And so it begins.

I will admit, we are running a bit late this year, but Sunday Pooka and I finally started working on getting seeds started. We didn't have time to get a full tray done, but we did have a chance to start some seeds in pots of dirt. We had the dirt inside from moving Cave, so it should of been warm enough to get things started.

We decided to start the things that really took the longest and that I have not had good luck with in seed starter cells. This meant the snap dragons and our beloved celery. The day before, Pooka got a letter from her Great Aunt B. She sent Pooka  package of butterfly flower seeds in the mail and Pooka jumped up and down for a good 5 minutes cheering for seeds. When we started the seeds, Pooka asked if we could start those as well.

Seeds

We filled some pots with dirt. Due to the cold, we had to do this inside. I will say some of this dirt is from transplanting the lemon tree as well. Pooka was all excited to get her hands dirty again. I have never had much luck with celery in a starter cell, but we have gotten better results putting it straight in dirt and just keeping it watered. This year we are looking forward to the celery more than most, since we have found more things to do with it.

Pots of dirt

Pooka sat there singing about how happy she was going to be to have snapdragons because she can make them SING. That is reason enough to keep around a flower we don't do much with. As you can see, we labeled with our favorite craft stick and sharpie method to keep track of which pots have which plant in it.  By the time we were done, we had 9 pots of seeds all ready to go. Next we need to get to work on the actual peppers and tomatoes, but I am hoping to do those this week.

Ready to grow.

Better late then never - August Overview

I promised these pictures are from the first, even if life has kept us busy of late. The temperatures have been milder this year then most. The garden is certainly loving it tho.

Garlic bed

The old garlic bed has been replanted twice with new annuals and Pooka's new plants. Those will be in a post later. Almost everything in this bed we will have no problem tearing up in the fall to replant garlic. Until then, we will see what we get.

Front yard beds

 The rest of the front bed is filling in nicely. We have been harvesting herbs not only for meals, but we have been drying plenty of herbs as well. It will be so nice come all winter to cook with.

sunflowers

 The Sunflowers are growing. Some of them have reached over 10 feet tall, and the Pooka a few of the Pooka sunflowers have multiple heads. Pooka loves to have Daddy go stand next to them so she can see how tall they are. We have yet to see the velvet sunflowers bloom, but they have started to form buds so their bloom is not too far off.

deck view one

The back deck is covered yet again in plants. The eggplants are getting ready to produce and we are getting some very nice strawberries. Our second set of green onions is growing and we plan are starting to get squash off the squash plants.

Pot stand

The lilac is doing well and the celery plants are doing much better in this slightly shadier spot. The snapdragons are even starting to bloom which gives this little spot some color as well as the lavender sitting on the table between the two chairs. I will say the zinnias died as well as the snapdragons in the easter baskets. At least we know now that easter basket don't work. Good to know.

Deck View 2

Around the table the lettuce and the strawberries are doing okay. The zucchini is going okay. We have yet to get much from it, but it is trying. The pots on the table have all sprouted but are not ready to transplant just yet.

Broccoli and nothing

The bed next to the house is still holding on. The broccoli is still fighting no matter how much the cabbage worms are trying to kill it. The bok choy seeds I planted do not seem to be doing much, but that is why we also started some in a pot. Hopefully in a few days we will be able to transplant the little bok choy

Sugar Snap Peas, Green beans, and Basil

 The peas are still producing no matter how sad they appear. They are holding on but the heat spell we had a week did put some stress on them. The green beans are doing well in their spot. We never seem to have enough for the meals, but the kids are enjoying having green beans as a snack occasionally. The basil is doing very well and is in need of being cut back again. More herbs to dry.

Sweet peppers, Tomatillos, Red onion and romaine

 The Peppers are doing okay. We are finally starting to see some real production out of these and it is making us all very happy. The tomatillos are loaded down with and should be ready soon. Pooka is so excited to have her green salsa. The sweet onions are doing well and some are even flowering. The reds have been pulled, but the lettuce seeds we planted there are sprouted. Maybe the romaine will do better in this setting then the hanging pots

corn squash and peas

The sisters for the corn didn't take. The corn is doing well, if suffering a bit from needing more nitrogen.  I am going to try putting more peas in the container and seeing if it helps. The squash has produced a few times, but it seems to be having its own issue. The dirt from the potatoes is in the black bucket in the back with pea sprouts starting.

