Replanting My Garden | Bad Indiana Weather is Ruining My Plans | Family Friendly Channel Ep. 97

Frustrated. That has been the word of the week around here. After unseasonably cold temperatures the past week, our seeds did not germinate properly. The lack of sprouts after 2 weeks told me it was time to replant. Hoping for brighter (and warmer) days ahead!

Hi guys, this is Courtney from Ruby Red Farm here on a very chilly Memorial Day weekend to talk about how our garden’s [Music] doing. So, if you live in the Midwest, you know that this year has not been anywhere near what any of us would call normal. We have had much more rain than typical, and unfortunately, that keeps falling on the weekends. We’ve also had really chilly nights in particular where the ground is really just not warming up like it’s supposed to and that unfortunately has led to a very big setback for our garden already this year. About two weeks ago, we finally got around to tilling the garden. We do still till our garden, but we try to do it as responsibly as we can, adding in manure every year and trying now to cover things with mulch. The trouble is after we tilled that and then we got our seeds in the ground, we watered them diligently. It was nice and warm that week, but for whatever reason that 5 days of warm weather just wasn’t quite enough to get those seeds to sprout. And then it’s gotten very cold where we’ve had nights in the low 40s and unfortunately about 2third of what we’ve spent 3 hours planting did not come up out of the ground. So very very frustrated by that and quite frankly just frustrated with the garden as a whole. May is always a difficult month for me in the garden because you can’t see the fruits of your labor, so to speak. And so to have so much of our labor just become useless and have to be redone, it’s very frustrating. I won’t lie. On the bright side, though, most of what we transplanted actually did very well and we’re not having any issues with loss of those plants aside from an occasional plant here and there. So, our broccoli and cabbage plants that we moved are doing great. Our tomato plants are doing great luckily because it has again been very, very cold. And our greenhouse has been able to extend what it can grow a little bit longer because it’s been so cool. So, it’s not all bad news by any means. I’m just got a full day of work ahead of me here redoing what we did two weeks ago, which again, kind of a gut punch, but it happens. It’s gardening and it’s gardening in Indiana, which is notoriously unpredictable. So, for today’s video, I’m going to go through plant some of those seeds and talk through anything else that comes into my head about our year and what we’ve got coming up in the next few months. So, I had planted some squash right here, and again, it just did not come up. I am going to weed this. But before I do a replant, I want to just kind of dig down and make sure that I’m not replanting something that doesn’t need replanted. Make sure things haven’t sprouted or just kind of stuck underground. I don’t think that’s the case, though. Yeah. And here’s my seed. So, they just didn’t sprout. Again, I really don’t even have a great reasoning for it. Um, the seed is a little bit soggy and there is just no no growth. So, I don’t know if they got too wet. I really do think though the cold temperature was the main cause here. So, I’m going to take the stirrup hoe and hit the top of this. I built a little bit of a mound for these. So, I’m going to go ahead and take a stirrup hoe up and down and go ahead and replant it with some zucchinis because I got to get those going. They are a top seller at the market and I need to have some if I’m going to be competitive. The plan is once these sprout, then I’ll cover it with with the hay. I will say the hay is making a huge difference for the weed control. I was a little bit uh hesitant, but it’s actually helping a lot. So, again, if you’re thinking, “Oh, she didn’t wait long enough.” Normally, our zucchini type of seeds, they tend to sprout at about the seven, six or seven day mark, and we waited a full two weeks before I’m doing this replant. So again, it it stinks, but after seeing that seed and seeing that it was essentially just rotten. Um I think it was just if anything, I watered them a little too much for the weather that we were having. Um once it started raining, I just let the rain water them, which of course then I can’t control, but I was watering them and then it wasn’t sunny. And so they just they need that combination. and they need the sun and the warmth and the water and they they were missing a critical ingredient there where it was not quite sunny enough and really not quite warm enough either. So, um unfortunately just a bad bad luck for for lack of a better reasoning. So, I’m going to replant these guys half inch deep. I’ll go down and get this whole one here with just the standard zucchinis. I think last time I had the stripey ones in this bed, but um not going to mess with those. is I just got to get my tried andrue zucchinis out because that’s going to be something my customers want and now I’m not going to have them for at least seven or eight more weeks. So very frustrating since the market starts in about two weeks that I’m going to have a very long wait and a whole lot of days of me explaining to customers why I don’t have what they’re here for. That’s the part that frustrates me. I’m a bit of a people pleaser. So when I don’t have what somebody there came there for specifically, I I get frustrated because I cannot give them the answer that they want. Found a few more of those seeds that I had planted before. And again, they’re just kind of soggy with absolutely no sign of sprouting after two full weeks. So something was up. All right, moving on to