The Toy Box (the return)

Happy birthday Mr. President.....
Humm, too cold out for the slinky Marilyn outfit, a baggy WSU sweatshirt and gritty old garden gloves will have to do. No matter, it is Lincoln’s birthday, the day my gram’ma and I went out, whatever the weather, to plant a row of peas.

Today was nearly balmy. Fifty degrees (F) with a light breeze.

First things first. Before replanting in last year’s MM I did what I always do, stirred up a bucket of lovejoy, named for the Seattle gardener who shared her secrets. I know that Mr. Mel say's I only need to add compost, but the worms seem to like lovejoy. (shhh, the secret blend is 1 part home-grown compost, 1 part bagged steer manure, and 2 parts alfalfa meal or pellets). I have used it for years to refresh my potted plants so it makes sense to my stubborn head to use it in the Toy Box.

Gardening Tools. Not quite as traditional as rake and hoe. The twine looks familiar. I wonder what has become of my rake and hoe. I wonder if Ray wonders where his boys left the hammer this time.

First sprinkle on a layer of lovejoy, than fluff the mix as you work in the lovejoy... wait, what’s this? What grew here last year? I never ran into these kinds of surprises the first year. Happy happy!

Nice neat pea squares. There is Golden Sweet Snow Peas, Super Sugar Snaps, Canoe shelling peas, Dakota shelling peas, and my all time favorite, Maestro shelling peas. Writing it all down, it sounds a little ambitious.

There's peas, and peas, and peas, and, oh look! Fava Beans. Are these not the prettist seeds you have ever seen? I've never grown Fava beans before. I am just a tiny bit worried that the Toy Box will be too shallow, but I'm gonna give it a go any way. Why am I suddenly wondering if I should open a bottle of Chianti for Mr. Lincoln's birthday.

There are two kinds of Fava's. The pretty pinkish seed is Broad Windsor. These darker seeds are called Nigeretta, (I'll have to check on the spelling). The grow four to a square. The pink seed is advertised as getting about four feet tall. The darker seed should be about a foot shorter.

If the weather holds, and it is not supposed to, I'll spread a little lovejoy around the leeks and strawberries, maybe over the asparagus beds and in the blueberry pots too. It is cold out despite the warm temperatures. The wind is picking up, but the peas don't mind. They are tucked into bed. There is something normal about my life once again.

Deborah....sipping tea, more for the heat the mug gives my hands than the taste on my tongue (oh look! There’s dirt in my fingernails!)

The early part of the day will be calm before the storm. Heavy rain with too much wind to make an umbrella of any use this afternoon. Those who are paid to say so are saying heavy rains will soak us at least until Valentine’s Day. Highs to 52, only dropping to the low 40's tonight.

Glad to see the Toy Box again. I really enjoy your adventures in the garden.

Your garden looks wonderful! Tomorrow I'll be planting some peas

Just curious... Why is it called the Toy Box?

A pretty, balmy day in Western Washington. Good video weather. Had to scold my shadow a couple of times. That has not happened in a while.


@ FBmom...thanks!!
@ miinva...did you get your peas in?
@ Aub...I started my first SFG at the same time a cyber friend in Texas started her French intensive garden. Hers is fifty feet by fifty feet. She refers to her garden as "small". If hers is small than mine is no more than a toy box. The name stuck.

What a skitzo kind of a day. Beautiful clear skies for sunrise, pelting rain for lunch. We are supposed to get T-storms before dinner and snow for breakfast.

It's nice to be able to find you shadow in the PNW this time of year.

I am really interested in how the Winter Sowing of Artichokes goes. I started mine inside a couple of days ago.

Did you use pea inoculant? My peas and beans will be going into a brand new bed and I have read that they do better, especially the first year if you use the inoculant. Some articles indicate that once you have grown peas or beans in a particular area, you don't need the inoculant anymore.

If you did use the inoculant, did you just dust the peas/beans or did you actually add the inoculant to the soil? What is your experience with them?

My son Chris made the first (I hope it is just the first) SFG cloche custom fit to snug into the grid. They were going to be made of PVC but he said it was too hard to get the angles right (I wonder how long he has been working on them). This one looks to be made of 1x2" wood, covered in storm window plastic, the clear kind that shrinks with a hairdryer. Thanks Chris!

@fbmom...It has been so warm in Everett this February that I did not use inoculant this year (or last year). Do you have a copy of Steve Solomon's book, Gardening West of the Cascades (subtitle has the word Maritime in it... cannot find the book just now). He was the founder of TSC back in the day. He wrote that inoculant helps when it is too cold for microbial activity in your soil. If your soil isn't frozen or close to it neither helps nor hurts. I was fine last year but I'm right up the hill from the sea. I use enough home grown compost that I seem to be fine.

