4/28 update

Well, it is Friday.

Last saturday I thinned out all my indoor seedlings. I did prick out and transplant some of the tomatoes, mini bell peppers, zinnias, and basil. They all seem to have survived the shock. Otherwise I either pulled out or cut off the seedlings to leave only 1 per cell, with the exception of the acorn squash. Usually you want to have a few of those per hill anyway, and their stems were so close I was worried that I'd kill them both trying to separate the roots. The petunias planted in the peat pots are up, and I planted some beets in the super small cells yesterday (according to victory garden you can transplant beets.)

Outside, my peas have been up for about 4 days. Some of the actual seeds had swollen and worked their way to the surface, If they sprouted already I left them where they were, if not I sort of reburied them. None of the reburied ones have come up yet.

Also my seedlings for the buttercrunch, turnip greens and a few of the spinach are up outside. The Turnip greens from last fall are growing like gangbusters, but the Kale and Spinach left over aren't doing much of anything.

I dug out about half of the Bleeding heart I want to get rid of in the front bed. They are sitting in little pots to be given away. I'll dig the rest soon, to include some to go down to mom's house, then add some compost/mulch into the bed. I want to try to interplant some cool weather crops in that bed as it is very shaded. Lettuce and some ornamental Kale I think. Then impatiens (store bought) and Nicotania (the ones from my winter sowing exp)

The winter sowing flats are doing fine. The petunias I pricked out are still doing fine. Weirdly enough the Alyssum and Marigolds all seem to have kicked off with the frost the last couple of nights, but everything else is doing fine. I should be able to start planting some of that stuff out.

The Daffodills are all up in the front beds and have been for a couple of weeks. The yellow tulips just came up about 3 days ago, and the red tulips are all just buds at this point. I noticed last night at mom's house down the hill that her red tulips were already out. Our microclimate is a bit cooler so ours are usually about a week behind.

Plans for today. Mix the soil up for the 4X8 bed, the planters, and Princess's personal little garden container.

4/22 Update

Well, yesterday the only thing I really did was to cut larger holes in my winter sowing containers. My Alyssum seems to have lost a lot of the sprouts, but everything else looks really good.

We had rain last night and this morning. It is supposed to continue all day, so that is good for the peas, turnip greens, lettuce add spinach that I direct sowed in the garden. The turnip greens that I overwintered in the garden also seem to be doing very well-they are standing up all fluffy and growing well. I may have to do that on purpose again next year to get some early greens.

Today I have to muck about with my indoor sprouts.

I also really have to dig up some of the bleeding heart from the front bed-but I'll have to wait about a day after the rain stops for the ground to dry out a bit.

4/21 Update

OK, on the 19th I transplanted some of the petunias from the winter sowing containers into little individual cells in a "greenhouse" container. They seem to be doing fine, or at least noone has died yet.

Except for the Petunias in the peat pots and a few herbs (parsley, cilantro, oregano) everything else indoors has sprouted. The tomatoes, cukes and winter squash are 2 or 3 inches tall, and probably too crowded. I need to clip off the tops of the ones I am not going to use so that there is only 1 plant per cell. It's hard though, you just got those little seeds to grow and it is hard to kill them off!

Still no luck in finding vermiculite. I have to find some soon so I can get the beds and pots together. We are also still having quite chill evenings, so I can still do some winter sowing. Since I have a good 6 weeks or so until I can plant things out at memorial day, I'm wondering if I should try winter sowing some scarlet runner beans for the planters. I'd start them inside, but I only have the one light and it is pretty much full under there. Maybe I'll try a few just to see.

4/15 planting update

Well, I planted turnip greens, spinach and lettuce out in the garden. We'll see how they do

I also added some pea brush to the pea row.

The daffodils are finally in full bloom out front.

All of my winter sowing containers have germinated. I'm trying to figure out when I plant them out. It sounds like I need to wait until there is at least 1 set of true leaves on them, then I can break off little "hunk o seedlings" and plant them directly in the garden. So maybe another week or so. I figure that with the petunias I'll space them far enough apart so that I can alternate them with the store bought ones (since they will probably grow a bit slower).

Additional indoor seeds that have germinated: The watermelon and dill have come up. It looks like 1/2 the cukes are up and all the tomatoes, zinnias, etc. The ground cherries and all three types of peppers are the slowest to germinate. no signs of life there.

I also found my instant peat pots in the little greenhouse container. (DH had hid them out in the shed) so I wet that down, and then planted them inside with petunias.

I also totally cleared the gunk yesterday out of the Hosta bed, and then today out of the Iris bed along the back house foundation. I still need to finish cleaning up the side of the house and the front bed that is up against the house.

I'm thinking that I will get rid of the rose bushes. They really don't do anything for me. I'll see if anyone wants them.

