How to Germinate Castor Bean Seeds

Castor bean plant

Castor bean is a fast growing tropical plant, and it's one of my favorite annuals.

I love my red castor beans, they add a wonderful contrast of color and texture to my tropical garden.

I get tons of compliments on them, and everyone asks what they are.

Every fall I collect the seeds and sow them in the spring. 

Last fall, I showed you how to collect castor bean seeds. Well, now is the time to sow them, and in this post, I will show you how. 

Castor bean seeds can be directly sown in the garden; but in areas with short growing seasons, it's best to start them indoors 4-6 weeks before last frost. Castor bean seeds are not a good candidate for winter sowing, they will only rot.

Castor bean in tropical garden (front right)

Castor bean plants can be challenging to grow from seed. The key to successfully germinating the seeds is to soak them in warm water before sowing. I soak them for about 24 hours.

Soak castor bean seeds before sowing

After soaking the seeds, it'll look like one end has popped out. Drain the water and sow the seeds like you would any other seed.

Castor bean seeds after soaking

It's a good idea to sow them in a deep container, unless you plan to transplant them right away.

It only takes a few days for the seedlings to outgrow seed starting cells and trays. 

The rule of thumb for planting seeds is to plant twice as deep as the seed is wide; castor bean seeds should be planted 1" to 1 1/2" deep.

I like to make a hole then drop the seeds in rather than pushing the seed into the soil. Cover the seeds with soil, but don't pack the soil tightly over them.

Cover the container so the soil won't dry out. Keep the soil evenly moist, but don't allow it to get soggy. Soggy soil may cause the seeds to rot.

Castor bean seeds take a long time to germinate, so be patient. I've read online that the germination rate for castor bean seeds is 10-21 days. I've had seeds take as long as a month before finally sprouting.

Castor bean seeds sprouting

Once the seeds sprout, the seedlings grow very fast and can get leggy in only a few days. I start to harden off castor bean seedlings as soon as I see sprouts. If it's too cold to put the seedlings outside during the day, add some grow lights above the seedlings.

Castor bean seedlings

Protect castor bean seedlings from frost and plant them in the garden after all chance of frost is gone. Castor bean plants need a full sun location to grow their best. They will tolerate shade, but the plant will stay small. Plant in fast draining soil in a location where they will be protected from high winds. They like lots of water but don't like soggy feet. You could grow them in a large pot, but their growth will be stunted.

Castor bean leaf

Castor bean plants and seeds are poisonous if ingested. If you're concerned about the toxicity of the seeds, you can cut off the flowers to prevent seed formation. (But consider saving a few to grow for next year.)

Read my tips for starting seeds indoors post for more details and general tips of starting seeds indoors.

Rain Garden Please!

Downpour

A few years ago, I went to a rain garden workshop with my dad. 

The workshop gave us a broad overview of how rain gardens can help reduce runoff and improve local water quality. 

They also touched on how to create a rain garden, and different design and location options.

In case you haven't heard of rain gardens before; basically, they are designed to capture and absorb rain water. 

Water is directed into the rain garden, and soaks into the soil rather than running off into the streets; keeping dirt, fertilizers and yard debris out of our local waterways. Rain gardens help improve water quality because the water is filtered naturally as it's absorbed into the ground. 

In Minnesota, we have many beautiful lakes, rivers and other waterways, and runoff is a big problem. I live in the Minnesota River Valley, and all of our runoff goes straight into the river.

So of course, after the workshop I was really excited and wanted to put a rain garden in my yard. However, I felt a bit frustrated because I didn't know how to identify a good spot to put one. 

Raging mini-river during downpour

Every time we get a heavy rainfall, the water flows between our houses like raging mini-rivers. 

The middle of the backyard turns into a swamp, and areas of mulch and dirt in my front gardens wash away. 

I clearly need a rain garden on my property... but again, where to put it. 

During a storm last summer, I paid close attention to how the water flows through our yard, and where it comes from. As I watched these mini-rivers flow between our houses, it gave me a good idea of spots I could put a rain garden, and I had one particular spot in mind.
 
I planned to do install a rain garden last year but alas, there were too many things on my plate. Also, I was nervous to build it because I couldn't visualize exactly what to do. Well, it turns out I'm lucky I waited.

Swampy backyard (bad photo, taken through a screen)

This spring, I found out my city offers a program that helps residents design and plan their rain garden. They even offer up to $500 in grant money to help pay for the project. Woohoo! That's all the inspiration I need.

