Long awaited update!

So sorry for the long pause between posts, past few weeks have been yet again busy with work and family! All is well though, been going strong with the garden. I spent a lot of time over the weekend clearing out weeds from both the front and back yards and started moving some perennials around. Some excitement during the week included receiving my Top Hat blueberry plants, I potted them up right away and they are currently in quarantine outside on my deck. I don't really plan on bringing them inside but just in case it gets cold I might have to. Below are some shots of the backyard raised beds. I finally got around to building my pea trellis and they appear to be doing well.

Top Hat Blueberries

Rainbow Lights Swiss Chard

The 4x4 raised bed with broccoli (2), kale (2), two rows of peas (early & mid season), pak choi, onions, and garlic

From the other side, the onions have really started to take off! No sign of the garlic though.

Perennial bed: Boyne and Heritage raspberries, red currant bush, rhubarb, and strawberries

Unknown squash seeds given to me by a friend.

My potato experiment with some russian blue potatoes, I'm planting these in big tubs that I will use to "hill" up the spuds.

Here they are chitting away.

Here are some of the tomatoes and the borage which is getting big!

Recently transplanted basil and flowers

The tomato shelf!

The first harvest of the season, a fist full of kale!

The result went well with some leftover chicken and brown rice, yum!

Early Birthday Present

So I finally set up my early birthday present...I'm so spoiled...I love my new potting room and my new seedling rack!!! It's from Costco, steel with 6 shelves and came with casters. Maybe a little much for right now but lots of room to add more lights...hehe...maybe next year. I transplanted some of my tomatoes, almost all of them came up which is nice since most of the seeds were purchased last year.

The new potting room...all mine. I'm adding a white board and calendar...oh and a stereo.

The new seed rack....yeah!!!

Long Time No Blog

I have definitely been overdue for a blog entry, I blame my basement which has turned into a time and money pit this past month. We have progressed leaps and bounds so I can't say I'm not more than thrilled. My seeds have not been ignored though, I have been planting and transplanting here and there. With the new basement, my husband was so kind to give me a potting room, well half a room more like it (the other half is his bike storage). I moved my light setup down there and I now have an old desk which now houses my potting bin, garden books, and all my seed starting supplies. The room is unfinished with a concrete floor which is nice so I can make a bit of a mess and not have to worry too much about it. Now on to the seedlings:

Borage seedlings - a lot bigger than I thought they would be!

Orange bell peppers and mini bell peppers (started in vermiculite)

Summer savory...I'm interested to see what this tastes like.

Bright lights swiss chard (red, yellow, and pink).

Thyme are doing well, starting to bush out nicely.

Cilantro and tumbler tomatoes, I will transplant these tonight.

Seeds started in vermiculite, I need to transplant these now.

Thyme for Thinning...hehe

The past week I've been occupied by our basement, it's coming along nicely and it's finally time to paint...now that all the drywall dust is gone. As for my plants, all appears to be well. I finally reached the point where I had to thin the thyme. I thought I did a good job at only sowing a few seeds per peat pellet, apparently I overestimated my accuracy, but now they have some more room. I thinned to 2 to 3 per peat pellet which should give me more than enough thyme for fresh eating and drying.


My sweet peas have taken off, now I see how they like to vine out...I'm going to have to transplant them soon and give them something to climb. Hopefully the spring like weather sticks around for good so I can get an early start to outdoor planting. The broccoli and kale are doing well, some good growth going and they are staying nice and stocky. This weekend I will be planting some parsley, rosemary, and purple coneflower.


The bulbs are doing great, three daffodils have bloomed and the grape hyacinth is still going. Some of the tulips are starting to come up too which is exciting!!!

Presents!!!

Well, not really presents, but my order from Stokes Seeds came in today. I opened the door to take my dog out for a walk and sitting there were 2 large boxes. First I opened my Tidy Tray, I'm very impressed with the size, a lot bigger than I was expecting (I used Leah as a comparison). The kitchen compost bucket is bigger than I expected too but I'm happy with the fact that I now have compostable bags, enough to last me quite awhile. My cats for some reason seem to enjoy the smell of the Sea Magic...hmmm...fish perhaps??? They also seem to think the Tidy Tray is an extra large cat litter box...I'll have to keep this away from them.


My little thyme plants are up and appear to be okay, they are so small!!! That was about a 3 day germination rate...wow...the packet said 14-28 days. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bag thing yet, we'll see I guess. I am going to transplant my broccoli tonight (using my new Tidy Tray of course) since one of them it starting to lean over. I'll move them into 4 inch pots and use a potting soil with some fertilizer in it, about time they had some food.

