Archive for March, 2009

Veggie Update 03/20/09

March 20, 2009 at 11:39 am · Filed under Gardening, Seed Starting, Seedlings, Vegetables ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’ve slowly started putting my tomato, peppers, and eggplant seedlings outside in the backyard. They are getting acclimated to the weather. I still do not have a dedicated garden space yet so I’ve been placing them onto of this old picnic table we have in the back yard. The dogs, however, have figured out how to get on the table and pull out lettuce seedlings. Urgh…those dogs but they are just so cute when I see them with a fistful of lettuce in their mouth frolicking about. And then you’ll see me chasing them screaming “No!” As the old saying goes, “you win some and you lose some”. It just seems I’ve lost quite a bit to the little rascals! I hope they don’t get to the tomatoes and peppers though. Those took a long time to germinate and it would be such a shame to lose them now. I set those on top of a planter on the table so unless they knock the planter down, they’ll be fine.

 

The other day I planted more herb seeds. We use a lot of herbs in our cooking so growing herbs is important to me. I planted more lemon balm, chives, basil (large leaf, and Genovese), thyme, and oregano. I have them in 3 inch pots and they’re sitting on a sunny windowsill. They’ll germinate in a week or so and I’ll slowly take them outside with the other seedlings. Other things that are sprouting under my grow lights are marigold-snowball, zinnia-envy, impatiens, coleus, and more! I also planted some more pepper and tomato seeds. I forgot some names but I labeled the container so I can go back and check. The ones I do remember are supersweet, red currant, and Mexican honey.

 

I’ll have to take some pictures tonight.

But For now, here are some pictures of my veggie seedlings

 

Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant in jiffy pots

 

 

Bibb and buttercrunch lettuce seedlings

 

 

Seedlings 30 days

 

 

Endive seedlings

 

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March 4, 2009 at 4:50 pm · Filed under Gardening

Last night, I planted more flower seeds, canterbury bells, columbine (butterfly hybrid), impatiens (vanilla hybrid) marigolds (snowball), and zinnia (envy). I did not think I had enough flower seedlings. I really hope the impatiens germinate. I wanted to have lots of white flowers in our front yard. I also planted some more salad (red and green romaine), cucumber (2 different types: bush champion and market I think…) and swiss chard (ruby red) seeds. Last year, I had a lot of swiss chard success but this year, only a few have sprouted. Here’s hoping! I also have tons of garlic to plant as well as onions and potatoes but the weather has been dreadful with rains all week and probably next week! I’ll have to until we get 2 weeks of consecutive sunshine before plantings these out. I know we need the rain but I really enjoy the sunshine! (this opinon may change when I am in the thick of 100 degree weather though).

I was in the gardening mood last night too. I wanted to try my hand at propagating the new pothos plants I purchased the other day so I experimented with 2 different techniques: the water vs soil technique. I placed 4-5 cuttings in a pot of potting soil with a plastic tent and 3-4 cuttings in water. I placed the pot under my grow lights and the water cuttings are in my kitchen window. I have always had success getting roots to form in water but they’ve never transplanted well in soil so I tried the soil technique. We’ll see how successful I am in the next month.

Tonight, I plan on planting more coleus, sunflowers, and bok choi seeds . I hope I can keep up with my succession schedule. I would hope I could remember to plant seeds every week but with our busy schedules, it is easy to neglect planting seeds but my resolution is to always have something growing under the grow lights my dh built me a couple of years ago.

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More Houseplants and Seeds

March 3, 2009 at 11:45 am · Filed under Gardening

Today, OSH (known as Orchard Supply Hardware) had a buy one get one free houseplant sale. I was super excited because I have never seen a houseplant sale like this before. So I got up this morning and went to my local OSH and there were racks upon racks of houseplants that were BOGIF.

I picked up two pothos, one coradatum philendendrom, and one creeping Charlie plant which is also known as ground ivy. I plan on putting the philendendrom in my master bathroom which gets lots of morning sunlight. One of the pothos and creeping Charlie plants I plan on putting in my craft room and the other pothos in my living room. I hope my husband does not mind! Hehe. I’ll post pictures later.

I also got some seeds and Atlas fish emulsion for my veggies and seedlings. I’ve never tried this brand before so we’ll see how well it does in my garden. I’ll post a review later this season.

I got five more Renee’s Garden seed packets. The varieties are called: Renee’s Caeser Duo (green and red romaines), Mini Jack (baby pumpkins), Two Color Fiesta (Mexican tomatillos), Sweet Armenian (cucumbers), and Neon Glow (rainbow chard).

I also noticed that the corn, bean and cucumber seeds I pre-germinated have sprouted. I’ll have to pot them up in their own six pack later tonight. I was surprise at how fast these sprouted because I’ve heard they take a while. By pre-germinating my seeds, I’m not wasting space in my trays. One my biggest pet peeves are putting trays of dirt underneath the grow lights only to have 20-30 percent of seeds that have germinated. This year I am being proactive and making sure that all the spots on the trays have a plant. We’ll see how that goes though….Until next time, happy gardening.

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