Cucumbers and broccoli

The cucumbers are climbing and producing while the regular broccoli is doing well. The geometric broccoli is starting to take off. We have had a couple of broccoli harvests already, but as long as the plants don't bolt, we should be able to get many more.

Tomatoes

The tomatoes look smaller if anything. What happened was that the tomatoes actually fell over. We have already harvested over 180 oz or almost 11.5 lbs of tomatoes. Pooka has already asked to see if we can make homemade ketchup. Brother agreed, but has started to worry maybe he shouldn't have. The tomatoes have become a giant mess I will have to untangle soon.

Spicy peppers and cherry tomatoes

The hot peppers are taking off. We have harvested over 9 oz of jalapeno. The poblano peppers are finally flowering, but we haven't seen any yet. The cherry tomatoes are taking off although we have only seen yellow and orange tomatoes. Pooka is looking desperately for a purple tomato. Hopefully she finds one this year.


As you can see, the garden is doing very well. Pooka has harvested over 421 oz or 26+ lbs of food. Pooka says this total "is the best news ever." I am glad she is happy being her and happy with what she is growing. If we are growing plants that make food, that makes Daddy happy the grocery bill is lower.

Filling in

Since we harvested the garlic in the front bed, it was looking a bit barren. This would not normally bother me, but since it is in the front of the house, it looked very sad when I would pull in. Not to mention to come to our front door, you had to walk past a completely empty bed. Add to that, I got an email from our local nursery that all the veggies and herbs were 50% off. Off to the nursery we went.

So empty looking.

After some looking and thinking, Pooka and I decided on some nice plants. I will admit they were a bit thin on plants, but that is what you get waiting on clearance. We decided to plant the dill that was in the red pots on the front porch, as well as the oregano that was potted on the back deck. From the nursery we brought home a French and a Spanish lavender, an oregano, a 4 pack of celery and some milkweed. Yes, Pooka and I decided on a flower when they are $0.80 and they will attract butterflies for Pooka. She wants to see how many butterflies she can get to visit.

Laying the plants out

 I laid everything out to see how we liked it. Most of these are annuals, so I won't feel bad in a few months ripping them out and putting in more garlic or anything else. I made a point to put the lavender on the edge so I can plant around it if needed.  Another issue we have had with waiting this long, is some of the plants were fairly root bound. We are keeping them well watered in hopes it helps them get established.

In the ground

However, upon further thinking, we decided to stick the Spanish lavender between the bolting cilantro and the sad chive plant. It seems to really like this location and now I won't need to move it later this fall.

Lavender

OUTSIDE... Finally

Yesterday I spent a good chunk of time taking most of the plants outside. It is finally warm enough that I plan to let them stay outside for a few days.  It was nice to know they finally had enough sun.

Amaryllis went out front.

I put the amaryllis Pooka got over the holiday on the front porch. They are looking rather sad after I think a cat started chewing on a few leaves. I am trying to figure out what to do with the darn things. Can I cut them off now and then have them rebloom later this summer? Any ideas from people who have done this before?

Picture one

Getting all the plants on the back deck in one picture was not going to happen if we still wanted access to the yard and the grill. Instead, I have 3 pictures. Here is the blueberries, strawberries, lilac, potatoes and veggies is all I am going with in the little pots.

Picture 2

Here you can see the last of the plants on the deck itself. The spinach and lettuce is in the back right corner. I finally moved them out of the garage yesterday and some have already taken root. Hopefully I will be cutting myself a salad in no time. The some of the tomatoes are on the strawberry tables. I forgot to bring these in last night, but they seemed okay at first glance.

Picture 3

Here is the plants on the table. I didn't have much rhyme or reason to where things went. I just kinda shoved things places, but I wanted to make sure the roasters of "seedlings" were up a bit higher to keep them safer from the dog. Now not everything looked very healthy and in some cases it was just pots of dirt, but I am hoping to pull out the seeds today and restart some of them. Fortunatly for me they are easy to restart plants like broccoli, pak choi, lettuce, beans and herbs.  Hopefully all of these being outside will help with the gnat issue that killed so many plants this year.

