Thursday, December 24, 2009

Listening to the sleet and ice at the windows, my thoughts are already turning to Spring.

Last gardening season was a dud... and it was mostly my fault. My garden tends to reflect what's going on in my life, and things weren't so great emotionally. When I start neglecting myself because of depression or stress, I also start neglecting my plants.

Life is better now, partly because I realized I couldn't pull myself out of depression alone, and partly because I'm taking initiative to change the parts of my life that make me unhappy. As I brim with anticipation there, I find myself brimming with anticipation over next year's garden.

I will keep things simple this year. Last year's plans were complex and varied, which I believe overwhelmed me, so I will stick to the reliable basics this year. I'll allow myself a small section of the garden for experimental plants, but I will do my best to direct most of my emotional investment elsewhere.

I also think I'll invest in a little extra lighting for my seedlings. Tomatoes do just fine if they're a bit leggy, but broccoli, not so much. I'm fortunate enough to have a sunny southern room, so I think a couple lamps rigged up with grow bulbs will be sufficient.

I'll also make my life easier by setting up the drip irrigation system we purchased last year. How silly is it to let something like that got to waste?!

I'll also invest in some of those watering bulbs for when we take weekend trips. The garden itself does OK if it misses a watering, but the container plants are another story.

Time to sort through my existing seeds and do a couple germination tests.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Throw Your Voice tomorrow!

I know I've been on hiatus this season, but I wanted to let my fellow Oklahoma bloggers know about Throw Your Voice TOMORROW, October 3rd. It's a blogging and podcasting conference in Oklahoma City. Check it out!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Gardening with Children; a Guest Post

This is a special post for Urban Garden Hoe: a guest post on gardening with children from a good friend of mine, Sara. Sara is fairly new to gardening and had a fair number of questions this Spring, but she has really taken to square foot gardening... and she does it with far more style than I!






It’s never too early to learn to garden. And lucky for me, it’s never too late, either.

Because I’m a creative person who has a short attention span and doesn’t always fully research things before jumping in, my previous attempts at vegetable gardening were massive failures. For example, throwing broccoli seeds into red dirt in June in full sun was not the best plan, even though the seed packet recommended full sun. Oh, and I kind of forgot to water them.

Then there was the time I tried to accidentally poison myself, thinking I was eating little black tomatoes which were really something like nightshade berries. I could have sworn I had planted some cherry tomatoes in that spot!

After those embarrassments, I swore off gardening and admitted defeat. My other interests would keep me plenty busy, not to mention raising a toddler and keeping him entertained.

But this DIY craze runs deep and wide, and growing your own is worth reconsidering.

This year’s garden was a spur-of-the-moment decision, inspired by a simple Tweet from Elizabeth: something along the lines of “getting ready to plant another Square Foot Garden.” I was intrigued – it sounded simple yet fun.

A quick perusal of http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ had me thinking in grids and making lists of vegetables we love. I bought the book at Full Circle (our local bookstore) and built my own garden box with lumber and a drill, which made me feel empowered and self-sufficient. I also built a small 2’x2’ for my son, who was very interested in digging, as a way to keep him out of trouble and to share the excitement.

We started seeds indoors, and every morning he’d wake up and want to look at the baby plants. He began to understand they were delicate and growing, and learned to be careful when touching them.



Little did I know how educational this project would prove. My son has started learning about broad concepts such as patience, sustainability and farming while trying new things and spending time in the backyard.



He’s getting dirty and watching bugs crawl and working up the courage to hold worms in his hand. He’s learning about compost, about being gentle to plants and waiting for produce to ripen. He’s learning to snack on sugar snap peas and beet greens right there in the garden. This experience is one we can share and enjoy, and we are rewarded for the work we do.



Fun plants to grow with kids:
  • Sugar snap peas – sweet and ready to eat
  • Mint – great for putting in ice water
  • Onions - the tops are irresistible to my young farmer straight out of the garden
  • Beets - even if you don’t like them, they make great natural food coloring, and the greens cook up just like spinach.
  • Cherry tomatoes - fast-growing, snackable and yummy

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Gazette

Check out this small article about my garden and blog in the (Oklahoma City) Gazette!

This means I need to start updating more frequently again. :) I'll sit down and do a full post tonight!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

It has been insanely rainy for the past week or so, totally preventing me from being able to harden off my last remaining seedlings. I will have to take pictures of some of my plants when it calms down, however, because some of them are just HUGE!!!!