Cat Grass

I planted some cat grass back on Feb. 25th and it has now started sprouting. Not too exciting since it is only grass, but hopefully it will interest my cats and keep them away from my sprouting bulbs.

The broccoli has decided to shoot up like a rocket these past few days. I'm happy with how the kale is looking, nice sturdy short plants. I hope the broccoli will be okay, I might need to transplant them soon to their own 4 inch pots to give them more room. I have moved this cell pack to under the big light now and the cat grass has moved to the fish tank. I'm thinking of giving in an buying a second light this weekend from Home Depot, I think I'll be needing it soon enough.

More Seeds...

Today while in Home Depot buying more basement supplies, I perused the seed displays. I decided to try my hand at starting some herbs and some more flowers, here's what I walked away with:

• Rosemary (Mr. Fothergill's)
• Parsley (Mr. Fothergill's)
• Thyme (Mr. Fothergill's)
• Purple Coneflower (Mr. Fothergill's)
• Purple Prince Zinnia (Johnsons)

I need some more purple coneflower for my new landscape plan this spring and read that they are pretty easy to start from seed. So this will be my first experiment with starting my own perennials from seed. If all fails, there's always the nursery!!!

Today I'm going to plant some more broccoli and a bunch of the thyme. I ordered some things I've had my eye on for awhile from Stokes: Tidy Tray (in great need of this), Sea Magic seaweed fertilizer, pea and bean trellis mesh, and a new compost bucket for the kitchen with a bunch of compostable biobags. I might order some goodies from Lee Valley Tools, I really want a soil thermometer and heating mat for my seeds...oh and I'll soon be need another grow light. Too many things to buy...too little extra $$$ sitting around to do it!!!

Snow...finally!!!

The weather this week looks like Christmas decided to finally show up...loads of snow!!! Good thing I didn't have to go anywhere this weekend so I can enjoy it from the warmth of my front bedroom. Today was thinning day, I finally thinned my broccoli since they now have their set of first true leaves. I was worried about choosing the weakest ones to snip, I just went by stem thickness instead of height. I also split up my two kale since my other cell of kale didn't amount to much, now they all have some more room to grow. I also finally bought a dual timer for my lights so now both setups are good to go (fish tank and larger setup).

I also ordered some fun plants from Spring Garden yesterday: 2 Top Hat Blueberry Plants, 1 Ozark Beauty Strawberry Kit, and 1 Dwarf Banana Plant.

This is the Top Hat Blueberry Plant which is supposed to be a small container blueberry bush, I'm excited to see if they really get this abundant. I bought 2 just in case they needed another one to set fruit. The dwarf banana tree just looked so cute I had to try it out, they claim it will actually produce mini bananas!!! Even if mine don't, I think it's a really nice indoor tropical looking plant. My bulbs are looking good and some of the grape hyacinth are starting to flower!!! They already look pretty, white tops with deep purple bottoms, can't wait to see them in full bloom.

Sunny Days

This weekend has turned out to be pretty nice weather wise, when the sunny is shining I feel like Spring is just around the corner. My bulbs are coming along nicely, I tried growing a few daffodils in some gravel without soil and it's actually working to my surprise. This weekend has been busy as we are finishing our basement and the drywall is going up. This meant I had to move my seed starting setup back upstairs to the front bedroom, not a big deal since now I don't have to go down into the basement to check on the little seedlings. The broccoli and kale are coming along nicely although the one cell of kale doesn't see to be doing anything. I might end up not thinning the kale and using both seedlings. I'm doing some more research on this lunar planting stuff, I might try it out. Next weekend I'm hoping to get out to Lee Valley Tools and pick up some goodies!!!

Broccoli!!!

My four broccoli seeds that I planted on the 15th have now all sprouted and I'm going to be moving them to my fish tank tonight. No sign from the kale yet but maybe they're just a bit slow. I think I'm going to attempt starting the next batch of seeds in vermiculite just to try something new. Lots of life from the bulbs I'm forcing which is promising, green leaves and stems appearing everywhere!!!

Brassicas and Bulbs

I completed my first plantings today, two kale and two broccoli in a cell pack. I'm basing my planting schedule off of a last frost date of May 9th for my area. I have a bunch of cloches from last year so even if the cold lingers around a few weeks past this date I should be ready to compensate. Also, my bulbs that I'm forcing indoors have sprouted and seem to be doing well. You can already see the flower heads of the Muscari latifolium (Grape Hyacinths) starting to form. I planted quite a few pots of bulbs and most have started to show signs of life, I'm looking forward to having some color this early in the year.

