When Disaster Strikes!

Quick! What's the worst possible thing that could happen to a gardener? (other than an unexpected hard frost)...

I can top it! :) yes I can! lol!

How-about having your entire greenhouse turned upside down like a salt shaker? While full of all your precious seedlings? Every...single...one? Yup! It happened folks!

this is where the greenhouse was positioned (except with the cover on because it was cooler)

This is where the greenhouse was after it blew over (except it was resting on the roof, not the side, and the cover was on still)

 It happened on Saturday! (So not even on the hurricane-force winds, Sunday.) Saturday was just a nice day. So I had all the plants outside for a bit of hardening off...  I had some lady friends over from college for our roughly-annual get-together. We were spa-ing it up like this.

 when all of a sudden someone said "uh krysta, I think your greenhouse just blew over!

Here... allow me to explain with a diagram I drew in paint (because paint is the best)

 

 

And naturally, because I'm super lucky... nothing decided to slide off the shelves in some manner of landing right side up... nope... somehow every single tray of plants, also flipped upside down... completely upside down... every...single...one... let me explain with another diagram...

Oh yes it did! In an instant, I saw months of work (and blogging) flash before my eyes! I took a deep breath (which felt nice cause my face had that charcoal mask on it), and sighed a (surprisingly non-swear'ey) sigh... I went outside with my mask on, and began to assess the damage, and gently flip over pot-after-pot-after-pot. Clinging to what labels I could nearby, hoping they were the correct markers.

 

I didn't take a photo of the crime scene. It was to grotesque for even the least green thumb among us.I couldn't do that to you. (plus I was busy getting any exposed roots out of the sunshine).

But after about an hour (with help from a few friends who were over thankfully!), I managed to find a home for most plants, and got everything inside. We had to leave for the next portion of our SBC ladies date (which was dinner at Cibo's and the WSO Cirque du la Symphony...BOTH AWESOME!) So I did what I could... I watered the heck out of everything, and left it out of sunlight, or plant-lights. 

Warning! The following images are graphic and may cause panic if you have a green thumb! ;)

The next morning, bright and early, I sorted through the plants. I tried as best I could to put like-kinds back into packages together, but mostly I was sorting through what could go back outside, and what needed some major/minor plant-surgery from me. Most plants had been very dehydrated (from my neglect of them during the party) when the greenhouse flipped over, so thankfully their stems mostly bent instead of snapping in half, and being game-over for the plants! This was a game changer for me! In the end, many plants were salvageable! :)

The above plants, though a little bit traumatized, didn't have any other damage except a bit of labeling mysteries.

But the state of the plants on my table, were another story... What also worked in my favor, is that my tomatoes were all over-due for a transplant anyways. So while they were already traumatized, I decided to undertake the large task of transplanting. Every plant on this table got a transplant actually. It was the best way to ensure they had dirt, labels, and any bent or bruised stem was buried in soil or removed.

Because i've been examining these pretty closely, I was able to re-label most plants pretty easily. The mystery lies in the 3 tomato trays and 1 cucumber tray which had no labels in it. I planted several varieties of each, and at this age, the plants are indistinguishable from each other! I still gave them a name though. For one entire packet of tomatoes, I called them "Russian roulette #1" and the other I called "roulette #2". That way I knew that all 12 of those plants were of the same variety...whatever they were. And through elimination, I've narrowed them down to 1 of 3 varieties for each tray! So in the end, the damage control was mostly work, but not damage! :) lucky me!

The above image shows a tray of Amish paste tomatoes after transplant. Tomatoes like having their roots disturbed. But they do still get  "transplant shock". You'll notice how wilted and pathetic they look. This is why I wanted to also jump-on the transplanting while the tomatoes were already traumatized from the flip.
Below, you can see 24 hours later the exact same tray of tomatoes has perked right up!  The leaves are still curled but that'll wait till the plant is growing new roots out of the buried piece of stem.

So now, I have some bricks and gym weights on the bottom level of my greenhouse! (Like I've said a few times, live and learn! Green thumbs are grown, not pre-existing!). This should prevent another disaster like that from happening again... or at least it would take a lot more than one gust! :)

Until next time, keep it green! (and keep it weighted to the ground!!)

Waging war with my dog

Meet Kaiser...

Isnt he cute!? Ah, if only they stayed that way! Haha! We got Kaiser last year. He's just over a year old now. They grow so fast!

April 2017

July 2017 (yes...same dog!!)

