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Sunday, August 25, 2013

Fall Planting

We've had success in recent years planting spinach and kale and other cool tolerant plants for a fall harvest.  By success, I should clarify that to mean seedlings that survived in their struggle against the wild animals.  And by wild animals, I guess I mean stray cats.  Um, I mean stray cats that find our neighborhood to be a good place to be a stray...


Anyway...to mitigate the loss due to the "wild animals" we got a soil block and started our fall plants inside. We start our seeds inside for the spring, but this is the first time starting seedlings inside for the fall.


I like the soil block maker for several reasons, but mostly because you have to get your hands dirty.  On the more practical side, I like how we'll no longer need to find little containers to start seeds.


For our soil mix we used soil from the garden mixed with finished compost, worm castings, and vermiculite
Now we have lettuce, kale, and spinach seedlings growing inside, as well as more basil and cilantro that we'll continue to grow inside.


Or maybe we (and several of the neighbors) could just stop feeding those "wild animals."  

3 comments:

  1. That's a nifty gadget. Since our regular garden was ignored and pretty much non-existent, maybe I should try planting some stuff for fall. Hmmmm... Kale, anyone?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Barry - it's a nifty gadget, fun to use, plus your hands get dirty! And kale is pretty good - my kids really like "dinosaur" kale (kudos to kale's marketing department for that name).

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  2. Matt and I have talked about getting one of those soil blockers. we re-use the plastic starting pots over and over, but they have their downsides and certainly aren't the most durable things out there. I hope your fall garden has taken off well! I just planted some spinach seeds last weekend for a fall crop.

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