When I have used it (you probably know how to do this already.... ) I drop the seeds in a jar of water, drain the seed and drop them into a plastic bag of inoculant, give it a shake and plant the coated seed. You can also make a furrow (like you might in a row garden), put the inoculant in the bottom of the furrow, put the seed on top of the inoculant and cover it with soil. For me it is easier to get the seed wet and shake them in the bag of inoculant. Every little breeze sends the dust flying.

Deborah.....thinking a few lettuce seeds under that cloche would be a good idea.

Wow, I loved your video!

I planted peas yesterday, as well as some greens like mizuna and miner's lettuce and tatsoi. I can't wait to see the peas come up! Speaking of which, my winter savory and epazote sprouted in their little yogurt cups on my kitchen table

Thanks for the video Deb, I loved having coffee with you this morning, even though I'm an hour or two ahead of you!!!

I should have put my pot of thyme under the cover, but no, I left it out to split into two. Gurrrr! Stupid job that keeps me at my desk!

The pot at the far end of the deck is the thyme. Poor thing.

There must be a hole in the clouds somewhere. The sun is so bright that it hurts to look at anything but the flakes are still coming down.

Fruit trees and infant peas. Sometimes spring snow comes as late as April. Late February doesn't really count as spring in the PNW. When snow comes in April I start worrying about losing tree blossoms (and the fruit that comes after). The blueberry buds are swelling but nothing else. Even the blues are nowhere near blossom time, just fattening up.

Just yesterday I started three new containers of micro-greens in the kitchen. In a few days there will be something fresh. Leeks have not been moved yet. I'm thinking that is a good thing. Maybe if I have containers I'll start some broccoli and more artichokes tonight.

Deborah....praying for the sailors and families of the Somali disaster. And while I'm at it, I know that the Riggle's and Mrcay's families would love that I honor the martyrdom of their parents by praying for the pirates to come to Messiah in much the same way those who killed Jim Elliot did. Elohim have Mercy!

Been snowing since early this morning. More is probably on the way. Smart money is betting on snow for the next couple of days, wet and heavy; then comes serious cold.

Is this sort of a personalized thread for your garden....along with miscellaneous comments and commentary? If so, I think it's great. Didn't know it was allowed, but we should all be doing something like this instead of starting jillions of separate threads. Makes it easier to find who's garden you are following....and makes it easier to backtrack to last week.

LavenderDebs wrote:The pot at the far end of the deck is the thyme. Poor thing.

You should be able to save the poor baby. My thyme has been pretty tough, I have divided it and it took a bit to brighten back up, but it did fine. Thyme is one of my favorite herbs, I use it on roasted chicken and almost always in my vinaigrette, when I am making romaine salad with feta cheese.

That might not be a big deal to most gardeners, but MY PARSLEY HAS SPROUTED! I have the worst time getting a pot of spring parsley going but using the winter sowing method worked for me. Yeah!

Spent yesterday afternoon rolling paper pots, filling them with a starting mix and planting a ridicules number of Tomatoes. A sweet nurse from NH sent me some of her tomato seeds which have gone missing. I have the envelope that they came in but the seeds are gone. Yikes, I was so looking forward to trying those. Did you know that if you have one of those Peat Pot containers, the green house type, that you can make a paper pot from a "shooter" type glass and the pots will fit right into the divots for the peat pots. Who knew?

Even though I don't like transplanting broccoli, I started nine small pots, which are showing signs of sprouting. I've been trying to figure out how to balance out the nitrogen in my boxes. My reading up on growing broccoli seems to indicate that the small-ish heads on lush plants is a high nitrogen problem. I still have a month to figure it all out. Just in case I do not get it taken care of, I have a broccoli-kale cross that is grown for kale like leaves and sweet, tender broccoli like side shoots in lovely shades of lavender and green. Gardeners who grew it last year are raving about it. It goes by the name "Purple Peacock".

One year ago today I started the "Toy Box" thread. The weather on that day was bright and balmy, though the year turned out cold and gloomy in the PNW. You just never know what a year will bring.

Deborah....Looking forward to the new moon on Friday to start spinaches and salad greens


The weather is acting like an adolescent girl who can't decide who she is, Sun breaks, rain, sleet and hail, wind to 25 mph (which is nice after it got up to 60 mph and coming from all directions yesterday) Spring must be fixen to sprong.

Great video Debs, I enjoyed watching that. I may try one of those soon if I am not camera shy.

Look forward to seeing more episodes.