this sweet corn. So, I know it’s really hard for you guys to see. We probably got about 50 or 60% germination on this sweet corn. Going to carefully do just a little bit of weeding in between the rows here. And I will water this today because the ground has gotten kind of crusty. But with sweet corn, there’s not really any point in replanting this particular section. Um, it’s definitely too late to interplant in the spots where there’s gaps because even a two week gap makes a huge difference in the pollination. And the way these work is they have to have strength and numbers. So, they got to have corn around them. And if I were to replant this section, it just wouldn’t work. We’re not in a space constraint at all. I’m just going to kind of let this do its thing. And if it grows, it grows. And if not, we’ll stop it before it gets full grown. if it’s looking like it’s not doing well. But for right now, we’ll just let this bed be and then I need to replant a different bed in a different section of the garden, which means I got to get more netting out. Now, one bright side here is the closer I looked, I realized that I do still have some hope in these snap peas coming up. Looks like I do have at least one plant every foot or so. And so, I’m going to actually just leave these be. Uh, I’ll water them and see if maybe a few more seeds pop out. They’re fine in the cold weather, so that makes sense. So, hoping hoping I don’t have to replant these snap peas. Um, they’re also a really big seller and we didn’t plant a whole lot, so I need the ones we planted to do well. I’m going to leave this side be, but I’ll show you on the other side what happened with our green beans. The short answer of what happened with our green beans, nothing. Literally nothing. I planted green beans all up and down this trellis and not a single seed sprouted. As for the bush beans that I planted just beside them, one one seed sprouted out of two full rows of green beans. So again, I am just going to chalk this up to the bad weather and not guilt trip myself about it because my goodness, what on earth could we have done wrong that would only make one sprout? In theory, my niece may have planted them a little bit too deep, but even that shouldn’t have made only one sprout. So, again, I’m going to kind of hit this real quick with the stirupo and replant our pole beans. But again, sets me back two more weeks, which is beyond frustrating at this point. Like I did over there. Let me just make sure they’re not about to sprout. I can’t imagine they would be. I can’t even find any seeds. So, again, I think I can safely say they weren’t going to do anything. My goodness, I can’t even find them. Yep, they’re gone. So, again, I don’t know if they just like disintegrated or what on earth happened, but they did not sprout. That’s what I do know. All right, let me break up this ground again. Take two here with these stringless pole beans. Yeah, guaranteed germination of 70% or higher. Pretty sure 0% doesn’t quite hit that level. So, not blaming the company, definitely blaming Indiana. All right, I’m planting these about an inch deep, about 4 in apart, and if I need to, I’ll thin them. But at this point, I hope I have to thin them because that would mean they would at least sprout. Cannot believe the luck we’re having this year with our garden. I did talk to some other gardeners. They’re having the same problems we are, but misery loves company. He’s great and all, but still misery. All right, I’ll water those in real well. And then on to the cucumbers, which also did not sprout. This is my very makeshift cucumber trellis. Don’t judge, it’ll work. I got one, two, two, two seeds that sprouted out of about 20 that I planted. So, um I’m going to try to preserve those two and let them grow, but otherwise then it’s going to be essentially a total replant. So, I’m going to replant here. I have always had trouble with cucumbers. I It’s exactly this, though. I can never seem to get them to sprout. So, I’ll replant and see if we have any better luck. But low expectations with cucumbers most year because I’ve never actually produced a cucumber on this property. No idea why, but they just don’t like our dirt. All right, I’m going to get these bush beans replanted. These are our top seller in the sense that however much I grow, we sell. Problem is I can’t stoop down and pick that many green beans. So, we’re kind of tapped out by my potential here. I am the limiting factor when it comes to green beans. But, um going to go ahead and get these two rows replanted. Again, no signs of those seeds trying to sprout under the ground. So, it’s already been two weeks. They’re not going to now. going to go ahead and get these planted and and water everything in and then we’ll work on transplanting some starts that I’ve got. If you’re interested, I have a nice video from last year of how to fix your green bean rows if they sprout inconsistently. Um, unfortunately, this wasn’t one of those situations. So, there’s a big difference between sprouting inconsistently and just not sprouting, which is what happened here. Um, again, this is something that I feel like we couldn’t really help without a lot more intervention and we just don’t have the time to babysit the garden. Um, we have to kind of hope and pray that things just go the way they’re supposed to go, and that didn’t happen this year. But if you plant your rows and they come out a little wonky where you’ve got quite a few missing patches, I’ve got a good video on how to fix those rows. And it really has worked for us every year, guys. So, I know a lot of people tell you you can’t move green bean plants, but you can if you do it carefully and if you do it the right way. So, again, go check out that old video if you’re here to learn more about