Starting over

The green onions have looked better, in fact, I think they have died off. They were potted from sets and we just harvested them too much. I never realized how much we would eat something like this when it was just sitting there and we needed onion for eggs, or anything that matter.

Looking pretty sad

However, our nursery still had a few onion sets in stock. Pooka and I picked up a few to start fresh with. I admit it is nice to walk out of the nursery with a total of less then $0.50.

Onion sets

We grabbed this planter that had spinach in it. We had harvested a bit too much and it bolted, so it was free to be reused. We planted the new sets in it and are awaiting more green onions.

Reusing a ready to go pot

Meanwhile  the bok choi had not only flowered but also formed seeds. They were past rescuing sadly.

 

It is done.

I had mentioned this to Daddy, but I hadn't had a chance to deal with it yet. Daddy swooped in one night while I was at work, and cleared them out for me. I added a few of our Pak Choi seeds back to the bed and am hoping the rains we have been having will help us get some more Bok Choy. It seems the kids and Daddy really love having it mixed into things.

 

Reseeded and ready to go

 

Hello Harvest

This week we have finally started harvesting something from the garden. On the menu this week was Tuscan chicken with Tomato and basil pasta. Both need fresh herbs and I just couldn't bring myself to buy the nastly little clamshells at the store that cost a fortune. Not when I was going to need basil and rosemary for the front bed.

As a result, on Monday when Pooka and I went out to buy the last of the mulch for the front bed, we bought a few plants too.


The flowers are for another project

I made a point to measure out to the nearest foot where I wanted them so I can kinda stick to that whole square foot garden thing (loosely) but its a better determination then anything I have done so far.

Newly mulched bed

After mulching the bed, Pooka and I got to work playing in the dirt. I promise I laid it all out before we dug holes, I just forgot a picture of it. The basil went in the bottom tier of the bed around what would become the home of my lilac.

Basil in its new home.

 The rosemary went in the top bed, I am not sure how big this guy may get, so I put him here for now.

one of the rosemary plants

Tuesday night Daddy got some basil and some Rosemary from the new plants and used it for dinner. Cost of a package of each - $3. Cost of a plant that regrows, $3.48. Add to the savings that I plan on drying herbs again this year, and I should have my money back in no time.

Thursday, Daddy asked if we had any green onions. The tacos we were cooking didn't need green onions, but we figured why cut a whole one when your green onion sets look like this.

I think the green onions are doing well

Pooka and I went out and gave the plant a hair cut. It looks much nicer now. I left plenty of growth on there for another harvest later. Plus, with all the rain we have had, it will grow back fast.

Post haircut

I even remembered to weigh the harvest. Now to go figure out how much green onions cost at the store so I can start figuring out savings. I am so happy to finally be getting something out of the garden. Especially when lately my entire grocery store runs are just veggies. I really miss being able to just walk outside and grab what I need. Just a bit more and maybe that will change.

 

Green onions ready for dinner

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.

Rain, Rain, rain...Rain.

Like most of the Midwest, there is rain everywhere today. It has been raining or cloudy for most of the week and some people are questioning if there is a sun.

Me, I am wondering if this is Mother Nature's way of grieving over the events this week. While we have been lucky, and the rain isn't that bad where we are, I did walk outside to find the blueberry bush underwater.

Do you think it needs watered?

This is not the first plant that has had a drainage problem this week, but with it being fairly new and the fact that blueberries HATE wet roots, I decided to drain it. Now normally when I drain something like this, I tip the whole pot over, but I was nervous to do so with it being so wet and the blueberry bush so new. Instead I pushed in the side a bit and noticed a nice little waterfall coming out the bottom.

Waterfall

I managed to drain quite a bit of the water out and turned around to see this.

Mother nature 1 - Robins 0

It turns out a robin has been trying very unsuccessfully to build its nest on the light by the back door. The number of ways I don't want a robin there (not being able to use the door, fear of a robin coming into the house, ect) makes me glad Mother Nature decided to knock the nest over. This isn't the first time we have seen this bird try, but maybe not it will get the point.

