How to transplant Green Beans from the Burpee Greenhouse to a pot

Burpee Greenhouse Part 1 | Burpee Greenhouse Update

Here are the Seedlings, all ready for transplanting.

Jiffy Greenhouse on the bottom right, Burpee Greenhouse on the top right.

Go here for how to transplant from a Jiffy Greenhouse.

Here we have an up close view of the Green Beans.

The directions says to use a tool to help remove the root ball from the Greenhouse.

I'm using a disposable tongue depressor.

They're cheap, biodegradable, and have many uses in the garden: seedling plant stakes, digging holes for seeds, writing names on them, etc.

As you can see, I'm gently separating the root ball from the Greenhouse cell.

I'm going to reach under the cell and push up on it to loosen the bottom of the root ball, and if it works right, it will pop out of its holder and into my hand.

Remember, be careful and gentle and move slowly. The seedlings are fragile.

If all goes well, you should end up with a green bean with a root ball that looks similar to this.

If you don't see roots wrapped around the plant, you may need to wait longer before transplanting. Try to put it back in the cell if you can.

Otherwise, move on to then next step.

While supporting the plant in one hand, use your fingernails to gently separate the root strands.

Try not to break any, just detangle them from the root ball as seen here.

Some people say to pick apart every bit of root ball, but I'd just get the biggest roots apart just to give the plant room to grow.

I've killed seedlings trying to pick all the roots apart.

Next, prepare the pot. I'm using peat moss I picked up from Home Depot mixed with a little bit of the garden soil.

I'm not transplanting these into the garden just yet. These pictures were taken in mid-March, it was much too cold still.

It's April now, and I'm still waiting a few weeks before transplanting to the garden.

Dig the hold just wider than the root ball, and deep enough so the roots you detangled can spread out.

Then, with both hands, gently place the seedling into the pot.

It's much easier to do this if the soil is damp already.

Not only is it easier to plant, you can tell how much soil you need in the pot if it's compressed down a bit.

And there you have it: transplanted green beans.

I'm leaving these guys inside under lights mostly still, but if the weather is good they are outside in the part sun/shade to get used to the outdoors.

In a few more weeks, they'll go outside to the garden.

Horses Playing in Mud after 2 Days Inside

The horses were happy to be outside after all the rain this weekend!

Even if it was only 2 days, they (well, just one horse in particular) were getting cabin fever and were happy to be OUT.

I put them in the small pasture since they were only going outside for a few hours - they definitely would have run from me to come back in otherwise.

It had dried out a little - 5 hours earlier there were puddles all over the field.  There wasn't much running other than what I filmed.

The horses were much more interested in all the new grass that had popped up overnight.

Palm Beach (container) Gardens

On a recent trip to Florida, I had the opportunity to take many many pictures of gardens. These are all container gardens located in Palm Beach Gardens (hence the post title).

All pictures were taken before 10am.  All pictures were tweaked a bit in Camera Raw. Not much though.

 Constructive criticism much appreciated!

How to Build Garden Stakes from Bamboo

This is as cheap and easy as plant stakes get. They're homegrown, won't rust like metal stakes, and bamboo actually lasts a few years out in the elements.

The plant on the right is in a huge pot (don't plant it in the ground unless you want a bamboo forest all over your yard) that allows it to grow 8-10 ft. stalks.


The plant is about 12 years old. Regular trimming helps keep it healthy. It needs fertilizer once a month during the spring/summer.

It also needs quite a bit of water during the summer. 



Depending on the heat (in Georgia it gets to the 100s) it may need water 2-3 times per week.


Or more. I usually let the hose trickle slowly on the plant for 15min to saturate the roots fully.

To make stakes, I trimmed two stalks off with rose clippers. I only need a 6ft stake for the peas I'm planting.


You can measure the stalk if you want, but I just eyeball the height I want and cut it off where the bamboo becomes too narrow to use as a stake.


I also use these stakes for tomatoes and other vegetables. I'll also use them to hold up my bird block fence.

There. All trimmed and ready to use in the garden. I just used the rose clippers to trim off the leaves as close to the stalk as possible.

The leaves will compost, but the twigs will take a long time to break down if they're thick.


Sometimes, I like to leave a little edge of stem to give the plants something to hang on to as they climb the bamboo.



For example, the pea plants will like to climb up it.

I used garden twine to tie three bamboo stakes together.

Then, I sunk each stake about 6-12in. deep in the soil.


Then, the pea plants were planted. 

I use these bamboo stakes for everything that climbs in the garden. 

You can make a trellis out of it for cucumber, or use it to make a bird block fence.

Transplanting Seedlings to the Garden from a Jiffy Greenhouse

Well, most of the Seedlings are Transplanted today...

Jiffy Greenhouse Part 1 | Jiffy Greenhouse Update

About a month after planting my Jiffy Greenhouse, the seedlings mostly look like this:

The peas have just about outgrown their little peat pot, so it's time to kick them outside into the garden.


For the last week, I've moved the greenhouse outside into the part shade to let the peas get used to the sun.


In the foreground, you can see the peat with nothing growing in it from where the mold killed off the seeds/seedlings.


The two green beans that lived are going to be my little experiment to see if the temperatures are right for the other green beans.




I'm not expecting success in this, (the nights are still below freezing) but it's worth it, for science.