So now, we have ourselves a delightful teenage dog one year later! Haha!

Kaiser presently

For the most part, he's an amazing dog! He has his quirks... like tail-chasing (obsessively) and being an overly hormonal teenage dog... but otherwise he's a big suck, and LOVES to play and be loved by anyone who'll give him the time of day! :) And we really lucked out in that he's not generally a digger!


However, I'm noticing a repeating problem from last spring with him... And it's probably just the same spring enthusiasm I have... but the first signs of life in the garden... seem to be either dug up, or CHEWED up by this guy! (Can I blame him!? I'm excited too!)

I was hoping maybe it was just a puppy thing he did last year, but we were gone for 3 days this past week, and when I came home, I saw that Kaiser had decided to do a little "gardening" of his own... In my flower bed (yes... I have a grass issue lol!) I have noticed that he disapproved in my choices of tulip bulbs!! Yes, he's been digging them out! He must be able to sense when they are waking up and coming to life, cause it's not every bulb... But he's been digging up my tulip bulbs!!

What's a person to do? If you don't have a dog outside of Winnipeg, then you're guaranteed to have all sorts of other pests in your gardens like deer, squirrels, coyotes etc... So my logic is I'd rather train one domesticated animal, than wage war on all wildlife in the area!  Last year I trained him too late. I didn't get to enjoy my tulips or other spring bulbs. He just ate them all. So this year, I'm gonna establish my turf earlier on.

 My first line of defense, is a spice! This is from the ethnic aisle of superstore. And though it says "hot chili powder" it's actually just a giant bag of cayenne pepper for dirt-cheap! :) This tip was given to me by the dog trainer we worked with in Kaiser's obedience classes! The dog's sensitive smelling really dislike the spicy burn of cayenne pepper. She recommended sprinkling this all around the garden. I did it last year and it definitely helped! We also used this trick when we were planting new grass. We sprinkled cayenne on the burlap that covered our grass seed, and on the mud we used to fill in holes around the yard. This worked well (granted, he's not generally a "digger").

 So armed with my cayenne pepper, I set to work!  I'll give you a pointer (to learn from my mistake). wear sunglasses or some kind of eye protection! And also potentially a little drywall mask if you have one. My eyes and nose were burning when I did this yesterday! Now granted, yesterday was also quite windy... Never-the-less, this stuff burns! So use caution, stand up wind, etc...

I started off by putting a little in my hand and letting Kaiser sniff it. I then used our command "Leave it!" to teach him that  (not only is it nasty stuff) I have instructed him to leave it alone!

It was pretty cute. He snorted it out of his nose and defintely didn't like it! So I proceeded to use the entire bag in my two flower beds, my 4 flower barrels, and at the 3 openings to my veggie garden patch. It's a strong enough smell, and the weather is dry enough that I'm hoping he'll figure out the boundaries in this one!

But just to be sure, I did 2 other things.

After I was done my "cerimonial sprinkling", I squatted down in my garden and caught Kaiser's interest. I then (very confidently) let him know when he was crossing the line of "my territory" (aka: the garden) with a smack on the foot, a little growly "eh!" etc... Kaiser is quite submisive, so it didn't take more than a couple attempts for him to follow me in, before he layed down and submitted. "okay lady, you can have this spot!" ;)

And lastly, I invested 20 dollars in some dollar store fencing! Once the plants are in full swing, I'll take it down and won't need it. But for now, it gives a more prominent barrier or beginning line to "my territory". An in-ground garden is simply part of the lawn at this point in the year, and I can't expect our dog to know differently when he's been able to walk on the snow all winter long! :)

That's it for now! :) There are commercial products you can buy called "critter ridder" and such... I bought some last year and I may again if this doesn't work. But from my quick google search, hot pepper powders, mustard powder, coffee grinds mixed with bitter orange oil etc... bad smells to the dog are a pretty accurate line of defense! :)

I'll let you know how it goes!

mid-april update on the plants! :)

Well well well... guess who found her cell phone RIGHT AFTER posting the last blog post?? Yup! You guessed it! ME! :) I'm sitting here typing this on the same day I posted the garden lables post... but I'll probably delay this one a few days (just so you don't think I'm over-eager about sharing my plant's glory with you all! Haha!)

