Jack's Out Back

05/06/2026

May 5. To date I have 17 tomato, 3 bell pepper and 4 eggplants all getting ready for planting! Some will be gifts as I don't have room for that many plants.
I have a nice 5' row of peas, and small 1' x 1.5' rectangles of beets, turnip and carrots growing.
I have 4 rhubarb plants that I am going to split. I'm not positive, but a quick glance makes me think I may end up with 16 plants. Splitting them allows them to produce larger, thicker stalks. Rhubarbs are heavy feeders. At splitting time the ground is amended with cow manure compost from O'Brien Farm and triple 10 fertilizer to produce great stalks. I'm not sure what I'll do with the others.
I had tried to overwinter 10 Geraniums by the bare root method. I had 6 that cooperated. 4 died. 1 more died giving the method a sad 50% survival rate (or 50% mortality rate 🤔).
I have planted sweet corn and bush bean seeds, but I can only plant 5 bush beans and 12 corn plants in my areas. I start the seeds and transplant the healthiest looking plants. I have little space, so a skip is a major waste of possibility.
I've got 11 plastic jugs planted by winter sow method to Zinnias, Marigolds, and Daylilies. I was able to transplant 5 daylilies into my nursery bed just yesterday. I had acquired the seeds from plants that had grown in common areas. The experiment is progressing fine!
Tomorrow I'll be planting Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Zucchini and Butternut Squash. 2 seeds each! Only 1 plant to be transplanted. In a month I will repeat another Butternut and in two months I will repeat the Summer Squash and Zucchini to replace the tiring originals. The cuke should do for the entire season.
A couple weeks ago I planted Lilies into the front yard planting bed. This was fortified to attempt keeping squirrels, bunnies and deer out of it. The bunnies continue to dig birthing sites around my yard. Every year at least once and one year three times. Bad bunnies.
We had planted 2 more Lilacs out front 3 weeks ago. A heavy freeze followed and even though everything else I covered made it okay, both the Lilac plants' leaves were blackened. They are now sending out new leaves.
I had removed and transplanted rose bushes out from the areas that the Lilacs were set in. Seems like there had been 2 roses planted in a hole together. I separated them and all are doing well.
It's been a busy month.

04/04/2026

Peas be with you!
🤔 Or us. 🤔 And us! 😀
Pea planting commenced on Friday, the 3rd. I planted edible pod Peas, my preference.
Carrots, Turnips and Beets get planted today, Saturday the 4th.
Earlier this week I potted up some Daylily roots that I had purchased at Ocean State Job Lot. They were starting to send out shoots and I'm holding off on popping them into the ground until next week's minor league cold snap is over. The roots can work on their own growth and I can provide shelter for the plants in our garage during the cold nights. 🥶
The tomato seedlings are beginning their first true leaves.
Peppers and Eggplants take forever to germinate, compared to Tomatoes. One Eggplant has begun the parade.

03/31/2026

March 31st. No fooling around now...
This week saw seedlings appear from cups that were just filled with soil and seeds on the 20th. Tomato seedlings are usually the first to get going. I've started two large types - Sandwich Slicers and Bodacious, and two Cherry tomato types - Honeycomb Hybrid and Sweet 100s. Peppers and Eggplants take their time and I'm awaiting their first seedlings.
I start them in used Keurig coffee pods after tearing off the cover and dumping out the used grounds to be used later. Coffee grounds contain nitrogen which plants love.
I place the pods in a metal pan that I set on top of our cable and internet provider devices that put out just enough heat to aid in seed germination. (Best to get some use of that!)
The seedlings get transplanted into Dunkin ice coffee cups. I like tall cups so the root system can expand downward before running out of room causing the roots to circle around later than if transplanted into short vegetable pots.
The Geraniums have mostly added good leaf growth. The last plant to begin leafing has done just that. One tiny leaf.
The Wax Begonias are recovered from the heavy handed trim I gave them a couple of weeks ago. Flowering has begun again.
This past Saturday and Sunday mornings had tied temperature at 18°F. Just an old tee-shirt dropped over each emerged Rhubarb and the Hydrangea the previous evenings prevented freeze burn or worse. Simple but effective.
I'll be planting Peas soon, I've got the seeds in a soak to swell them up.