Here's the garden bed I'm using. It is mostly composted horse manure mixed with peat moss and north Georgia dirt, surrounded by wood timbers.


Grass does manage to grow around it in the summer. The fence does a dual job of keeping the dog in the yard and the deer out.


Squirrels and chimpunks, not so much. That's what bird block is for.

Here you can see the peas outside of the greenhouse and in the garden.


According to the box, they don't need to be removed from the peat pods, just plunked down into the dirt with a bit of the top sticking out of the soil.





I placed each plant roughly where I'm going to place the bamboo poles that will help hold them up.



This is as cheap and easy as plant stakes get. They're homegrown, won't rust, and bamboo actually lasts a few years as a plant stake.

The plant on the right is in a huge pot (don't plant it in the ground unless you want a bamboo forest all over your yard) that allows it to grow 8-10 ft. stalks.


The plant is about 12 years old. Regular trimming helps keep it healthy. It needs fertilizer once a month during the spring/summer.

I trimmed two stalks off with rose clippers. I only need a 6ft stake.


You can measure the stalk if you want, but I just eyeball the height I want and cut it off where the bamboo becomes too narrow to use as a stake.


I also use these stakes for tomatoes and other vegetables. I'll also use them to hold up my bird block fence.

There. All trimmed and ready to use in the garden. I just used the rose clippers to trim off the leaves as close to the stalk as possible.

Sometimes, I like to leave a little edge of stem to give the plants something to hang on to as they climb the bamboo.

For example, the pea plants will like to climb up it.

I used garden twine to tie three bamboo stakes together.

Then, I sunk each stake about 6-12in. deep in the soil.

The pea plants went in next.

I followed the directions on the Jiffy box and left a little lip of the peat pod sticking out of the soil.

Now we'll see if they'll grow.

In a week or two, I'll use garden twine to tie the pea plants to the stakes loosely to help them climb it. I may add mesh to the stakes to help them climb upwards as well.

You can barely see it, but this is what the bird block fence looks like.

I used bamboo poles and garden twine to tie a fence around the garden.

The bird block can be reused for a few years before it disintegrates.

I'm using this temporary fence instead of a wire fence because in a few months, I'll change out the plants for the summer cucumbers and tomatoes.

I use marigolds to keep animals away. They work quite well. I also need the room to walk around the garden, and it's annoying to move the fence every 5 minutes.

Growing Vegetables from Seed Part 4

Part 1: Jiffy Greenhouse | Part 2: Burpee Greenhouse | Part 3: Jiffy Greenhouse Update

This is the kit I started with. See the links above for how to start seeds in it.


So far I've had better luck with this kit.




Unlike the Jiffy Greenhouse, 90% of the plants sprouted in ten days, just like their seed packet said.

The kale and brussels sprouts appeared in 5 days.

Left to right: brussels sprouts, kale, beets, peas, green beans. Looks like almost all the cells have sprouts in them.

Here's an "aerial view" of the seedlings.


As you can see, the cells on the left have not sprouted - the San Marzano tomatoes.




They may be taking longer because of the soil temperature. I'll give them a few more days (or another week) before I break down and get a heater mat.

I put this closeup here because it's so nice to actually see the green beans sprouting!

Between the mold on the Jiffy Greenhouse and the seeds that disintegrated instead of sprouting, I like seeing the plants actually growing.

I took this picture a few hours after the one above and the green beans had visibly grown in that time.

One week later, all the seedlings have sprouted.

I'll give them another week and then the cold weather plants (peas, kale) are going outside to the garden.

The green beans will be transplanted. I'll leave the others (tomatoes, beets, brussels sprouts) for another few weeks in the kit.

I decided to buy another greenhouse so I could start a mesclun mix of greens and spinach. They mostly sprouted up.

The mesclun mix seeds were so small I ended up putting a handful into each cell, so 6-7 sprouted instead of 2-3.

I did have to re-seed a few cells for some reason. Maybe I forgot to put seeds in them?

These guys will also go outside next week with the peas and kale.

Growing Vegetables from Seed Part 3

Part 1 | Part 2




After 3 weeks, I had mixed results. The columbines were predictably not up yet (they can take up to 4 weeks to sprout), most of the peas sprouted, but only 2 green beans spouted.


The rest got covered in white mold.


 
I cleaned out the unsprouted pellets as best I could of the mold and tried again with new green beans and new peas in the pellets that hadn't grown.




Now, I had only watered the pellets once by this point as per the instructions. 

Only when the pellet is a light brown do they need watering. 

 
 I followed the directions to the letter and still it grew mold. Pretty disappointing.

I decided to keep hope alive for the columbines though.  Surely they wouldn't turn out to be a dud like the green beans.  But still... one month germination period? That's a pretty long time.

However, one week later, I had columbines! They are the tiny seedlings on the left of the tray.

 I saw no new sprouts in the green bean or pea section, so I gave it up as a lost cause.


The Burpee Greenhouse grew plenty more peas and green beans, I can use them.

Here's a closeup of the sprouts.

Columbines on the left, marigolds on the right.

The weather is still a bit cold, so I'm waiting another week to transplant, outside.




There will be more light on the garden then.

The roots are coming out of the pellets and visiting the other plants next to them, so hopefully the roots won't be a tangled mess in another week.
 
The plants are still growing, so at least I'm doing something right here.