Let there be light...

After just 3 days, I checked the tomato tray to find this. Plants abounding and they were already getting rather spindly while they reached towards the light. That first row you can see is the Pooka tomatoes which were apparently VERY viable. Seeing how quickly they had started reaching made me worry that they were not getting enough light. Especially with how cold and dim it had been recently. I mentioned this to Daddy, which got him thinking.

After only 3 days we have tomatoes.. lots of tomatoes

The more I talked to him. The more we both started wondering about a grow light. I told him my research (which was always in the "someday" category), said that all we needed was a florescent light kit and a chain. I was really on the fence about it, but and we decided to do it. Now, this light will spend 8 months of the year helping light our dim basement, but during seed starting, it would be removed and brought upstairs.

I had a rough idea of what I wanted, but really, I told Daddy "it just needs to do this" and he ran with it. A quick run to the local home improvement store, and $38 and about an hour and a half later. We had light. Daddy set it up for me with the seed starting table and put the light on a timer.

The finished product (Please pardon the mess, We are honest here)

Daddy took some scrap lumber in garage and built a free standing stand since we did buy the 4 ft light. We decided since this was proof of concept, if it indeed works, next year we can knock together a better table then the old blue card table we have been using. The light itself is hung from a chain which will allow us to move it up and down as needed. And when we are done, everything can be torn down and stored until next year. We placed a timer on the light so we don't have to worry about remembering to turn it on or off. We only had to buy the light, the bulbs, the timer and the hooks. Everything else was already on hand. Now to decide if this really helps as much as we hope it will.

Let there be light. 

Time to get into gear

That time of year has snuck up on us again. It is time to get seeds started. Pooka has been so excited to get the seeds going, so we started them on the last Monday of Feb. I lied to myself and said I am not that far behind since I still got them done in Feb. We decided to start our pepper plants first, since they do tend to take the longest. 

Seeds everywhere

In our first tray, known as tray A we had 9 varieties of peppers, as well as 2 types of broccoli and some new purple cauliflower. Pooka received the purple cauliflower in her stocking from Santa.  She also recieved these Violet sparkle sweet peppers for her birthday. They are purple, they sparkle (supposedly) and they are sweet peppers. It kinda had to happen. I don't know how many kids will get excited to open a present of seeds at her birthday party.  

Pooka's two favorite new additions

Now, there are times I hate being a mom, not many, mind you, but a few. Monday was one of those times. I started rehydrating the seed tray before I went to collect Pooka from school. I told her all evening "Get your chores and homework done and you can do seeds. I am doing them with or without you." The seed trays re-hydrated, and Pooka was being, well Pooka and not getting her chores done. 

Seed trays rehydrating

Now, I love Pooka, I do. With all my heart, but some days, she can be the most pokey, easily distracted, hey look a shiny person you will ever meet. This was sadly one of those days. That Monday, true to form, I had to start seeds without her. I kept telling her "I am doing seeds, hurry up." I finally got them all in the tray except for her sparkle pepper and her purple cauliflower. She got to come in and put those few in the tray. She was disappointed that I started without her, but even Daddy reminder her I had been telling her for awhile I was ready to do them. It is a hard lesson, one I hated having to teach her, but I saved her favorite two for her, and maybe, just maybe she will be a bit quicker to get moving. 

Work in progess

In the end, we got to finish the seeds together. Pooka got to put her favorite ones in, then she helped me lay out the seed mat and move the newly planted tray to the seed raising area by the front window.  She was so happy to see that this means spring is coming, even if it is still freezing  cold outside.  

Signs of spring

Three days of harvest gave to Pooka

In the last few days, we have finally seen the garden start to produce. On the first day, it started with a jalapeno, a yellow cherry tomato and a sweet pepper, Pooka swears she has never had the sweet peppers before. I told her it is the same variety we have every year. These peppers like our yard as compared to bell peppers which no matter how many tricks we have, it never seems to do well. I may or may not of eaten the cherry tomato seconds after this picture was taken.

first day

The next day, we came in with peppers. Lost of peppers. We have one poblano and a ton of jalapeno. Daddy says they are not too hot, but they are great for us. I will say jalapeno poppers are in our future, but it was nice to be able to be able to say "I think we need a bigger boat" or bowl in this case. Pooka has grown up with Daddy and I repeating the line from JAWS when it comes to the garden.

second day

The third day of harvest gave to me, 4 cherry tomatoes and a ripe fireball tomato. We were so excited to finally start getting tomatoes. Luckily, I had tacos on the menu, so we were so excited that for dinner that night we were able to use the a garlic bulb (more on that later),  an onion, tomatoes and hot and sweet peppers all in the tacos. It was a very good dinner and the kids love tacos, so they were quite happy to have it.

Third day

Hopefully soon, I can really feel like the garden is giving us it's bounty. It just feels like all of this is so much later then usual. I don't know if it is the cooler weather, or that I may of been a bit late starting some things *cough cucumber cough*, but I will be so happy when I can skip the produce department at the grocery store for at least a few days.