03/25/2026

For anybody planning on building a raised bed from wood, please read this. I have built several over the years with great results. And I am planning on building a couple more.
Never, ever use pressure treated lumber for a raised bed that will ever see food grown in it.
First of all, if you're planning it for longevity I'd recommend using red cedar lumber. This will cost a lot of pretty pennies, actually hundreds of dollars, but the wood itself looks great when new and it ages well, so you get an ornamental use too.
Secondly, if economy is more important than longevity I will tell you that untreated lumber is an option. Maybe a five year lifespan, but options are plenty. Any naysayers probably read it in a book or bought junk lumber.
The following is true for either type of lumber.
Never paint, stain or apply any preservative to the inside of the bed if you are going to grow anything to eat from it. The outside can be treated, actually decorated, there wouldn't be any connection to your veggies or fruits.
Only buy quality lumber, the type you'd want to use if picking lumber to build your forever home with. Small knots are okay, stay away from any center cut lumber. That stuff will fall apart faster than rot into oblivion.
I refer to the wood used for raised beds as lumber because I'm talking only about "2 by" thickness lumber. From a lumber yard it will measure one and a half inches thick and be 2x6, 2x8 or 2x10. The prices are different so you may save money by choosing different widths to get the height you want. Rough cut lumber will actually be 2" thick and that may look better than commercial lumber. My beds are built from two or three separate boxes that get stacked upon each other. The soil and the corner supports keep the boxes alligned.
When I built my first two raised beds I copied what I had seen how shipping crates for heavy granite blocks and also steel tools were built. I had acquired several empty ones of those and removed the bottoms. They were built of "2x" lumber with reinforced corners. They lasted for years as starter beds. That is where the strength to resist pushing apart from freeze thaw cycles will be.
I use simple butt joints to assemble the beds. On the outside at the corners I have the joints reinforced with "L" shape lumber. The only fasteners I use are screws, at least two 3" deck screws to pass through one piece of lumber and draw tightly into the other piece. Deck screws are treated to prevent rusting. Never use drywall screws as they would fail either by rust or snap from the freeze thaw cycle. Plan to be generous using the screws.
Just a note to think about hardware cloth. I put 1/2" galvanized hardware cloth on only the bottom box to deter voles from tunneling in for meals. I first staple it with an Arrow stapler to hold it in place and follow up with poultry fence staples to last the life knowing the Arrow staples will be rusting away soon.
My need for raised beds really began when we moved into this 55+ community. The 1" of soil is hardly enough for a lawn to grow. Most plants need a half foot of soil to grow good but the roots would go deeper if the soil would allow. We also have only underground utilities.
If we dig down to replace the gravel with soil we are required to call Dig Safe. I've heard of that failing way too many times and disaster. So by building up I can avoid that drama. I get the benefit of setting a chair alongside to w**d or thin plants or use the bed to push against as I struggle back up from kneeling.
I'm going to show my two beds built in '22 and '23 and I'll show you in another post what I did last fall to modify my corners. Keep in mind the '22 bed has seen four freeze thaw cycles and the '23 has seen three. The joints are still better than most contractors call good for just built home construction. You can do this too.
Press the photos for captions.

03/20/2026

Happy Spring, March 20!
Today I headed over to get my pelletized limestone from The Good Earth Farm & Garden Center in Gardner. The lawn needs limestone to keep the soil pH in check. The pelletized limestone is encased in clay to allow spreading without creating the whiteout conditions that powdered limestone can in a spinning spreader. Dropspreaders are best for powdered limestone btw. While the limestone will help the clover and grasses to grow the clay is going to help slow down the water pe*******on due to our soil being very sandy with pure sand below it.
The final tally of the ten geranium plants I had overwintered is six survivors. The other four will be added to the compost pile.
Speaking of the compost pile today I added about one foot of very heavy snow to the top of the heap. Last Fall I had filled the fenced 30"×30"x30" cube with frost killed flower stalks and topped it off with twice mowed leaves. The pile settled slowly by itself, the snow that fell on top of it was too dry to add any compression. The snow I added today was from a pile I built while shoveling the deck off all winter. It has become denser from the rains this month. It's heavy. I took a picture of it and about two hours later it has already compressed down about three inches. Not much melted in that time but it's squeezing the death out of the dead vegetation. The snow will melt and add moisture needed to help compost work. By this Fall I will have maybe four to six inches of beautiful compost that I will sift using 1/2" screen. Anything that doesn't sift through the screen becomes the new base for the new compost pile.
Vegetable seed planting begins! Tomatoes, Bell Peppers and Eggplant are beginning their journey. I start seeds in used Keurig pods. I harvest the coffee grounds first (a great source of nitrogen for other plants' use) and re-fill with potting mix. I have great success by starting with the small pods. I only use the strongest starts and transplant into used iced coffee plastic cups. But first I have to get the seeds planted and starts to transplant! More on the cups later.
Tap the pictures for captions.

