watching my plants grow

Every day, I check my little plants. The lettuce in the Earth Box is looking pretty tasty. I imagine we'll have some great harvests of that in about a month.

My tomato seedlings aren't looking the greatest. I think I am overwatering so will watch that. Next year, I will not start them until about March 15th.

Peppers continue to look nice.

My broccoli seems happy planted out in a bed.

Very excited about the arugula. I keep eating the thinnings, and they are so damn tasty.

My mints on the porch and my garlic chives look wonderful. I got pots today for my St. John's Wort and my regular chives. Soon they will join the other herbs on the porch. My herb pots look cool from the street, or so I think.

I also got today a couple of hanging baskets to grow nasturtiums. I have high hopes that they will look quite striking.

My crab apple tree is coming out of dormancy, as is my sugar maple.

My little dwarf blueberry bush is leafing out like crazy. I love it.

I am getting a little antsy waiting for April 15th. I think it will be very safe to plant out everything by then, particularly with global warming.

I turned my compost today, both piles from last year, combining them. I was going to use more of the older one, but I really didn't think it looked quite finished enough, so I just used a few shovelfulls. It looks pretty good though, and I think after the hot summer, with a few turnings, it will be beautiful, finished compost that I can probably work into the soil late this fall. I am very proud of it. I even liked the way it smelled, a nice earthy smell. Interestingly, I saw absolutely no unpleasant creatures in it, just worms. I only seem to see gross bugs in the very fresh stuff.

Our yard is so pretty with blooming weeds, purple, white, and blue, and the yellow dandilions. I read that clover draws nitrogen from the air into the soil. We have plenty of that--free fertilizer for our lawn!

I am devouring gardening/farming books.

more seeds in the ground

I planted more radishes, carrots, and arugula yesterday. I planted the carrots and radishes together, as was recommended, since the carrots are SO SLOW at germinating, and the radishes supposedly break up the soil for them. Carrots really are slow to grow. Really, really slow. That's my third batch of carrots and radishes. I am guessing I'll have some radishes to eat in a week or two and carrots maybe in a month, maybe more. The peas get a little taller each day, but they are still small.

I now understand why a lot of people just go to the store, buy young plants, and stick them in the ground. (Not that you can do that with carrots and radishes.) But still. Starting from seed takes a lot of patience and a lot of hope. And a lot of making sure the soil stays moist.

Garden update

Well, things are going well. The six new beds are in, along with all the soil. The surrounding area was mulched by my wonderful husband this weekend, including a large area in front of the beds to be used for melons, winter squash, and pumpkins. We had the mulch delivered in a truck, just like our soil, much cheaper than buying by the bag, and we were glad we could support a small local business.

I am beyond excited.

My carrot seedlings are finally making a mass appearance. I am doing my best to stay on top of watering, unlike last year.

I am confused about what is growing in one bed. Of the two cabbage seedlings I planted, one perished, and the other seems to be doing okay. Radishes have sprouted. I think arugula has sprouted. Broccoli may have. I was suprised that the watercress I planted didn't come up at all. Weird.

We lost one seedling of tomato pineapple to my toddler.

My seedlings that I'm growing indoors are doing great. My cockscomb is sprouting in its pea pots, and I can't wait to see how that looks in our front yard this year. I should have blooms by early summer!

There are a few things I can do, but so much of it is just waiting until late April/early May to really get stuff planted. I have some supplies ordered that have not been shipped yet, which is making me nervous.

My lettuce continues to grow in the front. Herbs doing well.

Need to plant some more spring vegetables this week, more carrots, radishes, and arugula.

I'm wondering when my asparagus will be shipped? I'm ready for it.

All the pine tree saplings I planted died. I plan to try container saplings this fall instead of bare root.

The compost that I turned has sunk several inches. I love decay.

I've got big plans for incoorporating (easy) flowers in and around my vegetable garden, as well as all along the back fence. I'll just plant as I have time.

some recent garden pictures

Pretty Weeds in our lawn

pea seedlings (maestro)

radish seedlings (organic radish sparkler)

ornamental pears in bloom

6 cubic yards of soil (well, some had already been wheelbarrowed to the backyard)

Snow day! You can see my 6 beds and the compost pile. The peas, radishes, and carrot seeds all survived the snow.

