more flowers

Planted Isaac's marigolds in the front of his playhouse, red sunflowers for a "fence" in the back of it, and then we planted the first row of giant sunflowers that will hopefully shade the tomatoes. Put eggplant out as well. Pulled the peas out. It is getting up into the 80's now. I'm not sure my broccoli or cabbage will make it.

more spring stuff

• Another delicious lettuce, arugula, and radish salad today.
• I planted zinnias around my vegetable garden. Tiny seedlings and seeds. In two months or so, should have beautiful flowers.
  
• A bird is making a nest in a tree in our backyard--with my shredded paper mulch! I am so pleased.
  
• I put bush bean and cilantro seeds in the ground today.
  
• I noticed the bush beans I planted before are sprouting. Borage has also sprouted.
  
• The tomatoes and tomatillo are growing fast.
  
• The coneflower looks so comfortable, all tucked into its mulchy bed. I am really looking forward to seeing what they look like in a few months.
  
• I have tons of flower seeds to plant, so that the backyard is ablaze with blooms from early summer to frost.
  

garden update

A brief update:

• Lettuce, arugula, & radishes harvested yesterday. Isaac had so much fun cutting the leaves of the letture and arugula. Very tasty.
• Coneflower white swan bed prepped and planted with my precious little seedlings started all the way back in February. I am hoping for a very low-maintenance, cheerful little bed there. Read the description from Park.
  
• The arugula is growing so fast that I anticipate another harvest tomorrow, along with the lettuce on the front porch that has VERY quickly grown back! And some radishes too.
• I wonder if I'm picking my radishes a tad on the early side? They are very small but very tasty.
  
• I planted another small lettuce planting today (Burpee heatwave looseleaf type). I guess I will make one more small planting this spring, and after that, I think it will be too hot for even heat-resistent lettuce.
  
• I'm reading The New Victory Garden by Bob Thomson and am getting all kinds of good ideas from him. It's a very thorough book.
  
• I'll be planting melons and cucumbers soon. Starting gourds. Planting squash and pumpkins. And planting tons of low-maintenance annual flowers in the backyard.
  

It's very cool to look out the window and see so many plants out in my garden. I can't believe that this is real. It's been a dream of mine for so long.

Weekend Projects

Today, I went and bought landscape fabric to cover my little coneflower bed. I plan to rake off the mulch and paper, fertilize and add soil, put down the fabric, cut slits and plant my little seedlings (20). Then, I plan to put paper over the patch right next to the sidewalk where the grass grows extremely vigorously (will already have landscape fabric on it) and put a rubber mulch strip down on top of that. I am hoping that this will be a very, very low maintenance bed!

A couple of pink tulips are blooming. I'm not real happy with the tulips. They seem to be a mix that blooms at all different times, so I won't get a big mass bloom. I may cut off the leaves after they bloom and start with a new mix next year.

I think I'm going to go ahead and plant the peppers out tomorrow.

I've got to put one shasta daisy and one banana pepper seedling in peat pots.

I really want to plant some flowers. I have some ideas for a row of flowers around the edges of my vegetable garden space. I don't know how much I'll be able to get to until next weekend.

The shasta daisies got really unhappy in my seed starters, and I had to move them all to peat pots in a potting mix. The coneflower is still in my seed starter, looking very happy and healthy. I hope it remains so out in its new home.

I bought a new plant friend today, a greek oregano plant, at Lowe's. I originally tried to grow oregano from seed with little success. And then I read that its best to buy a young plant because you can't reliably grow a really tasty oregano from seed--each plant will taste a little differently. Also, I had plain oregano seeds, and Greek oregano is supposed to be the best for cooking. All according to Ed Smith of the The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, anyway.

I'll have to get a new clay pot for it. My perinneal herb collection now includes:

• peppermint
• spearamint
• sage
  
• garlic chives
• chives
• St. Johns Wort
• oregano

I got a nice new load of garden books at the library today. I wish I were less tired so I could stay up and read them. I have water my houseplants before I crash.

The Self-Sufficient Suburban Gardener by Jeff Ball

Title: The Self-Sufficient Suburban Gardener
Author: Jeff Ball

Review: I found this book at the library. I thought the title was a bit overly ambitious, but I took it home anyway, and I really liked it. It has many ideas for growing most of ones own produce in the backyard. Many of the ideas he presents (raised beds, crop rotation, successive planting) are very much in vogue right now. The author's tone is pleasant and practical. One thing that strikse me funny is how gardening authors talk about how cheaply gardening can be done (but, of course, they themselves invest a sizable sum of money into their garden). Ball is no exception to this.