03/17/2026

03/13/2026

March, Friday the 13th. (Good luck 🍀).
Returning from a casual walk this morning with Winnie and I spotted this rhubarb along the garage. I had planted three on this south east facing wall last Spring and discovered it didn't receive enough sunlight for the rhubarb to thrive. Well this one has had enough of the icy mantle that had entombed it up until two days ago. It's going to get frozen many times before mid-April arrives. I'll try to mitigate that with a covering, but I see forecasted low temps for next week. Spunkiness carries lots of weight around here. This rhubarb will get a perfect place to grow.
I've got a larger plant in a perfect spot that has been clear of snow for a week. I checked it but it still isn't poking out yet. This is its third year here and it will be split to rejuvenate it and supply up to two new single plants. So... when I dig up the big rhubarb to split its rhizome into three pieces I will transplant this small start up in its place. The larger plant's largest rhizome section will get a transplanted home, probably a 5 gallon bucket which will leave me looking for homes for both the other two sections which I can pot up and prepare for transplanting and the other two rhubarbs which need new homes with better sunlight. Anybody interested in rhubarb? They need full sunlight. Beautiful dark green foliage with red and green stalks that make a good decorative plant if you aren't interested in eating them.

03/12/2026

March 12 update on my ten overwintered Geranium plants.
After a full week including much beneficial sunlight I have four of the ten showing leaves. Of the six not showing leaves two are looking like they have plumped up stems, two have green on the stems but the stems are still shriveled and two had no life signs above the soil line. The last two are my experiments now to see if the roots are still be viable if they will throw stems. 🤔 The green stemmed ones that are still shriveled are my experiments to see if they will plump up, throw new stems or do nothing. Knowing that hayfield w**ds can stay green like good hay does after drying up, I guess I'd better cross my fingers. 🤔 Well actually these are all experiments to see how successful I am at this.
Spring arrives next week on the 20th, so I will be planting my tomato, eggplant and bell pepper seeds then. There is a thing about planting seeds that bear above ground crops from between the new moon to the full moon. Our new moon appears on the 18th this month and the full moon appears April 1st (no joke!). Plant seeds that bear below ground crops during the dark of the moon from between the day after a full moon until the day before a new moon.
I started heeding this after seeing it in the Old Farmers Almanac decades ago and agree that it seems to help. I've done experiments on purpose and missed the proper time frames by accident with most success happening by watching the calendar and planting on time.
If the new moon appears in the beginning of the month I would wait until April for planting these seeds. But this year the new moon appears after the middle of the month. To wait until April would mean waiting until the 17th at the earliest which only leaves me two weeks until I'm into May. One week goes to seed germination at the best and every day later puts me farther into May and closer to Memorial Day, a standard garden planting weekend. I'd rather transplant larger started plants than small ones. Two weeks before I transplant started plants I lay down black plastic to use any sunlight to produce and transfer heat into the soil. This helps prevent transplant shock. I usually don't wait to plant until Memorial Day but there's a lot of protective coverings I have to deploy if frost is possible. The earlier I gamble on planting are more days contending with frost threats. Even if I don't get a frost I can bank on having to remove and dry those coverings off before possibly the evening. Exciting time.
Does anyone else push their luck in the Spring?

03/08/2026

Early the other day I looked out the back window and eyed this. 😳 What did I miss happening in the yard?
Then I remembered I had tossed a Buttercup Squash that had outlived its storage time out for the squirrels and birds to have at it.
Our Fall decoration pumpkin has melted out of its long winter's nap entombment and was also sent out for critter food. It's a useful way to give wild critters more than just birdseed to survive on.
With some warm temperatures finally arriving I'll start putting the bird feeders back indoors at night to avoid bear damage.

03/06/2026

Winter sowing. Check this out.

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