Composting paper (including glossy)

I thought these links had interesting information about composting paper. It seems like a lot of information and misinformation is repeated on the Internet, until something seems true, even if it isn't.

http://earth911.com/garden/composting/13-common-myths-of-composting/
http://mailman.cloudnet.com/pipermail/compost/2000-November/007651.html

I'm going to start using all types of paper as mulch because I need vast amounts for my backyard flower garden.

nice link on tomatoes

Helpful link on starting tomato seeds:

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/tomato/2005015135020413.html

indoor seedlings

Well, my grow light finally came. I ordered it months ago, and it was put on backorder. I was impressed that it came on a Saturday. I wonder if other customers complained (I didn't) because it was really kind of annoying to have it come after the time that many people have already started their seeds. It's nice having my seedlings all set up under it. The windowsill worked okay, but having to put a cardboard box over it to keep a baby and a cat away from it was annoying. I'll have to take some pictures of my new setup.

I am very happy that my echinacea (white swan) has sprouted so well. It was very slow to sprout, and it is supposed to be a major part of my front garden this year. I started 18 little pods of it, and I have 12+ sprouts now.

I started cockscomb/celosia (bombay and china town) in peat pots for the other side of my front garden. Last year, We moved in around the first of April, and it was weeks before I got seeds in the ground. I'm hoping for some early summer blooms this year!

I also started 3 kids of shasta daisies (dwarf snow lady, crazy daisy, white knight) for the backyard around my blue Rose of Sharon bushes that I hope are going to come out of dormancy.

I'm really unsure of how the trees I planted are going to do. I worry about them.

My peppers are looking vigorous, and nearly all of the pods have sprouts. I moved my St. John's Wort to a peat pot. It should be a pretty plant.

My garlic chives and mints seem happy, although the regular chives I'm starting from seeds are not doing so well. My sage seems to be doing better in the backyard, even though it got snowed on.

Peas and radishes coming in well. Carrot sprouts are still few and far between, which I'm disappointed about. I really, really want to grow delicous carrots!

The lettuce in the Earth Box looks lovely. I'm very pleased with it.

sprouts

So, I now have pea sprouts (maestro) and carrot sprouts (purple haze, scarlet nantes) in addition to the radishes (organic radish sparkler), which I never wrote about here I guess, but I have radish sprouts. Radish and carrot seeds were planted either at the same time as or a couple days later than the peas. Very exciting. Especially since I put them in the ground weeks ago. So much waiting and wondering if anything is going to come up.

I'm restless. I have so many different seed packets, so many interesting varieties of vegetables and herbs, and 192 square feet of raised beds in addition to the hills I plan to sow melons, squash, and pumpkins in. But I have to wait another month to put most things in. And then there are the flowers too...

I'm a little overwhelmed, a little afraid that everything will fail. I've done so much planning and dreaming, and now is the time for the DOING.

I starting turning my compost today, the pile that I started in the fall. The contents were very recognizable for the first couple of feet, but the bottom of the pile looks very compost-y. That was gratifying. I would have finished turning it, but it got dark. I plan to let that pile sit for a year, with periodic turns, of course. It should do well in the summer sun. I am confident I will have some nice homemade compost for next spring.

update

The new beds are in. 6 cubic yards of soil dumped on our driveway and hauled to the backyard by my husband! (Not all of it was for the garden beds.)

I planted more carrots (scarlet nantes, purple haze) and radishes (saxa 2) today, 2 cabbage seedlings (cairo), cabbage, califlower (amazing), and brocolli (packman) seeds, dill (fernleaf), arugula, and watercress.

So far, in the bed I planted earlier, only the radishes have poked up, but I dug up a pea seed last week that had sprouted. I still have hope for the carrots, and I'm doing my best to keep it watered.

My tomato seedlings are doing beautifully! I have most of them in peat pots and my hybrid determinite in its pot. My pepper seedlings are also doing well. Got a tomatillo seedling too. I had trouble germinating those last year.

I planted my self-watering earth box with lettuce, and I am very pleased. It's on the front porch.

I also put three pots with 3 basil plants each out. I can move them in if it gets very cold.

I moved my sage to the backyard where it will get some shade and morning sun but no afternoon sun. I think it will be happier there.