Logo Jam

You've probably noticed these two little guys, the Misters Beetnik. The one on top has been on the blog about a week now. He replaced the original Mr. Beetnik, a mashup of an actual beet and a French beret inartfully sliced off the head of an unsuspecting Google image (désolé, Monsieur). 

This new Mr. Beetnik is the work of the folks at  J. Sayles Design Co.  here in Des Moines. I think it's quite a few notches above the original in terms of style, although not as organic.

This is the new logo in its totality. T-shirts to follow.

Sproutin' Update

Finally moved the little sprouts out of the grow room and into the sunny side of the basement. Most of the plants are doing well. There is a little moss/algae growing on the soil blocks, got a few of them too wet and didn't have a fan circulating. That has been remedied.

Below I'll review just how we got to this point. 





NOTE: One commentator (DM) has suggested this little Blithedale romance would end before planting time. The actual Facebook exchange was:

Sky Damon: Until these seeds fail, I'm an urban farmer.

David Murray: So just until spring then.

He could still be right about that.

About a month ago: first sprouts popping out of the 3/4" micro-blocks. These are, front to rear, leeks, onions, shallots, and tomatoes.

Those same sprouts a couple of weeks later. They looked a little too leggy, suggesting they needed more light. I lowered the fixture until virtually touching (and in some cases actually touching) the leaves. They started to do much better.

The next step was to transplant the seedlings from the 3/4-inch blocks into the 2-inch blocks. Some of the plants will be transplanted a second time, into the 4-inch blocks. That will happen this week. (photo from Pottingblocks.com)

After the transplanting it was light, water, and air circulation.

On Tuesday of this week, I moved everything from the grow room to the sunnier southeast corner of the basement. The basement is a bit on the cool side, so we'll continue with the heating mats until we start the hardening off process. Not sure when we'll do that as it's been so friggin' cold.

As you can see, all eight flats were moved to the top racks to get the most out of the natural light. I figure we have about a month to prove Murray wrong about this little experiment.

Bring Me a Bucket

Went thriftin' a while back. Marty, the thrift store maven, found this NOS bucket at the downtown Salvation Army. Great size, and with graduated measurements marked on the inside. Perfect for mixing soil block mix. Only 85 cents!

Stay tuned for a sprout update...

Nice Rack

This is the fully assembled and ready-to-go light stand (actually, it's two light stands, stacked). I built four stands altogether.

These are the parts and tools you'll need to build your own stand. I used fir because the pine two-by stock you find at the big box stores like Lowes or Home Despot is pretty shabby. I used two drills, one for drilling, one for the screws (inset), a square, and two clamps. I cut my pieces using a compound miter saw, which gave me square ends, important for this butt-end construction. A complete parts list is at the bottom of the page.

I modified my stand from plans I found here. You can see that this guy is better than I at giving instructions. He must have been a teacher.

First step is to clamp the 30"verticals to the 21-inch horizontals. 

Next, drill and put two 3 1/8 inch screws in each butt end.

First completed side.

When you have two sides completed, you're ready for the horizontal cross pieces.

Attach the two 48-inch pieces using the 2 1/2-inch screws. Center and attach the 1"x2"x48" center brace. Finally, use a square to make sure the vertical ends are square to the horizontal cross pieces and the attach the diagonal back brace using 1 1/2-inch screws.

I angle cut the ends of the diagonal brace for a cleaner look.

Next step, the wheels. These are obviously only attached to the bottom rack. Dowel pins are attached to each upper rack. 

Flip the stand over. Drill 3/8-inch holes 1 1/2 inches deep in the center of each leg. I used a doweling jig to ensure the holes are centered and square, but one can just mark the center and drill freestyle.

Meh, fairly centered.

After the holes are drilled, hammer each wheel sleeve into its hole.

Then, pop each wheel into its corresponding sleeve.

The last step before attaching the lights is to attach the shelf board. I notched each corner of the shelf board to make a clean and snug fit. I then attached the shelf to the cross pieces using the 1 1/2-inch screws.

After the stands are stacked and roughly in place, it's time for final assembly. First attach the lights and install bulbs. Then lay out each heating mat.

These are the Hydrofarm compact rope ratchets. These clips make it a breeze to raise and lower the lights.

To keep the spendy Hydrofarm seedling heat mat dry, I covered each mat with a heavy mil plastic landscape sheeting. Apparently, I sure do love stapling. Note, the lights are plugged into a timer. The mats are connected to a thermostat.

Hydrofarm thermostat. All four mats are connected to one thermostat using a dedicated power strip.

The thermostat probe is inserted between soil blocks to measure the temperature.

Final setup in action.

Parts list.

Room to Grow

Now that I've got your attention with the cute little garden gnome (obviously a staged pic), we decided we needed a space for starting seeds, a grow room with space for light stands and a place for mixing potting soil and so forth.

The furnace room was the logical room, warmer than other spaces and with access to water. Oddly painted in beige and orange, with some ugly white metal cabinets that might clean up. The former owner was a trapper and he had dozens of nails hammered into every joist, probably for hanging pelts. Kinda Dahmer-esque creepy. Got a little case of carpal tunnel pulling them all.

We decided two shades of green would be appropriate, a light apple green, and a darker green called artichoke. We then set about assembling various items that would clash mightily with the color scheme.

Marty enjoying a cuppa.

Adding grow lights to the homemade light stands (building instructions in a forthcoming post).

New sink with nicely clashing garden hose and chair. That's Neko (Case) peeking in.

Finished room in operation.

Those Brits and Their Soil Blockers

Google Images.

Leave it to the British to have an answer to the modern proliferation of gardening plastics; all those little fossil fuel containers that find their way into our recycling bins, and worse, into our landfills. 

These little gadgets have been around for hundreds of years. Why am I only now discovering them? 

I purchased three Ladbrooke models from Pottingblocks.com: The micro 20-block; the mini 4-block; and the maxi 1-block. Basically, all one does is mix up you potting mix (there is a recipe), punch out your blocks, and plant. Really effin' cool.

Images from Pottingblocks.com.

Once your little sprouts are ready to transplant, simply drop them into the next size soil block.

I made micro (3/4") and mini (2") blocks. When the larger plants are ready for transplanting, I'll make some large blocks. Most of the two-inck blocks will go directly in the raised beds.

Since soil blockers really increase the germination rate, you only plant one seed per block. There's no need to cover the seeds with soil.

With the larger blocks. you need to cover the seeds with a little potting soil.

Then you mist the tops with water and you're done. And for those of you who rightfully point out my use of plastic trays, please know that they're built to last many years. 

Gone to Seed

We scoured the heirloom catalogs of Seed Savers Exchange and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and ended up with 85 packets. It's all part of the cost of learning, however: What we like, what grows well, what survives the vicissitudes of inept farming. 

So far, I'm most impressed with Seed Savers Exchange. They provide very detailed descriptions and instructions with their seeds, have a great website that's easy to order from, and best of all, they're in Decorah, Iowa.

Tomorrow, seed blockers.

I laid the seeds out by type on the dining room table.

Then I made a 20-page chart including each item, putting to good use both my OCD and my abundant free time.

Welcome to Beetnik Urban Farm

The owners of Beetnik Urban Farm are now ready to blather on about urban farming.

Area on which we plan to build our raised beds and plant our fruit trees and berries. Can't wait to rip out that grass. Oh, and gotta build a fence.