I do have something pretty exciting coming up this weekend, though: A SEED EXCHANGE AT the Deluxe Indie Craft Bazaar!

Free Admission
May 9, 2009 12-6
in Oklahoma City
at the State Fairgrounds Centennial Building

We'll be exchanging seeds and seedlings at 4pm (envelopes and envelope supplies will be provided), and I'll probably talk about gardening and try to answer people's questions. So bring your extra seeds and seedlings and join us!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

New Tomato Plants

It's a beautiful day for gardening! Cool air, warm sun, mild wind... So unlike the gusts and gales that swept fire across Oklahoma and Texas a couple days ago. How horrible that was!

I actually came home to my seedlings strewn across the backyard, despite the shelter the back corner should have provided them. The damage wasn't too horrible though, and I'm certainly bearing in mind that a few lost seedlings is nothing compared to the homes people lost that night.

But today is another matter, for us at least. We took a trip to the farmer's market to replace the stunted Pink Brandywine seedlings. I picked up a traditional Brandywine and a Cherokee Purple. I'm especially excited about the Cherokee Purple since it's my first time trying it at all.

So I put those and most of my other seedlings on the back steps to harden off then went about seeding and watering the garden. I have to take and post pictures soon, as the garlic plants are huge and the spinach is starting to look like spinach (cool!).

For now though, I'm going to enjoy my iced green tea then start cleaning up the house. Goodness, it's a mess...

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Gardening on a Budget: Containers

This topic could turn into a huge post, but I'll try and keep it simple. The most basic commandment of container gardening on a budget is: Try and view everything you come across as a potential container.

Everything.

I've seen old boots, blue jeans, and broken down cars turned into containers. Practically anything could work if you get creative enough!

Funkiness aside, there are some pretty good standbys that thrifty container gardeners fall back on often...

  • Food grade buckets. Sometimes you can get these for free from food establishments, and they're a good size for plants that need a little more room to spread their roots.
  • Big plastic tubs. Again, these can come in good sizes for plants that need legroom. Some people have also converted them into DIY Earthboxes.
  • Trashcans as huge planters. Some of the larger tomato plants could even flourish in a big enough trashcan.
  • Two-liter bottles. Check out this older post wherein I illustrate how to turn one into a pot with drainage.
  • Plastic butter/spreadable cheese/yogurt containers, for smaller plants. Reserve the lids to use as water trays, but be sure to water slowly to avoid overflow.
  • Soda bottle, upside-down, as a DIY Topsy Turvy. Is there nothing these plastic beauties can't do?!
  • Really ugly pots that you already have or find free/cheap.... just turn them upside down and spray paint the pots to spiff them up. (Avoid getting paint inside the pots.)
There are so many other options, but these tend to be fairly accessible and easy. Just remember to avoid anything that held chemicals, clean everything out before planting, and drill holes in the bottoms for drainage when necessary.

If you want to find "real" pots at good prices, there are usually plenty of cheap options at discount stores like Big Lots and Wal-Mart. The dollar tree often has really cute little pots, but they usually need to have drainage holes drilled in them. End-of-season sales are a great way to find deals at local businesses, which we should all support whenever we can.

Plastic is usually the cheapeast option... But if you'd like to avoid plastic, terra cotta is probably the cheapest way to go.

And take care of your pots so you don't have to spend money replacing them. Put them away when not in use (especially over winter) and treat even the plastic ones as breakable.

I know there are a million and one other tips out there, so please share yours!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Today is a beautiful spring day despite yesterday's cold and snow.

I finally seeded some carrots and will continue to seed a bit more for the next three weekends. I seeded them all at once last year and had one giant harvest that I didn't use up. It's a lesson I learned for this year, as I seed my lettuce, chard, spinach, and carrots a little at a time.

It's so exciting to see seedlings coming up in the garden. I'm most excited about the sugar snap peas, and I need to fix the trellis before they're tall enough to start climbing. I'm also thrilled to see the spinach doing well, as last year's fall spinach crop was foiled by the burglar breaking the window right above their pots. Even after picking them over, I just wasn't confident there were no tiny shards of glass on/in the seedlings.