Plants bought in at the fairy tea

While we where already at the nursery for the fairy tea,  I couldn't help but to make a quick run through the veggie and herbs section. I did have a purpose, we had some sugar peas killing off a pepper plant, and I wanted to drop a basil plant in between to fix the problem. While we were there, this cute little orange pepper jumped into my arms. Because, lets face it, carrying a fairy garden, I didn't have enough to carry. Pooka just loved being able to bring another color into the garden because as she told her friend "Normal food colors are boring."

Sweet basil and orange pepper

Having a Girls shopping trip

The nursery that Pooka loves was having an open house, so Pooka asked if she could take her money from Santa and from her piggy bank to buy some plants. Plus she was planning out what she wants for her new pollinator bed.

Pooka had a wonderful time. Not only did the regular employees welcome her with open arms, a few of the more seasonal help found out not all small kids need talked down to. One such employee was trying to tell Pooka the difference between "plants that live one year vs. plants that live multiple years." I love Pooka, but she came back with "I know what a perennial is, I was wondering which ones were good for humming birds." Now to teach my daughter tact.

Stargazer and Hardy lily bulbs

Pooka eventually found her humming bird and butterfly plants. She even walked away with some money, but I held her back from going full out. I also bought her a few things for her new bed since we did promise to buy some flowers. I can't say I didn't make a face or two. I bought her two types of lilies. A purple lily and a stargazer. Pooka wanted a stargazer for me since mine had died. I told her it was her bed and she could have what she wanted. She came back with "I want you to have a stargazer."

Salvia plant

Pooka also got me to buy her this salvia. It should come back year after year. Hopefully Pooka will still like it next year.

Main haul

This is a picture of the main haul that Pooka paid for. It includes a new lavender (since ours are looking pretty sad), another 4 pack of strawberries, a lilac pepper and the new butterfly bush. The butterfly bush I am wishing I had looked at a bit closer. It was so small and unassuming. Had I read the tag, I would of seen its going to get 4 ft by like 4 ft. Yikes. I knew it was a perennial since Pooka only wanted to look at those (granted that doesn't count the purple pepper). Chalk this up to another learning moment for mom. I guess it goes to show, you can't judge a plant based on the pot they sell it in.

Mail call

Pooka has been excitedly checking the mail of late. Twice now, she has checked the mail to find little pick me ups from all the cold weather coming in. I will say Pooka has taken this extend winter the hardest and is quite tired of me asking if she is warm enough. She has asked numerous times how much longer winter is. To her, a little pick me ups come in the form of the "S word" seeds.

First came most of our order from Territorial Seed co. All we are missing is our blue corn, but Pooka's new container watermelons came as well as some jalapenos for Daddy and our families new discovery of leeks. We found out last year we liked them so we decided to grow them ourselves. Pooka is so excited to grow watermelons and I am curious if they will do okay in a pot or not. Daddy has forbidden melons and pumpkins from going in the ground, and I agreed since we just don't have that kind of space.

Seeds galore

 Another order that came in were from Burpee. We only got 2 new kinds of seeds, Daddy's beloved cubanelle peppers which he loves eating in everything. Cubanelles are a sweet pepper, mostly known for frying to put on like steak sandwiches and things. We are also trying a new variety of tomato called Pink Brandywine which is suppose to be a bigger paste tomato good for canning. Pooka was so excited she took the pictures.

Burpee seeds with Pooka's picture

I will say Pooka  was much happier with the Territorial seeds since they came in such a pretty package. What can I say, when your 6, you want colors and pictures to know what they are. Now I need to get ready to start all these seeds and find a place to put them. But that is a problem for another day. For now, we are just going to pretend that spring is coming faster.

"What did you do this weekend?"

Personally, I love when people ask us "What did you do this weekend?" Some weekends I have nothing fun to say. Sometimes I can answer with this:

24 Half pints of peach jam

Well, we got peaches from the neighbor's tree for free and made 24 half pints of jam and 4 pints lazy peach preserves.  With the cucumbers from our garden we canned 5 pints of classic dill pickle spears and 1 pint of classic dill pickle chips. We also froze 7 3\8 oz of sweet peppers, dehydrated 1/8 oz dry parsley, 1/4 oz dry oregano, and 1/2 oz dry purple sage. We even went out of town for a birthday party for Pooka's cousin at a Zoo with all the aunts and uncles.

Pickles anyone? 

I wish I could say after all this my house is flawless. That there are no dishes or laundry out of place, or even that the lawn got mowed, but I wouldn't be honest. Not when a good chunk of the weekend is devoted to spending time as a family and being together. In fact, let us not discuss the state of a Pooka's room that I really should of made her clean before we went picking peaches at her friends house.

Newly dried herbs

A long holiday weekend comes in handy. Too bad we can't make every weekend 3 days long. But even on short weekends, it is about doing what you can and spending time together in whatever ways you can.

Frozen peppers.

