April Update

Spring is late, as we all know. My garden journal from last year records the rhubarb coming up by April 15. No sign of it yet this year. I'm guessing it may not come up until the end of April or early May. Last weekend was nice and warm, so I planted (outside in the garden) some Green Arrow Peas, Dwarf Green Curled Kale, and Cherry Belle Radish. Hopefully they'll come up sometime before July! With the cool spring there is risk they may rot before coming up, but I couldn't resist the urge to give them a chance to try. My seed stock has grown too big anyway, so may as well use them up.

Below is an update on the indoor plants:

Prairie Pride Tomatoes & Southport White Globe Onions, early April.

"Salad Bowl" Lettuce, slowing down but still growing.

Plumeria showing some growth at top. It really perked up when I put it outside in the sun last weekend.


Tomatoes & Onions, mid-April. I'm thinking I may have to transplant the tomatoes to 4L pails before transplanting outside!


Oregano (planted around February, I think). Growing slow and steady.


Southport White Globe Onions. Flimsy but alive. Not sure if I should eventually harvest them or transplant outside. We'll see if they can wait that long.


Cilantro at flowering stage (planted end of December '08). I'll harvest the seeds (Coriander), dry them and grind them for the spice rack along with the plant leaves that remain. They seem to dry well in a paper bag in the cupboard (out of the light).

Homemade Yoghurt - Part 2

Note to self: take yoghurt curing in oven out before turning on oven to bake something.

Indoor Plant Light

To help fill the new expanded garden space we decided to upgrade the desk lamp grow light so we can start more seedlings indoors. Last year I attempted to start some brassicas without artificial light, but even though they sat at a south facing window it was not enough. The plants grew tall and spindly and fell over and entangled with each other, making separation fatal for some. According to some more experienced gardeners I also started them too early which was part of the problem (early April). Fortunately many survived the transplanting and produced a bountiful harvest.

This four foot Shoplight from Canadian Tire ($25) should help the plants get a better start. I installed two 40W "plant & aquarium" wide spectrum bulbs (~$6 each).

The lettuce and cilantro planted last December really perked up under the new light, with larger and more numerous leaves, especially the lettuce. The large green pillar behind is a Yellow Plumeria, a souvenir from family, bought in Kauai but native to Mexico, Central America & Venezuala. So far it hasn't done much, but likely slow growing in the less than ideal untropical conditions.

I started some Prairie Pride Tomatoes, North Star Sweet Bell Peppers & Southport White Globe Onions on March 7. This is a relatively early start for tomatoes, the plan being to stagger some plantings to spread out the harvest over the summer. I was lazy and didn't bother disinfecting the planter (not even sure if possible without destroying these flimsy disposable type seedling starters), so we'll see how much that effects things. Two cells (peppers) did not germinate, but everything else did within a week or so.