So off to another workshop I went, with follow up design sessions this time. They had professional designers in the sessions to help figure out where to put the rain garden and help design it. I came out of the design sessions with the location and size of the rain garden, as well as the start of a design plan. I'm glad I waited; the location I had in mind last year would not have worked well. 

Location for rain garden

Before we start digging (hubby will be helping with this project), they will come out and stake everything and tell us exactly what we need to do. Then, before we start planting, they will come out and make sure we did everything right. It doesn't get much easier than that.

The next steps are to come up with my plant list and finish my design (when I'm finished, I will share). Then in a few weeks, the designers will come out to stake, and we can start digging. I can't wait! 

I feel confident that installing this rain garden will work wonders in my swampy backyard, slow down the mini-rivers, and help keep the runoff from flowing to the street and into the Minnesota river.

I will definitely keep you posted on the progress of my rain garden. Anyone have experience installing a rain garden, any advice?

The spot for my rain garden is at the top of this picture

Follow my progress:
1. June 30, 2012 - Rain Garden Plan Complete
2. June 5th, 2012 - Rain Garden Progress
3. July 16th, 2012 - Rain Garden DONE!

 

Spring Houseplant Care

Pathos houseplant

Spring is an important time for houseplants, it's the beginning of their active growing season.

Most houseplants go into a dormant state in the winter, where their growth slows or stops all together.

In the spring, they start to wake up from their winter rest. This is the perfect time to give them some extra attention.  

Here are some tips for spring houseplant care...

• It's time for spring cleaning, and your houseplants are no exception. Dust settles on the foliage of houseplants just like it does on furniture. Cleaning the foliage helps the plants look better and stay healthy. Rinse the foliage with a gentle spray either from the garden hose or in the sink or shower (don't rinse hairy-surfaced plants).

• Spring is the best time to repot houseplants. Repotting a houseplant will stimulate new growth and give the plant plenty of room to grow. But don't just automatically repot your houseplants every spring, only repot plants that need it. If you don't know how to tell when a plant needs to be repotted, read this post... Tips for Repotting Houseplants.

Pot bound houseplant

• Many houseplants benefit from being outside during the summer. Houseplants should be slowly acclimated to the outdoors to avoid sun and wind damage. Don't leave them out overnight until the nighttime temperatures are consistently above 50F.

• Houseplants don't need as much water during the winter as they do in their active growing period. Begin watering more frequently in the spring to help wake up your houseplants and stimulate new growth. Now is also a good time to add slow release fertilizer granules to your houseplants. If you use a liquid fertilizer, start with a weak dose, and slowly increase it to full strength by summer. 

Granular and liquid fertilizers

• April showers bring May flowers, and those showers also benefit our houseplants. Rain water is the best type of water to use on potted plants. If you don't own a rain barrel, I highly recommend getting one. There are many benefits of rain barrels, and using the water for your houseplants is one of them.

• Over the winter, some of your houseplants may have developed weak and leggy growth. Trim back houseplants now to remove weak growth, and encourage new growth. Spring is also a great time to propagate your houseplants by rooting the cuttings or dividing the root ball.

• Give them some air. On warm spring days, open the windows near your houseplants to give them some fresh air and humidity. 

Giving your houseplants a little extra TLC in the spring helps them look their best. So kick off their active growing season right this spring. Your houseplants will thank you for it.

Various houseplants

Building a Squash Arch

As I mentioned in my vegetable garden plan post a few weeks ago, I'm planning to grow as much vertically as I can this year. For my squash, I planned to add an arch over the center path.

I got this idea from a reader. She wrote me an email a few months ago sharing a few pictures of her gardens. One of them was a pumpkin arch she made out of cattle panel fencing. (It's the last picture in this post.) I loved it so much, I decided to make my own arch this year. I don't know where to buy cattle panel fencing. But I've heard it's really heavy and you need a truck to transport it.

Fencing and PVC for arch

I don't have a truck, so I decided to try making a similar arch out of left over fencing I already had.

Originally, I was going to build it the same way I built my supports for the beans and cucumbers.

But the fencing I had isn't strong enough to hold up heavy squash on it's own around the top of the arch.

So we (my husband helped me with this project) decided to add PVC piping to support it.

It was extremely easy to put this arch together.

We laid out the fencing and weaved the PVC into the fencing.
 

Weaved PVC into fencing to support squash arch

Next, we pounded stakes into the ground to hold the arch in place.