Setup

I finally got around to setting up my seed starting setup in my basement. Last year I built a small "greenhouse" out of scrap wood and vapor barrier to use with my florescent light. This year I decided to try another route and go with the easier setup of adjusting the light instead of the seed trays themselves within the greenhouse. I'm also going to make use of my old fishtank again too. I haven't planted anything yet but that is on my list of things to do this weekend. I'm going to start some broccoli and kale, I found an old seed packet in my garage of kale so I'm going to try it again. I didn't have much luck last year with the kale, I think mostly due to the fact that I planted it too late and ended up with really small plants, but they tasted alright!!! I've almost got my planting schedule and garden scheme ready but they still need a few tweaks. I'm trying to be as efficient as possible with my limited garden space but there are just so many things I want to try!!! I'm definitely going to try out the garbage bag potatoes, I did some more research on them last night and I think it should be relatively easy....fingers crossed.

Signs of Life!

While cleaning out my garage this afternoon to get my seed starting supplies in order, I came across the pots that I planted in the fall with various bulbs. I had totally forgotten about them since they've been hidden behind one of the cars. To my surprise a bunch have already started to sprout!!! I haven't grown bulbs before so I was quite excited to see these guys popping through, although, I'm not sure if they are supposed to be coming up this early since it's only February. Oh well, these little bits of green made my day!!!

2010 Seed List - Revised

So today I went out and completed my seed list by buying my early peas and broccoli. I decided to go with Alaska Peas (McKenzie) and Munchkin Broccoli (McKenzie), which is the same broccoli I grew last year. The package says it's a dwarf plant which only grows to 1 ft however I vividly remember mine growing to at least 2 to 2.5 ft tall....crazy.

I'm going to try a few annuals this year too, here's my list:sunflower (Dorado - OSC)

• morning glory (Mixed Colors - OSC)
• sweet peas (Royal Family Mixed Colors - OSC)
• nemophilla (Penny Black - McKenzie)

I have some seeds left over from last year which probably won't do much but I'll give them a try anyways:alyssum (Carpet of Snow, Royal Carpet - OSC)

• bachelor buttons (OSC Mixed Colors - OSC)
• nasturtium (Dwarf Jewel Mixed - OSC)
• red columbine (collected from plants I bought)
• milkweed (from my Wings of Paradise Monarch Kit)

The Penny Black looked really interesting, it's a low growing plant with lots of little flowers that are deep purple, almost black with a white boarder. They looked really unique so I thought I'd try them out.

2010 Seed List

My seed list this year is comprised of some from last year which either I never got around to trying out or just didn't do so well. Seeds from last year include:carrot (Baby Finger - OSC)

• eggplant (Black Beauty - OSC)
• summer squash (Sunburst Hybrid - McKenzie)
• watermelon (Sugar Baby - McKenzie)
• zucchini (Dark Green - OSC)
• tomatoes (Golden Queen, Sweet Cherry, Roma, Christmas Grape, Bush Beefsteak - McKenzie)
• peppers (Long Red Cayenne, Orange Sun - OSC)
• spinach (Emilia F1 - Mr. Fothergill's)
• pak choi (White Petiole - Mr. Fothergill's)
• edamame (Butterbeans - Mr. Fothergill's)
• bush beans (Andante - Johnsons)
• pole beans (Scarlet Funner - OSC)

New picks for this year include:swiss chard (Bright Lights - OSC)

• lettuce (Ruby Red, Salad Bowl - OSC)
• cucumber (Marketmore - OSC)
• cantaloupe (Lil'loupe - OSC)
• peas (Homesteader - OSC)
• pepper (Mini Bell Mixed - McKenzie)
• tomato (Tumbler F1 Hybrid Trailing - McKenzie)
• pumpkin (Small Sugar - McKenzie)
• beet (Early Wonder - McKenzie)

I still need to pick up a packet of early season peas and broccoli. I might try out some transplants from the local nurseries if anything catches my eye.

First Post

I'll keep my first post short and sweet. Last year was my first year of home gardening and I jumped in both feet first. This year my enthusiasm for my backyard garden has carried over and is the same if not more. I kept a gardening journal to keep track of everything but decided to take a more modern approach this year through this blog. Wish me luck!