 

Tomates, egg flowers, scallions and mystery

I left some of the more tender plants inside. The egg flowers don't look like they are doing so well since I kinda forgot to water them for a bit. The scallions were growing great, and we actually trimmed them for dinner. We put the cut ends back into the water to see if they regrow. I forgot to get pictures since I was more then a tad melted when Daddy asked to cut them. The tomatoes I am hoping to transplant some of them this weekend. I know they were a bit dry yesterday and I was afraid to put them out when they do not have a whole lot of dirt to hold water.

Surprise peppers

These peppers are still in the front room. I know they are having an issue with mold. Something this kind of tray seems prone to, and no, I do not plan on reusing this kind next year. I am going to keep these guys and hopefully replant them as well soon so I can strengthen them to get them outside. Maybe spring will start staying. However, I haven't taken the tables down, I think that would be testing fate.

Another Experiment

Last week for dinner we need scallions. They were going into a crock pot meal, which smelled good, if our crock pot hadn't decided to die and just not turn on. However, we still had the scallion roots.

Pooka and I have seen all over the internet that scallions can be regrown from their roots. Maybe it is true. Maybe it is another way the internet lies. But the celery regrew last year (until something ate it), so it was worth trying if for nothing more then giggles. Pooka loved the idea, but she loves anything that lets her try new things, I mean she is trying to learn Chinese, sign language and spanish right now on top of the garden.

Scallions anyone?

Pooka dropped them into a glass of water. Getting them arranged so only a few were fully summerged was a bit of a trick, especially since when I cut the roots off, I didn't plan on doing this, so I cut a few kinda small. I ended up using toothpicks to kind prop them up. It didn't work all that well, but it was something. Pooka thought we should drop the whole box in, but I am not sure that would do any good either. 

Proping up the onions.

The scallions sat on my counter for a week. They are doing something, although most of them were getting kinda nasty looking, so we threw those away.

So far its working.

It looks like it works. Pooka was so excited she wanted to call Daddy and tell him the good news that her onions were growing after she called brother in to look from the other room. I am not saying I will keep a cup of roots on my counters just yet. The celery looked good for awhile before it died. But compared to how my seeded spring onion/scallions are doing, it may be our only hope of getting onions. Unless I go buy sets from the nursery. Maybe I should just stop trying scallions, I just don't know.

The spring onion seedlings didn't survive transplant.

A different kind of tray

All our trays for seed starting this year were bought as clearance at the end of last year. As a result, I had a "take what you get" thought process (especially when they are on clearance for $2 a set). This also meant we had to branch out a bit from our usual trays and try new ones. One of the new ones was the Burpee Self watering XL Cell seed starting system.

 

A new kind of seed starter to try

The directions were okay, but it took a bit more prep then "rehydrate pellets and plant." First you have to put the "stand" in the bottom tray, then wet and place this mat over it, making sure the ends of the mat reach the water you place in the bottom.

Stand and Mat

 Then you place the seed starter cells on top of the mat. I will admit at this point I was getting a tad concerned that the whole set up would be a bit top heavy and would be an issue when a Pooka is looking at it. She is a gentle creature, but she gets excited.

Cell trays put on top

After the top is put in, then you rehydrate the pellets which expand to fill the entire cell. This is nice since you have a bit more room then a pellet, but it is also hard for a Pooka to keep her fingers out of. She loves getting dirty. We planted our peppers in the 2 sets of cells as well as the celery and some scallions.

Cells rehydrated

 The kits did come with this nice guide, but I didn't see the markings on the tray until after I used a sharpie to mark the letters.

Planting guide

We planted these cells about 18 days ago and I will say I have not had much "sprout" in them yet. The scallions started recently and the celery made an appearance yesterday. I started seeing roots come out of the pepper seeds yesterday as well.

This may be partially since Pooka loves to plant things on top of the dirt so she can watch the roots come out, but the "greenhouse lid" doesn't fit very tight either. As of this point, I am not sure I would buy these again. We have had less of an issue with white mold in them, but I think my complete decision on them will have to wait a bit longer to see what happens here.