My only major criticism of the book is the chapter on backyard agriculture (bees, bunnies, and chickens). It's a purely speculative chapter with no personal experience to back up the ideas, nor any interviews with people who have. My husband's family did try the bunny thing one year (on their hobby farm), and let's just say that killing bunnies wasn't much fun for my husband's dad. I just think the author could have reduced that chapter to a paragraph, since it didn't contain much practical information.

Overall, a good read.

book reviews

Since I've read so many gardening books, and I'm not stopping anytime soon, I decided to start writing reviews. Plus, tonight I am plumb out of gardening books to obsess over. I must go to the library tomorrow and replenish my supply.

winter greens

These are the fresh greens I'd like to try for this winter:

• arugula
• corn salad
  
• spinach
• claytonia
• mustard
• sprouts

I want to see how much of the year I can keep us in tasty fresh vegetables.

Tomatoes

Planted out all the rest of my tomatoes today! I may still have to protect them a couple of nights, but the forecast is actually looking warmer than it was. I am very much looking forward to some tasty tomatoes in a couple of months.

Our first harvest of the year and more photos

Picking radishes on Easter morning

Radish Pink Beauty from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Lettuce (various from Park Seed) grown in a self-watering container (Earthbox)

Washed and prepared for our Easter salad

Arugula

Broccoli

From Norfolk Botanical Garden

Onions

Good link for planting onions in the fall for those of us in zone 8:

Onion Planting

Know Before You Grow

I have found the information in the Park Seed catalog and newsletter to be extremely helpful, one reason I've bought so many seeds and supplies from them.

Their Know Before You Grow fact sheets are very helpful and can be found here:

Park Seed: Gardener Library

more

We started Isaac's basils today. He did it all himself, really. He is growing the three types of basil I bought: long leaf Italian, cinnamon, and a purple kind.

I put some protection over my tomato plants, confused about what day it was. It's actually tomorrow where it's getting down to 37. Oh, well, I guess I'll just do it again.

I need to make a database where I check of when I start things indoors, when I set them outside, , when I see sprouts, and when I harvest, especially the first 2 because I have no idea when to expect them to be ready.

first mow of the year

My husband is out mowing for the first time this year. I remember last year I was so proud when he would go out and mow on Saturdays. It just felt like we were real grownups with a real house, and we actually are.

I have taken a lot of space out of the lawn--we had plenty to spare--for my vegetable garden, so the backyard should be considerably faster now.

I planted more Pink Beauty radishes. Planted them in the Miracle Grow soil just to see if they grow differently/worse there. I am working on ammending that soil with compost and more of the soil I bought locally.

I am glad that I've been trying several varieties of different plants because I learn so much that way and feel like I have a higher chance of success. If all I planted was the Sparkler radishes, for instance, in that one spot, I would be very disappointed in radishes in general.

I am disappointed in carrots. I am getting A FEW carrots in one of my local-soil beds, but the original ones I planted disappeared. I have harvested NO CARROTS yet, although I have planted them several times. I will keep trying, and if all else fails, I will grow some baby ones in an Earthbox next spring.

Tonight is supposed to be cold, so I will have to protect my tomatoes. And then we have only one more cold night forecast--April 23. We'll see. Unless the forecast changes, I won't plant out any more tomatoes or peppers until then.

I put away my grow lights, since I'm just setting my seedlings out every morning and bringing them in at night.

My aluminum plant cutting appears to be developing some roots. I did not buy root powder for it, since that was $5, and young aluminum plants are quite cheap.

work before the storm

Showers forecast for tonight--I am always happy about that.

I got some work done today, since my husband had a little time off. I am preparing the garden along our back fence. I put cardboard down, and then shredded paper, and then a thin layer of cedar mulch for aesthetics. It doesn't completely cover the shredded paper, but it makes it look better. I am done with half of it, have another half to do. I think it will look fine once I have lots of flowers growing.

I had started some lettuce seedlings, and Isaac happily helped me plant those.

I have decided to go head with harvesting my Earthbox lettuce for Easter lunch. Hopefully, it will grow again. Next year, I will be sure and start lots of greens much earlier. I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep us in arugula and claytonia (if we like it--haven't tried claytonia) all winter.

Now, we are concentrating on starting flower seedlings. Easy things that could be self-sown, but I find I don't have the patience to go out and water seedlings for 2 weeks. It's much easier to use peat pellets and just pull off that plastic netting stuff, and then plant them out before a rain is expected.