Things are moving along nicely now! I think my battles with damping off are under control. The bacteria is still present, but the plants that are exposed seem to have grown out of it for the most part. woot! :) I'll be saving seeds from those plants for sure! That's exactly the way to breed "disease resistant plants" FYI. If the mother plant fought back and won against the damping off, then the seed that plant produces will be more likely to fight it next year! And so on, so forth year after year. :)

a spill of the contaminated dirt in a puddle of peroxide

But none-the-less, I'm using caution in my transplanting and re-use of containers. I've started being lazy and I'm just spraying the empty containers with peroxide instead of making the bleach solution for only a few 6-pk containers at a time. I simply spray them, let them fizzle away until they stop fizzing, and then use the containers. THIS WORKS!! I tried spraying a previousely bleached container, no fizz whatsoever. But one that I dumped out plants who died of damp-off (to re-use the cells) fizzed up like a root beer float!

a spill of fresh soil from a new bag of potting mix, also directly in a puddle of peroxide (not water). Note, zero fizzing...

I CAN NOT STRESS THIS PEROXIDE TRICK ENOUGH FOLKS! :) it's just wonderful!

Both in one shot, just to prove to you they are both in peroxide... (cause I feel like some of you still doubt! lol!)

So anyways, the rest of this blog post is going to be mostly photographs of my plants with comments about them below! :) Enjoy! I'm really getting into it this year. It's really nice to have the plant light, and not feel quite so rushed about the weather, since the plant lights are working well enough! Not to mention, all my windows are still seedling-free. So if I DO need to do another transplant before the pole-and-plastic greenhouse gets set up (cold frame?? Not sure what to call it), I can just expand to a window on the south side of our home.

Without further Adeu...

One little Ukrainian Rhubarb plant is still alive! It doesn't look overly healthy, and is still battling damp off, but it's still around! So I have hopes for it's survival.

there's a couple manitoba rhubarb plants scattered in my seedling trays. Not as many as originally planted (again, damp off) But it only takes one rhubarb plant to establish. So I'm cautiously optimistic. Growth is very slow, so damp off is still an issue.

if you've been following the blog since the beginning you'll know just how early I started my ground cherries. And yes, this is all the growth they've put on. Another one suceptable to the damp off! But ground cherries, unlike tomatoes in their family species, grow quite slowly!

Also in the tomato family, is the Tobacco! I was pleasantly surprised when I re-organized my trays to discover that I still have some living tobacco plants! I thought they'd all died. :) Feel free to look back in my posts to learn why I (an asthmatic and avid non-smoking fan) am growing tobacco. I'll give you a hint... "we're all treaty people".

Here is the children's easter basket gardens! Josiah wanted cherry tomatoes and onion greens, and Sammy decided on peppers and onions. (I know, my weird kids love green onions!! lol!). The peppers are called "weaver's mennonite stuffing peppers" and they are like a tiny bell pepper plant that is loaded. Think "cherry tomato" of the Pepper family. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do!

My tomatoes are doing very well! they are only a couple weeks old, so that's why they are so small. I tried REALLY REALLY hard to stay "on a schedule" this year, and not start things too early. :) I'm hoping this will pay off, in me having to do one less pre-gardening transplant. So far, all the varieties look really nice, and even the older seed (2014) seems to have had a really successful germination rate. These will be due for a transplant probably after our family vacation this week.

The cherry tomatoes I planted a bit sooner than the rest of my tomatoes. Last year I didnt get any ripe cherry tomatoes sadly, so I wanted to give them a head start. Other than a couple leaves that touched the light bulbs and got burned, the plants are very healthy!

(sorry for the sideways). Some green peppers I planted long time ago already are already looking greenhouse quality! :) Pretty proud of those!  I believe the green pepper seeds were from the seed swap at 10 Acre wood, and the jalapino seeds were leftover from last year. These fought the damp off with everything else I planted earlier, and have vigorously proved stronger!

Peppers  took about 10 or 15 days to germinate, and are JUUST coming up now! (these are the ones I planted on schedule, as opposed to the set above which I planted really early. I'm curious how they will compare in the actual garden!)

Also of the peppers. I did the mini stuffing peppers, more jalapinos, and some "king of the north" green peppers. Last year I didnt get much from my pepper plants. I wasn't even gonna grow any this year, but hey! Gotta try try again!