Talk about confusing

Like many people, we have been hit with late winter storms. In fact, if you look out the back door right now, you will see well at least 4+ inches of snow. That doesn't count the ice that came before it.

Rosemary, Lavender, Audrey's empty pot

Basically, our dog loves it, Pooka went out and played in it this morning for a few minutes before deciding it was cold.  I am okay with it, (but I desperatly need a snow day), but it reminds us that winter is not yet over. Although one would think heading into March we would be past most of it. The rosemary in that small red pot is pretty much dead, the lavender in the green pot may come back and the stuff in the tan pot was the dirt from Audrey, so I have nothing to worry about in it.

On the flip side you walk into the house, and you see spring everywhere. Pooka's Grow um seeds are very busy sprouting left and right. Daily I go through and turn them 90 degrees since they are reaching for the sun outside.  Here you see the lettuce, bok choy, Peas, broccolli, cilantro all fairly well established. The basil is just starting to really grow.

Half the grow ums.

At the other end of the table you will see the rest of the Grow ums.  The oregano has tiny tiny sprouts. I didn't see them but Pooka did since she takes her magnifying glass to them daily to watch for changes. This is her favorite part, she loves planting the seeds on top so she can watch the roots come out and go into the dirt. I also placed the clearanced herbs here so they are all in the same spot.

Rest of the grow ums and clearanced herbs

We have been very busy around here. We also got most of our veggies seeds started. I was worrying that the peppers would take too long to germinate, so I wanted them done early. Pooka and I did it very rushed on a Saturday night in those 16 cell starters. Those are an interesting contraption and I will get a post up on them later.

Seeds seeds at least they are started.

Then I realized I was well into the window to start tomatoes. Except I didn't realize till after I started to hydrate the pellets, did I realized I grabbed the 72 cell starter instead of the tomato starter, so Pooka and I just went with it and spent an entire afternoon on Monday starting the tomatoes, sunflowers, and well everything else. Now we wait. I still need to start the snapdragons, and most of our herbs, but those will go into peat pots probably this weekend. Right now, Pooka is having plenty of fun watching her plants change and grow, and I am running out of places to put seeds. Plus, I think if I have to use a third card table, Daddy may have something to say about it.

Verdict on Growing Celery and Garlic

A verdict has been reached on two of the bigger experiments.

Experiment 1: Growing Celery from root end of store bought.

Pooka's picture of Celery 1 month in

While this did work, I think I may of killed it when I moved the cherry tomatoes back to give it more sun light. It was doing fine until then. There does seem to be some new growth on it as well, so I left it in there for now. I think next time I may need to A) research it first and see what it prefers B) Pot it a bit nicer instead of just kinda pushing it into the dirt and going "lets see what happens"

Garlic sprouts and loss of a plant

   Experiment 2: Growing Garlic from cloves that sprouted in the fridge.

Again, this worked really well. So far the garlic has been in the ground for 17 days. Its grown quite well in that time, and I am amazed a bit with how well. I don't know if I will get full bulbs of Garlic from it due to how late I planted it, but at least we can have Garlic scallions. Garlic will be planted in the ground come fall just to see what we get for the spring.

One last note. Some of you may remember the pepper plant that could. This is the one that fought so hard after being squished by Daddy and eaten by bugs. He lived next to these two garlic plants. I have seen no sign of him for a few days. So I think its safe to say we have lost that battle. RIP little sweet pepper plant. You gave it a good run

Containing the madness

Well, yesterday I did it. I contained the tomato madness. It's not pretty, it is definitely function over form, but it seems to be holding back the madness of the tomatoes and it actually looks alot less like a passing child might be eaten by it.

During lunch yesterday, I went out in the back yard with a few more poles. They are just cheap plant stakes (The plastic coated ones) and some zip ties. Daddy had done some work previously with the same poles and string, but since he has that whole Eagle Scout knowledge base, he knew what he was doing. I was doing what I seem to be doing with all this gardening stuff. Throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks.