I'm afraid that 2 of my chive seedlings died--set them out too early. I guess I will try again! It is ridiculous growing chives from seed--I know it's ridiculous, but I can't stop myself.

Cow Pots

CowPots sound kind of cool. I might buy some to start seeds in next year. They do seem quite a bit more expensive than peat pots, but better for the environment, so I don't know. I may just make newspaper pots.

Saving arugula seeds

I don't plan on sowing any more arugula until the fall, and since I'm only going one variety, the basic one, and don't have to worry about cross-pollination, I plan to save seeds from it. It sounds pretty easy:

Gardenerd: Saving Arugula Seeds

Arugula

I somehow missed this funny story about President (then Senator) Obama and arugula from 2007:

Obama talks arugula -- again -- in Iowa

I am so excited about my own arugula. I gave Isaac an arugula sprout this afternoon, and he wanted more. It shouldn't be more than a week or two when we can start eating it. It looks like I planted arugula first on March 10. So it hasn't even been a month since I planted it. I'm very impatient.

The pink beauty and saxa 2 radishes appearto grow a lot faster than my sparkler ones. I would have thought the sparklers would be ready by now. Well, I'm planning on a fresh salad for Easter, so I'll be harvesting some lettuce from my earth box and hopefully radishes from the garden too.

Tuesday night is looking really cold. I hope the newspaper that I plan to cover my tomatoes with works. The forecast is currently showing a low of 33 F.

We got a good rain today, so I'm off the hook watering for a few days at least.

It's funny that I'm doing everything so early this year when last year it was all so late.

The weekend ends

Today, I planted the rest of the cockscomb that looked alive. I won't have as much of it as I wanted, but I'll just hope that some of it comes up. I saw seedlings trying to grow in that bed. I think I will have many cosmos and zinnia "volunteers." Which is just fine. I also planted some alyssum seedlings with my son. They should be very pretty.

I need to dig out the edge of that front garden, put paper down as a weed barrier, and then cover that with a few inches of mulch. I don't know when I'll get to that. The tulips look like they are coming in strong! I imagine that they'll bloom in early May.

I had my husband try an arugula sprout that I thinned earlier today. He was actually impressed, which pleased me. (He's not easily impressed.) They do taste quite wonderful.

I'm hoping that in a week we'll have some lettuce and radishes for salads. It may be two weeks though.

My tomato plants outside have a nice color and seem to be settling in. The ones I'm keeping indoors do not look quite so happy. I put the rest of them in peat pots and am getting them ready to live outside too. Tues and Wed now are both expected to be cold nights. So Thursday or later they will go out. I'll keep the peppers and eggplants another couple of weeks.

Plants I want to try next year

I'm already thinking ahead to what I'll try next. I'm forcing myself not to buy any more seeds until I make my order for cool-season flowers and vegetables (if I need/want any more) this fall.

I want to try (that I haven't tried yet or have seeds for)

• Peanuts
• Huckleberry
• Alpine strawberries
• Pole beans
• Black-eyed peas
• Snap peas
• Spinach
• Onions from seed
• Baby Carrots
• Pattypan squash
• Mustard greens
• Okra
• Purple tomatoes
• Ornamental corn
• Claytonia
• Garlic
  

flowers and more

OK, let me say, it was a poor idea to use garden soil in my peat pots instead of potting soil. My cockscomb became very unhappy in the wet conditions, and then I let it dry out too much, and it got all wilted. Several of my seedlings died from drowning, and others died from drought. But some have prevailed. I planted several out in the garden and plan to plant more tomorrow. I hope that they will be okay on these cold nights Tues. and now Wed. But I feel like they're safer out there than they were in the poor conditions I was subjecting them to. Okay, only potting soil in containers. Yes, only potting soil in containers. (My blueberry bush is growing happily in garden soil in a container.)

I think I also prefer to use a special "moisture max" potting soil for my containers rather than the organic one I've been getting. I'm no purist.

My echinacea is still growing in my seed starter, and it looks very happy in there. I will be transferring it to peat pots soon, because I need to start getting it used to the outside world, and I need the space under the lights. Most of it can go. I will have 18 seedlings in all, which should fill up the area I have designated for it nicely. I was looking at pictures of it (coneflower white swan) on google images, and I think it will be such a lovely planting and perfect for that difficult spot next to the pavement. I hope it will smell nice as we walk by it on our way in out of the cars. My first perinnial flower to commit to...

Four of my chive seedlings are ready to go to their pot, so I will get them fixed up tomorrow. I'm ready to put St. John's Wort out there too. It is still very small.

