More seeds...

So I already admitted I had a problem. However, I will say that not all of this is my fault. Pooka and I just started 8 more pots of seedlings.

It started when Pooka brought home some seeds from Nainai's (did I mention Pooka is learning Chinese and Nani-Nani is chinese for grandmother). Turns out, one of Nainai's coworkers had some extra squash seeds and asked if Nainai wanted them. She said no, but Pooka would. We don't know what kind of squash they are exactly, just squash, so we figure once it produces we will figure the rest out.

Then Pooka asked if we could grow marigolds since her egg flowers didn't really survive. The last one was the fact that more then once Pooka and I have looked at this new type of broccolli called Brocolli Romanesco which has this really cool geometric pattern thing going. It just happened to jump in the cart one day.

More seeds

So Pooka and I planted the squash and the broccolli. Is it a tad late to be starting broccolli, sure, but if I can nurse it along through this weird spring and summer, I will have an early crop of broccolli come fall. 

Seeds hoping to start.

The marigolds have not yet been planted since their home is currently holding a tomato. I am hoping to get that in the ground after this cold snap. The same one that has a frost warning on for tonight. Welcome to oh who knows anymore.

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.

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?

Easter Bunny left PLANTS?

Another holiday and more new ways for Pooka to think and learn about science. The Easter Bunny came on Sunday and left Pooka with a bug viewer, a bug house, a Pooka sized wheel barrow ("becuase we need to move mulch around Mommy") and 5 ceramic eggs. Brother even recieved an egg.


Surprise More plants... Just what Daddy wanted.

After some closer inspection from Pooka, we learned the eggs came with seeds inside them. They were set up to grow seeds straight inside these eggs. Pooka was so excited, but we waited until Monday to plant them. Pooka and I were way too worn out Sunday to try.


Seed filled eggs

Monday afternoon Pooka and I sat down and read the directions. Fortunatly, it was easy as knock the top off the egg, water and set in a sunny place. I love easy directions like this. It did say you may need to replant them once they get bigger, but it is a start.

Now missing the top

I will say getting the tops broken off was a bit harder then I originally thought it would be. We did kill one of the eggs in such a way it no longer held its contents and it got dumped into the grow um's muffin pans. Then you get to pull little bits of ceramic out of the egg so the seeds can grow.

Time to clean out the egg.

 Next you water it. It didn't say how much to water it, so it was a bit of a guessing game and it wasn't easy. In retrospect, I should of used a turkey baster instead of a glass. It worked, if a bit messy.

Egg has now been watered

For now, I have the eggs in the muffin tin (the extra egg got put in another tin). The tin of eggs I then put in one of our very full windows. Fortunatly, I had a shelf stander in one, and they fit on the bottom of the shelf which means they are not taking up too much space. But if it means Pooka and Brother get more snapdragons (The yellow eggs), and pansy (purple eggs) and marigolds (the blue eggs) then its worth it. Maybe I will let the 2 of them have one big pot to plant it all in. If we can find space for another pot. But that is an issue for another day.

Now to see if they grow