Svalli gardening 63° N

[bower]

Crazy for extra daylight here as well. Happy equinox!!

[GoDawgs]

Looking good, Svalli! You've got a good start going. About when will those petunias and celosias get planted out?

[svalli]

Looking good, Svalli! You've got a good start going. About when will those petunias and celosias get planted out?

Hopefully next month I can move most of the plants to the greenhouse. Planting out to balcony boxes and flower pots will be in end of May.

[JayneR13]

Beautiful! Yes, that extra daylight helps motivate. I’m especially happy to ignore Daylight Savings most of the time! Unless I have to be somewhere at a certain time, I can follow my circadian rhythms. I’ve started seeds also and potted many up today. Hibernation is over! Time to garden.

[svalli]

Tomato seedlings have spurted their growth. I should start transplanting them to potting mix from the moler-clay.

Tomato seedlings 2.jpg

Last fall I purchased a mini greenhouse, pallet collars and two SWCs, which fit inside the collars, from a closeout sale of a big Nordic garden center chain. These things were sold at -70% from the original price, so all of that cost me about 50€. We got a fitting pallet with a delivery last week, so I had to put this thing together. The pallet still needs to be painted black and wheels mounted under it. This will become my movable lettuce and herb garden on our new garage roof terrace. It is still too cold to start the seeds in that and the roof is still missing paving slabs and railings, but I want to be ready when it is finished.

mini greenhouse.jpg

[bower]

Great deal on the mini - it looks really well made.
I noticed the price on some lawn furniture the other day in the store where I buy my ferts... so expensive!
Every bit of handy work you can do yourself is worth the cash.
I love the idea of putting that mini greenhouse on wheels. I guess it's going to weigh a lot, too, when you get the soil in.

[JayneR13]

I have a very simple mini greenhouse that I use to harden out seedlings. Squirrels can and do visit my deck garden and don't seem bothered by the fact that it's 12 feet American measure above the ground. They seem to climb the branches of my hedge very well.

I agree that anything we can do for ourselves will only help. Whether it's grow even some of our own food, repair our clothes rather than buying new, or building something useful rather than buying, we're better off. The times are changing and we need to adapt with them.

[svalli]

I guess it's going to weigh a lot, too, when you get the soil in.

The SWC boxes are quite shallow, so I think that the lumber used for construction is weighing more than the soil and water would. I may have to put something under the SWCs to elevate them or take one of the pallet collars off, when growing short plants in there, so that the plants get more light.

[svalli]

After warmer than normal April we got back to cold weather, which has been quite depressing and I did not feel like reporting anything.

I moved most of the plants into the small tent greenhouse inside the bigger greenhouse in mid April.

Greenhouse April 18.jpg

Tomatoes grew so tall that they touched the plastic covering and I had to remove the tent a week ago. Now it is finally warming up and I can start planting all plants to final containers. Last night I was making inventory count of my tomato plants and noticed first fruits growing on a Glacier.

First Glacier.jpg

There is a lot of work to do to get everything planted.

[bower]

Our spring temperatures were delayed here too. Very strange with a few things ultra early - crocuses for example - but then persistently cold weather so nothing really grew much and it has been too cold to plant out. Except for trees: it was cold and wet enough to plant trees right up to this week. So I won't complain too much.
Great to see the first fruit on your Glacier already!

[JayneR13]

Here as well it's been abnormally cool and cold, not to mention wet. Things are getting better though! I finished planting my garden yesterday. How long is your growing season typically? Ours is mid-April to about mid-October if we're lucky, though our average last frost date is around May 10 or so. Most people don't plant things out until the end of May.

[svalli]

Here as well it's been abnormally cool and cold, not to mention wet. Things are getting better though! I finished planting my garden yesterday. How long is your growing season typically? Ours is mid-April to about mid-October if we're lucky, though our average last frost date is around May 10 or so. Most people don't plant things out until the end of May.

Here by the coast our growing season is typically from beginning of May to middle of October. Closeness of sea makes our springs a bit cooler than inland, but evens out the temperatures and we do not get so many late frosts as further away from the coast. Greenhouse and all sorts of row covers are great ways to extend the growing season here.

[JayneR13]

Yes, we use greenhouses and row covers as well, not to mention the humble bed sheet! Cold frames can also be very useful, as well as hoop houses. I've also used plastic milk jugs painted black and filled with water. I lay those in my beds during the day. The black paint absorbs the heat. Then at night, I use a bed sheet to cover and the water jugs release their heat over night. This works surprisingly well! The difference in air temperature from the bed to the outside is very noticeable.

[svalli]

I have started slowly plant everything to final containers in the greenhouse. I noticed that peppers have got spider mites on them and hurried to order predatory mites. Bags of Neoseiulus californicus arrived on Wednesday and I hung those on the peppers right away. Now those plants need bigger containers, since they seem to suffer in the tiny pots and a lot of the lower leaves have started to turn yellow.

predators.jpg