Storms, Pictures, and Various Seedling Updates

I've been up since the tornado sirens tonight, but nothing more than rain and lightening actually came close to our neighborhood. The entire time the sirens were going, though, all I could think about was the fact that I had opted to leave all of the seedlings outside for the night! Nooooo!!!

But no tornadoes for us, thank goodness. I think I may have heard some hail though, so I hope nothing got hurt.

In any case, I recently took pictures of some of the young garden plants, which are coming along rather nicely.

Onions:

The onions really are looking nice. It's so tempting to pull back the dirt and look for bulbs!

Little Gem Romaine lettuce:

They're all growing sets of true leaves, so it shouldn't be long before we actually have tiny little bunches of lettuce.

White Icicle Radish:

Most of them have true leaves now, and a couple of them are just huge! These were a very last-second addition to the garden, and I'm so pleased I decided to try them.

Sugar Snap Pea:

All four of the sugar snap peas are getting big and beautiful like this fellow. Look at the little tendrils seeking support! It's definitely time to put in the trellis... this week.

Cucumber plants are finally peeking over the soil, but don't look like much so far. I had to thin the carrots like mad, but they aren't very interesting looking plants yet. I'll post photos as soon as they're a little more visible.

Strawberries!

I've potted a few strawberries. A basket with two June-bearing varieties, a basket of Alexandrias, a basket of Alpines, and one single Alexandria sitting on the bottom back step (to see if the stray cats will leave strawberries alone before I risk them in large numbers). Most of them look wimpy so far, but the ones that have been in their pots for a while are getting stronger.

Emergency Tomato Transplants

I had a tomato transplanting emergency the other day. The seedlings were outside for hardening off (which is complete!) and the Oklahoma wind decided to pick up like mad once I was inside. It managed to crack one of the delicate brandywine seedlings right at the base. It was time to put them in more soil anyway, so I hurriedly repotted them all up to their necks and the cracked seedling is still looking healthy. Seriously, I would have stomped childishly if I'd lost it. I feel like I didn't start enough of the brandywines, and one already looks less healthy than the others.

Just about two more weeks until it's time to put them in the ground!

Flowers

As I've commented before, I'm more into edible gardening than flower gardening or landscaping. However, Chad and I have made quite a team on the porch and in the flower bed. He's put something like 20 purple annuals in the flower bed so it'll look nice and full while the perennials establish themselves, and I've started seeds in several pots on the porch. There are cheapie square planters on each step up to the porch with tiny Petite Marigold seedlings, and we got a little experimental by planting the marigolds in a ring around alyssum in two squat barrel-style planters on either side of the porch. Tiny seedlings in these, too. We'll take photos once they're more visible. I'm honestly not the biggest fan of Marigolds, but it's difficult to pass up 10 cent seed packets and they do make decent mosquito deterrents.

What I'd like to do next year, however, is to grow only edible flowers in pots, and maybe even a few in or around the vegetable garden. Decoration is nice, but I much prefer plants with more of a purpose.