gardening. That’s a great fix and a great solution for beginners like us that don’t quite know what we’re doing yet. So, in case you’re wondering, we didn’t try to beat the clock or anything like that with our garden. We actually waited quite a while to get stuff in the ground. Our so-called safe day around here is about May 5th and then most people wait until more like May 10th or 12th about Mother’s Day. Um, we waited, you know, we waited until actually more like May 15th to plant where we should be completely in the clear and it’s just not working in our favor. Again, the soil is just not quite warm enough yet. So again, this wasn’t us trying to jump the gun or get a jump on people. We were just trying to follow what our calendar and what the weather forecast said was going to happen. But this last cold snap we had this past week just was completely out of the ordinary for Indiana. Today’s the ND500 and it’s 60 and breezy out. Normally it’s 95 and people are dying of heat exhaustion out there. So this is just completely abnormal weather for Indiana. Um not beating myself up about it too much because genuinely we couldn’t have seen this coming. But I got to put more work in. And again, for us, our issue right now is time. Finding the time to do it once was hard enough, but finding the time to do it again has been frustrating. Let’s get this other row done. All right, for right now, this has kind of become our lettuce patch, at least for early spring here. We have a whole dedicated section over this way. But until Brandon builds me that shade structure, I’m just going to plant over here where I’ve got it surrounded and safe. When he gets home, he’s going to build me this nice shade structure, and then we’ll put netting around the whole thing. But for right now, this area does get a little bit of heat protection because of this tree that has died. And our lettuce is growing strong. And quite frankly, we need it to get in the ground. So, I’m going to go ahead and plant some lettuce here. And probably even a handful of cabbage and broccoli and stuff. Kind of make a sub row right here. This section of the garden’s a little quirky in that the other areas have about 30 foot rows. Well, this area is like a 50ft section. So, instead of doing a 50ft section, I’m doing about 10 feet of cooler weather crops underneath this tree. And then I’ll plant other things down that way as it warms up a little bit. So, this frilly lettuce here is going to be a big seller for us. We already are selling it to the restaurant that we sell to, and they’re really enjoying it. They said that they just absolutely love this type of lettuce. And so we are trying to again find ways to grow lettuce essentially year round and we’ve had a lot of luck with this lettuce from Johnny Seed Company and we will continue growing it as much as we can because it’s really high quality. I’ve found that it’s really just kind of consistent and reliable. And the first batch we did, we did kind of a cut and come again method. I just can’t properly explain how productive that lettuce has been. Been very, very reliable for us. We probably got about six or eight cuts off of that first batch of lettuce before it started going to seed. So, um, really, really pleased with this this Johnny Seed Company lettuce. It’s the Salonova lettuce, and it’s supposed to be more heat tolerant. So, we will find out hopefully in only a matter of time how it does in the heat here. It’s supposed to be because it’s so frilly, what they call a loose leaf lettuce. Because it’s a loose leaf lettuce, it should do better in the heat as a general rule compared to those head lettucees. But on top of that, this particular batch has been, you know, bred and designed to withstand the heat better. I also just think it’s really fun. It looks cool. Can I be a Can I be a girly girl and just say that it looks fun? I think I’m allowed. It’s my garden. Anything eye appealing though is going to sell better and it’s going to get more of an appetite going. So that’s why our restaurant client really likes it as well. All right, let me shift around here. Lettuce is one of those foods that tends to be a really easy add-on for people where, you know, they’re planning out their meal. we sell, you know, pork and chicken and beef and they’re trying to think through what do we want to eat this week. It’s really easy mentally to be able to say, “Oo, and we could have a side salad or we could have a salad and put some chicken in it.” Whatever it may be. Whereas something like even peppers and tomatoes, it’s got to be part of the recipe. It’s got to be part of the plan. So, we’ve really tried to kind of cash in, so to speak, on the fact that lettuce is such a good add-on item. and we’ve just seen in other people’s videos how well it sells with these big farmers markets. Now, we are a small farmers market, but we have a feeling it will sell well at our market. We have brought lettuce in the past, but nowhere near this volume. Um, and it’s been a different type of lettuce where it’s been more of a large more of a head roma kind of a variety, which is super great and sold well, but you’re one and done on that. um you get you grow your nice big head of lettuce and then as soon as you harvest it, it’s done for the year and you got to move on. You can do cut and come again style with that, but it’s just a lot harder. This lettuce here is more set up for that cut and come again harvesting method where we again get lots of good cuts out of each plant. And so we’re getting more bang for our buck, which just makes sense. When you’re putting so much work into a plant, you don’t want to only be able to use it once. You know, like cabbage and broccoli, we’re kind of questioning how much of that are we going to plant in the future because quite