I definitely need to take photos to post.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Repotting Seedlings: Reader Question

A reader, and good friend, emailed me to ask about steps to take with her seedlings. Here are her questions:

I've started most of my herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, sage, rosemary) and a few flowering plants (dianthus and forget-me-nots) indoors. My seeds are all sprouting and doing well. So, I'm thinking now what? How long can they survive in those tiny little seed-starting pods? Do I transplant them into a larger container before hardening them and putting them in the ground or is that an extra step that'll stress them out? What should I be looking for to know when they're ready to go into the ground?

Since this is my first time doing anything from seed, I feel like I need some guidance with knowing when and how to take the next step and would greatly appreciate you sharing any of your wisdom on the subject! :)

Liz

First of all, all plants are different and any special directions on seed packets should be followed. However, there are general guidelines that I've found work most of the time.

Repotting Seedlings


When: If you start your seeds in something very small, like a peat pod or those small cell packs, you'll usually need to repot the seedlings before they go in the ground. I try to do so when the seedlings have a couple true leaves (the second set of leaves, not the first set that emerge from the soil). Until then, the plant doesn't really need the nutrition of potting soil because the first set of leaves are actually a food source for the seedling. Another sign to watch for is roots growing out of the pod/container. Repot as soon as you start seeing roots. Waiting too long can result in a root-bound plant or roots that have gotten tangled in the netting of your peat pod.


How: Be gentle with your seedlings as you repot and you should be able to avoid stressing them out too much.

For peat pods, gently tear or cut away the netting that surrounds the peat. If the roots have gotten tangled in the netting, cut away as much netting as you can without damaging the roots. You don't want the netting to restrict new root growth, but it's perfectly fine to leave a little if it's tangled in roots.

For seedlings in plastic containers, very gently massage the plastic in order to loosen the seedling from its little home. Then, place your hand over the soil and grasp the very base of the seedling, turn the whole container upside down, and let gravity help you as you gently gently gently pull the seedling out of the plastic.

If you've used something biodegradable, like a toilet paper tube, small newspaper pot, or small Jiffy Pot (though, Jiffy Pots are usually big enough to last a while), then this is going to be easy-peasy. These can just be gently placed right into the next container. Unless you can tell it's already breaking apart, it can also help to "open" the old biodegradable container first so your plant's roots can spread more easily. With the toilet paper tubes, I usually pull back the bottom folds so that it's open. With Jiffy pots, gently cut or tear away the bottom. Newspaper is probably less of an issue, unless you've made a very thick paper pot. Note that if you know a plant you're growing doesn't handle transplants very well (like cucumbers or peppers), it'll probably be easiest to opt for one of these biodegradable options for the least amount of stress.

Exceptions: Sometimes I'll keep small plants in their toilet paper tube or peat pods until transplant, usually if they're small plants in the first place. Strawberries from seed, for example, tend to stay small until they're outside in the sun. I just watch the roots to make sure they aren't outgrowing their homes. However, I also add some extra nutrition by occasionally spritzing them with liquid Terracycle.

Also, if you're determined to jumpstart a plant that is so sensitive to transplanting that they're supposed to be direct seeded into the garden, you should at least start them in a sizable biodegradable container so there's only one simple transplantation to be done.

Deciding When to Put Them in the Ground

This has more to do with temperature and seasons than anything else, so read your seed packets. They will usually say something along the lines of, "Transplant outside after the last frost date" or "Transplant after danger of frost has passed." In Oklahoma City, that's April 15th... but you still need to check the weather forecast and use common sense, because the "last frost date" is an estimate. Learn more about that date here.

Aside from that, I don't like to transplant seedlings until they have at least 3 or 4 true leaves (or are strong looking, if true leaves aren't a consideration such as with green onions). And you should never transplant without hardening off first. You can google for detailed instructions on hardening off, but the basic idea is to expose your plants to an outdoor environment little by little. I start with an hour, then a couple hours the next day, then a few hours, then all morning or afternoon, then all day a couple times in a row. Just make sure you pick mild days and keep them out of the wind until they're strong.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Gardening on a Budget: Soil

Especially if you're a container gardener who wants to grow organically, the cost of soil can start looking pretty high. So let's look at a few ways to cut back on that cost.