Another tray of tomatoes. I did about 12 varieties of tomatoes this year! :) Gonna be a crazy canning summer! lol!

and then there's this little mystery plant that snuck into one of my tomato cells... it looks like a hollyhock to me, but it could be something else. Seems like a legit plant and not a weed, so I've decided to let it live for now! :)

Now we steer away from veggies. This is my Hyssop! It also had a great germination rate. It's a herb that I believe runs in the mint family. It attracts bees and detracts pests in the garden, So I plan on planting it in between other plants here-and-there.

These forget me knots are a Bee magnet! Such a pretty flower. It doesn't have a terribly long season, but still pretty, and these are all from seeds I saved last year! :) not to shabby eh!? But that's also why many of them look like exact clones haha! Those seeds were probably taken from the same mother plant, and therfore have the exact same genetic coding. Funny eh? TWINSIES!

forget me knots from last summer. Very pretty dainty flowers!

my second sprouting of snap dragons is doing much better than the first, despite also dealing with damp off. This is because I was wise to my over-watering by that point, and I also planted them much thinner. One strike vs 3 strikes against the first batch... Good thing I had a million seeds! :)

One snapdragon from last summer. I seed-saved for these. As a result of cross-pollination, my snappers have a lovely ombre color scheme! I can't wait to see what they look like this year!!

 

Blue Delphiniums are something that grows well at my parent's cottage. Its a parenneal flower that is similar to a Gladiolus, in it's tower-like stalk of flowers. these ones are light blue, in memory of my late grandmas flowers out there. We'll see if hers come back after this crazy winter we had! They also had deer issues last summer that ate them down, not to mention that tornado that changed the microclimate of her garden by removing every shade tree around that cottage! So if I have several that make it, i'll be donating a few to the lake!

BLACK HOLLYHOCKS! yes, some have made it I'm happy to say! They aren't really black in the picture though... they looked more like a deep deep black-ish purple tone. Very beautiful.

never knock dollar tree seeds. I am telling you, they have always had about a 90-100% germination rate for me with my consistant use for about 5 years. I'll sing their praises any day! These calendula flower seeds were no different. A nice pretty addition to either veggie or flower garden really. Calendula can be medicinal too I believe... I'll look it up before I chow down though lol!

These guys are still fighting the damping off. But their growth has been steady! So i've got high hopes. After this photo was taken, I actually transplanted these into sterilized pots with clean dirt. I tickled the roots until I got off as much dirt as possible without destroying the plant completely. It's been a couple days and they don't seem to be too badly shocked by the experience. And I'm hoping that a fresh batch of dirt will make a big difference, despite some of the bacteria being transferred by the plants themselves. These lupines are also a pareneal. The flowers are like upside down corn-cob shaped towers of  bubbly blooms. Navy blue with a bright yellow trim to the flowers! I can't wait to see if they make it! (also from Ukraine seeds I ordered on amazon).

I also snagged some lupine seeds from Rona that were a brightly colored mix. So with a much shorter stratification, about half of the seeds have sprouted. This is a later-than-suggested planting, so they may not make it as a parenneal.

More Delphiniums! :) And no, I don't have places for all these flowers lol!

some more hollyhock seeds I found at the hardware store (or as Josiah calls it, the "hard work store"). more of a multi color mix! I know I go on and on about hollyhocks, but They are kinda my favorite flower I've never owned lol! Hopefully I can change that this year!!

The tag is illegible here, but these are chamomile! I haven't totally decided where to put these yet, but I like the idea of having it. Chamomile is parenneal as well, and can be invasive... I may just toss it in the ground by our berry patch and see what happens! :)

Nasturtiums... how do i describe you... tiny vining trupet flowers? The package photos make them look like mini morning glories kinda! I just figured I'd give them a try!

Cosmos, and what you can't see in the tray is marigolds! Lots of marigolds cause they attract bees and deter other pests (like.. the dog we have....lol!)

(cosmos and marigolds from last summer)

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little tour of my plant shelves! :) I didn't take photos of the stuff I just seeded... cause it's just dirt right now. but I planted 7 varieties of cucumbers yesterday, along with zinnias, and asters (more bedding flowers). I like growing bedding flowers now! I find the variety you can get in seed is about a hundred times more what you can find in plants in stores later on. And I just loved growing my own stuff!

Below are some snap-shots I took of my flower barrels last summer.

the white is alyssum, then there's snap dragons and... cosmos?? lol!

the pretty white thing flopping over is baby's breath (yup! Seeds you can get way more peeps!), the tiny blue is forget me knots, and the bright pink and towering blue is....  I think bachelor buttons. Not totally sure on that.