I have some black spray paint in the garage and I plan to paint the PVC pipes so they blend in better.

I would have painted them before putting this together if I would have thought of it, oh well.

The squash arch is a little shorter than I was hoping.

I had to make it short enough to fit under the greenhouse.

Once squash starts to hang down, it might be difficult to walk through, but this is just an experiment I'm trying this year. If I end up loving it, I'll make any necessary modifications I need to next year.

Squash arch

I'm super excited about this arch, I think it will help me keep the squash from taking over the garden. It will also make harvesting the squash easy, and it's a great feature in the garden. I can't wait to see it covered in squash. What do you think of my new squash arch?

Squash arch

Updated Aug 15, 2012 - Here is a picture of the arch now that it's covered with squash. Amazing!

Squash arch covered by squash

Winter Sowing Status Report #7

Ive slowed down on winter sowing this week because I've been busy planting the cold weather vegetable seedlings. The timing worked out great because I was almost out of containers. I was able to wash and reuse the containers from the seedlings I planted for some of the seeds I sowed this week.

We've had below freezing temperatures the last few nights so I covered everything, including my sprouting winter sown containers. As far as I can tell, everything survived just fine.

Here's a list of what I winter sowed this week...

Winter sown containers

• Cinnamon Basil
• Lemon Basil
• Sweet Basil
• Coleus
• Scarlet Queen Zinnia
• Zinnia mix
• Candy Cane Zinnia
• Oklahoma Pink Zinnia
• Polar Bear Zinnia
• Purple Basil

That's 10 more containers for me, making my total for this season 143. I think I'm done, but there may be a few more stragglers. We'll see.

At this point, most of my containers are sprouting.

Sprouting winter sown containers

Here's the latest...

• Cherry tomato
• Early Girl tomato
• Tomitillo
• Marigolds
• Sunflowers
• Celosea
• Peppermint
• Peppers

The winter sowing FREE seed giveaway has been a huge hit this year! Thank you for playing along, it's been a ton of fun. The number of containers sown by you so far is 677!

I have one more drawing to do! I'll be doing the last drawing for FREE seeds this Monday, April 16th. That will give you through the weekend to get those seeds sown. You have until 5pm CST, Monday April 16th to enter your name for the last drawing (you can post your counts/entries in the comments below). I will choose a winner via random.org and announce the winner next week.

FREE seeds to one lucky winner!

Keep those blog posts and container counts coming! There are several ways you can win (even if you're not winter sowing) -- read this blog post for more details... Free Seed Giveaway

 In case you missed them, here are links to my previous winter sowing status reports:

Winter Sowing Status Report #1
Winter Sowing Status Report #2
Winter Sowing Status Report #3
Winter Sowing Status Report #4
Winter Sowing Status Report #5
Winter Sowing Status Report #6

What's New In The Greenhouse

A lot has happened since I posted an update about my greenhouse a month ago. Spring has sprung much faster this year than normal. With all the warm weather we had in March, I was starting to feel like the greenhouse was unnecessary. But it is spring in Minnesota, and Mother Nature did not disappoint. We've had frost the last few mornings, and next week it could get below freezing overnight. Did I mention how much I love my greenhouse?

Venting the greenhouse

Everyone told me I'd have to worry more about the greenhouse getting too hot than too cold. They were right! I've had to vent it almost every day for the last month. It still amazes me how hot it gets in there.  It was in the 70F's and 80F's outside for a week in March, so had to open both ends of the greenhouse to keep it cool (it was 120F in the greenhouse the first morning I went to vent it!). Even with the ends open, it was 20F+ degrees warmer in the greenhouse than outside on sunny days.

Raised beds in greenhouse

Over the last month, I've been busy planning the garden and preparing for planting. I built raised beds with cold frame covers so I can give my warm weather seedlings extra protection on those freezing nights. I also built some cool new supports for my beans and cucumbers. All that's left is to start planting.

Seedlings planted in raised bed

During a normal spring, the cold weather vegetables can be planted in the garden mid-April.

The warm weather vegetables can't safely be planted in the garden until mid-May.

But with my greenhouse, I've already started planting the cold weather vegetables.

Squash, cucumbers and a few other seedlings

I plan to start planting some of the warmer weather vegetables soon too, starting with the squash and cucumbers (they'll be outgrowing their containers soon.

I am so excited to see what a difference the greenhouse makes on my crops this year.

Normally, I don't plant squash and cucumbers until the end of May/early June.

Wow, this is great!

