I’m finally posting photos from the Growing Food class we hosted at our farm on March 25th. The class was great! We learned about seedling care and transplanted some radish and kohlrabi seedlings into our garden beds and into containers for everyone to take home. We also built a hotbed on the property to help get our seedlings growing despite the cool nights and frosty mornings. 

Hotbed-making basic steps:

• dig a 2-3 ft deep trench the size of your bottomless coldframe container.
• fill it to ground level with manure (does not have to be completely composted because heat from it is helpful)
• set the coldframe on top
• add some topsoil on top of the manure (the height of your coldframe may dictate how much topsoil you add because you want to make sure your seedlings are close enough to the top that they’re getting light through the glass cover)
• plant your seeds/ seedlings
• monitor for moisture and add water as needed

It’s been a couple weeks since the course and the kohlrabi seedlings we planted in our hotbed are doing great. They look larger and healthier than the ones we planted directly in our unprotected garden beds. We’ve been comparing the temperature of the hotbed soil with the outdoor garden soil (using a soil thermometre) and there seems to be a fairly consistent 10 degree difference.

To find out more about the year-long Growing Food course in Maple Ridge, contact Gail at greenspaceconsulting@live.com. She teaches the course and will put you on the mailing list for updates about upcoming dates, locations (which vary from month to month) and topics. Hope to see you there!