Hopefully not the site of a bird nest

If not, I just hope the fact the light itself isn't very big which would mean not real stable will be enough to keep the Robin family off my deck. I may send Daddy out to put some vinegar or something up there to make it smell bad for awhile (nothing that would hurt the birds).

Mommy engineering

As for the blueberry, it needed to finish draining and I have stuff to do, so I used our little strawberry table to help hold the pot in place so the blueberry can dry. Hopefully soon the rain will end for good. Although it does seem to agree with the green onions. We can finally see the little guys.

Hello Green Onions

Lots and lots of updates

In the last few weeks, we have had alot of projects start, but I think its time to tell you how they are going.

A couple of weeks ago, we had cut the ends off some green onions to see if we could regrow them. While we did have to get rid of some that didn't look so good, we did have a couple of green onion cuttings that are growing like mad. Pooka is so excited that they are doing so well.  So maybe that is one internet rumor that works. I did cut a few more ends off another set, so those got droppped in the cup too. The more the merrier at this point and all are showing signs of growth.

The green onion experiment

In Febuary Pooka and I stumbled across a clearance herb kit. It was a nice kit and grew nicely at first, then the dampening off/gnat problem got to them. They seemed to do okay until I stopped watering them to combat the dampening, and then the rest of the plants really took off, and I kinda forgot about them. This probably would of worked if I had not forgotten about them. Black thumb scored there. However, I am going to retry putting seeds in this container in a few days after I get some of these plants outside of my house.


Oops, they got forgotten

Pooka's Easter bunny egg flowers are doing okay. So far only the two snap dragons and a pansy have sprouted, but we are watching the others closely to see if they do okay. Pooka found a red watering can at Target in the dollar section that we are going to transplant the flowers (or just regular seeds) into once they get a bit bigger. She is so excited to just have flowers, something I don't share. If I am going to do the work, I want to EAT the darn things. However, it makes her happy and it is not going to take up much space.

Pooka's flowers

Finally, the peas, oh the peas. How I am not sure what to tell you. I planted the plants outside, and they didn't keep dying, but they haven't really seemed to come back. Add to it the last couple days of rain and pretty harsh winds, and its just there. Monday, Pooka and I saw our first sprouts from the Pea seeds we put in there. Maybe there is hope for them yet.

Can you play spot the Pea sprouts?

Starting another type of onion

Since the scallions are looking a bit thin, and the cut green onions are still experimental, we decided to hedge our bets and start some onion sets. Our nursery recommends not using the onion sets for onions but rather for green onions. So we decided to try it out and see what happens.

On Wednesday last week, Pooka and I had a wonderfully beautiful day so we actually got to plant something outside. We took our bag of onion sets, a pot and some dirt and enjoyed the sunshine.

These are the onions we bought, I tried to pick out the biggest and nicest looking ones since we didn't need a whole lot. Total price for all of them $0.50. If this works, it will be the cheapest I ever paid for a green onion, especially since we plan on just chopping off the tops and letting it regrow.

Onion sets awaiting their new home.

Next came our favorite coffee filter trick. This is especially true since the pot we were using a had a big hole in the middle and we didn't feel like having all the dirt fall out of the bottom.

Coffee filter to contain the mess.

Pooka got to fill the pot with dirt. Up till now, most of our transplanting work has been done in the house. As a result Pooka wasn't allowed to fill the pot since there is a limit to how much dirt I am willing to clean up when we are done. This was one of the first times Pooka was able to really get her hands dirty. She had a blast getting to put the dirt in and making the holes for the onions.

Pooka + Dirt =Happy girl

Pooka then needed a bit of help to know which end of the onion to plant coming up. I told her the pointy side had to be pointing up, and with that she started adding onion sets. We did have a small bit of work getting them all in this pot, but since the nursery's directions said to plant them close together, I think this will work well.

Pointy bit points the way the plant will grow.

Finally Pooka got to cover all her onions and we placed one of our little craft stick markers in it. Now we wait to watch it grow. I am hoping all the rain it has had the last few days will help it along. It has been out in the cooler temperatures, so it may take a bit long to sprout. Here is to growing never ending green onions.

Now we wait.