Oh, and we had our first big storm a few weeks ago. High winds with lots of rain, and the greenhouse stood up just fine. There is one spot where some water pooled on top, that will need to be tightened up. I was very nervous during the storm; the greenhouse was flopping all over the place. But it's stronger than it looks, and now I can rest easy.

I'm still waiting on several of my winter sown containers to sprout, they better hurry up before I run out of seedlings to plant. Huh, what a strange concept... waiting anxiously for the seedlings to grow so I can plant them. Normally I'm overwhelmed with seedlings busting out of their containers, and I can't plant them fast enough. Ahhh, I like it this way much better! What will I do with all my time at the end of May?

Inside the greenhouse

2012 Vegetable Garden Planning

Last year I wrote a post about planning the vegetable garden. In that post, I shared my vegetable garden plans from the last three years. Well, I thought I would share my plan for this year's garden too...

2012 Garden Plan

This years theme is trying to utilize as much space as possible. I built new arch trellises for my beans and cucumbers, and a large arch for my squash. This way I will be able to plant cold weather vegetables under the arches, and harvest those before the climbers are mature. I will also be able to get my second crops of these cold weather vegetables planted earlier under the shade of the climbers.

I'm going to take garden planning into my other gardens this year too. I have never planned a flower garden bed before, so it will be fun. I have some thinning that needs to be done in my large garden bed and I'm planning a new bed in the front.

My large perennial bed

I will fill the new bed with plants I thinned from the large perennial garden. First, I will make a list of all the plants that need to be thinned, then I will be able to come up with a plan. I will share that plan with all of you once it's done, and of course I will share the results of my planning once the bed is all planted. I can't wait to start planning.

I'm thinking I should get some graph paper and attempt to start drawing these plans to scale. I haven't used graph paper since high school. Anyone else use graph paper - any tips?

Whew, it's going to be a busy summer... but that's nothing unusual.

Free Seed Giveaway #4 - And the Winner Is...

I just did the drawing for the fourth winner of FREE seeds in my winter sowing seed giveaway. Thanks to everyone who participated in this round, it's been fun to see what everyone has been sowing. The number of containers sown by all of us so far is... 810

Holy cow!! That's more than twice the number we did during last year's giveaway. Woohoo!

Free seeds from drawing #3 (winner's choice)

Without further ado, the winner of this drawing for FREE seeds is...

Chelle

Congratulations!!! I will be in touch.




If you didn't win this time, be sure to sign up again for the next drawing. I'll be doing one more drawing in the next few weeks.  The entries start over between each drawing, so be sure to keep those winter sowing numbers and blog post entries coming!

**Don't forget, there are several ways you can enter to win the free seeds. You can win whether you're winter sowing or not. Read about the details of this contest in my free seeds contest post. Each one of your container counts and blog entries posted now through the next drawing (date TBD, I'll announce it soon) will count!**

Raised Bed With Cold Frame

Last year, I put my cold frame to use and ended up loving it. I also built a couple of temporary raised beds because a few of my vegetables weren't growing very well.

Wood raised garden bed

This spring, I was planning on building some additional cold frames and raised beds.

Rather than building these as separate pieces, I planned to incorporate a cold frame right into the raised bed by building a top for it.

I wanted something quick to assemble and easy to store.

Drill hole for wire frame

Now that I have the greenhouse, I don't need as many cold frames as I was originally planning.

But I still wanted to add a few cold frames inside the greenhouse.

This will give my warm weather vegetables an an extra layer of protection against the cold spring nights.

Completed wire for the cold frame arch

My husband built the boxes for me, and helped me come up with an idea for the cold frame tops.

We were going to try something with PVC piping, but it was too rigid to bend over the narrow box.

We had some heavy wire in the garage, so we decided to see if that would work.

Plastic over wire frame

We drilled holes in the top of each side of the wood frame to hold the wire in place.

Then we arched the wire over the box and put it into the holes.

Once the frame was done, I simply wrapped the wire arches in plastic.

I used small metal clamps to hold the plastic in place.

The metal pieces are easy to pop in and out of the frame whenever I need to.

Securing the plastic over the frame

These metal arches will double as row covers once the plastic comes off.

The best part is that the cold frame tops didn't cost me anything, I reused materials we already had.

It was nice that I didn't have to worry about building a sturdy top for these cold frames.

If  I was going to use them outside, I would have secured the plastic to the metal frame better.

I also would have weighed the plastic down around the bottom. For now, these work great for what I need.