Anyway, we made one really big cage for the tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. The poles overlap and are either tied or zip tied (hey, they were reuseable zip ties, so it was green) to the verticle poles. It is holding pretty well and it has some supports either by triangles or just plain rope to keep it from falling outward by holding it to the trellis.  

The end was too long for one of the stakes without cutting it (And since my time frame for this was while the kids were eating lunch, I didn't have time to cut much). So instead I strung the Kite string I found between the trellis under the deck and the steaks. Again, not pretty, but its allowing the celery some sunlight. Something it hasn't had much of since the cherry tomatoes over-ran his area. 




Talking of the celery here is a current picture. It has grown some, but not as big an explosion as say the tomatoes. I think alot of that is that he is being overshadowed by said tomatoes. That and I need to check if he's a cool weather plant. (Anyone want to save me a trip to Google and know the answer to that one?) 

Well its been a busy couple of days here.

First off, our gardening book arrived. I have read about half of it and while it has some info in it that I already knew, it is giving me ideas. Some might argue that me with ideas is a bad thing, or that it is entertaining. However, the best part is the minute I brought it in from the porch and Pooka saw it was a book on gardening, she grabbed it and ran off to read it. Now while she still can't read (but we are working on that) she loved looking at the pictures. As it stands, Pooka has looked at it numerous times and had me read different passages to her about things like. "Mommy, what does it say about Pablano plants or tomatoes."  So its a good thing for both of us.

Today we started some lettuce. I know its late to be starting that, I am hoping I can get something out of them since I read I could possibly have lettuce in 3 weeks (yes, this is something I got from the book). I am really hoping for that since I eat a ton of salads with my work schedule and it would be a nice change. Otherwise I will hope they make it to fall and try again. I think this might be one to cross our fingers on.

A funny thing happened the other day as we went out to buy a wedding present for some good friends of ours. While we were at Kohl's, I noticed they had some little end tables for patio sets on clearance. Being that I have a hard time not checking out a clearance area. I went over and found a nice slate tiled top table that wasn't priced. I asked someone (turns out it was the manager) and she said "Well, even if its not officially marked down, I will give it to you at 60% off." Uh, okay. So now the new strawberry plant has a "plant stand" that can double as a table when all our family is visiting and we need the horizontal surface.  I liked that table so much I may go get another and call it a match set. *smirk*

One huge suprise yesterday was OUR CELERY is growing. I put it in the ground on about 4 days ago and it's already got a nice little set of leaves going. Who knew. I so thought it would end up fertilizer.  (It's a bad picture since it's a vertical picture and I can't seem to figure out how to flip it).  Now to wonder how long till we can harvest the thing.

This morning we also noticed our Chives are sprouting. So Pooka is all excited. She has to taste everything and wanted to know when she could  taste the chives. I told her to let them get a bit bigger first. 

Last time I promised some quick pictures of the raised beds.  They aren't much, but the lattice work is for the climbers and then the bed itself is made out of wood from our old deck. We replaced it about 2 years ago now, and the old decking was in good shape, so saved it (because we just couldn't throw away good project wood) and it's become a good home for the plants.

The side with the pepper plants (Note I took these pictures at like 9 in the morning. By 10:30 almost everything is in the sun for the rest of the day.)

The tomatoes and the cucumbers. And I am aware I planted all this too close together. It had to do with the pots I left them in between the seed starter and putting them in the ground. They seem to be growing fine and all have tons of flowers. Good thing I plant in miracle grow. 

 Oh and yes you may see little sparkly dragonflies and butterflies. I originally let Pooka pick out a few to let her be creative with the garden and have some fun with it. Since then, I realized the metallic coloring and the fact that they move a bit and flap when its windy is keeping birds and critters out the garden. So she was allowed to pick up some more and she gets to go out there every couple of days and rearrange them "so I can tweak the birds." (Her words, not mine). 

Last but not least our broccolli and Pablano plants. This little bed is under a window and next to the house. I have since learned I need to watch it because even if it rains the overhang from the house may prevent the bed from getting much of water.

Please remember all, I am still learning so some of this is a giant swag to me as well so advice is appreciated. And thank you to all our friends who gave me some advice on how to save the poor pepper plants.