Keystone Homestead

I’m going out of town for a few weeks starting on Saturday evening, so here’s what I hope to accomplish by then:

Monday/Tuesday

• Clean out hen house
• Make outdoor potting soil
• Transplant Tophat blueberry into large blue ceramic pot
• Transplant other three blueberries into large nursery pots (temporary)
• Plant new six shrub roses in hedge line
• Harden off handful of tomato seedlings in Wall O’Water cones
• Water downstairs seedling trays
• Plant lettuce, carrots, and more radishes outside
• Move remaining potted strawberries to back yard around huckleberries 
  
• Re-pot raspberries whose pots have disintegrated

Wednesday/Thursday/Friday

• Plant first tomato seedlings

We’ll see how it all goes.

Planted radishes and spinach in the south raised bed today. Varieties are:

• Territorial Seed “Easter Egg II” radish mix (snow belle, ruby, plum purple varieties)
• Territorial Seed “Regal Hybrid” spinach
• Uprising Seeds “Beaujolis” spinach

I also managed to show restraint, in that I didn’t plant the ENTIRE seed packet at once, as I have done in years past.  Instead, I planted about a third of the seed, and will reseed into the gaps as necessary every two weeks or so, to make sure that I keep having vegetables this spring.

Planted more tomatoes today, as well as peppers. This is “2013 Seedlings Round II,” and consists of:

• Territorial Seed Company “Tumbling Tiger Hybrid” tomatoes
• Territorial Seed Company “Fantastic Hybrid” tomatoes
• Territorial Seed Company ”Japanese Black Trifele” tomatoes
• Territorial Seed Company “Gill’s All Purpose” tomatoes
• Territorial Seed Company “Anaheim College” hot peppers 
• Territorial Seed Company “Ancho Magnifico” hot peppers
  
• Territorial Seed Company “Wonder Bell” sweet peppers
• Territorial Seed Company “Gatherer’s Gold” sweet peppers
• Uprising Seeds “Little Bells” sweet peppers

Also pricked some of the double- or triple-sprouts from Round I seeding into their own cells. Of the Round I seeds, the TS “Taxi,” UPS “Black Prince,” TS “Sun Gold,” and UPS “Stupice” being the most vigorous and reliable, and the TS “Indigo Rose” and TS “Brandywine” the lowest rate of germination. Round I has been in the dirt about three weeks, and everything that’s planning on germinating likely has at this point. Several of the most vigorous seedlings already have true leave, but all at least have healthy cotyledons. 

I haven’t decided what I’ll be planting in Round III yet; I’ve planted all planned varieties of tomatoes and peppers for 2013, so I might start broccoli and lettuce to get a head start on main season greens.

Very light frost this morning, only evident on the bare mulch in one raised bed and on car windows. By the time I’m up at 7:45, it’s brilliantly sunny, though chilly.

Poop-Free Chicken Waterer

I’m in.

The current “winter storm” of wind and rain is just in time — any more of the usual February False Spring would have had me outside planting a tich too early.

Definitely almost time to set up the hoop cloches, though.