4/14 update

Yesterday I went to Frog Pond Farms and bought:

4 bags mushroom compost
3 bags cow manure compost
1 3.8cuft bale peat moss

total $21

I also bought 9 day lily bulbs, about half were stella d'oro and the others were some pretty pink and purple ones. I know the stella d'oro bloom all summer, not sure about the other two, I'll have to check online. I'm probably going to plant these at the end of the driveway. I'm especially interested in the daylillies ever since I learned the are edible. Pretty and edible-good combo!

I planted the pea seeds I had leftover from last year out in the raised bed garden. I did about 3 feet of super snappy (edible pod) and 3 feet of a mixture of early perfection and little marvel (both of which are shelling peas). I used some legume inoculant I bought for about $2 at the farm supply store down the street. There is plenty left for my beans etc.

My daffodils are starting to bloom out front! I'm lucky that the beds were planted full of daffodils, tulips and crocus when we moved in.

I also cleaned the junk out of the hosta plants on the side of the house. It looks much better now.

Today I'm going to see about planting a few more things in winter sowing containers outside. I know that it isn't winter any more, but since they are basically little greenhouses, it should give some ornamental kale and runner beans a nice start. It is sort of an experiment, so we'll see.

4/13 Germinated Seeds

In the last 2 days the following seeds have germinated:

Cherry Tomatoes
Marmande Tomatoes
Jenny Lind Melons
Straight 8 and National Pickling Cukes
Basil
Summer Savory

I also purchased 6 cedar 1/2 barrels yesterday. I plan on stacking them on top of each other to make tall planters for melon and squash. The plan is that they will cascade down the barrels and not have to sprawl across my limited lawn.

I also purchased additional petunia seeds.

Outside even more of my winter sown seeds have germinated. Even the petunias have sprouts coming up.

4/13 Germinated Seeds

In the last 2 days the following seeds have germinated:

Cherry Tomatoes
Marmande Tomatoes
Jenny Lind Melons
Straight 8 and National Pickling Cukes
Basil
Summer Savory

I also purchased 6 cedar 1/2 barrels yesterday. ($17 each) I plan on stacking them on top of each other to make tall planters for melon and squash. The plan is that they will cascade down the barrels and not have to sprawl across my limited lawn.

I also purchased additional petunia seeds. ($1.84) and 6 tall bamboo poles ($1)

Outside even more of my winter sown seeds have germinated. Even the petunias have sprouts coming up.

4/10 germinated seeds

Well, I checked my flats a few minutes ago and I have seedlings coming up in my zinnia and Teddy Bear Sunflower flats! Yeah! So I turned the shop light on, took the cover off them and put them under the light.

No sign of life on anything else there

My winter sown plants seem to be coming up and surviving despite the very cold evenings. I'm considering doing a few scarlet runner beans and kale, and maybe a very few lettuce and spinach to see if it will give me a little jump on the garden (it is still too cold and wet to put them out) Then again, maybe I should just wait a week and plant straight in the garden.

Dh built me another bed on the end of my 4X8 bed that I already had. So I just doubled my garden space. Yeah! Now I just need to get the compost, peatmoss and vermiculite to mix up for the soil.

Daffodils are up with big flower buds out front. The tulips are up, but no buds yet. I also noticed that the bleeding heart is coming up in the front bed-I may dig some up and try to pot it for sale or gifting-I really don't want that little bed completely overun by bleedingheart again this year. . .

Starting Seeds 4-6-06

Well, I finally started some seeds. We set up the laundry room with a shop light and table, probably enough for 4 small flats of seedlings to be under.

I used the Ferry Morse Seed Starting mix, firmed down into the containers, then the seeds were laid on top and covered with a fine layer of milled spaghnum peat moss. Per the suggestion in "The Victory Garden" I am bottom watering the pots-they are all sitting in basins of water soaking it up. The first ones sown have been sitting in there for at least a couple of hours and the top isn't damp yet. We'll see how long it takes!

Once they are all damp, I will pop the covers on (I bought little "greenhouse" things from the dollar store) and keep the covers on until some of the seeds germinate. I planted some of them rather heavily because some of the seeds are old. I figured I'd up my chance of germination. . . .

Here is what I planted:

in 2 1/2" cells
Tomatoes-cherry and grand marmande (a beefsteak type)
Peppers-Candlelight (hot/ornamental) Mini Red Bell, Golden Marconi
Jenny Lind Melon (scroll down to "melons")
Ground Cherries (scroll down)
Dwarf Sungold (Teddy Bear) Sunflower
Acorn Squash (Table Queen)
Watermelon (Sugar Baby)
Lilliput Zinnias
Cucumbers (Straight 8, National Pickling)


in 1" cells
Oregano
Extra Curled Dwarf Parsley
Sweet Basil
Long Island Mammoth Dill
Cilantro
Summer Savory

I will put a small blurb down when each one comes up.

Winter sowing update

Well, there are seed leaves sprouted on my marigolds, dwarf petunias and alyssum. They all seem ok, even though it has been snowing for the last 2 days on and off. The regular petunias don't seem to be doing anything yet.