Hi, Guys!

MIgardener (in Michigan), a young, but very experienced veggie gardener, has launched a webstore to make seeds "sustainable, attainable, and affordable." The quantities he is offering in each packet are VERY generous for just $.99 cents.

I've been following him on YouTube for half a year, and like what I see.

Check out his new store. Hope this helps!

Linda

http://migardener.com/

Thanks, Linda. Nice to see you popping in. You must be gearing up for wintersowing all those veggies.

Karen

thank you Linda!

Hey, Guys!

Been all over the place, mostly dealing with a life issue in this past year. I have a young niece (38) who was diagnosed (in April) with a Desmoid Tumor in her abdomen. Only 900 out of 1 million people per year get this. Very rare. She's only as big as Halley Berry, and looked 4 months pregnant, cause this thing was occupying most of her abdominal space. Very agressive, invasive. M.D. Anderson classified it as a malignant tumor, and attacked it just as aggressively with chemo.

My niece has two-year-old twin girls (June 18th), and a 7-year-old daughter. Her husband, mother, and I were the primary caregivers during these last months, so, the last thing on my mind was a spring/summer garden. I was at her home more than my own.

She's outta the water right now. The tumor shrank tremendously, from 16cm to 3.4x5cm, and went down even more after chemo was over. Lolita took 8 rounds of very powerful stuff, but, she was a total trooper, and an inspiration to everyone who knows her.

The surgeon WISELY decided to not go in to try to remove this thing, because she couldn't see behind or around it. Not knowing how and/or what other organs it might be attached to made that too risky. She WISELY decided not to compromise Lolita's quality of life by going in blind. I am VERY GRATEFUL for that surgeon. The surgical review board decided to do nothing at this point, since she's in a good place. They'll continue to monitor the tumor for any changes, and if anything does change, they'll decide where to go from there. I continue to be prayerful regarding her total and complete healing...

I just got around to my garden again at the end of August. I'm in full swing now, with a cole crop that will mature in the next 6-8 weeks. I have cabbages, beets, a gazillion collards, broccoli that's making buttons, and flats of onions, buttercrunch lettuce, and more collards (my family LOVES collards) for transplanting, when a space opens up. Unfortunately, our weather has been SOOOOOOOOOO warm, that everything is behind schedule. I've been praying for a consistent cold spell, so this crop can be outta the way before it's time to start the next crop, LOL.

I'm also praying to get tomatoes and peppers sowed on December 20th, inside under lights, for transplanting out the weekends of February 7th & 14th.

I'm doing a LOT of praying, LOL!

Hope you found some seeds you like on Luke's website. He does really nice videos, and is currently video graphing building a grow room in his new home.

Hugs!

She's lucky to have you as an aunt, Linda. Wishing her the best.

Karen

Karen,
You will never know what a blessing her family has been to me, and how much closer we all have become. It took awhile in my life for my "maternal" instincts to kick in, and they did, just after her twins were born. The then-5-year-old was much too precocious for my taste, and we were like oil and water, LOL.

But, after the twins came, something inside me "clicked," and I found myself wanting to be around all the kids a lot, so they'd know who I was, before they got too old to care who I was. And, as God would have it, my becoming a beloved part of their lives BEFORE they needed me, made it all the easier to care for them. It was the difference between them running "toward" Auntie Linda when I walked through the door vs. running "away" from a stranger they didn't know!

I knew I had arrived, the day she called me to baby sit (before she got sick), and I dropped the shovel, the hose, the rake, the dirt, the veggie seedlings, everything I was up to my elbows with in my garden -- because I wanted to go be with the kids more than I wanted to play in my veggie garden!

But, God!

Things happen the way they are supposed to, Linda. So glad things are better now for everyone.

Linda, so sorry to hear about your niece's tumor, but good that it seems to be under control at the moment at least

I'm really looking forward to spring, when I can plant the collard seeds you sent me !

Thanks, Sandy! I'm praising my God EVERY day for His hand of care on my niece!

What are your current temps? Because, as long as your average daytime temps are somewhere between oh, 65°-33°, you can go ahead and plant those seeds, LOL!

I started seedlings indoors in late August, and transplanted out sometime in late September. Unfortunately, our winter weather has been more like summertime, and for too long. The collards are JUST NOW taking off! And, they are growing really, really fast. They've fairly doubled in size in just the last week. None were ready for the Thanksgiving table, and I checked on them this morning. They will ALL be ready by the Christmas dinner, and every four week thereafter until the heat or the bugs take them out in the springtime. Getting my freezer ready, LOL!

These are cool/cold weather crops, that thrive at temps hovering in the mid-40s. As long as they aren't subjected to prolonged freezing temps (for more than 3-5 days & nights in a row below freezing, unprotected) they will do fine. In fact, they actually get sweeter once they've been subjected to a dip below freezing. It's all about being prepared to protect them in prolonged freezing temps (below 30°).

If you put a simple PVC hoop over the bed, and throw some old sheets over that you should be fine for overnight. It'll warm up during the daytime. If it's going to be several nights and days, I'd start protection by watering the bed very well, leaves and all. Then, throw on some old sheets, followed by a sheet of thick plastic, & followed by some old lightweight blankets, depending on how low and for how long. Need more protection? Fill some milk jugs with hot water and shove underneath, followed by some old-fashioned Christmas tree lights (the ones that get warm), and finally as a last defense, shove a small space heater underneath, overnight. The space heater should get you through several days and nights very safely, set on low...

Here, I've only had to go as far as the lightweight blankets. But, I have every other contingency ready, too!

Hugs!

Here's my HOOP HOUSE TUTORIAL. Since I first wrote it, I've adjusted the height of my hoops, 'cause they were just too tall for the cabbages and root crops. So, this season, I cut the 10' lengths to between 6.5' and 7', bending them over my beds which are roughly 3'-4' wide. The hoops now stand about 3.5' - 4' tall, with much less wasted space above the plants.

http://davesgarden.com/communi...

So glad your niece is doing well, Linda.

Thank you, Debra!

"...as long as your average daytime temps are somewhere between oh, 65°-33°, you can go ahead and plant those seeds"

We actually have been having some pretty mild weather this month, with our highs around 33-34F, lows in the high 20s... but before long things will take a turn for the worse (December has actually been MUCH warmer than November was) and we'll be having highs in the teens, if that (and lows well below freezing) I definitely plan to plant the collards as early as possible in the spring, though -- if I can find the ground under the snow, that is !

If need be, I'll plant them inside this hoophouse that I set up this fall -- it's made from the frame of a HH that I bought a few years ago on Ebay, unfortunately the fitted cover that came with it self destructed in less than one year. We added some wooden framing to fasten the plastic covering to, and made a door for each end for entry and ventilation. Right now I still have some lettuce, kohlrabi, turnips, carrots, scallions and broccoli planted in there and still holding their own; the only problem I've had is slug damage to the plants -- they apparently approved of the extension of their plant-eating season!



The photo on the right was taken on Nov. 24th, when our temps were falling to about 6F at nighttime.



The big lump under the snow (to the left of the hoop trellis) in this photo is a "low tunnel" made with PVC pipe, pretty much as you describe in the tutorial -- haven't dug it out to check for a while now, but there are scallions inside. LOL, when I planted the onion sets I expected to at least get small bulbs by the time the weather got really cold... until it occurred to me that they were no doubt long-day types and our days at that point were already pretty short! Nice green onions, though

LOL,
You already KNOW about houses and protection! I'd go ahead and start some seeds in the greenhouse, then. They'll be a nice size for transplanting in the springtime.

Sluggo PLUS for the slugs and snails. Just a few granules go a long way!