Adaptive Gardening

On 3/30/13 Geoff, my husband, and I planted broccoli together on the back porch.  We will call it Adaptive Gardening since Geoff works from a wheelchair most of the time and can’t walk out to the back half acre on his own.  Since our seasons are a tad short, to say the least, we are starting the seeds indoors.  We pinched the ends off of the leftover paper towels I was collecting to form home-grown tubling trays for our seeds.  We fashioned a few tubs on a small end table for Geoff to work.  I was his helper, providing the supplies and tools he needed to do the work.

Once they were planted we moved things indoors, for you never know when it will snow in Bend ( about 2 inches here on April 15 and 16).  We set our trays under lights in our heated home by the south facing window to get them started.  Within two days they had germinated and were off to a fast start.  It has been two weeks since and they are about 2 inches tall and stretching their thin stems to the sun.  Broccoli can be quite lanky, so it is best if you can sew them outdoors directly in a bed.  The additional light will help their stems thicken up inside and hopefully, by the first half of May we will plant them outside.

I will review the specifics of our seeding techniques at my Garden Party on April 27th (See the March posting for details).  You will learn how to set up the lights, make your own container  garden and take a sample home to grow indoors.  I will provide the seeds and starter mix.  Start saving your clear plastic salad greens containers or similar style with empty toilet paper rolls, so you can begin growing things at home.  Remember, you have until June before we can set out too many warm season vegetables.

Do let me know if you can come to the party, it will be fun, snow or shine:)   yvonne@yourgardencompanion.com

 

Adaptive Gardening

Geoff fills the containers with starter mix

Geoff fills the containers with starter mix