frankly, it’s a little bit hard to grow. And again, you get one harvest out of it and that’s it. It’s a lot of work, a lot of babysitting, a lot of weeding for one head of cabbage that you know was maybe $5 and that’s all you got for that whole plant. Whereas with this lettuce, I can keep cutting and cutting and cutting and get a good five to $10 off of each individual plant without having to babysit it as much. Because that tends to be our problem is not so much the time it takes harvesting. It’s the time it takes to grow these starts and get them in the ground as where we end up wasting, so to speak, a lot of time because we’re really bad about paying ourselves for our labor. We spend a lot of labor leading up to even getting these things in the dirt just to get to here. I’ve probably got a good hour’s worth of work and these plants and that’s not counting the hour I’m taking to get them in the ground today. Now, I mentioned our farmers market just a minute ago. Our farmers market starts in just two weeks time. We’re getting really excited about that. I absolutely love the farmers market. running it has been a very different experience than just participating, but absolutely love Market Days themselves and really kind of getting to get that one-on-one interface with our customers. You’ll see that on a lot of other channels as well that, you know, some farmers love it, some farmers hate it. I really enjoy that part and it makes all this work that we do worth it. So, we really enjoy the market. If you are local and happen to still follow this channel, uh we start on June 7th, so it’s uh again it’s coming up right around the corner. Really looking forward to it. If you are not local, you you don’t know, but our town does not have a grocery store, which I know that blows people’s minds, but I live in a one stoplight town that used to have a grocery store and then it closed down right around when I graduated high school. And so like many of the small towns around us, we’ve not had a grocery store for many years. Um, and so it’s about a 15minute drive for us to get to our closest grocery store. And it’s about 25 minutes to get to the closest one that has, you know, everything that you need um at a reasonable price. So we grow this food for us, but we grow it for our community and we’re from this town and it really does matter to us. We take that very seriously. All right, it’s going in great. I’m gonna keep working. I’ll show you guys the finished product here in just a minute. All righty, my work is done. I started over about where that hay starts and planted all these rows. Got some bigger heads of lettuce in the middle there. And actually managed to get a row of radish seeds in place down there. So, I’m happy with that. I’m going to save that last little bit for the next few days when my niece comes over to help. Uh I’m tired quite frankly. So, we’ll call that done for this area. But really happy with how it’s coming in. I just need to make sure that I water this in real thoroughly cuz it’s not supposed to rain for a couple more days. As for the garden as a whole, again over here, these cool weather crops really are doing pretty well. I got a lot of cabbage and broccoli intermixed over here. They’ve grown quite a bit since we planted them a couple weeks ago, so they’re doing well. My potatoes came up really strong and they’re doing great. Need to go ahead and plant the next batch of those, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Radishes are growing like crazy. I’ve got three age groups worth of radishes. The middle group there will probably be the one that we end up taking to market in a couple weeks. And then this batch here should be ready a week or two after that, which is what we want. These cabbages here are doing really well, and they should be ready pretty soon. So, it’s not a terribly flashy or pretty garden, but it’s in. And this year, that was about all we could do. Well guys, that’s about all the work I’m going to be able to get done today. I am whooped. Quick life update. I’m done coaching track. It was my first season. Got that in the books. Really, really happy with how my first season went. Loved working with the high school kids. my favorite age group to work with. Had a few kids really learn how to throw the shot and discus a little bit better. And hopefully most of the kids knew how loved and and appreciated they were from me. So really really fun year coaching in that aspect. And again, it’s my first year coaching around here at the high school level. So it’s been a blast. Brandon’s been out of town a whole lot more than normal this spring. He’s really bad about doing that in the spring more than normal. And so it’s just been a hard year for us. We are powering through. May is my favorite month of the year normally and it’s just been okay this year. Um looking forward to June though and just know that the work we’re putting in now will be worth it later. It just hasn’t shown up quite yet. When it comes to the gardening though guys, my best advice, stick with the plants that you know, try new things and don’t be disappointed if they don’t turn out. If you ever need a confidence boost, grow some radishes. They uh they grow well pretty much no matter what I do to them. So, if you’re looking for a new plant to add, I would add radishes or I would add some of this loose leaf lettuce. Really been happy with both of those things. Add it on to our market list for the year. For now, though, it is the weekend. I’m going to go and act like it for a change and go rest and hang out with my kiddos, play some board games, dance, and have a little fun like we did last night. Looking forward to much brighter and much warmer days ahead of us. This was Courtney from Ruby Red Farm, and I hope you all have a great day.