Flowers

In some cases, we are just starting to get flowers, like the mystery squash, the pepper plants and this eggplant.

eggplant flower buds

 

 In other places, we have too many flowers. Some spinach has bolted. the cilantro and I are arguing on if it can go to seed, and well, I think I may of lost the bok choy. Apparently they don't like being transplanted. Good to know, I am thinking of ripping them out and replanting some new seeds there.

Flowering bok choy

Here is to hoping for good flowers and not bad ones.

Father's day

If there was ever a weekend to not fall behind on, this would be it. Yesterday was our anniversary where I got Cave Johnson. Today is Father's day, and in true Pooka fashion, even Daddy got a plant. When I asked Pooka what to get Daddy for Father's day, she said she wanted to get him "those peppers he likes that we didn't get."

What she meant was cubanelle peppers. You see when we started the garden, I couldn't find cubanelle seeds for the longest time. I looked but I could only find it on the internet, and Daddy and I agreed had that we didn't need anymore internet orders. I felt bad because even though we had all these plants, this was the only one Daddy had asked that we grow at the end of last summer. I offered to buy the plants, but Daddy said we had enough and I left it at that.

Pooka and her mind like a steel trap remembered these peppers. She said she wanted to get him his peppers. Since I lacked any other ideas (or much time), I agreed. So off to the home improvement store we went to get Daddy's peppers. We also needed a pot to put them in. We came home with these. I have them in water because one pot was super dried out and I wanted to minimalize some of the transplant shock (and I didn't want it falling apart when I took the wrapper off.

Rehydrating the peppers

Pooka helped me fill a pot with dirt and then she dug a hole and filled it with milk. Since peppers do suffer from blossom end rot as well, I figured I would try to prevent it now if possible.

Adding milk to the pot

We put both plants in a bit of an oversized pot and let it go. Now to wait and hope this works since there is no room left in the ground. Pooka even asked if she could buy Daddy a clearance butterfly to make it pretty for him. Happy Father's Day to Daddy and all the other Fathers in the world.

Happy Father's Day Daddy.

Worrying over peppers

We all know I am prone to worrying about those things I cannot fix. Well, since I got the sweet peppers in the ground, I have been worried about them. They are great plants that we love, but they just didn't seem to be doing very well.

can you spot the sweet pepper?

Well, the more I looked at it, and the more I started to worry.  I knew they would eventually produce. I knew eventually we would have peppers, but I was concerned I would be buying peppers for homemade salsa until August. Plus having just spent a dollar a pepper at the store, I was getting fed up.  I talked to Daddy, and I talked again and Friday we were at the nursery getting a couple of sweet pepper plants. While we were there, we picked up a small Spanish lavender plant for the front bed. But that is another post.

Sweet peppers and a lavender

We got the peppers home and Pooka and I went straight outside to plant the peppers. I will admit I didn't pull the flowers off like I should have, but they are in the ground now. I did try to save one of the smaller plants that was still in okay shape, but I don't know for sure if it will live. I moved it over to a different spot. The poor thing will probably not survive the constant transplanting.

Peppers are planted.

Now to wait for peppers to come. Maybe, just maybe I will be able to get peppers out of the yard this month instead of paying around $1 a piece for them. I am looking forward to that.  



Transplanting, transplanting.

That is all we have been doing of late. It seems that I am constantly dodging rain drops while I run outside and try to get a couple of plants in the ground or bigger pots. Sometimes I come in not looking too worse for wear, othertimes, I am pretty sure swamp thing would be a relation.

Pooka's new strawberry plant

Pooka has had plenty of time to enjoy digging her holes. She has named and counted every worm, and makes sure they all go back into the holes. And to her credit, she has hung in there, although I know planting 8 plants at a time can be a bit challenging for a 5 year old who would rather find some way to exercise "to get more energy."

Tomatoes and peppers all done

However, through all this, the regular broccoli and the cucumbers have been planted, all the hot peppers and tomatoes are now in homes. The tomatillos and the beans and the peas are settled in. The eggplant, some squash, zucchini and the mystery plant are getting comfy in their new pots.

Mystery plant all settled into a new home

While we still have some things to plant (the sweet peppers, a couple more squash, and about 8 new herbs) we are getting there. That is something to remember when you are dodging raindrops to plant, or when you sit on the ground and hear it go squish. Plus the more I plant now, the less I need to water. Mother Nature is taking care of that.

Squash in a recycling bin

Last of the transplants Into pots.

On Wednesday Pooka and I had a super busy day, however, we really needed to finish transplanting some plants. I really just want them out of our house.

First we transplanted the last of the grow ums. This is the carrot seedling that has done really well in the computer room by window.

Carrot

We transplanted it into an old trash can we found in the shed last year. It should give it some good room to grow.

Grow Ms. Carrot. Grow.

We also had some late started pepper seeds. I had re-seeded this fairly late, so I am hoping we have enough time to get something out of it. I still maintain I hate this seed starter type since even here you can see the issues with mold all over everything. I do believe these are the peppers we planted in these spots.

 

Now they are planted into pots. I will be hardening them off as soon as the weather cooperates. It may still be a bit cold out there for them. Stupid cold snaps.

 

 

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.

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.