  1. Screw the fancy "organic" soil that companies like Miracle Grow sell, because it's way expensive (and not all that great, in my experience). Instead, pick up those 40 pound bags of cheap soil with "compost" in the ingredients rather than "fertilizer." They're sometimes cheaper than that small bag of "organic" soil, and I've had great luck with them.
  2. If you're growing in-ground or in a raised bed, you don't need to add new soil every year. Compost is usually all you need to add.
  3. If you're a container gardener, you can often reuse your potting soil. The most important rule is to never reuse soil from diseased plants -- that stuff needs to be thrown into the deepest darkest corner of land where you won't grow anything you care about. If, however, your plants were healthy and strong, you can take out the old plant, mix in some compost, and reuse. Some people feel it's necessary to bake the soil (yeah, as in baking it in an oven), but I've never bothered. When I'm not 100% confident about reusing a pot of soil (often because a cat used it as a litter box!), I'll use it for non-edible plants just to be safe... or I'll use it to fill in holes in the backyard.
  4. Don't use containers any bigger than your plant will actually need.
  5. Use companion planting in you container garden. For example, why put basil plants into their own little pots if you're also growing potted tomatoes? Basil and tomatoes love each other, so go ahead and tuck that basil plant into the corner of the tomato's pot.
As a side-note, I don't recommend just sticking yard dirt into a container, especially if you plan on bringing it inside. Part of the benefits of container gardening is reduced pests and weeds, and yard dirt is full of them.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Beautiful Day

It's a beautiful day after all of the wintery mess we had this week. I spent a couple hours working on the garden and seedlings. I seeded radishes, spinach, and lettuce directly into the garden and I have most of the seedlings on the back steps for sun and hardening. It's a perfect, mild day for it.

It's also time to put broccoli and lettuce plants directly into the ground, but I just don't think mine are ready yet. None of them have anymore than one true leaf, so I'm just going to get them good and hardened off until they have a couple more.

If you're in Oklahoma City, get out there and enjoy today!

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Seedlings and Strawberries!

I just had to share pictures of my seedlings and new strawberry plants....

This is my primary vegetable seedling setup. It's an overcast day, but these guys normally get a pretty good amount of sun in the south-facing windows of the laundry room.













I also have a shelf in the laundry room where I usually put my seeds when I first start them, until they actually emerge.










Some of the more interesting seedlings I've been watching daily are...

The Alpine Strawberries, which are still teeny tiny:










The Burgundy okra, which has huge baby leaves and a touch of burgundy color on the stem:










The first of the Rainbow Swiss Chard, which I was surprised to discover is immediately colorful:










I also picked up two mature Junebearing strawberry plants at the Farmer's Market today. As much as I enjoy growing everbearing plants from seed, it's just nice to have a couple Junebearers for a little instant gratification. I went ahead and put them in a hanging basket that I can bring inside at night and on colder days:










On a sidenote, our kitties reap the benefits of my gardening hobby as well. I often grow cat grass to keep indoors for them. Our indoor-outdoor cat named Oz doesn't care much about it, but our indoor cat named Ali loves it. Though, she was clearly more interested in what my jeans smelled like this afternoon:

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Seed Swapping

Related to the recent post on acquiring seeds on a budget, a friend (Sara, who happens to be a co-director of the extremely hip Oklahoma City craft bazaar, DeluxeOK) and I got together yesterday to talk about her new garden and swap seeds. We were both impressed by how perfect seed swapping is for backyard gardening. We both had way too many seeds for what we actually wanted to grow, and trading those excess seeds allowed us both to plan for a wider variety of plants. I'm most excited about the soybeans I got from her stash!!! (And, amusingly enough, I was able to use up my snail-mail envelopes, which I never ever use anymore, as seed packets.)

Seriously, get together with some gardening friends and swap seeds!

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Gardening on a Budget: Seed Starting

There are hundreds of fun and fabulous seed starting products out there, but you don't have to spend all that money. If you can at least invest in a bag of Seed Starting Medium or very lightweight potting soil, that alone will get you off to a great start.

Cheaper Than Peat Pellets/Pods:
Those seed starting pods or pellets, the kind that come looking like little disks then expand in water to look like a huge brown marshmallow, are admittedly handy. However, you can imitate these will little effort and money:

1. Save the tubes from inside your toilet paper rolls.
2. Cut a tube in half, resulting in two shorter tubes. (Note that this is optional. You could use the entire tube if you feel like the plants you're growing need more room for their roots to stretch out before they are transplanted or moved to a larger container.)












3. Take one of those half-tubes and decide which end will be the "bottom" of your peat pod. Make a few cuts in the bottom of the tube so that you will be able to fold it in on itself.