I like the way all my clay pots look from the street. The herbs should be very striking when they bloom. The speariment looks crazy healthy. I'm glad it is so happy. The peppermint is coming in nicely too. It had a more difficult start than its cousin. It was put out in the heat of the summer and not watered enough. But it seems to have recovered from my initial neglect.

When we moved here, I wasn't so interested in flowers--only vegetables. I didn't know that most of my vegetables would be producing flowers! And my herbs. And I learned about how flowers would attract bees to my vegetables. I love the flowers that basically grow themselves, and those are the only ones I'm much interested in.

I tried some garden planning software tonight, a 45 day free trial. It was interesting, but I honestly prefer to make loose plans and then improvise.

How many plants?

Well, this is a helpful link! I don't know how accurate it is, but it is a good starting point, when trying to figure out how many vegetables to plant.

How Much to Plant Per Person in the Vegetable Garden

Found Another:

What to Grow for a Family of 4

They totally contradict each other!

Planting Schedule

The website Heirloom seeds has a really helpful planting schedule based on last frost date for spring and first frost date for fall.

Spring Planting Schedule
Fall Planting Schedule
Flower Planting Schedule

spring, spring, spring

The maple tree I planted in the front yard a few weeks ago is coming out of dormancy, as are the crabapple and dogwood in the back. I'm still waiting to see about the crape myrtles, but I did see some green on my blue rose of sharon bushes. I am so excited about those. I am going to plant shasta daisies around them, and I think they will look so beautiful in the summertime.

When my other saplings came a few weeks ago, I received 2 free forsythias from the Arbor Day Foundation. I wasn't sure I wanted them though and didn't get around to planting them. However, the forsythias around town have been so lovely this week that I regretted that. I had shoved them in the pantry, and I went to look at them, and they were coming out of dormancy. Any shrub that hardy deserves a place in my yard. So, I planted them. Hopefully, they'll be all right and produce beautiful yellow flowers next spring.

No frost forecast yet, but it is supposed to get down to 35 on Tuesday night. I'm going to investigate my options for protecting my tomatoes. This article has a lot of good ideas: Protecting Plants from Frost. I'm hoping the forecast changes by then. If it doesn't, I will try covering them with newspaper. My tomato seedlings are very small.

Speaking of that, I saw at Lowe's many large, lovely plants for planting in the garden, including large specimens of Early Girl, which I have growing. They were cheap. It made me wonder why I bothered starting my own seeds... Except that I enjoy it.

My tomato towers finally came, and I have them installed. I had bought bamboo stakes since I was convinced the towers wouldn't be here in time, so I'll have to find another use for them (shouldn't be hard).

I feel like my asparagus should be here by now. I will have to check on it.

One of my houseplants, my "aluminum plant" got very "leggy" and ugly in the low light situation that my parlor palm and spider plant do not mind. It also prefers its soil to stay moist, whereas they prefer a wet-dry cycle. I moved it upstairs to the office, where it could get more light, and I could water it more, but it is just ugly. So, I am going to root a cutting of it and then compost the poor thing. I think the dry winter air upset it. This will be my first attempt at rooting a cutting.

So much waiting! Waiting for asparagus crowns, waiting for spring vegetables to grow, waiting for the weather to warm to put in later plantings. I'm already planning for fall, winter, and spring as well. Thinking of naturalizing daffodils in the front lawn since my crocuses croaked/bulbs were likely eaten by squirrels. (Here's a link I liked on Naturalizing Daffodils.)

Tomatoes out in the garden

Maybe I'm crazy, but I am pretty sure we're not even going to get close to having another frost. My tomato seedlings looked unhappy, and I decided it wouldn't hurt to put one of each kind of tomato out in the garden. If they die, I have a back-up for each. If the weather stays nice, I think they'll be much better off.

I may not plant the back-up of all of them, if the ones currently out make it, especially the hybrids. I marked each with a little wooden plant tag. I guess I'm going to go to Lowes and get some stakes since my tomato towers STILL AREN'T here. I would cancel the order, but they were a good price, and I will just use them next year.

The tomatoes I planted:

Early Girl (hybrid)
Glory (hybrid)
Container Choice (hybrid, bush)
Brandywine (heirloom)
Pineapple (heirloom)
Green Zebra (heirloom)

The cherries:
Jenny (non-hybrid, yellow)
Ladybug (hybrid, red)
Snowberry (heirloom, white)

Depending on the forecast, I may plant my peppers out within the next couple of weeks, at least one of each type.

I think next year, I will probably start an early variety this early but save my mid and late season varieties to start 3-4 weeks before the last frost.