'll need to bring them into your cold frame to harden them up. I'll be posting a cold frame tutorial soon. In the mean time, a sifter:

Building a soil sifter
A soil sifter is pretty much the same thing as a flour sifter. It lets through small particles of soil, fluffs them up, and keeps out larger particles. It's a useful garden tool and extremely easy to make. Keep in mind that you will be pouring the soil into the frame and then shaking the frame to sift the soil while you make your sifter.

Materials
- A window frame or sturdy picture frame (preferably with a middle beam for added sturdiness) that is roughly the size of the bin or wheel barrow you will be sifting soil into.
- 1/4 inch hardware cloth (or 1/2 inch size, or a smaller screen, depending on how fine you want your soil)
- Staple gun
- Wire cutters
- gloves

Procedure
Measure your hardware cloth to be larger that the size of your frame so that you can curl the edges around the frame and over the back of the wood, and cut, using the wire cutters. You'll want to be wearing gloves, because cut wire is sharp and no fun to play with.

laying the hardware cloth under the frame, fold the hardware cloth so that the edges wrap over the top side of the frame. Fold in the edges as if you were wrapping a textbook.

Staple ever few inches down, so that the hardware cloth is firmly attached to the frame. Cut off any excess wire that might hurt you while sifting.

Do a test run to make sure everything works properly, that the hardware cloth is firmly attached, and that there are no sharp wires cutting into you as you sift.

Make sure you keep your sifter out of the rain so it doesn't rust and lasts you for a long, long while. Every year, check to see if the staples or the frame needs reinforcement. It's much easier to fix things while they're only mildly broken.

Root Cellaring

I love root cellaring. I kept my first root cellar the winter before I dug my first garden This will be my fourth winter root cellaring, and my first in a real, dug-out-of-the-dirt root cellar. My landlords have a lovely ice house right next to my little house, the musty top floor of which holds a ping pong table, my cold frame, their apple press (I'll be pressing apples this weekend!), and assorted odds and ends. The dug out floor under the storage area is a beautiful, large root cellar originally intended for the storing of ice in sawdust, cut from the stream by the house or, more likely, from the Hudson. Cut in huge chunks, insulated by sawdust, and kept in the chilly, humid cellar, huge blocks of ice (now most commonly seen as converted vodka luges in a frat house near you) would stay solid through summer for ice cream making, lemonade, and the like.

In case you haven't picked up Mike and Nancy Bubel's definitive book Root Cellaring (yes - root cellaring has a definitive book - go buy it now if you ever want to use/find/build a root cellar!), I'll let you in on this secret - the ice house is a PERFECT root cellar. It has all of the key components - it is underground (which stays at the perfect temperature and humidity - just above 32 degrees Fahrenheit and around 90% humidity) and it has good air circulation. The draw back - it's packed earthen floor and general shabby state, makes it a haven for mice and other hungry little critters who couldn't be happier to see you walking down with bushels of carrots, parsnips, and apples for a winter full of meals.

The solution - WRAP EVERYTHING IN HARDWARE CLOTH.



My Thursday night project included cutting hardware cloth (which, if you haven't tried it, is a giant pain - wear gloves!) and wrapping it around all of the boxes I intend to store my veggies in as well as my 50 pound bag of potatoes. each box has a lid that opens for easy access (for me - not the mice!)



In case you're wondering why I go to these lengths to store vegetables and fruits, I'll let you in on the secret.

First, it's the only way to have local produce year round - and local produce, even four months into storage, is better than store-bought stuff. Plus, it's good for the world and your local economy! Second, it's cheap - buying vegetables in bulk and in season is cost effective if you can front the money, plus you don't have to store things in your fridge, which doesn't actually save you money or electricity because you're already running the fridge, but it's pretty exciting. Third - in my past life, I was obviously a squirrel, because I can't get over how much fun it is to put a ton of food into a basement and then dig it out (literally - root veggies are stored in sawdust, sand, or peat moss) as I need it throughout the winter.


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The Method
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Root veggies, cabbage, and apples all get stored in cold, humid conditions. A cold basement is probably perfect. If you have a little nook under a porch that extends underground, you could probably insulate that and make it work. Or you could do the genius thing my landlords did - dig a hole in the ground, put a chest freezer or other insulated, rodent-proof box in - or just a support system - insulate the top 12 or so inches between the top of your makeshift veggie box and soil level (the top of the box should be below the frost line) - and figure out how you'll get this contraption open and closed in the winter (my landlords rigged a make-shift, sloped cellar-like door over theirs and have straw between this roof/door and the freezer). Too many apples in too small a space will make your root veggies sprout - but one or two bushels in a large enough, ventilated space should fine.

Store root veggies (except potatoes, which can be left out on a shelf or in a bag) in moist sawdust, sand, or peat. My method is: layer of sawdust, layer of veggies (carefully placed so as not to touch - veggies that touch spread mold to each other and rot faster), layer of sawdust, a thorough misting of water, repeat until the top. Then I mist my veggies every 2 weeks or so to keep them fresh. If you have more than one box of anything, label the boxes 1, 2, 3. You don't want to have to guess which boxes are empty in February. Come spring, this sawdust makes for good carbon for your compost pile or good roosting material for your laying hens.


You might be wondering - what about squashes, pumpkins, sweet potatoes (I know they're a root but they're the exception), onions and garlic? These winter storage veggies like less humid, cool (not as cold - 40 - 50 degrees for garlic and onion, 60 degrees for squash - I find a happy medium because it's too much work to set up 3 storage areas). To store these wonders of the winter kitchen, you'll need an old, drafty house (check!) and somewhere that's unheated (check!) Places that might work: an unheated room in your house, the opposite end of a basement with a heater (the heater dries out the air - thus making the opposite, cool corner ideal for non-humid, warmer storage), the attic (if you'll remember to go up there).

I built a shelf into the corner, bottom cabinet in my kitchen which is the farthest place from the wood stove in my little house and in the Northeast corner of the house - right in the coldest spot, closet in against the warmer kitchen by soon-to-be-insulated cabinet walls. You might point out that kitchens get warm and humid. My kitchen, however, doesn't get hot or humid, and when it does (RARELY - cooking for myself is a fast and somewhat boring activity), the heat rises up above the cupboard in question.



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On an unrelated note:

I don't have internet at home (I know: WHAT!? HOW DO YOU LIVE?? ARE YOU IN THE STONE AGE?? YOU MUST GET IT FROM A NEIGHBOR! (answer: no, none of that sort is available), WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOURSELF!?!?). At first it was simply that I wasn't getting around to it, then that I couldn't really afford it, and now it's because I love it. The thing about internet (and cell phones) is that waking time is constantly about being in contact with other people. So much so, that I forget how to just be alone for hours at a time without thinking about who to talk to next. I've come to really appreciate that silence. So I do my personal internet business (including this blog) at work during my lunch break, at the library, or at local cafes with wifi.