3. Fold in the bottom of the half-tube, making sure the bottom of it is mostly closed. Repeat until you have as many folded half-tubes as needed.









4. Place these tubes in a water-proof tray of some sort.










5. Fill each with seed starting medium or a lightweight potting soil.












6. Plant seeds as directed.
7. Water these by pouring water into the tray, not by pouring it directly onto the soil.
8. My general rule of thumb is to transplant these, tube and all, into a newspaper/Jiffy pot with potting soil soon after they develop their first set of "true leaves."

Cheaper Than Those Biodegradable Jiffy Pots: Jiffy pots are also very convenient, but there's a nearly free alternative to these as well. You'll need to make sure you have a tray or tub with sides as high as the pots will be tall, but you can make newspaper pots, the creation of which I illustrated last year.

Cheaper Than Fancy Trays: You can use damn near anything as a water-proof tray to hold your seedlings. I love using plastic food containers that used to hold things like bakery cookies. Plastic dish tubs from the dollar store are useful, especially when seedlings have been moved to larger newspaper or Jiffy pots. On the smaller scale, butter tubs (or a spreadable cheese tub, like I used in the pictures above) do well. Amazingly, Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich containers fit the toilet paper tube "pods" (and actual peat pods) perfectly, and they also fit right onto our windowsills. Just make sure that anything you use that once contained food has been cleaned out properly.

Cheaper than Grow Lights: Grow lights can help prevent leggy seedlings, but they're also pretty expensive. A cheaper option would be to hang an inexpensive shop light over your seedlings instead. Or, like me, you can simply grow your seedlings on south-facing windowsills and deal with the fact that they'll be a tad bit leggy. (Sunlight is FREE!)

Cheaper than Buying Plastic Seedling Cells: Some people buy the little six-pack plastic cells when, just last year, they might have purchased flowers from the garden center in a nearly identical six-pack. Whenever I buy flowers (or other plants) in cells or small pots sturdy enough to still be in one piece after removal of the flowers, I rinse that sucker out and stash it away in my garage to use for flowers from seed the next year. (They also work for most veggies from seed, unless they have delicate roots.)

Cheaper than Any of That Other Stuff: This won't work with some seeds (read your packets!), but sometimes you can wait until the appropriate time to direct-seed them into the garden. My favorite thing about this method, to be honest, has little to do with money... it's the fact that there's no hardening off to be done at all. How convenient.

That's about all I can think of at the moment. Please post and share your ideas!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Budget Gardening: Seeds

I have to confess that I occasionally let myself spend a little more on gardening than I need to, but that doesn't change the fact that gardening can be a wonderful way to save money on food. There are so many aspects to this that I'm going to tackle them one at a time. First up, seeds.

Seeds save you money in the first place, because they cost so much less than buying seedlings from the garden center. On top of that, there are so many ways to cut corners on seeds. Let's start by considering two general schools of thought on how you can save money, then we'll get to some specific tips.

The first school of thought is pretty short-term: buy cheap seeds. You don't have to spend a fortune on heirloom varieties from organic companies to have a nice garden. Just the other day, I saw a small rack of 20 cent packets of seeds for veggies and herbs at Wal-Mart. It was a small selection, but one could have certainly designed a decent vegetable garden from that rack alone... and probably for no more than a couple dollars. I have also seen similar deals at The Dollar Tree and am sure they will have them again this year. It's really nice when you can support small businesses with good philosophies, but sometimes nothing beats a huge discount chain when you're honestly not even sure you'll be able to pay the electricity bill.

The second school of thought is more long-term: invest in quality heirloom varieties and save seed from your plants every year. Unlike many of the cheap seeds, the seeds you save from an heirloom variety will usually grow true to type the next year. (Edit: As a commenter pointed out, some of those dirt-cheap seeds will grow true to type when you save seed because most hybrids are in the middle price range rather than the lowest. I recommend you do your research on Dave's Garden before you save seed, to make sure.) They cost more up front (anywhere from $2 to $5 a packet) but, in theory, you won't ever have to buy seeds for the same vegetable again.

A lot of gardeners will tell you that the second school of thought is the right school of thought, but I'm here to tell you to do what works best for you. Expensive heirloom or cheap hybrid, it's going to feel wonderful to harvest those veggies no matter what. And even the most "boring" hybrid variety is going to taste 10 times better than the trucked-in vegetables from the grocery store. I think everyone should try heirloom varieties at some point, but if it's not in your budget this year, then it's simply not in your budget.

Here are some other important tips on saving with seeds:
  • No matter what kind of seed you purchase, don't throw out your extras. Almost every seed is viable for more than one season, and some are viable for many, many seasons to come. Tape up the packets, put them all into one ziplock bag/tupperware/mason jar, throw in a handful of uncooked rice to absorb moisture, and store them in the back of your refrigerator until the next gardening season.
  • Share seeds or seedlings with other gardeners, for free! The cheapest way to do this is to go as local as possible. For example, a friend who lives a couple blocks from me recently started a Facebook Group for Oklahoma City gardeners. Many of us have already offered up extra seeds and seedlings. (We also plan on exchanging excess produce. There's a lot of potential with something like this!) If you can't find local friends or a similar local group/community for free, then check out non-local options like Dave's Garden.
  • Don't over-seed. For seeds that are normally sowed directly into the ground, many gardeners pour out the whole packet down a row then thin them out as they grow. How wasteful! Instead, figure out what the spacing should ultimately be and plant two or three seeds where the plants will need to be. For example, if you're planting a row of carrots and they are supposed to be 3 inches apart when mature, then plant two or three carrot seeds each in tiny holes every three inches. Now you waste far fewer seeds because you only need to thin out one or two per hole. (Share or store what you saved!)
  • Shop around. I prefer heirlooms, but they're normally more expensive than I prefer. After doing a little research, I decided that Victory Heirloom Seeds was the best priced company that matched my needs.
  • Pay attention to shipping prices! Ordering seeds, as apposed to going directly to the store, is a great way to find interesting varieties at reasonable prices... but sometimes there's a huge Shipping and Handling fee attached to those otherwise reasonable prices. (Again, I feel that Victory Heirloom Seeds has fair S&H fees.)
  • Save seeds from the garden vegetables people give you, or experiment with the seeds saved from organic produce at your local health food store.
  • If you can't buy all heirloom seeds but want to experiment with saving seeds, then either choose one vegetable (tomatoes are easy!) to buy as an heirloom for seed saving or do some research to see if any of your cheap varieties grow true to seed. (Dave's Garden is a good source for this.)
That's all that comes to mind at the moment. Eveyone feel free to comment with your own ideas!

Next budget topic, seed starting.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

All seeds are either acquired or ordered. Current plans for 2009 include:
  • Pink Brandywine tomatoes
  • Azoychka (yellow!) tomatoes
  • Super Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes
  • Red Robin tomatoes (in hanging baskets)
  • Ground Cherries
  • Sugar snap peas
  • Red onions (possibly from seed, if I can get that to work!)
  • Green onions
  • Cosmic Purple carrots
  • Burgundy okra
  • Lemon Apple cucumbers
  • Black Seeded Simpson lettuce
  • Little Gem Romaine (if the seeds are still viable)
  • Spinach
  • Rainbow Swiss chard
  • Leeks
  • Red radishes
  • Broccoli
  • Chesnok Red garlic (currently in the ground, to be dug up in spring)
  • Bantum corn (one of the three sisters)
  • Calypso beans (one of the three sisters)
  • Cinderella pumpkins (one of the three sisters)
  • Sugar Baby watermelons (in a watermelon patch!)
I am so excited!

A friend of mine also started a little Facebook group for our local gardening buddies and I'm giving away some of last year's seeds on there. I hope other friends get active in it, because I'd love to have a little group for seed and plant exchange.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

The Bare Beginnings

Long time, no post!

I've just had too many other things going on in my life, like starting a new job, Christmas, etc. Things are mostly going pretty well in life.

As for my winter gardening activities, they wound up being reduced to growing garlic to be dug up in the Spring.

But the arrival of a seed catalog two or three weeks ago has gotten me thinking about my garden again. In fact, I started my first seeds today! 2 Red Robin tomato plants, which stay small enough to keep inside until after the last frost, and 8 Pink Brandy Wine tomato plants, which I was determined to start extra early this year because last year's P.B.W.s didn't produce until the Fall. They may be leggy by the time I put them in the ground, but I'm willing to dig deep if it'll earn us earlier slicing tomatoes.

I've started planning the dates to start other seeds and have decided on asking Chad to build me at least one more Square Foot Garden. I look forward to getting m y hands in the dirt again!